Recipe: Thomas Keller's endive and arugula salad with peaches and marcona almonds

We cooked a couple of recipes out of Thomas Keller's ad hoc at home cookbook the other day.  The endive and arugula salad with peaches and marcona almonds (p. 140) sounded like a lovely summertime salad, and it was.  It just took a little bit of time because I had to make the peach puree (p.249) first.  However, here are some shortcuts and things we changed:

the peach puree

• I used ONE peach to make about a 1/4 cup of puree.
• Even though the peaches I bought weren't perfectly ripe, I peeled them with a paring knife and skipped the first step of putting them in boiling water and then an ice bath to cool.
• I also didn't strain the puree through a fine-mesh basket strainer because I'm fine with a chunky dressing (and it wasn't even that chunky, just thick).
• I have a candy thermometer and could've made sure that the puree reached 215-220 degrees F, but I didn't.

the salad

• Because endive gets pricey, we used a baby spring mix that didn't have arugula.  I think the arugula would've added a nice touch and extra dimension to the salad, so I'll add that next time as called for by the recipe.

A note on the recipe says that in the fall, pears can be substituted for the peaches in both the puree and salad.  I love pears and so will definitely be trying that out!