Rat Toes...or Bacon-Wraped-Shrimp-Stuffed-Jalapenos for those who prefer.

Last week we had the great pleasure of getting 6 really nice sized jalepenos as part of our weekly produce bag.  That left us with only one option of how to serve them.  Rat Toes!

You see, a good friend of mine, Hope C. in Atlanta recommended a restaurant by the name of Six Feet Under on a trip to see her a few years ago.  It was a great recommendation.  As was the recommendation to try Rat Toes.  Sounds appealing, doesn't it?  Well, don't knock 'em till you've tried 'em.  Because they were superb.

And since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, we came home and attempted to make our own.  I mean, a gal can't be expected to go a year or more without a mix of shrimp, bacon and peppers, can she?

So here is my little tutorial on how to make them for yourself.

First, you need a good line up:

You are going to need peppers.  We used 6 good sized jalepenos and 8 smaller jalepenos from a friend's garden, along with a trial run of 3 banana peppers from our own garden.  You will also need one raw, peeled shrimp for each pepper, a strip of raw bacon for each pepper, and some toothpicks or skewers.

Step 1 is to cut all the stem ends off and carefully clean out the seeds and ribs.  The more seeds and ribs you remove the milder the pepper will be.  

Then you take one shrimp per pepper and stuff the shrimp in tail first.
Since we had smaller peppers as well, I cut some of our shrimp in half to make them fit.

Once you have the shrimp stuffed, it's time to wrap them in bacon.  Ohhh...bacon.  I'm pretty sure we cut the bacon in half, but really, can you use too much bacon?  No, you cannot.
Make sure to skewer them with a toothpick to hold the bacon in place.
For the 8 smaller peppers, we just lined them all up on a long kebob skewer with bacon serpentined between.  Doesn't that just make your mouth water?

I lined a broiler pan with foil - this is very important - without the foil, you will be scrubbing that pan forever.

I put them under the broiler for about 10 minutes on one side and then flipped them over for another 10-15 minutes on the second side.

Wow, I am so hungry

And another view of that bacon-y goodness, just in case the first photo didn't make you hungry.

Here is the platter of Rat Toes, ready for eating.  We have some ranch dip in that bowl, but it doesn't really show up, being white dip in a white bowl.

And the Rat Toes as part of the whole meal.  All of the above veggies (spinach, carrots and broccoli) came from our organic produce co-op.