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From the pantry: Apricots
Apricots — often used in pies and as stuffing in meat-based dishes — are full of flavour and nutrition
Relative to peaches, apricot has velvety skin and flesh, but is not too juicy, making it a perfect addition to
desserts. Apricots are an excellent source of Vitamin A, C and beta-carotene. In this edition, our expert chef uses apricot jelly as a stuffing, and the winning reader recipe turns it into a traditional spread, made during autumn.
Chicken Roulade Stuffed with Apricot Jelly
Recipe by: Mukul Jha, executive chef, Four Points by Sheraton, Vashi
Ingredients
Serves: Two
Preparation time: 30 minutes
- Chicken breast: 150g
- Dry apricots: 100g
- Rocket lettuce: 5g
- Balsamic reduction: 5ml
- Salt: 2g
- Pepper: 3g
- Gelatine: 10g
- Cherry tomatoes: 3
- Fresh coriander: 5g
- Garlic: 6g
- Olive oil: 10ml
Method
* Boil dry apricots in water, puree and keep aside.
* Add soaked gelatin to the apricot puree and set it to form a cylindrical shape and freeze it in the refrigerator until set.
* Take the chicken breast and cut it into scallops (butterfly) and season with salt, pepper, chopped garlic and olive oil.
* Place the frozen apricot sticks between the chicken breast and roll it tightly to form a roulade. Roll in fresh wrap and then in the aluminium foil and poach it in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes.
* Place the roulade into refrigerator until its frozen.
* Cut the roulade into slices and crust it with chopped fresh coriander.
* Tuck in refreshed rocket lettuce (rocket lettuce kept in iced water) at the sides of each cut slice topped with cherry tomatoes.
* Garnish with balsamic reduction.
Winning reader recipe: Ischlerd cookies with lekvar (a European fruit butter)
Recipe by: Simmi Sareen
Serves: Three
Preparation time: 2 hours
Ingredients
(For lekvar)
- Apricots (deseeded): 230g
- Water: 1 cup
- Sugar: 11/2cup
- Lime: 1
- Apricot brandy: 1 tsp
(For Ischlerd cookies)
- Salted butter: 110g
- Ground almonds: 100g
- Caster sugar: 60g
- Plain flour: 110g
- Milk: 1 tbsp
- Vanilla extract: 1/2 tspn Combine apricots with one cup water in a saucepan and allow it to soak for a few hours.
Method
* After two hours, cover the saucepan with a lid and cook it for 20 to 30 minutes on the lowest heat possible.
* Keep a watch on the pan towards the end of cooking time, to make sure the mixture doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
* Once the mixture cools, put it in a blender with sugar, zest and juice of a lime and apricot brandy.
* Blend until smooth, and pop it back in the saucepan to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
* Store in a glass bottle and put it in the fridge to use it as crepe filling or as a tasty spread for your toast.
* To make the cookies, mix ground almonds with caster sugar.
* Add the softened butter and mix until everything is well blended.
* Add vanilla extract and milk to the mixture.
* Finally add plain flour and mix/knead lightly until it comes together as dough.
* Divide into two halves and wrap each in cling wrap, then let chill in the fridge for an hour.
* Preheat the oven to 180 degree C.
* Roll out the dough as thin as you can and cut out round cookies.
* Arrange on a baking sheet lined with parchment and bake until the cookies start to brown at the edges.
* Let the cookies cool, then sandwich with apricot spread.
For the next edition of From The Pantry, email us recipes made using Mustard Leaf (Saag) (send a high-res photo of your dish, a photo of yourself, along with your name, address and contact number) at 48hours@hindustantimes.com. The best recipe wins an exciting prize.
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