by Angela Roberts on July 27, 2014    http://spinachtiger.com/

 

In August we are making our way to Asheville, North Carolina for the Asheville Food and Wine Festival. The three day event kicks off August 21 with ELIXIR a cocktail mix-off by over twenty of  the best bartenders in town. The event location is a secret, creating lots of buzz around the buzz.

 

I told you a little bit about the chefs competing every week until the big event in this post with a good old fashioned Southern recipe, but on this one special night, ELIXIR, it’s all about the bartenders.

 

The dialogue surrounding crafted cocktails, vintage cocktails, craft beer, local wine, and mysterious ingredients has created a new bar culture beyond Cheers and far beyond pick up joints. The cocktail has been reborn and vintage cocktails have been reinstated with gusto. Heading to the bar has now become an experience, sometimes quite pricey with $12 cocktails and $15 wine by the glass, but delivering an experience of food and drink you didn’t get ten years ago.

 

What hasn’t broken the bank yet, however, is bar food. It still remains the best place to get great eats at reasonable prices.

 

The vintage cocktails and crafted culinary cocktails have made their way across America, creating excitement, and making plenty of room for fun food items to appear on the menu. Staples now include truffle fries, deep-fried brussels sprouts, falafel, roasted broccoli, baked oysters, country ham, and brisket tacos. The shared plate was born through this new bar culture and bar food has gained new respect.

 

Desserts, however, aside from cookies are not often so hand-held and you need some hand held desserts when you’re eating at a bar.

 

If I had a bar, I would, of course, have innovative, fun food to accompany these great crafted cocktails, making sure to use the local farms as one of my sources. A hand held dessert taco is one of my more exciting ideas. I picked blueberries this week and the corn was picked the day I got it from Burns Farms.

 

Fresh corn and hand-picked blueberries were stuffed into a taco with some cream cheese and then dredged with egg and crushed cereal. This is accompanied by a blueberry old fashioned (recipes for berry cocktails coming Wednesday).

 

Blueberry Cream Cheese Dessert Taco 10 by Angela Roberts

 

I could easily see several dessert tacos in my mind, piled on a shared plate and served with a variety of mini cocktails.

 

Blueberry Cream Cheese Fresh Corn Dessert Taco By Angela Roberts

 

Isn’t it genius to eat a dessert taco that’s not so sweet that it could be just the bite you’re looking for.

 

Blueberry Cream Cheese Dessert Taco 7 by Angela Roberts

 

Creative Cooking Crew Peaches Three Ways

 

 

 

The idea for this dessert taco came to me the way good food ideas should be born, from fresh, local ingredients from local farms. I had picked the blueberries at the blueberry farm next to us on Wednesday and my friend picked the fresh corn a few days ago. The Creative Cooking Crew’s challenge this month was tacos. I knew I wanted a dessert taco, something fun, different and addicting. A full round of creative tacos will be presented on Lazaro cooks on Monday and you can also view all the recipes the Creative Cooking Crew has done on our Pinterest Board.

 

Blueberry Cream Cheese Fresh Corn Dessert Taco By Angela Roberts

 

The blueberries and corn bring sweetness and texture and the honey-kissed cream cheese holds it together. Here’s a great part of this. I used crushed cereal (honey oats) to dredge the tortilla in before frying, for a sweet crunch.

 

Blueberry Cream Cheese Taco with Fresh Corn by Angela Roberts

Dessert Tacos with Cream Cheese, Blueberries, and Fresh Corn

Author: Angela Roberts

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep time:  5 mins

Cook time:  5 mins

Total time:  10 mins

Serves: 4

 

Innovative Dessert Taco, easy to make with cream cheese, blueberries and fresh corn.

Ingredients

 

    4 six inch flour tortillas (adjust for larger sizes)

    4 tablespoons cream cheese

    1 tablespoon honey

    1 egg

    2 cups crushed sweetened cereal (honey nut oats)

    1 cup blueberries

    1 fresh corn

    ¼ cup oil for frying

 

Instructions

 

    Mix honey and cream cheese until incorporated well.

    Use a food processor to crush the cereal.

    Spread one tablespoon cream cheese on one side of tortilla.

    Add ¼ blueberries and corn on cream cheese. You can use more or less of these. Just make sure the cream cheese is covered.

    Fold Tortilla.

    Dip flour tortilla into egg.

    Dredge with crushed cereal.

    Fry in hot oil (350 degrees) until golden brown on each side.

    Drain on paper towels.