Cheesy Shrimp Stuffed Poblano Peppers

These cheesy shrimp stuffed poblano peppers are wrapped in bacon and roasted till the bacon is crispy and the cheese is soft and melted. They make a fabulous starter or even a good main course, served with sides. 

Pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before but my meals each week are often predicated on whatever catches my eye in the market or grocery store. (These days mostly just the grocery store since I am limiting my forays into the public to once a week.) 

These shiny green poblano peppers jumped out at me and I suddenly remembered a recipe I made years and years ago around this time, from a post on my friend Christine’s blog, where she used cornbread dressing to stuff poblanos. Girl after my own Texas heart. 

When she first posted it, I had never come across poblano peppers in Dubai but then, suddenly, my supermarket had some! You’ve never seen anyone so excited over a vegetable since, honestly, I don’t know when. I know, I'm sad, but here we are. 

Meanwhile, I'm back in Texas where poblanos abound. I didn’t have any cornbread stuffing on hand but I did have queso fresco or farmer’s cheese, shrimp and bacon and who can resist those? If you are looking for a non-traditional Thanksgiving dish, try these stuffed peppers. We loved them!

Cheesy Shrimp Stuffed Poblano Peppers

For this dish I used jalapeño bacon but any smoked bacon would be just as lovely. We happen to be chili pepper freaks in our house so our motto is the more heat the better. It’s also hard to tell from the photos but my poblano peppers were about 6-7 in or 15-18cm long. The cheese is a fresh, soft, dry curd cheese highly prized for many recipes in Mexico and South America. If you can’t get a similar cheese, perhaps try a fresh goat cheese instead. The flavor will be different but still delicious. We are looking for something that will melt without melting out of the pepper. In a pinch you could use grated cheddar mixed through with well-drained cottage cheese or ricotta so it doesn’t completely melt and drip out of the peppers because no one wants that. 

Ingredients

4 fresh poblano peppers (480g total)

10 1/2 oz or 300g raw, peeled, cleaned shrimp

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons butter

5 oz or 142g queso fresco

8 slices smoked bacon 

Optional to serve: your favorite salsa

Method

Heat your broiler to high, move your oven rack up to the top position and put the peppers on a big sheet of aluminum foil on a large baking pan. 

Roast the peppers for several minutes on each side, making sure to keep a close eye on them so they just pop and char a little but don’t completely burn. 

When they are nice and scorched on all sides, remove the pan from the oven and wrap the foil loosely around the peppers, closing the steam in by crimping the sides.  Set aside for 10 minutes. 

Open the foil and gentle remove the outer peelings. Cut a slit up the middle of each pepper. Save the foil for use later. 

Sauté the garlic in the butter for a few minutes, being careful not to let it color or, God forbid, burn. Add in the shrimp and cook till they release their water, then cook a few more minutes, until the pan is almost, but not quite, dry again. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. 

Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C. 

Slice the cheese into slim sticks and fill the bottom of the pepper with a little of them, tucking cheese right up under the seeded core at the stem end.

Add in one quarter of the shrimp with garlic.

 Top with more cheese. 

As best you can, try to gently pull up the sides of the pepper to close the slit. Stick a toothpick in, if that helps. Use two slices of bacon to wrap around and around the pepper to hold it closed.

Repeat until all four peppers are stuffed and bacon-wrapped. 

Return the peppers to the foil and put it back on the baking pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until the bacon is cooked and golden. 

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about five minutes. 

Serve with your favorite salsa for a generous first course or with a side salad and veggies as a main course. 

Enjoy! 

This month my Fish Friday Foodie friends are sharing recipes to serve for Thanksgiving. Many thanks to our founder and host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Check out the recipes below.

• Cheesy Shrimp Stuffed Poblano Peppers from Food Lust People Love
• Crab Stuffed Deviled Eggs from Palatable Pastime
• Cracked Crab with Lemongrass, Black Pepper, and Basil from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Shrimp Mini Quiche Appetizers from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Shrimp Turkey Centerpiece from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Crispy Brussels Sprouts Salad with Seared Scallops from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Pumpkin and Shrimp Bisque from Making Miracles
• Thai Noodles With Shrimps from Sneha's Recipe

Are you a food blogger who would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517 (at) gmail.com. Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas.

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Cheesy Mixed Seafood Gratin #FishFridayFoodies

This cheesy mixed seafood gratin is a comforting dish your whole family will love. Serve it with grilled baguette slices as an appetizer, as a stand alone main course or to top a baked potato or pasta. 

I tend to buy seafood, at least when I don’t buy it fresh, in bags where it’s been flash frozen in individual pieces because that makes it easy to thaw and cook exactly what you need. 

The problem with this system, if it can even be called a system, is that sometimes I have one fish fillet or a handful of shrimp - or whatever - at the end of the bag. That’s when this tasty recipe comes in handy. 

Use whatever seafood you have! Crab meat, shrimp, any sort of boneless fish – smoked or not, scallops, mussels, even lobster meat, if you are so lucky. I’d probably draw the line at octopus or squid since they can be chewy when overcooked. 

Cheesy Mixed Seafood Gratin 

One more suggestion for serving this cheesy mixed seafood gratin: Add some frozen peas or even diced carrots, bake it topped with mashed potatoes instead of the breadcrumbs and call it fish pie, another warm and comforting dish. I love the versatility of this dish!

Ingredients

1/2 cup or 113g butter 

2 small stalks celery

1/2 medium onion

1/2 green bellpepper

1 red chili pepper (optional)

2 large cloves garlic

1/2 cup or 63g flour 

2 cups or 473ml milk 

8 oz or 226g cream cheese, at room temperature

2 fillets fish (about 3 1/2  – 4 1/4 oz or 100-120g each – I used one tilapia, one salmon

1 lb 1 2/3 oz or 500g shrimps, already peeled and deveined

3 1/2 oz or 100g smoked salmon

1 tablespoon sherry

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

For topping:

1/2 cup, packed, or 60g fresh breadcrumbs

3 oz or 85g Parmesan, grated

3 oz or 85g mozzarella, grated

drizzle olive oil

Optional to garnish:

Chopped flat leaf parsley

Method

Remove the hard strings and cut the celery into small cubes. Peel and dice the onion. Dice the green pepper, red pepper and mince the garlic.

Heat half of the butter over a low to medium flame, preferably in a pan that can go into the oven later. No one wants more washing up. 

Sauté the vegetables in the butter until they’ve softened, about 5-7 minutes. 

Add in the rest of the butter and let it melt. 

Add in the flour and stir until it’s well combined with the butter and veg with no flour showing. I like to add my flour with a sifter or sieve a little at a time, just sprinkling the top.

Once it’s all added, cook for a minute or two to get rid of the floury flavor. 

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. 

Turn off the heat under the pan and stir the milk in a little at a time stirring well so you don’t create any lumps. 

Once it’s completely incorporated, add in the cream cheese cut into cubes and turn the heat back on low. 

Meanwhile, cut your seafood into bite-sized pieces. I chopped the smoked salmon pretty fine because it is quite salty and it's best dispersed evenly throughout the gratin. 

When the sauce has thickened, add the seafood to the pan and cook for several minutes over a medium flame until the sauce begins to bubble a little and seafood is just cooked through. 

Add in the sherry and season to taste with sea salt (if you are using salty smoked fish you might not need any) and few good grinds of black pepper. Stir well. 

If your pan is not oven-friendly now is the time to transfer the mixture to a baking dish that is. Toss together the breadcrumbs, Parmesan and mozzarella. Sprinkle the mixture on the seafood. 

Drizzle the top with olive oil. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden and the gratin is bubbling nicely around the edges. 

Remove from the oven and sprinkle with a little chopped parsley for garnish. 

Serve on grilled bread, as topping for a baked potato or cooked pasta, or even on its own - with fresh veggies or a green salad to complete the meal. 

Enjoy!

This month my Friday Fish Foodie friends are sharing comfort food recipes made with seafood. Many thanks to our host, Sue of Palatable Pastime and our chief organizer Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Check out all the wonderful dishes!

• Bourride from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Cheesy Mixed Seafood Gratin from Food Lust People Love
• Crab and Rice Croquettes from Palatable Pastime
• Creamy Crab Soup from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Creamed Salmon from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• East Indian Fried Dry Bombil Masala from Sneha's Recipe
• Fish Po' Boy Sandwich from Making Miracles
• Popcorn-Battered Fried Fish, Remembering Oklahoma, and Kids in the Kitchen from Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Are you a food blogger who would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517 (at) gmail.com. Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas.

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Camarones a la Diabla - Deviled Shrimp #FishFridayFoodies

The wonderful bright sauce for Camarones a la Diabla or Deviled Shrimp is made with dried chili peppers, roma tomatoes, garlic and onions but the star of this dish is definitely the large flavorful shrimp. Serve with fresh corn tortillas as an appetizer or with rice as a main course.

Here in Texas we are big into Mexican food but frankly, much of it is what should properly called Tex-Mex and wouldn’t be recognized as Mexican food in its supposed country of origin. That’s why I was delighted when this month’s Fish Friday Foodies theme of Mexican seafood dishes was chosen. It’s always fun to explore new recipes and I rightly guessed that many I’d find on the internet were completely unfamiliar.

As with many regional dishes - this favorite is from the state of Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico coast - there seem to be as many camarones a la diabla recipes as there are Mexican mamás. Most use dried chili peppers and fresh tomatoes but sometimes chipotle peppers in adobo and roasted tomatoes are added and/or substituted.

I found them served with white rice, saffron rice, corn tortillas, avocados, limes and even fried platano, those lovely big bananas that turn super sweet when their skin is black and are wonderful for breakfast fried with butter.

I cooked fresh corn tortillas and served them with guacamole. Probably not traditional but they were delicious.

Camarones a la Diabla - Deviled Shrimp

I thought my Roma tomatoes, while quite lovely and ripe, were smaller than the ones I’m used to buying so I used four for this recipe. Come to find out, mine (at around 3 oz or 85g each) were in the medium range since Romas range in weight from 2-5 oz and 57-142g. Who knew? I give the exact weight I used below but know that a little more or less will still be delicious. My recipe is adapted from one on Isabel Eats.

Ingredients
8 dried guajillo chiles
3 dried chile de arbol chiles
4 Roma tomatoes (about 11 1/2 oz or 325g before coring)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 medium onion
1 teaspoon fine sea salt plus more as needed
1 teaspoon sugar
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 lbs or 680g frozen headless shrimp, peel on (about 20 large shrimp)
salt and pepper, to taste

To garnish: fresh cilantro
To serve: corn tortillas, limes and (not pictured) guacamole or see suggestions above.

Method
Set the shrimp in a colander in the sink or over a bowl to thaw and drain, preferably overnight in the refrigerator. If you don’t have time for this, run a little tap water over the shrimp to thaw them drain in the refrigerator while you make the sauce.

Once thawed and drained, peel and clean the shrimp but leave the tails on. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon sea salt and refrigerate again until needed.

Meanwhile, remove the stems from your arbol chiles (the little ones) and remove the stems and seeds from the dried guajillos (the large ones.) I find the easiest way to deseed guajillos is to run a pair of scissors or a sharp knife up one side to open the pepper. The seeds fall out with hardly any effort.

Put the dried peppers in a heatproof bowl and cover them with boiling water. Set a plate on top to hold the heat in.  Set aside for 15 minutes or until the chiles have softened.

Remove the hard cores and chop your Roma tomatoes into large dice. Leave the seeds in; they add flavor.

Dice the onion and roughly chop the garlic.

Transfer the softened chiles with a pair of tongs to a large blender or a deep vessel suitable for a hand blender. Add the tomatoes, garlic, onion, salt and sugar along with 1/4 cup or 60ml of the soaking water. Puree until completely smooth.

Heat a large sauté pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and shrimp. Cook shrimp for a minute or two per side, or until shrimp is lightly browned but not cooked through. You may have to do this in two batches as I did, to make sure you don’t crowd the pan. Remove the shrimp to a plate.

Add the red sauce to the pan. Cook for about 10-12 minutes over a medium low heat or until the mixture is thick and doesn’t taste as sharply of raw onion and garlic.

Add in the shrimp back to the pan and stir to coat the shrimp with the sauce.

Raise the heat and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until the shrimp are cooked through and the sauce is really stuck to them. Taste and season with more salt, if necessary.

Remove the pan from the heat, garnish with cilantro if using and serve right away. The camarones a la diabla can also be refrigerated for a day and gently reheated in a pan in over a medium fire before serving.

Enjoy!

This month my Fish Friday Foodies friends are cooking Mexican seafood dishes at the instigation of our host Rebekah of Making Miracles. Check out all the great recipes below:

• Camarones a la Diabla - Mexican Deviled Shrimp by Food Lust People Love
• Ceviche Naranja by Palatable Pastime
• Crab Cakes with Jalapeño Aioli by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Mexican Shrimp Casserole by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Mexican Style Shrimp by Sneha's Recipe
• Prawn Ceviche with Avocados by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Salmon Tacos with Avocado Salsa by Making Miracles

Are you a food blogger who would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517 (at) gmail.com. Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas.

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Bay Scallop Shrimp Biryani #FishFridayFoodies

This Bay Scallop Shrimp Biryani is a fragrant dish of well-seasoned seafood quickly seared till golden then mixed with long-grained basmati rice. It’s one of our favorite one-pot meals!

We love biryani but I must confess that it’s not a dish I make very often, primarily because, aside from egg biryani, my favorite kind is made with lamb. Lamb biryani means cooking the meat first, long and slow, in which case I’m probably just going to make lamb curry or lamb stew and serve them with white rice.

It’s just occurring to me that maybe I need to try a lamb biryani in my Instant Pot. I still think it would take longer than this relatively quick bay scallop shrimp biryani.

Bay Scallop Shrimp Biryani

If you are using frozen shrimp and scallops in this recipe, make sure to thaw and drain well before you begin. Since we want to get a good sear with color on them, I’d even suggest patting them dry with a paper towel before seasoning. I’ve adapted this recipe from the shrimp biryani in At Home with Madhur Jaffrey.

Ingredients
2 cups or 385g long-grained basmati rice
1 lb or 450g bay scallops
1 lb or 450g medium raw shrimp, peeled and cleaned
1 small bunch fresh cilantro
5-6 medium garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons canola oil or other light oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 2/3 cups or 630ml store-bought or homemade shrimp or fish stock
4 cardamom pods
3 inch or 7.5cm stick cinnamon

Optional to serve:
Fried onions – can be purchased at most Asian markets

Method
Discard any hard stems from the cilantro and then mince the tender stems finely. Chop the leaves roughly and set aside a small handful for garnish at the end.

Rinse and strain the rice with cool cold water until the liquid that comes off the rice is clear. When done, drain the rice. I have a special tool for this that I bought when I lived in Brazil, where it got use daily. It’s called, no surprise, a “lava arroz” which means, wash rice.

You can use a colander or strainer, if the holes are small enough. Finally soak the rinsed rice in more cool water for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium-sized bowl, combine the scallops and shrimp with the minced fine cilantro stems, garlic, cumin, turmeric, cayenne, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and a generous few grinds of black pepper. Toss well. Set bowl aside for 5 minutes.

Heat large non-stick skillet over a high heat. Add a small drizzle of the oil and then about a quarter of the shrimp and scallops and sear them quickly. You are looking for a little brown color so avoid stirring for the first minute or so. Check for color with a pair of tongs.

Just starting to brown! 

Cook another minute and tip them into a bowl. Continue with the rest of the shrimp and scallops until all are seared and in the bowl. Add in the lemon juice and the bigger pile of chopped cilantro.

Mix well.

Add 2 tablespoons oil to your skillet. (You will see that I changed pans here. This is because I don’t have a tight-fitting lid for my non-stick skillet. If you do, you can continue in the same pan. I did deglaze my original pan with a little of the stock so I wouldn’t lose the brown bits left behind there.)

Give the cardamom pods a slight bash with your pestle or the flat side of a knife. You just want to crack them open a little. Add the cinnamon to the pan along with the cardamom pods. Fry over a medium heat for a couple of minutes.

Pour the stock into the pan and turn the heat up. Assuming you’ve used the same pan, use a wooden spoon to dislodge any brown bits on the pan.

When the liquid comes to a boil, add the rice and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Stir well, and then cover the pan tightly, reduce the heat to your lowest simmer, and cook for 25 minutes.

Turn off the heat and leave the pan to rest covered for 10 minutes. Remove the lid of the pan. You can discard the cinnamon stick and the cardamom or leave them in. Up to you.

Distribute the scallops and shrimp over the top of the rice and scrape in any juices that have accumulated in the bowl. Cover and set aside for another minute or two.

Stir the mixture gently.  Sprinkle with the reserved cilantro leaves and some crunchy fried onions.

Enjoy!

Check out the other lovely biryanis my fellow Fish Friday Foodies are sharing today. Many thanks to our host, Sneha of Sneha's Recipe and our group leader Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm.

• Bay Scallop Shrimp Biryani by Food Lust People Love
• Instant Pot Shrimp Biryani by Making Miracles
• Prawn Biryani + Homemade Naan by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Seafood Biryani by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Shrimp Biryani by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Tandoori Prawn Biryani For One by Sneha's Recipe

Would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517 (at) gmail.com. Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas.

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Spicy Salmon Shrimp Loaf #BundtBakers

This spicy salmon shrimp loaf is a new take on my popular salmon shrimp burger recipe, baked in a Bundt pan. It is tender and juicy so you don’t need the pink sauce, but I highly recommend it nonetheless.

Often when I’ve read recipes for a salmon loaf, they are either made with canned salmon or are more mousse than loaf, or God forbid, both.  This one is neither. It’s a “meaty” flavorful slice and the perfect main course for your family or even a dinner party. (Anyone remember what those are?) I served this with some buttered baby new red potatoes and sautéed yellow squash so it was a colorful meal indeed.

Spicy Salmon Shrimp Loaf 

If you are using raw frozen shrimp to make this loaf, make sure to thaw and drain it thoroughly before starting. In order to protect the shrimp from freezer burn, a coat of water is usually added to the outside of the shrimp. Unless thawed and well drained, that water will add too much liquid and your loaf may fall apart.

Ingredients
For the loaf:
Canola or other light oil for greasing pan
3-4 tablespoons dried breadcrumbs for coating pan
1 1/2 lb or 680g salmon fillet – weight after skinned and bones removed, if any
1 1/4 lbs or 567g raw shrimp – weight after peeling and cleaning
Fine sea salt
Black pepper
2 slices fresh whole-wheat sandwich bread
1 medium onion, chopped (my weighed about 170g)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon crushed red chili pepper
1 teaspoon mustard powder
Fine sea salt
Black pepper
6-8 green onion tops, minced

For the salsa rosada or spicy mayo:
1/2 cup or 120ml good quality mayonnaise
1/4 cup or 60ml ketchup
2 teaspoons hot sauce – or more to your taste
Optional – a little grated onion

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 10- cup Bundt pan by brushing the inside liberally with canola or another light oil. Sprinkle on the dried breadcrumbs to coat. Set aside.

Lay your salmon and shrimp out on a cutting board and season them with salt and a few good grinds of fresh black pepper.

Put the slices of bread into your food processor and process until they are large fluffy crumbs.

Add in the onion, eggs, chili pepper, mustard powder and a few good grinds of fresh black pepper.

Pulse until all is well combined.

Cut 1/3 of the salmon and 1/3 of the shrimp into small pieces.

Add the salmon and shrimp pieces to the food processor mixture. Pulse until you have a thick paste. Tip the mixture from the food processor out into a bowl.

Cut the balance of your salmon and shrimp into 1/2 in or 1 cm cubes. Add them to the paste bowl along with the green onions.

Mix well with a spoon or spatula. I like to fry a little of the mixture to taste for seasoning at this point. If it needs more salt or black pepper add some and mix well. (This is a generous tablespoon in one of those tiny pans made for one egg.)

Spoon the mixture into your prepared Bundt pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 45-50 minutes or until cooked through and firm.

Meanwhile, make your salsa rosada by mixing all of the ingredients together in a small bowl. Chill until ready to serve.

Remove the loaf from the oven and leave it to rest for about 8-10 minutes. Run a wooden skewer around the edges and middle of the Bundt pan to loosen the loaf. Cover the pan with a serving platter and invert quickly.

Garnish the loaf with chopped green onion tops and put out the salsa rosada so people can drizzle some on for themselves.

Enjoy!

This is a very unusual BundtBakers month! At the instigation of our host, Sneha of Sneha's Recipe, we are baking "meat" loaves instead of cake. Check out all the great recipes below! 

• Beef Veal & Pork Meatloaf Bundtlets from Sweet Sensations
• Classic Bundt Meatloaf from Making Miracles
• Dates, Peanuts Meatloaf Bundt from Patyco Candy Bar
• Homemade French Onion Soup Bundt Meatloaf with Ham & Sausage from Sneha's Recipe
• Mini meatloaves with Strawberry Rhubarb Glaze from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Spicy Salmon Shrimp Loaf from Food Lust People Love

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers can be found on our home page.

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