We’ve been watching reruns of Death In Paradise on BritBox. The show is a comedy/drama about a British Detective on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie with a supporting cast of local police officers. It’s a nice, low key island – with lots of murders, really quirky detectives, and LOTS of rum drinking! If this were real life, there would be nothing but interventions and serious liver damage. Oh, those carefree Islanders…
Once upon a time – when I was a carefree denizen of Tahoe – I was a rum drinker – almost always Meyer’s – and usually with OJ in the morning or tonic in the afternoon. Never with Coke. (Although I did have a rum and coke at a Puerto Rican restaurant a couple of months ago that was pretty good…) That was during the summer. During the winter, it was Hot Buttered Rum or shots of Jägermeister with crusty bread and a melty Raclette.
Nowadays, there’s always a bottle of Meyer’s in the house – usually for rum balls or other cooking – rarely drinking. Yesterday, it was on hand for BBQ Sauce.
I have a recipe for a Peach and Bourbon BBQ Sauce using frozen peaches, and we just happened to have a bag of frozen mango – and the aforementioned rum – so I thought it would be a fun island take. There were also jalapeño and habanero peppers in the ‘fridge, so Spicy Mango Rum BBQ Sauce was born!
Spicy Mango Rum BBQ Sauce
- 1 (24 oz) package frozen mango, thawed
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 cup cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
- 1 habanero pepper, chopped
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup rum
In a large saucepan, combine the mango, onion, cider vinegar, brown sugar, honey, mustard, jalapeno pepper, dry mustard, chili powder, and salt and bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 20 to 25 minutes or until the mango very tender and the mixture is thickened.
Stir in the rum and let cool slightly.
Transfer the mixture to a blender and blend until smooth.
Since heat and spice is totally subjective, cut back on peppers to suit your audience.
And since the weather is starting to turn warm, it may be time to relive some of those Tahoe days with a Meyers and Tonic! Maybe “relive” is not the right term – if I started “reliving” my 20s – at my now elderly state – interventions and serious liver damage would definitely be in order!