Columbia, MD

It is very early. The cuckoo clock says it’s 4:00 am. I am suffering from eating too many jalapeño poppers. It’s all good. 

Every year, sometime around Labor Day, I bring in a big harvest of jalapeño peppers from the garden. The family comes over and we make poppers; jalapeños stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped with bacon.

Making the poppers is quite a production. We all gather around the kitchen island and form an assembly line. I’ve collected a few items to make the process a little easier.

• Item one: a box of vinyl gloves. This prevents your hands from becoming too spicy hot. Also, having plenty of gloves allows everyone to help out in the fun.

  

• Item two: a jalapeño knife corer. This handy tool makes it easy to deseed and devein the jalapeños. Note: a paring knife works almost as well.

  

• Item three: a toothpick dispenser.

  

• Item four: a jalapeño grill and roaster pan

Prep work is fairly simple. Cut the top off the jalapeño, then core. Stuff the pepper with cream cheese. Using scissors, cut a piece of bacon to cover the top of the pepper and hold in the cream cheese. Use a toothpick to keep the bacon on and prevent the pepper from falling through the grill hole. Cook on the grill over indirect heat for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the bacon is cooked.

This year we paired these spicy delicacies with some IPAs collected from my Maine trip: Maine Beer Company Lunch, Trillium Double Dry Hopped Sleeper Street, and Tired Hands Hop Hands. The fruity hops of the IPAs stood up well to the spicy poppers.

The event was a big success. All the IPAs were exceptional, with the Double Dry Hopped Sleeper Street the star of the day with tropical fruit hops tasting of apricot, papaya, and mango. Not a popper remained.

Note to self: Next year pick up some Tagamet on the way home from the garden.

Cheers!

Warren