Crispy Apricot Pork

Our first recipe this week comes courtesy of a new cookbook, Everyday Food: Great Food Fast. It's a cookbook from the Martha Stewart collection, and while I'm definitely no Martha (nor do I want to be), I have to admit that this cookbook hasn't steered us wrong yet. What I love about the cookbook is that it tells you exactly how long a recipe takes to prep and to cook. Since my commute is rather long, I need to be picky with my weekday recipes. As an added bonus, every recipe has a full color picture along with it and the pictures actually aren't that far off from what the food looks like!

The original recipe called for apricot jam, but I prefer to use Apricot Yum from Pipitone Farms. They have an interesting little fact on their jars of Yum. In order to be called Jam, a product must have 50% sugar! That's an amazing amount of sugar. Since well grown ripe apricots are incredibly sweet, it is a shame to add all that sugar to it. Apricot Yum does not have all that added sugar. In fact, it doesn't have any added sugar!

Crispy Apricot Pork Chops from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast
Serves 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

• 1 Tbsp oil of your choice
• 2 slices crusty bread (from Tall Grass Bakery)
• 4 pork chops, approximately 1 inch thick (from Skagit River Ranch)
• Salt and Pepper
• 4 tsp Apricot Yum (Pipitone Farms)

1. Preheat the oven to 425 and start your prep work. Tear the bread into large pieces and put the pieces in a food processor. Pulse until the bread now resembles large crumbs. The largest crumbs should be no larger than your fingernail.
   
2. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil into the crumbs and pulse a couple more times to moisten the crumbs. You're aiming for about 1-1.5 cups of crumbs.
   
3. Trim the fat from the pork chops. Season them with salt and pepper.
   
4. Put a little oil on a baking sheet.
   
5. Lay the chops on the baking sheet and season with salt and pepper.
   
6. Spread 1 tsp of apricot yum on each chop. Top with breadcrumbs and pat gently so the crumbs stick.
   
7. Bake about 15 minutes, or until the pork has reached an internal temperature of 150. Serve.

Patricia's Notes: This was incredibly tasty. Using the apricot yum rather than apricot jam imparted a very strong fruit flavor to the pork. I think you could make this with other types of jam as well. The first time I made it, I didn't trim the fat from the pork and that was a mistake. A little too much fat melted into the pan and affected the flavor just a bit. The second time I made it, I trimmed as much of the fat as possible and it was much better. The crispy bread crumbs were the perfect texture combination with the pork. This is going on our list of staple recipes. I bet it would be wonderful with chicken as well.