Dried Apricot

A mixed dried fruit salad with nuts is a favorite in Egypt during Ramadan, the month-long fast, when Muslims fast during the day and eat after sunset. All through the day, people, hungry and listless, are hardly able to work, and dream of what they would like to eat. At nightfall, when the sky is a cherry red, the cannons boom through the cities signaling the end of the fast, and the muezzins sing it out from all the minarets. The silent city suddenly comes alive with the clatter of spoons and plates, glasses and jugs, and with the sound of relieved hunger and laughter, of music and merry-making. The longed-for dishes wait on tables, trays, and the floor, piled high with ful medames, falafel, and bamia, meatballs and kebabs, khoshaf and apricot cream (following recipe). Every family has its favorite combinations of dried fruits.

Another Ramadan specialty in Egypt is a cream made of sheets of dried pressed apricots (amareldine) soaked, then boiled in water. I was in Cairo during the Ramadan month a few years ago and saw hundreds of bowls of this tart-tasting fruit cream offered free at street parties. The sheets of amareldine available these days do not have the pure taste they once had—perhaps due to preservatives. It is better to use natural dried apricots. Pistachios or almonds and thick cream are optional embellishments. Sometimes cornstarch is used to give the cream the texture of jelly. For this, see the variation.

You need to use large dried apricots for this famous Turkish sweet. The cream used in Turkey is the thick kaymak made from water buffaloes’ milk (see box below). The best alternatives are clotted cream and mascarpone.

Apricots have a particular affinity with lamb. The early Arab Abbasid dynasty, centered in Baghdad, adopted the combination from the old Persian Empire that preceded it and created a series of dishes on the theme which they called mishmishiya (see page 255), mishmish being the Arab word for “apricot.” Apricot is still a favorite partner to lamb in modern Iran. The rest of the Middle East has adopted it to a lesser degree. You need a tart, natural variety of apricots, not a sweetened one.

The dish derives its name from the Arabic word for apricot—mishmish. Only a tart natural—not sweetened—dried or semi-dried variety will do. Fresh apricots may also be used, in which case they should be added at the end and cooked for a few minutes only, so that they don’t fall apart. The reason why there is fresh gingerroot rather than the ground spice which is usual in Morocco is that the recipe comes from Paris. Serve with bread.

This is an old family favorite which I recommend if you don’t mind taking time and trouble. You may substitute for the apricot sauce a sauce made with sour cherries. Serve with extra stuffing.

Use large dried apricots for this famous Turkish sweet. You need to soak them in water overnight (even if you are using a semi-dried moist variety). The cream used in Turkey is the thick kaymak made from water-buffaloes’ milk. The best alternatives in this country are clotted cream or mascarpone.

I like to serve this with curries and grain pilafs. Try it with Long-Grain and Wild Rice Pilaf (page 99) or Fragrant Rice and Cashew Pilaf (page 100).

Here’s a nice change of pace from “white” coleslaw. It adds a refreshing note to spicy meals and adds vibrant color to the plate.

You roll up this rocciata, a thin pastry with a fruit-and-nut filling, just as you do a strudel—but you don’t bake it like a strudel. Instead, you slice the roll into thin rounds, lay them flat, and bake them into two dozen rich and beautiful spiral cookies. In this version, I macerate dried fruit overnight in vin santo, one of my favorite sweet wines. There’s always a bit of fruity wine left over, and I cook it into a delicious syrup to drizzle over the cookies. Delicious when dunked in a good espresso, and even better when dunked in grappa, these cookies are nice to have around, as well as to give as gifts at the holidays. And I make them after the holidays, too, since they’re such a brilliant way to use up all the dried fruit and nuts I have left over from the festivities.

The monounsaturated fats in this dessert's hazelnuts are super satiating. Trust us: You'll want seconds—but maybe not until tomorrow.

Cooking times for wild rice vary from brand to brand by as much as 30 minutes. We recommend using Grey Owl Canadian Lake (greyowlwildrice.com).

I especially enjoy the food blog www.deliciousdays.com. Recently I saw a recipe for a wheat-based muesli bread on that site and used it as inspiration for this nutty, sweet fruit loaf. When I want a healthy treat for dinner, I toast a slice and spread it with goat cheese.

The addition of goat cheese, apricots, and pesto lends a Mediterranean flavor to chicken. The pesto is made with fresh mint and almonds, rather than the usual basil and pine nuts.

This homey dessert gets its name from its lack of structure, which causes it to slump on the plate. Slumps are also known as grunts, a name that may describe the sound berries make as they cook. No matter which name you use, this old-fashioned treat is usually made of cooked fruit with a biscuit topping. Here, dried figs, apricots, tart cherries, and raisins make up the filling. The light, airy biscuits are similar to dumplings.

Old-fashioned mincemeat contained tiny bits of meat and/or beef suet, a type of fat. This modern, meatless version is a great mix of apples, dried fruits, and warming spices.

Travel the world's barbecue trail and you’ll find meat on a stick almost everywhere. South Africa's version goes by the Afrikaans name sosatie. Like all good Cape Malay meat dishes, fruit and curry are never far off—the former (usually apricots) interspersed with the meat on the skewers, the latter used to flavor the marinade and sauce. "Cape Malay," by the way, refers to the descendants of Indonesian and Malaysian slaves and indentured servants brought to Cape Town to work in farming. "There is perhaps no other single dish that can be regarded as more genuinely Afrikaans than sosaties," wrote South African poet and food writer C. Louis Leipoldt. Writing in the 1940s, Leipoldt was to Afrikaans food what James Beard was to our own. Like all great food writers, Leipoldt dispensed not only recipes but the wisdom gleaned from considering cooking a manifestation of culture. The following sosaties are based on Leipoldt's.

Haroseth, a thick condiment of fruit, nuts, and wine, symbolizes the mortar the Israelites used in Egypt. Roberts's particular mix of almonds, pistachios, dates, and dried apricots, reflective of the Middle East, is outstanding (note that we prefer the sweet-tart complexity of California/Pacific apricots to the bland sweetness of Turkish ones). Enjoy leftover haroseth slathered on matzos or crackers; we discovered it's great with Manchego cheese as well.

Apricots and Spanish chorizo sausage can provide elegance at less than $2 per person!