Blue Corn Waffles and Fresh Raspberry Sauce

Spending several vacations in New Mexico has given me real appreciation for the traditional flavors of the region. I'll spare you a complete recap, as I've previously drooled and blogged at length about my love affair with tamales, green chiles and posole. But it's time I introduced another (new) favorite, an ingredient I wasn't terribly familiar with, or at least cooking with; blue corn.

OK, first, because I'm a bit of a food-history geek, I thought I'd share with you a few tidbits. Blue corn is native to the Southwest, planted, cultivated, and harvested completely by hand, (because of a tendency for the fully loaded stalks to fall over in the fields). Consequently, it's more scarce and more expensive than white and yellow corn.

Blue corn, until recently, rarely appeared outside the Southwest. It's a staple of the Pueblo tribes, who grow it for themselves and use it to make a hot cereal called atole, various boiled breads and dumplings, tortillas and a very thin, many layered rolled bread (similar to phyllo dough) called paper bread.
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Blue corn is higher in both protein and lysine than regular white or yellow corn. Besides being a major staple of the Native peoples it is also an important element in some religious rituals. It was believed that blue corn helped strengthen especially ill or pregnant women and was traditionally served before strenuous activities or preparing for journeys.
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Blue corn meal or flour has a coarser, sweeter and nuttier taste than other types of flour corns. It is the basis for many traditional Native American foods and recipes, though most common in blue corn tortillas. Now, of course, you can find blue corn products in most every tourist shop in New Mexico.
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As with the color of red onions or red cabbage, the color of blue corn is quite sensitive to the effects of akaline substances such as baking soda (or the lime or ash water used by Southwest Indians), dough made with blue cornmeal turns darker blue to greenish. In contact with an acid, like as vinegar, it develops a deep violet to purple cast. Science fun in the kitchen! Yay!
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Out of curiosity, I brought some beautiful purple-ish blue corn meal back last time I visited, and have been experimenting with it ever since. (The above pic is from the Farmer's Market, I didn't bring back whole ears of corn, I'm not THAT adventurous!).

I'm happy to report it cooks up just like regular corn meal, in fact, makes beautiful lavender colored muffins and somehow, tastes like the southwest.



Here, then, is my latest blue corn creation, Blue Corn Waffles, a huge hit with my kids on the first day of school, finished off with a silky smooth seedless black-raspberry sauce. (The seeds get in my daughter's braces. You can't have seedy braces on the first day of school after all!!).
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I added a few nuts for extra protein, and because they enhance the natural nutty flavor of the corn meal (pecans and piñons are native to NM as well) These didn't cook up as brown as regular waffles, in fact the blue flecks make them look a tad on the anaemic side, but not to fear, these are splendidly DELICIOUS!!


New Mexico Inspired Blue Corn Waffles

3/4 cup whole wheat flour (pastry flour preferred)
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 tbsp. finely chopped or ground pecans, piñons or any nuts of your choice
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup soy milk (may need more)
1 tablespoon canola oil

Preheat waffle iron. We have one of those Belgian Waffle makers that produces extra thick waffles, but any kind works...

Mix dry ingredients into a bowl (or batter bowl with pouring spout). Add soy milk and oil and stir gently until well mixed. If batter is not a good ladling/pouring consistency, add a little water or soy milk. Pour into waffle maker, and bake until golden and crisp. Serve immediately with maple syrup or fruit sauce.
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Fresh Raspberry Sauce
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3 cups fresh raspberries, or 3 (10-ounce) packages frozen raspberries, thawed, make SURE to keep whatever juices are in the thawed berries.
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
4 tsp. cornstarch
1/4 cup water, orange juice, pomegranite juice, red wine, whatever. (I use water or OJ for my kids)

1. Purée raspberries, and any berry juice in blender or food processor fitted with metal blade. Blend until berries are well crushed, but don't over blend or you'll blend the seeds into fine grit. Press purée into small bowl through mesh sieve with back of spoon to remove seeds. Yes, this is time consuming and feels a bit wasteful. But for my kids... hey...
Add water to make 2 1/2 cups. (I pour the water through the strainer to get any last bits of pulp).
2. Stir in sugar and lemon juice to taste. Stir until sugar dissolves. Dilute with reserved juice, if desired.
3. Mix cornstarch with 1/4 cup water, red wine or orange juice.
Heat berry puree to a boil, watching carefully and stirring as needed, once it boils, it will boil over VERY fast. As soon as it boils, add cornstarch mixture and lower heat to med-high. Whisk until it comes back to a boil, thickens, and is not cloudy - should take just a minute.
4. Remove from heat, cool a bit (if you can stand it) serve over waffles, cake, ice cream, pancakes, biscuits, shortcake, anything.

Meanwhile Back in New Mexico - POST 1

OK, so I've been momentarily distracted with day-to-day blogging, but I wanted to go back and share several AMAZING and totally vegan-friendly places I visited when I was recently in New Mexico (as well as some of the beautiful pix and touristy stuff too).
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Starting out in Santa Fe, one destination I most wanted to visit was the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum , so I was pretty excited we made that our first stop!
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I've always loved the passion and emotion of O'Keeffe paintings, and the work she did in New Mexico is some of my favorite. It was an unexpected treat to discover the museum was also hosting an Ansel Adam's exhibit, double-feature - I was thrilled!! (I admit I stole this photo from a website, no photos allowed in the museum of course!)

After the Museum, we walked and shopped Santa Fe's Plaza, where the Spanish Market and the Santa Fe Indian Market are held. Good thing I didn't have money to spend! Upscale shops, high-end designers, original jewelry and art to drool over, New Mexico chile products and Native American items galore, but there are definitely "tacky-tourist-y" parts too;

Honestly, I wasn't totally comfortable browsing the rows and rows of the Indian Market.

I'm not sure why, but it almost seemed ... sad - and embarrassingly commercial, as if too much history had been lost to tourism, as if we white folk had taken so much from these beautiful people that they're reduced to sitting hours in the sun stoically selling cheap trinkets and tacky souvenirs as their livelihood.

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Maybe I'm interpreting it all wrong. Tourism is a thriving industry here in Santa Fe, I only hope those who lived here first are reaping some financial benefits from our footprints on their land.

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That soapbox rant aside, this area is SO beautiful and rich with history. Photo opportunities and colorful contrasts everywhere I turned. I can't tell you how much I LOVED it (OK, except for the heat which no one but ME seemed to mind).

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Many of the buildings surrounding the Plaza stand just as they did during colonial Spanish times. Besides the shops and restaurants, there are several famous landmarks including Palace of the Governors, St. Francis Cathedral and Loretto Chapel with it's miracle staircase. I'm a history geek, I was in heaven but I'll spare everyone a three-page point-by-point dissertation!

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After a tiring (did I mention hot) and busy day, we started looking for someplace to eat; traditional New Mexican, yet remotely vegan-friendly in this land of cheese and meat.

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Luckily, we were directed to one of Santa Fe's oldest restaurants, "The Shed". The place is famous with locals, family owned, right off The Plaza and (be warned) MAJOR tourist destination, you might want reservations, which we didn't have. Instead we had margaritas (Lots. While waiting for dinner).

We didn't announce our dietary choices because it was easy enough to order from a nice selection of vegetarian items, just leaving off the cheese. After we'd ordered, our waiter said "Oh, you must be vegan!" and helpfully suggested several appetisers and other yumminess. The gazpacho was TO DIE FOR! I'm craving it seriously as I write this.

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In the picture you'll see some of our food including Froggy's blue-corn enchiladas with red chile sauce, and my vegetable burrito with green chile sauce. Everything was delicious, very traditional and we were so VERY impressed with our waiter's vegan-awareness. Totally made our night!

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And finally, we stayed that night at the charming (and very affordable) Casa Del Toro Bed-N-Breakfast. They have a bunch of wonderful little guest houses (not just single rooms) all located right in the heart of Santa Fe. I can't rave enough about this place and their amazing accommodations and if you are EVER in town this is the place you must stay. You MUST.
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Even though we didn't need it, they upgraded our group to a bigger house - plenty of room for everyone, but still cozy and decorated with traditional Southwest furnishings and artwork.

But best of all? OH. MY. GOSH. The next morning, they served us the most amazing VEGAN breakfast!!!

All their breakfasts are quietly vegetarian - but the cook herself, (whom we met and fell in love with) is vegan and will prepare a special vegan breakfast if notified when you reserve. She outdid herself for us and we couldn't be more impressed.
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With fellow guests, we chowed down on Southwest Tofu Scramble, the world's best granola with a sweet yogurt-type raw-cashew-creme, home-fried potatoes, biscuits, scones and minted fruit-salad.

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All without the omni's realizing it was all vegan (except for the coffee cream and milk for cereal, though soy was available too) - and certainly no complaints!! Everyone went back for seconds. Oh wow, drooling over the memories!

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I have so much more to share (bore) you with from my little Southwest vacation because I'm long-winded that way, stay tuned though, the rest will have to wait for another night.