Stone Fruit

A Turkish dish of Georgian origin. Georgia borders on northwestern Turkey and is famous for plum trees and plum sauces. The traditional way to make this dish is to cut the chicken all the way down the back with kitchen shears or a bread knife, open it out, and cut away the bones. You season the flesh inside with crushed garlic, salt, and pepper, then close the chicken up, flatten it with a weight, and cook it in a pan gently in some butter for about 40 minutes, turning it over once. But I find it is easier and equally good to use chicken fillets.

Rice pudding is a homely pudding. Topped by a fruit compote such as stewed apricots, it becomes elegant, dinner-party fare. It is also good served with rose petal jam, which you can buy in Middle Eastern stores. Gum mastic (see recipe on page 321) gives the pudding an intriguing, and to me, very delicious flavor, but it is optional. Serve the pudding cold.

Compotes of dried or fresh fruits in syrup are popular desserts. At parties in Turkey, they are the last thing to be served, signaling that there is nothing more to follow. This sharp-tasting compote with fresh apricots is especially delicious. I add pistachios for their color as well as for their taste, and they should be peeled for this dish. To do this most easily, poach them in water for 1 to 2 minutes and drain; when they are cool enough to handle, pull off or squeeze away the skins.

This is a dish of Georgian origin. Georgia, which borders on northwest Turkey, is famous for its plum trees and plum sauces. Our slightly sour, dark red plums will do well.

For this delicately scented fruit salad, have a mix of fruit chosen from three or four of the following: peaches, nectarines, apricots, bananas, plums, grapes, apples, pears, strawberries, mangoes, melon, pineapple, dates, pomegranate seeds.

I have used the ingredients of a chicken tagine as a relish to accompany duck (which is not a Moroccan bird) because the combination of fatty duck with sharp apricots is great.

Smoothies are superb served with pizza meals. Try this or any of the other smoothies in this chapter the next time you make pizza. I’ve suggested these smoothies as part of some of the menus in Chapter Six, A Flash in the (Pizza) Pan.

Some days, I need little more than this or the following refreshing smoothie for lunch. My younger son wanted readers to know that he came up with the mango and pear combination at the age of seven. It’s unbelievably good—thanks, Evan!

Making parfaits is easy, and they are such a healthful, elegant dessert or snack. Make sure to use lush, ripe fruit and a good, creamy low-fat yogurt. I prefer vanilla, but if you’d like, experiment with lemon- or orange-flavored yogurts. I also like to use two different fruits for the visual appeal, but if you’d like to stick with one, that works as well. Try your own fruit combinations in addition to the ones given here.

This sunny combination of fruits will ease the monotony of winter’s limited fresh fruit choices.

A somewhat more exotic salsa, this jazzes up meals with a tropical beat. See the menu with Gingered Coconut Rice, page 96. Serve with tortilla chips or as a condiment with spicy dishes.

A contemporary stripped-down fruit dessert that is so unbelievably good, with very few ingredients.

The flavors of mango, lime, and chile are inspired by Mexican street food. Granitas can be made a day or two before serving. Granitas are just as satisfying as ice cream, and you don’t need a machine. The flavors are limited only by your imagination.

Infused butters are fun to put together because you can customize different flavors to give grilled meats a whole new dimension. This dish has strong roots in the Spanish Mediterranean countryside, and it’s one of the hits of this chapter.

The Green Goddess dressing is also terrific on salad or as a dip for crudités. It will keep for up to a week in the refrigerator stored in a jar or airtight container.

Being a kid from South Carolina, I always had fresh biscuits growing up. This recipe is as close to my grandmother’s as I could get without having a spiritual adviser. They’re big, fat, and light as a cloud, just like I remember them. The peach and rosemary spoon fruit adds a little contemporary twist.