In Season: January
January is typically a time to drag yourself into detox and to adopt some healthy eating habits for the calendar year. Apricots are a fantastic fruit to tuck into on those hot summer days.
A species of apricot grew wild in Northern China some 2,000 years ago, but what we have today is a different variety, adapted to temperate climates and grown widely around the world. They are a relative of the peach and have a similar velvety skin.
Apricots are both sweet and tart, can be eaten raw and are very well suited to preserving. They contain enough pectin to work well in jams and are used extensively in glazes. They add colour and acid to tarts and pies and their inherent acidity marries well with Arabic and North African dishes where they are prized, both fresh and dried, in savoury dishes. ‘Apricot’, has even become the name of a colour, a kind of orange-yellow.

Seasonal Ingredients

Featured Recipes
- Penne with prosciutto, peas and mint
- Green chilli and coriander steamed mussels
- Asparagus and green tea noodle salad with Thai prawns
- Zucchini flower fritters with feta and basil
- Corn chowder
- Corn fritters
- Udon soup with roast duck, broccoli and coriander
- Creamy pasta sauce with smoked chicken and broccoli
- Upside-down pineapple cake
- Pineapple relish

Hot Tips
Making self-raising flour from plain
To convert plain flour into self-raising add 4 level teaspoons of baking powder to every 300g (2 cups) of plain flour.
Glossary
Molinillo
A wooden implement used to froth hot chocolate. It is rolled between the palms and is acts in a similar way to a whisk.


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