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We are friends who love making simple food look beautiful. We hope our recipes will inspire you to get into the kitchen this season. Aoife McElwain works in front of the camera writing the recipes and styling the food, while Mark Duggan works behind the camera to make sure it all looks as delicious as possible. We work with editors such as Killian Broderick and music supervisors like Nialler9 to make sure that our finished videos look and sound as smart as possible. We work with brands like Glenisk and Folláin to help them create delicious video content for their online platforms. When we're not making videos, we write a weekly column called Speedy Suppers on Thursdays in The Irish Independent. Aoife writes the recipes and styles the food while Mark takes the photographs.  

01 Aug peach salad

Posted at 03:52h in lunch, Video recipes by

In our house, we love how much salad we get to scoff in the summer. We relish grabbing a bowl of greens topped with perfectly ripe, colourful vegetables (or fruit) straight through ’til September. Earlier this summer, our friend Lucy served us up a plate of sweet grilled peaches with torn mozzarella and reduced balsamic vinegar. We loved it so much that we’ve been making the most out of peach season and have been taking any excuse to eat and serve it.

Such a simple salad is this that the quality of your ingredients can have a real opportunity to shine. We used County Cork’s Toonsbridge Irish buffalo mozzarella (which we adore and buy in bulk at Fallon & Byrne or Sheridan’s), the incomparable Balsamic Cider Vinegar from Llewellyn’s Orchards and smokey Parma ham from one of our favourite delis.

What you need for a forkful of peach salad for 2 

1 cup of balsamic vinegar (we love Llewellyn’s Balsamic Cider Vinegar)

2 wonderfully ripe peaches

2 handfuls of your favourite salad leaves

1 ball of mozzarella

4 slices of Parma ham

1 handful of pecan nuts, finely chopped

Start by putting the balsamic vinegar into a saucepan over a low heat. Cook gently for about 20 minutes, stirring now and then, until the balsamic vinegar has reduced by half and is a gloriously syrupy texture. Don’t be tempted to rush this by turning up the heat; slowly does it.

Meanwhile, halve and stone the peaches. Heat some olive oil in a griddle or frying pan over a medium to high heat. Grill the peaches for 5 to 8 minutes on both sides until starting to caramelize.

Divide the salad leaves between two plates and tear the mozzarella equally between them. Drape the Parma ham equally over the salad before adding the grilled peaches. Finish with a sprinkling of chopped pecans and a final generous drizzle of your reduced balsamic syrup.

Serve straight through ’til September.

Thank you to The Last Days of 1984 and Osaka Records for the use of the track Season in this video, which is the final episode of forkful series #1. Thank you for all the lovely feedback throughout the last few months. We have lots of ideas for series #2 and are looking forward to sharing them with you.

 

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