Summer harvest: Stonefruit recipes

Stonefruit and goats cheese salad. Photo / Babiche Martens

Summer's beautiful stonefruits lend themselves as much to savoury dishes as sweet. Make the most of the harvest with our warm weather stonefruit salads and desserts.

Stonefruit and goat's cheese salad

When you have an abundance of fruit in the bowl, mix it into an elegant salad along with a creamy goat's cheese or a punchy blue cheese. This salad takes just minutes to make, yet is colourful and tasty and perfect for a warm summer evening.

Stonefruit and goats cheese salad. Photo / Babiche Martens

Ingredients
2 plums
2 nectarines
2 peaches
½ cup cherries, cut in halves
150 g soft goat's cheese
1 cup salad greens
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon zest

1. Remove the stones from the fruit and cut into quarters. Arrange on a platter.

2. Sprinkle over the goat's cheese and salad greens. Drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil. Garnish with lemon zest and serve.

Fresh peach madeira cake

The beautiful colour and sweet flavour of peaches shine in this simple madeira cake. There's no need to peel the peaches for this recipe. This cake works equally well with other seasonal fruit. Try plums now, or later in the year, feijoas and pears would be wonderful.

Peach Madeira cake. Photo / Babiche Martens

Ingredients
1 cup ground almonds
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
100 g butter, softened
⅓ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
½ cup yoghurt
6 fresh peaches, halved, stones removed

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line and grease the base of a 20cm springform tin.

2. Place the almonds, flour, baking powder and baking soda into a large bowl.

3. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add 1 egg at a time, beating to combine. Stir through the yoghurt then fold into the dry ingredients. Pour into the tin, spreading evenly.

4. Place the peaches gently on top. They will sink a little as it cooks. Place into the oven for 45 minutes until a skewer comes out just clean. Cool in the tin.

Apricot fool

In this simple fruit fool, fold gently cooked apricots with amaretti biscuits through cream or greek yoghurt. This is a great stand-by dessert for summer. Keep a bowl of stewed apricots at the ready in the fridge for this dish, or use plums, equally as delicious. Stewed fruits are also fabulous on your morning muesli.

Apricot fool. Photo / Babiche Martens

Ingredients
8 large apricots, halved, stones removed
½ cup sugar
150ml cream, lightly whipped
½ cup crushed amaretti biscuits
1 serving mint leaves, to garnish

1. Place the apricots in a pot with 1cm water. Cover and bring to a simmer for 5 minutes or until they are soft but not mushy. Stir through the sugar, remove and cool.

2. Place the cream in a large bowl. Crumble in the amaretto biscuits.

3. Gently swirl in the apricots - do not over-mix.

4. Spoon into decorative glasses and garnish with mint leaves.

- All recipes by Angela Casley

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