An apricot love affair

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Sometimes a fruit simply should not be missed. That’s the case with the Golden Sweet, a tantalizingly sweet (and tart at the same time) apricot you can find at the Santa Monica Farmers Market for two beautiful weeks. The apricots come from Frog Hollow Farm in Brentwood up in Northern California. Frog Hollow has been certified organic since 1989, using a combination of seaweed, fish, limestone and compost to help cherry, peach and apricot trees thrive.

Apricots are thought to have originated in China some 4,000 years ago. They were seeded in California in the early 1900s. Now 95 percent of the nation’s apricot crop is grown right here in the Golden State.

Golden Sweet Apricots From Frog Hollow Farm

Photos by Joseph Stone/KCRW

At her bakeries, coffee and tea shops in LA, pastry chef Valerie Gordon is tossing the apricots with toasted almonds, fresh basil, honey, olive oil and crème fraîche. Find her recipe below. Let the love affair begin.

Apricot Salad with Cake Croutons (Photo courtesy of Valerie Confections)
Apricot Salad with Cake Croutons (Photo courtesy of Valerie Confections) (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)

Valerie Gordon’s Apricot Salad

Yield: Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tsps clover honey
2 tsps fruity olive oil
4 cups ripe apricot, sliced into wedges
4–5 large leaves basil, thinly sliced
Fleur de sel, to taste
½ cup crème fraîche
½ cup heavy cream
2 tsps granulated sugar
½ cup toasted, sliced almonds or 1 cup Cake croutons (recipe follows below)

Instructions

Whisk together the honey and olive oil in a medium-sized bowl. Then toss the apricots and basil in the bowl with the dressing and sprinkle on fleur de sel, to taste.

For the cream: In a separate bowl, whisk the crème fraîche, heavy cream and sugar together until they form soft peaks.

To serve: Divide the salad among four small bowls and top each with a dollop of the cream. Finish with a sprinkle of cake croutons or toasted, sliced almonds.

Cake Croutons

Ingredients

pound cake, almond cake or yellow cake, broken into ½-inch pieces

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350º F. Then break up pound cake, almond cake or yellow cake into ½-inch pieces and spread them in a single layer on a sheet pan. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature.

To store: Keep sealed in an airtight container.