Sit at the dinner table #4 Poached Peach in Prosecco – Drawing a Tiger by Looking at a Cat(照猫画虎)

I am not good at doing dessert at all. But Petra Rampley’s cooking post “Poached Peach with Prosecco and Rose Water” had such a beautiful presentation that I was itching to copy her. A fruit dessert this appealing to your eyes really tempted my appetite in the hot summer, so I decided to give it a try.

I wanted to do it the day I bought fresh peaches but was not able to because I found no white wine at home. To be honest, when I saw Petra’s work, I didn’t even know what Prosecco was until I googled it. To this day, I still don’t know how you get rose water, you boil the rose petals or buy it somewhere? There are so many things to learn and explore, I will leave it to my next try. For this time, I will skip the rose water.

When I went out to buy white wine this morning at Trader Joe’s, after I have put a bottle of white wine in my basket, I saw Prosecco on the shelf! I was a bit excited to see it, feeling I would be one tiny step closer to copy Petra’s work.

I followed a recipe online since I did not ask Petra for hers, again, skipping vanilla bean since I don’t have it. I carefully peeled the peach skin off after poached them. I followed Petra’s advice to simmer them carefully in the wine. When cooling them down before I put them in the fridge, I had to go to an exercise class, so I put a note to warn my family not to eat them!

It turned out surprisingly delicious even though I have cut down the sugar 2/3. Next time, I will need to reduce the water a bit more so the juice is a little thicker. The fresh smell of summer peach mixed with the subtle taste of Prosecco wine, it was a very refreshing dessert after a summer meal.

But comparing my work with Petra’s (last photo at the bottom), you see the sharp difference between an apprentice and an expert! I was busy tearing off the rose petals to be proportional with the peaches but forgot to use the petals as decoration. And the peaches Petra had has such nice color which mine doesn’t have.

There is a Chinese saying called “Draw a tiger by looking at a cat” (照猫画虎), meaning “to copy the form without understanding the substance”. This is exactly what I did. Hopefully, next time, my “cat” looks a bit more like Petra’s “tiger”.

p.s., the two small photos on the right, in the middle were my second try, they do look a tiny bit closer to Petra’s.

Practice pays off.