Crunchy Amaranth Tart

For dessert on Thursday we had D9 Crunchy Amaranth Tart. As I’ve mentioned, getting the puffed amaranth for the tarts was somewhat of a challenge. It’s not hard to find amaranth in grain form, but unable to locate the puffed variety, I was left needing to order it online from Nu-World Amaranth, located in Naperville, IL. When it arrived, I found that, indeed, the grains were like pieces of micro-popcorn. They had a not altogether pleasant nutty aroma that came off as stale-smelling. Luckily the recipe calls for coating them in a melted mixture of piloncillo (a mexican hard cone of brown sugar), honey, lime juice and water. The mixture is pressed into ramekins to mold it into little tart shells (though mine came out more puck-like in shape). These shells serve as a platter for ice cream (in our case caramel or vanilla) and fruit (strawberries or papaya) which is dusted with grated Mexican chocolate.

All in all these were very good. In fact, John felt that they were the best dessert so far (I’d have to give that honor to the flan). They’re great to serve to company because the shells can be made ahead of time and the presentation is very nice.
As I mentioned yesterday, last night we dined on huitlacoche (among other things) and I will tell you about that tomorrow. Also, Tuesday marks the end of the 1st month of the project so I will be recapping with our favorite and least favorite dishes then.

22 recipes down, 133 to go

How many recipes I actually made: 7. How many new recipes I made: 5. When we were planning to eat this meal: Friday night. What we ended up eating Friday night: leftover Mexican rice supper. What got added to the menu because of the delay: a reprise of Frontera’s Gold Margaritas. When we did get to eat the meal: last night. Verdict on whether it was worth the wait: definitely!
Ok, so seriously, here is what we made (I had a lot of help from John this time; especially on the mole and the margaritas): VBRED9 Classic Mexican “Pot” Beans, VBRED10 Classic Mexican Fried Beans with Onion and Garlic, TEOCE17 Poached Chicken (here’s repeat number 1), EF10 Essential Sweet-and-Spicy Ancho Seasoning Paste, TEOCE16 Simple Red Mole Enchiladas with Shredded Chicken, D10 Creamy Lime Pie, and WAM1 Frontera’s Gold Margaritas. I guess it was sort of silly to think that we could make the mole and eat it in one evening. Unlike Julie Powell, I’m not a big fan of dinner at 11pm.
The beans were both easier than they seem (VBRED9 was the base of VBRED10) and delicious. I used pintos, per Rick’s suggestion of what would go well with the mole. Most of the time is spent letting the beans simmer in water, onion, and here’s the key, bacon fat (which I had saved from making last weekend’s BLT sandwiches). Then you fry up more onion, garlic and then add and mash the beans to make the final product which as I said were wonderful. They were almost sweet and the perfect palate cleanser for the spice of the mole.
When Rick titles this mole Simple, it is perhaps a tad misleading. Ok, let’s not sugarcoat it. This recipe is not simple. There are 20 ingredients including two other recipes (EF10, which involves the usual toasting and rehydrating of dried chiles among other things, and poached chicken, which involves, well, poaching a chicken), as well as bread, raisins, Mexican chocolate, onion, tomato, etc. There is also a considerable amount of simmering, which was really the downfall of our Friday night meal. All that said, it really is not difficult to make, just a little time-consuming. If you’ve mastered reading and following instructions, I’m sure you can make it too, and you should, because it’s really good. And when I say good, I actually mean fantastic, and spicy, sweet, rich, and complex. The moles are really the best recipes and the primary reason I bought Mexican Kitchen in the first place.

The pie was also pretty easy to make although the crust was a bit of a challenge. Although, it’s possible that the problem lies elsewhere. Let’s just say that pie crust and I aren’t fast friends. Don’t get me wrong, I can make pie. In fact, I love baking in all its forms, I just can’t seem to make pretty pies. Rarely, do my crusts not crumble into pieces, having to be re-formed like a puzzle into the pan. When a recipe calls for a lattice-crust, I just mentally plan for a solid top crust. I’ve come to understand my limitations and accept them. I really should take a pie class some time. So when Rick describes transferring the rolled dough as follows: “I find it easiest to roll the dough onto the rolling pin, then unroll it onto the pie pan”, I was skeptical. As I should have been. No lightly floured surface was going to prevent this crust from sticking. Also, the amount of dough was not exactly generous. Certainly there was not enough for the purported 12-inch circle, which, according to the recipe, I should have been able to decoratively crimp. Oh well, in the end, it was fine. Actually, it was more than fine, the crust was delicious! And so I accept that it was not beautiful. As for the filling, living up to its name, it was creamy at first taste, and then tart. One more thing about the pie. I was supposed to dribble Crimson Prickly Pear Sauce (aka D11) around the slices of pie. However, the amount of prickly pears that I would have needed for the recipe would have been about $16 at Whole Foods, so I decided to save making the sauce until I return to La Casa del Pueblo.

One more note for this week’s houseguests, in case you’re reading, I’m planning Menu 21 (Rustic Jícama Appetizer with Red Chile and Lime and Achiote-Roasted Pork Tacos with Pickled Red Onions) for Thursday evening with the addition of D9 Crunchy Amaranth Tart, if my amaranth arrives in time. So for those of you following, that means that I have been unable to find puffed amaranth in the store and so had to pay a ridiculous $8.72 to have it shipped the less than 10 miles to my house.

15 recipes down, 140 to go

Today was a busy shopping and cooking day, but I also have quite a bit to show for it. I started the day at our local farmers’ market and finally found squash blossoms for sale! Not only that, but they were evidently pretty reasonably priced too. Rick describes paying 50 cents per blossom in Chicago and I got 15 for $3. They only had about half the amount I needed for LHS11 Golden Squash Blossom Crema but decided not to chance being able to find the right amount later so I decided to just half the soup.
After a quick detour for a pancake breakfast out with the fam, the next stop was Whole Foods. There I found everything else I needed to make soup as well as what I needed for tonight’s CFF7 Spicy Mushroom Tamales and for VBRED21 Mexican Rice Supper with Chorizo, Zucchini and Corn (which will appear later in the week). What I couldn’t find, however, was the puffed amaranth (amaranth is a grain, btw) for the dessert I had hoped to make, D9 Crunchy Amaranth Tart. I have one more store to check tomorrow and if I can’t find it there I’ll probably order it online. The silly thing about it is that the company that makes it is in Naperville (in other words, less than 10 miles from my house) . I mean, honestly, if they can’t even get the local Whole Foods to carry it, it probably doesn’t matter how protein-rich it apparently is.
Anyway, despite the big pancake breakfast, I decided to make the squash blossom soup for lunch, which ended up being fantastic! Let’s talk about working with the blossoms. This was a first for me and as thorough as Rick’s instructions were, either I totally missed something or my blossoms were all female because I found no long pistils in the center of my blossoms. Also, the “bulbous base” within some of the blossoms was less than fresh looking, so I discarded some of those. Am I still talking about cooking here? On the other hand, they really were very pretty and made such nice color in the soup. I felt like I was making something fancy. Or maybe it’s just the delusional effect of reading Fancy Nancy too many times to Scarlett.

do you see a pistil?

The only other thing I’ll say about making the recipe is that the amount of broth called for seems to be too little. My soup ended up being quite chunky, which thanks to the fact that this is one of the few recipes in the book for which there is a color photo of the finished product, I knew was not correct. I ended up adding some more broth at the end which helped it look a little more soupy. The soup really was amazing. I hardly think I could better describe how it tastes, so just for once, I’ll just relay Rick’s words: “The blossoms offer leafy green flavors, a hint of yellow squash, a light herbal aroma. The little bit of potato blends in body, the dice of poblano adds smoky spice, the corn and zucchini underscore the just-picked blush and a light creaminess hums elegantly through each bite”(138). It really did all that.
I’ll talk about tamales tomorrow.