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Judge changing a plea's not a hot thing (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

jalapeno

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'a hot thing' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how they can define each other.

'judge changing a plea's not' is the wordplay.
'judge' becomes 'j' (abbreviation for judge).
'changing' indicates anagramming the letters.
'not' becomes 'no' (I've seen this in other clues).
'a'+'plea'='aplea'
'aplea' is an anagram of 'alape'.
'j'+'alape'+'no'='JALAPENO'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for jalapeno that I've seen before include "Hot pepper in Mexican dishes" , "Hot green chilli" , "Hot type of capsicum pepper" , "Green chilli pepper used in Mexican cooking" , "Variety of chilli" .)

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