Recipe – Josh Baar’s – Scallop and wild mushroom taquitos

Thanks to Chef Josh for sharing this recipe with CrabFest!

Ingredients: for taquitos

  • About 10 corn tortillas lightly heated and wrapped in damp towel
  • 1 lb. about 15 scallops, patted dry and quartered
  • ½ lb. clean firm mushrooms, i.e. chanterelles, porcini or cremini
  • 1lb. peeled and seeded sweet winter squash, i.e. pumpkin, butternut or acorn
  • Olive oil for roasting
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients: for avocado-tomatillo salsa

  • 2 ripe avocados peeled, pitted and large diced
  • ½ red onion peeled and finely diced
  • 4 medium sized tomatillos cored and small diced
  • 1/8 cup roasted red pepper, minced
  • Salt, honey, and lime juice to taste

Let’s start with the avocado salsa. First we need a large bowl for the mixing. Then we can start with the dicing. You want a fairly small dice with everything so it can incorporate into a nice sauce but do take care of the avocado. It is best to dice the avocado larger then what you want in your finished product due to the fact it will so easily break down during mixing. With all dry ingredients in place and lightly tossed you can start with the lime juice, make sure there is a hint of acid and the lime flavor is apparent, now we are going to tame that acidity with the honey. You don’t want to really be able to taste the honey, just know there is sweetness there. The salt is entirely up to you, of course it will need it but I only go as far as tying all the flavors together. When finished it should be bright and fresh with a balance of tart and sweet. Cover and set aside to let the flavors marry while we move on to the taquitos.

We should probably start with what is going to take the longest, roasting the squash. After you have carefully peeled off the hard armor that is a winter’s squashes skin, you can proceed to dice it into ¼ inch squares. Spreading these out onto a sheet pan with just a little olive oil salt and pepper roast them for about 15 minutes in a 400 degree oven. You want it to just start to brown bringing out the natural sweetness of the squash while still being firm enough to hold its cubed shape.

Don’t worry; it will cook more a little later on. Now you are going to repeat this roasting procedure with the mushrooms. You just need to roast these little guys long enough to get out any excess moisture and start to get a golden brown on them. We are basically par-cooking everything at this point just to make sure we get all those hidden flavors. Letting the squash and the mushrooms cool for just a minute or two will help with the mixing. Add these with the quartered scallops and season with a little salt and pepper. The corn tortillas themselves need to be heated lightly so they are not brittle during the rolling process. You can do this by stacking them together wrapped in a lightly damp towel and microwaving for 40 seconds or even by frying in hot oil for just a couple seconds and draining on paper towels. However you choose to do this, know that the process needs to be a quick one at this point so maybe you shouldn’t heat all of them at once. Now you can take a spoonful of your filling at a time and get to rolling. I secure them with a toothpick and pile them up until I’m ready to fry them all. Remember a little stuffing goes a long way here so try not to over stuff or you risk losing all of the filling in the hot oil. They need not be cooked any longer then what it takes them to become golden brown and float to the surface, maybe 2 to 3 minutes. Drain on paper towels, cut in half and serve with your avocado salsa.

Enjoy!