Spiced Apricot Glaze Recipe for Meat, Mushrooms, or Substitutes
This spiced apricot glaze--perfect for use with meat, mushrooms, or a vegetarian meat substitute--is sweet, savory, and spicy in a balanced way that sets off the flavor and juice of the main dish. It also blends very well with the light smoky character imparted by a charcoal fire, so it is a wonderful barbecue glaze.
We recently used this on two delicious dishes: Grilled Pork Chops Stuffed with Chevre, Walnuts, and Apricots and Stuffed Portobello Mushroom Caps with Apricot Glaze. Both dishes were absolutely incredible!
This glaze was created by my husband Morgan, so I'll let him describe the process:
"The other day I had a hankering for a good pork chop with a sweet, fruity sauce. I was imaging something like a peach or mango salsa, but sadly I had nothing like this. After raiding Melissa's fruit bowl, I came up with three fresh apricots. They were pretty close to peaches, I figured. Still, three apricots were hardly going to make a satisfactory thick, tangy sauce. Some more digging did the trick--a bag of trail mix turned up several dried apricots as well. It was to be an apricot sauce then, but how to go about it?
"The thought of mixing apricots with tomato turned my stomach somehow. The more I thought about it, the more I kept coming back to this image of a warm, spiced apricot glaze that would be almost the consistency of jam or jelly. The trick would be to keep it from becoming overpoweringly sweet, to give it a balanced saltiness, and to make it just spicy enough to set off the spiced flavor without making it seem bizarre. Using a small pot and material that I had on hand in the spice rack and cabinet, I put together a glaze that I found thoroughly satisfying."
Apricot Glaze Recipe for Meat, Mushrooms, or Substitutes
makes enough for four servings worth
Ingredients:
- 3 fresh apricots, diced
- 4 dried apricots, finely chopped
- 1 shallot clove, finely diced
- 1 1/2 cups white wine
- 1 cup water
- 2 Tablespoons white vinegar (we used white balsamic)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 8 whole cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 pinches crushed red pepper
- 1 pinch paprika
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
Preparation Instructions:
1. Put all ingredients except the orange zest into a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to just above low and allow the pot to simmer uncovered until the liquid is reduced by half (this may take some time). While it is simmering, stir it occasionally and mush the apricot bits.
3. Strain the liquid, making sure to mash and extract all the juice from the pieces of apricot.
4. Allow the sauce to simmer until it is about the thickness of gravy, then remove from heat and stir in the orange zest.
5. Coat meat, mushrooms, or meat substitute before grilling, reserving some glaze to put on as it cooks and a little for the table. Enjoy!
Here are two recipes using this glaze:
Grilled Pork Chops Stuffed with Chevre, Walnuts, and Apricots
