Barbecue sauce intrigues me. It's rich, thick, delicious and a healthy homemade version can add lots of flavor to healthy eats like grilled or steamed veggies and chicken dishes. There are thousands of recipes and versions, and I think the real reason that I'm so in love with barbecue sauce is that it can pose a challenge for a professional recipe developer.
Almost any fruit, seasoning or condiment can be made into a barbecue sauce and I'm curious to hear about the "secret" unusual ingredient Slashfoodies use in their favorite versions. I've made barbecue sauces with grapefruit, blueberry and chocolate, but I've heard of many other renditions that sound tasty and fun -- like mango, orange, pomegranate honey, dried cherry and a white variety, just to name a few.
Get Jennifer's Spicy Apricot Barbecue Sauce recipe after the jump.
Ok, we know it's a little early to talk about apricots, but it's starting to warm up out there and with peak season just around the corner (from May to September depending on where you live) we just can't help ourselves.
The plump, golden-orange fruit is one our favorite farmer's market finds. A fine snack in its dried incarnation, it also makes for stellar tarts and preserves.
Keep it simple with fresh apricots. Drizzle them with honey and pair with ricotta or goat cheese or toss them on the grill. This season we have an eye on Food & Wine's simple recipe for broiled apricots caramelized with honey, an ideal foil for sweet vanilla ice cream. Below are eight tempting recipes to choose from:
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a review of Vlada, a New York bar that specializes in infused vodkas. As I mentioned in my post, my experiences at Vlada had made me nostalgic for the moonshine that I had once enjoyed in Southwest Virginia. Back in the day, I used to buy 'shine by the gallon and infuse it with fruits, herbs, honey, and other ingredients, producing a wide range of aperitifs. While I'm a huge fan of store-bought liqueurs, I have yet to meet the mass-produced tipple that can rival the blueberry-infused moonshine, moonshine-based absinthe, or moonshine krupnikas that I once made.
The more I thought about it, the more I decided that the time had come to restart my experiments in fruit infusion. I had a half bottle of Everclear in the liquor cabinet, which I quickly determined was still relatively fresh and potent. A trip down to the farmer's market gave me a couple of pints of fresh blueberries, which I washed, dried, picked over, and packed in mason jars. I covered the fruit in grain alcohol, closed the lids, and set them in the back of one of my kitchen cabinets. Apart from giving them a daily shake, I was content to let time and the 190-proof alcohol do their work.
A week later, the alcohol was stained a deep purple and the berries were gray. A quick taste assured me that the grain was still mighty strong, but was now infused with a nice blueberry flavor. Wanting something a little more intense, I let a second batch of berries steep for a week in the alcohol. Afterward, I had a very alcoholic, very intensely flavored blueberry liquor. I also had a second batch of slightly sour-tasting blueberry alcohol that I got from running the leftover blueberries through my fruit juicer.
A festival of scrapes/green garlic - the flower shoots of the garlic bulb - featuring green garlic dip, green garlic souffle, penne with green garlic and pancetta, chicken with green garlic aioli. Lots of recipes!
Picking the food for your same-sex wedding reception? A lot like picking the food for your heterosexual wedding reception. Who would have guessed?
The White Lily flour plant is moving from Knoxville to the midwest after 125 years; Southern bakers are freaking out that their biscuits won't ever be the same.
The Minimalist makes paletas, Mexican-style popsicles, with the adorable mini-Minimalist.
Eric Asimov discusses the brunello di Montalcino scandal, wherein unapproved grapes went into the wine.
David Karp, the Fruit Detective, talks apricots. Try the ultra-sweet CandyCot.
Here's the latest battle in the "U.S. said/China said" food wars.
China has impounded shipments of apricots and orange pulp because of "excessive bacteria and mold." According to this article, some believe that this is in retaliation for the various problems the U.S. says it has been having with food and other products imported from China in the past several months. China warns that rules and guidelines about food from the U.S. could be tightened.
It's not only food that the U.S. has complained about. It is also faulty tires, unsafe fake toothpaste, lead paint in toys, and that whole nasty business with pet food.
If you had asked me 15 years ago what I thought the healthiest foods were, I probably would have said salad, pasta, bread, rice, and water. If you had asked me 35 years ago, I probably would have said Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Quisp cereal, pretzels, Pepsi, and Sara Lee pound cake.
We all know better now, of course (for example, Sara Lee pound cake should only be eaten 20 or so times a week), but do we really know what the healthiest foods are? We've talked a lot about healthy foods before, but never like what you'll see after the jump...in video form! The video isn't the best quality, and waiting 30 seconds for the next food to be listed is rather annoying, but the info is interesting. Besides, it's like a game. You can take those 30 seconds to place bets with your friends! What will be next in the video...apricots? Avocados? Broccoli? Read on...
I noticed a lot of comments about the name of the potential Ben & Jerry's flavor "Apricotabra." Whether or not the flavor - vanilla with apricot preserves - sounded appealing, most people didn't seem to like the name. I, too, found it awkward to think about, let alone to say aloud. The reason is that they word is a play on "abracadabra" that does not work for all English speakers because there are two entirely different ways to pronounce the name of the small stone fruit: ah-pricot and ape-ricot (I'd put the significantly more accurate phonetic transcription for any linguists out there, but my IPA fonts would probably not be visible on your screens via the Slashfood interface anyway).
If you take the ape-ricot pronunciation, they play on words that is supposed to be there just doesn't quite work. Doubtless, this would not be a selling point for Ben & Jerry's, who probably want people to be able to speak the names of their flavors aloud without stumbling over poor constructions. It may taste great, but no one will ever know if they're disinclined to buy it in the first place.
Apricots are a stone fruit that has been cultivated for the past 4000 years. The originated in China, near what is now the Russia border. The tree was brought to Europe by the Romans in approximately 70BC, but it gradually spread westward through Asia over the course of s few thousand years to countries like Turkey, where it became very popular. Apricots were brought to America by Spanish missionaries.
Classified as stone fruits, apricots have a large, hard seed in their center around which the flesh of the fruit grows. They appear to be very similar to peaches and nectarines, but are often a bit smaller, measuring 1 1/2-2 1/2-inches in diameter with a prominent suture running down one side. They range in color from yellow to orange, and some varieties even have a reddish cast to them.
Few things can compare with a buttery scone, warm from the oven, though
these are perfectly good at room temperature, too. In honor of D-day, they are packed with three
types of dried fruits: sweet cherries, golden raisins and dried apricots. These create a rich blend of flavors and lend
a lot of sweetness to the scones, but feel free so pick and choose any dried fruits you like, from blueberries to
currants. The scones are absolutely delicious with a cup of coffee or tea.
Stollen may be traditionally made for Christmas, but Delicious Days' version, apart from its name, lacks any real ties to the season.
The Quarkstollen
gets its name from the inclusion of Quark, a curd cheese that is very similar to fromage frais. If you aren't
familiar with either of these products, think of it as a very soft cream cheese. Nicky is also among those who do not
like raisins, which are generally always included in stollen, and has substituted dried apricots in her recipe. As a
fan of both dried apricots as well as raisins, I am quite tempted to try this both ways, since I am sure that you can
use raisins if you prefer them.
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A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a 
Here's the latest battle in the "U.S. said/China said" food wars.
If you had asked me 15 years ago what I thought the healthiest foods were, I probably would have said salad, pasta, bread, rice, and water. If you had asked me 35 years ago, I probably would have said Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Quisp cereal, pretzels, Pepsi, and Sara Lee pound cake.
Apricots are a stone fruit that has been cultivated for the past 
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