GREEN CHILE SAUCE
It all begins with the sauce, made with New Mexico Hatch Green Chile, freshly roasted, or frozen.
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup chopped yellow onion
- 1-2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 2 teaspoons dried Mexican oregano
- 1 cup chopped tomato
- 1/2 cup vegetable broth
- 1 pound roasted green chiles, chopped
- salt to taste
Sauté onion in olive oil over medium-high heat until the onion begins to turn transparent. Add the chopped garlic and oregano, and sauté another 2–3 minutes, just until it becomes fragrant. Add the chopped green chile, tomato, and broth, and bring the mixture to a simmer.
Cover and let cook for at least 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and salt to taste. Once it has cooled a little, you can put the green chile sauce into a blender and pureé for just a few pulses. You will want to keep some chunks in the sauce, unless you prefer to have it smooth, in which case blend until smooth. Garnish: 1 avocado, sliced, and 1 tomato, diced
Harvest Corn Cake
Thicker than crepes, but thinner than pancakes, these corn cakes hold up great to the chunky roasted vegetables and chile sauce. Everything for this meal can be made well before the day you plan to enjoy it.
The green chile sauce will last for several days refrigerated, or several months in the freezer., as will the beans and rice. The roasted vegetables are best if made the day of serving, or the day before. The corn cakes can be made the day before, or since they freeze nicely, they can be prepared several weeks in advance.
- 3/4 cup cornmeal
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup soy milk
- 1 cup of water
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- olive oil for spraying pan when cooking cakes
Blend all ingredients until well combined. The mixture will be thin, but let it sit in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high, and lightly spray with olive oil before pouring the batter in for each corn cake.
Pour 1/4 cup batter into the pan, and swirl it around so the cake is fairly thin. When it starts to turn dry on top and there are a few bubbles, flip the cake over and cook for 1–2 additional minutes on the other side. When nicely browned, remove from the pan, plate, and cover with parchment paper. Repeat until you have 8 nicely-formed corn cakes.
Roasted Vegetables
Roasting the vegetables gives them nicely browned edges and a sweet, caramelized flavor, adding a wonderful depth of flavor to the recipe.
- 1 pound butternut squash, cut into 1/2 inch chunks, roasted for 12–14 minutes
- 2 cups fresh corn, cut from approximately 4 ears of corn
- 1 small red onion, sliced
- 1 small yellow onion, sliced
- 8 ounces mushrooms, cut into quarters, or halves
- 1 small sweet green pepper, chopped
- olive oil for coating vegetables
- salt and pepper to taste
Spray each vegetable with a little olive oil, and bake accordingly: squash, 12–14 minutes; corn and red and yellow onion, 8–10 minutes; mushrooms and sweet green pepper, 5–7 minutes. As each vegetable is cooked, remove it from the oven and place it in a medium-sized bowl together. When the mushrooms and sweet pepper are cooked, there will be more liquid in the pan from the mushrooms.
At this point, you can pour 1/2 cup of water into the pan to clean up all the flavorful drippings from the roasting of the vegetables. Set this broth aside, and you can use it, if needed, to thin the green chile sauce out to the right consistency for pouring over your crepes.