INGREDIENTS
24 lg large jalapeno peppers, fresh
1 lb Queso Fresco (or your choice of firm cheese) grated fine
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Salt, pepper and garlic to taste
1 lb chorizo (all meat, no filler Mexican pork sausage, not Spanish dried version)
2 lb bacon (thick and peppery is more $$ but better)
48 ea toothpicks
2 pr surgical gloves
METHOD
If you are smart, you will work on the peppers wearing surgical gloves. The hot pepper stuff is terribly hard to get off of your hands completely, and you don't want to scratch anything important for a while.
Set cream cheese out to soften. While softening, finely grate the cheese.
Cook the chorizo in a frying pan, breaking up chunks and stirring as necessary. Cook until done,; it should release a lot of orange grease. Discard grease and drain on paper towels or a brown paper bag, let cool.
Don set of surgical gloves #1. Split the jalapenos on one side, from near stem to near tip. Don't cut them in half; you want a slit you can open and close, like a change purse. Carefully scrape out all the seeds and ribs and pulp, this is where the really evil heat lives. Lay peppers on a tray. Remove and discard gloves.
Mix shredded cheese, cream cheese and chorizo until incorporated. Mix in the cilantro. Add salt, pepper and garlic to taste. If it seems a little thick, you can always mix in a little bacon grease for texture and taste (Pork fat rules! - Emeril). Pack it into a heavy (freezer type) quart Ziplock bag. Don set of surgical gloves #2.
Break out the prepared peppers. Snip a small corner off of the Ziploc bag. Pick up the first pepper and squeeze it so that the slit opens up. Use the Ziploc like a piping bag to fill the peppers with the mixture. Be sure to get down in the ends, but do not over fill. Repeat for remaining peppers.Next, use a toothpick to pin one end of a strip of bacon to the tip of a pepper. Wrap the bacon around the pepper, overlapping into a spiral, so that the other end of the bacon comes out even with the top. Pull bacon tight, sealing slit in pepper and pin through pepper with another toothpick at the top. Repeat for remaining peppers.
Toss the second set of gloves. Now, you have two options, you can either grill these or smoke them. If you grill them until bacon is done, you'll get what we had at the rally. If you smoke them, it'll take 2-3 hours, but the peppers will soften, darken and lose a lot of their 'heat'. Both of these methods taste great, but are different.
"Smoke 'em if you got 'em"
1 comment:
I love ABT'S and yours look really good! I'll have to try your recipe next time.
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