Dried Apricot

“Don’t make a big tsimmes out of it” was a favorite expression of my mother’s, as if making a tsimmes was a big deal and therefore making a big tsimmes—well, you get the idea. Making a tsimmes—a stew of fruits and vegetables, often on the sweet side, and sometimes grains—can be a big deal, especially if you begin with a piece of meat. But as a delicious midwinter stew of dried fruits and root vegetables, served as a side dish or even a main course, it’s hardly any work at all. To make one with meat, simply add these ingredients to the Cholent recipe on page 380. Many tsimmes recipes call for cooking the fruit until it falls apart, which is all too easy to do. In this one, which has less water than most, the fruit is cooked until perfectly tender but still intact. Other vegetables you can prepare this way: vary this as you like—not only is meat common, but so are turnips, beets, apples, barley, and the small egg noodles known as farfel. The key ingredients are the dried fruit, sweet potatoes, and carrots.

The way I roast turkey, I never stuff it. Instead, for holidays and special occasions when a turkey needs a special dressing, I make a gnoccho grande, a large loaf-shaped dumpling of bread crumbs, eggs, seasonings, and festive tidbits of dried fruits and nuts, wrapped in cheesecloth and poached in broth. Since I usually cook a big pot of turkey broth the day before I roast the turkey (to have plenty for the roasting pan), I’ll poach the gnoccho grande while it’s bubbling away. The next time you make turkey broth, try this wonderful big dumpling. It’s a great accompaniment to any poultry or meat dish, not just turkey, and a fine soup garnish, or cook it in the broth from Whole Poached Chicken (page 328).

These rustic half-moon pastries travel beautifully, making them one of my favorite picnic treats. Just wrap them in wax paper and you’re off!

This exotically spiced curry of chicken, tomatoes, peppers, dried fruit, and nuts is proof of Southern food’s cosmopolitan roots. Served with steamed rice, slivered almonds, and fresh parsley, it is wonderfully bone-warming and fragrant.

In Greece and Turkey, this bread is called Christopsomo or tsoureki (also known as lambpropsomo during Easter). It differs from stollen in that it’s proofed before baking, but the proofing time is shorter than for panettone. Mastic gum, also called mastica, is an aromatic gum resin derived from the bark of a Mediterranean shrub tree in the pistachio family. It can be found at stores that specialize in Greek and Middle Eastern ingredients. It adds a subtle and......breath-freshening flavor and aroma (no surprise, it has long been used as a natural breath freshener).

This granola is better than anything I have bought in a store (as homemade foods so often are), if that helps explain its boastful name! I use a mixture of nuts—everything from cashews, pecans, almonds, and peeled hazelnuts to walnuts. Pistachios, however, will burn quickly, so if you’re using them, add them at the end and let them bake for just a few minutes. This granola keeps for a long time in the refrigerator, so double the batch if you like. It makes a great gift, too! Serve it with milk or yogurt and fresh fruit.

This is a flavorful variation on the timeless pineapple upside-down cake. Here dried apricots are used, but the cake can be made with a variety of dried or preserved fruits with equally good results. It’s excellent topped with a dollop of whipped cream, ice cream, or creamy Greek-style yogurt.

The slow cooker is an excellent tool for making small batches of jams and preserves—just enough for a week’s worth of morning toast—without any fuss at all. You can use your stovetop recipes, just adjust for longer cooking times. Begin on low and end on high with the cover off, and plan on watching somewhat carefully for the last hour. Forsake the pectin and enjoy the spoonable texture of nothing but fruit.

Even when they’re in season, fresh apricots aren’t always easy to find, so I turn dried apricots that are available everywhere and at any time of the year into this delightfully tangy apricot sauce. I always use California dried apricots, which have a much deeper flavor than imported ones, and I highly recommend you do the same.

These light, lean soufflés get their lively flavor from the intensity of readily available dried apricots, so this dessert offers the added bonus that it can be made all year. It’s imperative to use the highly flavorful dried apricots from California rather than imported varieties, which are bland and uninspiring. You won’t be disappointed.

I’m not a fan of commercial protein bars. In my opinion, they’re too sweet, more like candy than food. But I do love the idea of portable snacks packed with nutrition. So I decided to make my own and fill them with lots of protein, fiber, and a mild sweetness derived from agave nectar and dried fruit. All my gym buddies love them. They’re a great on-the-go snack or even breakfast in a pinch. Substitute almond butter for the peanut butter to change it up a bit.

This is my cleaned-up version of those legendary rice crispy squares. The difference is that these are full of whole grain goodness and nutrients from the nuts and fruit. Try these out on your kids for a guaranteed hit. You can find nut butter at any health food store.

For variety, substitute prunes for the apricots in these fat-free (and guilt-free) bars. Sweet and chewy, they make a nice lunch box treat.

One day my coauthor, Mat, was reminiscing to his mom, Clair, about an ice cream store he worked at while in college. “I told her that I got so sick of ice cream that for two years after I quit I couldn’t go near it.” At which point Clair mentioned that as a girl she worked for years at the chocolate counter at Gimbel’s, one of New York’s famous retailers. Gimbel’s let you eat as much chocolate as you liked on the job, so long as you didn’t take any home. “I asked Mom if she ever got sick of chocolate. She just looked at me like I was nuts and said, ‘Why would I?’” Which brings us to these little morsels. For chocolate aficionados, nothing provides a better fix than a truffle. My friend Wendy, an incredible chocolatier, designed these confections from a scrumptious mélange of chocolate, dates, orange zest, and ground nuts, all rolled in coconut. I could tell you that the reason to eat these is because they’re high in protein and phytochemicals, but how ‘bout we just call that a nice side benefit of yum! Since you’re going to indulge in a chocolate dessert, be sure to make it the best by using high-quality chocolate.

Yogurt is a wonderful international culinary staple that’s been subverted by American agribusiness. Contrary to popular belief, genuine yogurt is anything but the thick, overly sweetened blend you’re likely to find in the refrigerated section at your local grocery store. Designed as quickie substitutes for breakfast, too often they’re laden with copious sugar for a rapid ride on the glucose express. Real yogurt—the healthier version known to the rest of the world—is generally much lighter. It’s also served in a wider variety of contexts, such as Indian raitas, served as a condiment, and Greek tzatziki, a combination of cucumbers and yogurt served as a dip, condiment, or spread. Yogurt (the name is Turkish) is meant to refresh, and this version is an ideal topping on cucumbers, lamb, or Middle Eastern Chickpea Burgers (page 112). When I first proposed this blend, one of my recipe testers looked at the long list of ingredients and asked, “all this for yogurt?” And then she took a taste …

This is an absolute go-to dish for people taking pain medication. Why? Because many pain meds, especially opiates, can stop up the works, if you get my meaning. This isn’t your typical fiber-laden, tasteless concoction. (Can you say bran muffin?) In addition to prunes, the traditional remedy, this compote also includes dried apricots and cherries, and we’ve also brought ginger and cardomom to the party. The result is a delicious compote that smells incredible while it’s cooking and goes great over oatmeal or on toast. For those days when you need a kick start, this blend will nudge you in the right direction. Believe me, it works. Before cooking the compote, it’s best to soak the fruit for a few hours, or preferably overnight, so plan ahead. This is great served warm or at room temperature.

The whole idea of Anytime Bars is right in the name; you never know when hunger is going to strike, and you want to be ready to take advantage of those moments to nourish yourself. A lot of my clients take these portable packets of pleasure to chemo sessions. It may seem odd that people want to eat during treatment, but many do, and these bars are a delicious, healthy alternative to the bowls of sweets so often found around infusion centers. The great thing about this recipe is that you can change the ingredients to fit your taste preferences. You can even split the batter and make half with currant and cranberries and the other half with walnuts or whatever you’d like. These bars come together very quickly with the food processor, but if you don’t have one, you can certainly chop the fruit and nuts by hand.

Dried cranberries provide vitamin C and dried apricots offer vitamin A in this fruit-filled cupcake. As a mom, I’m happy to see the boys pack this in their lunches. You can also serve it for dessert with Cream Cheese Frosting (page 95), another perfect example of healthy food that tastes great.

Oatmeal is one of the healthiest and most energy-packed breakfast foods around. To give our loved ones a great start to their day while keeping a lazy weekend morning—well—lazy, we created this casserole. The three kinds of dried fruit and touch of vanilla dress it up just enough so that it still feels like a treat.

Duck is one of those dishes that can be intimidating because it seems fancy and elegant. But there’s nothing to be scared of—making great duck just takes patience. To get a really beautiful, crackling, brown piece of skin you have to take your time and render the fat SLOWLY. If you rush it, you’ll end up with crispy skin but a thick layer of fat between the skin and the meat—which is totally icky. Taking your time to render the fat will not only make your duck absolutely delicious, but it will also leave you with a treasure trove of duck fat—an ingredient that in restaurant kitchens is considered liquid gold and makes killer Crispy Crunchy Duck Fat Potatoes (page 219). I think that duck lends itself to sweet flavors, so in this dish I use a sweet Tuscan wine—Vin Santo—to reconstitute dried fruit to make a chutney-like sauce with rich chicken stock. Together the rich, meaty, succulent duck and the intense, fruity sauce make this dish perfect for a holiday, a special occasion, or even a Tuesday.

Miss Ethel Smith was a dedicated member of the Mississippi Daylily Society. Her home was No Mistake Plantation and it was a gathering spot for daylily people. In 1983 Miss Ethel developed the ‘Yazoo Soufflé’ daylily, a ruffle-edged, double, apricot cream flower. Organic daylilies are edible and make a beautiful addition to desserts, like this one, in which cream and apricots are fluffed up. Even though this dessert is really a mousse I call it a soufflé in honor of Miss Ethel’s lilies.

These ingredients all strike floral notes and to my mind are a natural combination. Raspberries contribute sweetness; champagne, acidity; rose water, depth of flavor; and the apricots, texture.

Believe it or not, cakes like this one, featuring nuts and dried fruits, are very popular in Venice. There it would be considered an afternoon snack to serve with coffee, but it’s wonderful for breakfast as well.