Corn Pudding

Here's a nice little recipe for the last of the season's corn. It's simple, delicious, and budget-friendly, and it's wonderful when paired with grilled meats and any kind of seafood, especially shrimp.

Because the pudding is not perfectly smooth, it's a lot like grits, but grits made from fresh corn rather than dried and ground. If you're not a fan of spice, you can leave out the poblanos, or if you would like to eat this as more of a dessert course, you can add sugar and cinnamon.

Corn Pudding

(Slightly Adapted from Mexico the Beautiful)

• 2 poblano peppers, roasted, peeled, seeded, and diced
• 8 cups fresh corn kernels, cut off the cobs (from about 8-10 ears of corn)
• 4 ounces melted butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 
  
  2 teaspoons baking powder
  
  
  

  Place the corn kernels in the bowl of a food processor. Add the melted butter, water, salt, and baking soda, and puree until almost smooth.
  
  Transfer to a 9x9 inch baking dish, prepped with butter or non-stick cooking spray, and mix in the poblano peppers. Bake for 30 minutes or until the top is lightly browned. Allow to cool for a few minutes, and serve.

  
  

  

  
  
  
  

Southwestern Black Bean and Quinoa Salad

I'm currently in the middle of a 3 day work stretch (actually, I technically have one hour and thirty seven minutes until I'm half way through, but who's counting?), and I'm already pining for fresh vegetables. I have some salad fixings in the fridge, but I forgot to pack them up and bring them to the Land of Frozen Food.

Luckily, though, I still have some quinoa and black bean salad. It's not chock-full of veggies, really, but it should help satisfy the inevitable craving for real food. Plus, because it has a lot of protein, I'm hoping that it will keep me full for a while and prevent the mindless munching that strikes when you're bored and awake at 3 a.m.

This salad is super easy, you can throw it together quickly, and it's highly adaptable--add or subtract whatever ingredients strike your fancy. For example, the addition of a couple slices of bacon would have made this salad absolutely awesome, but I refrained this time because it was supposed to be healthy. If you come up with any changes that you particularly like, let me know in the comments section.

Southwestern Black Bean and Quinoa Salad

• 1 cup quinoa
• Kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon Canola oil
• Freshly ground pepper
• One 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 small red bell pepper, finely diced
• Half of a green bell pepper, finely diced
• 1 roasted, peeled, seeded, and diced poblano pepper, or an Oil Preserved Poblano Pepper
• Kernels from 2 ears of corn, fresh, or leftover Grilled Corn on the Cob
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
• 2 scallions, dark and light green parts finely sliced
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

In a medium saucepan, combine the quinoa with 2 scant cups water and a pinch of salt; bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat until the almost all of the water is absorbed, about 13 minutes. Just before the last of the water is absorbed, turn off the heat and allow the quinoa to sit for a few minutes (it will absorb the rest of the water, and this prevents overcooking). Fluff with a fork.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet, toast the cumin seeds over high heat, shaking the pan, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Grind in a spice grinder, or with a mortar and pestle.

In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients. Season to taste.

Poblano Peppers Packed in Oil

In my admittedly limited pepper-consuming career, I've come to the conclusion that the poblano is the perfect pepper. I particularly like them because they're satisfyingly spicy without inducing asthma or a heart attack, although they can give you the almost-pleasant runny nose effect. (There are times when you need some killer heat. For those times, seek out a habenero). Plus, if you cut up a poblano and then rub your eyes, it's not quite as sucky as the intensely burning mucous membranes you'll experience when you make the same mistake with a jalapeno.

Poblanos are pleasantly flavorful as well as spicy; the flavor is simultaneously stimulating and comforting, endorphin-releasing and soothing. The smell of roasting poblanos is purely mouth-watering, and our house feel like a home when it's infused with this scent. It actually does anyway, but I suppose that the smell of roasting poblanos can enhance the hominess.

We like to use poblanos in any number of things, including carne asada (grilled skirt steak served on tortillas with slices of roasted poblanos), rice, stuffed vegetables, quinoa salads, and potato gratins, to name a few.
You can use poblanos freshly roasted, or you can employ this oil-packing method, which was inspired by an article in Food and Wine. Basically, you roast some peppers, peel, seed, and slice them, and cover them with oil. The oil will keep them fresh for a little while, but it can go rancid. Thus, it's suggested that the peppers, like pesto or romesco, be frozen in little batches.

What's the point of doing such a thing, you ask? Well, have you ever wanted some spiciness but don't feel like going through the tedious process of roasting, peeling, seeding and chopping some peppers? I certainly have. So from now on, when I'm feeling a little lazy but want some peppery goodness, I'll just take a little packet of peppers from the freezer, and it will defrost in minutes.

For example, these peppers will be especially ideal for what we call Drunken Nachos. Drunken Nachos hail from the days when we were wild and crazy kids. We'd go out for the night and come home wanting some munchies. We generally had some nachos, cheese, canned corn and canned chiles laying around; thus, Drunken Nachos were born.

We're getting a bit too old for such shenanigans, but we've talked about doing an up-scale, more grown up version of Drunken Nachos. The tortilla chips are easy--we'll graduate from Tostitos to to some yummy organic ones, and we'll get some nice cheese. The corn could be fresh corn cut off the cob, or w ecould use some organic frozen corn, but that leaves the peppers. Roasted poblanos are the perfect solution, and the fact that we can have them laying around and readily accessible keeps this dish in the original spontaneous spirit of the Drunken Nachos.

Perhaps we'll even someday have a Grown-Up Drunken Nachos post. For now, though, I need to stop thinking about cheesy foods, because the patient that I just triaged threw up her Kraft Macaroni 'N' Cheese, and I feel like I smell like it.

So, you don't have to make Drunken Nachos, but I'm sure you can come up with some other uses for some oil-packed peppers. You don't have to use poblanos, either--you can use any kind of pepper that strikes your fancy.

Food and Wine suggested adding dried oregano to the oil, but I omitted it because I feel that it would work with red peppers, but not green ones. You, of course, can add oregano, cumin seeds, or whatever inspires you. You could use your oil-packed peppers in one of the applications mentioned above, or you could put them on burgers, pizzas, eggs...anything, really.

Poblano Peppers Packed in Oil

*This roasting method can be used for any pepper.

• 1 pound fresh poblano peppers
• About 1/2 cup canola oil

If you have a gas stove, turn a burner to high. If you have an electric stove, preheat the broiler. (A gas torch like the ones used for creme brulee would also work.) Place one or two peppers at a time directly onto the burner grate, and turn once the side facing the flame is thoroughly charred and blackened. Continue to turn until the whole pepper is charred. Alternatively, place all of the peppers on a foil-lined baking sheet and place under the boiler. Turn occasionally, until all sides are blackened.

When the peppers are thoroughly charred, place them in a paper bag and fold down the top, or place them in a bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. After about 10 minutes, remove the peppers and wipe their skins off with a paper towel. Cut the tops off, remove the seeds, and cut into strips. Depending on the application, cut the strips cross-wise to form a dice or leave them in strips.
 

Daring Cooks--Pierogis

The August 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.

We're a little late on this challenge, but better late than never, I suppose. The pierogi challenge led to all sorts of brainstorming and we came up with a lot of different potential fillings. But in the we end decided to, for the most part, stick with the standard recipe.

The original recipe contained potatoes with cheese, onion,  and bacon, and we added cheddar cheese and a roasted poblano pepper. We also decided to serve the pierogies with a corn sauce in order to make the dish a bit more seasonally appropriate. Ultimately, though, we sort of served the corn on the side, rather than as a sauce because we just wanted to get the heck out of the kitchen.

The corn 'sauce,' by the way, was our super-fabulous Creamless Creamed Corn. If you don't really feel like going to the trouble of making your own pierogies, we would still really suggest making the creamless creamed corn, because it's awesome.

Because I prefer pierogies that have been boiled then pan-seared, we went with that technique, but it's entirely optional. The original recipe called for what seemed to me to be a small amount of dough, and we had a ton of leftover filling. This wasn't really a problem, as the filling was delicious, but in the recipe below I've tripled the dough recipe in an attempt to have a more appropriate dough-to-filling ratio.

Pierogies

Dough

• 6 to 6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 large eggs
• 3 teaspoon salt
• About 3 cups lukewarm water  

Filling

• 3 potatoes
• Butter-1/2 to 3 tablespoons
• 1 onion, diced
• 3/4 cup cottage cheese, drained  
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese
• 3 slices of  bacon, cooked till crispish and diced (you can add more bacon if you like or omit that part completely if you’re vegetarian)
• 1 poblano pepper, roasted, peeled, seeded and diced
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Place the flour in a large bowl or on a work surface and make a well in the center. Break the egg into it, add the salt and a little lukewarm at a time.

Bring the dough together, kneading well and adding more flour or water as necessary. Cover the dough with a bowl or towel. You’re aiming for soft, dry dough. Let it rest for 20 minutes.

While the dough rests, cut the potatoes into largish chunks. Place the chunks in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Place on the stove, bring the water to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until the potatoes are easy to break apart with a fork (about 20 minutes).
 
Drain the potatoes and dump them back into the saucepan. While the potatoes are boiling, saute the onion with a little bit of butter over medium heat, until they're soft and transparent. When the onions are ready, add them to the potatoes.
 
Add the cottage cheese, cheddar cheese, bacon and poblanos. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
 
On a floured work surface, roll the dough out thinly (1/8” or about 3 millimeters) cut with a 2 to 5 inch round cookie cutter, or a glass. Spoon a portion (a teaspoon to a tablespoon, depending on the size of your cutting implement) of the filling into the middle of each circle.
 
Fold the dough in half and pinch the edges together. If necessary, wet the edges with a little bit of water to help them adhere. Gather the scraps of dough, re-roll and fill. Repeat with remaining dough.
 

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to boil. Drop in the pierogi, not too many, only single layer in the pan! Return to a boil and reduce the heat a little bit. When the pierogi rise to the surface, continue to simmer a few minutes more ( usually about 2-3 minutes).

Remove one dumpling with a slotted spoon and taste if ready. It should be firm (not mushy), but no longer doughy and raw-tasting. When satisfied, remove remaining pierogies from the water.

This part is optional--melt about 2 1/2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet. When the butter is hot enough that a pierogi placed in the pan makes a sizzling noise, add the pierogies, without crowding the pan too much, and toss them around until they're golden brown.