Smoked Jalapeño Poppers

I had this idea the other day to make some jalapeño poppers and thought I'd try something different. 

I went to the store and bought some peppers that were all about the same size.  After cutting off the stems and caps I needed to clean them out.  I broke out the power drill with a ½ inch drill bit.

I'd like to say that I thought this up because I'm a culinary genius (which I am, BTW) but, truth be told, I saw Duff Goldman do this when he went up against Michael Symon on Iron Chef America a few years ago.

This took a steady hand.  I'm used to pulling the trigger to full when drilling but this took some finesse.  Nice a slow.

Because if you don't you will drill all the way through the pepper.  I also had to remind myself that the peppers are not straight.  Luckily I only had this happen to one and it was still salvageable.

It worked like a champ and was fast and easy.

For the cheese I decided to use a horseradish white cheddar.

I cut it to fit about half way across and to the bottom of the pepper.

The reason I only filled the peppers halfway with cheese is that I filled the other half with Italian sausage.

I used a large wodden chopstick to get the meat all the way to the bottom.

I wrapped each one with regular cut bacon, making sure to cover the open top, then secured it with wet toothpicks.  Anytime your using toothpicks or wooden skewers you soak them in water before hand so they don't burn.  I tried to figure out a way to stand them up but I wasn't able to.  I decided to put them on the broiling pan instead.

I used mesquite hard wood and smoked them at 225 degrees. 

After 3 hours the peppers felt nice and soft.  I did use an instant read meat thermometer on a few to make sure I had gotten the sausage to at least 165 degrees.  I did lose some of the cheese by not standing them up.  I'll have to brainstorm something next time.

Everyone liked them.  A few people thought they were at the upper range of heat. 

I think next time I'll use a stronger cheese.  Maybe a sharp cheddar.  Also maybe even the sweet Italian sausage instead of the hot stuff. 

Try it out.  Mix and match whatever you think of.  It's all good.  If you don't want to use smoke try baking, grilling, or frying.  Come on.  Go crazy.

Restaurant Review (Monterey Hill Restaurant) Part Deux

February of last year I wrote a review of the outstanding dinner service we had at Monterey Hill Restaurant in Monterey Park, California.

http://www.hyongbu.blogspot.com/2012/02/monterey-hill-restaurant.html

A few weeks ago I returned for lunch with some people from work.  This was the first time I'd been there during the day. 

When we arrived it didn't seem busy (in fact most of the table were empty) but we were left waiting about five minutes before being seated.  While standing there I noticed food sitting under hot lamps.  This is an immediate red flag for me.  Especially when none of the waitstaff picked up any of these meals during that time.  There also appeared to be no one in the kitchen expediting anything.  Not good.

The lunch menu looked pretty good.  A nice variety of appetizers, soups & salads, sandwiches & burgers, and pastas & entrees.

For my starter I ordered the French Onion Soup (made from scratch daily).

This was pretty good.  I liked the red wine they used along with a good sized baguette crouton and Gruyere cheese.  Some restaurants cover the entire soup bowl with the cheese, which I like better, but this was fine.  Or so I thought.

When cooking French Onion Soup you use Thyme sprigs and Bay Leaves.  After it finishes cooking you remove these two items.  Halfway through I realized they had forgotten to take the Bay Leaf out when I noticed a momentary pungent, sharp, and bitter taste in my mouth.

French Onion Soup is known to be on a salty side.  This one was on the edge.  I think I felt my blood pressure going up.  Still pretty good.  I finished it.

For my entree I ordered the Parmesan Crusted Chicken breast with tomato relish capers, garlic mashed potatoes, and fresh vegetables in season.  Sounded terrific.

Nice looking presentation.  But then everything really started to go off the rails.  I initially thought I had been served two chicken breasts.  It turned out to be one breast that had been sliced in two and apparently pounded with a meat mallet (and not the flat side) to about a ¼ inch thickness.  Similar to what you would do in making Chicken Cordon Bleu, only they weren't rolling it up with anything.  I just had two very think pieces of chicken.  I'm not sure why they did that.

The chicken was encased in Parmesan cheese that had either been fried or broiled.  Either way it had a slight burned taste to it.  Plus there was so much Parmesan I couldn't taste the chicken. 

The tomato/caper relish was very good in and of itself and the sauteed seasonal vegetables were nicely done.

If you take a closer look at the picture you might notice that my Garlic Mashed Potatoes were actually Potatoes Au Gratin.  I hadn't been told by the waitstaff that it had been changed.  And you know me, I'm always ready for some garlic.  Denied.  You do use both Grutere and Parmesan cheese for Potatoes Au Gratin.  In this case they did use both but not very much of either.  Or maybe my cheese taste buds were burned out from the chicken.

I'm afraid I have to give this lunch service a vote of "No bueno".

As a side note one of the young ladies at my table ordered the Crab Cakes with a Lemongrass Aioli.  She told me that the cakes were dry as a bone.  I tasted the Aioili and it was just grated lemongrass and mayonnaise.  I guess they didn't think it needed any garlic, lemon juice, lemon zest, cayenne pepper, or Tabasco, which is how it's usually made.  But I'm just a home cook so what do I know.

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