Getting the Blues for Dinner

About author / Amy Powell

World traveler; gourmet 30 minute meals; lover of exotic ingredients; winner on FoodTV's Chefs vs City; graduate French Culinary Institute. Her recipes will tantalize your taste buds.

Red state, blue state, right state, left state. In a continuation of last week’s debate-watching theme, this week we move onto a menu fit for left, or “blue” minded viewers. Keep in mind that there are no rules that you can’t mix your Red Hot Right Wings from last week with this week’s sage and blueberry crumble dessert, because who isn’t feeling a little all over the place after this past week’s political and economic turmoil? So fire that oven, turn on the TV, and tune in to stay on top of what is going on with the future of our country.

Between baseball playoffs and politics, our allegiances to certain colors can be spread a little thin right now. And although blue is not a color that turns up in food all that often, it is a color worth working into a menu, be it for playoffs (go Dodgers!) or for political reasons.

There are actually quite a few foods that have the word “blue” in their title. Consider blue potatoes, blue lake green beans, blue point oysters, blue crabs, blueberries, blue corn, and of course, blue cheese. Blue is perhaps not the most appetizing of colors to look at on a plate, so the trick is to use the color along with a palette of others, for a dish that looks as good as it tastes while keeping with the theme.

I like the idea of using blue corn as a way to accent a meal without overwhelming it with the color blue. For most of us, access to blue corn is limited to blue corn chips found in the snack aisle of the grocery store. For my blue themed debate dinner menu, I will use crushed blue corn chips as a tasty alternative to a traditional bread crumb coating on chicken. The blue corn lends an interesting look as well a distinct crunch that you don’t get with traditional breadcrumbs. Since the chips have already been fried, baking the chicken instead of frying it makes it crispy but not heavy, with just a little of that fatty fried flavor we love about fried chicken coming from the blue chips.

To avoid an overly dry chicken, and to add a little color to the dish, I will whip up a corn and tomato salsa. The lime juice, cilantro, and jalapeno will add a kick of flavor to the chicken while the corn and tomato will give the dish a more vibrant and appealing look.

Given that a blueberry looks more purple than blue when it cooks, a bowl of fresh blueberries topped with whipped cream makes a fitting and tasty dessert. But since we are well past blueberry season, the frozen kind will work just as well in a cooked dish of berries gussied up with some surprising extras.

To taste the berries into the fall season, I’ll simmer a bag of frozen wild blueberries with a couple tablespoons of sugar, the juice of a lemon, and some minced sage. While the flavors are combining the sugars are cooking to become a more syrupy consistency. I then will whip up a flour, butter and sugar mixture not unlike what you would do for a crumb topping. But rather than taking the time to cook the crumble in the oven with the berries, I’ll spread the mixture on a cookie sheet and let it bake in the oven on its own. After only 5 minutes the browned mixture comes out looking like one giant lumpy cookie. But a few minutes of cooling and it will break apart in free-form chunks of the sort that prop up nicely against a scoop of vanilla ice cream floating in a dessert dish of sage-blueberries.

Red or blue, this is a fascinating, if not frightening, time in America for both our economy and our political future. Even if you are a news novice, debate watching is a great way to get informed on the positions of the candidates. So if you can make a party out of it and explore your abilities at concocting color-themed meals, getting involved in the system might actually seem fun. So pour a glass of “red” wine, or shake up a Blue Ice vodka martini (maybe with some blue cheese stuffed olives), and settle in for a colorful meal to match in an equally colorful debate.

Serves/Makes: 4

• 1 pound frozen blueberries
• 1 lemon
• 8 sage leaves, minced
• 2 tablespoons sugar PLUS
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons room temp butter
• 6 tablespoons flour
• vanilla ice cream

Serves/Makes: 4

• 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs
• salt and pepper
• 2 eggs
• 6 ounces blue corn chips
• nonstick cooking spray
• 1 can (16 ounce size) corn, drained
• 3 plum tomatoes
• 1/2 medium onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed
• 1 1/2 limes
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro