Musings: Shallots and Apricots

There's this awesome site called FoodieFights. Check it out.

This week's episode is Battle Shallot and Apricot, and I went through the grueling selection process and was selected as a contender for this week's battle. (AKA: I put my name in the hat and they picked it. They pick six names every week. This week, I was in a pool of... six people.)

Anyways, shallots are not something I'm that comfortable working with, because, at least around here, onions are SO MUCH CHEAPER. Last November I bought a fifty pound bag of onions for eleven bucks. Fifty! Eleven! (In case you are wondering, it was gone by March). Compare that to the 1/2 lb bag of shallots I found.

It was one of only two bags in the store, and it cost me two dollars. Needless to say, I don't work with shallots... ever.

The other ingredient is something I've worked with often. Around Ohio we have apples, apples, apples, apples, and corn, but no apricots. In fact, I was able to find pineapple, kumquat, passion fruit, and even some fruit I've never heard of, but they didn't have one single fresh apricot.

So long story short, this is going to be an interesting challenge. 

My first thought was to try and concoct some sort of dessert. It would be challenging to people's palates, but it shouldn't be impossible; shallots do have a lot of natural sugars. This would be a good application for an ice cream, though if it didn't turn out perfectly it would taste terrible. It's also not something that comes across well to judges who aren't actually eating the final product. I can say "I swear this tastes good" all I want, but what it really comes down to is gut reactions.

My next thought was to do something with smoked apricots but it's raining here and I don't feel like getting wet. Plus I don't think dried apricots would really take to smoking, and onions when smoked pretty much disappear.

I think I'm going to go with a savory tart-type application, which is going to be interesting seeing as how flour and I don't always get along. The challenge for me to keep in mind is that the apricot and shallot, two ingredients used to being kept in the background, need to be the star attractions. I lucked out a little bit on the sweetness angle, though, because I seem to have purchased the least sweet apricots I've ever had. I'm still mulling over what exactly I'm going to do (nine times out of ten I don't finish a recipe idea until it's actually on the table), but I think it will be good.

Battle On!