Qubani ka Mitha(Stewed Apricot Dessert) : South Vs North May Challenge

This month Roha from Hydrabadi Cuisine challenged the North Team to make Qubani ka Meetha. Till then I had never heard of this dessert. so out of curiosity i went to the the local grocery store the very next day to got the required ingredients. though i did not get the exact form of dried apricot , i found a close cousin, Dried Turkish Apricots  and decided to make the dessert with it. following Roha's recipe I soaked the dried apricots overnight and prepared the dessert the very next day. we were so delighted by how the dessert looked and tasted that without waiting to take the photographs in daylight we licked it off our plates that very night.  and then i had to prepare a second batch to feed the blog...  

In the recipe Roha had mentioned that the stewed apricots can be topped with malai,  whipped cream or custard. just to keep things fruity I decided to make a apricot mousse instead and we loved the combination of the two.

Recipe of Qubani ka Meetha adapted from Roha's version here.  
ingredients
for the stewed apricots

• 1/2 cup dried Turkish apricots
• 1 1/2 tablespoon honey
• 2 green cardamom, crushed
• 1 teaspoon lemon/orange juice(i used lemon on the first day and orange on the second)

for garnishing :

• slices of roasted and blanched almonds 
• slices of pistachios
• apricot mousse, prepared as given below

what i did

• the day before i made the dessert, I soaked the dried apricots in water.
• the next morning when the apricots had become moist and plump, i kept aside 6 plump apricots for the mousse while i put the rest of the apricots in a non-stick saucepan along with the water in which they had been soaked. 
• heating the saucepan over medium heat brought the two to a boil.
• i then added the honey, crushed cardamom and orange juice (lemon juice) and simmered the apricots, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid had evaporated and the fruits had reduced to a pulpy mash.
• then turning off the heat i kept the stewed apricots aside while i made the apricot mousse.   

for the Apricot Mousse, i blended the 6 plump Turkish apricots that i had put aside along with 1/8 cup of coconut milk and 3 tablespoons of  honey, in a blender. and thats it !

once the mousse was ready i plated the stewed apricots, garnished one plate with the mousse and the sliced nuts on top (as you see above) and on the another i spooned the mousse around the apricots and then garnished it with the sliced nuts(as you see below). i could not decide which looked better.. so i thought i'll leave it on you to decide that. 

and before i sign off a big thanks to Roha for the recipe and the challenge and thanks to Divya for starting the South Vs North Challenge. Waiting for your comments and feedback on my "Qubani Ka Meetha". 


Linking this to Roha's Hyderabadi Cuisine & Divya's space...

and a few other food events on the web...

for those who are interested,  NTK took the photographs for this post. For the first two he used Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic with SMC Takumar 50 mm F/1.4 lens setting. and the third one was taken by our digital handycam. 

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