Apri-HOT BBQ Sauce (Spicy Apricot Asian Fusion BBQ Sauce)

I'm squeezing 2 posts in today so Sue and I can finish up our apricot celebration. We have shared 12 or so recipes that have apricots as one of the main flavors to celebrate Lillooet's Annual Apricot Tsaqwem Festival. 

I saved the best for last.

Well...maybe not the best...but definitely the most popular. 

This recipe won first place in the apricot cook off savory category. Everyone seemed to love the super-de-duper spicy kick this BBQ sauce has.

I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to heat in my food so I only sampled a little of this on my burger. I love the sweetness of the apricots combined with the heat of the jalapeno and cayenne.

I wanted to make a BBQ sauce that was a little out of the ordinary so I came up with this Asian fusion blend of flavors. I guarantee it is different from anything you have had before.

Apri-HOT BBQ Sauce

Ingredients

2 Tbsp sesame oil

4 cups apricots, pitted and halved

7 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 small onion, diced

2 jalapeno peppers, diced (leave seeds in)

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt

2 tsp dried chives

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup oyster sauce

6 Tbsp red wine vinegar

4 cups water

Directions

Add sesame oil to a large pot over medium heat. Add in apricots, garlic, and onion. Cook for about 2 minutes. Add all remaining ingredients - except for water. 

Bring to a boil, stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Add in the water. Bring back to a boil, turn down heat and simmer 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool about 30 minutes. 

Using a blender or food processor, blend, in batches, until smooth. Press through a strainer back into a large pot.

Return to medium heat and bring to a boil again. Turn heat to a low simmer and simmer for approx 45 mins to an hour, until thickened. Stir about every 10 minutes or so to ensure it doesn't burn.

You can either store in sealed containers in the fridge OR you can process it and can it using regular canning methods/water bath.  It makes 12 to 14 - 1/2 cup jars of sauce. 

It will thicken up in the fridge even more. 

Perfect for burgers, steak, chicken, fish....you name it. 

I would describe this as a spicy BBQ sauce with strong hints of apricot and subtle hints of Asian flavors that will have your guests wondering just what the heck the ingredients are. 

Bring this to your next BBQ party and everyone will think you are a super genius. 

**

Sue and I hope you have enjoyed all of our apricot recipes over the last 2 weeks. 

We look forward to next year's Apricot Festival to come up with even more recipes to share with you. 

Looking for some more great links? Check out Carole's Chatter!

Kenzie's Kolorful Kake

So I (Sue) have decided to write the blog today as the subject is the cake for my baby. I decided to make my daughter, Mackenzie, a cake for her 15^th birthday as I am tired of making cupcakes. Don’t get me wrong, cupcakes are great! Jo and I have just made sooooo many lately I needed to switch things up. I still wanted to do something special though so I thought this cake was a good choice. I made it in two different ways just to try things out. The “normal” way and in mason jars.

Kenzie’s Kolorful Kake

Ingredients

White cake mix

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup oil

1 pkg Jello lemon pie filling

2 cups whipping cream

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Directions

Prepare lemon pie filling according to package directions. Chill in fridge until set. (I made it the day before and it worked great) One package did the entire 8 layers you see in the pics so, if you are NOT doubling this, you may not need to use all of the pie filling.

- Hi, Jo here, I suggest if you don’t use it all up then eat it. Lemon pie filling is delicious. You could save it for another use but…hey, eating it on it’s own is just as fun. Just a thought…

Preheat oven to 350. Spray 4, 8 inch cake pans with cooking spray. In a large bowl, whisk together cake mix, eggs, sour cream, milk, and oil. Batter will be thick. Divide into 4 different bowls. Using food coloring, color each bowl a different color. Pour each color into a different prepared pan, layers will be quite thin. Bake at 350 until done (about 10 - 15 minutes. Toothpick inserted in center will come out clean) Cool 5 minutes before inverting onto wire cooling rack. Let cool completely on wire rack.

Layer cake with lemon pie filling. It should go - cake, pie filling, cake, pie filling, cake, pie filling, cake, pie filling. (That’s starting with a cake, ending with pie filling on top) Just spread the lemon pie filling as you would frosting.

Beat whipping cream with a Tbsp of sugar and tsp of vanilla. Spread on sides and top of cake.

For the cake in the photos I doubled the recipe to get 8 layers! It was a giant….it probably served about 30 people.

When beating the whipping cream be careful your beater blade does not snap off into bits and fill your whipped cream with shrapnel because then you have to go the store and buy more whipping cream and start again……true story…..

Now, to make them in the mason jars!!

Follow instructions above for making the cake and coloring it. Instead of using regular cake pans you can spoon the filling into mason jars. I used the 2 cup sized jar. Fill them about ¾ of the way full. Place the jars on a cookie tray and bake in a 350 oven for about 40 minutes. (Toothpick will come out clean)

Don’t worry about any cake that puffs up over the top - just scoop that off.

Remove from oven and let cool on wire racks.

When cool, hollow out the middle of the cake using an apple corer. Fill with fruit. (I used strawberries and blueberries.) I sprinkled the strawberries with sugar and let them sit for a few minutes so some of the juices would be released. That way, when you fill the cakes, some of the juice is absorbed into the cake. Top with whipped cream.

*Note * The 2 cup mason jars hold a large amount of cake. Next time I might try the smaller, 1 cup variety. Let me know how it works if you try it out.

- I’m thinking when we are talking about cake, bigger isn’t necessarily a bad thing… just sayin’

Anyways… Happy birthday to my baby! She is getting older and more beautiful every day but she will always be my baby.