Crackpot Gourmet PepperPot Recipes

Grilled Pork Roast with Pepper Jelly Glaze

Ingredients

2-pound pork loin roast

Marinade:
1/2 cup apple juice
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup PepperPot jelly

Glaze:
1/3 cup PepperPot jelly
2 tablespoons cider vinegar

Place pork in large self-sealing plastic bag. Heat marinade ingredients together until PepperPot jelly melts; pour over pork in bag. Seal bag, refrigerate 12-24 hours. Remove pork from marinade (discarding remaining marinade). Place pork roast on medium-hot grill over drip pan, close grill hood. Grill pork for about 1 1/4 hours, until meat thermometer inserted in center reads 150 degrees F.

Stir together glaze ingredients; coat roast with jelly glaze. Grill for 10 minutes more, bringing roast to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F. Let roast rest 10-15 minutes before slicing to serve.

Chicken Tenders with Pepper Jelly

Ingredients

10 whole (double) chicken breasts
2 cups flour
2 Tbs. Creole seasoning (Bayou Bang, ideally)
1 stick butter
1 cup PepperPot jelly
2 Tbs. orange juice
8 oz. crumbled blue cheese
2 10-oz bags fresh spinach leaves well washed and dried.

Skin and debone chicken breasts. Each side naturally separates into three long pieces with help of a sharp and carefully-wielded knife.

Blend Creole seasoning into flour. Dust (don't dredge) chicken pieces with seasoned flour.

Heat 2 Tbs. butter in a large (preferably stainless steel) skillet over medium heat. When it bubbles, sauté’ chicken tenders until lightly browned about five minutes turning every minute or so. Remove and keep warm. Add more butter as necessary to cook all chicken; you might want to wipe out pan after to start fresh at some point.

When all chicken is cooked, thin PepperPot jelly with orange juice. Coat chicken fingers with pepper jelly mixture and place them on a broiler pan sprayed with vegetable oil spray.

Broil chicken tenders until they brown on top -- about two minutes. Serve with crumbled blue cheese and spinach leaves. Eat by wrapping tenders in a spinach leaf with a sprinkling of blue cheese, or forget spinach and add 4 Tbs. mayonnaise and 2 Tbs. cider vinegar and 2 Tbs. water to blue cheese to make a dip.

Serves about 15.

Tenderloin Steaks with Pepper Jelly Sauce

Ingredients

4 beef tenderloin steaks or 2 boneless top loin steaks, cut 1 inch thick
3/4 teaspoon garlic salt
3/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse grind black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
Vegetable cooking spray
1/2 cup ready-to-serve beef broth
1/4 cup balsamic or red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons PepperPot jelly

Combine garlic salt, chili powder, pepper, cumin and oregano; press evenly into both sides of each beef steak. Spray large nonstick skillet with cooking spray; heat over medium heat until hot. Place steaks in skillet; cook 10 to 13 minutes for medium rare to medium doneness, turning once. Trim fat from steaks. (Cut top loin steaks crosswise in half.) Transfer steaks to serving platter; keep warm.

Add broth, vinegar and PepperPot jelly to skillet; cook and stir until browned bits attached to skillet are dissolved and sauce thickens slightly. Spoon sauce over steaks.

Yield: 4 servings.

Savory Cheddar Cheese Thumbprint Cookies

1 1/2 cups shredded white cheddar cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup finely sliced almonds or unblanched almonds
1 cup water
1 cup PepperPot jelly

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, pulse together cheddar and parmesan cheeses and butter until smooth. Add egg yolk and pepper; pulse until blended. Add flour; pulse just until soft dough forms.

Place sliced almonds on plate. Place 1 cup water in bowl. With hands, roll scant tablespoonfuls of dough into 1-inch balls. Dip in water; roll in nuts to coat. Place on ungreased baking sheet. With thumb, make indentation in center of each. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Bake 15 minutes or until firm outside and lightly golden. Remove baking sheet from oven and place baking sheet on a cooling rack, allowing cookies to cool directly on baking sheet. At this point, cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature or frozen. Before serving, fill indentations with PepperPot jelly.

Yield: About 36 cookies.