Bookshelf: Practice What You Peach

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Bury your nose, whet your appetite

A South Carolina native, Belinda Smith-Sullivan grew up eating peaches straight from the tree and simmering them into preserves or brandy at the elbow of her grandmother. Now a chef and food writer, her inaugural cookbook tackles the cherished fruit from all angles, outlining which varietals are best for different preparations and sharing tips for peeling, freezing, and canning to make her dozens of peach-centric recipes possible year-round.

The Peach Truck Cookbook

Scribner, 2019

If you’ve ever impulse purchased several pounds of peaches and come home from the farmers market without a plan, the proprietors of the Peach Truck are at your service. Jessica and Stephen Rose started their stone fruit delivery system, bringing Georgia peaches to Nashville in the back of a 1964 Jeep Gladiator, and now they’ve written the book on how to make the most of your summer haul. Of course there’s the hand pies and cobblers you’d expect, but their creativity comes into play when peaches are stuffed into tamales, shaved thin and topped with snapper crudo, and folded into pasta with basil, corn, and cherry tomatoes.

The Peached Tortilla

Sterling Epicure, 2019

Contrary to its name, this book has very little to do with the seasonal stone fruit—instead, The Peached Tortilla is a nod to author Eric Silverstein’s evolution from his Atlanta roots to a Tex-Mex fusion food truck in Austin, Texas. Now with a brick and mortar of the same name, Silverstein is still serving up the dashi shrimp and grits, banh mi tacos, and Japanese street corn he’s known for, influenced by the flavors of his childhood—specifically, his mom’s Chinese home cooking and spending his formative years in Japan.

Most of the recipes are flavored with ingredients you may not have in your pantry, but the handy Asian Food Glossary will help you navigate your local Asian grocery with authority. Recipes for crab pad thai and dan dan noodles stretch for pages, but the complex projects are well worth the work. Intimidated? Fear not: The book is chock full of approachable fusion fare to get you comfortable—wasabi mashed potatoes and Velveeta-smooth queso topped with kimchi are good places to start.