food blog dessert, peaches port and ice cream

i love watching the food channel. if the tv is on in our house, it's probably tuned to the food channel. one of the shows had a killer looking dessert, and i had to try it.

from rachael ray

i modified her's just a little bit. see her link for the original. below is my version...not far off from hers

ingredients:

• 6 peaches. i used 4 yellow cling, and 2 white peaches. this would work just as well with nectarines


• 4 jiggers of port. one of my general all around ports for sipping and dessert stuff is Graham's 10 year tawny port. i wouldn't recommend a ruby for this, but you might like it. for ice cream and fruit, i think the tawny is the best. and the beauty is you can find this stuff at costco on occasion, much cheaper than in the regular places you would find a nice port. deal!
• 4 tsp sugar
• 4 scoops of really good rich thick vanilla ice cream. none of that cheapo cheapo stuff that's crystallized in the box already. hey, you're splurging, so use the good stuff. around here, we use

slice peaches. i usually just cut around the pit in circles to give me 8 wedges, which i then pry off the pit. if you can get freestone peaches, more's the better. easier to slice. dump peaches in bowl and sprinkle sugar over the top, and then pour the port over the whole thing. pop in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. i did these just before sitting down for dinner while the salmon was grilling.
when ready to eat, get 4 fancy wine glasses or ice cream sundae dishes. i used Riedel 750 ml glasses
for this. divide the peaches and port between the 4 glasses, and drop a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
this is a very elegant and yet simple dish to make. the flavors are complex, and the wow factor is up there with the first spoonful.

i don't usually pimp individual non-food products, but i love these riedel wine glasses. they can be found in a lot of shops and wineries. here's a link to Sur la Table, who sells a big chunk of the riedel glass line.

i didn't take pictures this time, because i was having way too much fun hanging out with my friends and fixing dinner. but you can imagine this one in your mind's eye, i'm sure. the vibrant colors of the peaches mascerated in sugar and tawny port, topped with a scoop of pure white ice cream. oh yeah. it's a winner.

as always, if you try this recipe, or it inspires you to try something different, please let me know how it turned out. i'm always looking for fresh and clever ideas to improve my own cooking skills and recipes.

for a complete list of my online recipes, follow the link here