Cooking With Frank: Baked Jalapeño Poppers

In an effort to get back into blogging and writing (*fingers crossed*) it seemed like a good idea to start with a recipe.

Traveling, working (two jobs now - more on that another day) and gardening made sitting down and putting fingers to keys a daunting endeavour. Now that fall is here vacation traveling is over, and all but the last bits of the plants have been pulled from the soil in preparation for the fall tilling.
As an aside, the total harvest this year - that actually made it to a scale before being eaten - was upward of 137+ lbs (62 kg)! It was a good year after all and things were still budding and trying to make fruits and vegetable right up to the day they were getting ripped from the ground.

Okay, so back to the recipe. This one was requested by Jessica back in August, and she's been waiting patiently.

These jalapeño poppers also have the benefit of being healthier than average because they are not breaded or deep fried. They are for real jalapeño lovers. They are also pretty gluten free, which deep fried ones are not, you know...if you're into that kind of thing. (You can read our little gluten rant here: Cooking With Frank: Gluten-Free Turkey Lasagna)

Baked Jalapeño Poppers

This is actually going to be TWO recipes, but let's start with the tools and essential ingredient.

You'll need the following tools:

Silicon Baking Sheet

• baking pan
• non-stick spray (like Pam) or a silicone baking sheet. Baking sheets are amazing and reusable.
• cutting board
• knife
• bowl or container to put seeds in
• GLOVES, rubber or whatever.

The essential ingredient:

12 large jalapeños, cut in half, seeds removed and rinsed.

The important thing to remember is to always wear gloves. Not only should you always wear the gloves while handling the jalapeños, you shouldn't touch anything with that gloved hand that you're later going to touch with your bare hand. And if you somehow expose your hands to the peppers, for fuck sake, don't touch any of your mucus membranes...not your nose, not your eye (make sure you've taken your contacts out for the day just in case)...and keep your hands off your genitals.
Also...it may be suggested that you wear a pair of goggles. Because if one of those jalapeños decides to squirt at your face, the last place you want it landing is in your eye. If you have particularly strong peppers you may also consider wearing something over your mouth while you rinse them because the water may cause the chemical to go airborne.
You don't want to be a victim of your own pepper spray attack.

This is all advice from direct experience having not done those things over the years.

Here is some more solid info and tips about handling jalapeños http://www.livestrong.com/article/474739-jalapeno-peppers-skin-irritations

Okay. Now that you've been warned about that we can move on to the safer ingredients.

Bacon, onion & cream cheese stuffed jalapeños,
and basil, fresh tomato and mozzarella salad

Bacon and Onion Stuffed Jalapeño Poppers

1 lb (454 g) cream cheese, room temp

3 slices bacon - you can obviously use more but this will be adequate enough. Make sure to fry out as much of the fat as you can and save it to the side, and set the bacon on a paper towel to cool and remove excess fat.

3/4 c (180 ml) onion. diced (about half a medium large onion)

1-2 clove garlic, minced

1-2 tsp (5ml) bacon fat (you can use any type of fat, coconut oil, olive oil, butter...by why would you?)

Salt and pepper, to taste

Nutrition Information generated using
myFitnesspal recipe calculator

Optional: a small amount of fresh grated parmesan cheese or fresh herbs of your choosing

Preheat oven to 350° F

Cook the bacon as directed and once cooled enough to handle chop it into small pieces. In the same pan use some of the reserved bacon fat and fry the onion and garlic over medium low heat until translucent. Season with salt and pepper (you probably don't need very much at all) Set aside and cool. If you haven't prepared the jalapeños yet this would be a good time for that.

Once the mixture has cooled fill each of the jalapeño halves with the mixture using your gloved hands. Don't overfill them, there shouldn't be an excess mixture, if there is you can disperse it among the peppers once they have all been filled.

Place on silicone baking on a baking pan or spray pan with nonstick spray and line the peppers on tray. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until they start to brown on the top. 

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Okay. Easy, right?

Now let's get a little fancy.

First, a world on chorizo. It's a sausage and not all chorizo is created equally. [Go here to learn about the differences: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/glossary/chorizo or here for more information than the average person needs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorizo]

The kind you're going to use for this recipe is Mexican chorizo.

The following recipe has the benefit of being much healthier. Almost half the calories and half the fat. But retains the full on deliciousness. Add a salad and either of these recipes becomes an exhilarating dinner!

Chorizo and Goat Cheese Stuffed Jalapeño Poppers

6.5 oz (185 g) goat cheese, room temp

4 oz (114 g)Mexican chorizo sausage

3/4 c onions (180 ml), chopped

1 c (240 ml) sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (preferably cherry tomatoes as they are sweeter, measure before chopping)

1-2 tsp (5ml) bacon fat (you can use any type of fat, coconut oil, olive oil, butter...by why would you?)

Nutrition Information generated using
myFitnesspal recipe calculator

Preheat oven to 350°F

Heat oil in pan and add onions. Cook onions for about 1-2 minutes and then add chorizo to pan. Cook for at least five minutes. 

It should look like this when you're done.

Cool mixture to room temp (again this would be a good time to prepare the 12 large jalapeños by cutting them in half, removing the seeds and rinsing them).

Add chorizo onion mixture to the goat cheese and blend well. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and continue mixing into well incorporated.
Once the mixture has cooled fill each of the jalapeño halves with the mixture using your gloved hands. Don't overfill them, there shouldn't be an excess mixture, if there is you can disperse it among the peppers once they have all been filled.
Place on silicone baking on a baking pan or spray pan with nonstick spray and line the peppers on tray. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until they start to brown on the top.

 Prepare yourself for deliciousness!