Sunday, December 28, 2008

Jalapeño Poppers

I was perusing the produce area of a local market where I get my chilies and ran across these jalapeño peppers and thought “Man those are some big jalapeños!” I had grabbed about a dozen of them before I had even thought what I was going to do with them poppers popped into my head. I'm not sure these qualify as poppers as they are closer to Chili Relleno size but what the heck.






What you will need
Jalapeño peppers
8 oz softened cream cheese
4 oz shredded Monterey Jack cheese
4 oz crumbled goat cheese
2 eggs beaten
1 cup milk
1 cup all purpose flour
1 ½ cups bread crumbs
Oil for deep frying

Preparation
Slice the peppers lengthwise and remove the seeds. Using a pastry bag, fill the peppers with the cheese mixture and close the peppers to seal. Dip the peppers in the milk then dredge in the flour. Lightly shake the excess flour from the peppers and dip in the beaten eggs the roll in the break crumbs. Fry in 365F oil for 2-3 minutes and let drain on paper towels for a few minutes.



Saturday, December 20, 2008

Chili

People are adamant about their chili. Their style is the only way to make authentic chili and what the heck are you putting in there? Tomatoes? Man you are ruining that chili! Every one thinks their chili is the best and I think that's part of what makes it special. The hard core insist that chili contains only beef and chili powders but most of the chili champion recipes I've seen have tomato sauce in them so I guess there is some wiggle room in making great chili. I generally make chili with just beef but I like to mix it up with beans and diced tomatoes as well. I also frequently make a vegetarian chili that I really like. There are a lot of different ways to make chili so experiment and do what you like but please at least use chili powder and cumin.
This is my recipe loosely based on Debbie Ashman's championship chili recipe


Coarse ground ground beef with dumps one, two and three.