Saturday, August 23, 2008

Corn and roasted poblano pudding with calabacitas and mole chicken

This is just a quick post to get in my five for the week. I spent the afternoon at the river at Sauvie Island with Scott, picking blackberries, drinking a beer with our toes in the river, and then picking up some nice produce at Kruger's Farm Market. I'll tell you all about it later, but right now I'm full of delicious burgers and want to watch a DVD and have a cocktail, and not blog. I do wanna tell you about what I did with all those lovely chiles I showed you the other day, though, real quick.

So, it turns out that making chile rellenos from peppers the size of walnuts is a fool's errand. Instead, after I roasted the poblanos,* I decided to use them in the corn pudding. And hot damn! Am I ever glad I did. The corn pudding was so simple - just sautéed onion, garlic and corn with diced, roasted poblanos mixed with a couple beaten eggs, a splash of cream, a little blue cornmeal and a couple handfuls of grated cheese (jack and sharp cheddar). Bake in a buttered souffle until golden and set. So good scooped onto a plate with some summer squash confetti. Or sliced and browned in a pan with a thick slab of ham and some fried tomato for breakfast (I'll tell about that later, too).

*anchos are the dried form of poblanos, I forgot that on Thursday's post.


For the calabacitas (Mexican summer squash vegetable dish), I sautéed diced pattypan and yellow crookneck squash with some of my Royal Burgundy beans (they got a bit big and needed a chop), diced red bell pepper, chopped green olives and chopped dried cherries. Add some cumin and cinnamon, salt and pepper and it's a thing. Kind of like a vegetarian/healthy empanada filling. Oh snap, I am totally going to make this into an low-cal empanada, Ben!

The salty olives and sweet cherries really brighten up. It looks kinda like circus barf, but it was really good.

I had some chicken thighs that I simmered in a poaching liquid spiked with achiote, Mexican oregano, garlic, dried shallot and bay leaf. Then I shredded it and soaked it with mole I pulled from the freezer (from the venison tenderloin that I cooked for Norm). This busy plate looks a tranny mess, but good lord it was tasty. Add a basket of warm, soft, flour tortillas and a basic Argentinian Malbec (we had Don Miguel Gascón 2007 - the chocolate covered cherry is a no-brainer with the mole, but not too serious for the bright veg medley) .

27 comments:

Susan @ SGCC said...

What a feast! I really like that corn pudding. I'll bet it was outstanding with the roasted poblanos. Such a great combination.

Peter G | Souvlaki For The Soul said...

For someone who didn't want to blog you certainly gave us a great rundown of what you ate...the corn pudding is great but that squash salsa with the olives and cherries is the real winner here...keep on gilding!

Manggy said...

OMG, I think I'm totally blown away by your pantry. Freakin' fantastic. And that plate looks yummy, not a hot tranny mess! As long as there isn't huitlacoche on it, I don't think you could manage to make it one!

Alicia Foodycat said...

That corn pudding looks fantastic! It'd be so good alongside some plain roast chicken! I've never seen blue corn meal here though, so I might have to use normal polenta.

glamah16 said...

What more produce do you need at the market with that garden! That whole meal is incredible! You have the magic touch with vegetables! Healthy, interesting flavors, WOW!

Judy@nofearentertaining said...

That meal looks incredible!!! Love poblanos in just about everything.

I am still trying to digest past the point where you were picking blackberries and drinking beer with your toes in the river!!! I had a house full of 6 year olds for a sleep over last night!!!

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

The meals that you throw together beat out anything I slave over from day to day. Way to go Heather:D

cookiecrumb said...

Yeah, it's pretty "festive" looking.
Sounds fantastic.

Jen said...

This sounds amazing, Heather. I can actually taste the corn pudding! BTW... I left you a little something on my blog today.

Thistlemoon said...

That looks absolutely delicious, Heather! :)

I had mole poblano eggs for breakfast this AM and I am still full from it! Perfect after an evening involving too many cocktails! ;)

Anonymous said...

Damn! I want that Mexi-tash squash thing. Pan seared Black Cod over that shit sounds good too, don' it?

Leif

Heather said...

Susan - The pudding is definitely a keeper.

Petah - The olives and cherries made it something really good, different than a traditional "Three Sisters".

Mark - At first I thought you said you were blown away by my panties. :D

Foodycat - I'd use a finer-ground meal than polenta, but regular corn meal would work.

Courtney - I didn't have room in my garden for onions, pears and peaches!

Judy - Being DINKs has its advantages sometimes. ;)

Jube - Next time I'm just finnuh make that pudding in a terrine pan for easier slicing. So good.

Valli - The best stuff is sometimes just thrown together! :)

Cookie - Festive is a more PC way to put it. ;)

Jen - Thank you so much! I really am honored. Try the pudding! It's tasty.

Jenn - Eggs really are perfect hangover food, aren't they? :)

Leif - I'd hit that. You should let me give some of my squash so you can have me over for dinner. ;)

Nikki @ NikSnacks said...

I hope your DVD and cocktail were relaxing for you. I just went to the beach for the 1st time this summer and I'm so relaxed, I sound sleepy.

I'm going to do corn pudding with my peppers, too. Just because YOU did it. I tld you I was gonna wait to see what you did with your peppers...

Hey, you should enter this into the Root Source Challenge for sweet corn. I think it ends Sept 2.

Cathy - wheresmydamnanswer said...

That corn pudding looks so amazing - Can you tell me how many this will serve and can it be doubled and maybe roughly how much of each ingredient you used?

Heather said...

Nikki - You so crazy, making same pudding. I will check that Root Source out, thanks!

Cathy - It was 2 cups fresh corn (about 4 ears), about 1/2 cup of chopped, roasted poblanos (I used 10 small ones), half a chopped onion, a clove of garlic, 4 eggs (beaten), ~1/2 cup cornmeal, ~1/4 cup cream, and 2 cups grated cheese. Saute the veg, cool it down a bit and add it to the batter (the rest of the ingredients, combined). Bake in a buttered souffle or casserole at 350 for about 40 minutes. Makes 4-6 servings.

Emily said...

Yeah, I definitely want some of that corn pudding. I know I would like it. I love cornbread with cheese and peppers.

All of your produce looks great! How are the tomatoes doing now? We have a giant bowl full of them. Made salsa the other day..not sure what I'll do next.

Toni said...

Girl, this post is making my knees weak! I'm off to New Mexico this coming weekend. I guess I know what I'll be making!!!

Brittany said...

Circus barf has to be the funniest food blogger line ever.

The Short (dis)Order Cook said...

That corn pudding looks so good I can't stand it. I do a corn pudding sometimes that is similar, but I never thought to add cornmeal or chiles. I must!

Lo said...

Oh, Yahumm!
This looks fabulous.

And I'm thinking calabacitas is one of the things I've not yet done with zucchini this summer! So, this is going on my to do list.

Cathy - wheresmydamnanswer said...

Hi Heather
Thank you so much!!

michael, claudia and sierra said...

that's a whole lotta food going on, on that there plate. you are way above my pay scale - i'm just hanging on for dear life reading your posts.

you and peter need to get together and cook for a week. it'd be quite a collaboration...

Anonymous said...

You're are a blogging machine Heather! I have strong suspicions you have been cloned or turned into a robot!

Having said that i wish a robot could prepare such delicious-looking food. Corn pudding i love.

Heather said...

Em - I have harvested exactly two tomatoes as of today. In a week or two, I will be up to my ears in them.

Toni - The pudding is definitely more SW than Mexican, but good nonetheless.

Brittany - That means a lot coming from you, sassafras.

Rachel - The cornmeal and cream are totally unnecessary, but the chiles are not optional. ;)

Ben - Are you ready for a throwdown? Oh sorry, I watch too much tv. :D

Lo - Do eet! If you're sick of olive oil and pasta, anyways.

Cathy - ;)

Claudia - Oh, heavens no, your pay scale is completely on par with this. I would love to have a bi-coastal compatriot cookout with Mr. Jubilation T. Cornpwn.

M. Zen - I'm a blog, blog, blog, blog, blogging machine (watch me get down, watch me get down) while I do, do, do, my thing on the scene.

mama_nata said...

Made the corn pudding last night and it was as delicious as it was pretty in my rarely-used weddingware.

My adds/mods to your proportions way above...

Adds: diced red pepper for a splash of color, 2 kinds of cheese: reg cheddar and spicy jack (both tillamook)

Mods: subbed PDX farmers market-bought roasted hot nu mex peppers for the poblanos (you know the stand that makes the whole market smell awesome) so it was spi-caaay hot, doubled the cream (1/2 cup) since bob's red mill coarse grind absorbs liquid like hell, subbed shallots since i had them on hand and love them lots

Doing it again I might go up to 3/4 cup of cream to get a creamier consistency with the corn meal I've got, but it was magic paired with hangar steaks and drizzled with bbq sauce. Hooray for leftover lunch!

Heather said...

Natasha - Heh, I made it again on Saturday, too, to go with a flatiron steak and those fried squash blossoms. This time I also used more cream and (blue) cornmeal, and baked it in a terrine. I might try using polenta or grits sometime to nudge it. And maybe some diced ham?

The leftovers brown up so nicely in a pan.

Cathy - wheresmydamnanswer said...

I made your corn pudding over the weekend and it was KILLER - thanks for making me look good to my company - !!!