Spices That Enhance Apricot

Whether fresh or dried, apricots have a sweet, tangy flavor.

Botanists believe that apricots originated in China, but people have cultivated this stone fruit for millennia throughout the Middle East and southern Europe as well. Apricots resemble peaches in color and plums in flavor; when ripe, their sweetness offsets their mouth-puckering tanginess. That tangy flavor allows apricots to mix equally well into sweet or savory dishes. The spices that blend best with apricots' flavor depends on where the fruits fall during the meal. An apricot-enhanced appetizer or savory entree goes best with certain spices than those used in a sweet apricot tart for dessert.

Vanilla

Primarily a dessert ingredient, vanilla blends naturally with apricot's sharper flavor. Apricot tart recipes traditionally call for this sweet, fragrant spice. Either fresh vanilla scraped from the pod or vanilla extract can impart a warm, mellow flavor to an apricot dessert. Drizzle vanilla-scented syrup over halved apricots for a fresh fruit dessert or bake the fruit with a dusting of vanilla sugar and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon's dry, warm spiciness complements apricot desserts. Cinnamon, like vanilla, is almost exclusively a sweet spice in western European and North American cuisines, but Mediterranean and Indian dishes also use it in savory dishes. Combined with apricot, cinnamon lends a sweet spiciness to lamb and poultry. In desserts, cinnamon and apricot combine in everything from ice cream to layered cakes and trifles. Apricot and cinnamon also meet in flavored teas.

Cardamom

Cardamom's flavor profile is complex. The seeds of this East Indian plant are so heavily fragrant that perfumers use them to give their scents a warm, resinous aroma. The seeds taste as pleasant as they smell and enhance both the sweetness and the tartness of fresh apricot. Cardamom's mildly sweet flavor goes well with apricot dessert items, especially in combination with other spices. Stewing apricots with whole cardamom pods infuses the fruit with cardamom flavor; serve the stewed fruit with ice cream or by itself with the poaching liquid.

Tarragon

Tarragon contains notes of citrus and anise, both of which blend well with apricots. Chefs use tarragon with savory pork and lamb dishes; combining the herb with apricot gives these entrees a sweet, tangy flavor. A constituent herb in the French herb mixture fines herbes, tarragon goes in more savory dishes than sweet ones, but adventurous chefs add it to desserts to give them an unusual twist. Apricots and tarragon easily cross the borders between sweet and savory dishes.

Ginger

Warm, spicy and highly aromatic, fresh ginger adds piquancy to apricots in sweet and savory dishes. Ginger's pervasive heat mellows as the root-like herb cooks; poaching fresh or dried apricots in a sugar syrup infused with ginger spikes the fruit with just enough warmth and bright citrus-like flavor to enliven it, but not enough to burn the mouth like raw ginger. Dice pieces of crystallized ginger and dried apricot together and mix them into plain vanilla ice cream for a dressed-up version of a plain dessert.

References

• University of Vermont; Tree Fruit Culture, History and Origin; M. Elena Garcia, PhD.
• Graz University; Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages; Vanilla; Gernot Katzer; July 3, 2010
• Ozmoz: Cardamom Seed (Elettaria Cardamomum)
• Epicurious: What to Cook Now: Peaches, Apricots, Nectarines, Cherries and Plums