Pepper recipes one and two come from Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene and a demo he did last summer at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market. The two colors of cheddar make for a pretty spread, but of course you can just use one kind of cheese if that’s what you have on hand. Hopkins opts for homemade mayonnaise in this recipe, but he says it’s ok for you to use store-bought, as long as the brand you buy contains no sugar. He roasts his pepper for the pimento cheese which adds a wonderful smoky quality.
Interestingly, when he makes his pepper jelly he cooks the peppers and then strains off the juice for the jelly. I’ve always made my pepper jelly by just cooking the chunks until very very tender. Love this idea even though it’s a bit more work. You could try the pepper jelly in some cornmeal pepper jelly cookies we featured last December. Search our archives for that, and for pepper roasting directions.
Ingredients:
Pimiento Cheese: 1 cup grated aged white sharp cheddar 1 cup grated aged yellow extra sharp cheddar 4 tablespoon crème fraiche 1/4 cup mayonnaise kosher salt cracked black pepper a couple of shakes of Tabasco 1 red bell pepper, charred over fire, peeled & cut into small dice Pepper Jelly: 6 red bell peppers (cored, seeded & minced) 6 – 12 jalapenos (cored, seeded & minced) 6 cups granulated sugar 1 cup white vinegar ½ cup lemon juice 6 oz liquid pectin
Preparation:
Pimiento Cheese preparation:
Combine all in mixer with paddle attachment, turn on high for 30 seconds and it is ready to go.
Pepper Jelly:
Combine peppers, sugar, lemon juice and vinegar, bring to boil, simmer 10 minutes. Mash all through fine strainer to extract all the juice. Bring juice to rolling boil and add pectin let boil 1 minute. Remove from heat, skim foam and jar. Store jelly in the refrigerator unless you plan to process the jars.