Southwestern corn and squash bake

Looking at the vegetables I have on hand this week, I knew I wanted to pair the squash and corn. I had a fair amount of Southwestern flavorings left over to work with and a chunk of mild white cheddar that was close enough to monterey jack. No real plan here; I just threw it all together in some vaguely sensible manner.

Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped
2 smallish yellow peppers, chopped
1/2 summer squash, thinly sliced
3 ears corn, stripped from their cobs
2 chipotles in adobo, chopped
equal amount of pickled jalapeños, chopped
6 ounces pulled brisket in faux barbecue sauce
1 handful cilantro, chopped
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup double-cream white cheddar cheese, shredded
parmesan and bread crumbs to cover
salt and pepper and chili powder and cumin and oregano and hot sauce and such to taste

I heated the butter and olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat until the the butter melted, sizzled and settled down. Then I threw in the onion and peppers with a pinch of salt and sweated them until they softened the the onion turned translucent. Then I added the squash with some spices and let it cook down while I harvested the corn from the cobs. After a few minutes I added the corn, turned the heat up a little and cooked for five minutes until the corn was just turning tender.

Then I took the pot off the heat and added the chipotle and pickled jalapeño, brisket (with its sauce) and cilantro, mixed well and poured out into an 8"x8" baking dish. After it had cooled a bit, I mixed in the cheddar and the eggs whisked into the milk and cream, adjusted the spices, topped with the mixed breadcrumbs and parmesan, covered with foil and baked at 350 degrees for a half hour, removed the foil and baked for 15 minutes more and then gave it five more minutes under the broiler.

Here's the result:
The structural integrity isn't quite where I'd like it; Next time, I'm mixing the bread crumbs in. But even if it falls apart into a bowlful of creamed corn, it's nicely rich and full of flavor. The corn is tender but still has a bit of crunch to it. It's sweetness, surprisingly pronounced, contrasts with the several different sorts of spiciness and the savory brisket. The acid from the pickled jalapeno (and the hot sauce) cuts through the richness. Kind of trashy I admit, but really pretty tasty. Could use more squash, though. And, I just now realized that I've got a can of black beans that I should have thrown it. That would have been pretty good too.

Fish poached in fresh chile oil

My post, back in March, about slow poaching fish in butter was no doubt received with a chorus of yawns. You guys can read the New York Times as well as I can and don't need me to tell you that adding a handful of scallions to their recipe is a good idea.

This is a variation on that technique using a recipe from another NYTimes article--this one about cooking over wood fires:
"That smoke is a guilty pleasure. It gives so much flavor, it makes most marinades and rubs unnecessary. But a bright and balanced sauce, like the honey-sweetened gremolata in “Seven Fires,” adds a note of sophistication.

"So does the fresh dried chili oil from Russell Moore, the chef and an owner of Camino, in Oakland, Calif., a restaurant where almost everything is cooked with a wood fire. This time of year Mr. Moore grills asparagus and spring onions, then tops them with a chili oil he makes from mild dried New Mexican chilies, pounded garlic and chopped mint. The result has so much body and flavor it’s more salsa than sauce. Mr. Moore describes it as “a super-rough harissa.”

"The recipe is really a template — you can use any mild chili, such as chihuacle or mulatto, and any herb — and drizzle it over whatever vegetable looks good that week, from artichokes to new potatoes to escarole to summer chanterelles. “You want all the freshness of the seasons in there, and three strong flavors,” Mr. Moore said."

I'm not drizzling it over grilled vegetables so at least I've got something original to contribute here.

I used:
2 ancho peppers [Dried poblanos. Quite mild.]
1 clove of garlic
1/4 cup mixed fresh oregano and cilantro leaves
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt

I crushed the peppers by hand in a small bowl and added just enough boiling water to cover--no more than a Tablespoon or two--and let it hydrate for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, I crushed the garlic and finely chopped the herbs. When the time was up, I added both the the peppers, mixed in the olive oil and a couple big pinches of salt and let it rest in the refrigerator for a couple hours.

The fish I used was whiting, but something a little firmer would be a better choice. I changed the technique a little this time since I, on a whim, made hash browns while the fish was defrosting and the chile oil's flavors maturing. That meant the pan was hot and had some residual olive oil in it. I took it off the heat and added half an onion coarsely chopped so it could get a little head start in cooking before I added the fish. When it stopped sizzling and the heating element had cooled down I put the pan back on the heat, added about half the chile oil and a couple fillets of the fish, cubed. I let that cook over very low heat for ten minutes, stirring a couple times, before I was happy with the doneness of everything. I spooned a serving over the fried potatoes and added a little fresh chile oil over top.



The fruity flavor the peppers blended with the fruity olive oil and melted into the buttery soft fish which itself blended out into the oil to create a rich sauce. There's no heat, but there's warmth from the peppers that rounds out the flavors nicely. The herbs are subtle--there more as an aroma than an actual flavor. I wouldn't mind if they were stronger. I'd add more next time and maybe warm the mixture up over a low flame briefly to help the flavors infuse. Still, quite nice as is.

Maybe I should have had this with rice or bread to sop up the sauce, but serving it over hash browns actually worked. The fish and onions never browned or crisped so it's nice to have a little caramelized flavor and a bit of crunch. The onions were perfectly al dente, but you want some real crunch too. Also, the potatoes retain their separate flavor while everything else has blended with only minor emphasis if you're eating a piece of fish or onion and it's nice to have a little more variation bite to bite.

Migas de pan - a second try

I've got about half a big loaf of bread left over so I thought I'd take a second crack at migas. There are a few things I figure I did wrong the first time around.

First, I went overboard with the olive oil. No need to drown everything, particular as the sausage is going to release some fat itself.

Second, I mistook it for a stir fry and cranked up the heat in a way Spanish chorizo and bread crumbs both don't react well to.

Third, I cut the bread crumbs too small so by the time they were crisp on the outside they were crisp on the inside too which is not good.

Finally, I worried too much about what was or wasn't supposed to go into it. This time I improvised a little and didn't concern myself with a proper traditional Central Spanish recipe.

So, this time, along with the chorizo I added some southern-style uncured garlic sausage. Garlic sausage is universal and southern and Spanish styles aren't a huge distance apart. I also added some shrimp and jamon serano after the sausages, onion and pepper had spent a couple minutes over medium heat.

I prepared the bread crumbs by tossing them with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and pimenton and letting them soak it in while the other ingredients cooked. On a whim I added half a can of chickpeas in with the bread crumbs. That must be traditional somewhere in Spain. I gave them around seven minutes in the pan before mixing all the other stuff back in and letting it cook for one more minute to let the bread soak up some of the accumulated juices.

And finally I served it topped with some chopped roasted peppers. I skipped the egg this time mainly because I seem to have used the last egg I had some time earlier this week.

The results are much improved. I pulled the bread a little quick so only a few bits crisped up, but it is softened up from staleness and soaked with flavor so no biggie. And the garbanzos are a good contrast in texture with their firm bite.

Big benefits from cutting back on the oil as I can actually taste the vegetables this time around. And since the meat isn't all shriveled up and dried out, each retains its own specific flavor contributing to the whole. The shrimp particularly are a nice addition with their sweetness balanced against the smokey saltiness of the rest of the dish.

It's not perfect; for one thing I cut the bread crumbs too big. The result is more panzenella than pilaf and I think the second is what I'm aiming at. Also, I forgot the tomatoes. It could use tomatoes. As for the egg, I dunno. It really didn't need any more fat, but the egg yolks would have bound it together a bit. I'll add an egg to a leftover serving and see how it goes.

Overall a respectable result and a pretty good dinner. I think it went well enough that next time I might experiment with flavors and do a non-Spanish version. I have a vision of a breakfast migas de pancakes I kind of want to try but I don't have all the details worked out yet.