Apricot Season

The thing about harvest time is that ripe fruit or vegetables wait for no man, or woman busy about her business and trying to be on holiday. The strawberries came and went. Asparagus season is over, and now we have apricots and peaches.

I have already made pots and pots of apricot jam….
… standard apricot jam, 25 litres, sadly one 10 litre pot burned a little, but it's still edible.
… apricot and ginger jam, 10 litre pot
… vanilla apricot jam with 1kg apricots
… apricot and lavender jam with 1kg apricots

The last two jams were experiments, hence the small quantities. I was trying recipes from my lovely new Salt Sugar Smoke book by Dianne Henry. I am pleased to say they are both delicious.

I've also made a double batch of apricot chutney using the old Kook en Geniet recipe and some very ripe apricots. Delicious.

Then, keen to try more apricot recipes, I went trawling through my recipe books. I found my Aunty Leslie's Lamb and Apricot Stew recipe which made a fantastic slow cooked meal. I made Fresh Apricot Ice-cream from David Lebowitz's, The Perfect Scoop. I have the makings of his Apricot Sorbet chilling in the fridge. I also sold Vanilla Panna Cotta with Apricot Coulis at the food market. It was a great success.

Today I started the making of Apricot Schnapps and Apricot Liqueur, both recipes from Salt Sugar Smoke. 

Then I made an apricot cheesecake from my Eating for Sustained Living recipe book by Liesbet Delport and Gabi Steenkamp. I have two friends coming for tea this afternoon. They are both diabetic, so hopefully this low GI treat is not too decadent for them.

Yesterday I turned some of the burned jam into a none-the-wiser jam tart which was gobbled down with great gusto.

I still want to make David Lebowitz's honey roasted apricots, and my mum's apricot cake.

Oh yes, I bottled some perfect apricots, 4 litres, but got distracted while they were cooking and overdid them until they were squishy. I froze 12 bags of whole apricots and dried 2 trays worth. In between I nibbled a few fresh ones.

You know what I always say, USE-IT-DON'T-LOSE-IT. So if I didn't make the most of the apricots now, then we would lose out for the rest of the year.

I still want to dry a whole heap of them, and make some cordial. I also plan to turn the apricot syrup leftover from bottling into a refreshing iced tea.

As far as the peaches go, we've had them chopped onto breakfast oats, in a curried lentil salad and mostly just eaten them in their unadulterated fuzzy, juicy glory.