Guest Post from Willi Galloway
Creator of DigginFood.com

[Browsing the recipe blogosphere, I chanced upon a new blog featuring organic kitchen gardening and seasonal cooking by the West Coast Editor of Organic Gardening magazine. (Our own Jeff Cox was the Managing Editor of Organic Gardening magazine back in the 70s, and then moved to California to become its West Coast editor before moving on to other things.) I struck up an email correspondence with Willi Galloway, and invited her to do a guest recipe post for our blog. Willi lives in Seattle where she and her husband "grow vegetables, herbs, fruit, and flowers in our urban backyard, which we share with four pet chickens and a big, dumb lab." Thanks, Willi! -Dave]

Eating a nectarine over the kitchen sink, with its sticky juice running down my arms is my idea of perfection. But when I’m serving fruit to guests, I like to offer up something a bit more refined, and grilled stone fruit is the next best thing.

Grilling peaches, plums, and nectarines gives the fruit a smoky, caramelized flavor and makes them irresistibly juicy. For an easy late summer dessert, you can serve grilled fruit with a dollop of mascarpone cheese whipped with honey. Or, try toasting a few slices of pound cake on the grill and topping them off with chopped grilled peaches and a drizzle of maple syrup.

For brunch, I like to toss blackberries and slices of grilled nectarines in a lemon verbena simple syrup and serve the fruit over Greek yogurt. It’s super simple and very, very good.

Grilled Nectarines and Blackberries in Lemon Verbena Syrup

Serves 4 to 6

Lemon verbena’s strong lemony flavor is tempered with floral and herbal accents. Infusing a simple syrup with lemon verbena allows you to add a citrusy flavor to desserts and drinks, without adding a sour note.

What you’ll need:
For the syrup:
1 cup of cold water
1 cup of cane sugar
½ cup fresh lemon verbena leaves

For the fruit:
3 tablespoons honey
6 nectarines (or peaches)
1 pint of blackberries
1 24-ounce container of Greek yogurt (I prefer the honey flavor)

Instructions:
1. To make the syrup, first squeeze the lemon verbena leaves with your hands until they are bruised and very fragrant. Then, chop the leaves finely and place them in a medium sized bowl. Combine the sugar and the water in a small saucepan and stir over medium heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Pour the hot simple syrup over the lemon verbena leaves, cover, and set the syrup aside for at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours. Then, line a strainer with cheesecloth. Pour the syrup through the strainer and discard the leaves.

2. Slice each nectarine in half from pole to pole and remove the pit. Brush the halves with honey. Place the nectarines cut side down on the grill over a low flame or over the edge of the coals if using a charcoal grill. Cover the grill and allow the fruit to cook for a couple of minutes. Then lift the lid. Remove the fruit from the grill when their juices sizzle on the coals below and their flesh is soft and slightly charred (about 8 minutes).

3. Slice the nectarines into quarters and place them in a bowl with the blackberries. Pour a quarter cup of the lemon verbena syrup over the fruit and toss lightly to coat. Divide the yogurt among 6 bowls and top with the fruit. Serve immediately. Store the extra syrup in the refrigerator and use it to sweeten iced tea and lemonade.
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See also Jesse’s Grilled Rosemary Organic Figs Recipe
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Willi Galloway, DigginFood.com
Image Credits: Willi Galloway
OrganicToBe.org | OrganicToGo.com
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