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Saffron and cardamom apricot compote with rosewater junket (Qubani ka meetha)

12/7/2013

 
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Over the years my taste buds have come to prefer desserts which are more on the exotic side as opposed to rich, gooey indulgences.  Don't get me wrong, I love well made Crème brûlée or Chocolate Pots de Crème, but would sooner indulge in a serving of Shrikhand or Gula melaka.  

Now you might wonder why a good Hungarian/Australian girl like moi would find ingredients such as cardamom, saffron, rosewater and pandan so much more alluring than, say, cacao.  The answer is twofold.  Firstly, I just adore those exquisite flavours.  Secondly, through the cooking school I co-owned once upon a time, I had the unique privilege of watching leading cookery writers and chefs from Australia and around the world prepare a range of desserts.  And even more deliciously, I was fortunate enough to sample their offerings.  

Now, I can't recall each and every morsel...   some of them were sweet nothings, others were drop-dead delectable.  What I can tell you is that across almost a decade I tasted standouts such as Charmaine Solomon's Shrikhand, Kurma Dasa's halva and Gulab jamun, and Gabriel Gaté's mango and passionfruit tart.  There was black sticky rice made by gourmet farmer Matthew Evans, summer pudding and vanilla panna cotta prepared by Geoff Jansz, and caramel cardamom bananas made by spice legend Ian 'Herbie' Hemphill.  Oh yes, not to forget Margaret Fulton's poached tamarillos, Diane Holuigue's slow roasted quinces, and Lyndey Milan's rhubarb tarte tatin, among others.  Now I think of it, even the head pastry chef from Stars in San Francisco, Emily Luchetti (now with Farallon), paid a visit to share her baking techniques!   

Over the years through these events, my tongue virtually travelled the world exploring a diverse range of textures and tastes, many of which I am delighted to share with you on Good Things.  And yet there is still so much to learn and discover, and thanks to the Internet, the culinary world is at our fingertips.
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As an example, this week's exotic, fruity finale is a recipe I happened across via a site called Food Stories which posted a photograph from The Lady 8 Home.  I was salivating as soon as I saw Minnie's image, but the title 'Qubani ka Meetha – this is from Hyderabad' aroused my curiosity even more.  Minnie's recipe was one of nine entries in an interesting North vs South cook's challenge (or blog hop) hosted by Hyderabadi Cuisine Recipes.

Qubani (pronounced khoo/baa/nee) is the Hindi term for apricots, and meetha means sweets.  In essence, an apricot compote made with dried and/or fresh apricots.  According to my research, Qubani ka Meetha is a hugely popular sweet in Hyderabadi cuisine, often served at the end of the meal at weddings and parties.  It can be served with clotted cream, almond custard, or malai (which is a form of cream or milk pudding). 

I've experimented with variations on the recipe, having now made it a number of times using both canned apricots (as it's winter here and fresh apricots aren't in season), as well as dried Turkish and also organic dried Australian apricots.  With Minnie's version, the dried apricots are soaked in water overnight to plump them up and then the water is used in the cooking.  I found that by just poaching the dried apricots in sugar syrup, they plumped up even more than when soaked beforehand.  I added the saffron and ground cardamom to the syrup for more flavour.  It also struck me that this compote would sit beautifully with some rosewater or vanilla junket, an old fashioned, easily digested milky dessert that used to be made with rennet, but nowadays with a tablet or powder.  Actually, my 1970 edition of The Commonsense Cookery Book lists junket in the chapter on 'dishes for convalescents, aged and children', which seems perfect given that I am recovering from some form of autoimmune sickness (this may explain why I am craving junket lately).

So now to my take on Qubani ka Meetha:

SAFFRON & CARDAMOM APRICOT COMPOTE WITH ROSEWATER JUNKET
Apricot compote:
275g dried apricots
2 cups (500mls) water
1/4 cup sugar, less if preferred
1 teaspoon saffron threads
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1-2 tablespoons slivered almonds
1-2 tablespoons pistachio nuts

To make the apricot compote, or sweet (Qubani ka meetha: place the dried apricots, water, sugar, saffron threads, cardamom and lemon juice into a saucepan, stir to combine.  Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer gently.  Now, you can cook the apricots until they are completely mushy and there is barely any syrup, or you can cook until the apricots are soft and there is plenty of the thick, spicy syrup.  Towards the end of the cooking, you can add 1/2 the nuts and then use the rest as a garnish.  Serve warm or chilled.

Rosewater junket:
500mls low fat milk
2 junket tables
a few drops of rosewater

To make the rosewater junket: dissolve 2 junket tablets in a tablespoon of cold water and set aside.  Meanwhile, heat the milk to just lukewarm (37 degrees C).  Add the rosewater and stir in the dissolved junket tablets.  Pour immediately into serving dishes and allow to stand undisturbed in a warm place.  Once firm, you can chill the junket in the fridge.  When you are ready to serve, carefully spoon the apricot compote and syrup over the junket and sprinkle with the remaining nuts.  Serves 4-6.

The process in pictures...

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Qubani ka Meetha a la Lizzy - simple and exquisite...

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Tell me about your dessert preferences.  Do you enjoy exotic flavours, or do you prefer the more traditional? And what's your all time favourite?
Valerie Lugonja is....A Canadian Foodie link
11/7/2013 10:05:17 am

What a splendid exotic treat! Gorgeous! I have the same glasses!
:)
V

Lizzy
13/7/2013 12:59:57 pm

Thanks Valerie... definitely exotic and definitely delicious! I love my Bodum glasses.... great for coffee and dessert!

e / dig in hobart link
11/7/2013 11:49:00 am

as i get older, i realise what a traditionalist i am. it's almost as if i did all my experimenting when i was younger but now i cook fairly traditionally. having said that, the dried apricot compote and its lovely flabours look very enticing and not something i would shy away from!

Lizzy
13/7/2013 01:00:37 pm

Hi there... we are all different and our taste buds are all different... I am hoping you might try this recipe?

Laura (Tutti Dolci) link
11/7/2013 12:25:39 pm

Your compote looks so good, I love the flavors you combined!

Lizzy
13/7/2013 01:00:55 pm

Thank you, Laura... the flavours are just divine!

InTolerant Chef link
11/7/2013 02:14:32 pm

What delicious flavours indeed Lizzy! I don't like too many sweeties, but a bit at the end of a meal just rounds it off beautifully. Hope you're feeling better x

Lizzy
13/7/2013 01:04:43 pm

Me too, Bec. Just something a little sweet at the end of a meal is perfect, but nothing too sickly or rich! I have good days and bad, thank you for your good wishes.

Krista Bjorn link
11/7/2013 02:22:47 pm

This sounds absolutely divine!! I too love exotic desserts. :-)

Lizzy
13/7/2013 01:04:55 pm

Thanks Krista : )

john@kitchenriffs link
11/7/2013 02:23:51 pm

I haven't had junket in years! Decades! In fact, maybe not since I had my wisdom teeth out a long, long time ago. Time again to have some, don't you think? ;-) I really like the idea of this. We often have dried apricots on hand as a snack, and they're fun to cook with. Though oddly, I normally use them in savory dishes and not desserts. Anyway, this really looks wonderful. With saffron and rosewater, how could it not be? Good stuff - thanks.

Lizzy
13/7/2013 01:06:05 pm

John, thank you... I agree, it might be time for you to try junket again! Actually I made some coffee bean infused junket yesterday, at Peter's request, and finished it off with grated milk chocolate (of a very fine quality). It was delicious.

Jas@AbsolutelyJas link
12/7/2013 12:44:46 am

What a beautiful flavour combination, I love apricots almost as much as I love saffron and pistachios :) I also have those fabulous Bodum glasses - they are almost as good for a latte as they are for layering desserts in.

Lizzy
13/7/2013 01:06:36 pm

Hi Jas... the Bodum glasses are great, aren't they! I love that they stay hot or cool.

Maureen | Orgasmic Chef link
12/7/2013 01:31:19 am

What an array of wonderful cooks you've shared the stage with. They're all heroes of mine.

Your dessert is very intriguing. I love Minnie's blog too. She's certainly taken the food blogging world by storm.

Lizzy
13/7/2013 01:08:13 pm

Thanks Maureen... and that was seriously only a handful of them! The program I (we) ran saw a cooking event or two every weekend and sometimes on a Wednesday night too! Diane Seed and Rick Stein were also guest presenters... and Maggie, Stephanie, Janelle Bloom... I could go on and on, but then I'd just be name dropping : )

Amanda link
12/7/2013 12:44:57 pm

Oh Lizzy, this sounds just divine and I can almost smell it from here. It would also be great with a really thick yoghurt - for the lazy among us!

Lizzy
13/7/2013 01:08:38 pm

Thanks Amanda... thick yoghurt would be perfect too!

Gourmet Getaways link
13/7/2013 12:27:33 pm

Oh I really do have to try the saffron and cardamon compote, these are my favourite flavours at the moment. I am pinning the recipe to my saffron board on pinterest.

Lizzy
13/7/2013 01:09:00 pm

Thanks GG.... I love those flavours too. Thanks for stopping by.

Manu link
10/12/2013 07:07:34 pm

Oh my goodness! How did I miss this one? It looks amazing! Hyderabadi cuisine is my favourite in Indian cooking! They have the most amazing dishes! :-)

Lizzy
10/12/2013 07:12:26 pm

Thanks Manu xox I thought you might like it! I've been seeing your tweets and FB posts lately about Hyderabadi : )

Maureen link
16/1/2014 12:20:49 pm

As I finish off my ordinary chocolate cake I'll think about this beautiful compote. I love Minnie's cooking. I think I met her on her 2nd week as a blogger and have followed her ever since. She's the real deal.

Lizzy
16/1/2014 05:54:02 pm

How wonderful, Maureen! I am making some more of this right now!


Comments are closed.

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    Photo of Liz Posmyk, Food Writer, Cook and Traveller

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Good Things is written and published by Liz Posmyk © 2011-2020.   All rights reserved.
Excerpts may be used provided that full and clear credit is given. Thank you.


Photos used under Creative Commons from alantankenghoe, riptheskull, David Jackmanson, Amani Hasan, SuntanMidori, oropeza, Annie Mole, Vegan Feast Catering, avlxyz, jeffreyw, mockstar, jenly, Syeefa Jay, pizzodisevo (therapy - terapia - Therapie), ginnerobot, cliff1066™, Jim, the Photographer
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