Plantain and sweet potato soup with chipotle crema

I bought a green plantain a few weeks ago and left it on the counter to ripen. It took a long time, but finally it started to turn yellow, then took on some black patches (black plantain = ripe plantain). I typically just sauté plaintains until browned in a little bit of oil, but wanted to do something different this time. I decided on this recipe from the Mesa Grill cookbook for sweet potato and plantain soup.

I read the ingredient list before I went grocery shopping, but didn’t bother to actually read the cooking instructions. The recipe looks fairly simple because of its short ingredient list, but the cooking process is actually quite fussy. I didn’t have the patience to follow the recipe, so I improvised. Instead of roasting the sweet potatoes and plantains, I just cut them into small pieces and cooked them directly in the chicken stock. The original recipe also called for pureeing the plantains, adding them to the liquid, then pureeing everything again when the sweet potatoes are added. That seemed unnecessary to me, so I just pureed everything together a single time at the end.

I went with the suggested garnish of chipotle crema, and I happened to have pepper oil and herb oil in the house, so I used those too for some added color. I wasn’t about to heat up a big pot of oil just to fry a plantain for garnish, so instead I cut some small cubes of plantain and sautéed them in a small amount of oil until browned and crispy.

If you look at the ingredient list, you’ll notice that this soup is on the sweeter side from the plantains, coconut milk and sweet potatoes. It’s important to add a generous amount of salt to cut some of the sweetness, otherwise it almost tastes like dessert! The soup had a very nice, almost velvety texture from the pureed potatoes and plantains.

Blueberry and blue corn pancakes

There were some great guesses as to the identities of the flowers in my last post! The first picture is of asian pear blossoms. The second picture is actually a green onion flower, and the third picture is of anemones.

This pancake recipe from the Mesa Grill cookbook is a fun twist on an old favorite. I don't know of anyone who doesn't love blueberry pancakes. Bobby Flay combines blue cornmeal with traditional pancake ingredients for a delicious and unique rendition. You'd think that with living in the Bay Area, I'd have all kinds of specialty ingredients readily available. That's not always the case - I had to try five different stores before I found blue cornmeal. Hopefully you'll have better luck! That being said, there's no reason why you can't make this recipe with yellow cornmeal.

If you can get your hands on some fresh blueberries, feel free to use them. If not, frozen works just as well. I highly recommend using frozen wild blueberries - the wild blueberries are much smaller and distribute better in the pancakes. I topped these with a wild blueberry sauce, but they're just as good with maple syrup.

Pumpkin soup with cinnamon creme fraiche

When the holidays roll around, I always buy more canned pumpkin than I actually need. I love to use pumpkin in desserts, but I also look for ways to incorporate pumpkin into savory dishes.

I saw this recipe for pumpkin soup in the Mesa Grill cookbook and thought it would be a great way to use a can of pumpkin. The pumpkin puree is combined with chicken or vegetable stock and seasoned with salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and allspice. A dose of chipotle puree contributes some heat, and both honey and maple syrup are added to round out the flavors. The soup can be put together in minutes, and is dressed up with a drizzle of cinnamon creme fraiche and toasted pumpkin seeds.

The recipe calls for a fair amount of cinnamon – Mexican canela to be exact. If you can find canela, I would highly recommend using it. I buy canela in bark form and grind it myself. You can make the recipe with other varieties of cinnamon, but it won’t be exactly the same. If you haven't yet converted to grating your own nutmeg, I would encourage you to give it a try. All you need is a whole nutmeg and a microplane. It's slightly more work, but makes a huge difference in flavor.

I liked the addition of toasted pumpkin seeds as a garnish; they added a nice crunch. The next time I make this, I'm going to try topping it with candied pumpkin seeds, I think that would be even better.

On a completely unrelated note, someone gave me 3 pounds of blanched sliced almonds. What should I make with them? Please leave a comment or email me with your ideas.

A Mesa Grill kind of dinner

It's dungeness crab season here in California, and I'm trying to make the most of it. Tonight I made this recipe for blue corn crusted crab cakes from the Mesa Grill cookbook. I made quite a few changes to the original recipe - I liked the concept of the blue cornmeal crust and the use of creme fraiche as a binding agent, but I wasn't wild about the large amounts of dijon mustard and horseradish. I was concerned that these ingredients would overpower the crab, so I eliminated the horseradish completely and cut the mustard back to about a teaspoon. My crab mixture was quite loose, so I threw in a few tablespoons of breadcrumbs and added an egg to make sure that the cakes would stay intact in the pan.

I served the crab cakes with another recipe from the Mesa Grill cookbook - corn with roasted chiles and creme fraiche. The original recipe calls for fresh corn, but I think this worked quite well with frozen corn. The roasted poblano and serrano chiles add a lot of flavor with a bit of heat, and the creme fraiche makes the whole dish taste creamier and richer. I never have cotija cheese in the house, so I use feta as a substitute.

I have eaten at Mesa Grill in Las Vegas twice now, and always seem to have good luck with the recipes in this book. Bobby Flay definitely has a talent for putting together great flavor combinations.

Brussels sprouts with pomegranate and walnuts

This recipe is from Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill cookbook. Now, I can't tell you how many recipes I've seen that claim to convert brussels sprouts haters. This one? If you don't like this recipe, you probably truly hate brussels sprouts. It's pretty simple - take a pound of trimmed and halved brussels sprouts and toss them with a little canola oil, salt and pepper. Roast the sprouts at 375 for about 25 minutes, or until they're browned and tender. After the brussels sprouts come out of the oven, toss them with a little butter, a handful of pomegranate seeds and a sprinkling of chopped toasted walnuts. This dish is healthy, beautiful and easy! The pomegranate makes it very festive. I made these for my family the other night, and we all agreed they'd be on our thanksgiving table this year.

Chayote succotash

Chayote squash can be a little hard to come by - they have them in my local produce market and asian grocery store, but many mainstream retailers don't carry them. They're about the size and shape of a large avocado, and they taste similar to zucchini, with a watery texture. My husband likes chayote because he grew up eating it. They're a little bland for my tastes, but I try to indulge him with a chayote recipe every now and then. When I saw this recipe for chayote succotash in Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill cookbook, I knew it would be a good one to try. Whole chayotes are roasted in the oven until soft, and then split in half. The insides are scooped out and finely chopped. The chayote is sauteed with red onion, red pepper, corn, zucchini and lima beans, and seasoned with butter, lime and cilantro. The chayote shells are filled with the succotash mixture for a nice presentation.

I thought this was a good vegetable side dish, with fresh, bright flavors. If you come across chayotes in your market, give this recipe a try!

Mesa Grill blue and yellow corn muffins

Don't these muffins look cool?

It took me about 5 grocery stores to find the blue cornmeal that Bobby Flay uses in many recipes in his Mesa Grill cookbook. But, I think it was worth the search. I find that corn muffins can vary widely - some are very sweet and almost cakelike, and others are on the savory side. This is a distinctly savory muffin, flavored with red onion, red bell pepper, jalapeno, garlic and cilantro. All of the ingredients are divided to make separate batches of blue and yellow batter. The batters are spooned side-by-side into the muffin tins before baking.

These muffins were very flavorful and had a nice texture. They were a little dry on the second day, so eat them while they're hot! I served the muffins alongside Bobby's black bean soup with toasted cumin crema and three relishes.

Grilled lamb chops with fig cascabel sauce

I saw Bobby Flay make this recipe on his show months ago, and I am just now getting around to trying it. To be honest, this sauce was kind of a pain to make. It was especially painful when the cascabel and chicken stock mixture boiled over onto my stove. I only used 2 cups of chicken stock instead of four. The end result was a thick, sweet and spicy sauce. On the plus side, the sauce is very flavorful, and it made enough for me to freeze the leftovers so that I don't have to go through this process again!