Dried apricots

[northside food]

I bought a bag for a Thanksgiving recipe and only used a few. I hate the little bastards and my husband doesn't snack on dried fruit. What can I cook them with so he'll eat them for me? I've been chopping them up and throwing them in his oatmeal this week, but i think he's catching on.

[ipsedixit]

Use in your fruitcake ...

:-)

[northside food]

I'm really not a fruitcake person. Dried and then cooked fruits skeeve me out. I'm very texture oriented with my foods.

[Sam Fujisaka]

Well, I was just about to recommend a Dundee cake that my friend Nick just introduced to me:

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/ty...

But now I won't.

[northside food]

Yeah, scanning the ingredient list, I know I'll never be able to enjoy it. Not your fault though! It is a very pretty looking cake and I'm sure someone less insane would enjoy it.

[The Professor]

I was going to suggest chopping some up and putting them in with oatmeal as it cooks. (Delicious).
I guess that won't work for you either.
Too bad you don't like cooked dried fruit...the flavors are really quite wonderful...

To each his own...but it continually amazes me how folks get 'skeeved out' by so many very _basic_ things!!!

[greygarious]

One of my favorite fruit dessets is a compote made with both fresh and dried fruit. The dried is apricots, raisins, and sometimes prunes. The fresh is firm apples and Bosc pears. Peel, core, slice fresh fruit, mix with dried (hold the raisins), add a spoon of honey, then cider and/or wine (preferably sauterne or tokay), and simmer or microwave on medium power until fresh fruit is tender. Off heat, stir in the raisins. Let cool at room temp, then refrigerate.

You can stew the apricots in water or apricot nectar or wine, then puree, sweeten if necessary, and use as a topping for ice cream, rice pudding, pound cake.

[Harters]

I add them to couscous.

Also, take a pork fillet and slit it along its length, almost all of the way through. Open it out and fill with sliced apricot (or prunes) and thinly sliced garlic. Maybe a little fresh sage as well. Tie it back together and bake.

[goodhealthgourmet]

my first thought was similar to the suggestions from Cherylptw and Scott 123 - soak & puree.

you can use the puree as a base for savory sauces/glazes (e.g. reduce with balsamic vinegar and shallots, season with salt & pepper, and drizzle over poultry or pork). OR, add a little sweetener and maybe some cinnamon and/or ginger, and use as a mix-in or topping for yogurt or ice cream; or spread it on toast or a bagel with a little cream cheese.

[Rmis32]

peel & scoop out zucchini squash
stuff squash w/ rice & chopped meat filling
place squash in pot with a little water & steam, covered, for about 15 min
add tamarind paste and apricots and let come to a boil.
bake in oven @ 350 deg until juices have cooked down and meat is tender, about 2 hrs

[junglekitte]

A Moroccan tagine is your best way to go imo!

I also tried carrot fritters at a restaurant recently that were basically grated carrots, tiny pieces of dried apricot, toasted pinenuts, maybe onion, and fried into delicious fritters. You could try that if you are good at winging a recipe on your own! :)

[cimui]

Would either of you enjoy a lamb or chicken tagine with dried apricots? (i.e. http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/food/la-fo-slowrec25a-2009feb25,0,1713305.story ; you can leave out the other dried fruit if you'd rather

)

Alternately, there's a delicious red lentil stew (Armenian IIRC) that incorporates dried apricots. I haven't made it for a very long time and seem to've lost the recipe, but this looks like a close approximation: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Apricot-...

You could make a mixed dried fruit stew (compote) or, of course, there's always baked goods (use chopped dried apricots in place of, say, raisins).

Or jsut do like my mother and let dried apricots steep in hot water and honey, hot tea, or mulled wine and drink it down.

[scott123]

Soak/blend, add some sugar, a little bit of paprika, a little salt and you've got duck sauce. Perfect for dipping egg rolls in or for brushing on fatty meat (wings, thighs, ribs, ground pork) towards the last couple minutes of roasting.

[northside food]

This sounds awesome. My husband is Chinese and we both love Asian foods.

[Cherylptw]

Coconut apricot chicken; soak them in hot water then puree in a blender with coconut milk, cumin, ginger and a couple spoonsfuls each of cornstarch and brown sugar. . Add to a saucepan, bring to a simmer and cook about five minutes. Stir in some toasted coconut and set aside. Roast off your chicken; spread over the chicken during the last 20 minutes of baking time, uncovered. Serve with basmati or jasmine rice

[Athena]

I'm guessing they're not the soft and luscious kind, but the tart dry little bastards I bought by mistake a few months ago? If so, they can be chopped up an used in a stuffing for chicken or pork, chopped fine and added to gingerbread, banana bread or muffins. Mine are going to be chopped up and hopefully lost in the mix of amber rum, dried pears and grounds almonds of Nigella's golden fruitcake.

[Father Kitchen]

You can macerate them in spirits--nice in brandy. I often use chopped dried apricots with strips of ham in braising chicken pieces. I've been wanting to make an apricot meringue pie with an Italian crema di albichocche for the filling and a meringue top. Usually the crema is made from fresh fruit. But I can't see why reconstituted dried fruit can't be used. But when we got the fruit in, it ended up in granola before I could experiment. And, of course, you can make jam with it.

[PolarBear]

My first thought was soak them in a little brandy and make biscotti.