Apricot Jalapeno Cheese Topper

Ingredients:

1/2 cup dried apricots, diced into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup red onion, in 1/4-inch dice
1/4 cup red pepper, in 1/4-inch dice
3 Tbsp. – 1/4 cup jalapeno pepper, in 1/4 inch dice (seeds removed)
2 cups white sugar

Instructions:

Summary: Dried apricots are sticky little devils, so they’re not the easiest to dice small. Use a sharp knife and try to keep the pieces small (ideally, the same size dice for all your chopped ingredients). Ideally, you’ll have a thermometer so you’ll know exactly how long to cook this. If not, you’ll have to rely on time, which works, but is a little less precise. Ingredients

Place diced apricots in a small bowl and add the white vinegar. Stir and push the apricot pieces down so that they are covered by the vinegar. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 4 hours, stirring a couple of times.

Near the end of your 4 hours, dice up your onion and peppers. Add the soaked apricots and any remaining vinegar into a medium saucepan. Add your diced red onion, red pepper and jalapeno pepper into the saucepan and then the 2 cups of sugar. Stir to combine.

Over medium heat, stir the mixture until it becomes very liquid and the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, increase the heat to medium-high and attach a thermometer. Cook the mixture until it reaches at least 222° F. on your thermometer then remove from heat and carefully pour into a jar and place lid on it. (If you don’t have a thermometer, you’ll want to allow it to cook at a full, rolling boil for about about 1 minute. A full, rolling boil is a vigorous boil – one that can’t be stirred down). Allow to cool at room temperature, stirring or flipping the jar over every 10 minutes or so, to distribute the solids. Once cooled, refrigerate. (If giving as gifts, be sure to label or tell the recipient to refrigerate).

From seasonsandsuppers.ca