I agree with Elizabeth David (again!) when she says that Apricots, unless eaten straight off the tree, when they are slightly over ripe, are better cooked.

The moment we hit France they are the first thing I buy.
Then I make a huge cômpote, put it in the fridge and we eat it for breakfast as long as it lasts.

This all started one summer, we were travelling down by the Rhône towards Provençe when we stopped by the river to have a picnic lunch.
A man drove up in a car an muttered something unintelligible at us, he had something he wanted us to buy. Assuming that this must be certainly something illegal we tried to ignore him but he grabbed me by the arm and brought me over to the boot of his car which he opened showing me trays of beautiful Apricots which he then offered to us at roughly the cost of a pound of Apricots in Ireland.
We bought two trays.
I then realised that if I couldn’t find a way of preserving these we were going to end up with a huge amount of rotting Apricots.

This is what started the passion for the breakfast cômpote.
How we do this is embarrassingly simple.

For a 1 kilos of Apricots.
First make a stock Syrup.
Boil together for about 7 minutes 250g caster sugar with 250ml of water.

Then you decide how ripe your Apricots are.
In Ireland I would boil them in this syrup for at least five minutes, then test to make sure they are soft.
If you have been lucky enough the buy ripe ones just put them into the hot syrup, bring them back to the boil and then chill.

The great advantage, if you have a source of Apricots, is that you can use the same stock syrup again and again.
It becomes more and more delicious as it absorbs the flavour of the apricots.
I will finish up with another quotation from Elizabeth David:
“Serve cold. Cream is unnecessary, it would disguise the taste of the Apricots.”