Jalapeño Poppers are good. Great even. But there’s only so much room to stuff cheese and spices inside a jalapeño.
Which got us thinking. Could one of our favorite instagram’ers @CulinaryBroDown reverse engineer a Jalapeño Popper, giving us the ability to use a greater amount of premium cheese? The theory was: exponentially more cheesy-goodness + spicy pesto + deep frying = great success. And if you can’t tell from the video alone – mission accomplished.
We had been looking for an excuse to use burrata, a creamier, practically bathe-able Mozzarella, in our Kitchen Studio. And boy, did we find a way to use it with this 100% gluten-free, jalapeño-pesto-stuffed, asiago-crusted, deep-fried, burrata cheese ball. AKA The Reverse Jalapeño Popper.
And here’s just a few reasons why you should make this (outside of your newly-established and vigorous cravings):
You Learn How to Make A Pesto From Scratch
Photo by FoodBeast
You Get to Bread Burrata Balls (And it’s Gluten Free)
Photo by FoodBeast
You Have an Excuse to Deep Fry Something
Photo by FoodBeast
Enough Said.
Photo by FoodBeast
And here’s the full recipe.
Ingredients:
2 packages burrata (at least)
1 box Asiago Cheese Artisan Nut-Thins
3 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup corn starch
2 cups fresh basil
1/2 cup grated parmesan
2 cloves garlic
2/3 cup olive oil
4-6 olives without pits, with brine
Salt and pepper to taste
1 gallon canola oil
Directions:
1. Preheat oil to 375ºF in a heavy-bottomed sauce pot or deep fryer
2. Throw your basil, parmesan, garlic cloves and 2-oz. of Asiago Nut Thins in the food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Turn the processor on medium speed, then slowly stream in your olive oil and olives. Season with salt and pepper, then throw pesto into a squeeze bottle.
3. Set up your breading station. Pulverize the rest of the Nut Thins in the food processor and throw the crumbs in a medium sized bowl. In another medium bowl, dump in the 1/2 cup of corn starch. Then in another bowl, beat together your eggs and milk.
4. Jam the nozzle of a squeeze bottle with your pesto into the burrata ball and pipe in the pesto.
5. Roll your burrata in corn starch, then dip it in the egg wash and crust it with the Asiago Nut Thins.
6. Drop in the fryer for :20-45 seconds or until the poppers are golden brown. Read more here.
7. Enjoy your masterpiece.
More jalapeños here: