BY NUESKE’S MEATS.

Ingredients:

15 oz. box corn bread/corn muffin mix

1 egg

2/3 cup milk

1/3 cup melted butter

1/3 cup canned diced jalapeños

2 Tbsp juice from canned jalapeños

1 ½ Tbsp agave nectar

2-3 Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Jalapeño Bacon Cheddar Brats, ?” – ¼” sliced

Directions:

Heat your oven to 375°F and coat a mini muffin tin with non-stick spray (or use a silicon mini muffin tray; no spray needed).

In a medium bowl, stir together the corn bread mix, egg, milk, melted butter, jalapeños, jalapeño juice, and agave nectar until the mixture is well-blended.

Use a small spoon to place spoonfuls of the mixture into each mini muffin compartment. Do not over-fill; leave about ?” space between the top of the batter and the top of the muffin cup. Insert a thin slice of Jalapeño Bacon Cheddar Brat, upright, in the center of each muffin.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool completely before removing from pan.

By Julie Falsetti, For The York Dispatch

In 1912, Wilbur Scoville developed a scale to measure the pungency of chili peppers. Using the Scoville scale, you can now prove to your brother-in-law that the peppers you eat are hotter than the ones he eats.

In the pepper continuum, jalapeños are pretty low on the scale, with a range of 2,500 to 8,000 Scoville units. Compare that with the Bhut Jolokia, or ghost pepper, with a rating of 800,000 to 1,001,300 units, 125 times hotter than the jalapeño.

Of course, everything is relative. One person’s mild pepper might send another running for the water pitcher. As an aside, drinking water is not a good idea to cool off your mouth. The oil in peppers is not water soluble, so you would be better off having a sip of milk or beer, or better yet a spoonful of ice cream.

Having harvested an abundance of peppers from my garden, with a bit of trepidation, I brought a small batch of tuna stuffed jalapeños to a potluck picnic.

As a trial, I offered one to a friend who likes chilies. He popped it in his mouth and pronounced it “not hot at all.”

I relaxed and put the plate of stuffed peppers on the table for the rest of the guests. A few minutes later, the same friend came running over fanning his mouth. He got a hot one.

Because the Scoville scale gives a range for hotness, there can be quite a variation in how much capsicum each pepper contains. Whether from the supermarket or your garden, you never know exactly how hot the pepper is going to be. Some gardeners say “the hotter the summer, the hotter the pepper.”

If you want an alternative to cheese-stuffed poppers, give these tuna stuffed jalapeños a try. They make a great appetizer at barbecues.

Tuna-Stuffed Jalapeños

5 jalapeño peppers

1 5-ounce can tuna

1 heaping tablespoon mayonnaise

1 scallion, finely chopped

Dash of lemon juice

Salt and pepper to taste

Paprika for decoration

Using tongs, char the peppers over a grill or the gas flame of your stove. Immediately place the charred peppers in a brown bag and twist to close. Let rest for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, mix the tuna with the mayonnaise and scallion. Add salt, pepper and lemon juice and set aside. The tuna mixture will be a bit drier than tuna salad.

Take the peppers from the bag and peel them under cold running water, rubbing off the blackened skin. Slice the peppers in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds and ribs and rinse again. Allow the peppers to drain, then soak up any remaining moisture with a paper towel.

Fill the peppers with the tuna mixture and decorate with paprika.

— Julie Falsetti, a York native, comes from a long line of good cooks. Her column, From Scratch, runs twice monthly in The York Dispatch food section.

Adapted from myrecipes.com

6 cups thinly sliced pickling cucumbers (about 2 pounds)

2 cups thinly sliced red onion

1 1/2 cups white vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon celery seeds

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon dill weed (add fresh dill if desired)

Place 3 cups cucumber in a medium glass bowl; top with 1 cup onion. Repeat procedure with the remaining 3 cups cucumber and remaining 1 cup onion. (You can also divide evenly among some type of glass jars with tight fitting lids instead of placing into a bowl.)

Combine vinegar and remaining ingredients in a small saucepan; stir well. Bring to a boil; cook 1 minute. Pour over cucumber mixture; let cool. Cover and chill at least 4 days.

Sweet Refrigerator Pickles

The original recipe I started with called for 1 teaspoon turmeric. I don’t particularly care for that seasoning. So after quite a few adjustments I came up with a version of a sweet pickle recipe that suited my taste.

3 cups sliced cucumbers

1 cup sliced onions

1 clove garlic, peeled and sliced

1 tablespoon pickling salt, sea salt or kosher salt

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1 3/4 cup white sugar or 7/8 cup honey to taste

1 teaspoon mustard seed

1/2 teaspoon celery seed

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

2 cloves, sliced

Wash and dry 4-5 small jars or 2-quart jars. Make sure the jars have tight-fitting lids. Place the cut up cucumbers into the jars.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a saucepan. Bring everything to a boil and stir until the sugar or honey is completely dissolved into the mixture.

Pour the liquid over the vegetables in the jars. Make sure the vegetables are completely covered.

Pickled Green Beans

1 pound of fresh green beans, wash and cut off stems

3 cups apple cider vinegar

1 cup water

1/8 cup kosher or pickling salt

1/8 cup granulated sugar

2 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Fresh dill sprigs

Black or white peppercorns

Wash and dry 2 glass jars (pint size). (Or double the recipe and use a quart jar.)

In the bottom of each jar, place a garlic clove, dill sprig, a few peppercorns and 1/2 teaspoon of the pepper flakes.

Tightly pack green beans into jars and set aside. Place the vinegar, water, salt and sugar in a medium sized saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

Boil the liquid for one minute. Remove from heat. Pour the hot vinegar liquid over the beans and screw lids on the jars. Set aside to cool.

Once the jars are cool, place in the refrigerator. Let the beans sit 24 to 48 hours before eating.

Gary Black gblack@newsminer.com   –   newsminer.com