With the abundant harvest available in August, I’d gone on a buying spree and along with a counter top of other late- summer fruits I had a basket of fresh apricots to deal with. Luckily these amber gems were very easy to pit and freeze, so that was my stop-gap measure. Last Sunday, when I needed some fruit to serve at brunch, I brought the apricots out of the freezer and poached them. They were lovely and refreshing served with a little Greek yogurt, a drizzle of honey and some toasted slivered almonds.
Wikipedia defines poaching as the process of gently simmering food in liquid, generally milk, stock or wine. Poaching is particularly suitable for delicate food, such as eggs, poultry, fish and fruit, which might easily fall apart or dry out. For this reason, it's important to keep the heat low and to keep the poaching time to a bare minimum, which will also preserve the flavor of the food.
Ingredients:
- about 4 cups of fresh or frozen apricot halves
- about a cup and a half of water
- 3 tablespoons granulated white sugar
- 3 tablespoons of honey
- 1 vanilla pod, split
Combine the water, sugar, honey and vanilla pod in a pot on the stove and simmer until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has reduced by about one quarter. Add the fruit and allow it to cook in the poaching liquid on simmer until softened but not falling to bits. (Between 5-15 minutes depending on whether you used frozen or fresh fruit). Remove from the heat and refrigerate the fruit in the poaching liquid before serving.
Editorial Note: I poached the fruit a couple of days prior to my brunch and happened to leave the vanilla bean in the poaching liquid with the fruit. It’s my sense that the fruit was thereby darkened more than it needed to be. So, you might want to consider removing the vanilla bean after the cooking is complete and see if the gorgeous apricot colour remains more stable.
