Nectarine Soup Recipe

Nectarine Soup Recipe Chris Burrous: The nectarine, a mouth watering fruit that’s packed with vitamins, potassium and fiber! And did you know the nectarine is believed to be a cross-breed between a peach and a plum? Food and Lifestyle Expert, Laura McIntosh is bringing it home- from the crops to your kitchen. Laura McIntosh: Joining us up on the kitchen set is John Jackson. Hi John, how are you? John Jackson: Fine, thank you. Laura McIntosh: Thanks for joining us! What are you going to cook for us today? John Jackson: Well, I’ve got a couple of things. I’m using nectarines to make a nectarine soup. Laura McIntosh: But this is kind of a cool soup isn’t it? Okay, so it’s going to be very flavorful and very easy to do, how do we do it? John Jackson: Really simple, normally I add butter to this but today I feel like a little bit of olive oil. So, you can use either just to keep the fruit from sticking. I try to dice these uniform so when I cook it, it cooks evenly. Laura McIntosh: Okay. John Jackson: Which gives the soup texture and part of it’s cooked and part of it’s uncooked it’s because you didn’t dice it properly. You don’t want that! Laura McIntosh: So very easy, this is just like a quick sauté. John Jackson: Exactly- and what I’ll do is I’ll take some sugar and I’ll just add some sugar to it. Depending on the ripeness of the fruit will depend on how much sugar you want to add. So as you can see, the sugar on the sides of the pan is starting to caramel, that’s right when you want to add your alcohol. Pull it off the heat because you don’t want it to explode in your face. Laura McIntosh: Right, you don’t want a flame in this instance. John Jackson: Exactly! So I’ll add some for flavor, I’ll cook it sec or dry. For this recipe I’m just going to add a little bit of water. Laura McIntosh: Again, here’s where you can substitute and add juice of nectarines or something to give it more. John Jackson: Or plums or pears or apples or you could add sparkling, you could add champagne. You can add wine, I mean you can do so many different things with it; it’s just whatever you want. Laura McIntosh: And you thought there was nothing to do with nectarines besides eat them fresh, well here’s the recipe- it’s easy to do. John Jackson: So then I’ll just cook this with the liquid until soft, bring it to a boil, cook it until it’s soft, and throw it in the blender. Laura McIntosh: Once it’s in the blender do we strain it? John Jackson: If you want to, it’s up to you, it’s all about texture. It depends if you like it a little bit thicker, a little bit cleaner- you know. This has not been strained. Laura McIntosh: This has not been strained. John Jackson: And I did add the peel which has been poached in simple syrup to remove the bitterness and to enhance the flavor of the peach and the color. Laura McIntosh: So, all of the fiber in the skin still remains in the soup. John Jackson: Exactly! Laura McIntosh: Absolutely, and that’s it. And it’s cooled, it’s not a warm soup, it’s a cool or chilled soup. John Jackson: Right, and something that’s important with food. Hotter foods require less seasoning, colder food require more. So, when you taste this and it’s hot, when it cools down it’s probably going to need a little more lemon juice, maybe a little more sugar, maybe a pinch of salt. So, go ahead and taste it once it’s cooled down. Laura McIntosh: And, once it’s here- you have some of this. John Jackson: I do, that is a raspberry cooling which was done in the exact same way. Sugar, water, raspberry liquor, sugar and whatever you want, and raspberries- cook it, blend it, and strain the seeds out-done! Simple! Laura McIntosh: So these are two fruits. One berry, one fruit actually- or droop. Nectarine is a droop. And how do we dress this? John Jackson: Really simple, you just put it in the soup. Laura McIntosh: And look at that, you can do anything you want. John Jackson: Whatever you want, you could add whip cream to this, you could add mascarpone, and you could add mint leaf. Laura McIntosh: Wow, make it your own.