Peaches in brandy: The Ultimate After Braai Dessert

I recently received an email warning the reader on the vagaries of being invited to a typical South African braai. The gist of this email was to warn the reader of the copious amounts of meat that is consumed at such an event, washed down with equal amounts of beer.

I wondered what the other readers would think of this. Then I thought, hey, I am not really a brandy drinker, but the stuff we get over here is not bad at all. And I would like to have some anyway. So I paged through some old recipe books and let my mind wonder while sipping a dram of the golden juice.

The idea is as follows: You get to eat copious amounts of meat, washed down with beer. So you can have fresh fruit, washed down with brandy, as a dessert. That will surely not tarnish your reputation around the braai fire, methinks.

Then I went to work. There is only the missus and I here, so I made enough for three helpings.  I booked a second helping for myself. A present from Dad to Dad, you know.

Slice two yellow cling peaches into thin slices after peeling them. Chew or suck off the remaining flesh, it does taste nice and you will not soon taste it like that again. Throw away the stone. 

Place the peach slices in a shallow dish and sprinkle liberally with brown sugar, then add half a cup of brandy. Put this lot in the refrigerator for half an hour or so to rest and develop flavour.

You just have to have a sauce with this, so I made a blueberry caramel sauce. Blueberry caramel compote, if you want to be fancy. Start with a teaspoon of butter, three quarters cup of brown  sugar and half cup of water. Add a small pinch of salt. Bring to the boil and wait until it starts to foam, then watch and stir regularly. While waiting for the caramel to form, mash two dessert spoons of fresh blueberries in a mortar and pestle. These need to be reasonably finely mashed. Add this mash to the caramel and mix through. The caramel will thicken and turn a dark blue. When it is thick enough to your taste, add another two dessert spoons of whole blueberries to the sauce, cook for another minute or two, then take the heat off.

The peaches are now dished up in ramekins, along with some of the brandy and sugar syrup. Add the blueberry caramel compote and garnish with a dollop of fresh cream. Wait for the blueberry compote to cool down, it is substantially hotter than boiling water.

Voila! Something sweet for the manne after the braai, complete with the requisite amount of brandy!

Lekker eet!


Authored by Johan Zietsman

Last updated on 2013-01-22