Apricot Pancakes

It's apricot season! I just got some really delicious ones yesterday at the market. Cooking them a little makes them even more delicious. Plus, I ran out of the world's best cereal, Kashi GoLean, this morning. Rather than eat any other, far inferior kind of cereal -- apricot pancakes!

You could always just put diced apricots in your regular pancake recipe, if you don't like the one below.

Apricot Pancakes

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup white flour
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 to 2 cups milk (add more if you like your pancakes thin; less if you like them thick)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
butter or oil for greasing pan
6 fresh apricots, diced

Mix dry ingredients, then gently fold in wet ingredients. Don't overmix or they will turn out tough. Heat a pan over medium-low heat. Add pancake batter, using 1 tbsp per pancake for little pancakes or 1/4 cup for larger ones. Add several pieces of diced apricot to each pancake. When they are bubbling and the edges look dry (just a minute or two), flip and cook another minute or so.

In my opinion, if you put in enough apricots you don't need syrup, but some people I know would be loathe to eat any pancakes without syrup.

Serves at least 3.

Cranberry-Apricot Muffins

Very good. Not much else to say.

Cranberry Muffins

1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
1 egg
2 tsp bourbon
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp salt
3/8 cup sugar
1/6 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup skim milk
scant 1/2 cup chopped frozen cranberries
4-5 dried apricots, chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine all dry ingredients except fruit in a large bowl. Add the wet ingredients and stir until nearly but not quite smooth. Fold in the cranberries and apricots.

Spoon into a paper-lined muffin tin. Bake 20 minutes.

Makes 6.

Lemon Cake with Raspberry-Apricot Sauce

Once again no picture; camera's out of batteries. This is a very moist, flavorful cake adapted from the plain Yogurt Cake in Clotilde Dusoulier's Chocolate and Zucchini cookbook. It is just as good on its own as with the sauce (my own invention), but the sauce makes it a little fancier.

Lemon Cake with Raspberry Apricot Sauce

Cake:
1/3 cup vegetable oil, plus more to grease pan
1 cup plain nonfat yogurt
1 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
2 tbsp pear brandy
Zest of 2-3 lemons (depending on how lemony you like your cake)
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
small pinch salt

Sauce:
15 oz frozen raspberries
About 15 dried apricots
1/4 to 1 cup sugar, depending on taste (1 cup was way too sweet for me)
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
1 tsp pear brandy



Cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10 inch round cake pan or a large loaf pan; line bottom with parchment paper or aluminum foil if not springform. (My loaf pan is silicone--this is the first time I've used it, and it was the best $4 I've ever spent--so easy to release the cake.)
In a large mixing bowl, beat together yogurt and sugar. Add the eggs one by one and beat after each addition. Add oil, brandy, and lemon zest, and beat again. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; mix very well (until very few lumps).
Pour the batter into the pan and bake 35-40 minutes, until the top is golden and a knife comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes; run a knife around the edges to loosen, then flip onto a plate. Serve warm or room temperature. Gets better the next day.

Sauce: Pour about 2 cups boiling water over apricots in a medium bowl. Let sit 15 minutes. Combine apricots, raspberries, apricot soaking water, sugar, ginger, and brandy in a saucepan and cook over high heat until boiling; turn the heat down and simmer about half an hour, until the raspberries are broken down and sauce is starting to thicken. Let cool, then puree in the blender or food processor--once the apricots are pureed it will be much thicker. Serve with cake.

Serves 10 or more, depending on how large the cake slices are.

Quinoa Salad

This salad has a wide variety of flavors that match well together--bitter mustard greens, sweet apricots and onions, mellow Brie. It's also pretty. I used 2 cups of mustard greens and that turned out to be a little too much for my taste, but it can easily be varied. Red quinoa is prettier but regular would be fine as well.

Quinoa Salad


1 cup red quinoa
1-2 cups chopped frozen (or fresh) mustard greens
1 small red onion, sliced thinly
10 dried apricots, quartered
about 2 oz. Brie cheese, in small cubes
2 tbsp olive oil plus more for sauteing
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 pinch dried basil
salt and pepper

In a saucepan, bring quinoa and two cups water to a boil. When boiling, turn the heat down to low and simmer about 15 min, until all the water is absorbed and the spring-like germ has separated from the quinoa.
Meanwhile, saute the onion in olive oil until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the mustard greens (do not thaw if frozen; if not frozen, also add enough water to prevent them from burning). Saute over low heat about 10 more minutes, until the quinoa is nearly done. Combine greens/onions and quinoa in a large bowl. Season with basil, salt, and pepper. In a small cup, beat together the oil, vinegar, and mustard; pour over the quinoa mixture and toss to coat. Add the chopped apricots and Brie and toss. Chill and serve. Noticeably better the next day after the flavors have blended.

Serves 2 as a main course or 4 as a side dish.