New Mexican · side

Calabacitas con Queso

Calabacitas con Queso reads sweetness 5.1, allium 5.0 and richness 4.7 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a New Mexican side, about 34 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

• Umami & Savory — 3.8 / 10
• Sweet & Fruity — 5.5 / 10
• Sour & Bright — 0.8 / 10
• Bitter & Earthy — 1.4 / 10
• Rich & Fat — 5.0 / 10
• Aromatic & Spice — 5.4 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Sweetness 5.1 · Allium 5.0 · Richness 4.7 · Salinity 3.5 · Umami 2.5 · Warm Spice 1.8 · Fruity 1.6 · Earthy 1.3 · Herbaceous 1.1 · Heat 1.1 · Bitterness 0.9 · Nutty 0.9 · Floral 0.8 · Sourness 0.7

What's in it (11)

• summer squash — 700 g
• sweet corn kernels — 300 g
• chopped new mexico green chiles — 250 g
• yellow onion — 200 g
• garlic — 11 g
• lard — 41 g
• regular milk — 120 g
• asadero cheese — 150 g
• salt — 5 g
• black pepper — 5 g
• dried mexican oregano — 1 g

Time & effort: about 34 min · effort: medium

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 74.9 kcal, 3.6 g protein, 2.6 g fat, 10.4 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains dairy — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (9 steps)

1. Green chile is the state question in New Mexico — red or green, and if you cannot decide you order Christmas, which is both — and calabacitas is where green chile sits closest to a vegetable dish. The three sisters are all here: squash, corn and, in the beans usually served alongside, the third. It is a late-summer dish made when the chile roasters are running outside every grocery store in the state and the whole town smells of it for three weeks.
2. Roasting the chile is not optional and it is not a garnish step. New Mexico green chile is roasted over a hot flame until the skin blisters black all over, steamed in a closed bag or covered bowl for 15 minutes, then rubbed free of skin, stemmed and seeded. That charring is where a large part of the flavour comes from; raw green chile tastes grassy and thin by comparison. Hatch is the valley whose chile is most widely sold and is generally fatter and sweeter; if you are buying frozen roasted chile by mail from Bueno Foods or the Hatch Chile Store, buy hot rather than mild, because mild has been bred toward nothing. Poblano and Anaheim are not the same thing and will give a flatter, more vegetal dish.
3. Melt the lard in a wide heavy skillet over medium heat and cook the onion 6 minutes until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more.
4. Add the diced squash and cook 8 minutes, stirring only occasionally, until it is tender and has taken some colour on a few faces. Do not cover it — trapped steam turns calabacitas to water.
5. Stir in the corn and cook 5 minutes, until it loses its raw starchiness and smells sweet.
6. Add the chopped green chile and cook 5 minutes more, so it warms through and its flavour spreads through the fat.
7. Pour in the milk and simmer 5 minutes until it has mostly gone and what is left is clinging. Season with the salt, pepper and oregano.
8. Scatter the cheese over the surface, take the pan off the heat, cover it and let it stand 3 minutes so the cheese melts into strands rather than into oil. Serve immediately, straight from the pan.
9. Substitutions: zucchini can stand in for the young summer squash; unsalted butter can stand in for the lard; Monterey Jack cheese can stand in for the asadero cheese.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

• Pisto Manchego — Spanish
• Gefilte Fish (Poached Carp and Pike Quenelles in Their Own Jelly) — Ashkenazi
• Mukimo (Kikuyu Mashed Potato, Peas and Maize) — Kenyan
• Halim — Persian
• Tostones (Twice-Fried Plantains) — Cuban

Keep reading: what sweetness, allium, richness mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.