Roasted Mexican Corn and a New Year's Resolution

I'm not a big on resolutions.

I can't remember any of the resolutions I've made before.

That said, I do have a resolution for 2013: Cut dairy products out of all my savory cooking.

I can't do it when it comes to sweet cooking. I had chocolate mousse at midnight on New Year's, and I loved it. It was filled with heavy cream. It was heavenly. So I'm keeping dairy there.

I'm already meat-free, which I figure makes me challenging enough for friends willing to have me over for dinner, so I'm keeping dairy in my diet when I eat at friends' houses. We'll see when it comes to going out for dinner. I'll try to avoid cheese-laden dishes at restaurants, but I'm not going to drive myself crazy.

With that in mind, the savory recipes you see posted here coming up should be a little different. No cheese, no milk, no butter.

Still delicious.

For a food blogger, changing something in your diet forces you to cook all new recipes. I can't fall back on all my old cheese-filled favorites. Hopefully it will lead to lots of variety and new recipes up here.

I'm five days in and still sticking to my goal! Thursday I hosted my first small dinner party since deciding to cook dairy-free, and I went with a Mexican theme. This roasted Mexican corn dish was our side for the meal. It's adapted from a recipe for elotes, that delicious, creamy, mayonnaise and cheese-filled corn dish, that's one of my favorite Mexican dishes.

This adaptation felt light and fresh. I could go back for seconds without a touch of guilt.

Quinoa and Fresh Vegetable Salad

Last night I dreamed I was on a reality cooking show.

Gordon Ramsay was my judge. It wasn't pretty. I don't remember the details, but I think I pushed them out of my mind pretty quickly when I woke up.

I know there was some sort of a challenge, and it involved cooking meat. And I knew I was supposed to taste everything, but I just couldn't bring myself to, even though I knew it meant failure.

Gordon was not impressed. He didn't seem to see a place for vegetarians in his cooking show. Initially I assumed I was making up his disdain for vegetarians, but a quick google search revealed otherwise. Google "Gordon Ramsay and Vegetarians" and the first headings that come up read like they're from the tabloids.

Macca slams 'stupid' TV chef Gordon Ramsay for anti-vegetarian rant

Why is Gordon Ramsay so vile to vegetarians?

Ramsay's pizza joke outrages vegetarians

Gordon Ramsay's anti-vegetarian pranks

 Within that parade of articles, I was encouraged to see one titled Gordon Ramsay Finally Empathizes with Vegetarians.

And I've got to say, it's about time.

I've been a vegetarian since freshman year of college, and I've played around with being a pescetarian since then. It just so happened that I gave up meat for a trial period, and a few months later I realized I hadn't missed it at all. It might have helped that I was eating three meals a day in my college cafeteria, which also served food in all the New Jersey prisons.

Most recently, I've been playing around with cutting out dairy in my savory cooking.

Here's one incredibly easy recipe I've stumbled across. I love quinoa in everything, and the addition of fresh vegetables from the farmers' market kept me coming back for more. My salad was loaded with corn, zucchini, tomatoes and black beans.

A sneak peek into my new kitchen!

I'm not sure what I would make for Gordon Ramsay if he came over for dinner or if I ever find myself on his reality show again, but I've found plenty of recipes to make for myself. 

Black Bean and Swiss Chard Mexican Lasagna

Last Sunday, my friend Casey suggested I make baked eggs for dinner. Truth be told, they sounded delicious. A bit of heavy cream, topped with whatever cheese and herbs you have handy. Crack an egg or two over the top, and bake it all in the oven. You get a runny yolk that spills over onto the cheese and herbs.

Yum.

There was just one big problem. Baked eggs don't reheat well.

If I made baked eggs for dinner Sunday, I'd have no lunch option come Monday. Or Tuesday. Or Wednesday.

I'd be forced to reheat an Amy's frozen burrito, or wait in line behind twenty children to buy a bagel and cream cheese. And, since it was only Sunday, I knew I'd be facing a whole week of that kind of eating if I didn't prepare something more practical tight away.

This lasagna certainly falls under that category. It's a layered dish, with layers of tortillas, queso fresco, swiss chard and mushrooms, and black beans and corn. Not the first dish most people conjure up when they hear the word lasagna.

Delicious nonetheless.

This dish is hearty and healthy. It comes together quickly (particularly if you cheat a little with store-bought enchilada sauce like I did). I made enough for two lasagnas and threw one right into the freezer before baking it. The perfect solution for the next week when I'm not sure what to make on a Sunday.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Honey Corn Muffins

Sometimes I'm tempted to alter a recipe the first time I make it. When I made these Honey Corn Muffins from Baked Explorations, I first considered adding fresh kernels of corn. I thought about adding some spice to the muffins, a bit of cayenne or tabasco. I thought about baking the muffins into a loaf of bread.

But after sinking my teeth into the first warm muffin, topped with melting butter, I was glad I hadn't altered anything. Matt and Renato were right. These muffins had just the right amount of sweetness, contributed by a bit of honey. They didn't need anything else.

These were far better than the Jiffy corn muffin mixes I used to buy as a kid, and they weren't much more difficult. I whipped up a quick batch of buttermilk using 1 cup of milk and 1 tablespoon of white vinegar. I had the rest of the ingredients on hand, and they came together quickly.

I enjoyed some fresh, and I also froze a few to have on hand for dinners. I'm glad I have a few left because I came across a delicious suggestion to top the reheated muffins with honey butter--yum!

Be sure to check out the Baked Sunday Mornings Facebook page to see posts by all the bloggers who made muffins this week. If you want to join us, pick up a copy of Baked Explorations and check out the recipe schedule here. The next recipe is an oatmeal chocolate chip breakfast CAKE.

Indian Spiced Corn

Who knew that a dish that came together in 10 minutes from start to finish could be packed with so much flavor? And a dish based around corn, which for most of my life has been simply boiled and topped with salt?

But, Madhur Jaffrey, number six on Gourmet Magazine's list of 50 female game changers in food, managed to do just that. She combined cinnamon sticks, cloves, mustard seeds, cardamom pods, chiles, ginger and more and set up the cooking process so they quickly infused their mix of flavors into the corn.

NPR wrote that Madhur was destined to have a life full of flavor: "On the day of her birth, cookbook writer Madhur Jaffrey entered the world, opened her eyes and tasted an ancient food. As was the tradition in her family, her grandmother came to the house and used honey to write "Om," which means "I am," on Jaffrey's tongue. Even her name is associated with an ancient food: Madhur means "sweet as honey," as if she were destined to have a life of flavor."

In choosing Madhur Jaffrey, Gourmet wrote: "As Marcella is to Italy, so is Madhur to the Indian subcontinent. She also is a great spokesperson for vegetarian and assorted Asian cuisines. And she is beautiful. And can act." 

Be sure to check out the other bloggers who all tried recipes by Madhur Jaffrey this week:
      Val - More Than Burnt Toast
      Joanne - Eats Well With Others
      Taryn - Have Kitchen Will Feed
      Susan - The Spice Garden
      Heather - girlichef
      Miranda - Mangoes and Chutney
      Mary - One Perfect Bite
      Kathleen - Bake Away with Me
      Viola - The Life is Good Kitchen      

      Sue - The View from the Great Island
      Claudia - A Seasonal Cook in Turkey