The best peach or nectarine BBQ sauce recipe

I was recently gifted about 50 pounds of nectarines and wanted to come up with several items to make.  One of the items was a nectarine/peach BBQ sauce.  I've made it in the past with peaches, but truth be told, I wasn't crazy about it, so I knew some major changes were needed.

Nectarines and peaches are interchangeable in most recipes.  The main difference is that peaches have skins that are usually peeled and nectarine peels are usually not removed.

I also wanted to be able to can this, but if you do not know how to can, you can keep it in the fridge for a week or so, or even freeze it.  This version is so delicious, and would make a perfect sauce for chicken or pork and I am sure it will not last long in your home. 

The recipe I initially saw that gave me the idea, used canned baby food, but I already had nectarine puree made so I used that instead.  If you do not have nectarine puree, it's easy to make.  Just cook down nectarines in either a crockpot or on the stovetop.  Nectarines do not have to be peeled...peaches do.  You can see exactly how I put mine into a crockpot.  All I had to do was wash them.  I leave the pits in and just strain them out when the fruit is cooked down.  It will not be pretty, but it has many uses.  I personally left my puree a little chunky as you can see.  Then, for recipes where I wanted it smooth, I just blended it until it became smooth.  This works in recipes sort of like using mashed bananas does.  Only it's not as sweet.

Whole nectarines put in a crockpot

Nectarine puree -- still chunky

We already posted a recipe for nectarine cake/bread using this puree, but now on to the BBQ sauce recipe.

Nectarine (or peach) BBQ Sauce

Makes about 4 pints

 

·       2 tbsp vegetable oil

·       1 large onion, such diced

·       8 large garlic cloves, minced

·       4 cups nectarine or peaches puree

·       ¼ cup + 1 tbsp bottled lemon juice

·       1 ½ cups firmly packed brown sugar

·       ¼ cup dark Karo syrup (optional)

·       1 cup apple cider vinegar

·       ½ cup water

·       1 cup Worcestershire sauce

·       ¼ cup tomato paste

·       2 tbsp peeled and grated fresh ginger

·       3 tbsp chili powder

·       1 tsp smoked paprika

·       2 tsp onion powder

·       1 ½ tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)

·       Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste  

Prepare 4 one pint canning jars and lids, if canning this recipe. 

Add oil to a large nonreactive Dutch oven and heat over medium heat. When oil shimmers, add the onion and sauté, stirring occasionally, until tender.  This will take about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.  

Stir in the nectarine or peach puree, lemon juice, brown sugar, Karo syrup, if using, vinegar and water. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes.  Note: If your nectarines are not sweet, you can add some additional sugar.  I even added some Stevia in one batch to keep the calories down a little; however, one batch did not need any additional sweetener. 

 

Finished BBQ sauce

Working in batches, transfer the nectarine/peach mixture to a blender, food processor  or vitamix and puree until smooth. Pour back into the same saucepan.  Add the Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, ginger, chili powder, smoked paprika, onion powder and cayenne pepper. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, stirring often, until hot, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.  This is what it looks like when its ready.  It's thick and I left an itty bitty amount of chunkiness in mine.  You can make yours completely smooth if you desire.

If canning, fill jars leaving ¼” headspace.  Remove air pockets from the jars, wipe rims, add fresh lids and place rings fingertip tight.  Process in a waterbath canner for 10 minutes at sea level and adjust for altitude.  I have been using a steam canner lately and love it.  They work exactly the same as a waterbath, so if you have a steam canner, feel free to use it. 

If you are not familiar with how to do waterbath canning, please see http://www.freshpreserving.com/canning-101-getting-started.html .  The instructions given here assume you already know how to can.  Not following exact instructions can cause you to become very ill or even kill you.

 

If you choose not to can this, put it in small containers in either the fridge or freezer to use as desired.

 

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did. 

 

Oh, do not throw out the pits once the fruit is removed.  It makes a great peach pit liqueur, peach vinegar or even peach extract.

Make peach pit liqueur for an unforgettably easy and delicious recipe

Its that time of year where peaches are readily available.  I love to make peach preserves but when I'm done, I have a million peach pits.  Rather than throw them out, I wanted to find a way to use them.  A friend of mine said she likes to make peach pit preserves.  I got her recipe and with a few modifications, got to this fabulous liqueur.

Do not let the appearance of this liqueur scare you.  This is what it looks like when it's in the jar 'becoming liqueur'.  Once it's strained, it is beautiful.  I gave it as a gift one Christmas.  It's nice over ice cream or mixed into a drink.

One other thing...you may have some peachy sugar left in the jar when you are ready to bottle this.  DO NOT DISCARD.  I kept it in the fridge and used it to make a delicious syrup for waffles and drizzled some over sautéed fruit (such as peaches, apples and pears).  

 

Peach Pit Liqueur

1/2 quart peach pits
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground or whole coriander seed
3 cups 80 proof vodka
1 cup water

Pour vodka and water over peach pits and infuse in the sun for 6 weeks.  I used a large mason jar for this.

Take 1 cup pits crush (hammer works well) and return to jar and infused for another 2 weeks. (I was unable to break my peach pits no matter how hard I tried, so I omitted this step)

Strain and add sugar and spices.  Leave in a cool dark place for another several weeks  This is a slow to meld liqueur, but worth the wait.

You can store this in a mason jar or decant into beautiful decanters.  I store this in the fridge but that is just me.  You may be able to keep it in your liqueur cabinet, but I cannot guarantee that.

I hope you enjoy making and sharing this fabulous liqueur.

 What a nice gift to give.  I found this beautiful food safe decanter and filled it with delicious peach pit liqueur.

 

I used the 'leftover' flavored sugar on the bottom of the jar to start this syrup, but you can also make a syrup with the liqueur alone.  This was so good.  Keep in mind, this is NOT FOR KIDS!!!

Today's Kitchen Tip: Save money with factory seconds

I was on the Microplane site earlier today and noticed that they had an 'outlet' link on their website.  I did not know that there was a Microplane outlet and decided to look.  It had a few interesting products.  Some were factory seconds, not because the product was inferior, but because the color wasn't perfect. 

Usually factory seconds come with a warranty and are guaranteed to function perfectly.  I don't think I would care if my black handle color isn't perfect.  The ones I use tend to be in a drawer anyway.

So if you love a product and want to save money, check out their website to see if there's an outlet link.  They might offer discontinued, seconds or even overstock products at a nice savings.

Today's Kitchen Tip: Try poaching chicken

I wanted to make some chicken salad and I usually use roasted chicken to make it.  I didn't have any handy but I did have raw chicken breasts.  I decided to poach some chicken since I didn't want any flavors from grilled or sautéed chicken to come through.

Poaching is a method of cooking used to gently cook foods in a flavored broth.  We love to use it for chicken and fish, but this tip focuses on chicken. 

We use a flavored broth because if you put chicken in plain water, the water will taste great; the chicken, not so much.

We happened to use chicken broth, carrots, celery, onions, pepper corns, garlic and a little lemon in our poaching liquid.  I will often use fresh herbs but today I did not.  I let the poaching liquid simmer for about 20 minutes for the flavors to blend.  Then I added the chicken breasts and made sure the breasts were fully covered with liquid.  I covered it, turned the heat down and let it simmer for about 20 minutes.  When the breasts reached 160 degrees F, they were ready.  They were full of flavor and perfectly colored for my chicken salad.  I also like to poach chicken in a Mexican-flavored broth and make enchiladas with the chicken.

Today's two-fer tip...don't throw away the cooking liquid.  It's perfect as a base for soups.

Today's Kitchen Tip: Don't just throw out a defective kitchen product!

If you have ever been to my classes, you know I love Microplane graters.  I love them so much I even have 5 hanging as a 'useful' decoration on my wall.

I had cheese I needed to grate and pulled one off the wall to use.  When I looked at it, the thing looked like it had dried-on cheese still on it.  At a closer look, the plastic used was cracking all over.  Since it was still in one piece, I decided to use it gently to grate some cheese and while I was able to grate the cheese, the grater felt like it was going to break.

I was just about to throw it out until I realized that Microplane has always put out a quality product and I'm sure they would stand behind this defective grater.  I wrote an e-mail to them and within a day I heard back from them.  Not only did they apologize, but offered to send me out a grater of my choice.  They also told me that they reworked the plastic in the defective grater so future versions of the 'home series grater' will not have that problem.

So how is this a kitchen tip?  My thoughts are that if you spend money to buy a quality product, most manufacturers will stand by their product.  It will take you less time to e-mail them than it would to go to the store and replace a defective item.

So next time a kitchen tool (or anything for that matter) does not live up to your expectations, contact the manufacturer.

Today's Kitchen Tip: How do I get bugs in my flour?

With the holiday season over, many of us have extra bags of flour we did not use for our baking. 

Did you ever open up a bag of flour and see tiny bugs in it?  Of course you have.  It's not anything you did wrong.  We looked on King Arthur Flour website and here's what they say:

All flour has weevil eggs in it, right from the flour mill. Freezing it will kill the eggs before they hatch, so no buggy flour. If you're not able to freeze it or keep it in the freezer, a couple of whole dried bay leaves will almost always keep the eggs from hatching. We freeze in common Zip Lock bags and keep some bread flours in the freezer for 6 months or longer without a problem.

It's not a question of keeping the bugs out, just keeping the eggs from hatching.

By the way....this does not apply only to King Arthur Flour but ANY flour you purchase.

Today's Kitchen Tip: Give limp celery CPR

photo:  wikihow

If you have celery in your fridge that is not as crisp as you like, do not worry.  You can resuscitate limp celery by soaking it for a couple hours in ice water.

 

It will soak up the fresh water and regain some snap.

Today's Kitchen Tip: Can sour cream be frozen?

Conventional wisdom has always said that sour cream cannot be frozen.  However, if you know what happens to it once it is thawed, there are definitely times when using sour cream that has been frozen is okay.

Sour cream will separate once frozen, and may also curdle.  If you freeze it, it is no longer good to use in a dip or to dollop on your favorite recipe.  However, if you are going to cook and bake with it, it is still usable. 

Thecrazycouponlady.com gives some hints on how to get the most of your sour cream. 

To freeze sour cream:   Whip the sour cream with a whisk or spatula to distribute the moisture evenly throughout the container.  Store sour cream in its original container or scoop it into an air-tight storage bowl or plastic zipper freezer bag.  Squeeze out any excess air from the container if you choose to use a freezer bag.  Write the date on the container with a permanent marker.

Place the sour cream in the freezer and freeze up to 6 months.

To thaw: Place frozen sour cream in the refrigerator for a few hours. Once thawed, restore some of its original creamy texture by whipping a teaspoon of cornstarch into the sour cream. 

Today's Kitchen Tip: What can I do with my leftover ham

Many of us have ham for the holidays.  We love ham, but they are usually much larger than our family can eat.  Like turkey at Thanksgiving, I can only eat it for so many days before I say 'enough already!).

While I like to enjoy a meal or two exactly as we ate it on the holiday, there are so many other things to do with that ham to make it different. 

Sure, we can make au gratin potatoes with ham.  We love that.  But why not try something a little different.  A few of my favorites are ham and asparagus frittata and ham and asparagus pizza.  Obviously we have asparagus around for these dishes, but there are great with other veggies, too.

You can also make Eddie Matney's green chile and ham stew. 

While I do not like the texture of ham that has been frozen, we do freeze just a little so we can make ham and eggs during the year.

So do not fret with all that ham you have left.  Use your imagination to turn it into something awesome.

Today's Kitchen Tip: Use everyday items for serving

I used to be of the thought that I needed a separate piece of equipment for everything I did, but as I expanded my methods, my pantries were overflowing with single use items.

When I wanted to serve a simple veggie tray, I realized I didn't have the 'exact' type I wanted and was going to purchase a new one.  Then I realized I had something already at home that I could use.  So rather than using a special veggie tray, I used a platter and a bowl I already had to make the perfect veggie tray.

This is a simple example of how you can use what you have, but I hope it sparks your imagination to use what you have without buying new things.

Today's Kitchen Tip: Make your own yogurt

Homemade yogurt with
homemade blueberries mixed in

Our family eats a lot of yogurt and it's getting more and more difficult to find them without lots of 'stuff' in them.  They either have lots of sugar or modified food starch.  All I want is dairy and maybe some fruit.

Also when I buy the lighter calorie versions, they have lots of chemicals in them.  I don't want any part of that.

So, now I make my own.  Yogurt is really easy to make.  Here's the yogurt recipe I use.  Truthfully, it's easier to make yogurt than it is to find one that doesn't have a lot of fat, sugar and other stuff you do not want in your yogurt.

If you want a recipe for the blueberry compote I made, I will make one available.  Just ask.

Today's Kitchen Tip: How can I get free cookbooks

So many books and they
were all F-R-E-E

I love cookbooks, but do not always want to have a bunch of books around for the 1 or 2 recipes I may use from it.  Lots of people use e-readers such as the Kindle for their cookbooks, but I do not have one (and don't want one for that matter).

In a canning group that I belong to, I kept seeing them post free canning cookbooks for download on the Kindle and I totally missed out....until I found out that you can download the Kindle software on your PC (at no cost) and download your books there.

So I went to amazon.com and found free cookbooks to download.  The list changes daily, so if you do not find something you want today, look again tomorrow.

You can still purchase e-books and download them, but you may find exactly what you are looking for at the price of zip, zero, nada (aka $0.00).

Oh yes, lots of books are available for free, but of about 35 I've downloaded, most of them are cookbooks.

Today's Kitchen Tip: Get free cookbooks online

Each year, Costco creates a holiday cookbook.  It is usually available around Thanksgiving and is handed out on a first come, first serve basis.  They are only available in hard copy for a short time and you must be a member to receive one.

HOWEVER, their cookbooks are available online and you do not have to be a Costco member to get one.  This year, their cookbook is available at Free Costco Cookbook for 2013.  There are great recipes in there...many of which will help you during the holiday season.

Get your free cookbook now and either save or print it.  There are lots of great recipes available...and who knows, you might want to buy a membership if you do not already have one.

Today's Kitchen Tip: Do I really have to throw out spices after six months

Spices from www.myspicesage.com

Depending upon where you get your information, some sites will tell you to dispose of your opened spices after six months.  For me, that's just a ploy to get you to buy spices more often.  Why do I say that?  Well, most spices are harvested once a year so if you replace your spices after six months, you may be buying spices from the same harvest that you just threw out.

For me, I dispose of my spices when they  have lost their scent and flavor.  Storing spices carefully will prolong their flavor.  More on that in another tip.

Today's Kitchen Tip: Get great spices at great prices

Lots of spices are available from
www.myspicesage.com

I use lots of different spices and am always trying new recipes using interesting spices.  I try never to buy my spices at the grocery store since they are often expensive.

I shop at Penzey's locally quite a bit, but when I have unusual spices I want to buy, I go to www.myspicesage.com .  Today, when I placed an order, I learned that their shipping is free.  That's great since I can order small amounts of spices and not have to worry about paying more for the shipping than I do for the spice.  www.Myspicesage.com carries so many spices that I could spend hours perusing their website.  They have things I have never seen anywhere else.

Oh yes, this time I ordered pumpkin powder, pumpkin pie spice, clear jel (which is hard to get locally) and Hungarian paprika.  And....they give you the ability to select a free sample of various spices. 

So today's tip is to try ordering spices online with my favorite place....www.myspicesage.com. 

Today's Kitchen Tip: How can I keep my brown sugar from clumping

There are several things you can do to keep your brown sugar from clumping.

My favorite way is to take a piece of bread and place it in the brown sugar container.  I close the container tightly and allow the bread to stay there.  When you open the container, your bread will be hard and your sugar will be soft.  I just replace the bread when it is hard so my brown sugar always stays soft.

You can also do the same thing with an apple slice.  The only thing you need to be careful of is that the apple does not touch the sugar or the sugar will get wet where they touch.

You can also buy a clay brown sugar softener.  You just soak the clay disk in water, then keep it in your brown sugar container.

Any of these will work, but my favorite is the bread option.

Today's kitchen tip: What do you do with leftover tomato paste

I just hate it when I have a recipe that calls for a tablespoon of tomato paste and all I have is a can.  I always think I'll use the rest, but somehow it seems to get thrown out.  What can you do to eliminate this waste?  You can freeze it.

To do so, take a sheet of waxed paper and place the remaining tomato paste  on little dollops on the paper.  Make sure to leave enough room around each dollop so the dollops will be easily separated later.  Wrap the tomato pasta dollops in waxed paper and place the whole thing in a ziptop bag.  Label it and place it in the freezer.  When you need a little bit of tomato paste, just remove the dollop and add it to  your recipe.

The tomato paste should last in the freezer for a few  months.  Just don't forget about it.

We have lots of tomato paste tips so 'watch this space'.

Today's Kitchen Tip: Make your own taco seasoning

I used to purchase pouches of seasoning mix when I made my tacos at home, but after thinking about the ingredients in the mix, I realized I had everything I needed to make the mix at home.  It's much more cost effective and  you can change the seasoning up to fit your tastes.

If you like mild taco seasoning, this mix is perfect, but if you have the Fire Department on "speed dial", you can add additional spices to your liking. 

Taco Seasoning 

• 2 tbsp  Mild chili powder
• ¾ tsp   Garlic powder
• ¾ tsp   Onion powder
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tbsp  Ground cumin
• 2 tsp    Kosher salt
• 1 tsp    Freshly ground black pepper

 

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and use as needed in your recipe.

 

Don't forget....if you use this mix a lot, make extra and save it. 

 

Today's Kitchen Tip: Cook once and eat twice

I know so many people who do not eat 'leftovers'.  However, it is really easy to transform yesterday's dinner into something new and wonderful.

For example, we had flank steak the other day for dinner.  We served it with potatoes and veggies and it was delicious.  We made one larger than we needed for dinner and placed the remainder in the fridge. 

A few days later, we sliced the beef and placed it on lettuce with artichokes, kalamata olives and feta cheese.  It was difficult to tell that our meal was actually 'leftover'. 

Just use your imagination and your leftovers will be new again.

Help! My bananas are getting overripe. What can I do with them.

Doesn't that just make you crazy.  You buy some bananas that are green, and within a day or two they are starting to turn brown.  Stopping the ripening process will be another topic.  Today we will look at how to preserve your bananas so you do not have to throw them out.

I like to use bananas that are getting too ripe in things such as smoothies and banana bread, so when I get some bananas that are really ripe, but I can't use them right away, I freeze them.  But there's a trick to freezing them.

I like to put them in zip-type freezer bags.  I used to peel them and put them all in the bag straight away.  The problem with this is that they all stick together and can be impossible to separate.  What I do instead is to place the peeled bananas on a baking sheet and place them in the freezer until they are frozen.  Then I put them into zip-type bags and keep in the freezer until they are ready to use.  That way I can get exactly what I need from the bag without having problems separating the bananas.