These are just a handful of what is growing in my garden
I always have low expectations for my vegetable garden when I have been away for any extended period of time. This return was no exception! What I did not expect was to find a veggie garden over run with jalapeño peppers. I thought I had planted chillies but NO, in fact they are beautiful, large, plump jalapeños.
I had to do a little research since I knew very little about where Jalapeños came from and what I could do with them. I actually wish I had a smoker so that I could transform my spicy little babies into some tasty chipotles. Alas, that will have to be for another day.
I remember having quite a few deep-fried jalapeño poppers in Texas so that was my first thought, though I did not want to deep fry these babies since I have no extractor fan and the smell of fried food seems to linger for days. Stuffed and baked with items from my fridge was the final solution. I always seem to have cream cheese and goat cheese in my fridge as well as fresh herbs in the garden and homemade crumbs in the freezer so I was off to a great start.
I was warned that these peppers that I have been growing were not very strong, in terms of fire, so I was not concerned with the heat factor. Big mistake! These babies are hot when cooked. Thankfully, the cheese filling is cooling so the kick is softened but beware these pack a mean punch.
Since I was not able to eat all the peppers as poppers, I decided to see what would happen if I froze some. After a week in the freezer, I thawed a bag full. I have stuffed them, sautéed them and cooked them in a soup and they were perfect in all these forms.
HINT: Next time you have a few jalapeños floating around in the vegetable drawer, throw them in the freezer for future use rather than letting them rot in your fridge!
Cream cheese, goat cheese, sundried tomatoes and fresh herbs are perfect for these poppers
Stuffed, lined up and ready to be baked
The finished shot of my baked jalapeño poppers
- 4-6 jalapeño peppers (medium to large)
- 1/4 cup cream cheese
- 1/4 cup goat cheese
- 2 small sundried tomatoes, chopped finely
- 1 teaspoon coriander (cilantro), chopped (or parsley)
- 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
- 1/2 tablespoon Parmesan cheese
- salt to taste
- Cut the jalapeños lengthwise and remove the ribs and seeds.
- Place the peppers on a baking sheet, ready for stuffing
- In a small bowl, mix together the cheeses, sundried tomato, herbs and salt
- Using a teaspoon, stuff each jalapeño half with the cheese filling.
- In a small bowl, mix together the crumbs and cheese
- Sprinkle each stuffed pepper with the crumb mixture.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven for 20 minutes at 200C (400F)
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