Peppadew Peppers Filled with Goat Cheese

I like sports. A lot. After a long, brutal day it's nice to sit on the couch in a vegetative state and watch the Trojans, Kings or Dodgers do their thing. I can't say that I'm a basketball fan. At any rate, while driving to work in the morning I listen to sports talk radio - Colin Cowherd on 710 ESPN to be precise.

He got a caller the other day who spewed some nonsense like, "Small market fans are better than big market fans. At games we wear our jerseys, drink beers and eat hot dogs. We don't eat sushi!" Fortunately, the show's host cut him off at that point. Eating sushi means you're not a real sports fan? Why not?

The stuffed peppers below are a snack I made myself while watching a Dodgers game a few months back. I'm sure that peppers filled with cheese makes me a terrible baseball fan in the eyes of some hillbillies, but so be it.

Peppadew Peppers Filled with Goat Cheese

Yield
Makes 4 servings (5-7 peppers per serving)

Ingredients
4 oz. goat cheese, room temperature
1 scallion, thinly sliced
1 pinch of coarsely chopped fresh mint
1 pinch red-pepper flakes
25 Peppapew pepper halves (reserve some of the liquid)
1/2 lemon

Preparation
1. Place goat cheese, scallion, mint, red-pepper flakes and some of the Peppadew pepper liquid in a bowl. Zest and then juice the lemon half into the bowl. Mix until well combined and season as needed with mint and pepper flakes.

2. Using a small spoon or the tip of a butter knife, fill each pepper with the goat cheese mixture. Serve immediately.

Notes
If you increase the yield of the recipe, you can save time when filling the peppers by piping the goat cheese mixture. I wonder how good these would taste with goat cheese from, say France? Our cheeses here in the US are often laden with preservatives that can create a waxy flavor. Fresh cheese without preservatives would be awesome.

Also, dipping the end in a bit of Panko bread crumbs makes for a nice bit of texture.