The first time I had a pepper, I fed most of it to the dog under the table. My mom was experimenting with “ethnic food” and stuffed those green bells with hamburger and onions, poured a can of enchilada sauce over the top, and baked it in the oven for an hour.  I’m pretty sure there was some sour cream on the table and a bottle of La Victoria Hot Sauce.

That same bottle of La Victoria was center of the table when we had tacos, too. The tacos also had the same ground beef, but instead of onions in the meat mixture, they were served as a condiment along with tomatoes, lettuce, the ubiquitous sour cream, grated cheddar cheese and, sad to say, ketchup. 

I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that my first taste of real “Mexican” food shocked me silly! This of course, doesn’t include bottled salsas and jalapeno poppers with a side of Mr. Cuervo.

It took quite some time before I ever ate a pepper I liked. I was one of those people who scraped the jalapenos off the top of their nachos. A friend of mine tried to show off for some chick one Cinco de Mayo and ingested all of those jalapeno slices. He coughed, sputtered, drank everyone’s water and then went home. 

When I met my husband to be and his family, they frequented a Tex-Mex restaurant in Redmond, Washington called El Toreador, and I ventured into chips and pico de gallo. From there I graduated to pablanos and the always enticing chile relleno and then matriculated to hot and spicy everything. I truly did not know what I’d been missing.

Since then I’ve gone on to experiment with all sorts of chilis – serranos in salsa; pepperoncinis stuffed with salmon mousse (click for recipe); roasted pablano’s filled with braised pork shoulder and red pepper pumpkin sauce; and a new jalapeno bacon from my friend Angela. The list is endless and so are the flavors.

One may think a pepper is a pepper, but when we went soul searching for some home style southwestern comfort food while living in Asia, the chili’s were nothing like the chilis from the Southwest. They were Thai. Hint: Don’t eat Mexican food in Asia – trust me, it just doesn’t work. Thinka bout it. How would Thai food taste made with jalapenos?

With Cinco de Mayo right around the corner, there’s bound to be some great chow out there. But let’s face it, here in the Southwest, we don’t need a holiday to get great Mexican food. From the drive through late night to the six course taste sensation, it’s all good here in Arizona.

By the way, I took my mother’s stuffed pepper recipe and made it into a family favorite. The ketchup is gone, but I still put a little La Victoria on the table for old times’ sake.

Cheers,

Heidi

Pepperoncinis Stuffed with Salmon Mousse Recipe