Crema De Pinon Recipes

LIMBER DE CREMA

Steps:

• Place seven 8-ounce plastic cups on a tray small enough to fit into your freezer.
• Combine the evaporated milk, condensed milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and 2 cups water in a blender and blend until homogeneous. Taste the mixture for sweetness and adjust to taste; you may want to add up to an extra tablespoon of sugar.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared plastic cups, filling them to about 1/4 inch from the brim. Sprinkle each cup with a bit of ground cinnamon, if desired. Freeze until fully frozen, at least 8 hours. The limbers will keep in the freezer for up to a month.

SALSA DE PINON (PINE NUT SAUCE)

Steps:

• In a blender, combine the pine nuts, egg yolks, caper juice, capers, and half and half. Blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

CREMA DE ELOTE (CORN CHOWDER WITH ROASTED PEPPERS)

Steps:

• If using fresh corn, husk and remove all of the corn silk, then cut the kernels from each cob with a sharp knife; transfer to a food processor. Scrape all the remaining corn from the cobs, using the end of a spoon, and add to the rest. There should be between 2 1/2 and 3 cups of corn. Place in the food processor.
• Heat half of the butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft, 6 or 7 minutes, then stir in the garlic and cook a minute longer. Scrape the mixture into the corn along with the cornstarch and 1/4 cup water. Process until smooth. Melt the remaining butter in a medium-large saucepan set over medium heat. Add the corn puree and stir constantly for several minutes until quite thick.
• Whisk in the milk, turn the heat to medium-low, partly cover and simmer 15 minutes, stirring often. Strain through a medium-mesh sieve. Rinse out the pan, return the strained soup to it and stir in the diced chiles poblanos and the cream. Season with salt and simmer over medium-low heat for 10 minutes longer, stirring frequently.
• To serve, thin the soup with additional milk if it is thicker than heavy cream. Ladle into small, warm soup bowls. Garnish with the fresh cheese and chopped parsley, and serve immediately.

CAMARONES CON CREMA (MEXICAN SHRIMP IN CREAM)

Steps:

• Melt butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Place bell peppers, onion, and garlic in the butter and saute until tender and onion is translucent, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove and set aside. Save pan and juices and keep warm.
• Combine broth and green chiles in a separate pan and bring to a simmer. Turn off heat and add cream cheese, stirring slowly until incorporated. Add Mexican crema, chile de arbol, cumin, and oregano. Stir again. Add peppers, onion, and garlic; stir to incorporate. Remove from heat.
• Heat reserved pan with juices over medium-high heat. Cook shrimp until they are bright pink on the outside and the meat is opaque, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Stir shrimp into cream mixture and serve.

PINON

Steps:

• Cut onion and bell peppers into 1/4-inch dice. Drain whole tomatoes, reserving juice, and chop. Halve olives crosswise.
• Heat a large nonstick skillet until hot and crumble beef into skillet. Sauté beef over moderately high heat, stirring and breaking up any clumps, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Stir in salt, black pepper, onion, and bell peppers and sauté, stirring, until vegetables are softened, any juices are evaporated, and meat begins to brown, about 6 minutes. Stir in tomatoes with reserved juice, olives, and remaining filling ingredients and simmer, partially covered and stirring occasionally, until most of liquid is evaporated, about 30 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Cool filling uncovered. Filling may be made 2 days ahead and chilled, covered.
• Cut ends from plantains and peel fruit. Diagonally cut plantains into 1/3-inch-thick slices. In a large nonstick skillet heat 1/3 cup oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and sauté plantains in batches, without crowding, until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes on each side, adding remaining oil to skillet as necessary. With a slotted spatula transfer plantains as fried to paper towels to drain.
• Preheat oven to 350°F. Oil a 2 1/2-quart baking dish (about 1 1/2 inches deep).
• In a small bowl beat together eggs and water and pour half of mixture into baking dish, tilting to coat bottom and sides. Arrange about one third plantains over bottom and up sides of baking dish tightly in one layer. Spread half of filling in dish and sprinkle with half of Parmesan. Arrange half of remaining plantains on top of Parmesan in one layer. Top plantains with remaining filling and sprinkle with remaining Parmesan. Top pie with remaining plantains. Pour remaining egg mixture over pie, tilting dish so egg spreads to edges.
• Bake pie, covered with foil, in middle of oven until heated through and bubbling at edges, about 1 hour. Cool pie 10 minutes. (If desired, unmold before serving: Run a thin knife around edge of pie, invert a serving plate on top of pie, and invert pie onto serving plate.)

OUR FAVORITE PIñON

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350ºF.
• Cut plantains lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Heat 2 Tbsp. dressing in large nonstick skillet on medium heat. Add half the plantains; cook 1-1/2 min. on each side or until golden brown on both sides. Remove from skillet; cover to keep warm. Repeat with 2 Tbsp. of the remaining dressing and remaining plantains.
• Add peppers, onions, olives, garlic, 1/4 cup cilantro and remaining dressing to skillet; cook and stir on medium heat 5 min. or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Stir in meat, tomato sauce and seasoning. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally; simmer on medium-low heat 10 min. or until meat is done, stirring occasionally.
• Layer half each of the plantains, meat mixture, beans and cheese in 13x9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray; repeat layers. Beat whole eggs, egg whites and milk with whisk until blended; pour over ingredients in baking dish. Cover.
• Bake 30 min. or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Sprinkle with remaining cilantro.

HEALTHIER CREMA DE FRUTA

Steps:

• Combine evaporated milk, milk, sugar, 1/2 cup water, flour, and egg yolks in a tempered glass bowl (such as Pyrex®).
• Fill a large bowl with ice water, creating an ice bath.
• Place milk mixture in a large saucepan of boiling water; cook, whisking constantly, until custard thickens and reaches a temperature of 170 degrees F (77 degrees C), 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer bowl to ice bath to cool the custard.
• Mix 1 1/4 cup water, 1 cup heavy syrup from fruit cocktail, gelatin, and lemon juice together in a separate saucepan over medium heat; cook and stir until gelatin dissolves, 10 to 12 minutes. Refrigerate gelatin mixture until cooled, about 30 minutes.
• Layer ladyfingers in the bottom of a deep 9x13-inch dish; top with a custard layer and fruit cocktail layer. Repeat layering with remaining ingredients, ending with gelatin mixture covering the last fruit layer. Refrigerate until set, 8 hours to overnight.