We love making varieties of this biscotti, sometimes with different nuts, or even peanuts, sometimes with chocolate chips or different kids of dried fruit. The recipe is so versatile, but this combination is our mom’s favorite; apricot and pistachio is a classic flavor profile of lots of Syrian and Middle Eastern desserts.
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Tag Archives: apricot
Summer Salad with Peaches, Apricots and Spicy Sausage
Grilled peaches are one of my favorite things about summer. I don’t have a grill in my apartment, unless you count my grill pan, which is impossible to clean, so I made this salad by roasting the fruits and sausage, but the whole time I was thinking about turning this recipe into a grilled salad at my parents’ house this summer! 
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Candied Apricots with Pistachio, aka Helou Michmosh
I made this a while ago, but was hesitant to share it because of its mixed reviews. Some people thought it was too sweet, others not sweet enough. I even got one “this is the most delicious thing ever!” So I guess it’s up to you to judge…I happened to like the slightly bitter chewiness of the candy, and snacked on it for weeks.
Nectarine-Apricot Jam
Summertime means it’s time to preserve the sweetest and best tasting fruits to enjoy during the winter months. We made this during the peak fruit season and sold them at a local bake sale (we weren’t able to attend, but we heard they sold out fast! Did you buy one? What did you think?, but we’ve neglected to share it with you until now. Sorry about that, the pictures had been hiding somewhere, but we uncovered them on Adele’s camera. (You remember Adele, right?)
Ooh, so this was when I impulsively bought a bottle of blue nail polish on a trip to Duane Reade. You can see it in the corner of this picture; cool, huh:
This was our first time making jam with stone fruits, and it was a bit different than the raspberry and fig-strawberry kinds. First of all, there was a lot more chopping involved, and most importantly, it yielded a lot less jam; we only ended up with five jars.
Nectarine-Apricot Jam
Ingredients:
- 5 cups of cubed apricots
- 5 cups cubed nectarine
- 5 cups of sugar
- 1 package of pectin
Directions:
- Wash, fry, and cube the fruit.
- Sterilize the jars (we use the dishwasher, without soap) and the lids (we put them in a pot of water on the stove, but don’t let them boil).
- Cook all of the fruit in a large pot over high heat. Stir, stir, stir!
- Mix 1/4 cup of sugar with the pectin and add to the sugar. Stir some more, until the mixture comes to a boil. And then keep on stirring until you can’t stir away the boil for a whole minute!
- Add the rest of the sugar and continue stirring until it comes back to a boil. And that’s it, you’ve made jam.
- Just to make sure it jammed, test it: dip a teaspoon into the jam and then dip it into a bowl of ice water. Did it turn into a gel? If so, you’re good. If not, boil some more.
- Now you’re ready to preserve! Fill the jars with jam using a jar funnel. Use a magnetic jar top picker up-er to lift the lids and place them on top of the jars. Then screw the rings on.
- When all of your jars are filled and you’re out of jam, fill a pot with about 2 inches of water and boil the jam jars in there for 5 minutes. You’ll hear the lids pop! And now you have sterile jam. Wasn’t that fun!?
- This will keep for about a year in the pantry. Refrigerate after opening.
Breakfast Bars
I didn’t really know what to call this post. They can’t be called walnut and dried cherry bars, because those are the only two things I omitted from the recipe…I stuck with breakfast bars because I eat these for breakfast. Any suggestions for a more interesting name?
When I saw Ellie Krieger’s recipe for walnut and dried cherry bars, I really wanted to make them. The only problem was that I didn’t have any dried cherries on hand, and I can’t bring nuts to work with me. I decided to give it a try, anyway, with raisins and dried cranberries instead.
They were so easy to make and very delicious. It took about 5 minutes to put the ingredients together and 30 minutes in the oven, and I have breakfast for a little over a week.
Mehshi Kusa, or Meat-Filled Zucchini and/or Squash
Mehshi kusa (koo-SAA) is a traditional Syrian dish. In order to stuff the squash, you first need to hollow them out with a melon baller. Ideally the shells will be very thin. After hollowing out the vegetables, you stuff them with hashu and cook them in a Middle-Eastern-style sauce.
