Jalapeño Archives - With Just a Bit of Magic

A few weeks ago when I heard that Julie from MamaMash was taking a little break from blogging I was sad! I loved reading her posts and especially her Monday Meals… she had so many wonderful recipes to try. When she sent out the tweet that she’d be around and would guest post if asked I immediately jumped at that and asked if she would share one of her recipes with me here on the Monday Menu.

Please give Julie a warm & magical welcome!

Thanks to Jackie for pulling me back to the blog world for a bit to share a recipe. I miss my online community and hope to return to you soon!

I married a sports guy. I swear I didn’t know he was a sports guy when I accepted his proposal – I thought he was a musician.

Turns out the two aren’t mutually exclusive (who knew) and not only are my weekends filled with the otherworldly noises emanating from his synth rig upstairs, I can also count on a dull roar of fandom as heard through surround sound downstairs.

Lucky me.

Over the last few years, I’ve developed a bit of Stockholm Syndrome and I’m often found flopped on the couch riveted to the game along with my husband. We live in Kansas City, so it’s usually a depressing experience.

I’m not about to make a sad situation worse by tossing out some Fritos and bean dip, so I insist we eat good food on game day.

So, one week we watched the Chiefs lose and ate some pretty serious 5 alarm chili.

The next week we watched the Chiefs lose and had grilled Gruyere sandwiches and tomato basil soup.

This coming Sunday, even though the Chiefs aren’t in the Superbowl (I know, I’m shocked) we’ll still be sprawled out in front of the flat screen anyway. We’re going to see large, overpaid men compete for bragging rights and a sparkly piece of jewelry, and I’m gonna make my mama’s fried stuffed peppers.

(Technically, these aren’t my mama’s. A lovely former co-worker of ours used to bring these peppers to the teacher’s lounge on special days. If we knew in advance she was coming, we’d lurk around the corner so as to pile our share of peppers on a plate and sneak them into our classrooms for later. If you waited til lunch for a pepper, well, you’d be licking the crumbs off the paper towels is all I’m sayin’.)

Crab-stuffed Fried Jalapenos

1 box Stovetop Stuffing

1 can crab meat

1 large can whole jalapeno peppers

1 cup flour

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup breadcrumbs

vegetable oil for frying

Slice the jalapenos in half lengthwise, rinse and dry well with paper towels. If you’re a sensitive-skinned type, wear gloves. Better yet, make someone else do this part.

Prepare the stuffing as directed and set aside.

Open and drain the crabmeat well. Combine with the stuffing then stuff each pepper, leaving a nice rounded mound.

Refrigerate the stuffed peppers anywhere from two hours to overnight. You’ll probably want to cover them tightly as milk tends to taste funny when it absorbs a pepper/shellfish smell.

When you’re ready to serve them, set out a plate of flour, a bowl of buttermilk and a plate of breadcrumbs.

Heat the oil to between 350 to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Roll each pepper through the flour, dip in the buttermilk and roll through the bread crumbs, then slide into the oil.