Apricot Almond Pilaf Recipes

APRICOT ALMOND PILAF

Steps:

• Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat; cook and stir onion and carrot until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in basmati rice and salt; cook and stir until rice is slightly opaque, about 3 minutes.
• Pour in water; stir to combine. Mix in saffron threads, rose water, apricots, and almonds; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until rice has absorbed the liquid, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and allow pilaf to stand covered for 10 more minutes. Stir before serving.

ALMOND, PINE NUT, APRICOT CRUMB CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9-inch cake pan.
• Combine the whole almonds and 1/4 cup pine nuts in a food processor. Pulse the machine until the nuts are finely ground. Transfer the nuts to a medium bowl. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir to combine and set aside.
• In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer beat the eggs and the sugar until the mixture becomes thick and pale yellow. Add the butter, and milk. Stir in the almond extract and apricots. Gently stir in the dry ingredients. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Sprinkle the top of the cake with sliced almonds and remaining 1/4 cup pine nuts. Bake until the cake is cooked and a toothpick comes out clean, about 50 to 55 minutes. Let the cake cool on a wire rack. Use a knife to loosen the edges. Turn the cake out, slice, and serve.

ALMOND APRICOT TART

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
• To make the frangipane, place the almonds and the sugar in a food processor and grind until sandy. Add the butter and continue mixing then add the egg, vanilla, and the flour and mix until smooth.
• To make the tart, on a floured work surface pass your rolling pin over the pastry just to flatten any ridges.
• Place it on a parchment paper lined sheet pan and cut out a 9-inch disk. Spread the almond frangipane in the center of the tart leaving a 1-inch border. Firmly place the apricot halves into the frangipane spacing them evenly around the tart. Dot the spaces between the apricots with the whole almonds.
• Bake until golden brown on the top and puffy, about 30 to 40 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

RICE PILAF WITH PISTACHIOS AND ALMONDS

Steps:

• Place rice in a bowl in the sink and rinse several times with water, or soak for 30 minutes to an hour. Drain.
• Heat water or stock to a bare simmer in a saucepan or in microwave.
• Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil, butter or ghee in a wide, heavy skillet or saucepan over medium heat and add onion and salt to taste. Cook, stirring, until the onion begins to soften, about 3 minutes, and add rice. Cook, stirring, until the grains of rice are separate, dry and beginning to crackle. Add hot water or stock, rose water and salt to taste and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 15 minutes, until all of the liquid has been absorbed.
• Uncover rice and place a clean towel over the top of the pan (it should not be touching the rice). Replace lid and allow to sit for 10 minutes, undisturbed.
• Meanwhile, heat remaining tablespoon of oil, butter or ghee over medium heat in a medium frying pan or saucepan and add the nuts. Cook, stirring, until lightly toasted, and add spices and barberries or dried apricots. Continue to cook for another minute, until the spices smell fragrant, and remove from the heat. Immediately scrape over the rice.
• Pile the pilaf onto a platter or into a wide bowl and toss to incorporate the nut and spice mixture. Serve.

ALMOND APRICOT BREAD

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugars, baking powder and salt. Set aside 1 tablespoon baby food for glaze. In another bowl, beat the egg, 3/4 cup milk, oil, 1 teaspoon almond extract and remaining baby food. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in almonds and apricots. , Pour into a greased 9x5-in. loaf pan. Bake at 350° for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan to a wire rack to cool completely. , For glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar, reserved baby food, and remaining milk and extract until smooth. Drizzle over bread.

APRICOT-ALMOND COBBLER

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toast almonds on a rimmed baking sheet in oven, stirring occasionally, until fragrant and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Let cool completely. Finely grind almonds in a food processor; transfer to a medium bowl. Whisk in flour, 3/4 cup sugar, the baking powder, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and the nutmeg; set aside.
• Brush a 10-inch cast iron skillet with 2 tablespoons butter. Whisk together remaining 4 tablespoons butter, the milk, egg, and liqueur in a medium bowl. Stir butter mixture into flour mixture. Spread batter evenly into buttered skillet.
• Stir together apricots, remaining 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, a pinch of salt, and the lemon juice in a medium bowl. Spread apricot mixture evenly over batter. Bake until a cake tester inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Let cool in skillet on a wire rack 1 hour before serving.

APRICOT ALMOND LOAF

Steps:

• Place ingredients (except the almonds) in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select cycle; press Start.
• If your machine has a Fruit setting, add the almonds at the signal, or about 5 minutes before the kneading cycle has finished.

GOLDEN PILAF WITH APRICOTS, RAISINS AND ALMONDS

Steps:

• Brown almonds in saucepan with olive oil over medium heat.
• Remove almonds and set aside.
• Add onion to the same saucepan and cook for 5 minutes.
• Stir in cinnamon, sazon, salt, cardamom and nutmeg.
• Cook for 1 minute.
• Add rice, cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
• Stir in water, milk, apricots and raisins.
• Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.
• Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes.
• Fluff with a fork, garnish with reserved almonds and serve.

APRICOT GRATIN WITH ALMONDS AND KIRSCH

Steps:

• The day before, combine the sugar, honey, vanilla bean and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
• Place the whole apricots in a large saucepan. Pour the boiling syrup over them and bring back to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove from the heat; the apricots should be completely submerged in the syrup. If not, they will discolor. If necessary, invert a saucer over the top of the fruit to keep it submerged. Cover the saucepan and let stand for 24 hours. During this overnight marinating, the pits will impart an almond flavor to the apricots and their syrup.
• Drain the fruit, reserving the syrup and being careful not to crush the apricots. Halve the apricots. Remove and discard the pits. Place four or five apricot halves in the bottom of six gratin dishes that are four-inches in diameter, arranging the fruit just to cover the bottom of the dishes.
• Place the remaining apricots in a food processor or food mill with a little of the syrup and process to a thick puree. Set aside.
• To make the topping, combine one-half cup of the powdered sugar, the ground almonds, butter, egg yolks and whole egg in a mixing bowl and whisk until thoroughly blended.
• Divide the batter among the six gratin dishes, spreading it evenly over the top of the apricots. (If the batter is too thick, heat it slightly to soften.) Sprinkle the top of the batter with slivered almonds. Sprinkle the remaining one-fourth cup of powdered sugar over the top of the gratin dishes with a sugar sifter or fine sieve.
• Forty-five minutes before serving, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Twenty minutes later, place the gratins in the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly browned on top.
• Just before serving, place the apricot puree in a small saucepan and warm over low heat. Add the apricot brandy or kirsch and pour the sauce into a warm sauce boat.
• Serve the gratins on dessert plates lined with paper doilies or folded linen napkins. Pass the apricot topping separately.

SAFFRON RICE PILAF WITH APRICOTS AND ALMONDS

Steps:

• Melt butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat. Add chopped onion, ground saffron and cloves and saut&5 minutes. Add rice and stir to coat grains. Mix in chicken stock, dried apricots and currants. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Fluff rice with fork. Add slivered almonds and season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to bowl and serve.

BAKED APRICOTS WITH ALMOND TOPPING

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 9-inch square baking dish. Process almonds and brown sugar in a food processor until almonds are finely chopped. Add butter; process until just combined.
• Place apricot halves, cut sides up, in buttered baking dish. Cover top of each apricot half with almond mixture. Bake until apricots are soft and almond mixture is deep golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer 3 apricot halves to each serving plate. Serve warm.

LAMB AND APRICOT PILAF

Steps:

• In a large skillet, sauté one of the onions in the oil and 1 tblsp of the butter over moderate-high heat until browned lightly and transfer it with a slotted spoon to a bowl.
• Brown the lamb in batches, transferring it to the bowl.
• Return lamb mixture to skillet, add the apricots and stock, and simmer the mixture, covered, for 1 hour, or until lamb is very tender.
• In another skillet, sauté the remaining onion, green pepper and the garlic in the remaining 4 tblsps butter over moderate-high heat until the onion begins to brown.
• Stir in the almonds, tomato, raisins and the rice and cook over moderate heat, stirring, for 2 minutes, or until rice is slightly translucent.
• Add salt and pepper to taste and 4 cups of water.
• Bring to the boil and simmer, covered, 12 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.
• In a large casserole, spread 1/3 of the rice mixture in an even layer.
• Spoon ½ the lamb mixture over rice.
• Top with half the remaining rice, the lamb and what’s left of the rice (5 layers in all).
• Cook, covered, in 350F (175C) oven until heated through, about 20 minutes.
• Serve with yoghurt.