Roast nectarine & almond sundae

Sometimes, it really annoys me how supermarkets exploit the fact that most shoppers don't know much about food and don't care to learn about it either. I find it especially irritating because they are making profits on the back of people who believe what they read on the label... For example, just by repeating over and over again that you should ripen nectarines for a few days in a fruit bowl, it doesn't become true. Stone fruit does not continue its maturation off the tree - once separated from the mother plant and packed into polyethylene containers it might get softer and mushier, which is nothing but a sign of beginning decay, but it certainly does not improve its flavour as natural sugar conversion cannot take place anymore - speak to any grower and they will certify this.
But the big chains think that they can fool their customers and therefore work with cheap suppliers who will have to pick the fruit way before it is actually mature so that it can be transported across the globe, then stored it in a warehouse somewhere for weeks, rather than losing out on good profits by carefully selecting growers closer to our shores which have higher opportunity costs than producers in the third world.
Leaving inferior taste aside for a moment, it is pretty easy to spot a fruit that has been picked prematurely: its flesh will not come off the stone easily, whereas a freshly picked ripe peach or nectarine can be easily cut with a knife and twisted off the stone without ending up with squished fruit and very sticky hands.
In the UK, the only two supermarkets where you can usually buy fruit that has been left to mature on the tree are Waitrose and Marks & Spencer - although this obviously comes at a premium price. Ripe fruit is difficult to store and transport, needs more attention from the grower and is generally more capricious - therefore, don't expect to find tree-ripened peaches in a two-for-one offer! So I don't know what I was thinking the other day when I picked up a punnet of half-price nectarines at Sainsbury's - I must have been very absent-minded or distracted by a certain tantrum-throwing toddler to put my hands on them.
I cursed myself when I did the unpacking, because not only were the fruits stone-hard, they would also taste perfectly bland, I might just as well have made some my own, using papier maché... I mean, I do understand that we've only got ourselves to blame if we expect certain fruit to be available in store whether it's in season or not... and I could just choose not to buy it. But this is the height of summer and there should be plenty of sources for ripe stone fruit in Europe which shouldn't take more than a day or two from tree to supermarket shelf, so my rant is not entirely misplaced, I think.
In the end, I decided to roast those *** nectarines, which certainly improves the flavour a lot, even if it doesn't come close to the real joy of biting into a perfectly ripe fruit. With some good vanilla or white chocolate icecream and almond slivers toasted in a pan, then caramelised in honey, this is a perfectly indulging dessert which even made me stop growling over unethical fruit buying for a moment...

Roast nectarine & almond sundae
(serves 4)

6 nectarines
12 tsp muscovado sugar
50 g flaked almonds
50 g brioche crumbs (or crushed digestive biscuits)
4 tbsp honey
1 tub (ca. 500 g) vanilla or white chocolate icecream

Pre-heat oven to 200 C.
Cut the nectarines in half and remove the stone. Place in an oven-proof dish, sprinkle each half with a tsp of sugar and roast in the oven for 30 minutes or until soft. (If you manage to find good, ripe fruit, the roasting time can be considerably reduced - say to 10 minutes).
In the meantime, heat a non-stick pan, put in the almond slivers and dry-roast until fragrant and starting to brown, add the brioche crumbs and toast for another minute or so. Pour over the honey, turn off the heat and stir until well combined.
When the peaches are soft, assemble the sundaes by alternating layers of peach, almond crumble and ice cream in a glass and enjoy immediately.

Comments

[Jeanne]

I know what you mean - supermarket fruit in the UK tends to go from rock hard to rotten mush with no stops in between. And I'm sorry but life is too short to eat a tasteless fruit!! I often roast fruits that aren't quite ripe, or that are too ripe to eat fresh and it's a great way to use them. I often serve nectarines roasted with brown sugar and butter with a blob of mascarpone; or the other day I did the same thing with apricots - *heaven*!!

[johanna]

jeanne, i think i've enjoyed these at your house one time already - and i agree that it's a good way to use not-so-perfect fruit... must try the apricots soon!

[Anne]

Oh, at least you got an absolutely gorgeous picture out of it. And I bet the sundaes were great. :)

[Tanna]

Not limited to the UK.
When the fruit is right and ripe the price is usually wrong but the wrong fruit is not worth anything, so I pay the higher price.
This looks super good with almonds and ice cream!!

[Scott]

Roasted nectarines (and peaches and apricots) taste absolutely gorgeous anyway, so this sounds amazing.
The bowls are very manly sized, so a nice filling desert!

[David Geere]

Supermarket food is rubbish! Honestly. My better half still says it is because they chill it way too much and try to generalise the storage for everything rather than being specific to each foods needs.

Good post though!

David
http://www.eatingbritain.com