Blue Corn Tostada with Guajillo Chipotle Sausage, Sweet Tomatillo Salsa, Roncal, Avocado, and Lime Crème Fraîche

Using the homemade guajillo chipotle sausage, this preparation is a savory-sweet small plate with great balance. I could see doing a smaller version as an amuse-bouche at the outset of an upscale Southwestern or Latin American preparation. The goal here was to play in the savory sweet realm, so the conscious influences would be verging on some of the flavor ideas of Ferran Adrià, but stepping back and looking at this, it seems to have Bobby Flay written all over it.


Blue corn tortillas were quickly fried in about 1/2 inch of sunflower oil, drained and lightly salted. The sausage was cooked through and crumbled. The sweet tomatillo salsa involved roasting a pound of deskinned tomatillos, caramelizing some red onions, and running all this through the blender with a little brown sugar and kosher salt; you're going for slightly sweet here, like fruit sweet, not candy sweet. The crème fraîche was mixed with fresh lime juice and a pinch of finely ground sea salt. The flavor sensations were all over the place, but clean and not muddled. Beside the savory garlic and spice elements of the sausage, and the fruity sweetness of the tomatillo salsa, the Roncal added a mineral element, the avocado gave it good mouth feel, and the acid of the crème fraîche balanced the forwardness of the savory sweet flavors.