Recipe & Instructions below the fold

1C grated sharp cheddar
1C diced Walla Walla sweet onions (can substitute Vidalia, Mayan sweet, Maui sweet…)
4 large cloves of garlic peeled
8 oz cream cheese room temp.
8 oz smoked salmon
1 tsp alder smoked sea salt
1 dozen Jalapenos stem end cut off and seeded
6 strips of bacon cut in half
1 dozen sized Chile Grill
2 puff pastry sheets cut into 16ths
1 Tbl Zane & Zack’s Honey-Chipotle
1 Tbl Danny Cash Ragin’ Red

Combine cheese, onions, garlic, cream cheese, salmon, and salt in food processor. Puree. Divide mixture into two equal parts. Place each half into separate small bowl. Add Zane & Zack’s to one half and Ragin’ Red to the other. Stir sauces into each mixture until fully incorporated. You should have about 1 1/2 C of each mixture. Arrange two sandwich sized ziploc bag over two pint sized beer glasses, open bag, folding the opened edge over the outside of the glass. Spoon each mixture into the bags. Seal each bag and set aside. Preheat oven to 325. Arrange jalapenos in The Chile Grill.

Press pastry sheet squares into mini muffin pan. Cut off a small corner of each Ziploc bag and squeeze mixture into puff pastry about 1 tsp per pastry square. My mini muffin pan holds 12 so I do 6 of each mixture. Now fill the jalapenos, once again I do 6 of each. Fill jalapenos half way, tap jalapeno against counter to make sure filling is all the way to the bottom, then fill the rest of the way. Place a half strip of bacon over each jalapeno and secure with a toothpick. Bake jalapenos for about 35 minutes, pastries for about 25. This recipe by itself is not hot, some variations would be adding the seeds from the jalapenos back into the mix before pureeing, using a hotter sauce or extract.

I had to make it mild enough that the other guests would eat it. My solution is to serve with a selection of hot sauces, fresh and pickled peppers, and seasonings on the side, so that each guest can dress their own. There will be enough puff pastry to do 32 individual mouthfuls of joy, and the smoked salmon mixture is great in everything so make sure and stuff or top whatever you have with it, celery sticks, olives, crackers, crusty bread. The mixture will keep for about a week in the fridge, simply place the Ziploc bags inside a larger Ziploc it’s kind of like a low tech cheez-whiz, you can squeeze it on anything.

Submitted by:
Sam McCanless
Zane and Zack’s
Renton, WA
www.zandzhoneyco.com