I have a dried-fruit problem.
The problem is that I love it so much, I can’t have much around or I’ll start nibbling, and a snack becomes a mini-meal.
Not the end of the world. But dried fruit is a pretty great ingredient in lots of dishes, from smoothies, salads and rice pilafs to dips, sauces and stews (especially tagines, the Moroccan slow-cooked dish that often includes prunes or dried apricots). And if I’ve already snacked it to oblivion, I won’t have it around when I need it.
I’ve discovered a coping strategy. Rather than buy the beautiful, vibrantly colored sulfur-treated fruits, I stick with the unsulfured versions, which taste fine but, particularly in the case of apricots, don’t look nearly as appealing.
That leaves them free to be used in such recipes as a terrific Armenian soup that caught my eye in the wonderful “Samarkand: Recipes & Stories from Central Asia & the Caucasus” by Caroline Eden and Eleanor Ford. The two tell how apricots feature in so many dishes of the region, including this soup, which uses them to brighten up the earthy flavors of lentils.