Our extended hot temperatures have left me with very little creativity in the kitchen. I want to focus on fall squash and greens, but the local harvest is full of peppers in a variety of colors and heat indexes. Recently some vibrant red and orange sweet peppers caught my eye at the store. They were so fresh and pretty that I wanted to find something to do with them. I grabbed some cream cheese and smoked bacon. Soon we were celebrating the joys of poppers.
Poppers are a great social food. They are easy to grab and delicious to eat. The nearly limitless options of pepper, filling, and wrapper spawn popper stories whenever we serve them. “Remember the time we thought we had sweet peppers and only the brave could eat them?” “Remember the time we didn’t know what to do with the duck? So we made poppers!” “Remember the time we used mom’s expensive cheese in poppers?”
The very simplicity of poppers makes them a versatile food. When making poppers there are three essential components- a pepper, a filling and a wrapper. The pepper is seeded and cut to make a “cup” like container to hold the chosen filling and some type of wrapper holds everything together. The choices and combinations are limitless… sweet or hot pepper, meat or cheese filling, bacon or breading wrapper, grilled, broiled, or fried.
Although poppers can be labor intensive, the steps are simple enough that they are easily assembled by many hands that make light work. This invites others, even children, into the kitchen so fellowship and laughter can commence!
What are your popper stories?