Gorditas with Roasted Tomatillo Chipotle Salsa

I would like to know why no one ever told me how easy it is to make gorditas. Had I known this, these would always have been part of our regular week-night meal rotation. These little masa cakes get a dent in their tops to hold whatever you wish from refried beans and sour cream to shredded grilled chicken and salsa. Hot off the stove, they’re slightly crisp on the surface and delicate on the inside with great corn flavor. I kept this recipe from last November’s issue of Food and Wine and followed it precisely for total quantity and size of each gordita. As soon as I realized how easy the dough is to make and how simple each gordita is to form, I started planning to make mini versions for parties and off my mind wondered to all the possible toppings for them. For this first batch ever, I had a salsa in mind to pair with them. A few weeks ago, Kurt and I had dinner at La Condesa here in Austin, and we quite enjoyed the duck with mole negro sauce. We also enjoyed the chips and salsa as usual, but what you get at La Condesa is organic chips and four different fresh, house-made salsas. I dutifully and carefully tasted each salsa in an attempt to choose a favorite and then asked our server for the recipe of the one I picked. I was sure he would tell me no, but instead he went straight to the kitchen and came back with an ingredient list. I had to figure out exact quantities for myself, which was easy enough, and that’s the salsa shown here. I’ll include my version of the recipe below.

To make delicious, homemade gorditas, all you have to do is combine masa harina, water, and vegetable oil and stir it together to form a dough. Place the dough on a sheet of plastic wrap and shape it into a log about ten inches long. This doesn’t need to be perfect at all because you will cut disks that are then formed into cakes. You cut ten disks from the log of dough and press each into a three inch biscuit cutter to mold round cakes. The cakes can be refrigerated overnight in an airtight container if you want to prep them in advance. When you’re ready to cook them, heat a griddle or cast iron skillet over high heat. Cook the gorditas for two minutes on each side to brown them in spots, and then remove them to a baking sheet and press an indentation in each with the back of a spoon. Last, you heat some oil in a skillet and fry the gorditas for two minutes per side to crisp them. Drain on paper towels, and then top them as you wish.

Our toppings included refried black beans, sour cream, shredded queso quesadilla, sliced jalapenos, shredded chicken, chopped tomatoes, diced avocado, and roasted tomatillo chipotle salsa. We didn’t really talk during this meal, but we smiled and nodded a lot. The salsa was smoky and velvety smooth since it was pureed with olive oil, and the gorditas were crisp, tender, perfect vehicles for the toppings. I don’t know why I didn’t learn sooner, but now that I know about these, I’ll be making a lot of them.

Roasted Tomatillo Chipotle Salsa
inspired by La Condesa
2-3 chipotles in adobo depending on size and how spicy you want your salsa to be, plus 2 tablespoons adobo sauce from can
1 large red onion
12 tomatillos, husks removed and washed
4 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for roasting
Salt and pepper to taste

-Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. Chop onion into wedges and place on a baking sheet with tomatillos, and drizzle with olive and season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the vegetables are softened and browned.

-Transfer roasted vegetables to a food processor and add chipotles and adobo sauce. Puree until smooth and then slowly add olive oil while the machine is running. Taste for salt and add more if needed.

Hot and Crunchy Shrimp at Stone House Vineyard Luncheon

We took a nice drive west of Austin yesterday to attend a vineyard luncheon as part of the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival. The luncheon was held at Stone House Vineyard in Spicewood, Texas. The bluebonnets were putting on a show as they do at this time of year, and there was even some rain throughout the day to keep the flowers happy. The luncheon featured Stone House wines, and each course was prepared by a different local chef. At the Stone House property, Norton grapes are grown and are used in their Claros wine. It’s a dry, medium-bodied red with a little earthiness that I liked. It was served with our second course which included a fantastic truffle polenta, but the dish that was our favorite of the meal was the shrimp from the first course. The hot and crunchy shrimp was prepared by the chef from Hudson’s on the Bend. The crispy, plump shrimp were plated with a tomatillo and jicama salad and were topped with a zingy mango and jalapeño aioli. It was served with a Viognier that had a little sweetness and paired well with the jalapeño heat.

There’s more to the story of the hot and crunchy shrimp. The recent popularity of food trailers continues in Austin, and on South Congress Avenue, you’ll find The Mighty Cone which was created by chefs from Hudson’s on the Bend. Their famous hot and crunchy coating from the restaurant menu has been adapted and used on chicken and avocado in addition to shrimp. The crunchy items of choice are used in wraps with mango slaw which are served in snow-cone cups, and the recipe appeared in the January issue of Food and Wine. The cone version is a lot of fun and delivers the same mix of bold flavors, but the nicely plated hot and crunchy shrimp eaten with a fork and knife and served with chilled wine were delicious in their own refined way and far less messy to eat.

Crema de Guacamole with Crunchy Topopos

This past weekend, we had the opportunity to entertain some friends one more time before they leave Austin to embark on new adventures. My goal for this dinner party was to piece together a menu that hinted at local flavors and highlighted local ingredients. Also, I wanted to exploit our friends’ willingness to act as tasting guinea pigs once more. I kid, but they have been quite kind and patient about tasting my experiments over the years. Not every item on the menu was a first-time test. The dinner began with Feisty Jamaican Splash cocktails and Tuna Tostadas. Up next, I served a chilled crema de guacamole soup from Super Natural Cooking. SNC is the beautifully designed book by Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks. The book contains a wealth of information about many whole and natural ingredients and how to use them in various ways. It’s organized by concept such as Know Your Superfoods and Explore a Wide Range of Grains. This recipe is from the Cook by Color chapter. It’s described as a perfect make-ahead soup, and that made it ideal for our dinner party.

There are two main parts to the soup, and the first involves cooking chopped tomatillos, serrano chiles, white onion, and garlic in vegetable stock. Once the tomatillos became tender, the mixture was blended until smooth and passed through a strainer. When cool, lime juice was added, and this soup base was chilled for a couple of hours. The second part of the soup was avocado blended with cilantro, salt, and lime juice. The two parts were then blended together. Topopos were made by cutting thin strips of corn tortillas and frying them for a few minutes per side. As they drained on paper towels, they were seasoned with salt and lime juice. To serve, I spooned the soup into espresso cups. The garnishes included the topopos, a little swirl of crema or thinned sour cream, and a tiny dollop of fresh tomato salsa.

The soup was thick, smooth, and deliciously fresh tasting. The tomatillos and lime juice acted together to brighten the flavor. The serranos gave it just enough of a kick, and the garnishes brought together all the elements I so love in Mexican cuisine. I wondered if the nice green color would dull as the soup chilled, but it did not. It was as pretty when it was served as it was a few hours before when it was blended. It was a great way to start this meal, and I’m looking forward to trying many more things from this book.