Nigella is convinced that Mexican food is the next big food trend. I’m not 100% sure I agree with her wholeheartedly but it is nevertheless a delicious and easy to make cuisine. I saw an episode of Nigella Express where she made the following dishes and the sweetcorn chowder, normally not something that would really peak my interest looked so ludicrously easy I decided to make it. Nigella prefers frozen corn but if I am not having fresh white corn, I prefer Edgell’s super sweet canned or organic. But as she is the chef, I followed her lead. And regretted it. Perhaps frozen corn is tastier in England but the bag I bought here was abysmally awful and reminded me why I dislike all frozen vegetables bar peas.
I also have been having numerous problems with my Breville Wizz food processor. Namely that it decides when it wants to work and when it doesn’t. Tonight it was sulking, only working when cajoled (I am secretly dreaming of a Magimix or something a bit better so perhaps it sensed it). So my chowder was a litte chunkier that I would’ve ordinarily liked. Having said that, it was very healthy and flavoursome and would have been better if it weren’t for the hideous frozen corn.
The Roquamole on the other hands was easiness personified and whilst I was mixing it, I thought I may have made too much. Not so - when it’s this delicious. It was quickly demolished amidst much satisfied chip dipping.
The Margarita ice cream is a revelation. It’s absolutely sublime and has the perfect consistency even without using an ice cream churner: soft and easy to scoop. And I do think that sugar rimming the margarita glasses adds an extra special touch to the presentation although it’s so good you may find yourself eating it straight from the container.
Roquamole
• 1 cup crumbled Roquefort or St Agur at room temperature
• 60ml sour cream
• 2 ripe avocados
• 35g sliced pickled green jalapenos from a jar
• 2 spring onions, finely sliced
• ¼ teaspoon paprika
• 1 packet Blue-corn tortilla chips
1. In a bowl, crumble or mash the blue cheese with sour cream.
2. Mash in avocados. If they are ripe, a fork should be all you need.
3. Roughly chop sliced jalapenos and stir them into the mixture along with finely sliced spring onions.
4. Arrange in the centre of a plate or dish, dust with the paprika and surround with tortilla chips. Dive in.
Serves 4 to 6
Sweetcorn chowder
- 500g Frozen sweetcorn defrosted (please escape my fate and don’t use frozen, use super sweet canned or freshly shucked steamed white corn kernels totaling 500g once shucked)
- 3 spring onions, each one debearded and halved
- 1 clove of garlic, peeled
- 35 grams semolina
- 1.5 litres of hot vegetable stock made from concentrate or cube
- 150g lightly salted tortilla chips
- 75g grated cheese
- 2 long red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped, optional
1. Preheat the oven to 200c/gas mark 6
2. Drain the sweetcorn and put into a food processor with the spring onions, garlic and semolina. Blitz to a speckled primrose mush, unless you have a big food processor you may have to do this in two batches.
3. Tip this mixture into a large saucepan, add the hot vegetable stock and bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and let the chowder simmer, partially covered for 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, spread the tortilla chips out on a foil lined baking sheet and sprinkle the cheese over. Warm in the hot oven for 5-10 mins or until the cheese melts over the chips.
5. Ladle the soup into bowls and put a small mound of cheese molten chips into the middle of each bow. Sprinkle some of the red chili on top, if you feel like it, and serve immediately to very grateful people.
Margarita ice cream
- 125ml lime juice
- 2×15ml tablespoons tequila
- 3×15ml tablespoons orange liqueur or triple sec
- 150g icing sugar
- 500ml double cream
Method
1. Pour the lime juice, tequila and orange liqueur (or triple sec) into a bowl and stir in the icing sugar to dissolve
2. Add the cream and softly whisk until the mixture is thick and smooth, but not stiff.
3. Spoon into an airtight container to freeze overnight. This ice cream doesn’t need to be taken out to soften before serving, as it won’t freeze too hard and melts speedily and voluptuously.
4. Rim Margarita glasses with lime juice and dredge in sugar. Add three or four scoops per glass and freshly grated lime rind.
Recipes by Nigella Lawson from Nigella Express
13 Comments | Add your own
It looks very tasty
fabulous fabulous! i love mexican food! this looks like a very delicious meal!
Hi A&D-It certainly was, thanks!
Hi airy fairy-It was, although probably not thoroughly authentically Mexican, absolutely delicious! I could go for some more Roquamole right now…
mexican food has been the next big thing in my world for quite some time now–i love it. that chowder is just begging to be made!
That ice cream looks sensational - I must print your recipe and try it one day.
Hi a.grace-Yes Mexican is huge in America from what I read! I don’t think it is to such a degree here, I think Thai would probably be the adopted cuisine in Australia. Definitely try the chowder with good corn, it’s really good and low fat which is always a bonus.
Hi Sarah-It really was heavenly. I’m not a huge ice cream person but it was certainly compulsive eating for me
It’s particularly good as it doesn’t require an ice cream churner and doesn’t have eggs so it’s good for vegetarians who don’t eat eggs.
Hi NQN,
Love your blog - especially the frequency of updates.
Cheers,
Pete
Hi Peter-Thanks so much! I definitely try to make sure there’s a new story every day
I haven’t been able to look at your site for a few days and was delighted at your recent posts! I also saw this episode of Nigella Express and have been hankering to make this corn chowder ever since - it looked so easy! Thanks for the tip re the frozen corn, and good to know it tastes as good as it looks! Very jealous of you meeting Nigella - what a wonderful opportunity though! Also - with the sour cream and rosewater cakes, is there any reason why it can’t be made in standard cupcake pans?? Thanks for bringing joy to the web each day in your blog, is always such a delight to read!
Hi sally-welcome back and thankyou so much!
Definitely give it a try, it’s very easy (if your food processor is working) and I’d love to know what you think of it.
The sour cream and rose cakes can be made in standard cupcake pans but they won’t be as high, more squat. But the taste will still be fabulous!
Thanks, what a lovely thing to say!
This food looks so inviting.. Mmm Mmm! The photo’s, again are just gorgeous. I usually use canned or fresh corn too when needing it in a recipe. Sorry the frozen didn’t work.. but thank you for giving us that tip!
My most favourite dip/dressing to eat is blue cheese.. so the Roquamole sounds like something I’d LOVE .. and I’m sure my hubby would too. Wow.. I’ve never heard of doing that with guacomole before! Kind of like the grown-up version of guacomole!
Hi Maria-Thankyou, it was quite a challenge taking nice photos while it was dark. I always find daylight the best time to take photos but a dinner party is a night thing. Yes I have an aversion to all frozen vegetables, except for peas.
The blue cheese is fairly mild in it as there’s a lot of avocado in it but it’s so very good and the texture is lovely and it’s perfect with corn chips! Definitely a grown up version of guacamole!
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