October 28, 2009
Apricot
Posted by: : Category: Fruit of the day
Apricot:
Fresh Apricots in the tree
Apricots are those gorgeous orange colored fruits that look a lot like the peach’s first cousin. Stone fruit of the family Rosaceae that is cultivated throughout the temperate regions of the world. Originating in China, it made its way to Europe by way of Armenia where it received its scientific classification Prunus Armenaica.
Apricots are nearly round with a depression at the top where the stem attached. They have a vertical indentation that starts at the stem and goes down on one side. The skin is yellow-orange (when ripe) to pink-orange and feels soft and smooth. Apricots can be similar in appearance to plum, peaches and nectarines, but those fruits usually have a reddish coloring to their skins. Apricots can also be confused with persimmons, but persimmons have shinier skin.
Nutritional Value:
- Energy – 153/36kJ/Kcal
- Water – 87%
- Fiber – 2.1g
- Fat – 0g
- Protein – 1.0g
- Sugar – 8.0g
- Vitamin A – 420ug
- Vitamin C – 5mg
- Vitamin B1 – 0.06mg
- Vitamin B2 – 0.05mg
- Vitamin B6 – 0.06mg
- Vitamin E – 0.5mg
Storage tips:
- Stored refrigerated for one week.
- If you want to ripen immature apricots, keep them in a brown paper bag. Keep them at room temperature until they are slightly soft.
- Apricots have to be picked when ripe and need to be eaten immediately, you can’t store them fresh. Therefore a lot of jam is made out of apricots and are they dried or frozen often.
How to buy?
- Choose apricots that have a beautiful blush and are firm in texture.
- Always look for plump orange fruit that is firm when you slightly press with your thumb.
- Bruised apricots should be avoided.
- Apricots will not lose their nutrients during the cooking process, so if you cannot find fresh, feel free to use canned or dried apricots.
Cooking & Serving tips:
- To peel apricots easily, drop them into boiling water for a minute or two, then lift them out with a slotted spoon and plunge them into cold water
- Next time when you make whole grain pancakes add some chopped apricots to the batter.
- Give a Middle Eastern flavor to chicken or vegetable stews with the addition of dried, diced apricots.
- If your dried apricots have dried out too much, they may be softened in the microwave. Place the dried apricots in a single layer in a microwave-safe dish and sprinkle with a bit of water. Cover and microwave for one to two minutes,. They may also be steamed or soaked in liquid to soften them up.
- When chopping dried apricots in a food processor, sprinkle in a bit of the recipe flour to keep them from sticking to the blades. When chopping them by hand, oil the blade of the knife or kitchen shears or dip the dried apricots in flour
- Remember that cut apricots will darken with exposure to air (like apple). Add them quickly after cutting to cooked dishes or dip them in an acidic solution (lemon and pineapple juice works well) if using apricots in fresh dishes.
Complimentary spices include curry, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon, and star anise. - For a real treat, try apricots in any recipe combined with pistachios or almonds.
- Can be substituted for plums and peaches in any dishes
Health tips:
Ripened Apricot
- For those with allergies, be aware that most commercially-dried apricots are treated with sulfur dioxide as a color preservative. You should be able to find dried apricots without sulfur (which also lends a bitter taste) in natural food markets, or dry your own in a dehydrator. Those dried without sulfur will usually be much darker in color.
- Raw pits of the bitter apricot (not sweet) do contain a small amount of cyanide. However, the accidental ingestion of a single pit or the splitting of a pit to expose it to the fruit flesh should not be a problem. Ingestion of large amounts can be harmful. Fifteen raw apricot pits of some bitter varieties can kill a child. Roasting of the seeds neutralizes the cyanide threat.
Beauty Tips:
- Apricot oil, extracted from the kernels of Apricot is colorless oil and has a nutty odour is used as skin softener and toner. It penetrates skin deeper without an oily film. This oil suits all skin types.
- Apricot oil is used in cosmetics, soaps, and skin products due to its softening properties.
- It mixes very well with Wheat gram oil and this oil mixture is used for treatment of rough skin and aging skin.
- This oil is also made use of as base oil as other kinds of oil are blended with it to prepare massage oils.
- In Chinese medicine, apricot oil is used for treatment of tumor.
- Mash the fresh fruit for a good facemask.
- Apricot scrub removes irrelevant cells of the skin and frees it from unwanted growth of hairs
