Mesa Grill’s Blue and Yellow Corn Muffins

One of the ingredients that defines Southwestern cuisine is its blue corn.  That’s why I knew we had to make these Blue and Yellow Corn Muffins from Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill in our Southwestern Fiesta Cooking Class.

These corn muffins are no ordinary muffins. Look at them.  They are beautiful.  Yes, they have more ingredients than the usual corn muffins…16 ingredients in all. But many of them are ingredients you probably have on hand and the extra ingredients is what makes them special and taste really good.

All dry ingredients in two bowls. Mix in liquid ingredients just before baking.

The blue cornmeal that I used was more finely ground than the coarse cornmeal I buy at the supermarket, but they worked great together.  So where do you get the blue cornmeal, you ask.  I found mine in the Whole Foods bulk bins for $2.29/# at the Venice store on Lincoln Blvd near Santa Monica.  You could check other natural product stores in your area.  If you don’t have a Whole Foods, you may have to order it online.  Bob’s Red Mill sells blue cornmeal online, which means that if your grocer carries Bob’s Red Mill products, you may be in luck.

Blue and Yellow Cornmeal batters – Ying and Yang!

The yellow and blue are like ying and yang. So beautifully married together.

Blue and Yellow batter side by side in muffin tin.

It helps to have two people and two spoons for the next step.  Spoon the yellow and blue batters into each muffin cup at the very same time – side by side.

Mesa Grill’s Blue and Yellow Corn Muffins. Beautiful!

Oh, and yes, you might have to add one more ingredient – fresh creamery butter.  I like mine melted right into the warm muffin crumb.  Double yum!

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Mesa Grill Blue and Yellow Corn Muffins

I had the good fortune of eating at Mesa Grill near Union Square in New York when it first opened. It was a block away from our McCall’s Magazine headquarters on 5th Avenue. When I visited New York for business, the McCall’s Publisher would take us all there for dinner.  It was dining at fine restaurants like the Mesa Grill that inspired me to go to culinary school. Years later, Bobby Flay is famous and I’m teaching cooking classes. Isn’t that great!  We made these muffins at our Southwestern Fiesta Cooking Class and they were beautiful and yummy.  I put in only one of the jalapenos for our crowd, but add more if you like it spicy…and have an extra muffin tin ready, because we got 36 muffins out of a double batch.

• nonstick cooking spray or vegetable oil
• 6 Tbs unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup finely diced red onion
• 4 cloves  Garlic, finely minced
• 1 1/3 cups  whole milk
• 4 large eggs
• 2 Tbs honey
• 1/2 cup finely diced red bell pepper
• 2 jalapeno chiles, stemmed, seeded, finely diced (or to taste)
• 1/2 cup fresh corn kernels or frozen corn, thawed
• 2 Tb cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 cup blue cornmeal
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbs baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 4 tsp kosher salt (or 2 tsp table salt)

1. Preheat oven to 400°  Grease a 12-muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray or brush with vegetable oil.

2. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.  Add the onion and cook until soft, 3 or 4 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.  Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.

3. In another large bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs and honey.  Set aside.

4. Put the blue cornmeal and yellow cornmeal in two separate bowls. To each bowl, add 2/3 cup flour, 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1/4 tsp. baking soda and 2 tsp. salt.  Add 1/2 of the red pepper, jalapeno, corn and cilantro on the top of each bowl. Spoon half the butter and onion mixture into each bowl, scraping the sides of the pan to get all the butter.  Then add 1/2 the milk-egg-honey mixture into each of the two bowls.  Mix each bowl until all ingredients are combined.  Do not overmix.

5. It helps to have two people and two spoons for the next step.  Spoon the yellow and blue batters into each muffin cup at the very same time – side by side.  Bake in the oven at 400° for about 16 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out with a few moist crumbs on it.  Don’t overbake.  Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack.

Servings: 12 or maybe 18   262 or 175 calories per serving

Source: Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill Cookbook, 2007