Few things get my attention from the American cuisine… one of them is certainly jalapeno poppers. And it must be more Mexican than American. But something about the name, or the melted cheese combined with spicy made me really want to try this food.
So I went shopping for jalapenos! I tried every single super and hypermarket in Spain and all the big local vegetable markets and could not find any… I decided to plant them myself. So I went to every small and big shop that sells seeds, same story. Don’t ask me why it is impossible to find jalapenos in Spain. I would expect that having a Spanish named pepper makes that pepper present in all Spanish speaking countries, but apparently not.
So I ordered some seeds from Ebay and here’s how the adventure continued!
Jalapeno poppers
Waiting time: 3 months
Cooking time: 10 min
Patience level: high
Ingredients
- jalapeno seeds
- mixing soil for vegetables
- 2 pots with 2 different sizes
- fertilizer (NPK 5.4.8)
- cheddar cheese
- cream cheese
- milk
- flour
- bread crumbs
- oil for frying
Directions
- Plant your seeds in a small pot, I use yogurt cups or plastic bottles. I wrap them in something dark so that the roots don’t have light and drill many holes on the bottom.
- Keep the soil moist and wait for the germination. It took me 18 days.
- Until your plant will make buds and is big enough for transplanting, make sure you let the pests to eat only a tiny bit of the leaves. Try to kill them all… or use inorganic insecticides. Keep the soil moist at all time, but not soggy.
20 days after planting the seed
22 days after planting the seed
27 days after planting the seed - Once the plant has buds (took mine 52 days until it got to this level), transplant it into the bigger and final pot. I did not use fertilizer, since the soil already had some. But I did fertilize it after 2 weeks.
transplanting after 53 days
- I did not prune or top my plant, it is a determined type so I let it grow at is was designed. It did grow very tall in comparison with my habanero, cayenne and other peppers, but it was a successful plant after all with really big leaves.
you can see how tall it is in comparison with the rest of the peppers
- Expect white flowers and get purple ones after 2 months from planting the seed.
- Wait impatiently for the green jalapenos you dreamed of and get black ones instead. First fruit came out in just 72 days from planting the seed and it matured in just 10 days!
first fruit after 72 days
one day later…
2 days later…
5 days later…
8 days later…
9 days later….
- Once they are grown to the maximum size after exactly 3 months from seeding, pick them up and wash them.
- Cut them into halves leaving the tail. Try to see how spicy they are and based on this you leave more membrane inside or not at all.
- Keep the seeds for faster planting next year.
- Fill them up with cheddar mixed with cream cheese.
- Bathe them into milk and cover them with flour.
- Bathe them again into milk and cover them well in bread crumbs.
- To make sure they are very crunchy, repeat the step above.
- Fry themfirst on the belly part and then on the back. The reason is that the belly part has almost direct access to the cheese and it will not melt as fast if you fry it first on the belly.
- After 4 months of waiting, enjoy your jalapeno poppers!
