' SUMMER STONE FRUIT SALAD .'

Salad of early summer stone fruits - grilled White peach , Yellow nectarine brunoise , Rainier's Blushed cherry , Stella Dark red cherry , Apricots filled with cream cheese , Honey milk wafers , Lemon & rapeseed oil dressing and micro mint leaves.

               Visiting my regular Italian grocers last week I couldn't go past the wonderful selection of early  season summer stone fruit displayed in all its colour and vibrance, not to mention the aromas wafting around the fruit stands. I love white peaches and we have a white peach tree (china flat) variety which I've espaliered in our veggie patch to space save. The tree is in great condition and in its 6th year, now showing great shape and well established. The only problem is the climate hear in Brisbane in the last few years has had an effect on the fruit set. Brisbane is becoming more and more of a tropical climate as the years go on meaning temperate climate trees like the peach think its spring in May because of the unusual warm temperatures and next to no rain for months to come. So because my peach tree is now ready for late summer pruning and the true season is really only just beginning the white peaches in this recipe have been store bought.                                                                                                                                
               The preparation for this dish was relatively simple starting with the cream cheese filled apricots which were done a week in advance. To make these I simply just piped softened cream cheese into the pockets of whole dried pitted apricots, these were then placed into a jar and filled with rapeseed oil with the lid firmly ajar before placing into the fridge to mature. The honey milk wafers were next and to make these I added milk, honey and agar at 1% to a saucepan of which I brought slowly to the simmer, whisking to dissolve the agar this was then taken off the heat and spooned onto trays, 1-2 mm thick and placed in the fridge to set. Once set the milk gel was placed onto a lined flat tray and put into the oven at 120 deg.c. to be de-hydrated. After 40 minutes or so the wafers were crisp and dried and were removed from the oven and set aside to finish drying. The white peach was sliced in 2 mm slithers and grilled ever so quickly on each side in a little butter. The yellow nectarine was washed and skinned before being prepared to a 3mm brunoise.                                                                                                      
                To plate up I simple arranged the sliced grilled peach to form a circle in the centre of the plate, placing the remaining stone fruit on top with a garnish of micro mint leaves. The fruit was then drizzled with a dressing of lemon juice, palm sugar and rapeseed oil before strategically placing the honey milk wafers amongst the fruit to finish the plate.