Top Three Ingredients for February

1.Peaches:With velvety blushed skin and yellow juicy flesh what is there not to love about Summer peaches. A member of the rose family, peaches are sweet and deliciously fragrant. Available from September – March buy them during January – March when they are at their best.

There are over a hundred different varieties of peaches, including nectarines, which are classified as a fuzz less, smaller version. Simply, peaches are classified into clingstone, freestone and semi free stone all dependant on how easily the flesh comes away from the stone.

Within in these categories are white peaches. Compared to regular yellow fleshed peaches, white peaches are champaign in colour deepining to a pinkish hue towards the centre. White peaches also have a milder floral sweet taste making them a great to addition to salads and with cheese plates.
Donut peaches are noted for their unusual flat shape and while becoming increasing popular they have in fact been around for centuries. Donut peaches are generally white and are sweet, floral and juicy with subtle vanilla tones.

Pick peaches that are pink in hues and have a firm (not wrinkly) flesh. Store them in a dry cool place as too much heat makes them dry out and wrinkle faster.

Peaches are great added to any breakfast, or with salads.

Make a tasty salsa to go with fish or corn chips with diced yellow peaches, avocado, finely chopped mint and coriander, a little chilli and plenty of lime juice.

2.Garlic: There is nothing that smells better than garlic cooking. A relative to the onion family, garlic is a cousin of eshalots, leeks, spring onions and chives.

Garlic has been an important part of both cuisine and medicine for thousands of years. Raw, it is pungent, spicy and adds dynamic layers of flavour. These characteristics mellow however when cooked, into a sweeter, slightly caramel and earthy clove.

Unfortunately a lot of garlic sold in Australia comes from Mexico or China. Besides being bad for Australian farming, these bulbs taste dull from travel compared to ones grown in our own home soil.

Look out for Australian grown garlic at farmers markets and your local grocer. The best way to buy garlic is in a plat of 15 or so bulbs. Besides being fresh, they look great and last up to 2 months.

Add a whole crushed garlic clove to a simple lemon and oil dressing and leave to infuse for 30 minutes for extra flavour.
Crush 2 cloves of garlic and mix into 150g softened butter season with salt and pepper, roll in cling film and refrigerate. Add this butter to any meats or fish whilst cooking or even on top of freshly steamed vegetables. It will keep in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.

For beautiful garlic infused oil and sweet caramelised cloves follow my recipe for confit garlic.

Chocolate: It is the most popular food and flavour in the world. With a long history of use in both sweet confection and savoury cuisine, chocolate with out a doubt lures anyones heart.

Chocolate comes in 3 main forms white, milk and dark. Each one is classified by the percentage of cocoa solids with sugar, cocoa butter and milk solids.

Dark chocolate is the most bitter out of the three with a rich earthy quality, containing 60% or more cocoa solids. Milk chocolate is a creamier sweeter version most popular for confectionary, containing 35% or more cocoa solids. White chocolate technically is not chocolate as it does not contain any cocoa solids, but rather milk solids, cocoa butter and sugar. It is the sweetest of the three and is delicious in desserts and with tropical fruits.

With Valentines Day around the corner seduce your loved one with some of these fantastic and easy chocolate desserts!

Double Chocolate Cake
Chocolate Fudge
Valentines Day Cookies
Chocolate Mousse