Sweets and drinksPreservesVietnamAbout 4 hours to prepare and sun dry, about 40 minutes candying
Mut mo with ginger wins on its amber colour and the warm heat of the ginger. The difficulty is the thin apricot skin, which a heavy hand during the cooking will tear right across the batch.
The apricots are blanched for 5 minutes in boiling water with alum, rinsed in cold water and dried in the sun for 3 to 4 hours. That step is what lets the candied fruit keep. It cools completely before going into a sealed jar, kept sealed and eaten a little at a time with hot tea.
This batch weighs about 1.8kg, at roughly 46 calories per 100g.
Method
Trim the stems from 1kg of ripe apricots, soak them in clean water with 3g of fine salt for about 30 minutes, then lift them out and rinse.
Blanch the apricots for 5 minutes in boiling water with 10g of alum, lift them out, rinse them in cold water and dry them in the sun for 3 to 4 hours.
Wash 200g of ginger, peel it and pound it smooth or cut it into fine threads. For less heat, wrap it in muslin and squeeze some of the juice out.
Score each apricot lengthwise and steep them with 450g and 90g of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend for 1 to 2 hours to draw the syrup in.
Put the apricots with their syrup into a heavy based non stick pan and cook over medium heat. Once the liquid boils, add the ginger, lower the heat and hold a gentle simmer.
Cook until the apricots turn amber, then continue for another 10 minutes, stirring gently because the thin skins tear easily.
The batch is ready once the liquid has reduced and thickened and the apricots are chewy and dry. Cool completely before storing.
Tips
Blanching the apricots in water with alum is the trick that gives good texture and lets the batch keep.
Ma dao apricots ripened to gold with a blush of pink near the stem make the prettiest batch.
Stirring gently during the cooking matters, since the skins are thin and a heavy hand tears the whole batch.
Drying the apricots in the sun for 3 to 4 hours until thoroughly dry comes before the steeping.
For anyone wary of heat, wrapping the ginger in muslin and squeezing some juice out helps, as full strength ginger overwhelms the apricot.
Need kOBE Monk Fruit Blend?
The recipe above is sweetened with kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, measured 1:1 like sugar. See the product page or send us a message.