![]() ![]() Let the pork roast for 25 minutes, then lower the temperature to 180C/gas mark 4 and quickly add the apricots and rosemary. Lay the pork on top of the vegetables, rub the fat with salt then place in the oven. Put the onions and aubergine into a roasting tin, season with salt and black pepper and pour over the olive oil. Slice the aubergine into rounds 2cm thick. Peel the onions and cut them into quarters. Onions 4, medium aubergine 1, large olive oil 4 tbsp pork loin 1.5kg, boned and rolled apricots 8-12 rosemary 6 sprigs I usually roast a piece this size for 4, leaving plenty for sandwiches tomorrow (with salt and pickled cabbage or kimchee.) ![]() There will be plenty for 6 (in which case use 12 apricots). I suggest you ask the butcher to bone and roll the pork loin. ![]() Once you accept that it is the shopper rather than the shop that must bring the fruit to perfect ripeness, and that the most lacklustre specimen can be made to shine (even the most stubborn will submit after a day or two in a paper bag in the airing cupboard), the apricot becomes less of a challenge and much, much more a thing of joy. An apricot pie is the stuff of dreams, especially under a sugar-dusted crust of soft, almost shortcake-like pastry. It is the slight acidity that gives the apricot the edge over a peach in the kitchen. The snap of tartness was welcome with the sweetness of the pork and glossy brown onions in the same way apple sauce is, and the juices of the collapsing fruit soaked their way into the aubergine. Earlier in the week I placed a handful around a roast loin of pork with onions and aubergines. Warmth and sugar will make even the meanest little apricot surrender their all.Īpricots bring a touch of acidity to a lamb tagine (and to the sweetness of prunes, with which they are so often partnered), a casserole of duck or a stuffed pork escalope. Singe their edges in a frangipane tart or bubble them down into a loose-textured jam. Tuck them in under a pie crust or hide them in a crumble. Give them time in the company of sugar or honey or maple syrup. Don’t give up on the hard, disappointing ones that promised so much in the shop. Whatever your past experience with this fruit has been, I encourage you to give them another go. By which I mean an oven rather than a sunny windowsill. Still, we can always rescue an underwhelming apricot with the application of a little warmth. But so perfect a fruit is the exception rather than the rule. Once in your hand, you can sneak off to a quiet place to rub your fingers over the skin, to lick lips and suck stones, or better still, to pass the bag around among your nearest and dearest. Which, of course, makes them all the more precious. A ripe apricot, all sunburned cheeks, sweet nectar and rust-brown freckles, is a rare find. ![]()
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