You don't even need a recipe

[Jenise]

"Riesling-Poached Peaches with Tarragon and Salted Sour Cream."

[David M. Bueker]

You had me until the tarragon and salted sour cream.

[Robin Garr]

This probably reveals me as a man of coarse tastes, but I've never really embraced the idea of poaching and otherwise cooking fresh peaches. Except, perhaps, for peach ice cream or peach pie.

A fresh, fully ripe local or regional peach in season is such a thing of beauty that it's hard for me to understand tinkering with it. As Mary points out, at best, with poaching you just get the equivalent of a very good canned peach.

Grilling a ripe peach is a good thing to do, from time to time. I usually reserve poaching to pears; the heat seems to bring out more of the flavor.

I have lunch with a few professors a couple of times a year. This year the lunch started with Mahopac oysters and a good Champagne, and continued with grilled venison tenderloin and a couple of nice aged Brunellos. The host had some very good aceto balsamico from Emilia Reggiano and I had a bottle from Modena, and we had that with grilled peach halves and chunks of stravecchio parmigiano. It was good.

We also had sips from my bottle of Pappy van Winkle 20, it rounded off the meal nicely.

I have to say that I think a little caramelization and smoke can improve a perfectly ripe peach. And the aged balsamic doesn't hurt either.

I'd definitely give it a try, tarragon and all.

[Jenise]

This probably reveals me as a man of coarse tastes, but I've never really embraced the idea of poaching and otherwise cooking fresh peaches.

Well, no one said you had to cook it to death! But in fact it doesn't very long at all to infuse the peach with that Riesling flavor, you're not looking at the long cook of a pear, say.

Put me in the camp that really enjoys poached (and stewed) fruits. Seriously, how elegant and wonderful is a chilled pear poached in a light cab sauv, perhaps flavored with aromatics like star anise or cinnamon? I could certainly see this peach concoction being just as wonderful, with its unexpected combination of flavors.

For anyone who balks at the tarragon here - have you ever tried tarragon as a dessert ingredient before? It's excellent, with it's typical anise-family flavor notes. A delicious tarragon soda I was lucky enough to try at a Lebanese restaurant years ago dispelled any thoughts I held up until then that this herb was only for savory dishes.

I know that the méthode du jour is grilling fruits, and that is indeed a wonderful way to prepare many of them. But it shouldn't be to the exclusion of equally valid methods, which still stand the test of time. With allowances for personal preferences...I suppose

[Jenise]

Tom totally agree on that. Fresh green figs with tarragon and honey was a breakfast item a few days ago at the Willows Inn. And the best artisan chocolate I have ever had was a little gem labelled 'grapefruit-tarragon'. You could easily taste both flavors, and they were fantastically complimentary in dark chocolate.