The Lush Chef

Libations used: 1/4 cup bourbon
Libations left over: None
The stone fruit is ridiculously amazing right now in Southern California, and I'm pretty much spending all of my cash at the market on peaches, nectarines and pluots.  Malbec was having one of her pool parties again and we were going to be firing up the grill.  Usually my crew never thinks of dessert, so I knew that part would be left up to me.  I had planned on making a peach cobbler (I'll get to that eventually), but just didn't have the energy to bake on a beautiful summer morning.  What to do with these 8 gorgeous peaches?

It's not often I invoke the name of Paula Deen, as she's the arch-nemesis of my culinary crush Anthony Bourdain, but this recipe of hers for Grilled Stone Fruit incorporated plenty of bourbon and...do I even need to say what the other ingredient is?  The glaze created for this dish could have certainly coated a lot more than 8 peaches (probably twice the amount), so it's a perfect dessert to serve at a big BBQ.  The recipe tells you to just toss the peaches on the grill, but Whiskey (my grill master) and I decided we wanted the glaze to get all hot and caramelized while the peaches cooked.  We created an aluminum foil boat and let the peach halves just stew in that bourbon buttery goodness.

Bourbon Glazed Peaches on the Grill - serves 16 (or 8 greedy friends)
Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup bourbon
• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 2 lemons, juiced
• 1/2 cup water
• 8 ripe peaches (you can also use nectarines, plums, pluots), cut in half

- In a saucepan, bring the bourbon to a boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 1 minute to burn off the alcohol.
- Add the butter, brown sugar, lemon juice and water, and bring to a boil, whisking until the sugar is dissolved.
- Simmer for about 5 minutes and then let it cool to thicken.
- Toss the fruit with the glaze.  Because we weren't eating for a while, I let the peaches just sit in a container with the glaze for a few hours.
- Set your grill for low heat and then place peach halves in an aluminum foil boat.  Drizzle some of the glaze over the peaches and let them cook for about 5 minutes.  Turn to the other side, drizzle on some more glaze and let them cook for another 5 minutes.
- You can serve with ice cream or just devour these plain like we did.