Chocolate fondue on the BBQ grill - with grilled cherries and salted dulce de leche

In the summer, a young couple's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of grilling. Then what's for dessert?

What I love most about cooking is coming up with some off-the-wall idea - "I wonder if we could..." - and then seeing if it actually works. This dovetails nicely with a game I play with myself, called Iron Chef: Fridge/Pantry Edition - where, you guessed it, you have to come up with a creative way to use up all those random fridge/pantry scraps. And so I present the latest iteration: dulce de leche chocolate fondue on the BBQ with grilled cherries for dipping.

Me being me, one day last summer, I said to Christian, "I wonder if we could grill cherries?"

Why not? Thus in two separate bursts of inspiration, this decadent dessert was born.

Start with washed whole cherries (leave the stems on - they make great handles for fondue dipping!)

Toss with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Here's the key: DON'T use charcoal briquettes here - because the cherries cook for so long, you really need to be cooking over hardwood or hardwood briquettes here for this to work. Otherwise your cherries will end up covered in black charcoal dust and will taste like charcoal. Not what you want. We use mesquite (combo of hardwood and hardwood briquettes).

Dump cherries into a metal roasting pan (we use the disposable aluminum ones, but reuse them until they get too nasty - very convenient for grilling). Place on grill over indirect heat - or start on direct heat and move to indirect heat. You don't want these to get too hot.

Leave on until they're of the desired doneness. I like them when they soften and get a little jammy, while still retaining their shape - this could take ~40 minutes with indirect heat. I like to start them just before you start eating dinner - this way they're done by the time people are ready for dessert.

So one time when we were grilling, I started walking around our kitchen and eying the shelves... Spying half a bag of chocolate chips, some baking chocolate squares, and a random can of dulce de leche, the dulce de leche chocolate fondue on the BBQ was born! (Iron Chef for the win!)

Add chocolate chips and baking chocolate (you could probably use one or the other, this is just what we had) into a small high-sided aluminum baking tray. Add copious amounts of dulce de leche, or to taste.

Add a splash of milk too to help this eventually become fondue consistency. You want this to be liquidy enough that fruits will actually dip into it, instead of just floating on the surface. You can adjust this as the chocolate melts. Place on the grill - be very careful here. You probably want it on indirect heat, or you could briefly start on direct heat and then move it to indirect heat. But stir constantly or at least frequently to prevent burning/sticking etc.

Adjust fondue consistency with a little milk if needed. When finished, sprinkle the fondue with a little coarse sea salt if desired - this really sends the chocolate and dulce de leche combination over the top! That combo was inspired by the Melting Pot fondue we tried last year.

If you get tired of waiting for the cherries and want to dig into the fondue, you can always start with strawberries or other dipping treats (fruits/brownies/pound cake/rice krispie treats) for the fondue! These strawberries are freshly picked from our garden. Mine fell off - which is when we decided to add a little more milk to improve dipping.

Christian's hand, not mine (what gave it away?)

When the cherries are done, just hold them by their stems... and dip! Be careful not to bite into the pits. This is the perfect dessert to share with friends at the end of a BBQ. A few Sundays ago when we tried this, our neighbors all came home around the same time - we broke out some white port we had been saving, and all hung out around the BBQ, dipping cherries in the fondue and drinking port - a great end to a Sunday of grilling. :)

PS - Christian points out that grilled mesquite cherries are also great dropped in a bottle of bourbon. But I'll let him do his own post on his alcohol infusions. :)

Enjoy!

Veena

Southern Belle Peach Cobbler

I swear I must have been a Southerner in a previous life. (I'm South Indian, but that doesn't count.) I go nuts over barbecue, make a mean slow-cooked pulled pork, eat collard greens by the bowlful, and am perpetually on the lookout for hushpuppies. In college I had a quest to find the perfect cornbread. So it shouldn't be a surprise that I spent many weekends last summer optimizing my peach cobbler recipe. I'm admittedly a little reluctant to share my secret peach cobbler recipe, but here it is. (Don't say I never did nuthin' for ya.)

Start with great summer peaches. (We're big fans of Kashiwase Farms.)

You can't tell here, but these peaches are huge!

I've adapted the basic recipe from this one: The first group of ingredients is the cobbler itself, and the second group of ingredients is the topping. The topping is delicious and we feel like there's never enough topping, so I double the topping. I also eliminate the white sugar from the recipe altogether. (I don't feel like great peaches need tons of sugar anyway)

Cut the peaches into chunks/slices. (Or get your husband to do it. That's what I do.)

Sprinkle the peaches with the first batch of ingredients and toss to mix. You can modify the sugar/spices according to your preferences.

Prebake at 425 deg for 10 minutes.

While that's baking, make the topping from the second batch of ingredients, following the directions.

Remember, if you don't double the topping, you will probably wish that you had.

Except that I add an earth-shattering secret ingredient that really sends this recipe over the top. Cardamom! Add freshly ground cardamom to taste - I add ~4 pods worth of seeds.

Every card-carrying chemist needs a good mortar and pestle.

Drop spoonfuls on top of the prebaked peaches, and put in the oven ~30 minutes.

Personally I skip the sugar/cinnamon topping they suggest, and just sprinkle a little cinnamon on top. This also makes it look a little extra brown when it's finished baking. Take out when it's cooked to your preferred done-ness - golden-brown up top.

And enjoy!

It took all my willpower to shoot this photo before digging in.

I have to admit I don't really enjoy baking, but I'll make an exception for peach cobbler. This makes a great dessert for summer gatherings/potlucks/etc (this was originally intended for friends).

If you had told me four years ago that I'd be spending Saturday nights baking with my hubby,  happily married, and living in the suburbs, I likely would have laughed in your face. But I'm extremely happy. Domesticity is slowly growing on me. :)

Veena