Fresh Corn Queso Fundido

I blame it on my upbringing in Illinois, otherwise known as the land of corn, but I get excited when fresh, sweet corn comes into season. I was delighted when our first corn of the year from our CSA appeared a couple of weeks ago. Oddly enough, the recipe I couldn’t wait to use it in was actually intended for frozen corn. It was Corn Queso Fundido from the December issue of Food and Wine, and the purpose of the dish was to use some produce that had been frozen at the peak of the season. I took a different approach, but the result would be great either way. Not only did I have the first-of-season corn, I also had the first locally-grown chiles from Springdale Farm that I’d spotted this year. This is a fun queso for dipping chips, but I made more of a meal of it by dipping grilled zucchini and chunks of grilled chicken as well. The queso can be cooked entirely on top of the stove as instructed in the recipe, or you can go for some browning on the cheese as I did by popping it under the broiler for a couple of minutes. Local fresh corn and chiles are a great start to our summer produce. 

I started by cutting the kernels from a couple of ears of corn. Half of the corn was pureed in the blender with some water. The recipe suggests straining the puree, but I didn’t. Meanwhile, I roasted a poblano and some jalapeno chiles. When cool, the charred skin was removed, and the chiles were stemmed, seeded, and chopped. The chopped chiles were cooked with minced onion in a skillet, and the remaining corn was added. It’s important to cook the vegetables until slightly browned and any water has evaporated. Next, minced garlic was added and cooked for a couple of minutes. The corn puree was then added and allowed to reduce for a few minutes. Shredded Monterey Jack cheese was stirred into the vegetable mix until melted. At this point, I transferred the queso to a baking dish and placed it under the broiler until browned. I garnished with sliced jalapenos and chopped cilantro and served it with baked tortilla chips. I’ve developed the habit of cutting corn tortillas into long, skinny wedges for baking after learning the technique in a Rick Bayless book. The tortilla pieces were brushed with grape seed oil and seasoned with salt, ancho powder, and cayenne. 

Now that I’ve looked back at this recipe from December, I should take a lesson from it and freeze some of our lovely, fresh corn right now. It always disappears so quickly when we have it, I usually don’t even have a chance to think about preserving some for later in the year. Whether you cut it from fresh ears or pull it from the freezer, you have to try this spicy queso with corn. 

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Black Bean Tortilla Casserole

I found this recipe in my files, and apparently, I put it there back in 2006. It’s from Living magazine, and it’s similar to other tortilla and bean layered casseroles I’ve made. It’s a versatile dish in that you can easily substitute ingredients here and there, but it is important to keep the moisture content as intended so the casserole doesn’t become soggy and so the cut pieces will hold their shape. I wasn’t able to find this exact recipe on the web site, so I’ll list it below, but there is a similar dish in the Everyday Food cookbook. In that book, it’s called tortilla and black bean pie, and it's a little different from this one. For this version from the magazine, you make a salsa verde which is layered with roasted poblanos, toasted tortillas, black beans, spinach, and cheese. You could save some time by purchasing pre-made salsa, but I had some green tomatoes and chiles to use from my CSA. The suggested method in the recipe involves sauteing onion, garlic, and tomatillos before adding chiles, but I prefer to place all those things with green tomatoes on a baking sheet and brown them under the broiler. Once browned on all sides, everything is pureed in a food processor with lime juice and cilantro.

For the casserole, corn tortillas were cut in half, brushed with oil, and toasted in the oven. They’re removed before they become crunchy, but they do become sturdier. Spinach leaves were cooked and drained, onion was sauteed with chopped roasted poblanos, and the black beans were cooked with garlic. I used a spring-form pan, and the first layer was 12 halves of tortillas which were overlapped in the bottom of the pan. Next, the poblano and onion mixture was added followed by half of the black bean mixture. That was topped with sour cream, since I forgot to buy Mexican crema, and then some salsa was added. Shredded monterey jack cheese was added, and then the layering was repeated with spinach instead of poblanos. Last, the casserole was topped with the remaining tortilla halves, salsa, and cheese.

I was surprised at how easily the spring-form ring was removed, and how easily the casserole was cut. It’s a dry enough mixture that there’s no danger of the layers sliding apart as each piece is plated. Now that I’ve looked at the other casserole in the Everyday Food book, I see it includes corn and green onions. Not that the version I made seemed lacking at all, but those will be great additions when I make this again.

Tortilla Casserole
Living Magazine March 2006
4 fresh poblano chiles, roasted, peeled, seeded and chopped
18 six inch corn tortillas, halved
Vegetable oil
10 ounces baby spinach leaves
1 small white onion, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 15 ounce cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 c sour cream or Mexican crema
2 1/4 c salsa verde
1 1/2 c shredded monterey jack cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

-Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Brush cut tortillas on both sides with vegetable oil and place on two large baking sheets overlapping as needed. Bake for six minutes and rotate pans after three minutes. Set aside.
-Wash spinach and drain. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and cook spinach briefly just until wilted. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a colander to drain. Heat two tablespoons oil in skillet, add onion and saute until translucent. Add chopped poblanos, cook until heated through, and transfer to a bowl. Heat another two tablespoons oil in skillet and add garlic. Cook for 30 seconds and add black beans. Season to taste with salt and pepper and cook until heated through.
-Line bottom of a 10-inch spring-form pan with 12 overlapping tortilla halves. Add poblano mixture, top with half the bean mixture, add one half cup of sour cream, and pour 3/4 c salsa on top. Spread 1/2 c shredded cheese on salsa. Repeat layers a second time using spinach instead of poblanos. Top casserole with remaining tortilla halves, salsa, and shredded cheese.
-Place spring-form pan on a baking sheet and bake until heated through, about 45 minutes to one hour. Let stand for 15 minutes before removing spring-form ring and serving. Serve with additional salsa.




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Grilled Stuffed Jalapeños and Banana Peppers

I have a new kitchen gadget, and it’s a fun one. Actually, it’s a grilling gadget for roasting jalapeños, and it’s from Williams-Sonoma. I wish they were paying me to tell you about it, but they’re not. I’d had my eye on this for the longest time and finally purchased one the other day. It’s made to hold jalapeños upright and keep them above the flame of the grill, and it has little handles on each side for easy moving and lifting. I couldn’t wait to pull a rack full of oozing, cheese-filled chiles with blistered skins and smoky flavor off the grill. I found some nice and smallish banana peppers at the farmers’ market but had to stop by the grocery store for the jalapeños. The first step was cutting off all the tops and hollowing out the centers. Williams-Sonoma also sells a pepper corer, but a grapefruit knife works well. You’ll want to scrape away the white membranes all the way down the tip inside the chiles and tap out the seeds. This opens space for the stuffing and removes the source of the chiles’ heat.

Once the chiles were cleaned and hollowed, I placed them in a glass bowl and poured a quick, garlic marinade over them. They sat in the marinade for about two hours, and I stirred them twice during that time to distribute the marinade. Next, it was time to stuff them. I made a simple stuffing of cream cheese, monterey jack cheese, chopped cilantro, and salt and pepper and used a butter knife to fill each chile. With a butter knife, it’s easy to push a small amount of filling all the way to the bottom of the hollowed chile and then keep adding until it’s full. I had reserved the tops of the cut-off chiles, and they were returned to where they belonged once the filling was in place.

There was just one little issue with this roaster contraption, or maybe it’s not the contraption at all but was just a twist of fate regarding the size of jalapeños being sold locally last weekend. Several of the chiles I used slid right through the holes on the roasting rack. Maybe they were slenderer than usual. The banana peppers were definitely smallish and thin, but I didn’t think the jalpeños looked any thinner than normal. To hold our chiles in place, Kurt took charge of placing little rings of foil on the rack to fill out extra space in each opening, and that worked fine. The stuffed chiles went to the grill as secure as can be, and we eagerly awaited the end of their cooking time. They sat on a medium-hot area of the grill for about 18 minutes total, and Kurt turned the rack once after 10 minutes. The wait for the molten centers to cool enough so as to only burn a little seemed like an eternity, and I worried the jalapeños would be too spicy even though the membranes and seeds had been removed. We were surprised to find the jalapeños were very mild tasting as if the grilling had tamed them. The simple cheese filling worked well as it allowed the character of the chiles themselves to play a bigger part, and the time over charcoal was a key element in building the overall taste. The jalapeños were terrific, but we found that we were gravitating to the flavor of the banana peppers, and they oddly had a bigger hint of spiciness. Roasting the stuffed chiles was as fun as I’d imagined it would be, and I predict we’ll be doing this pretty much every time we light the grill.


Grilled Stuffed Chiles

18 plump, short chiles to fit the roasting rack as best as possible
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 T white wine vinegar
1/3 c olive oil
8 oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 c shredded monterey jack cheese
2 T chopped cilantro leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

-cut tops from chiles and hollow out interiors removing membranes and seeds
-in a small bowl, whisk together minced garlic and vinegar, slowly add olive oil while whisking, and season to taste with salt and pepper
-place hollowed chiles in a glass bowl and pour marinade over them; refrigerate for two hours; to evenly distribute, stir chiles and marinade twice during the two hours
-in a medium bowl, stir together cream cheese, monterey jack cheese, cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste
-remove one chile at a time from marinade and let excess oil drip back into bowl; fill each chile using a butter knife; start by placing a small amount of stuffing all the way at the bottom of the hollowed space and then continue adding until the filling reaches the top
-place filled chiles in the roasting rack and replace reserved tops on the chiles
-grill over medium-high heat for 10 minutes; turn rack; check for doneness after another eight minutes; chiles should be blistered and softened and the filling should be oozing and melty

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