Tag: corn

Categories
Side Dish

Prepare to paint the town red with a from-scratch Mexican rice

Merely calling this dish red rice doesn’t do it justice as far as all the flavor it possesses. With a combination of fresh vegetables cooked down into white rice, it’s easy to create a tomato-y, delicious side dish for your next Mexican food entree.
Merely calling this dish red rice doesn’t do it justice as far as all the flavor it possesses. With a combination of fresh vegetables cooked down into white rice, it’s easy to create a tomato-y, delicious side dish for your next Mexican food entree.

Sometimes, in reflecting on my childhood, I realize just what a weird kid I was.

I’ll forever be thankful that I had supportive parents who had a “go with the flow” attitude about my idiosyncracies.

One of those strange traits flashed in my mind recently, when I decided I wanted to make a Mexican-style rice as a side for dinner. I suddenly remembered back to eating Mexican food with my family at a locally owned kiosk at the mall. We would go every so often, and the food was great—especially the Mexican rice.

I got to a point where I stopped ordering an entree. I would just get a double side order of rice, and that would be my meal. I loved it. I’m sure my parents were wondering if I was switched at birth.

Weird or not, though, I still love rice, and especially the kinds you get a Mexican restaurant, so when I tried out the recipe I shared with you last week from TV chef Pati Jinich, I had to try one of her rice recipes, as well, to go with it.

You can find the original recipe on her website at https://patijinich.com/red-rice/. I added extra garlic in my version.

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Red Rice

Merely calling this dish red rice doesn’t do it justice as far as all the flavor it possesses. With a combination of fresh vegetables cooked down into white rice, it’s easy to create a tomato-y, delicious side dish for your next Mexican food entree.
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Mexican
Keyword carrots, chicken broth, corn, fresh tomatoes, frozen carrots, frozen corn, frozen peas, garlic, Italian parsley, peas, pickled jalapenos, rice, vegetable broth, white rice

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ripe tomatoes quartered
  • 1 small white onion chopped
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
  • 3 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
  • 2 cups white rice
  • 4 sprigs fresh Italian parsley chopped
  • 2-3 tablespoons pickled jalapeno slices
  • 3/4 cup carrots diced (fresh or frozen)
  • 1/2 cup peas fresh or frozen
  • 1/2 cup corn fresh or frozen

Instructions

  • Add the tomatoes, onion, garlic and salt to a food processor or blender, and blend it until the mixture is smooth.
  • Pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a large liquid measuring cup.
  • Look at how much liquid is in the cup, and then measure out enough chicken broth in a separate measuring cup so that you’ll have four cups of total liquid. (Don’t mix them together yet.)
  • Heat the oil in a medium-sized pot over medium-high heat. Add the rice, and stir regularly, cooking for three or four minutes until the rice is a milky color. Pour in the reserved tomato mixture, and continue to stirring regularly, letting the rice absorb most of the liquid. This will take another three or four minutes.
  • Stir in the chicken broth, parsley, jalapenos, carrots, peas and corn, and stir to combine.
  • Cover the pot and cook for 15 minutes or until the rice is cooked through. (If it isn’t cooked through and there is no more liquid in the pot, add a few tablespoons of water, cover and let it cook for another three minutes or so.) Fluff with a fork, and serve.

This was the perfect side dish, and I loved the added veggies in this rice, too. It was a nice change of pace from the more standard types of Mexican rice. If you like more spice to your food, you could add even more jalapenos. This didn’t have much of a kick to it, but letting the sauce cook a bit with the rice really made the tomato flavors pop, which I really liked.

And my parents would have been proud to see me eating rice as a side dish instead of just an entree. Let’s just not talk about how I consumed the leftovers, OK?

This piece first appeared in print April 17, 2025.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

With tamale casserole, mi ‘masa’ es su ‘masa’

Chicken tamale casserole gives you all the traditional flavors and textures of tamales without all the time and effort in the kitchen.
Chicken tamale casserole gives you all the traditional flavors and textures of tamales without all the time and effort in the kitchen.

One of our friends likes to say that he won’t order foods from a restaurant that are easy to make at home. Instead, he tries to order dishes that he would never make for himself.

The list includes plenty of time-consuming, delicious meals.

For me, one of those items is tamales.

I did make tamales once. They were awesome. But it was also when we were stuck at home for the pandemic, and time was a little easier to find. Someday, I’ll do it again.

In the meantime, though, I have been satisfying those cravings by ordering tamales from our great local Mexican spots. Except now I have a way to get the same flavor profile with none of the intense work, thanks to a tamale-themed casserole.

This comes from the blog “Life Made Simple.” You can find the original post at https://lifemadesimplebakes.com/chile-verde-chicken-tamale-casserole-9/. I added extra sauce, extra cheese and extra garlic powder in mine.

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Chicken Tamale Casserole

Chicken tamale casserole gives you all the traditional flavors and textures of tamales without all the time and effort in the kitchen.
Course Main Course
Keyword chicken, chile verde, cilantro, corn, enchilada sauce, fresh cilantro, frozen corn, garlic powder, masa harina, Monterrey jack cheese, poblano peppers, rotisserie chicken, tamales

Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 1 rotisserie chicken deboned and shredded
  • 1 cup chicken broth or stock
  • 19 ounce can chile verde enchilada sauce divided
  • 1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped (plus more for serving)
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • 4 cups shredded Monterey jack cheese divided

Tamale Dough Ingredients

  • 3 cups masa harina
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 12 tablespoons cold butter cubed
  • 3 cups frozen corn thawed, divided
  • 1 roasted poblano pepper deseeded and diced
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 1/4 cup chicken broth or stock

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a nine-by-13-inch deep baking dish by spraying it with cooking spray, and set it aside.
  • Add the chicken, broth, half of the sauce, cilantro and garlic powder to a large skillet. Heat it over medium-low, stirring occasionally, while you prepare the tamale layers.
  • Add the masa, sugar, baking powder, butter, two cups of corn, the poblano, salt and pepper to a food processor or blender. Process until everything is in coarse crumbs. Add the broth and process until the mixture is smooth and thick. Fold in the remaining corn.
  • Spread half of the tamale mixture evenly across the bottom of your baking dish. Sprinkle about one and one-fourth cup of cheese over that. Add in all of the chicken mixture, spreading it out over the cheese layer. Add another one and one-fourth cup of cheese. Spread the rest of the tamale mixture on the top.
  • Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce on the top, and then finish with the rest of the cheese.
  • Cover the dish with aluminum foil, and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes.
  • Serve topped with more chopped cilantro. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

This was absolutely delicious, and it reheated phenomenally. (Thank goodness, because it makes a ton of food.) All of the flavors of a good, chicken tamale were there, and we will definitely be making this again—much sooner than I’ll probably be making traditional tamales.

As a side note, I roasted my poblano by placing it under the broiler until it was charred on all sides and then placing it in a glass bowl with plastic wrap on top to steam for about 10 minutes. Then, I could scrape off the skin, scoop out the seeds and dice it up. Easy peasy. If you’re nervous about a poblano being too spicy, try an Anaheim pepper instead.

Now that I have a good copycat for tamales, I’ll have to explore some other tough dishes at our local restaurants. I’m looking at you, mole.

This piece first appeared in print Sept. 12, 2024.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Side Dish

I ‘corn’not believe how delicious this savory pudding is

Corn pudding uses lots of herbs, along with corn and yellow onion to create the perfect mashup of sweet and savory in a delicious side dish.
Corn pudding uses lots of herbs, along with corn and yellow onion to create the perfect mashup of sweet and savory in a delicious side dish.

We have a serious love of cornbread at our house.

When we discovered the goodness that is cornbread dressing to go with our holiday turkeys, we were understandably excited.

But, being more of a traditional mindset, the rest of the extended family missed the conventional holiday stuffing at our big meals, so I went back to it this year.

Not being completely dissuaded, though, I started looking for other cornbread-like dishes we could try and stumbled on a recipe for corn pudding.

Before you recoil at the pudding idea, trust me. It’s delicious. It’s a fabulous, non-jiggly texture, and it’s savory and belly warming. It is definitely worth a try—especially if you love cornbread like I do. And it’s also worth a try if you normally find cornbread a bit on the dry side, because this is moist and delicious.

This comes from the “Southern Living” magazine. It’s by Karen Schroeder-Rankin. You can find the original recipe at https://www.southernliving.com/recipes/savory-corn-pudding-recipe. I added lots of extra seasonings in my version.

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Corn Pudding

Corn pudding uses lots of herbs, along with corn and yellow onion to create the perfect mashup of sweet and savory in a delicious side dish.
Course Side Dish
Keyword Christmas side, corn, cornbread, fresh thyme, frozen corn, garlic, sage, Thanksgiving side, yellow onion

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
  • 6 cups frozen corn thawed
  • 1 medium-sized yellow onion diced
  • 4-6 cloves garlic minced
  • 6 eggs
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup butter melted
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 4 teaspoons thyme
  • 2 teaspoons sage
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • black pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a nine-by-13-inch baking dish by spraying it with cooking spray and set it aside.
  • Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
  • Add the onion to the skillet. Saute until it is soft.
  • Add in the corn, and continue to saute until it is just a bit browned.
  • Toss in the garlic and saute for another minute or so, or until it becomes fragrant. Remove the skillet from the heat.
  • In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, cream and butter until it is well combined. Add in the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, thyme, sage, onion powder, garlic powder and black pepper. Stir to combine.
  • Stir in the corn mixture and then pour everything into the baking dish, smoothing it out evenly.
  • Bake for about 40 minutes or until the pudding is set and the top is golden brown.
  • Let it stand for five to 10 minutes before serving. Top with a little more thyme, if desired.

The flavors in this paired amazingly well with our turkey. The herbs along with the slight sweetness of the corn and onions just put it over the top.

It also reheated really well as leftovers, which was good, because this made a ton of food.

I’m hoping that I’ll be able to bring the rest of the family over to my side on the subject of cornbread dressing at some point. They didn’t seem to complain about this recipe, so I think they’re well on their way.

Sometimes you just have to start your own traditions.

This piece first appeared in print on Dec. 29, 2022.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish Soup

Soup recipe lets me tell counter leftovers ‘see you tater’

Potato poblano corn chowder is creamy and filling, especially with the addition of shredded chicken and extra potatoes.
Potato poblano corn chowder is creamy and filling, especially with the addition of shredded chicken and extra potatoes.

They’ve just been staring at me.

Four potatoes have been sitting on my kitchen counter since Thanksgiving, and as the days passed, they literally were growing some eyes to look at me with.

So I knew I needed to make something to use them up, and with the weather finally hitting a dreaded cold snap, I decided to pull out a chowder recipe I’ve been meaning to try.

Of course, I had to do some tweaking, including making it a bit heartier by adding chicken and increasing the spices and vegetables, too.

If you’re looking for a vegetarian recipe, just leave out the chicken, use some vegetable broth and throw in even more potatoes. It’ll still be delicious.

The recipe I tried, by Ivy Manning, appeared in “Fine Cooking” magazine in 2018. You can find it on their website at https://www.finecooking.com/recipe/potato-poblano-corn-chowder.

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Potato Poblano Corn Chowder

Potato poblano corn chowder is creamy and filling, especially with the addition of shredded chicken and extra potatoes.
Course Main Course
Keyword baked potatoes, broth, carrots, celery, chicken, chowder, coriander, corn, cumin, mashed potatoes, poblano peppers, soup, yellow onion

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1 medium yellow onion diced
  • 2 poblano peppers diced
  • 2 carrots peeled and diced
  • 2 ribs celery diced
  • 1 teaspoon coriander
  • 2 teaspoons cumin
  • 1 teaspoon thyme
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
  • 1 1/2 cups milk I used skim
  • 2 medium-sized potatoes diced
  • 2 cups cooked shredded chicken
  • 2 cups corn kernels I used frozen
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • Cayenne pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Melt the butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, peppers, carrots and celery and saute until the vegetables are soft.
  • Add the coriander, cumin, thyme, salt and pepper and flour, and stir to combine. Saute for a couple minutes to cook out the flour taste. Stir in the tomato paste, and then add the broth, milk, potatoes, chicken and corn to the pot.
  • Bring the mixture to a low boil, and then turn the heat down to low and simmer, with a lid on the pot, for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are fork tender.
  • Stir in the lemon juice and cayenne pepper and then serve immediately.

Add as much or as little cayenne as you want to this to control the spice level. Poblano peppers tend to be on the milder side, but if you’re nervous, make sure you remove the ribs and seeds when you dice them up, too.

This had a creamy taste and was a good belly warmer. I actually ended up doubling the recipe so I could store the leftovers as quick weeknight dinners in our freezer.

I was glad to finally get some of my counter space back just in time for all my holiday baking. But I have a feeling that when I’m staring down a mountain of treat containers over the next few weeks, I’ll really miss those potatoes.

This piece first appeared in print on Dec. 23, 2021.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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