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Have I really not posted my green apricot recipes? I thought I had.
Well, in any case, early summer will soon be upon us, and if we have any luck with flowering right now the apricot trees will be full of little fuzzy green fruit. Blenheim apricots in particular are known for getting overloaded to the point where they look like clusters of grapes; those clusters have to be thinned to avoid damage to the tree, not to mention a harvest of small and poor-quality fruit.
When I thinned a friend's tree last year, I ended up with three or four gallons of little greenies. I thought that it would be a shame just to toss them, so I looked online. Sure enough, you can cook them in various ways -- and as I discovered, those ways are often tasty. I like apricots just fine, but green apricots are almost better.
Don't try to pit them before cooking; it's a nightmare. I find the best way to handle them (since my food mill has trouble with anything larger than a cherry pit) is to cook them, cool them, and take the pits out with my fingers. I sit and watch TV while my hand is immersed in fruit pulp, which is not the worst way to spend a Saturday night. The whole fruit or the pulp can be frozen with no ill effect. As for how to cook them:
( Green Apricot Jam )
( Green Apricot Chutney )
Either one will keep in the fridge for a while, if you don't feel like canning. The chutney obviously keeps longer, and it gets better with age, ending up beautifully balanced with a warmth that won't bite anyone but the most heat-averse. The jam has a wonderful balance of tart, sweet, fruitiness, and the strong almost-bitter flavor apricots sometimes get; the allspice shows it off to great effect. You could also do straight-up candied apricots in heavy syrup, I expect. And I once made an incredible vindaloo using unsweetened apricot pulp and dates for the sweet-and-sour flavors -- the pulp is a decent stand-in for tamarind.
Bottom line: don't toss these guys. They're worth the effort.
Well, in any case, early summer will soon be upon us, and if we have any luck with flowering right now the apricot trees will be full of little fuzzy green fruit. Blenheim apricots in particular are known for getting overloaded to the point where they look like clusters of grapes; those clusters have to be thinned to avoid damage to the tree, not to mention a harvest of small and poor-quality fruit.
When I thinned a friend's tree last year, I ended up with three or four gallons of little greenies. I thought that it would be a shame just to toss them, so I looked online. Sure enough, you can cook them in various ways -- and as I discovered, those ways are often tasty. I like apricots just fine, but green apricots are almost better.
Don't try to pit them before cooking; it's a nightmare. I find the best way to handle them (since my food mill has trouble with anything larger than a cherry pit) is to cook them, cool them, and take the pits out with my fingers. I sit and watch TV while my hand is immersed in fruit pulp, which is not the worst way to spend a Saturday night. The whole fruit or the pulp can be frozen with no ill effect. As for how to cook them:
( Green Apricot Jam )
( Green Apricot Chutney )
Either one will keep in the fridge for a while, if you don't feel like canning. The chutney obviously keeps longer, and it gets better with age, ending up beautifully balanced with a warmth that won't bite anyone but the most heat-averse. The jam has a wonderful balance of tart, sweet, fruitiness, and the strong almost-bitter flavor apricots sometimes get; the allspice shows it off to great effect. You could also do straight-up candied apricots in heavy syrup, I expect. And I once made an incredible vindaloo using unsweetened apricot pulp and dates for the sweet-and-sour flavors -- the pulp is a decent stand-in for tamarind.
Bottom line: don't toss these guys. They're worth the effort.
