The Bacon Pepper Bind

In the spirit of my ongoing and updating COVID-19 menu, I invented a new dish yesterday. Self-isolation and sheltering in place mean more slow-roasting; who has the time to leave a roast in the oven for hours on a workday? This time, I've concocted a cross between a jalapeno popper and a turducken.

The Bacon Pepper Bind

Ingredients:

• 1 bell pepper
• 1 jalapeno
• 2 bacon strips
• Cream cheese in enough quantity to line the inside of a bell pepper
• Pepper and/or other spices to taste (I used cardamom)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
2. Cut the top off the bell pepper. Cut the inside out of the bell pepper so you have a bowl. Punch the stem out of the top of the bell pepper but leave the rest intact so it looks like a ring.
3. Line the inside of the bell pepper with a thick layer of cream cheese.
4. Insert the jalapeno (keep it whole) into the cream cheese-lined bell pepper so that the jalapeno’s stem looks like it could be the stem of the bell pepper. If you need to cut part of the jalapeno off to meet this height requirement, do so as necessary.
5. Put the bell pepper ring on top of the jalapeno. At this point, you should have what looks like a whole bell pepper with a conspicuous-looking stem.
6. Wrap the bacon strips around the bell pepper so that it is mostly covered. Ensure that there is bacon sealing the cut you made during step 2 above.
7. Place the bacon-wrapped, stuffed bell pepper onto the foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for 45 minutes or until bacon is crispy.
8. Let sit for 2–3 minutes before serving. It should be steaming at this point. Enjoy!

You can also find this recipe in a Quora answer I wrote yesterday.

Coincidentally, the sunset from my balcony was roughly the colour of my cooking:

In the spirit of this blog, and my predisposition to assign rankings and ratings,

Ease of Cooking: 8

Nutritional Content: 5*

*The bacon and cream cheese add fat, including saturated fat, but the bacon pepper bind is gluten-free and effectively no-carb. I also used Longo's in-store-made light cream cheese, for whatever fat content that saves. The bell pepper and jalapeno, of course, are as healthy as can be.