97 recipes down, 58 to go aka Susie’s MK Project travels to Texas!

This was one of my most favorite project experiences!!  John and I used to live in Austin when I was in graduate school (French Linguistics) and neither of us had been back since I defended my dissertation seven years ago.  It was in Texas that I first learned to like spice, being exposed to both great Tex-Mex food and also authentic Mexican food.  It was after enjoying the great food at Fonda San Miguel (if in Austin, I highly recommend their Sunday brunch) that I decided to purchase Mexican Kitchen for John for his birthday back in 1997.  One of the other great things about living in Austin for us was a group of wonderful friends (who were also all really good cooks) with whom we had formed a supper club.  There were four couples and we would meet once a month and each contribute a dish for a themed menu.  We did all sorts of things: French, Italian, Scandinavian, Mexican, Alsatian, Indian to name a few.

So for a great variety of reasons I was really looking forward to our vacation in Texas, but at the top of the list was cooking a Rick Bayless meal with my supper club friends (minus Linda and Noel who, sadly for us, couldn’t make it in from the Netherlands).

For the menu we decided on a casual Mexican brunch which would include two kinds of seviche and huevos Motuleños.  We were staying at the house of our friends, Stephanie and Greg, and together with John and myself, we did the bulk of the Mexican cooking.  Our friends Melissa and Joe came with beans for the huevos as well a fabulous (though not Mexican) dessert of mango fool with blackberries.

First up was Classic Seviche Tostadas (SOS4).  Now seviche is something that I’ve never made at home but I can assure you that I will be making it in the future.  The classic rendition was so easy and so very tasty!  It calls for very fresh fish (in our case tuna) to be diced and marinated in fresh-squeezed lime juice.  This is then drained and mixed with Essential Chopped Tomato-Serrano Salsa as well as a little olive oil, salt and sugar, and of course, a diced avocado, and served atop tortilla chips.  All agreed that it was fabulous!   Like many Bayless dishes it was light and fresh tasting with nice spice and texture.

Melissa about to enjoy her Classic Seviche Tostadas!

We also made Shrimp Seviche with Roasted Cactus (SOS6).  This recipe would mark my second experience with nopales or cactus paddles.  First, let me say, we were in Texas, so my friends, who did the shopping in advance of our arrival didn’t have to worry about whether or not their grocery store carried nopales, they simply snipped some off of a cactus plant in their neighbors back yard!  Secondly, if you will recall, when I used nopales the last time, in Guajillo-Sauced Shrimp with Quick-Fried Cactus, back in August (wow, has it really been that long ago!), I was turned off by the slimy consistency.  But Rick promised that if roasted, the excess ooze would cook off, and true to his word, it did.  What was left was a very pleasant tangy flavor, without the slime.  They were combined with shrimp, poached in water and lime juice, and then diced.  Also in the mix was diced fresh serrano, tomato, avocado, and cilantro.  This was all soaked in a dressing of lime juice, cider vinegar, thyme and oregano.  Again, this version of seviche was a big hit that everyone liked.  When pressed to choose, the majority gave a slight edge to the classic variety, but the margin was slim.

Greg, after enjoying his Seviche

Finally, we made Huevos Motuleños or Motul-Style Eggs with Roasted Tomato, Black Beans and Plantains (VBRED24).  I’ll borrow Rick’s description because it succinctly describes a somewhat complex dish: “They’re made from crispy tostadas topped with black beans and eggs sunny-side up, doused with robust roasted tomato sauce flamed with habanero chiles, then strewn with ham, peas, crumbled fresh cheese and slices of sweet fried plantain” (270).  For this recipe I give full credit to Greg for making a delicious iteration of Essential Simmered Tomato-Habanero Sauce, and also for frying the eggs!  Once all the ingredients were combined, the flavors and textures really did work wonderfully together making this a great dish.  I will say that to whip this up from scratch on a Sunday morning (as Rick suggests he enjoys doing) is no small task.  If I wanted to impress with a great brunch for guests, I would be sure to make the sauce, the beans, and the plantains ahead.  But it really was very good and I would like to make it again some day.

Table full of Huevos Motuleños

Stephanie enjoying her eggs!

Me enjoying my eggs!

So to wrap up, I have to send out a huge thank you to Stephanie, Greg, Melissa and Joe for helping me with my project and for making it so much fun!  Plus, vacation in this case, didn’t grind my project to a halt.  More of Month 10 to come soon.

94 recipes down, 61 to go

Back on May 23rd, we had my sister and brother-in-law and their family over for dinner and the menu was, what else, Mexican!  I decided on two different kinds of taco, or really one taco recipe and one veggie dish that served as a delicious taco filling.

First was Spicy Yucatecan Beef “Salad” Tacos TEOCE2.  As a bonus, this recipe called for a previously unmade Essential Flavor: Essential Chopped Tomato-Habanero Salsa EF4.  So, for one of the last times in the project I was able to cook two recipes and have it count as three!  The beef in these tacos was beef brisket that was browned and then steamed, and finally shredded.  The beef was stirred into the salsa which consisted of red onion, chopped tomatoes, diced radish, cilantro, minced habanero (we followed the recipe and used half of one habanero), and lime and orange juice (standing in for the unavailable sour orange juice).  This was a very fresh tasting salsa and definitely makes Rick’s title of the dish as “salad” tacos an apt one.  The habanero in this case was not really very spicy.  Overall, I liked these, but they weren’t great, especially in comparison with the next dish.

Next I made Roasted Mexican Vegetables in Green Sesame Pipián VBRED3.  Having just made, and loved, the Green Pipián for the salmon dish, we were anxious to have it again.  Plus, I always like a good vegetarian taco.  As a reminder, the Pipián is Essential Tomatillo-Serrano sauce with the addition of toasted sesame seeds, cilantro, ground aniseed (last time I used fennel fronds; both are substitutions for the elusive hoja santa), and chicken broth.  This all gets simmered together and then is puréed. This time the Pipián was the coating for roasted vegetables: potatoes, chayote, zucchini and chard.  There was supposed to be cactus too, but my Whole Foods (which usually does carry it) was out of them and I didn’t want to scrap the whole recipe.  Honestly, though the recipe was absolutely fantastic and you would never suspect that there was anything missing from the dish.  The vegetables has good roasted flavor, and the chayote retained some of its crispness lending a nice contrast of textures as well.  And as before, the Pipián  was creamy, spicy, nutty, tart, and if that doesn’t sound appetizing, trust me, it is!  It was amazing and will become something that we make again and again in our house (post-project, of course)!

Finally, just a couple of project notes.  I’ve been slacking in the posting department but I have still been cooking.  We were in TX for a week and my next post will include the details of a fabulous Mexican Brunch that some of my good friends and I made while there.  I also made some quesadillas this past weekend and have something in mind for this week.  I swear that you will know all about all of it by the end of the week.  I mean it!

10 recipes down, 145 to go

Yesterday I made MD11 Guajillo-Sauced Shrimp with Quick-Fried Cactus which involved first making EF12 Essential Simmered Guajillo Sauce. I also made a pilgrimage to Pilsen, the Mexican neighborhood in Chicago and did some shopping at la Casa del Pueblo and El Popocatepetl. I’ll talk about this trip tomorrow and focus on the meal for now.
Essential Simmered Guajillo Sauce involved stemming and seeding the dried guajillos before toasting and rehydrating them. Rick mentions that removing the veins will result in a less spicy sauce. I did that (thinking the sauce might therefore be more kid-friendly). The peppers are then puréed with roasted garlic, some herbs and chicken broth. This is then seared on the stove-top and finally more broth is added and it then simmers for about 45 minutes.
The result was a sauce that was not spicy at all and very subtle in flavor, which is a nice way of saying it was kind of bland. I also noticed the feel of the small pieces of pepper in my mouth and wondered if a blender might work better for puréeing than my Cuisinart. I was starting to have my doubts about this recipe.
Next, I tackled the nopales or cactus paddles. This was the first time I’ve ever cooked with cactus. Ok, they really are prickly!! I’m pretty conscientious and was carefully following Rick’s instructions to trim the edges and then slice or scrape off the spiny nodes. The problem was that the prickles that I had trimmed would then cling back to the nopale when I set it back down on my cutting board to cut the nodes off on the other side. Then I would pick it up and get a prickle in my hand. Ouch! Luckily this only happened two or three times. Once they were de-noded, I chopped them in pieces. While chopping I noticed a viscous liquid emanating from the cactus (more on that later).
John peeled and de-veined the shrimp (yay John!!) and the dish was ready to come together. The cactus was stir-fried with some thin guajillo strips and lime juice. Then the shrimp were cooked in the skillet. Finally, you add the guajillo sauce and a puréed roasted tomato and cook for a couple of minutes. Then it all gets mixed together.
It’s supposed to be served just as is, but Rick says that as a variation you can use it as a taco filling. Since I had just been to the tortillaria, we made tacos. We also served it with potatoes, also per Rick’s recommendation.

Overall this dish was really good. The addition of the tomato to the chile sauce really livened it up for me. It was still subtle though, allowing the flavors of shrimp and cactus to come through. John loved the cactus and said that this was his favorite dish so far. I was a little bothered by the slimy (or as Rick says, “mucilagenous”) texture of the cactus. I guess it’s a similar texture to okra for those of you who’ve had that. I then looked up some of the other cactus recipes that are in the book and in most cases Rick calls for roasting which apparently eliminates this texture as all the liquid evaporates. We’ll see.
I’ll tell you about my trip to Pilsen tomorrow and this week I’m scheduled to make VBRED1 Seared Zucchini with Roasted Tomato, Chipotle and Chorizo, MD29 Chile-Glazed Country Ribs and D1 Modern Mexican Chocolate Flan with Kahlúa (I can’t really believe I’ve held out so long before making a dessert).

update:  Jack tried the shrimp with cactus and said it was good.  Well, actually he said the shrimp and the sauce were good.  When I asked him if he liked the cactus, he said: “I don’t know”.  So I asked him if he would eat the cactus again and he said yes.