Ingredients
Units
Scale
- a mix of 8 green jalapeno and 8 red Fresno peppers, or just one kind, as you see fit
- 1/2 cup finely-shredded or minced cotswold cheese (or use your favorite cheese) mixed with 1/2 cup sour cream and green onion dip, made with a goodly sprinkle of instant miso soup mix replacing the same amount of packaged dip mix
- 3/4 cup shelled and de-veined shrimp, 1/4 cup sweet Italian sausage meat, 2 sprigs fresh tarragon or chervil, plus 2 tsp. oyster sauce, 3 peeled thin ginger slices, a clove of garlic, 2 Tbsp. water chestnuts from a can – all roughly puréed in a food processor
- your favorite brand of bacon strips
- minced fresh oregano to garnish
- your favorite bbq sauce in a squeeze bottle
Instructions
- Start with a big pile of fat jalapeno peppers. Wash and cut the stem end off , then halve them. Be sure and remove the ribs and seeds, that will make them less incendiary for your more sensitive guests – a grapefruit spoon is the ideal tool for this due to its serrated edge! Alternatively, buy some red fresno chiles as well, but leave the ribs intact – red fresnos are hot, green is milder…
- Add a bit of cheese to each – my personal choice is Cotswold cheese, which melts well, has a good ‘zingy’ character and has some chives in it, which add nice flavor. Whole Foods carries this. Failing that – use whatever cheese your heart desires.
- Add some kind of meat. I personally like pureed shrimp meat, but anything will work – sausage, crab, you name it. If using shrimp, I would puree some tarragon leaves in with it, as well as some peeled ginger, a clove of garlic or to taste, some canned water chestnuts as well as a touch of oyster or abalone sauce (available at Chinese grocers) for additional richness and salt.
- It works better to put the meat in first, and then the cheese on top. The cheese will melt down through the meat. Fill each half level to the top.
- Wrap each stuffed pepper with bacon. I use half a strip per pepper half, wrapping it around a couple of times.
- Spear with a toothpick (or not), they tend to hold together just fine without. If using them, I’d strongly recommend soaking the toothpicks in water first, so they don’t burn on the grill.
- Stack the ABTs on a cookie screen or fish grid, which makes it easier to remove them later.
- Preheat your BBQ to 300 or 325 degrees. You can add a single chunk of ‘flavoring’ wood (soaked for at least an hour in water) to the coals, for some nice additional smoke flavor, but that’s just me. I prefer cherry, oak or pecan wood in this recipe.
- Put the ABTs in the BBQ for about 30 to 45 minutes – I prefer 30 minutes as I like the bacon fatty and not too crisp, but go with whatever appeals to you.
- Unless you have a well-sealed smoking or grilling device, you will want to put some kind of drip pan under the ABTs. The bacon will drip fat all over the coals and flare-ups are a very real risk.
- Take the ABTs off the BBQ and let them sit for a few minutes. The bacon will crisp up a bit and this will also avoid hot cheese burns.
- Add a few dots of bbq sauce on each ABT and garnish with minced fresh oregano. Spear each ABT with a toothpick if you haven’t already done so. Serve and enjoy – these go FAST at a party.
