Tag: apricots
Avocado and Apricot Guacamole
Yummy guacamole made with apricots! You can use nectarines or peaches… or even plums…
- 1 ripe avocado, diced
- 2 apricots, diced
- 3 green onions, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, grated
- 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
- Juice of one lemon
- ½ to 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 teaspoon salt
Add everything to a medium bowl. Mix well and serve.
Passion Fruit Sangria
I posted this a couple of years ago .. and it is perfect for Cinco de Mayo!!
Did I mention I was obsessed with Latin cuisine? Well, I guess it is easy to see if you browse through my recent recipes on the blog. Every time I try to come up with a new recipe or something different for dinner, the only thing that comes to mind are Latin flavors.
The other thing I am loving right now are passion fruits. This Brazilian native fruit is the best tasting fruit ever! It is by far the most flavorful thing I have ever tasted. I wait for them to show up at Whole Foods or Eden Gourmet. They are quite expensive but SO worth the taste.
I recently found delicious passion fruit juice without any high fructose corn syrup. It is the Goya variety and it amazing! My husband came up with this sangria recipe and it is absolutely delicious. It is a perfect summer drink to serve at a barbecue. Try it and it will be part of your repertoire…
- 3 to 4 apricots, sliced thin
- 1 large nectarine, sliced thin
- 1 large lime, sliced thin
Place the sliced fruits into a large glass pitcher.
- 1 bottle sauvignon blanc
- 1 cup lemonade
- 1 cup orange juice
- 2 cups passion fruit juice
Add the wine, lemonade, orange and passion fruit juice in the pitcher.
Let the liquid sit in the pitcher in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.
Apricot Salsa
As summer officially comes to an end. I can’t help but post another salsa recipe. I am still getting delicious apricots- somehow they have lasted quite long this year. Usually they are gone by end of July. Anyway, I had a big pack of them and decided to turn the fruit into a delicious chunky sauce.
I used what I had in the fridge… that is what I like about making salsas- there are no rules. You can add whatever you want. I happen to have green onions on hand and I always have cilantro. I chopped everything and added the usual lime juice. I also added smoked paprika. To make it sweet, I usually add honey. This time I decided to use agave. I recently bought a bottle of it and have started experimenting. It is a great substitute for sugar and has a very low glycemic index. I even tried duffins with agave and they were a big hit.
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Pineapple and Apricot Compote
My daughter keeps reminding me how I have not baked any dessert recently. She is right… I feel if I bake something.. then I have to eat it and I really don’t want to … so I don’t end up making anything. It is better not to have anything at home to tempt you through the day or after a meal.
So, when some friends were coming over for a cook out, I started thinking of dessert. I thought about just cutting up some watermelon which is really delicious and healthy but I wanted to do something a little different but keep it healthy at the same time. I decided to cook the fruit and make a compote. I had apricots and pineapple in the fridge.. I added some honey, orange juice and cardamom. I love cardamom with fruit.. it gave a delicious floral undertone to the compote. I chilled it and served it with a dollop of creme fraiche. It was a perfect dessert. It satisfied the sweet craving but definitely did not break the calorie bank. A perfect end to a delicious meal….
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Easy Chicken Recipe: Moroccan Chicken with Apricots
Sometimes I get into a rut and make the same chicken dishes time and time again. I had chicken thighs in the fridge and I wanted to make a different preparation for a change. Nothing was coming to mind until I was flipping through a William Sonoma catalog. They were featuring a tagine and had a recipe for a chicken cooked in the contraption. I noticed the recipe included olives and apricots- I had both in the fridge- so I started cooking.
I sprinkled salt and pepper on chicken thighs- my favorite part of the chicken. Thighs are great to use in such dishes- they can be cooked for a long time and not get tough on you, plus they have great flavor. I made a simple spice mix with cinnamon and coated the chicken. I then browned the pieces and sauteed them with garlic and onions. I decided to add some grated carrots- to add some veggies- no one was able to detect anything healthy!
The olives and apricots really gave the chicken an incredible flavor and texture. I love the two ingredients together… The sweetness and chewiness of the apricots complimented the saltiness of the olives really well. I went to a few local stores to find preserved lemons (often used in Moroccan dishes) but was not able to. The olives I had were marinated with lemons- so that is what I used. It worked really well but I am sure using the actual preserved lemons would have been delicous too.
The dish was yum- I made cumin couscous with it. My daughter until recently didn’t care of couscous, but once I told her it is pasta in another form- she was a little more receptive. I made a green salad with our dinner and opened a bottle of red wine. Delicious!
Apricot Kuchen- Gesa’s German Cake Recipe
My favorite breakfast would be a big-huge cup of perfectly brewed coffee with a huge slice of toasted pound cake!- oh and a big chunk of salty cheese as well. I don’t think I have indulged in just cake and cheese for any meal in a long time. Pound cake has a special place in my heart. I remember eating lots of it in India growing up. My Mom would make it at home but the one I remember fondly is from Standard Bakery. They made their pound cakes in round molds. It was small in diameter but baked really high. It used to be wrapped with a brown parchment paper, which I remember peeling off and devouring a big slice of cake as soon as it came home. I do try to eat that particular one whenever I go back.
I ate an apricot cake a few years ago at a friend’s baby shower. Her Austrian friend had made her Mom’s recipe. It was delicious! It reminded me of the pound cake I used to eat years ago. It was not too sweet but had the pound cake texture. The apricots on top were a great accompaniment- sweet and tangy. The cake was served with sweetened whipped cream- again, my favorite. I could have eaten that whole thing by myself.
Recently my friend made her aunt Gesa’s apple kuchen (word for ‘cake’ in German). I ate some and it reminded me of the apricot cake I had at her shower. I took the recipe, tweaked it a bit and added apricots instead of apples. It was delicious. It is not as rich as a pound cake but has a similar feel. It is not too sweet so it can be eaten for breakfast and tea. Most importantly, it tastes delicious with ice cream or whipped cream. I served it with a mixture of creme fraiche and ricotta cheese. I decided to use creme fraiche because its thick and creamy. I added ricotta cheese for it’s great texture. Both mixed together made a really yummy accompaniment to the cake. I sweetened the whole thing with a bit of vanilla sugar.
Vanilla sugar can be bought but it is quite easy to make. Every time a recipe calls for a vanilla bean, I scrape the seeds out and save the rest. I add the emptied pods to a jar of sugar. After a week or so, the entire jar of sugar is flavored with the yummy vanilla taste. I always have some on hand – it’s a great way to flavor anything. Every morning my daughter, Sia get a bowl of berries topped with a bit of vanilla sugar- she loves it!