There were clementines of various sizes sitting on my kitchen counter when I came across this glaze (suggested for a ham). It’s one of those recipes that take longer to get the ingredients together (and to clean up) than it does to make it. Makes about 1 ¾ cups:
Clementine Peppercorn Glaze
- 1 ½ cups packed light brown sugar
- 2 clementines, quartered and seeded if necessary (leave skin on)
- 2 serrano chiles, seeded and roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon peppercorns (use a blend or make one up)
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and pulse until serranos are tiny green flecks. Transfer to a jar and refrigerate until needed. Making it ahead of time enhances the flavors and allows the glaze to thicken.
My verdict:
Super easy and really tasty! I used the chopper attachment for my stick blender and that worked fine (and less to clean). After a night in the fridge, it went from being very liquid to being much thicker and easy to spread. I used it as a glaze for duck breasts—think duck à l’orange but with clementines, and it was great.
Besides clementines, you could do a version of the glaze with any citrus fruit. Lemons, or limes would probably be good, especially for fish, but I might swap the cinnamon for cumin or sumac or???
What do you think?
When I do thighs, after I flip them, I’ll put the glaze on and add more when I serve them.
Glad they worked out.
Anne,
I made baked chicken breasts with this glaze, and they were very good. Having little experience with preparing glazed chicken, I put the glaze on before baking. My wife actually added more at serving time.
As I mentioned in my prior post, I don’t know the variety of the mandarin that I used. It was almost seedless, having 2 or 3 per fruit. I removed all the seeds that I found, as I was making the glaze.
I suspect that the taste of the peel of whatever variety is used to make this, will have the most affect on the flavor profile of the glaze.
Joe
I was VERY dubious about this recipe. Would the peppercorns pulverize? Would it be too spicy?
Made it today (just the glaze), and the flavor is great. Some nice heat from the serranos, and presumably the pepper.
I used mandarins of some sort (hey, the tree was here when we moved in, and nobody knows whether they’re clementines or some other citrus).
Tomorrow night, I will post my experience with using it for baked chicken breasts.
Thanks for making me stretch.
Joe
P.S.: You might want to mention to check for seeds before putting the mandarins in the food processor.
J.W.