let her eat paste

3 CommentsApr 13.08 / food / by erin

apricot and pistachio fruit paste - recipe below

when i was in college i developed a horrible scaly rash on my face and at least once a week my eyes would swell up with hives. i talked to doctors about what lotions, potions, drops and pills might be available to keep me from looking like the elephant man, but there wasn’t really much they could offer with the exception of cortisone cream; something i didn’t want to use around the eyes much less the rest of my face. it took some time but i finally accepted that the reason i looked like i had the phage (star trek humour to go along with the rash story) was because i wasn’t doing a very good job at managing stress. and so i decided that i just wouldn’t let work stress me out anymore. vanity as an excuse for sloth is much more sinful than simply being lazy, don’t you think? but it’s not laziness because i’m definitely not idle. i just don’t let my work get me stressed out. if something has to wait until the next day, it’s just not the end of the world. it helps that while i am a perfectionist i’m also not money motivated. i’m motivated by being happy and healthy and don’t see those 2 things as being primarily dependent on large sums of money. trite, i know…

i was born and raised in and around vancouver respectively, and have spent 11 years living in and around downtown. it’s a beautiful city and there are lots of great things about it, but lately i have been really pissed off with vancouver. the housing market here is insane. i read a statistic somewhere that said over 90% of vancouver’s new home owners put 70% of their pre-tax income directly into housing costs. pre-tax income. and these are couples. so basically, to afford to buy in vancouver you have to be either rich or stupid. middle-income earning families must be living like paupers to afford themselves tear-downs and crappy, teeny condos.

yesterday’s baby-shower was eye-opening for me. this was a tiffany and burberry kind of shower and as far as values go i couldn’t have felt more out of place. i would be horrified if someone gave my imaginary baby anything so extravagant. it was all i could do to keep my jaw from dropping while i sat there imposing my values on others. that’s not to say that there weren’t cute casual clothes and books and useful things for the baby too, but the long and short of it is that while i didn’t feel out of my league, i certainly felt out of my element. i’m not motivated by money (again, not synonymous with lazy), and while my parents have a beautiful home on a beautiful piece of land, what they have earned in their lifetime is not my money and i would never presume to ask for it, which is just as well as it wouldn’t be given! it seems like the home owners club of vancouver is exclusively for the very rich or the born very rich. i have never lived anywhere but vancouver but i no longer feel like i belong here.

this afternoon while on a beautiful cherry blossom-filled spring afternoon walk through hell and back to get groceries i did what i do best: i got what a wanted for a lot less money. no, i didn’t find and buy a house for no more than what it’s truly worth; sadly, that would be too good to be true. but i did find myself at my lovely local grocer being force fed expensive fruit paste by a very enthusiastic australian (celebrity?) chef. okay, he didn’t exactly twist my arm. the apricot and pistachio paste with blue cheese was to die for. i picked up the little bitty package of fruit paste and before the eyes of the chef who referred to everything as “sexy” (sexy cheese, sexy fruit, sexy wine) i pretended i was going to buy it as i made a bee-line for the bulk foods section. i got myself some dried apricots and pistachios and put the fancy packaged paste away and then picked out a beautiful, creamy bleu de bresse. $8 for 2 tablespoons of dried fruit isn’t in the budget if i’m ever going to be a home owner, so i made it myself.

apricot and pistachio fruit paste
175g dried apricots
65g of pistachios
50g of cane sugar plus 1/2 tbs unsulfured molasses
or 50g brown sugar
2 tbs agave nectar or honey

blend all the ingredients into a sticky paste in the food processor. this recipe will make around 1 cup of delicious fruit spread that can be stored covered and at room temperature.

best served with a creamy blue, brie or camembert. i’m going to try it with chevre tonight for kicks along with the bleu de bresse and a local un-oaked chardonnay.

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