Month 9 aka 91 recipes down, 64 to go

Month 9 clearly marks a low point for Susie’s MK Project.  I have been lazy about updating and clearly, lazy too about cooking.  I could give all the usual excuses about how busy I’ve been (I really have been busy!), but this refrain is getting a bit tired, isn’t it?  So I’m just going to recap the 3 lonely recipes that I made this month and try to move on as best I can for Month 10.

Back on May 4th I made Crusty Lentil Cakes with Garlic and Herbs VBRED7.  These were cooked lentils mixed with sautéed onion, roasted garlic, parmesan cheese (my local market doesn’t carry queso añejo), and cilantro.  This mixture is formed into cakes which are dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and then fried in oil and served with a roasted tomato-jalepeño salsa (I used Rick’s store-bought variety).  This was a good meal but lentils aren’t my favorite and the multi-step prep will probably keep me from making this again.  If you like lentils, I would definitely recommend it.

The next day was Cinco de Mayo and so I couldn’t not cook Mexican then!  So I made Seared Skirt Steak with Chipotle and Garlic MD23.  This is seared skirt steak with a roasted tomatillo-chipotle salsa with a healthy dose of garlic added in.  I remember this being good but honestly, the details are a little fuzzy for me.  I guess that’s what I get for waiting so long to write about it.

Finally, my mom was in town for a visit and I decided to try Pan-Roasted Salmon in Aromatic Green Pipián MD17 for her.  It was a huge success and the highlight of the month!  The star of this dish was the Pipián which is Essential Tomatillo-Serrano sauce with the addition of toasted sesame seeds, cilantro, fennel fronds (I remain unable to find hoja santa), and chicken broth.  This all gets simmered together and then is puréed.  A piece of roasted salmon is served atop the sauce.  All agreed that this was fantastic (creamy, tangy, spicy, wonderful) and I will certainly be making this again.

So the winner of Month 9 is clearly Pan-Roasted Salmon in Aromatic Green Pipián MD17.

59 recipes down, 96 to go

I wasn’t going to let being at my mom’s for Christmas stop me from making progress on my project so I used our trip to CT as an opportunity to do some of the seafood selections from the book. It was also a second chance for me to cook something for my mom that she would like (she hadn’t really been wild about the Chicken with Pueblan Green Pumpkin Seed Sauce) and a first opportunity for me to cook for my brother and sister-in-law.
So here was the menu: Tomatillo-Greeen Guacamole (SOS2), Spicy Chile-Baked Oysters (SOS7), Tangy Tomatillo-Sauced Fish Enchiladas (TEOCE14), and Frontera Grill’s Chocolate Pecan Pie (D8). I had already made the Guacamole but my sister-in-law is a big avocado fan and it used the same base as the fish dish (or so I thought, more on that later) so I figured it was worth repeating.
The first order of business was to go grocery shopping. The only really Mexican ingredients that I needed were tomatillos, serranos and dried anchos. I didn’t think that it would be a problem. Well, let’s just say that I’m glad that I’m not doing this project in CT. Apparently serrano peppers are a summer only item. I went both to the large Stop and Shop (the one actually in Hartford) and to Whole Foods. I was shocked to not only not find serranos, but to not find dried anchos either! I was sure to tell the staff at the West Hartford Whole Foods that those items were always available in the Chicago area Whole Foods. Not that they probably cared. So I decided to substitute a combination of poblanos and jalapeños. Then I went to Penzey’s for the dried anchos. Last I went to a local fish market (Tinker’s) for the oysters and the fish (sea bass) for the enchiladas. I paid an extra 25 cents per oyster to have them shucked for me. I’m sure it was money well spent as I have a very vivid and not positive memory of trying to shuck clams one year while on vacation in Rhode Island so I was happy to not have to tackle that.
Then it was home to make the pie crust and the sauce for the enchiladas. The pie crust, much like the one I made for Creamy Lime Pie (although this time I didn’t have lard), did not roll out and had to be pieced together in the pie dish. I did this first as it needed to be chilled, rolled out, chilled, and baked all before the filling. Not hard, just a little time consuming.
Now when I first read the recipes for the guacamole and the enchiladas I thought they called for the same base. It wasn’t until I was mid-way through making it that I realized that the base for the enchiladas, Essential Simmered Tomatillo-Serrano Sauce (EF7) was actually not the same as the base for the guacamole, Essential Roasted Tomatillo-Serrano Salsa (EF8). Oops! So I ended up improvising. For the Sauce the puréed roasted tomatillos are then cooked with onions and garlic. For the salsa the roasted garlic gets puréed with the tomatillos. So the long and the short of it is that my salsa for the guacamole lacked roasted garlic. I wish I could say that it didn’t suffer, but honestly, it did. Also, the poblano-jalapeño mixture had a subtle spice but most in our group would have preferred the guacamole to be a little more zesty. We ended up adding some cayenne which helped. It was still really good; just not as good as the first time I had made it (properly).
Now here’s where things got a little bit interesting. Around 4:30 as I was ready to bake the pie and get the oysters going Scarlett became sick with a rather unpleasant stomach bug. I won’t go into unneeded detail, but between the cleaning, laundry and bathing that became necessary, and someone sitting with her at all times with a bowl, our schedule got a little bit off. It was decided that we would have the guacamole, oysters and pie that evening and we would save the enchiladas for the following day for lunch. We also ended up with a pizza from Harry’s (our favorite in West Hartford).
So on to the oysters. The sauce for these was Essential Sweet-and-Spicy Ancho Seasoning Paste (EF10). This along with onions and 2 canned chipotle chiles en adobo (which provided a considerable amount of kick), were fried and then made into a sauce with broth and lime juice. This sauce was then combined with the juices from the oysters and drizzled over the oysters in their open shells and baked. They were served with lime wedges. All agreed that these were fantastic! Poor John had to eat his by himself at Scarlett’s bedside. The sauce was very spicy but went well with the oysters which themselves were quite good. And I was glad that I didn’t have to try to find fresh oysters in Chicago. That all said, this is probably not something I would make again. I’m a believer that some foods are just better left to restaurants and oysters are one of those for me. It was a lot of work for just a small appetizer.

Next was the pie. Unfortunately the amount of filling was a little bit too much for the pie pan. I could very easily have rectified this problem by just not using all of it. But no, for some reason, I felt the need to put as much filling as possible in the pie dish. This led to a couple of problems. One, it overflowed in the oven creating a not insignificant amount of smoke whenever the oven door was opened. Then the upper outside of the pie got a little too done. What can I say? I just hated to waste what I guessed would be yummy pie goodness but I ended up lessening the quality of the whole dish. The pie, however, was good. It was very rich making me realize all the more that a little less filling would have been just fine. It was served with whipped cream spiked with kahlúa. And this provided what was surely the funniest moment of the day. So my mom had a bottle of kahlúa and I didn’t bother to look at it until it was time to use it. The price tag was from the liquor store 21st Amendment, an Indianapolis chain. My mom hasn’t lived in Indianapolis since 1996 and this bottle was almost assuredly considerably older than that. So this revelation led us to question whether or not the kahlúa was good or not. I will only say that we did use it and that the information provided at the following link: http://www.drunkbastard.net/wetbar.htm had us all in hysterics.

The next day I made the enchiladas, which were easy to put together since the sauce was already made. To make the filling for the enchiladas you poach the fish in salted water and once it’s done you cook diced potatoes in the poaching liquid. The fish and potatoes are combined with a little bit of the sauce. This is the filling for the tortillas and then more sauce is spooned on top. These were a big hit. Everyone loved them, including my mom! I stand by my statement that the tomatillo-serrano (or even my improvisational tomatillo-poblano-jalapeño) combination is a winner. It went really well with the fish and potatoes. This was a nice, light, healthy entrée and a wonderful ending to a visit with family.

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.

34 recipes down, 121 to go

Ok, I can admit it.  I have been a blog slacker for the past week.  I knew this would happen at some point and so here is me just trying to get back in the swing of things.  I actually did quite a bit of Mexican cooking last week; I just didn’t get a chance to update.  This week I’ve done nothing Mexican (although I did make Boeuf Bourguignon and Caramel Coated Pumpkin Flan).

So last Wednesday I made Classic Red Tomato Rice (VBRED15) to which I added sautéed shrimp to make it a little more hearty for dinner.   This recipe has as its base Essential Roasted Tomato-Jalapeño Salsa (EF2).  I’ve actually made the variation of this recipe, Classic White Rice, at least a dozen times as that has always been our standard rice to serve with Mexican cuisine.  Can I just say that I completely underestimated the spiciness of the jalapeños?  In this recipe they were roasted on a griddle and mixed together with roasted tomatoes and garlic, some onion and cilantro.  The salsa is then cooked together with rice and chicken broth.  The texture of the rice was perfect, almost creamy, and cooking rice in chicken broth is definitely the way to go for great flavor.  I also really liked the bits of tomato in the rice.  But, seriously, this was way spicier than I thought it was going to be and maybe it was just that night, but I wasn’t ready for it.  In the Classic White version you omit the salsa and just add extra onion.  I will probably go this route in the future.

So let’s move on to the guacamole (SOS1).  I made this for a pot luck social at Jack and Scarlett’s preschool, so I wanted to be extra sure that it wasn’t too spicy.  This recipe uses Essential Chopped Tomato-Serrano Salsa (EF3) as its base.  I had already made this salsa once before for the Mexican rice supper so I knew it had a zing to it.  What I decided to do was to de-seed the peppers, hoping that that would minimize the spice.  Well, not only did it minimize the spice, it practically eliminated it.  So the lesson here for me is maybe next time de-seed half the peppers and see what happens.  Other than that it was great and gone by the time pot luck was over.  Also, I was in such a rush to get the kids to the event that I forgot to take a picture.

So the last recipe I made last week was Roasted Tomato Soup with Poblanos, Oregano and Fresh Cheese (LHS4).  This recipe calls for beef broth and specifically says to avoid canned broth so I decided to make Rick’s recipe which is a variation on the Chicken Broth.  That was easy and I did that a couple of days ahead.  Then for the soup you make Essential Roasted Poblano Rajas with Seared White Onions and Herbs (EF14) and mix that with a lot of roasted tomatoes and the broth.  The soup is then topped with cubes of queso fresco.  This was good and had a nice complex spicy tomato flavor.  The cubes of cheese were a good complement to the spice of the soup.  Ok, and here comes some more evidence of my slackertude, we were half way through our bowls of soup and John says, “Did you take a picture?”  And the answer is: of course not.  Well, I wasn’t going to take a pic of half eaten soup so I said I’d get it when we had leftovers.  Well, John had the leftover while I was at bookclub and he didn’t take a picture.  I do have some in the freezer so I’ll try to remember to take a picture when we eat it again.  As for the soup , it was actually very spicy and that was a surprise to me because I think of poblanos as being more on the mild side.  I was thinking that Jack would be able to eat the soup, but the spice was too strong.

So frankly, I’m starting to become a little frustrated at my inability to predict the spiciness of something.  This seems to really be more of a problem with recipes that call for fresh peppers.    The rice was too spicy, then the guacamole wasn’t spicy enough.  I thought for sure the soup would be perfect because other recipes with fresh poblanos (like the squash blossom soup and the huitlacoche tacos) have not been spicy, but alas, I was wrong.  Maybe I just got a batch of really spicy poblanos this time (or mild ones previously).  I’m sure I’ll have plenty of opportunities to try to figure this out.