Balsamic Peaches

I live in Georgia. The obvious choice then, when searching for interesting things to pickle, was a peach. Adding balsamic vinegar, Vidalia onions, and Serrano peppers to my frenzied preservationism, I came up with a very tasty end-of-summer treat.

Ingredients:

- 1 not-quite-ripe peach
- 1/2 Vidalia onion
- 1/2 Serrano pepper, diced
- Balsamic vinegar
- Kosher Salt
- Sugar

I sliced peach into strips, roughly chopped the onion and diced the pepper, putting them all in a glass bowl. I then heated enough balsamic to cover that, dissolving in salt and sugar (you have to do this to your own taste). Don't let the vinegar boil - just heat it enough to get the salt and sugar dissolved! Pour it over the produce, and seal with plastic wrap. Refrigerate it for two or three days to pickle.

Now, this is delicious already - sweet and sharp and perfect in a salad - but I wanted to go farther. This pickle was going to get post-processing!

I took out the peaches, and about half of the liquid (not the onions or peppers!) and put them in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once the liquid came to a boil, I lowered the heat and let it reduce (this takes a looooong time) until it became nice and syrupy, coating the now soft peach slices.

I poured all of this over vanilla ice cream, and it was totally bloody awesome. I used the remaining peach-infused vinegar as salad dressing for a while, which was also pretty darn good.