"Three Sisters" Potato-Stuffed Squashes, Corn with Mulato Pepper, and Dragon Tongue Beans

Right after our recent vacation to the US' Southwest, I prepared a very tasty "three sisters" meal using the ancient staples of corn, beans, and squash, and then, two days later, had another try at it. Tonight was my third such meal and turned out to be in the middle of the other two in appeal. I used two interesting ingredients, neither of which I ever remembering having before, dragon tongue bean and dried mulato pepper.

Dragon tongue bean pods look pretty, creamy white streaked with purple. They are snap beans similar to green beans but flatter and, I was told, quite enjoyable raw. The purple color fades with heat, but the pods can be steamed, blanched, boiled, or pickled. We enjoyed their mild taste raw, but I will look to buy them again and try cooking them.

The mulato pepper is a dried poblano that is dark brown and wrinkled. It is reasonably mild and had such a surprising fruity/chocolatey taste, slightly smoky, that I really liked. I read that it is a key ingredient in mole sauces (I brought a prepared mole sauce back from the vacation and hope to start experimenting with it soon).

Anyway, I baked squash (350°F for 35 minutes or so; the bigger squash could have used another 10 minutes or so of baking, but was fine) and stuffed it with mashed potatoes. I served the beans raw and made corn my favorite way by roasting it on an open flame, stripping the kernels, and mixing in salt, Earth Balance margarine, and lime juice. I also coarsely chopped a medium mulato pepper and mixed it in; the pepper tasted good and the combination was nice. We both enjoyed the meal!

I am very busy this week with getting our Thanksgiving event going - we are full with over 500 people but I have to attend to final raffle, volunteer assignments, wait list (growing each day) management, media relations, etc. tasks. I was working with our amazing webmaster last night till about 3a! Luckily, my wife came home with leftovers from a Sanskrit class that she tried out at somebody's house, and which included dinner. I simply heated the Indian dishes and made some rice noodles and a sandwich. Tomorrow a good friend is driving from Ohio and visiting us so she can attend our Thanksgiving; I have a good dinner planned! I'll probably make a simple and quick meal on the eve of Thanksgiving.