Elote Pasta Salad Archives - Pechluck's Food Adventures

Sides for your Fourth of July Weekend

I thought I would pick out some of my recommendations for Sides for your Fourth of July Weekend from my recipe archives.

Well, not all of them are from the archive. This initial one is merely a suggestion and guideline. First, you could start off with a patriotic Red, white, and blue potatoes dish (ok, purple potatoes but close enough) for breakfast. You can do these in a skillet like here, or you can roast them in the oven or even put them on the grill and make it a bbq side if you’d prefer.
Recipe idea for your Fourth of July, red and white blue (purple but close enough) potatoes that you can make on the skillet or oven or grill. Start your day with a patriotic breakfast or make these as a side dish! Vegetarian and very versatile, season to your liking

Season how you’d like- I don’t know if I ever make them the same way twice as I quite liberally open up my spices and seasonings to pull things out and keep tasting until I like it. You’ll definitely want salt and pepper of course, but sometimes I use cumin, or rosemary, or dill, or chili powder, or onion or garlic powder (or I’ll throw actual diced onion or minced garlic in), the possibilities are endless based on what you have and like.

It’s still strawberry season, and these Strawberry and Cheese Bruschettas – either with mozzarella or with goat cheese – just look so elegant and classy.

More fruit won’t hurt on the table, such as these Prosciutto wrapped Cantaloupe with Red Pepper Lime Oil and Manchego

Besides your fruit, add more vegetables to your Fourth of July weekend with via this recipe for Chilled Vegetable Pizza that can be a rainbow of various colors depending on what veggies you choose and can easily serve a crowd. You can also adapt this version to have fruit instead for a chilled dessert fruit pizza!

Upgrade your pasta salad side dish with a little heat as well as with avocados, corn, and Cotija cheese with this Elote Pasta Salad

This dessert only has strawberry, but no reason you can’t add blueberries or blackberries to complete the red white and blue, and you will be no fool with this Strawberry Fool Recipe of blended strawberries with cut strawberries and the fresh whipped vanilla cream.

If you are making burgers or hot dogs for a group, consider having a variety of cheeses besides Cheddar such as Swiss or Pepperjack (even if you are doing hot dogs!) and also bacon. Not only can you top your burger with bacon, but believe me, I am happy to add it to my hot dog as well.

Besides ketchup and mustard and relish and pickles, for you might consider having little dish where guests can add toppings of sauteed mushrooms, sauteed onions, guacamole, salsa (and your guac and salsa can double to go with chips), bbq sauce and/or blue cheese (MMMM bbq sauce and blue cheese!).

Also, if you haven’t tried this before, if there are potato chips at the party you are having/attending, try taking a handful and adding them on to your burger or hot dog!

For the fourth of July itself, which falls on a Friday this year so I think everyone is enjoying at least a 3 day weekend, I will not be doing any cooking. In fact, instead I’ll be judging cooking- I will be seated as one of the PNWBA judges at the Dallas Oregon Freedomfest BBQ competition. If you are in the area, they will be holding it in Dallas City Park and you will have an opportunity to sample some of the best BBQ in the Northwest ($1 for 2 oz sample) and a fireworks show that evening too! There should be some great teams because at 18 teams, the competition counts as a qualifier for the national competition.

This means that probably during the weekend, there will probably be at least one dish of bbq mac and cheese with some leftovers from the BBQ competition that I take home!

What are you doing for the Fourth of July? Is there a special dish you are making or looking forward to? Are you going to watch the fireworks live or on TV (I personally like the DC ones!)?

Elote Pasta Salad

I had some leftover light sour cream from making the Chilled Vegetable Pizza, and it happened to be about 1/3 cup. Immediately I was able to rationalize making a version of another Pinterest recipe I had pinned in the same board, Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad from the blog Cinnamon, Spice and Everything Nice. Mmmm Elote Pasta Salad.

I am a huge fan of elote- I first had it when I lived in Chicago, from the New Maxwell Street Market which actually is not on Maxwell street anymore since being relocated (twice!), but still offers an international array of goods in an open market on summer Sundays that is a mix of flea market with Asian and Hispanic vendors and also Mexican street food fair.

Examples of Elote from my past… the first set of 4 are actually from the New Maxwell Street Market in Chicago, the next two from the farmers market at Pike Place Market in Seattle, and the last from Elote Cafe in Sedona. I wanted to combine the stronger bursts of flavor from those two market experiences with the less scary visual presentation of the last one.
5/18/2008 New Maxwell Street Market, where I saw a few people ordering this roasted corn. You could have it two ways- with the stuff rolled on the cob, or they could cut the corn from the cob and serve it to you in a cup. I chose the latter. You could choose which corn you wanted, lots of black or not so much... 5/18/2008 New Maxwell Street Market what the corn looks like rolled in the butter cheese and chile when still on the cob. 5/18/2008 New Maxwell Street, my roasted corn in a cup, topped with everything: mayo, cheese, parkay butter and chile, for $2 Elote in progress at the Pike Place Market in Seattle in 2009 Elote at the Pike Place Market in Seattle in 2009 Sedona's Elote Cafe's Elote= Fire roasted corn with spicy mayo, lime and Cotija cheese

Elote is a popular street food in Mexico that consists of corn on the cob that is grilled and then slathered with mayonnaise, sour cream, Cotija cheese, lime juice, salt and spices, and sometimes liquid margarine. F rolls his eyes when he sees me making a beeline for this because of the ingredients, but the flavors are irresistible. You can eat this messily from the cob, or also ask them to cut the kernels into a cup to eat with a spoon for a little less messy face.

It’s hot and smoky from the grill, but creamy from the mayo sour cream mix, a bit of salt from the well salt and cheese, and has a brightness from the lime juice and maybe a bit of spice depending on the amount of chili. For my version I upgraded the call for chili powder or cayenne pepper with ground chipotle chili for more spice and smoke in the flavor profile. And, at least there is no liquid margarine. I adapted the recipe also because didn’t have corn on the cob, but I had some frozen corn kernels and took a cue from Esquites which is similar to elote but using pan roasted corn.

Elote Pasta Salad

Elote Pasta Salad - mixing pasta, pan roasted corn, cotija cheese and avocado

Ingredients:

8 ounces pasta
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon chile powder or cayenne pepper, or 2 teaspoons of ground chipotle chili
The juice from one lime and the zest, or about 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons of lime juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cups corn kernels
1 diced avocado
1 cup Cotija cheese, crumbled. You can also use Parmesan, Asiago, or Feta but may want to reduce the amount since the cheese flavor is more intense.

Directions:

First, the pasta. Cook it the normal way in your favorite pot with boiling salted water.You can use any type of pasta you would like, but get one that has a lot of ridges that can hold the dressing- rotini, radiatore, fusilli, and I like little scoopy conchiglie shells or ditalini small tube too
While the water is boiling/pasta cooking, create the elote dressing. Mix together the mayonnaise, sour cream, chili, lime until smooth. Once the pasta is al dente and rained, put one tablespoon of this dressing into the pasta and stir so all the pasta is coated and won’t stick to each other. Then I put the pasta, as well as the rest of the dressing, into the refrigerator to chill.
Now, the corn. Heat the olive oil in large nonstick skillet over high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the corn. Cook 5 to 6 minutes without moving or until corn starts to char. Then toss corn, stir, and repeat to let the corn brown on both sides.
The easy part is now just bringing all these together. Add the pasta and corn together. Add the dressing a little at a time, mixing gently to coat as you go, until you achieve your desired flavor mix. Gently toss in the avocado and cheese. If you’d like, top with a dusting of the chili powder and bit more of the crumbled Cotija cheese, and garnish upon serving with a lime wedge.