Personally I love apricot sauce, it goes well with a variety of dishes, veggie and meaty, especially poultry, game birds and pork and can also make an interesting ingredient, but obviously there needs to be a base sauce for this, so below are 3 base apricot sauces, one hot, one sweet and one more savoury.
You can use fresh, tinned and at a pinch dried, but remember to add half the weight of the apricots in water to the ingredients if using dried. Personally I most often use tinned as they’re easy and already nice and soft. If using fresh be sure to remove pips, leave skin on.
These aren’t completely original recipes, but they are ones I’ve used and adjusted for the flavour I like best, so I hope you like them as much as I do!
Hot Apricot Sauce (No. 1)
250g tinned apricots (in Juice not syrup) or4-6 fresh apricots, finely chopped
Splash olive oil
Cup white wine
2 tbsp. sweet sherry
1tsp. grated fresh ginger
Pinch nutmeg
1 Bay leaf
Pinch of Thyme
1-2 generous pinches of Ground cayenne pepper to taste
2tsp honey
Half tsp. mustard powder (or 1 tsp. course mustard paste
Small pinch celery salt
Method:
1: Chop apricots.
2: place all ingredients excepting the mustard in small saucepan and bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 7-10 min (or if a non-smooth sauce is wanted cook for 13-15 min)
3: Remove from heat and blend, stir in mustard and celery salt
4: place back on heat and simmer gently for 5min.
Note, if the sauce is to thick add some of the juice from the apricot tin.
Your sauce is now ready!
‘Savoury’ Apricot Sauce (No.2) (I know it’s a bit of a contradiction but trust me!)
250g tinned apricots, (in juice not syrup) or 4-6 fresh, finely chopped
Very small pinch celery salt
Very small pinch fresh ground nutmeg
Very small pinch citric acid
3 tbsp. dry sherry
200ml water
1 tbsp. soy sauce
Method:
1: chop apricots.
2: place water and sherry in small sauce pan and heat, stir in the rest of the ingredients and the apricots, bring to boil, cover and simmer for 10 min (15min if using fresh apricots) until the consistency is a thin syrup. The sauce is now ready!
Sweet Apricot Sauce (No.3).
250g tinned apricots (in juice not syrup), or 4-6 fresh, Finely chopped; alternatively for a very sweet sauce, suitable for a desert substitute 100g of apricots for 100g apricot preserve or 50g apricot jam.
2tblsp. Sweet Sherry
50g brown sugar
2 tbsp. Honey
Freshly ground nutmeg
Juice from the apricots and 100ml water or 200ml water.
Method:
1: Chop Apricots
2: Pour water/juice and sherry into a small saucepan and begin to heat, stir in other ingredients and add the apricots, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 min (8-9min if using fresh apricots) until the mixture has thickened slightly to a syrupy constancy. The sauce can be used like this, with the chunks of apricot, or puréed for a smooth sauce if you prefer.
If the sauce is a bit thick add a little water and stir in vigorously until preferred consistency is reached.
N.B. if you wish to make any of the above into a dipping or sticky sauce mix 2tsp corn flour into a small amount of the water and add just prior to taking of the heat, however it is best served quickly or it may become more like a jelly! If you want to keep some for use as a dipping sauce later don’t add the corn flour until reheating.
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N.B. Cooking times are estimates, all are based on an electric hob, non-fan assisted oven, electric grill and 650w Microwave, so use some discretion. If you're allergic to any of the ingredients, don't use them! It's up to you to make sure you don't poison yourself! And always take care in the kitchen.
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