#khoshaf

My grandma always cooked stewed dried fruit and I always associated that particular dish with her generation of Ashkenazi Jewish grandmas.

But, several years ago when Ed and I were in Egypt I noticed what looked like grandma’s “dried fruit compote” on every hotel breakfast buffet.

It wasn’t compote though. It was a dish called Khoshaf and apparently is a specialty served to break the Ramadan fast (and at lots of other times too). It is made with dried fruit, like compote, but it isn’t stewed! The fruit is steeped in a sweet, boiling syrupy liquid so it stays firm and pleasantly chewy. I took one taste and was hooked! I still make stewed fruit compote sometimes but other times I have a yen for khoshaf. It’s a special treat and perfect for Passover.

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KHOSHAF

1-1/2 cups water

1 cup apricot nectar (or orange juice, peach juice, white grape juice, etc)

1/4 cup (or more or less to taste) sugar

1 tablespoon orange flower water, rosewater or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1/2 lemon or orange cut into quarters

1 cup dried apricots

1 cup prunes or dried plums

1 cup dried figs, halved or quaretred, depending on size

1 cup raisins

chopped pistachio nuts

Combine the water, apricot nectar and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and stir until sugar dissolves. Cook for 4-5 minutes or until slightly syrupy. Remove from the heat and stir in the flavoring. Pour over the fruit and toss ingredients. Let rest for at least one hour, tossing the ingredients occasionally. Sprinkle with nuts and serve.

Makes 6-8 servings

Soaked Summer Fruit

A few years ago I learned how to make khoshaf, a Muslim (primarily Egyptian) version of compote -- what my grandma called "kumput," (which she made by cooking dried prunes and apricots with sugar, lemon and cinnamon). Kumput was delicious, but sometimes a bit mushy.

Khoshaf isn't cooked -- you pour simmering, seasoned, sweet syrup over the dried fruit and let it macerate for a while. The fruit becomes tender but never gets soggy.

The khoshaf was such a success that I never went back to "kumput."

So, I figured that the soaking/macerating method would work on fresh fruit too.

I was right.

This simple dish -- cut up fruit steeped in a seasoned, sweetened syrup -- is the perfect ending to a meal on a hot summer day, especially when you want a dairy-free dessert. Of course you could always top the fruit with ice cream or whipped cream. But sorbet would be fine too.

I like it plain, as-is, with a small amount of boiled-down, thickened syrup.

SOAKED SUMMER FRUIT

2 pounds stone fruit (peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots), approximately

3 cups water

1/4 cup honey

1 vanilla bean, broken

2 orange slices, about 1/4-inch thick

4-5 slices crystallized ginger

Cut the fruit in half and remove the pits. Cut the fruit into bite-size chunks and place in a dish deep enough to hold the pieces plus liquid. In a saucepan, combine the water, honey, vanilla bean, orange slices and crystallized ginger and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Pour the contents of the saucepan through a strainer over the fruit. Let soak for at least 2 hours. Serve as-is or strain the fluids, boil the fluids for 6-8 minutes or until thickened, and pour over the fruit (or let cool first).

Everyone I know who had a Jewish grandma has tasted dried fruit compote at least once in life. Compote is a lovely sounding French word that means "mixture" and it usually means a mixture of fruit cooked in sugar syrup.

My Jewish grandma, who made this dish, (of course) called it "kumput," which made all of us kids giggle at the sound of it. Also, as I recall, none of us liked this dish and we made a lot of jokes about the fact that it often included prunes, which we knew, even then, did --- well, everyone knows what prunes do. (Are prunes still the object of kid jokes?)

I think one has to be older and more sophisticated to eat and appreciate dried fruit compote. Anyway, that's what happened to me -- as I got older I tried it again and liked it.

My cousin Leslie, who is only one year younger than I am, however, says the dish still gives her the "willies." 

Because I associate dried fruit compote with Jewish grandmas, I was a little surprised when, on a recent visit to Egypt, the dish was prominent on every breakfast buffet at every place we went. 

Yes, I ate it with yogurt, and what a treat it was.

But it isn't my grandma's kumput.

It's called khoshaf, a Muslim specialty that is often served to break the Ramadan fast. But also, from what I found, widely available at other times too.

Khoshaf is different from grandma's kumput in one very important way. It isn't stewed, isn't cooked at all, so the fruit never completely softens. It stays firm and pleasantly chewy after soaking in hot, sweet syrup.

Frankly, it tastes better and the texture is better than grandma's kumput. In fact my cousin Leslie, who tried it at my house recently, said even she thought it was delicious.

So, here's the recipe:

Khoshaf

1-1/2 cups water

1 cup apricot nectar

1/4 cup (or more to taste) sugar

1 tablespoon orange flower water, rosewater or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1/2 lemon or orange cut into quarters

1 cup dried apricots

1 cup prunes or dried plums

1 cup dried figs, halved or quaretred, depending on size

1 cup raisins

chopped pistachio nuts