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Delicious Recipes

Best (...and easiest) Mesquite Pancakes

Buy a Box of Bisquick or
Use Your Own Favorite Recipe

1. Mix batter according to recipe instructions.

2. Add one heaping tablespoon of Mesquite Willie’s Mesquite Flour for every ten or twelve pancakes recipe makes (use more or less according to taste).

3. Let batter rest for 30 to 45 minutes as the mesquite flour will absorb a lot of the moisture from your batter and make it quite thick.

4. Add more of the liquid your recipe uses to bring your batter back to the desired consistency. I have found a batter that makes a 4 to 5 inch pancake about 3/8” thick just about right.

5. Cook in a skillet under medium high heat. When a couple of drops of water are dropped on the surface they should sizzle and dance across the surface. If they sit in one place and just bubble it is too cold, if they hit one place and just disappear, too hot. Cook on first side until top just gets bubbles over most of surface, then flip and cook until bottom is golden brown. It is OK to peek.

Mesquite Willie's Cornbread 

1 cup corn meal

1 cup all purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons Mesquite Willie's Mesquite Bean Flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cups milk

1 large egg

1/4 cup vegetable oil, or bacon grease (preferred), or a mixture of the two for just a little more flavor

1 or 2 jalapenos seeded and chopped according to taste

 

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees

2. Mix corn meal, flour, mesquite bean flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.

3.  Add milk, egg, and jalapenos to mixture and whisk until well blended. Pour oil into 10" well seasoned cast iron skillet (preferred), 8" square glass baking dish, or other similar sized heavy baking pan and place back in oven. Allow batter to rest and skillet or baking dish with oil to heat for about 10 more minutes. If oil starts to smoke before time is up pull from oven and go to next step.

4. Swirl oil in skillet or dish to completely cover bottom and sides then immediately pour the rest into batter. If temperature is right batter should sizzle as oil is added. Immediately whisk batter to mix in oil and pour batter back into skillet, batter should sizzle again as it hits hot skillet or dish. Return to oven and bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in center comes out clean.

5. When cooked correctly cornbread should move side to side when shaken in skillet or dish. Remove from skillet or dish and brush top with softened or melted butter.

This recipe readily lends itself to many variations. Fresh herbs, onions, dried tomatoes, green chilies, chopped bacon or ham, cooked chorizo, different cheeses, and last but by no way least, my favorite, cracklins or chicharrones. Add a few of these ingredients and you can have a meal in itself. Be careful though, add too much and it can turn into an unrecognizable mess very quickly.

George's Easy Pulled Pork

1. Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees

 

2. Take a 5 to 8 pound pork butt (pork shoulder roast) and cover thoroughly with Mr. Tricky's Mesquite Bean Bar-B-Que Rub on all sides. 

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3. Place roast in a large Dutch Oven with tight fitting lid and put in oven.

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4. Immediately turn oven temp down to 200 degrees and either go to bed or go to work depending on when you put it in. We said this was easy.

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5. After about 8 or 9 hours take roast out and remove fat cap and bone. Shred roast and mix with drippings from Dutch Oven. Enjoy.

    (This dish freezes very well for those nights when you don't have time to make a main course)

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Our thanks to George Pouy at C&G Farm in Chamberino, New Mexico

Mr. Tricky's Brussels Sprouts 

1. Trim dried part of stem and dark outer leaves from 1 lb. of Brussels Sprouts and then cut into quarters lengthwise.

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2. In large saute pan (that you have a lid for) heat on medium high 2 Tbs. Extra Virgin Olive Oil and 2 Tbs. Butter. You can replace the Butter with 2 more     Tbs. of Olive Oil or 2 Tbs. of Bacon Grease depending on where you want to be on the healthy scale.

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3. Add Brussels Sprouts and coat liberally with Mr. Tricky's Mesquite Bean Bar-B-Que Rub. Saute while stirring often until seasoning starts to                         caramelize then add 1/2 cup water, reduce heat to simmer and cover pan.

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4. After about 5 minutes you should have a nice slightly thick sauce surrounding the sprouts, if too thin turn heat up a little and reduce, if too thick add a     little water and stir. Serve immediately.

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 Mesquite Willie's Grilled Salmon Fillet 

  1. Pick out a nice, wild caught, skin on salmon fillet. Coho, Sockeye, and Silver Salmon work great or if you can find and afford it King Salmon. Cover fillet on both sides with a nice even coat of your favorite Mesquite Willie's Seasoning and let rest for 15 to 30 minutes. If resting for longer refrigerate while resting.

  2. Preheat grill to medium high heat while fillet rests. Make sure grate is clean by either cleaning before heating or brushing vigorously with a grill brush after grill has reached temp and burned any leftover food off.

  3. Coat fillet on both sides with Extra Virgin Olive Oil using a pastry brush, trying not to disturb the seasoning, then wipe grate with paper towel dipped in oil and held by a set of Bar-B-Que tongs. Immediately place fillet skin side up on grill so that the thickest part of fish is over the hottest part of fire and cook for 2-3 minutes with cover down. A little longer for thicker fillets. When ready to flip it should release easily when the spatula is carefully slid under. The picture below shows I missed a small section of carbon on the grill when cleaning, but better to lose a little bit of grill mark than overcook the rest that lifted easily.

  4. Using a pair of spatulas carefully flip fillet over to where the skin is down and then cover and grill for about 5 or 6 more minutes for a one inch thick fillet, until you just see some fat start to ooze out of the fish being careful not to overcook, then give it a quick squeeze of juice from a fresh cut lime or lemon. Remove from grill, cover and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.  If you are worried about being able to do this without breaking the fish up it is quite ok to cut the fillet in half and cook the thinner tail end over a slightly cooler part of the grill when you start. With practice you will become proficient at grilling the two halves intact, and be able to do the whole fillet the same way. The impression made when serving a whole perfectly grilled salmon fillet to your friends and family makes it well worth the extra effort.

Mesquite Willie's Easy Acorn Squash

  1. Take 2 acorn squash and remove stems if they have them, then cut horizontally in half. Remove seeds and cut pointed end off of bottom, being careful not to make an opening into the seed cavity, so that it will sit flat and upright. Place squash in glass baking dish so that all four are sitting cut side up.

  2. (Option 1) Season squash liberally with Mr. Tricky's Mesquite Bean Bar-B-Que Seasoning or Ms.Treats Sweet and Feisty Seasoning. Add a tablespoon of pecans, walnuts or your favorite chopped nuts to the center of squash and top with a pat of butter or drizzle of olive oil. (Option 2) Season squash liberally with Mesquite Bean Southwest Seasoning or Hot  Mesquite Bean Southwest Seasoning for a little kick. Drizzle a little honey (Optional) over the top of this and add a table spoon or so of pecans, walnuts or your favorite chopped nuts to the center. Place a pat of butter or a little olive oil on top of the nuts.

  3. Add 1/2 cup of water to bottom of baking dish and cover with plastic wrap sealing along the sides of baking dish.

         Microwave on high for 12 minutes or until squash is tender. Use fork to carefully pull squash away from side and mix with other ingredients.

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          This recipe is even better when baked if you have the time. Just score the squash flesh with lines diagonal to each other making diamond shapes                   being careful not to pierce the skin and then follow the directions you like in step 2. Cover dish with foil instead of plastic, bake in 400 degree

          oven for 30 minutes then remove foil and bake another 30 minutes or until turning golden brown. 

Mesquite Willie's Roasted Corn

  1. When you have access to some really good, fresh, and still in the husk corn this works great. We prefer mature bi-color (Peaches and Cream or Olathe) but any fresh, tender, mature and sweet ears will work. If you have nice fresh corn but it will be a while before you can cook it (more than 6 or 8 hours and up to a day or two) we suggest keeping it in an ice chest with the drain open and crushed ice spread evenly and not too heavy over the top. As the ice melts and water drains you can add more as needed. This helps keep the corns natural sugars from turning to starches that will turn this great tasting sweet corn into something tasting better suited for grinding into meal or feeding to livestock.  

  2. About 45 minutes to an hour before roasting place corn in a clean sink or large pan with enough room temp water to float ears. Preheat grill to a medium high temp and after soaking place ears on grill with the silk end towards the cooler part of the grill and cover. Check every 5 or 10 minutes and rotate so that the husks char evenly and remove after 25 minutes of roasting. Let rest for about 5 or 10 minutes. If it will be a while before the rest of your meal is ready just place ears in a large roaster with a little warm water in the bottom and cover until ready to husk.

  3. Husk corn and remove silk, stems, and immature top portion. When the corn is roasted just right you will have some kernels that have started to turn a little brown and some that have a bit of char to them. Butter the whole cob and lightly season with your favorite Mesquite Willie's seasonings. This is one of the few times we recommend seasoning lightly as the corn should be the star and you can always add seasoning to your personal taste. If roasting to make Elote en Vaso (corn in a cup) or to preserve the corn for freezing or canning, cut corn off of cob and then use the back of your knife to scrape the cob and save all of the delicious corn milk. Then season, add butter, and heat back up on the stove or in the microwave. For  Elote en Vaso just have fun, more Willie's, creme fresh, red or green chile, grated Cotija or Parmesan cheese, a squeeze of fresh lime or whatever suits your fancy. This is one of those regional treats that has more variations than Texas and New Mexico has area codes.    

A variation that I am a big fan of is smoking. Just as you have finished the meat smoking part of the meal and are letting it rest or finish in foil, and still have good coals that will hold 225 to 250 degrees for an hour or so, take your soaked corn and throw it in the smoker and flip it a few times in the next hour or hour and a half. Then serve as corn on the cob above. Be careful though, if you didn't do your best on the brisket, pork, or chicken you just smoked, your guests might be carrying on more about the corn you just did. Just lettin' you know, this stuff is pretty good.

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