55 recipes down, 100 to go

So with the holidays coming up (we’ll be heading to CT at the end of month 4 to visit family for Christmas) I figured that if I was going to make any progress this month that I had better get going. I decided to tackle three new recipes on Sunday. I prepared the perfect start to the day with Rustic Red-Sauced Eggs on Corn Tortillas (VBRED22) made with a repeat for me: Essential Roasted Tomato-Jalapeño Salsa (EF2). This was pretty easy to make, even doing the salsa from scratch. You toast tortillas on a dry griddle and top them with a fried egg and warm salsa. This is then topped with cheese and voilà . . . yummy breakfast! I also got the spice level in the salsa right!!! The recipe called for 2-3 jalapeños; I used 2 but only the seeds from half of one. It was pleasantly spicy. I probably could have done a full pepper with seeds, but I have plenty of experience with overdoing it and I didn’t want to sour my desire for a Mexican dinner. The only alteration I made to the recipe is that I used queso fresco instead of queso añejo (the latter not readily available at my local grocery options).

For lunch we had John’s Polish side of the family’s specialty: perogi stuffed with sauerkraut. I had been at my Mother-in-law’s on Saturday morning making them with all of the women in the family, a December tradition. They were delicious and certainly the perfect contrast to our Mexican breakfast and dinner.
For dinner we had Chicken Breasts with Poblanos, Mushrooms and Cream (MD6) with a side of Green Poblano Rice (VBRED17). It seems now hard to believe that I had never cooked out of the Main Dish section of the cookbook before starting the project. This dish definitely did not disappoint. The sauce was full of poblano flavor without much spice (although I cooked it exactly as directed minus the optional epazote which I haven’t been able to find). The shitake mushrooms provided a nice earthy flavor that paired well with the creaminess of the sauce. Plus, I really liked the green color of the sauce. The only problem I had with this recipe was that my chicken breasts were larger than what was called for (he said 6 breasts totaling 2 pounds; my 4 did that) and so I had to increase the baking time. But that really wasn’t a big deal. The Poblano Rice had a bright, slightly tangy taste in which the cilantro was as prominent as the poblano. This is a dinner that I would repeat for company, especially since the majority of it can be done ahead.

I also have a big event to report!!! John and I have reservations to Topolobambo for Thursday night! It will be our first visit to a Bayless restaurant since I’ve started the project, so needless to say I’m thrilled to be going. Not to mention the fact that we’re spending the night downtown while John’s parents stay with the kids. I’m not sure I’ll cook anything Mexican before Thursday but if not, I’ll be certain to do something this weekend.

52 recipes down, 103 to go

While everyone else across the country was ordering pizza on the day before Thanksgiving because they were up to their eyeballs in turkey, stuffing, and pie-making, John and I were enjoying a lovely meal of Smoky Shredded Pork Tacos (TEOCE3) made with Essential Quick-Cooked Tomato-Chipotle Sauce (EF6). It’s been awhile since I’ve not cooked for Thanksgiving (I’ll probably do a traditional turkey for New Year’s since I haven’t been able to sell John on Bayless’ Braised Turkey in Red Mole as a substitute) and so we enjoyed our day watching Jack and Scarlett recreate the first Thanksgiving in their school program and then doing a little Mexican cooking.
The recipe was John’s choice and I was concerned because the last go-round with the Quick-Cooked Tomato-Chipotle Sauce turned out so spicy. So this time I seeded the chipotles but was still prepared for some serious heat. To our surprise, though, the sauce turned out quite mild. I guess I still haven’t mastered the art of regulating spice. This is really starting to bug me a bit.
Anyway, to the sauce you add cinnamon, black pepper, cloves, raisins and toasted slivered almonds. This is then combined with shredded pork shoulder (which is made by poaching the cubed meat and then shredding) and served in steamed corn tortillas. The result was delicious! The cinnamon, cloves, and raisins gave a nice sweet balance to the smoke and spice of the chipotles. I also really liked the crunchy texture of the almonds. This recipe is a keeper for sure.

Then, last night I broke out the tortilla press to make Oval Masa Cakes with Black Bean Filling or Tlacoyos (TEOCE21). I used masa harina mixed with water as I didn’t have time to head to Pilsen for fresh masa. This was mixed with lard to make a dough which was first divided into balls, and then flattened in the tortilla press. The disks were then wrapped around some mashed black beans to make a little cake (mine were more rectangular than oval). The cakes were first cooked on a dry griddle and then fried in oil. Then you topped them with a tomatillo-serrano salsa (since I’ve made this one several times already I figured it would be ok to purchase the salsa for a quicker weeknight meal), crumbled queso fresco, chorizo, chopped onion, radish slices and cilantro.

These were really good!! The masa and bean base had a nice earthiness to it and the toppings gave the dish a lot of complementing flavors: the tang and spice from both the salsa and the chorizo, the fresh crunch of the onion and radishes, and the creaminess of the queso fresco. This would be a good dish to make if you have leftover beans (I used the ones I had leftover from making the black bean rice). And one of the best parts of the meal was that John did all of the dishes
I’m not sure what I’ll be cooking next, but hopefully I’ll pick something for late in the week or over the weekend. It’s also been awhile since I’ve done a dessert; it might be time for that. In the meantime I’m enjoying the fact that no one in my family is sick for the moment and so I’m back to having my three mornings a week to get things done (like update my blog)!

Month 3

So what can I tell you about month 3 that you probably can’t already guess? That is was relatively pathetic in terms of output: only 7 recipes completed; that I was either sick or caring for sick people for practically the whole month; that I can testify that you don’t want your kids to get h1n1. That said, there were still a couple of gems that would make up my modest meal of the month:
Ripe Plantain Turnovers (Empanadas) with Fresh Cheese Filling
Oaxacan Black Bean Soup
And really, there was nothing that I wouldn’t make again. So in that sense, it was a good month. I’m ready for month 4 to be a success despite the hustle and bustle of the holidays. We’ll see how it works out. Stay tuned . . .

50 recipes down, 105 to go

Now that everyone is healthy again, I’m happy to be back to the project. I knew it had been too long since making something Mexican when I learned that John had gone back to eating at the Mexican station at his work cafeteria, not once but at least twice! I’ll try to make sure that doesn’t happen again. On the primarily vegetarian menu for Saturday evening was Ripe Plantain Turnovers with Fresh Cheese Filling (SOS12) and Smoky Braised Mexican Pumpkin with Seared White Onion (VBRED2). Both recipes also called for a repeat of Essential Roasted Tomatillo-Chipotle Salsa (EF9).
John and the kids made the salsa and true to chipotle form it was spicy! I went with the smaller number of chiles called for in the recipe; it called for 4.5-9 and I used 5. The lesson has been cemented in my mind: chipotle chiles are spicy. There is definitely a distinction, though, between the Tomatillo-Chipotle Salsa and the Quick-Cooked Tomato-Chipotle Sauce (EF6). The recipes that were made with the former were spicy to be sure, but good. For me, those made with EF6 were too spicy.
As for the Pumpkin recipe, I opted to include the optional boneless pork shoulder (just a half pound, giving a nice mainly veggie meal with just an accent of meat) which was cut in pieces, browned in a skillet, and set aside. Sliced onion was then browned in the skillet before adding the salsa and a roasted tomato (my first use of one previously roasted and frozen). This was cooked and reduced. The cubed pumpkin (from Scarlett’s Halloween pumpkin) was mixed with the pork shoulder in a casserole dish. This was topped with the onion, tomato, salsa mixture and baked. We served it with tortillas. The result was great! The salsa gave the dish a smoky, spicy flavor and the pumpkin had a bright taste that very nice. John labeled this dish his “biggest positive surprise” so far. I guess that means he wasn’t expecting much. He really should have more faith in Rick.
As for the turnovers or empanadas, I generally shy away from recipes calling for things to be fried in an inch of oil, so if not for the project I probably never have made this one. That, and you need a tortilla press to flatten out the dough. If you’ve been reading, you know that I ordered a tortilla press way back at the beginning of the project and I felt that after a relatively long hiatus of Mexican cooking that this weekend was the perfect time to break it out. End the end, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the empanadas were to make. You roast the plantains and then scoop out the pulp and mix it with flour in the cuisinart. This makes a dough which gets rolled into balls and pressed flat with the tortilla press (which, by the way, works like a dream!). You scoop a little crumbled queso fresco onto the flat round circle of dough and then fold it over and pinch the edges to seal. It really worked well. The turnovers are then fried in oil and then served with salsa (Rick recommended the Tomatillo-Chipotle, so that’s what we did). They were fabulous! The dough had a nice texture and a delicious, slightly sweet flavor and the salsa provided a complementary tangy, smoky, spicy accompaniment. All in all it was a fantastic meal.

Next up for hopefully this evening is Smoky Shredded Pork Tacos (TEOCE3). And, since I’m not cooking for Thanksgiving I should be able to do more later this week. I may even make another trip into Pilsen for some supplies. Of course there is also Christmas shopping to do. I’ll let you know what wins out Oh, also, I’ll post a month 3 recap soon, dreary though it may be.

In the Mexican Kitchen again!

So everyone in the household is healthy! John and I are going to celebrate tonight with a meal of Ripe Plantain Turnovers with Fresh Cheese Filling and Smoky Braised Mexican Pumpkin with Seared White Onion which also happens to mark the last day of month 3 of the project. I’m already geared up for a quick start to month 4 as we’ll be having Smoky Shredded Pork Tacos in the next couple of days. I promise month 4 will kick month 3’s butt!

sickness, part deux

So it seems that Scarlett probably has h1n1. What does this have to do with my project, you may wonder? Well, it means that no Mexican cooking was done this weekend and there is nothing planned for at least a couple more days until she’s better. I’m hoping for a big finale to month 3 on Friday or Saturday. Regardless, this will not go down as one of the better months of the project. I’ll update when I have a plan.

48 recipes down, 107 to go

For lunch I made Spicy Tomato-Sauced Enchiladas with Jalapeños and Aged Cheese (TEOCE15)/Enjitomatadas with Essential Simmered Tomato-Jalapeño Sauce (EF1).
I wrote that last sentence two weeks ago. I actually had to go back and look at my calendar to see when it had been. It was such a nice day, that Friday. It was the day before Halloween and John took the day off to go to Jack and Scarlett’s school Halloween program which left me with a free morning to, what else, make a nice Mexican lunch for us! Since it’s been a couple of weeks, the details of the meal are a little fuzzy but I remember three things right off the bat: one was that I was nervous about cooking with jalapeños, worrying that the sauce would be too spicy, but decided, nevertheless, not to knock down the level too much, two that it was really good and not spicy at all. The next time I see Rick Bayless (and I hope to see him in December when John and I have reservations for Topolobampo!), how to determine how spicy fresh peppers are will be my first question. The third thing , being a linguist (but not knowing Spanish), I was left wondering how the word Enjitomatadas really could encompass all the meaning of the english title: Spicy Tomato-Sauced Enchiladas with Jalapeños and Aged Cheese. Any Spanish speakers out there? Anyway, back to the enchiladas. As the recipe reads the enchiladas are not filled with anything. They’re just dipped in the sauce and served with additional sauce and queso añejo (which really does taste similar to parmesan) on top. We had some leftover chicken so we added that. Rick does give another alternative, which is to stuff them with either ricotta or soft goat cheese. That would probably be really good too. This recipe was pretty easy and I would make it again.

Then I think it was the Monday after Halloween that I made Chilied Tortilla Soup with Shredded Chard (LHS1). I had made this once before, pre-project. Although I think when I made it before I used the more traditional variation without the chard and with avocado instead. This time I stuck to the recipe and I have to say that the chard in the soup was fantastic, not to mention that I can’t help but feel healthy when eating leafy greens like chard. I also love how the Chihuahua cheese melts. We didn’t use it all in the soup and it has been really good on my sandwiches in the Panini maker. The fried tortilla strips were also great and it was hard not to snack on too many of them while waiting to serve the soup. The only problem I have with this recipe the fried pasilla chile pieces. The recipe calls for dried pasilla chiles to be cut into small pieces and then fried in oil until crisp. Some of them are then rehydrated and puréed with the broth, roasted garlic and tomato (which really gives the broth a nice dark color; John thought I had used beef broth, not chicken), while the rest are sprinkled on the bowls of soup with the cheese and tortilla strips. My chile pieces didn’t taste good to me and I remember that feeling of not liking the chile strips from the last time I made this (the taste of them puréed in the broth didn’t bother me, though and John did like them and was happy to put all of them in his bowl. All in all, this recipe is great and I’ll be happy to make it again and perhaps do a smaller amount of pasilla chiles just for flavoring the broth.

It was just after this recipe that things got off track for me. I hosted my bookclub but all of the remaining appetizer recipes in the book were too complicated for me to do with the amount of time I had so I went in a non-Mexican direction. Then, both Scarlett and I got sick and I’m only now feeling better (although I still don’t have much of a voice). I’m hoping to get back on track this weekend. John has requested a bbq brisket for his birthday tomorrow so I’ll try to do a menu on Sunday.

sickness

So I’ve got a cold and which is getting worse after having gotten a little better. Plus last week Scarlett had an ear infection. I’ve made a couple more recipes but will post about them later in the week.

45 recipes down, 110 to go

We had our neighbors and their children over for dinner last Sunday and made a great Mexican meal! It was really nice to share this experience with others who are excited about the project. My friend Kristi even made Creamy Lime Pie (D10) from the book to complement the meal, but also to not make anything that I haven’t made yet (since I would probably be tempted to count it without actually cooking it). I made Oaxacan Black Bean Soup (LHS7) and Red Chile-Braised Chicken with Potatoes and Greens (MD1). I also made poached chicken for the kids who didn’t want Mexican food and Kristi brought pasta with parmesan and carrots. In all there were 5 kids, aged 3, 5, 6, 8, and 11. Only the 11 year old wanted to try the “adult” food but I’m happy to report that she liked everything. The other kids were happy with their selections and all enjoyed the pie
Let’s start with the soup. This recipe was both easy and fabulous!! It’s a definite keeper. Just simmer black beans with water, fennel (since I couldn’t find avocado leaves), chorizo (only 4 oz. for 6 servings so I would count this as a healthy dish too), and onion. Once the beans are fully cooked you purée the soup with an immersion blender (truly one of the best ever invented kitchen tools!) and season with salt adding more water to get the consistency that you want. The soup is served with fried tortilla strips and crumbled queso fresco. The soup had a great smooth texture with the wonderful earthy flavor of the black beans. I was also really surprised at how much flavor a relatively small amount of chorizo added. It added a nice meaty spice to the dish that was subtle but a wonderful contribution. The queso fresco and the crunchy fried tortilla strips provided a nice flavor and texture contrast.

You can also add optional shrimp which would be cooked in the soup at the end. I had, in fact, intended to do this but I shopped for the meal early in the week and thought I would go out the day of and get the shrimp. Of course when the day came I didn’t think about it until I didn’t really have time to run out again. But really, unless you’re doing the soup as a main course, I don’t think you need them. I do sense that I’ll be making this soup again so at some point I’ll have to go the shrimp route to see what that adds.
Next was the Red Chile-Braised Chicken. I have to say that I really like dishes that are prepared all in one pot. This is probably because complete meal planning has never been my forte. For most of my adult life I’ve thought that if I’ve remembered to take fish or chicken out of the freezer for dinner that I would be done. It’s only after that fish or chicken is ready to eat that usually John will say “So, what are we having with this?” So one-pot meals have always appealed to me in that the meat and the veggies are all taken care of in one dish. In my defense, I am starting to get better at meal planning. I made a pretty big leap in this area over lent when I gave up meat. I knew I had to plan more than one thing for each meal and that has carried over. That and we’re trying to eat less meat in general (reading Michael Pollen’s books have convinced me that for the most part the veggies should be the center with meat as a side complement) so I’m trying to make sure that we have good sides.
What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Red Chile-Braised Chicken. I had John quarter the whole chicken for me (he really is better at poultry deconstruction than I am) and the pieces were browned in oil and set aside. Then you make the flavor base which in this recipe was EF10 Essential Sweet-and-Spicy Ancho Seasoning Paste. I have made this once before with the simple red mole enchiladas. The paste is combined with broth to make a sauce and the chicken, potatoes, and greens (in our case, collards) are cooked in the sauce. This is then all served together. This, too, was excellent. The chicken was moist and the sauce had a very nice spicy, earthy, tangy flavor. I am also a fan of greens; I feel so healthy when I’m eating them. And when they’re smothered in a yummy sauce, so much the better My only complaint was that the potatoes were just slightly under cooked. Instead of halving them I would try quartering them the next time.

I’ll just make a couple of notes about the Creamy Lime Pie, made by Kristi. She made all of the substitutions of the more authentic ingredients: shortening instead of lard in the crust, all-purpose flour instead of masa harina and creme fraîche instead of Mexican crema. Here’s how I would rate the result. I think the crust made with lard was a little more flaky. The filling, however, tasted just as I had remembered mine tasting. That said, her pie didn’t firm up in the oven and after exceeding the cooking time waiting for it to firm up, we took it out (also, the crust was starting to get a little too brown). But by the time we cut it into pieces, though, it had firmed up and so was fine. There was also a little bit of a lag between preparing the filling and getting it into the oven, so maybe that had an effect. She made the filling at home and we cooked it chez moi so that it would be warm for serving (as recommended by Rick).

Month 2

What can I tell you about the second month of Susie’s MK Project? That I feel as though I’m much better at regulating the spice level of a dish using fresh peppers (as I look back it would appear that I haven’t used dried peppers at all in the last month); that my sweet tooth has been revealed in that more than a quarter of the recipes this month were desserts. What else? That I’m still cooking lots of Mexican food, albeit at a slower pace (in month 1 I did 30 recipes, and only 11 in month 2). In my defense, I think as a family we’ve been at the doctor for various appointments at least 10 times in the last month so my free time has been a little bit compromised. Plus, I think I heard John say at least a few times in response to what he wanted for dinner “Just nothing Mexican”. I guess we all have our limits. Anyway, on the the results; if I could make one meal from month 2’s recipes, this would be the menu:
Herby Ricotta-Poblano Tacos (with extra Tomatillo Green Guacamole to snack on before the meal)
Black Bean Rice
Tropical “Trifle” of Mango and Almonds

And the recipe that I would not repeat?
Classic Red Tomato Rice (at least not as the recipe is written; it was way too spicy)