Cornmeal Chili Strips
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons very cold soda water
- 4 large poblano chilies, roasted, peeled and cut into stips
- 1/4 cup cornmeal
- 1/4 cup peanut or canola oil
Crack the egg into a medium bowl. Add the water and whisk together, mixing well. Add the chili strips and turn to coat all of the pieces. Set aside close to the stove.
Place the cornmeal in a medium bowl and set aside close to the stove.
Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet until it begins to smoke. Transfer half the chili strips to the cornmeal and turn to coat all the pieces. Place the coated strips in the skillet and fry over medium-high heat, stirring, until wilted and golden, about 2 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Bread and fry the rest of the strips. Salt light as soon as they come out of the oil and use right away, while still crunchy.
Walnut Salad with Chile Bananas
- Hot Chile powder to taste (habenero, piquin, or cayenne)
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 1/2 cup walnuts
- 4 bananas, just ripe (not soft)
- Lettuce leaves
Mix the hot chile powder with the mayonnaise, put back in the refrigerator to meld the flavors. Finely chop the nut meat in a food processor. Cut the bananas in thin slices. Fold the nuts into the slices. On a serving platter covered with lettuce leaves, mound the banana-nut mix. Pour the chile mayonnaise sauce over all.
CottonWood Cafe Flan
This may be the best flan you have ever eaten. The CottonWood Cafe serves this flan (almost cheesecake) with thin twisted slices of limes.
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 3 egg yolks
- 14 ounces condensed milk, sweetened
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 ounces cream cheese
- 14 ounces milk
Caramelize the sugar in frying pan until a nice golden brown. While doing this..... mix very thoroughly the rest of the ingredients in a food processor. Pour the caramelized sugar into a 10" Pyrex pie plate....it will harden Then pour the mixed ingredients over the hardened caramelized sugar.
Place in a bain marie with 1 1/2" of water and bake for 70 minutes at 350F
