Recipes

If you've used any of our products in cooking something other than the usual purpose, we'd like to hear about it and eventually include it in our recipe section. Among the many we've received the following are some we've tried ourselves.

If you have a recipe or varied use of our products, please e-mail us and include your name and location. sales@blancovalleyfarms.com

DIP MIXES/CHILI

In general, we have a lot of folks tell us they use the dips to spice things up, like Jalapeno Dip in Ketchup, Chili Mix as a rib rub or Enchilada Sauce, Spinach and others added to a pot of homemade soups, Onion/Garlic Dip mixed into meat loafs and hamburger patties, and a lady in Lake Charles, LA used a package of Habanero Dip in her seafood gumbo! Wow . . . that's got to be good!

One of the best we've heard of was using the Habanero Dip to make "Hot Crackers" by Mr. Steve Maywald of Tomball, Texas who has convinced many of his fellow bowlers to try it: (We hear beer sales went up 40% in that bowling alley.)

FIRE CRACKERS

Mix and let stand for over an hour or more the following:
1 Cup Canola Oil
1 Tablespoon of Crushed Red Peppers
1 Teaspoon of Garlic Powder
1 Package of Dry Ranch Dressing
1 Package of Habanero Dip

Empty four sleeves of regular saltine crackers into a large bowl with lid and pour the wet mix over them. Gently flip this bowl every five minutes for an hour or more, then spread the crackers and let them air dry for several hours.

JARRED PRODUCTS

Again we hear people say they use the Cowboy Caviar on salads, the Jalapeno BBQ Sauce as a dip, mix the Habanero Salsa with sour cream and also with softened Velveeta cheese for dips and queso, and as you can imagine, the Jalapeno Jelly, Apricot Jalapeno Jam, and the Strawberry Chipotle Jam used from meat glazes to ice cream toppings. (Don't laugh, It's excellent on ice cream!) But the majority of suggestions we've heard were with the Candied Jalapenos.

Marla who's a pepper sissy chops them up and adds them into tuna and chicken salad as well as deviled eggs! Others use them in everything from twice baked potatoes to pizza, but here are a few recipes beyond that:

CHOCOLATE CANDIED JALAPENOS

Place toothpicks sideways thru the slices (about 75 per jar), warm up some Bark Chocolate (found in cake mix area) and twirl the slices in the melted chocolate, then lay them down on wax paper to cool. Remove the toothpicks when finished.

CANDIED JALAPENO DUMPLINGS

Mix some of the jalapenos with soft cream cheese, lay out a Won-Ton Wrapper and place a teaspoonful of the cheese / pepper mix in the center of the wrapper, brush egg white on all edges of wrapper around the cheese to seal, then fold the wrapper up and fry these dumplings till the wrapper is brown and floating. Sprinkle sugar on the hot dumplings. This is similar to Crab Rangoon.

JALAPENO STUFFED PORK LOIN

Split a pork loin with a good knife without cutting thru the ends or all the way thru the loin . . . stuff the loin with cream cheese and Candied Jalapenos mixed, cover the opening with strips of bacon held by toothpicks and place the loin on some heavy foil. Cook this on a grill with the foil open and cook till a meat probe suggests it's done. If you wish, you can spread Apricot or Strawberry Jam over the loin and leave it on just for a minute to melt down.

CANDIED JALAPENO CHEESECAKE

Buy and follow the directions on a Betty Crocker Old Fashioned Cheesecake Mix . . .When you've mixed the filling batter per directions add 1/3 jar of the peppers and 1/3 of the syrup it's in after breaking them down to a "mush" in a food processor . . . stir the pepper mush in and pour the batter into a Graham Cracker Pie Shell and bake per instructions . . . Decorate each piece of the cheesecake with a slice of the pepper after it's out of the oven. I think this is better after refrigeration. This is fabulous, but you'll probably enjoy it best with a glass of cold milk.

JALAPENO SCALLOP GLAZE

The chef at the Roaring Fork Restaurant in Scottsdale, AZ uses the Candied Jalapeno Syrup left after they use a jar making a Candied Jalapeno/Chicken Wrap. . . . He puts a few chopped peppers and 1/2 cup of the syrup in a sauce pan at low heat and cooks it down . . . then adds a few tablespoons of Strawberry Jam and continues to cook and stir then pours this sauce on grilled scallops. It's excellent on scallops but probably just as good on grilled shrimp or fish.

JALAPENO FAJITA VEGETABLES

Angila Chapmond of Johnson City, TX slices a red bell pepper, a green bell pepper, an onion, and mushrooms then adds these slices to a pan in which she's slow cooking 1/2 jar of Candied Jalapenos (and the juice), "some butter ", 2 cups of water, Worcestershire sauce, and salt & pepper. She cooks this down until the veggies caramelize and are well cooked then this is spooned onto fajitas or other grilled meat dishes.

JALAPENO STUFFED BAKED POTATO

Flint Cooper, who sells his Truly Texas food and other products out of his store in Katy, TX suggests:
4 large potatoes (baked and cut in half.)
1 stick of butter
8 oz of Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1/2 cup of Candied Jalapenos Chopped
1/2 cup of Cream
1/2 cup of Sour Cream
8 green onion tops only chopped
8 slices of crisp bacon crumbled.

Scoop the potatoes from the skin, mix with butter, 1/2 of the cheese, Candied Jalapenos, cream, sour cream, and green onions. Refill the potato skins with the mixture and sprinkle tops with remaining cheese and bacon crumbles.

Bake at 325 for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted.

POLYNESIAN CHICKEN

Katie Hodgkins of San Antonio submitted this and I had to add a little Candied Jalapeno to it when I tried it.
1 cup of rice cooked per package instructions.
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (best if sliced thin)
1 - 8 oz. can of Pineapple Chunks and juice
1 Cup of Blanco Valley Farms Apricot Jalapeno Jam
1/4 cup of Candied Jalapenos chopped and with juice
2 Tablespoons of low sodium Soy Sauce

Apply coating spray to pan and cook chicken breasts 4-5 minutes on each side and once it's near done add just the pineapple juice and continue to cook until the juice is evaporated. Then add pineapple chunks, jalapenos, juice, soy sauce, and Apricot Jam and cook until the sauce is a glaze and serve over rice.

TEXAS PECAN PIE

Our pecan pie in a jar comes with all the pecans, syrup, sugars, spices needed . . . instructions on the label tell you to simply dump the jar's contents (microwave for 30 seconds with no lid if you need) into a bowl and then add 1/4 stick of butter, 1/3 tsp of salt, and 2 eggs . . . stir well with a fork and then dump into a 9" pie shell (does much better if you're using a frozen pie shell to keep it frozen until you add the mixture). Use your fork to spread the pecans around uniformly in the pie, then bake it at 300 degrees for one hour. Set it out carefully to cool and settle down and it will slice better if you'll let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.

I promise you this will make a really good old fashioned pecan pie to compete in flavor with any you've ever enjoyed. It's good . . . but I must tinker . . . and so far I've come up with two recipe variations that you might enjoy.

CHOCOLATE PECAN PIE

Just sprinkle a small amount (1 oz or less) of chocolate nuggets evenly in the pie shell's bottom before pouring the mix in . . . . the chocolate will float up off the shell and mix in with the filling very well during baking and it's a great flavor combination with the sweet pecan pie.

TEXAS PECAN PRALINE PIE

I don't know what else to call this variation and it's so simple . . . . just follow the directions except: Use 1/2 stick of butter instead of 1/4 stick and add about 4 oz. of softened whipped cream cheese . . . . beat it in really well with your fork and cook as normal. With this one you may do better with a deep dish pie shell.

That 4 oz of cream cheese mixed in really changes the color of the pie to a "blonde" praline color and of course, what doesn't taste better with cream cheese?