Hey, hey hey and Happy Thursday my Friends!!
This past Sunday I went somewhere, that I always intended on going to, but never do. I pass this store every single day on my way home from work, yet I don’t stop. My Friends, say go to that store! I say yah, I will. Then I was at a BBQ and what were they talking about? That store! Every single person at that party has shopped there, yet I never been. They kept saying all these wonderful things about it, and then it happened, the sudden urge to go there! So I did! I went, I saw, I conquered and now I am officially addicted!! What store am I talking about? Mi Pueblo!! What is Mi Pueblo, the most awesome Mexican grocery store I have ever been in. Well, it’s the only Mexican grocery store I have ever been in, but I am officially hooked!! The store was awesome! The store was clean, great seafood and meat department. A ton of vegetables and fun fruits, salsa, tortillas, oh boy I could go on and on and they speak English! Plus, get this, they have a restaurant inside and BBQ outside. You could smell the wonderful BBQ in the parking lot! I am soooooooo going there this week to get dinner! The prices were great too!! Better than my local grocery store. Oh, even though I didn’t get any, they had the biggest donuts I have ever seen, they probably weighed like a pound! I told my Husband to get one, but he said no! I did get some fresh corn tortillas, that were so fresh that the bag was still warm. They actually make them in the store. I watched and secretly wished I worked there! lol So why am I talking about this? Only because I get excited when I discover new things and you know how much I LOVE Mexican food!!! I told my Husband I love this store, he said it was ok, but not that big of a deal. I said “HELLO”, what do I eat almost every night? He said diet food. I said diet Mexican! Sorry my Friends, you may get more Mexican dishes in the near future!! I’m on a crazy Mexican phase and I love it!! So is today’s recipe Mexican, well kind of! It’s not total Mexican, but kind of is! I made for you today my Shrimp Stuffed Anaheim Peppers.
These peppers were delicious! I got this idea watching my favorite food show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. They were at a restaurant in Santa Fe and they showed a stuffed pepper, like mine, but they didn’t talk about it. I don’t know what was in it, except the shrimp, so I took that idea and ran with it! I wasn’t sure what kind of peppers to get, I thought poblano peppers, but my Husband said Anaheim peppers are more mild. Ummm, he was wrong! These peppers were hot, but not as hot as a jalapeno. So I checked the chart and I guess they were on the mild side. I was a little surprised by that. But either way they were good and will be making my grocery list again. One thing to know is if you buy Anaheim Peppers, you store them in a brown lunch bag in the refrigerator. I’d imagine the heat from them could make other foods go bad, but I’m not sure. Make sure when your picking them out that the color is bright green, smooth skin and no wrinkles! Now you got a good pepper.
Chart from About.com
| Sweet Bells; Sweet Banana; and Pimento | Negligible Scoville Units | |
| Mexi-Bells; Cherry; New Mexica; New Mexico; Anaheim; Big Jim | 100-1,000 Scoville Units | |
| Ancho; Pasilla; Espanola; Anaheim | 1,000 – 1,500 Scoville Units | |
| Sandia; Cascabel | 1,500 – 2,500 Scoville Units | |
| Jalapeno; Mirasol; Chipotle; Poblano | 2,500 – 5,000 Scoville Units | |
| Yellow Wax; Serrano | 5,000 – 15,000 Scoville Units | |
| Chile De Arbol | 15,000 – 30,000 Scoville Units | |
| Aji; Cayenne; Tabasco; Piquin | 30,000 – 50,000 Scoville Units | |
| Santaka; Chiltecpin; Thai | 50,000 – 100,000 Scoville Units | |
| Habanero; Scotch Bonnet | 100,000 – 350,000 Scoville Units | |
| Red Savina Habanero; Indian Tezpur | 350-855,000 Scoville Units | |
| Ghost Pepper (Bhut Jolokia aka Naga Jolokia); Trinidad Moruga Scorpion (hottest to date at almost 2.1 million SHU | 855,000-2,100,000 Scoville Units | |
The recipe is pretty simple to make too. I decided to boil my peppers, instead of grilling them because I don’t ever have the best of luck grilling peppers. When I peel the blacken skin, they seem to not be as firm and don’t hold my fillings. That drives me nuts, so boiling them worked. To know when they are done, they go from a bright green color to a light green. I let them cool as I made my shrimp filling.
To make the shrimp, I sauteed the shrimp with onions and garlic and added a pinch of ground pepper and paprika. I didn’t want to over power the shrimp with a lot of seasoning. Once the shrimp cooled a bit I mixed it with cream cheese, Mexican cheese and some salsa. Filled my peppers and sprinkled them with come Cojita Cheese and baked for 10 minutes. They really did turn out perfect!! Creamy, plump shrimp with a wonderful medium salsa. Since my Husband wasn’t having dinner, I was left with four peppers. So I ate one and saved the rest for dinner the next night. He told me he can’t wait to try them. Hope they hold up for one day, I’m sure they will. If you wanted to this dish would be wonderful served in some enchilada sauce, but honestly I was to lazy to make it, but I thought about it.
- Serves: 4 Stuffed Peppers
- Serving size: 1 Pepper
- 4 Anaheim Peppers
- cooking spray
- 1 tsp. olive oil
- 2 tbsp. onion, diced small
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 8 oz shrimp, uncooked, peeled, devained
- ¼ tsp. black pepper
- ¼. tsp. paprika
- 2 tbsp cream cheese,fat free
- ¼ cup Mexican Blend Cheese, light, shredded
- 2 tbsp. salsa (your favorite kind)
- ½ oz. cojita cheese
- Bring about 6 cups of water to a boil Add peppers, and cook until soften, about 6 minutes. Take peppers out and let them cool.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray or line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set a side.
- Meanwhile in a frying pan add cooking spray, olive oil, onion and garlic. Cook until softened about 3 minutes. Add shrimp, black pepper and paprika; cook until no longer pink. Let mixture slightly cool.
- In a bowl, add cream cheese, Mexican cheese and salsa, mix well. Add shrimp mixture to cheese. Mix until combined. Note: If your shrimp is large, cut into bite size pieces.
- Carefully cut the the pepper down one side of the pepper, leaving about an inch from the stem. With a spoon carefully scrape out the seeds in the pepper. Stuff peppers with shrimp and cheese mixture, sprinkle with Cojita Cheese. Place on prepared baking dish and roast in oven for 10 minutes.
You must tell me, have you ever been in a Mexican grocery store? Any recommendations on what to buy? I felt like a kid in a candy store. My Husband said I acted like I did, when I went to Coscto for the first time. lol It was fun and it was Mexican!! Ok, I get a little excited over food! What do you expect? I’m a foodie!
Have a great day everyone!
Toodles,
Jennifer
We have a couple little Mexican grocery stores near us but I’ve never been in them. I’m afraid..I’d feel like a fish out of water in there. lol.. I would love too because the store windows are very festive looking! 🙂
Hey, I get ya! That’s why it took me 5 years to go! I went to a Chinese grocery store and boy was I fish out of water, but I didn’t care and I don’t think the people in the store did either. But I really felt welcomed in the Mexican store! People were showing me the foods, pointing things out. It was fun and the people were really nice. You should really go. Take a friend with you and have fun! We all have the same thing in common, FOOD!
Okay, this all genius to me…I love the shrimp in here…I mean love!
Thank you Cathy! 🙂
Wow that an interesting recipe! I should try making shrimp sometime. Soooo low in fat!
I just love shrimp! One of my favorites! I don’t make it nearly enough!
Hi Jennifer, glad to see that you’ve found the delights of Mexican grocery stores. I’ve not been in one of the small ones around here because I don’t speak Spanish (yet…). But since the majority of our population is Mexican, one chain of groceries caters to them and they have much better produce and interesting stuff for significantly less money. About the chiles: Anaheims are the mildest of the chiles. However, that said, their heat (and that of most chiles) is affected by the weather. In hot, dry weather, like the drought we’ve been in for several years, the chiles are hotter. Sometimes amazingly so. I’ve also gotten jalapeños that were ridiculously mild, probably due to genetic engineering. In Mexican groceries, look for Mexican produce, like fresh chiles, tomatillos, Mexican limes, nopalitos (prickly pear cactus pads, which I’ve not yet tried) and a summer squash that looks like a fat, light green zucchini. They should have a nice variety of dried chiles, and several things sold in bulk – chiles, pasta, piloncillo (sugar cones), tamarind pods, and jamaica (dried hibiscus flowers). One of my favorite things is the ague fresco called jamaica (pronounced ha-my-kah), which is really easy to make. I think there is a recipe on http://www.mexconnect.com
Bottom line: try whatever seems interesting to you. And have fun!
Forgot to mention that a small Mexican chain that does speak English has a wonderful tortilleria. That is the only place to buy tortillas once you’ve tried them. Fresh made ones are the best.
Wow, I didn’t know about the chili’s! Thats pretty cool! Mine had quite a kick of heat, but the next day we warned the Shrimp Peppers in the ovem and the Anaheim Peppers, seemed more mild. I don’t mind them hot, but I tell you Guys about it, I don’t want to say it was mild and have it hot and then get yelled at by you. lol The store was so much fun! I ought pure Mexican Vanilla for 88 cents and it is so good! I’m going to stock up! There was so much there! I didn’t buy any, but wow, the Mexican candy is so pretty!!! I plan on going back this weekend! I’m going to look for the ague fresco. I am curious to give it a try!! Your right the tortillas are amazing! WAY better than what is ate the regular grocery store!! I’ve had one with dinner every night this week!! They are just so good!!