The Reason
Every once in a while I’m moved to experiment in the kitchen. I like taking a really simple recipe and messing it up a few times then reconstructing it to suit my personal tastes. This week’s experiment is homemade jalapeno poppers. These are by far my favourite pub food but holy cow are they ever fattening. So I’m working on a lighter, lower calorie version (that can be baked in the oven or grilled on the BBQ) based on a few basic recipes I’ve found online on my favourite website www.tastespotting.com (seriously, check this website out if enjoy looking at beautiful food photography).
WARNING!!!!!: The jalapenos are really not that spicy once you clean out the seeds and the ribs. However, no matter how much you wash your hands afterward you will temporarily blind yourself if you rub your eyes after cleaning out the seeds.
It was about an hour later and I was laying around and patting myself on the back for a job well done when I touched my right eye and screamed my guts out. I had to get Ryan to walk me to the bathroom so I could flush my eye out with water. My left eye was fine but I can't close my right eye without shutting my left eye. Is that normal? Ryan says it's not but he also suggested I flush my eye out with milk. Now that can't be right can it?
The Recipe
Phase one of this experiment was Tuesday night.
I made a very basic popper by halving the jalapenos, cleaning out all the seeds and veins and filling them with cream cheese. I then dipped them in egg and coated them with Italian seasoned breadcrumbs. That’s it! They baked in the oven at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
The results were just so so. They were good but missing a bit of flavour. The texture of the jalapenos was a bit mushy and while the cheese stayed in place and barely messed up my baking sheet, the crumbs were everywhere when it was time to eat them.
So here’s what I will change for phase 2.
1. I’m going to add feta cheese to the filling for a little extra flavour. I would probably be able to get away with light cream cheese now because of the feta factor but I still have half a brick of the regular stuff to use up.
2. I’m not going to use the egg wash to coat the entire thing because of the messy crumb situation so this time I’m just going to just coat the top. The cheese filling should be sticky enough to hold the breadcrumbs.
3. I want to add some flavor to my breadcrumb mix. I could use some suggestions on this one. I was thinking paprika and/or onion or garlic salt but I would like to know what you would use to make a breadcrumb coating a little more zippy.
4. I’m going to keep them in the oven for only 20 minutes.