French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [227]
LES ABRICOTS
APRICOTS
The beautiful, aromatically-scented little golden fruit which is the apricot is one which I bracket with the fig as being the most elusive and most rare to find in perfect condition. To the fortunate it occurs every now and again to bite into the sweet purple flesh of a fig as it is ready to crack through its bright green skin or to pick the perfect ripe apricot warm from the sun. Then one sniffs and eats and is thankful that one should have been so favoured by Providence. There were just such apricots, I remember, in a garden at St. Rémy, in Provence. The meal in the hotel had been indifferent and the wine one of those pink Provençal ones which one drinks because one is very thirsty after a dusty drive. But the apricots made up for everything. And there was one summer in the Béarnais when there were two of the country’s products which seemed, day after long summer day, to be always perfect. They were the potatoes and the apricots.
When the apricots are less than perfect (and how can they be otherwise when they reach our markets from so far away, from South Africa and Spain, from Italy and Provence?) then they can be cooked and still made quite delicious. But my recipes are for very easy homely dishes, for to me they seem to suit apricots better than the elaborate confections dabbed about with cream which so many cooks are inspired to concoct the minute they set eyes on this beautiful golden fruit. In fact, I cannot remember ever having seen, in France, the elaborate apricot gâteaux so popular here, although I suppose perhaps they do exist.
ABRICOTS AU FOUR
BAKED APRICOTS
Wipe the fruit with a soft damp cloth, make an incision along the natural division with a fruit knife and arrange them in a pyramid in a baking dish. For 2 lb. of fruit add 6 tablespoons of vanilla sugar (see page 100), or of ordinary white sugar plus a vanilla pod. It is astonishing how the vanilla flavour enhances that of the apricots. Moisten with 6 tablespoons of water, although if the fruit is very ripe less will be needed. Bake uncovered in a low oven for about one hour, until the apricots are soft. They should, however, retain their shape and the cooking time depends a good deal upon the condition of the fruit. Serve them hot, with slices of bread steeped in milk, then in beaten egg, fried in butter, and sprinkled with sugar.
For more extravagant occasions, 2 or 3 tablespoons of Alsatian or Swiss Kirsch can replace some of the water. This fruit alcohol is one which goes remarkably well with apricots, but a little goes a long way.
CROÛTES AUX ABRICOTS
APRICOT CROÛTONS
Spread plenty of butter on fairly thin slices of day-old bread. Arrange them on a well-buttered baking sheet. On each slice put 3 apricot halves, stones removed. Fill the cavities with vanilla sugar or plain white sugar, and press the fruit well down into the bread. Bake at a rather slow temperature, Gas No. 3, 330 deg. F, but near the top of the oven. In about 40 minutes the bread will be crisp, the apricots soft and with a nice coating of almost caramelised sugar. Serve them straight away.
COMPOTE D’ABRICOTS
APRICOT COMPOTE
For 2 lb. of apricots put about lb. of white sugar, a vanilla pod and about pint of water into a saucepan. When the sugar has dissolved, put in the apricots, halved and stoned. Poach them gently and don’t let them get too soft. Remove them from the liquid and reduce this to a fairly thick syrup by fast boiling. Take out the vanilla pod, pour the syrup over the apricots and serve them very cold with cream if you like, but for me it detracts from the flavour of the apricots.
ANANAS AU KIRSCH
PINEAPPLE WITH KIRSCH
This must be one of the best