So good your guests won’t want to leave.
This month’s first recipe is one that’s perfect for the dog days of summer. It doesn’t take much to prep and it’s easy to throw on a grill to cook. So many of us already drink sweet tea in the summer, we decided to try it in other uses as well. We came across this idea and after testing it out, it’s a winner! Try out our Sweet Tea Brined Pork Chops and Red Pepper Relish.
Ingredients
8 orange pekoe tea bags*
1 cup sugar
6 bay leaves (preferably fresh)
1 Tbsp coriander seeds
6 bone-in center cut pork chops (2 inches thick; about 5 lbs total)
3 red bell peppers, chopped
1 large vidalia onion, diced
2 Fresno chile peppers, seeded and chopped
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
¼ cup apricot preserves
Freshly ground pepper
Kosher salt
Vegetable oil, for the grill
-Make the brine: Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a large pot. Turn off the heat and add the tea bas and let steep for 10 minutes. Discard teh tea bags. Stir in ¾ of a cup sugar, ½ cup salt, the bay leaves and coriander seeds. Cook over low heat, stirring consistently until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Roughly 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, pour into a large heat proof pitcher and set the pot aside for the time being. Let the brine cool to room temperature, roughly 30 minutes. Refrigerate the brine until very cold, at least one hour.Pour the brine into the reserved pot and add the pork chops. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours, or overnight.
-Once the brine and pork is in the fridge, make the pepper relish. Put the bell peppers, onion and chilies in a food processor and pulse until broken down but not pureed. This should be 2 or 3 times on most food processors. Transfer to a small saucepan and add the vinegar, preserves, the remaining ¼ cup of sugar and ¼ tsp of salt. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until slightly reduced, but still juicy. Keep a close eye on it as time may vary based on time of year. It should take about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, transfer to a serving bowl and refrigerate until you’re ready to serve. (You can make the relish up to a day ahead.)
Preheat your grill to medium. Oil the grill grates lightly. Remove the pork chops from the brine and pat dry. Season the chops with salt and pepper. Grill, covered until well marked, roughly 14-16 minutes. If they get too dark, rotate them 90* . Flip the chops and cook, covered until well marked on the other side. Take a digital thermometer and insert it sideways into the center. It should register 145* and at that point it’s done. Transfer the pork to a cutting board and let it rest for 10 minutes. Serve with the relish.
NOTES
*Or the equivalent amount of loose leaf orange pekoe, if you’re willing to use it.
So what is orange pekoe exactly?
Rather than a flavor, orange pekoe is actually in reference to the quality of the tea.
Tea leaves are picked from different heights on a plant for different purposes. The younger the leaf, or the higher it is on the plant, the more flavor it has. Another matter that goes into grading is how whole or broken a leaf is after it has been processed and dried. So an orange pekoe tea is made up of whole, young leaves.
That’s not to say that the bagged tea you can pick up at your local store isn’t perfectly good tea. This is just the actual definition of an orange pekoe. So, no your pork isn’t going to taste like oranges, unless you add some into the brine.
Did you ever wonder what the difference was between a jam and a relish?
We did while making this recipe. A relish, according to Britannica, is a cooked and pickled vegetable or fruit preserve. It’s typically eaten with a bland food to bring flavor, but we can promise that’s not the case with this dish!
Thank you very much for joining us for this recipe. We hope you enjoy cooking it as much as we did. Which was your favorite part? The tea brined pork or the relish? We’d love to hear from you over on our Facebook page. We want to see how yours turned out.
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