Stuffed Jalapeños

Emerging from an icy February, these stuffed jalapeños are the right mix of heat and comfort to put a twinkle in the eye.

Surprise surprise, I actually measured!  To stuff 6 large jalapeños we used: 

3/4 cup chickpea flour (besan)

1.5 tsp cumin seed

1/2 tsp salt
A few tablespoons of oil (not measured)

Step 1 Dry-roast the besan+cumin seed on low heat until aroma and color indicate it is toasty. The color should become a richer shade of golden but not brown. The second you notice the color change, remove from heat. Allow to cool before mixing in 2-3 spoons oil – just enough to be not too dry but not so much that it clumps.

Step 2 Make a slit in the peppers, almost end to end but not quite.  To ease the heat level, I remove the seeds and hollow out the inside of the pepper. Sometimes this means I end up removing the stem as well as pictured below. If you prefer the pepper full-strength, then no need to remove, and you can therefore get away with a shorter slit which makes it easier to keep the stuffing inside while roasting.

Step 3: Insert stuffing. Putting thumb and forefinger on opposite sides of the pepper, squeeze gently so as to part the pepper along the slit and insert the stuffing. In case your slit is so long that the pepper does not close easily, you may optionally tie a thread around the pepper to keep it closed while roasting. One can also keep them closed by hand – it takes time but not hard if only making a few, as above.

Step 4: Roast on the stove top: Place the peppers on a griddle or pan at medium or medium high heat (5 or 6 on a scale of 1-9), uncovered. Put a little bit of oil near / around each pepper. Roast about 5 minutes until brown and slightly shriveled, then turn the pepper on its side. Repeat until all sides have roasted.

Stuffed jalapeños with rice topped with olive oil or butter.

Serve with rice topped with olive oil or butter.