It’s taken me a little while to write this entry on the food made for our Superbowl Party last Sunday, maybe because my Colts lost. I can’t really feel bad for the Saints and I was in the decided minority rooting for the Colts. About the only other person I could recruit to my side was my 3 year old daughter Scarlett. But even she insisted on using the golden cups and plates at the party so her allegiance was half-hearted at best. Jack, who rooted for the Colts in the playoffs, decided that it was okay to cheer for the Saints because he had already rooted for the Colts.
Anyway, on to the food. First, the Chorizo-Stuffed Ancho Chiles with Sweet-Sour Escabeche (SOS15). Let me just say right now that I feel like I’ve made all of the easier starters (which really consist only of the guacamoles) in the book and so against perhaps better judgement I decided to add this to our party menu. The recipe states that the escabeche and filling can be made ahead so I did this on Saturday. The escabeche is made by frying diced carrots in olive oil and then adding garlic, allspice, bay leaves, vinegar, water and piloncillo and cooking until the piloncillo dissolves. Finally you add thinly sliced red onion. This becomes both the marinating liquid for the dried anchos and the topping for the stuffed chiles.
The stuffing consists of chorizo and potatoes. The chorizo is cooked in a skillet and then the already boiled potatoes are fried in some of the chorizo oil and then combined with the cooked chorizo.
The issue with this appetizer is that for one, de-seeding the marinated chiles is messy and difficult. Imagine picking each and every of at least dozens of seeds per chile out of something that is coated with an oily mixture. Then, contrary to Rick’s suggestion that this is a perfect party dish, I quickly realized that the oily chiles would be difficult to eat unless seated with a knife and fork, and thus not the perfect party dish. I agree more with Rick’s assessment of the dish as being “stunning as a first course or light main dish” (108). So at the last minute I decided that I would not serve them at the party.
John and I did, however, have them, and they were amazing!! Both the chorizo-potato filling and the anchos themselves were good and spicy. But the spice was balanced with the sweet and tangy flavor of the escabeche. Also the crisp texture of the carrot and onion complemented the creaminess of the potato filling. All in all I would make this again for a sit down first course. One last note is that we had extra filling and it makes a wonder taco filling, especially with eggs for breakfast tacos!
What did get served as one of the main dishes at the party was Chicken Breasts in Nutty Queretaro Green Mole (CFF4). This dish is probably the one that we had made most often pre-project, so I was very familiar with making it. Of the moles in the book, it is one of the easier ones, and also relatively mild, making it a good choice for a crowd with perhaps variable spice tolerance. However, as I’ve come to learn, poblanos (the base pepper of this mole) are themselves variable in their spice level and so we’ve had this mole be more or less spicy. In this particular case, it ended up being less spicy.
Making up the complex flavor of this nutty green sauce is poblanos, tomatillos, plantain, romaine, golden raisins, almonds, sesame seeds, peanuts, corn tortilla, cinnamon, pepper, aniseed, cloves, parsley, garlic and chicken broth. More or less, this all gets ground up, strained and simmered. I did it myself in an afternoon a few days before the party. In the book version, boneless, skinless chicken breasts are baked in the sauce in the oven. That worked well and produced nice juicy meat. I’ve also in the past baked the meat separately, shredded it, and let people determine how much of the sauce they wanted. I served this with tortillas and Classic White Rice. I got nothing but complements about the sauce which as usual, was nutty, fruity, mildly spicy, in a word, good! I will note that I actually grinded whole aniseed this time (I usually use it already ground) and I noticed the anise flavor as being more pronounced than usual. Maybe I should try freshly grinding cinnamon next time. I know I will make this again (although probably not as often as I now have so many other good options to try again after the project is over)!
Finally, we made a double batch of the Topolo Margaritas (WAM2). It’s hard to believe that we waited so long to try another of the three margarita recipes but I guess that a Superbowl party was a good excuse to buy a new bottle of tequila. This recipe calls for Sauza Conmemorativo tequila. We actually made a batch on Friday night prior to the Superbowl and found that they were less strong tasting than the Frontera’s Gold Margarita with more lime flavor. We had no trouble polishing off 4 servings among the two of us. For the party we made a double batch it was quickly gone!
And now, after such a good start to Month 6, John has informed me that he needs a week off of Mexican cooking. So I may not make anything this weekend (we’ll see) and next Wednesday night we have our wine dinner at Frontera. Ideally, I’d like to make it to the half-way point before the end of Month 6. For that I need to make 5 more recipes.
