Chilled Mexican Corn Salad

The Background

I have been looking for a side dish that will pair well with Tex-Mex, Southwestern and Southern dishes.  The catering jobs that we take on typically involve either barbeque or tacos.  This side dish pairs well with both and it is equally tasty served warm or cold.  If served with barbeque, the corn salad gives a great alternative to the typical potato salad or coleslaw. 

If you have ever been to a Mexican festival or celebration, you may have stumbled on a booth or food truck selling grilled corn on the cob.  The corn is usually nicely charred, lathered in a creamy, buttery combination of cheese and chili spices, and finished with a squeeze of lime.  The sweet smell of grilled corn with lime and chiles creates an aroma that will be forever locked in your mind.  You won't be able to think about that festival without remembering that aroma, and anytime you pass a vendor selling grilled corn, your ears will immediately perk and your head will swivel to find the source!

We have tried to recreate that experience in a bowl.  I love to serve this dish as a cold side.  The sweet corn and creaminess cools down the palate perfectly after something spicy.  And the bright, fresh citrus keeps the flavors light.  It's a new favorite of mine, and I get great comments when we serve it at our events.

 

The Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
3 cups corn (about 4 ears, fresh OR 2 cans)
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, grated (or approximately 1 teaspoon of minced garlic)
1 handful cilantro, chopped
1 lime, juice
2 tablespoons Cotija cheese, crumbled
1 tablespoon chili powder to taste
2 teaspoons onion salt

 

Making It Work

1. Melt the butter in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat.  A cast iron skillet works great, if you have one.
2. Add the corn, toss it quickly to coat as much of the corn with the butter as you can.  Once the corn is coated in butter, leave it alone to char, about 6-10 minutes. Set aside to cool.
3. In a medium bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, garlic, lime juice, onion salt, and chili powder to make a smooth dressing.
4. Mix the corn into the dressing, until the corn is well coated.  Once the corn and dressing are mixed, stir in the chopped cilantro and Cotija cheese.
5. To serve, garnish with some hand-torn cilantro, and an additional sprinkle of cheese and chili powder.  This is a great dish to make a day ahead or the morning of the event.  The flavors will deepen as it chills in the refrigerator for a few hours. 

Texas BBQ Sauce

The Background

We are about to enter a dangerous topic, barbeque.  There are many debates we could wage over what constitutes barbeque, whether it be about how it is made, at what temperature it is achieved, whether or not it is sauced, whether it's beef or pork, whether or not bologna and hot links belong in the conversation or not... okay, let's just go ahead and assume that one is non-topic. 

I have been blessed to travel all over this great country, and I have sampled some of this country's favorite barbeque joints and pits.  I have done the Memphis thing, sampled Kansas City's finest, sunk my teeth into South Carolina's famed vinegary pork, and savored some of the best Texas has to offer.  I won't beat around the bush, for my money, Texas barbeque rules supreme.

For the purpose of today's recipe, let's first understand the way barbeque is done in Texas.  In the lone star state, sauce is served on the side.  Rarely will you find beef brisket, pulled pork or meaty ribs where they have been sauced as part of the cooking process.  Texas barbeque is also typically a combination of sweet, spicy, tangy and salty.  It is an accoutrement or an accessory.  If your meat can't stand on it's own, the finest sauce in the state won't fix it.  You can't use sauce to cover up the fact that your meat is dry, overcooked or bland.  But if you have taken your time to produce smokey perfection in the form of brisket or pulled pork, then a great sauce will take it to a new level.

So what does good Texas barbeque look like?  It should be a deep mahogany color, flecked with pepper and spice.  It should also be thick enough to coat a spoon (or a piece of meat).  Beyond these basics, there are a world of flavor profiles that can be used to achieve that blend of sweet, tangy, spicy and salty.  I prefer a combination ketchup and mustard (sweet and tangy) as the base.  I like the tang of apple cider vinegar combined with the sweetness of honey.  You can definitely use a different type of vinegar, or use various sweeteners such brown sugar, agave, maple syrup or cane syrup.  For spice, I like to use flavors like cumin and paprika, along with chili powder and black pepper.  I also like garlic and onion along with the salt to bring that earthy and umami flavor to the profile.  And when you are ready for the "advanced" recipe class, swap out some of these flavors or play with Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, red wine, smoky chipotle peppers, hatch green chiles or liquid smoke. 

The Ingredients

• 34oz bottle Ketchup (I use Heinz, this was a "large" bottle)
• 8oz bottle Mustard (French's standard issue yellow mustard, the "small" bottle)
• 1 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1/4 cup Black Pepper (I used an Orange Pepper blend from Texas Spice Co.)
• 2 tablespoons Garlic Salt
• 2 tablespoons Onion Salt
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 tablespoon Chili Powder
• 1 tablespoon Cumin
• 1 tablespoon Paprika (smoked paprika is really great, if you have it handy)

Making It Work

Whisk all your wet ingredients in a medium sauce pan over medium to low heat.  You will want to bring the sauce to a low simmer to help dissolve the sugar and heat the spices.

One at a time, stir in each of the dry ingredients, making sure each is fully incorporated before proceeding the next.  This will prevent your spices from lumping together in the mixture.

Simmer the sauce until you reach the desired consistency.

This will make quite a bit of barbeque sauce.  My last batch was right about 45 ounces.  I pour the sauce into squeeze bottles.  To keep the sauce fresh, put a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the bottle, before screwing on the squeeze top.  This sauce will have to be stored in the fridge.  Hopefully, before this summer, I will get a chance to play with canning the sauce for pantry storage.  I will update this recipe accordingly, once I have made it work!

Play with the flavors, find other sweet or tangy ingredients to swap out, make use of some left over wine (if that sort of thing ever happens at your house), play with adding booze such as bourbon or tequila, or use other ethnic spices to create new flavor profiles.  Barbeque sauce should be more of process, rather than exact recipe to follow, once you have mastered the balance between spicy, salty, sweet and tangy.

Jalapeno Popper Cornbread

The background

I was thinking through how I wanted to celebrate my birthday this year and had settled on a barbeque dinner.  Never mind that it is early February, here in central Texas, the weather is most definitely indicative of an early spring.  With daytime temperatures in the mid 70’s and flirting with the 80’s, the weather is perfect for firing up the smoker.  In the grand Texas barbeque tradition, dinner would include smoked brisket, pulled pork and sausage.  To compliment the peppery smoked meats, I served pinto beans, grilled corn on the cob, homemade dinner rolls and Jalapeno Popper Cornbread. 

In the off chance that you haven’t been to a backyard barbeque in the last decade or so, jalapeno poppers are bacon wrapped peppers stuffed with cheese and either battered and fried, or grilled.  I am a fan of the grilled variety, myself.  I like the smoky bacon and slight char on the jalapeno pepper.  In order to mimic these qualities in my cornbread, I relied on my favorite cast iron skillet and the all around goodness of rendered bacon fat. 

I am willing to bet that you can get perfectly acceptable results by adding the three pepper popper ingredients to whatever boxed cornbread mix you already use, baked in a casserole pan, but I have to strongly encourage you to take the time to make this recipe from locally sourced ground corn if at all possible.  Using the best bacon you can find definitely won’t hurt either.  The cast iron skillet also delivers on a nice crisp crust on the bread, which can’t be achieved in a glass dish.

No, you won’t find this recipe in anyone’s healthy eating or diet cookbook.  This should be a splurge for sure, so I don’t recommend getting carried away with healthy swaps like using skim milk, turkey bacon, coconut oil or almond flour.  Enjoy this cornbread with a slathering of real butter guilt-free, just don’t eat the whole pan in one sitting.

the ingredients

• 1 Cup Ground Corn Meal (locally sourced and organic)
• 1 Cup All-Purpose Flour (unbleached and organic)
• 1 Tsp. Salt
• 2 Tsp. Baking Powder
• 2 Tbsp. Sugar
• 1 Cup Milk
• 2 Eggs
• 1/4 Canola Oil
• 3 Whole Jalapeno Peppers
• 1 Lb. Smoked Bacon
• 2 Cup Cheddar Cheese, grated (I prefer a Longhorn Style Medium Cheddar)

making it work

1. Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees with a rack in the center position.
2. Slice the bacon into thin pieces and brown in a cast iron skillet.
3. While the bacon is browning, slice the jalapenos into 1/4 inch slices.  You will further dice these in a later step, we just want nice slices so that they cook evenly.
4. When the bacon is browned, remove the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels to remove excess grease.  Pour off most of the bacon grease from the pan, reserving a tablespoon or 2 in the pan.
5. Sauté the sliced jalapenos in the rendered bacon fat until they soften and start to brown.
6. Remove the sautéed peppers from the pan and chop them into small pieces.  Set these aside to be added to the batter.
7. Combine the dry ingredients (corn meal, flour, salt, baking powder, sugar) in a medium size mixing bowl and then stir with a whisk or fork so that they are mixed well.
8. Add the wet ingredients (oil, milk, and eggs) to the dry ingredients and whisk fully incorporate.
9. Stir in the bacon, jalapeno peppers and cheddar cheese.
10. Grease a clean cast iron skillet.  For this purpose, I prefer to use bacon fat, but shortening or vegetable oil will work just fine as well.  I am one of those crazy people that actually keeps rendered bacon fat to use for things like this or for biscuits.
11. Pour the batter into the greased skillet and bake for 30-35 minutes.  When it is done, the top should be lightly brown and firm to the touch.  You should also see nicely browned edges.

notes and observations

I cut my cornbread into 16 pieces.  This means I end up with 4 very small, triangular pieces that really aren’t big enough to serve.  These are of course made entirely for taste-testing, and naturally are void of calories.

Assuming you have to brown the bacon, this recipe should take about an hour from start to finish.  This does reheat well though, so it can certainly be made early.

Shredding cheese from a block really does make a big difference.  If you have abandoned block cheese for the pre-shredded bagged cheese, please reconsider this.  Here’s a challenge, hand grate some cheddar cheese and taste it side by side with the bagged stuff.  I guarantee you will taste a huge difference.  Even without buying expensive artisan cheddar from the cheese counter, if you will just use even the store brand block cheese you will be surprised by the results.  If your not convinced, read the ingredients on the back of the package.  Yuck.