Baked/Broiled Stuffed Jalapenos

All of the sudden from scorching heat of 99 degrees temps here dropped to 66-70 degrees with cold rain.


This was much needed rain and the cold temps made a beautiful sleeping weather.


However we needed something to heat the body and what a better way to do it other than with a hot appetizer of stuffed spicy jalapeno peppers :)


I had all the ingredients so decided to make them and they were delicious !!
Here is my version of recipe.




Ingredients:




* 12-15 Jalapenos


* ~1/8 cup of Olive oil to brush jalapenos



* 1 (8 oz) pack of cream cheese softened at room temp



* 1 cup shredded sharp yellow or white cheddar cheese



* 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese



* 1/2 cup sour cream or may use ranch dressing instead



* 1/4 cup chopped cilantro (optional)



* 1 small onion



* One half of green pepper and one half of yellow or red pepper (capsicums)



* 2 table spoon of olive oil or any cooking vegetable oil



* 1 and half teaspoon of cumin seeds



* 3-4 cloves of finely chopped garlic



* 1 teaspoon Sea salt or to taste



* Juice from one fresh lime






Method:





* Wear gloves to protect hand from heat of Jalapenos and cut the each Jalapeno in half and seed them leaving the stem intact if possible.



* Arrange them on a baking tray sprinkle little sea salt on each jalapeno half, set aside.


* Brush Jalapenos half with olive oil inside and out.


* Heat 2 tablespoon of oil in a pan, add cumin seeds when these crackle, add chopped garlic, chopped green/yellow/red peppers and onion and saute until light brown, turn the heat off. When finely chop these in food processor.



* Mix soften cream cheese, shredded mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese and sour cream.



* Add sauteed and chopped onion, garlic and peppers mix, and cilantro to this mix until everything is well incorporated.



* Heat oven to 450 degrees F.



* With a spatula stuff each pepper with above prepared cheese and onion/pepper mix.



* Sprinkle lime juice on each pepper.



* Place the baking tray with stuffed jalapenos in the oven.



* Close the oven door and turn the heat down to 425 F and bake for 20-25 min until cheese is melted and bubbly and pepper skin appears soft.



* Turn the oven to broil and broil the pepper for 2-3 min until cheese is light brown.
















Serve hot and enjoy :)

Word of Caution: They are spicy !!




Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.

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Triple Berry Homemade Frozen Yogurt

I must admit and you may call me crazy for this but I have never been Ice cream or frozen treats fan.

My sons or my husband could never convince me to try any of the frozen treats here, but when we went to California last year, my friend Aarti convinced me to try the tart yogurt from "Pink berry" so reluctantly I did with fresh mangoes on top...and I was hooked !! to Plain tart yogurt with all the fruit and roasted almonds toppings.

I started going to this new yogurt places in my town, there are so many of these popping up on every corner of the town that they drove the of of our major ice cream store out of business :(

It does get very expensive though as they sell the yogurt with topping by weight and before you know it one serving can add up to 6-7 dollars each with weight of all the fruits. So I decided to make my own tart yogurt with plain home made yogurt which I always have in my fridge, and I must say it came out pretty good.

Now for some of you the plain tart frozen yogurt may be too boring, so for the blog I wanted to post something colorful and I decided to make it again this time with triple berries (frozen black and red raspberries, blue berries and fresh strawberries)



Ingredients:


* 4 cups home made plain yogurt (recipe on this blog) or 32 oz of plain Greek yogurt


* 1 pack (16 oz) of frozen triple berries (divided in half) (black raspberries, red raspberries and blue berries) You can use fresh black and red raspberries (I am not fan of blue berries, but this was the only pack I had in my freezer)


* 15 fresh strawberries, (keep about 5-6 of them aside for topping)


* 1 can of condensed milk


* 1 teaspoon vanilla


* 2 tables spoon of powdered sugar


* You will need an electric ice cream or frozen yogurt maker, make sure the ice cream maker container has been in the freezer for at least 24 hours before use.





Method:



* Take a cheese cloth, put the yogurt in the cheese cloth and tie it, hang it on the kitchen faucet or somewhere high with a container underneath for water to drain from the yogurt. Let it hang for 1-2 hour. Then refrigerate it until ready to make the yogurt.


* Place half the bag of frozen berries and 8-10 strawberries in food processor and grind them to paste consistency.


* Scoop the strained yogurt in a bowl, fold in and mix the berries paste, condensed milk and vanilla.


* Transfer the contents in the frozen container of ice cream maker.


* I let the ice cream maker run for 45 min.


* In the mean time slice the remaining strawberries and mix them with half bag of frozen berries, add powdered sugar and mix well and set aside for topping.


* Transfer the frozen yogurt in plastic freezer safe container.


* Serve it immediately with berry topping on top and freeze the rest.



Suggestions:



* If you don't like condensed milk, you can use 3/4 cup of granulated sugar (or to taste) instead of condensed milk for this recipe.


* You may add low fat or fat free sour cream with yogurt.


* Some other suggestion for fruit flavored yogurt other than berries is Mango frozen yogurt(you can use mango pulp for this), Lychee frozen yogurt (you can use canned lychees for this, drain them and make a pulp in food processor) Peaches (use canned peaches drained and make pulp in the food processor), Pineapple the same way you can just do one berry instead of triple berries. My favorite is mango and plain tart yogurt.


* For plain tart yogurt, I just used the plain yogurt, condensed milk (3/4 of the can) and vanilla. You can substitute the condensed milk with 3/4 cup of sugar or sweetener. I omitted the berries and then you can use desired fruit, nuts, granola or cereal toppings.


* With topping you can get as creative as your palate desires with different fruit sauces, caramel, chocolate, butterscotch, fudge etc etc...




Enjoy and beat this scorching heat !!




Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.

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