White flesh Nectarine.

Nectarines are one of many of Summer’s amazing bounty that it has to offer.
I always miss seasonal summer fruits when it’s out of season and long for all things tropical and sweet in the wet winter months. Nectarines are basically peaches without all the fuzz. This luscious fruit’s name means ‘of or like nectar’ because of its sweet taste.

This week I made nectarines the focal point of both dishes, and am I glad I did! Woolworths stocks the most tastiest nectarines, my favourite is the white flesh ones. They’re super juicy and so sweet. It’s just a no brainer to use these beauties in every dish imagined. I made two dishes for this post, a nectarine, feta and tomato salad and little nectarine puddings.
Nectarine, tomato and feta salad:
Ingredients:
– Two nectarines

– Handful of Cherry tomatoes

– A few chunks of feta

– Two tablespoons of Pumpkin seeds

– Basil leaves to garnish

– Olive oil to dress the salad

– Pinch of salt to season

-Egyptian dukkah to sprinkle over

Method:

Slice the nectarines as you wish and break up the feta into chunks and add to the plate. Half the cherry tomatoes and add to the plate. Lightly toast the pumpkin seeds and set aside. Add the basil, and scatter over the pumpkin seeds, season with a pinch of salt, the dukkah and dress with olive oil.

Nectarine pudding:
Ingredients:
– Three nectarines

– 175g softened butter

– 175g castor sugar

– 175g self-raising flour

– 3 free range eggs

– Fresh custard to serve.
Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Slice the nectarines into thin slices and place on the bottom of a greased muffin pan. In a bowl, beat together the softened butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. In a different bowl, whisk the eggs and add gradually to the butter sugar mixture with some of the flour to stop from curdling. Once all of the egg mixture has been added fold through the rest of the flour. Using a big spoon(I used my ice cream scoop) take a spoonful of batter and place into each hole of the muffin tin. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until a skewer inserted some out clean. Serve with fresh custard and a dusting of icing sugar of you will.

This recipe for the pudding is adapted from Delicious UK I’m going on a little holiday this week, and while I don’t really want to pack away my styling kit and shutdown my wordpress interface, I think I am in need of fresh sea breeze, sand between my toes and different scenery kind of downtime, if you know what I mean. I’ll be back again next week, refreshed and inspired.