If you live in America or grew up in America, everybody knows about the Super Bowl- the best football teams of the season going head-to-head with a celebrity halftime show and commercials costing upwards of $1,000,000 a second. (Forge To Table will get there one day!) Most of these games are an excuse to get wasted on a Sunday night, with groups of fans annually petitioning to get the day after the super bowl as a national holiday!
The Forge To Table team isn’t necessarily into sportsball- but we’re definitely into all the unique foods that come out on game day! Submarine sandwiches, hot chicken wings, cheese platters, and the most varied category of them all: chips and dip. Rather than deciding on just one flavor, we decided to level it up with eight layers of dip for your chip. You could easily make a meal of this dip, so let's get into it!
The foundation of the dip is the classic and timeless refried beans. These are black or pinto beans that are cooked not just once– but twice with aromatics and spices for maximum flavor. We decided to skip the homemade version this time around, but still decided to mix in some chipotle adobo sauce for some smoky spice.
The next layer is made from one of our favorite fruits on earth-the creamy avocado. Mash the ripe flesh of one of these with some cilantro, garlic, lime zest, and lime juice, and you have one of the finest dips by itself- guacamole. Some things you don’t need to mess with, and this guacamole is simple but creates an important acidic and garlicky balance to the rest of the dip. Try not to eat it all by itself.
Next on the rotation is a spiced sour cream. Sour cream is dairy cream fermented with a variety of lactic acids and bacteria to create a creamy and spreadable dip. Some ground cumin and smoked paprika bring some welcome aroma
and flavor to the plain cream, and make a great base for the next layer…
The titular ingredient- chorizo! Well, any kind of spicy sausage is acceptable in this recipe, including linguica, chourico, and impossible chorizo. The trick is to get it crumbled into small pieces so when you cook it in a cast iron, it gets super crispy and releases some of that flavorful fat into the pan. After evenly spreading the chorizo over the sour cream it leads into the other main ingredient…
Corn salsa! By cooking the corn kernels in chorizo fat, you get a wonderful smoky char along with a spicy aroma from the oil. The corn should be sliced off a cob, when available, but if you can’t find fresh corn (like me writing this recipe in February in New England) frozen sweet corn that is thawed works in a pinch. The lightly blackened corn is removed from a pan and mixed with chopped cilantro, finely chopped red onion, minced Fresno chili, lime juice, salt, and pepper for a crunchy and delicious bite. This is layered right on top of the chorizo.
To follow up with the corn, the next layer is salty and crumbly Cojita cheese. This is a firm-textured Mexican cheese made from cow's milk and can vary in texture depending on its age. A young Cojita cheese is similar to mild feta while an aged Cojita is similar to other aged cheeses like parmesan. Makes a great addition to the other flavors at the party!
The next layer is a simply sliced radish, to bring some freshness and crunch. Normal red rashes are fine, but luckily in the winter, there are a variety of radishes to choose from. I opted for a colorful and bright watermelon radish for a pop of color!
The final layer is another simple one, just sliced scallions. There is a trick to slicing scallions on a bias like us, and it’s all about trimming away the white on a bias. Then rock your knife (a 7” Bunka is amazing at this) back and forth over the long scallion greens, and you should be able to get some long bias cuts. Practice is the key to getting comfortable!
With so many options for game day snacks, why not go all out with 8 different flavors and textures? You can add some hot sauce on top too, for a whopping nine layers all on one chip. Now that everything is layered up, it's time to assemble the team and dig in!
Chorizo and Charred Corn 8-Layer Dip
The dip to end all dips! Count em– layers of refried beans, creamy guacamole, spiced sour cream, crumbled chorizo, charred corn salsa, Cojita cheese, sliced radish, and scallions. You’ll want to get the team together for this one!
Recipe and Photography by Sam Burgess
Forge To Table Knives
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Servings: 8-10
Ingredients:
Guacamole:
4 each ripe avocado, halved, pitted, and skins removed
½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
½ teaspoon lime zest (1 lime)
¼ cup lime juice (2 limes)
1 each garlic clove, finely grated
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Other layers:
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
12 ounces chorizo, linguica, or impossible sausage, crumbled
4 ears fresh sweet corn, kernels cut from the cobs (~4 cups total)
¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 each red Fresno chili, seeded and finely chopped
½ cup red onion, finely chopped (½ medium onion)
2 tablespoons lime juice (1 lime)
Kosher salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1-pint sour cream
1-½ teaspoons smoked paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2, 15.5 oz cans of refried beans
1 tablespoon chipotle adobo sauce (optional)
5 ounces Cojita cheese, crumbled
⅓ cup radishes, thinly sliced
⅓ cup scallions, greens only, sliced on a bias
17-ounce bag lime-flavored tortilla chips, for serving
Directions:
(GUACAMOLE) In a medium bowl, add the ripe avocado flesh and mash with the back of a fork until mostly smooth. Mix in ½ cup chopped cilantro, lime zest, lime juice, grated garlic, kosher salt, and freshly cracked black pepper. Set aside.
(SAUSAGE) In a 12” cast iron pan, heat extra virgin olive oil over medium-high heat. Once the oil is shimmering, add the crumbled chorizo, linguica, or impossible sausage to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and starting to get crispy, about 5-6 minutes. Use a spoon to remove sausage into a bowl, leaving any oil behind in the pan.
(CORN SALSA) In the now-empty cast iron pan, add the corn kernels and stir to coat in the oil. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the kernels are browned and blistered, about 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat, place the corn into a large bowl, and add ¼ cup chopped cilantro, minced Fresno chili, finely chopped red onion, and lime juice. Mix to combine and season lightly with salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Set aside.
(SPICED CREAM) In the pint container that the sour cream is packaged (or a medium bowl), add smoked paprika and ground cumin. Mix well to evenly distribute spices and set aside.
(ASSEMBLY) Mix the refried beans with the chipotle adobo sauce (optional). Spread the refried beans across the bottom of a 9-inch x 13-inch baking dish in an even layer. Carefully spread the guacamole over the beans in an even layer. Spread the prepared spiced sour cream over the guacamole, making sure to reach all the edges.
(OTHER LAYERS) Evenly sprinkle the cooked sausage in a single layer over the spiced sour cream. Evenly spread the corn salsa over the sausage, patting down to make a flat surface. Sprinkle crumbled Cojita cheese over the corn, followed by sliced radishes, and finally the scallions.
(FINISHING) Serve the dip with hot sauce (optional) and a bag of lime-flavored tortilla chips. Enjoy!
Chef’s Notes:
4 cups of frozen and thawed corn can be used in substitution of fresh corn.
Make it vegetarian with impossible sausage or omit the sausage completely!
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