hello this is chef john from food wishes comm with green chile pesto and secret
squash side dish that's right not only are we gonna show you a very versatile
quite beautiful incredibly delicious new condiment we're also gonna show you how
to use it to make a beautiful side dish featuring America's best cap squash
secret and I know a lot of you are thinking we don't know if we can handle
two exciting recipes in the same video well you know what relax you'll be fine
we'll go slow and to get started with the pesto part of the program we have a
little bit of prep to do which includes roasting some serrano chiles in this hot
dry skillet that I've set over medium-high heat and no you're not
seeing things those Chili Peppers are dancing around okay as those skins start
to blister and bubble our chilies are going to start popping in locking which
is never not entertaining and then besides our serrano peppers raus gonna
roast some whole garlic cloves that are still in the skins and then last but not
least we're also gonna fire roast one table no chili over an open flame until
that skin blackens completely and as far as our serrano chiles go we want to
roast these in this hot dry pan until they're kind of blistered and browned on
the outside and they just start to soften up a little bit and then
basically the same goes for our garlic cloves all right we're going to get a
little bit of a char on that paper and we want to roast those until we feel
that garlic clove inside softening ever so slightly okay we don't really need it
soft and tender but we don't want it raw and hard either
so we'll roast those turning occasionally until they just start to
lose that firmness and then like I said we will fire roast our poblano until
it's black all over at which point we'll remove that and wrap it in a paper towel
which is what I've switched to use it instead of a plastic bag but either one
will work and we will roll that up and let it steam and then we'll head back to
the stove to remove our peppers and garlic and we'll let that stuff sit
there until it's cool enough to handle at which point we should be able to pull
off that paper to reveal our partially roasted garlic cloves okay they're not
soft and tender but neither are they hard and raw so basically we should have
something in between and yes those garlic cloves will be a
lot easier to peel with the help of a knife and then as far as our Serrano's
go we definitely want to remove the stem and the skin if it's able to be peeled
off easily and then you don't have to but I like to split these open and
scrape out the seeds okay so this step is technically optional but I do like to
remove them mostly because I don't want to see seeds in my pesto and unlike I
said you can remove the skin if it's already peeling off but if it isn't just
leave it on okay sometimes I just like to let the food decide I mean it only
seems fair and then finally we'll unwrap and split open our poblano which as you
can see is still steaming hot and looking very cool and we'll go ahead and
cut out that stem and seed pod as well as scrape off the skin and by the way
feel free to use other green peppers for this
I mean you are after all the rick bayless of how to play this and things
like Anaheim or hatch or jalapeno would also work and speaking of Rick Bayless
I've basically stolen his green chili adobo recipe and tweaked a couple things
and called it pesto and in the business we don't call that stealing a recipe we
call that adapting a recipe but anyway once our garlic and peppers have been
prepped we can move on to final production before that we're gonna stuff
a bunch of cilantro into this blender and I should mention you don't have to
remove the stems and to that we will also add a handful of parsley and then
we'll go ahead and toss in our Serrano's and garlic and poblano pepper and then
add what looks like a ridiculously large amount of salt but it's not it just
looks like that because we're using a larger grain kosher salt and that was
really only a teaspoon and a half and then we'll finish up with a generous
addition of olive oil preferably something mild and buttery and not too
peppery and bitter and I'm going to give you a little more info about the oil in
the blog post and that's it we're simply going to blend that by pulsing on and
off scraping down the sides a couple times if necessary until we have a
fairly smooth puree but not too smooth or if you have one of these fancy
blenders like I do you could easily turn this into a light
green smoothie but that's probably gonna be too much okay what we want to end up
with is something that looks like this hard a fairly fine pureed is still a
little course and as far as green colors go
that is an amazing one so above and beyond being delicious
this really is an absolutely gorgeous sauce and if I was going to serve this
right now with some roast chicken or grilled meats I would have definitely
added some fresh lime juice to this but since I'm going to use this for
different things I'm gonna leave this as is and then add the acid if I need it
when I mix it with whatever I'm serving it with and that's another issue I will
explain a little more in the blog post so at this point our green chile pesto
is officially done and really was tasting amazing and ready to dress the
aforementioned secret squash salad which starts with these chayote squash which
kind of looked like the result of pears and avocados having relations and
outside of Louisiana and a few Mexican neighborhoods these are virtually
unknown and I really do think those folks help keep it a secret so the price
doesn't go up but anyway let me go ahead and have in-court of these so you can
see what's going on and right in the center you're gonna see like this pit or
seed like object which is pretty soft and they tell me is edible but I always
feel like I need to trim it out anyway so I did and we'll simply go ahead and
slice these into whatever size pieces we want and you're seeing my preferred size
right here and no we do not need to peel these in fact that skin is gonna add a
very nice textural element later so we'll go ahead and slice those up and
transfer them onto a baking sheet and then before we roast these we'll go
ahead and toss those with some olive oil and some salt and I was gonna say to
bring out the flavor but these really don't have any until they're dressed
with something all right what makes this squash so interesting is it really
doesn't have its own flavor until you mix it with something and then
it sort of magically does and not just the flavor of what you're mixing it with
all right that stuff just brings out its own natural goodness all right so it's
kind of hard to explain but if you try you'll understand and then what we're
gonna do once those have been coated in oil because we're gonna go ahead and pop
those into the center of a 450 degree oven for about 30 minutes or so or until
they're just barely tender all right we don't want these mushy but we don't want
them curse me either so they should be just fork tender and you also should get
a little bit of caramel is a and then what we'll do while they're
still hot his transfer these into a mixing bowl and squeeze over the juice
of one lime or I guess lemon or vinegar if you want but that lime is a natural
and perfect pairing with our green chili speaking of which let's go ahead and add
a couple nice big spoonfuls of our pesto and then last but not least we will
crumble in some nice soft creamy goat cheese and we'll take a spoon or a
spatula and give that a mix and is the heat from our secret squash melts that
cheese it's going to combine with the lime juice and our pesto to form one of
the most delicious and gorgeous green dressings you've ever seen and then once
that's been well mixed we'll go ahead and transfer that to our serving dish
and yes I also stole this from the great Rick Bayless as well it's fine he
doesn't care all the great chefs want you to steal the recipes that's one of
the things that makes them great chefs and then once we have that plated up I'm
going to go ahead and finish the top with some extra goat cheese as well as a
little sprinkling of pumpkin seeds for a little extra hot green on green action
and that's it our chayote squash side dish featuring green chile pesto is
ready to enjoy and I realize no normal person gets really excited over a squash
side dish but this really does get me pretty close and as I mentioned that
squash by itself is virtually tasteless until you dress it with something as
amazing as this which brings out it's very subtle but unique flavor I mean it
really is so interesting and while I'm sure you're gonna love the taste of this
the texture is just as interesting right that roasted skin has a little bit of
our crispness to it which contrasts perfectly to that tender juicy flesh
which is almost melon like but anyway that's it with apologies to my friends
in Louisiana for revealing the secret of chayote squash to the rest of you I will
feel a little bit bad if the prices start to go up but regardless I still
hope you give that squash and this easy beautiful and delicious green chile
pesto recipe a try soon so head over to food wishes calm for all the ingredient
amounts of more info as usual and as all we
enjoy
you