ABT Questions

[Hogsy]

I cooked my first batch of ABT's the other night , which turned out great
I used jalepenos filled with cream cheese and prawns then wrapped in bacon
Being the only one in the house who likes a bit of heat in their food , I did a couple with jalepenos and a couple with bull horn peppers
Turns out that the jalepenos didn't pack as much of a punch as I thought and the pepper ABT's were hardly touched

Inspiration came from Buckie's cook ups, they always look so good
A few questions though
Do you use very thinly sliced bacon?
The mixture I used probably had to much cream cheese and not enough prawns
Anyone have any sure fire filling suggestions for ABT's ?
What do you guys pay for jalepenos ?
There about $7 a lb over here...... Ouch!

[chriscw81]

I've made them many different ways. Just get creative.  My favorite is probably cream cheese, a little cheddar, spicy Jimmy Dean sausage, and wrapped in cheap thin bacon.  Thick sliced bacon won't work real well.  I feel like using my home dry cured bacon would be a waste of bacon.  I've also made them with chorizo which is good but greasy.  Try some chicken or little smokies, you'll be glad you did.  If you want to have more kick just leave more of the jalapenos insides in when you clean out the pepper.  I always sprinkle mine with some rub when I put them on the pit too.

These were done with chorizo:







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[chriscw81]

Oh yeah.  You can do them many ways but I prefer to cook them at 275-300 with lots of different types of smoke, just not mesquite.




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[1buckie]

 
You could probably grow them if you have a spot to do so......at $7/ lb, I think that would be a good idea.............Can't know your exact seasonal cycle, but I know it gets hot & dry there & they should love that.....here, on sale .49/ lb...........they also grow like weeds.....

They will lose some heat in cooking; if I want the heat factor back up high, two things:
1) Look for ones that are "old", they'll have little dried, hard brown crinkly striations running lengthwise down the pepper.....indicates they were left on the plant well into maturity & will def. be hotter.....
2) Add some heat back in using cayenne or other "heated powder" mixed in cr.cheese or sprinkled on top of cheese before wrapping......or scrape less of the membrane out ( leave more of the white stuff, that & the seeds carry the heat )

Some people do use thick bacon & do OK.....I use medium thin & it will seem to cook up just right to match everything else finishing ( cr. cheese doesn't get too gooey, other fillings cooked thru, etc.)

As far as prawns, the way I would go about it is par cook the bacon at least halfway, cool until able to handle, wrap a whole one ( or half very large) on top of cr.cheese, so the shrimp isn't overdone by the time the rest is.......I usually have a damp handtowel & some dry paper towels handy for any wrapup........

Other Fun Stuff Dept.:
Try bits of pineapple in the cream cheese, or blueberries, like the dessert 'turds......
Coming soon: I'm trying a slice of catalope, as I LOVE it grilled, so why not?
People will lay in a strip of sausage or ham before wrapping......
I've used strips of uncooked chix breast seasoned or marinated or even plain, on top of the cream cheese, based on variations from the book "Smoke & Spice" recipe called "Chicken From Hell"...............
Beef tenderloins, turkey tenderloins, cooked pulled pork are all ones I've tested & are good.....


These ones were cr. cheese, cactus honey powder, wrapped in shabu cut (paper thin) ribeye, instead of bacon ~~>


Lookie that, balanced on an 18 red.....



Fixin'.....






^^^Just for options sake ^^^^^^

If there's not a lot of hotheads in the household, try moinks & choinks.....

Everybody likes bacon wrapped meatballs, from what I can tell.....somewhere I've got pictures of friends i KNOW are vegetarian, chowin' my choinks !!!
Throw a lttle mild or medium or sweet sauce on near the end & they'll go, how you say? .....Bloody Bonkers ?


Here's a pic of one way I did shrimps.....upright in a narrow basket, hollowed whole pepper, bacon around....





Personal favorite for me is the tandoori spice in the cr cheese....



You can run them at the higher heats like Chris says, but I had a few bad experinces as a child with the cheese ( Cheddar) melting out all over vvvvvvv, so like these ones just above ^^^  220 for several hours....slow smoking.....




Hope this helps.....these things are the most fun item of BBQ, for me, so I really enjoy passing anything that helps along......

[Eastex]

They are expensive at the grocery store to my mind too. The way I've settled on "preserving" the peppers in my garden before has been in a dedicated ice cube tray. I chop some up, put them in the tray and when they're frozen I pop them out and into a labeled zip lock bag in the freezer. That way I can grab a cube or two and put in soups, chilis,  or whatever I'm cooking. It's lots easier than canning as well. What I haven't done is freeze them whole or in halves like in ABT's. I'm not sure how the textures going to work out but I'm going to have a over abundance in the garden, God willing, to play with. 


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[1buckie]

  ^^^^ That's a good idea......I've tried halves & they seemed kinda mushy when thawed, now there may be some way to prevent that.....I don't know?

How much are they there?

to me, two pounds for a buck goes a lot farther than lettuce......

[Eastex]

They're cheap enough during season but during season I can grow more than I can afford the bacon to wrap.


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[1buckie]

They're always in the stores year-round here, but I've had these same thoughts about things when they're off-sale or out of season.........so it makes sense to at least try something.......

[Hogsy]

Thanks Eastex and Buckie for all your advice
Buckie your going to get me addicted to ABT'S with pics like that
I normally grow chillies every year so I'll have to give jalepenos a try next season

[Eastex]

Don't know if you raise them from seed or not but there's a variety of Jalapeno called 'Mucho Nacho' that I like, they're huge. It's a fairly popular variety around me and I can almost always find transplants in the Spring. I've got those, some Guajillo peppers called 'Holy Mole', and some Poblanos planted this year in the pepper patch.


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[Thomas Andrews]

A very informative thread!

Just found a shop over here that sells large jalapeños but not at $0.49 lb!

I'm going to try the cream cheese and tandoori turds.

I've never done this before; is there anything in particular I should do to get the best out of them?

Many thanks.

[1buckie]

secret formulas......................

http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/grilling-bbqing/'turd-wrapping/

[Thomas Andrews]

Now that's what you call step by step.

I am indebted to you once again, buckie!

One more question though, I noticed something called 'shreds' which I've seen mentioned on this thread - what are they?

Cheers.

[1buckie]

Wood shread....large sawdust......




You can use chips or chunks....all works basically the same, I just got a certain way I like to do it using this, dampened slightly..............

[Thomas Andrews]

Thank you!

A whole new world of BBQ knowledge is opening up before me! I just had to Google what a 'smokernator' is from reading another thread...

I think joining this forum is going to make me both well educated in the art of the Q and bankrupt if I decide to buy everything I read on here! It's close to £90 for a smokenator and hovergrill kit and I'm very close to buying it now...!