Grilled corn (esquite) with black beans, lime dressing and queso Cotija

One of my favorite aromas is grilled sweet summer corn emanating from Hispanic food stands and taco trucks.   Smoky and hot with the presence of a little char, roasted corn on the cob is becoming a common street food here in Texas as it is in Mexico.  Known as elote, corn is usually roasted in its husk.  When stripped but left attached at the end, the husk (also known as the shuck) becomes the handle with which one eats the corn.   Slathered with mayonnaise, lime and chili powder, it is one toothsome treat!

Elote that has been cut off the cob are called esquites, and that’s what I served my delightful bunco group at my Cinco de Mayo feast this year.  Served with traditional Mexican accompaniments of mayonnaise, lime juice, chili powder, cayenne pepper and Cotija cheese, I took my esquites one step further by adding black beans and scallions.   It was very well received!

Roasted corn (esquites) with black beans, lime dressing and queso Cotija

4 ears corn, husks on

½ – 1 can black beans (14-oz), rinsed and drained

2 scallions, chopped

Lime dressing (see below)

1/3 cup queso Cotija (Cotija cheese), crumbled

To roast the corn: Soak corn with husks intact in cold water for 30 minutes. Drain water and pat dry. Broil or grill corn, turning every few minutes, until the husks char and corn kernels are cooked but still firm, about 12 – 18 minutes depending on the intensity of the heat. Cool and remove husks. Cut kernels off the cob and place them in a bowl.

Add black beans, scallions and lime dressing. Toss to combine and top with crumbled Cotija cheese and sprig of cilantro.

Lime dressing:

1/3 cup mayonnaise (sour cream or yogurt would be fine as well)

2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice

¼ teaspoon chili powder, or a little more to taste

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

¼ teaspoon cumin

¼ teaspoon salt

Combine sour cream or mayonnaise, lime juice, chili powder, cayenne, cumin and salt in a small bowl.  Set aside. 

 Prijatno!

Tuna Puri wins 2nd place at the Tournament de Tuna!

I travelled the world in my mind with ideas for a winning combination of flavors that would wow the judges during Saturday’s Tournament de Tuna.  I bounced from Portugal to Spain, Northern Africa to Greece, and I finally settled way out east in India! 

Featuring canned Portuguese tuna, Queen of the Coast was introducing its products to the USA.   The Queen herself made a graceful appearance.

It was an intimate affair – six eager contestants butting into each other in the home kitchen as we plated our promising dishes.  From left to right:  Todd Romero, Chantal Duvall, yours truly, Joni Buck, and Holly Erickson watched Jenn Molholt win with her tasty Baked tuna fritter with spicy/tangy tomato relish and avocado.   It was crispy on the outside, perfectly tender on the inside and delicious! 

After much hype on Facebook,  the romantic and adventurous Raphael made his grand appearance, fresh off his seafaring boat.  He was very handsome, charming and gracious, even when Chantal planted a big red kiss!  His accent made my legs buckle…and it looked like he was enjoying my Tuna puri! 

Pani puri is an Indian snack (chaat) found in street food carts.  A foodie friend, Jay recently introduced me to a great vegetarian restaurant in Houston called Shiv Sagar.  Their dosas are excellent and that’s where I spotted the delicate pani puri.   (Thanks Jay for steering me away from making dosas, oy!)    I picked the soft-spoken restaurant owner’s brain for information and ideas for pani puri and eventually bought a package.  They had potential -  small, hollow, crispy fried breads are the vessels for spiced vegetables and sauces.   In order to incorporate the canned tuna, I checked with my Indian connection and knowledgeable friend, Manjula.  

A vegetarian herself, Manjula described the various sauces I should use and assured me that tuna would fit right in.  Her mother’s own garam masala and a fair amount of chopped onions contributed greatly to the richness of the filling.   Willing taste-tester and an excellent cook herself, my neighbor Cheryl stated that the sweetness of the yoghurt sauce balanced the spiciness of the serrano chiles in the green sauce.  The sauces – one sweet, one sour, and one spicy; and a variety of crunchy and leafy garnishes created a complete flavor and textural sensation. 

This was my presentation.  A shot of Mango lassi completed the plate.

Thanks to Karen, Dwight, Joan and Amber at Soundworks for hosting the fun-filled affair and giving us amateur cooks an opportunity to experiment and revel in each other’s company.  Judges Brandy Graesser of Hubbell and Hudson Viking Cooking School, food marketing wiz George Darsey, and Raphael himself made positive comments and I walked off with a fantastic prize – cooking lessons at the Viking Cooking School, perfect for someone who’s always willing to experiment in the kitchen! 

Yours truly, Jenn, Raphael, Holly and the Queen of the Coast

Now to the recipe!  Start with paper-thin Pani Puri (these are made by Satyam Foods & Snacks, Inc.), and thin, crunchy sev, a vermicelli-like snack made with chick pea (gram) flour.

Here’s the filling…simple ingredients deliciously seasoned with garam masala and black mustard seeds. 

To make a hole for the filling, tap the top of one side of each puri with the back of a spoon, and then fill it with the tuna mixture.  Drizzle with Spicy green chutney, Dahi, pomegranate molasses and top with sev, chives, tomato and cilantro.  Pop the entire puri in your mouth for a blast of savory, sweet, sour and spicy heaven!

Tuna Puri   Please note that this recipe looks more complicated than it is!  You can substitute store-bought Spicy Cilantro Chutney and the rest of the components are very simple to assemble.

One bag (7.4 oz) Pani Puri (small, fried and hollow Indian breads, available at all Indian grocers)

Tuna and Chick Pea filling

1 – 2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup finely diced onion

1 – 2 teaspoons garam masala (a spice mixture available at all Indian grocers)

½ teaspoon black mustard seeds

1 cup diced fresh tomatoes, seeds removed

3 cans (6 oz/170g each) Queen of the Coast Tuna Salad with Chick Peas, or 5 oz canned tuna in oil plus 11 oz cooked chick peas

salt, to taste

In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil. Add onion and sauté for 5 minutes until beginning to soften but not brown. Add garam masala and mustard seeds and cook for 1 minute. Add tomatoes and sauté for 1 more minute. Add canned Tuna Salad with Chick Peas and stir gently until heated through. Season with salt, if necessary.

Spicy Cilantro Chutney ( substitute with store-bought chutney, if you wish)

3 green chiles such as serrano or jalapeno, stemmed and seeded

¾-inch piece peeled fresh ginger

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon oil

¼ cup water

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon sugar or jaggery (palm sugar)

1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted

1 bunch cilantro (about 5 ounces) less about 6 stems- reserve for garnish

Place all ingredients except for the cilantro in a blender. Pulse until combined and finely chopped. Add cilantro and blend until smooth. Season with additional salt if necessary.

Dahi (sweetened yoghurt)

1 cup plain yoghurt

1 tablespoon sugar or jaggery (palm sugar)

½ teaspoon pomegranate molasses

pinch of salt

Whisk yoghurt, sugar, pomegranate and salt to blend. Adjust to taste.

For the garnish:

½ cup sev, a fried vermicelli-like snack made with gram (chick pea) flour (available at all Indian grocers)

pomegranate molasses or sweet tamarind chutney (available at all Indian grocers)

¼ cup finely sliced scallions or chives

½ cup chopped fresh tomato

leaves from about 6 stems cilantro (reserved from Spicy Cilantro Chutney), finely chopped

To assemble Pani Puri

Carefully make a hole on one side of each pani puri. Fill each one about ¾ to the top with warm Tuna and Chick Pea filling. Arrange pani puri on a serving platter. Drizzle with Spicy Cilantro Chutney, Dahi, and garnishes (sev, pomegranate molasses, scallions, tomato and chopped cilantro). Serve with a shot of Mango Lassi to cool the palate!

 

Mango lassi

2 cups plain yoghurt

2 mangoes, peeled and chopped, or 2 cups frozen mango cubes

¼ cup milk

toasted and ground pistachio nuts and a slice of fresh mango for decoration

Blend yoghurt, mangoes and milk in a blender. Pour into glasses and sprinkle with chopped pistachio nuts. Serve cold.

Mango lassi – refreshing and not too sweet!

Click on the link for more pictures of the Tournament de Tuna. 

This post is my entry to the Magic Bullet To Go Giveaway, for which you can find details @ Fun and Food Cafe. You could win a Magic Bullet Food processor!  It’s easy!

Prijatno!

Sautéed fresh garbanzo beans

If you blink at the wrong time during early spring, you may miss the fleeting presence of fresh garbanzo beans, still in their small, fuzzy green pods.   Also known as chickpeas, ceci beans, Indian peas, Bengal gram and Kabuli chana, we are much more familiar in the US with garbanzos in canned or dried forms before they become the key ingredient in hummus, falafel, Indian vegetarian curries and Italian salads. 

I first spied fresh garbanzos as recently as last year.   Popping the beans out of their pods and savoring their green, sweet, and slightly nutty essence transported me far from the hectic, crowded city to a spacious country porch, a rocking chair and visions of me shelling garbanzos…I was well on my way to eating the entire bag by the time I arrived home!   Similar to green pea pods but smaller, their shells are thinner, hairy and paper-like.  One or two peas occupy each pod.  This picture shows how they are sold at markets in Mexico - fresh pods still attached to their branches.  The leaves are used to make sun tea and the branches are fed to the burros!   In the US you will pay a little more since you’re only buying the pods.   If you a lucky enough to come across some at your market or grocery store, grab some! 

This is how I found them

Sadly, most of the crops in California support the dried garbanzo market.   Hopefully, with more families embracing a farm-to-table approach to their diets, these wonderful legumes will become a seasonal staple .   I recently read about a California farmer and his support of his Hispanic foreman’s “agricultural fantasy” - selling fresh garbanzos to “Gringos”!  When they introduced them at a market in San Francisco, Hispanic women delighted in the fresh crop, while the “Gringas” were not so easily charmed, especially put off by the chilling thought of, heaven forbid, shelling the beans themselves!!!  (Link to the entire article).     For people as particular as they are, sautéing them in their shells as I did below saves shelling time and they can be eaten like edamame – each person shelling his or her own.

In Mexico and from the Eastern Mediterranean to India, fresh garbanzos are eaten raw as well as cooked, and in many areas they are considered the poor man’s protein.  Aside from being high in protein, these nutritious little gems are also high in fiber and potassium .   My recent batch made it home with only a few beans eaten!   I decided to process them minimally so that they retain some of the raw “green” nutty taste that I hunger for.  A quick sauté did the trick for me, but you could also toss the pods in a little bit of olive oil and roast them at 425F for 25 – 30 minutes for a creamier texture.

Heat a little bit of olive oil in a pan.  Carefully add the fresh garbanzo beans.  They will quickly begin jumping like popping corn!  

When the shells are charred on both sides, sprinkle with chile powder, cayenne pepper and kosher salt, to taste.  Finish with a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

This simple snack is my entry to Magic Bullet To Go Giveaway, for which you can find details @ Fun and Food Cafe. You could win a Magic Bullet Food processor!  It’s easy!

Prijatno!

Cheese tortellini soup with cannellini beans, kielbasa and kale

We started off with a lot of promise, the wine group and I.   Led by Culinary Program director Stefano at one of the loveliest places on earth, Villa Ferraia in Tuscany, our spirited members fearlessly tackled eggplant parmesan, foccacia, malfatti, ribollita, Sylvia’s amazing torta di cioccolato and many more authentic Tuscan dishes during our weeklong stay.   

Barbara, Helen and yours truly making tagliatelle verdi during our morning wine degustazione!

But our greatest challenge was tortelloni.  Tortelloni are the larger version of tortellini.  It was smart of Stefano not to ask us to make tiny tortellini – you’ll see why!  Here Teague, Jeff and Helen are adding the leek and pumpkin stuffing before folding each piece and shaping it into a circle with a flip - later to be sautéed with butter and sage leaves and then topped with grated parmesan.  Truly delicious!

Some of the tortelloni were so dainty and cute.  The shape, as the story goes, was inspired by Lucrezia Borgia’s sensual navel!

Here’s the first batch sitting pretty by the window.  Not bad.

But by the time we were done…UGH!  What a mess…tasty yes, but miserably inconsistent in size and shape! 

Astounded, our patient tutor Stefano holds up the biggest one!  It’s an Amazon’s navel, for goodness sake!

We realize that we’ll never be able to duplicate what the Italian mamas do on a daily basis, so we reach for the next best thing, fresh stuffed tortellini in the refrigerator section of the grocery store.  They’re perfectly shaped (by nothing other than a machine), relatively inexpensive and tasty, and they add flavor and texture to this hearty soup introduced to me by my wine buddies Jeff and Doris…and it doesn’t hurt to include some spicy sausage either!

Cheese tortellini soup with cannellini beans, kielbasa, and kale, slightly adapted from Bon Appétit, February 2002

Yield: Makes 6 servings

2 tablespoons olive oil
12 ounces fully cooked, smoked kielbasa (sausage), thinly sliced (I used Chappell Hill jalapeño sausage)
1 onion, chopped
1 cup chopped fresh fennel bulb (about ½ large bulb. You could use the other half in a fresh salad)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
½ - 1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
10 cups canned low-salt beef broth (chicken broth is good too)
4 cups chopped kale (1/2 bunch)
1 15-ounce can cannellini (white kidney beans), rinsed and drained
1 9-ounce package fresh cheese tortellini
1 cup grated Parmesan, Asiago or Gruyère cheese

garlic bread, toasted (optional)

Heat olive oil in a heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add sausage, onion, fennel, garlic, thyme and red pepper and sauté until the vegetables are soft and the sausage is brown, about 12 minutes. Add broth and bring to a boil. Stir in kale and cannelloni beans. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the kale is wilted, about 4 minutes. You can make the soup ahead up to this point. Cool and refrigerate until you are ready to serve it. Heat the soup before continuing with the next step.

Add tortellini to hot soup. Simmer until pasta is just tender but still has some bite (al dente), about 5 - 8 minutes.  Ladle soup into bowls. Top with grated cheese of your choice and serve with toasted garlic bread.

Prijatno!