64 recipes down, 91 to go

On Monday evening, although still not feeling well from a cold, I made a Mexican meal of Chile-Glazed Sweet Potatoes with Cinnamon and Orange (VBRED5) and Red Chile Rice (VBRED16).  I made these two together partly because either dish by itself would not make a meal, but mainly because they used the same base of Essential Sweet and Spicy Ancho Seasoning Paste (EF10) and I could kill two recipes with one flavor prep.

This is now the fourth time making this seasoning paste and it’s pretty easy: roast garlic and dried chiles, soak chiles, process garlic and chiles with spices and some broth in Cuisinart, pass mixture through a strainer, and voilà.

For the Sweet Potatoes, the paste gets mixed with orange zest, orange juice, and honey.  This is slathered onto slices of sweet potato and baked.  For the rice, the paste gets mixed in with the broth in which the rice (and onions, of course) are cooked.

All in all this was fairly easy to put together and made a good meal.  The paste gave both dishes a decent level of spice.  I’m not one for adding sweet to my sweet potatoes (I like them mainly roasted with salt and olive oil); I would never serve sweet potatoes with marshmallows.  I mean they are called sweet potatoes for a reason, there’s no need to make them sweeter.  That said, the addition of the honey and orange flavors to the sweet potatoes were nice.  The sweet was certainly adequately balanced by the spice in the seasoning paste.  The rice, as always, had a nice texture and the the seasoning paste gave it a definite kick.  I served this with tortillas and used a little sour cream for garnish.  We had it leftover with a little cooked chicken, and that was good too.  If I hadn’t been doing the project, I probably would have done this with Classic White Rice.  But the double dose of ancho seasoning paste wasn’t a bad thing in the end.

If you’re keeping track you’ll know that today is the final day of Month 5.  I’m hoping to fit in one Spicy Plantain Pie to put me into double digits, thus rounding off the month nicely.  Stay tuned.

61 recipes down, 94 to go

I’m really trying to keep up a better pace of cooking this month, so despite not cooking over the weekend, I got started early in the week with a relatively easy rice casserole for this past Monday evening.  I made Achiote Rice Supper with Pork Carnitas (VBRED19).

In this recipe the cubed pork shoulder is boiled in salted water and lime juice until the water evaporates.  You then continue cooking the pork until it browns.  This yields very tender and moist meat which is then cooked with the rice and some veggies (anaheim chile, peas, carrots, and onion) in a broth seasoned with Essential Garlicky Achiote Seasoning Paste (EF14).

I’ll make a note about the anaheim chile.  This was the first time I’ve used this kind of chile so I wasn’t sure how spicy it would be.  In this recipe it was roasted, peeled, seeded and chopped.  It turned out to be not spicy at all.

What about the final product?  It was a great weeknight meal!  As you know, I’m a big fan of one-pot meals in general and this one was no exception.  The flavor was good but not really what I think of as traditionally Mexican.  There was a distinct spice from the ground pepper in the seasoning paste and I could also detect the flavor of the ground allspice (I did actually buy whole allspice and ground them in with my mortar and pestle).  As I said, the pork was nice and tender and the combo of the peas, carrots and rice gave it a nice comfort food feel.

I’m slated to make a sweet potato dish soon, maybe tonight?  Then hopefully something Sunday or Monday (since we all have a three day weekend for MLK day).

p.s. I just started reading The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver which is at least partially set in Mexico.  The book has many cooking references in it, all of which so far I’ve been able to decipher due to my work on this project.  Thanks Mom!

60 recipes down, 95 to go

What better way to ring in the New Year than with a choice selection from the Classic Fiesta Food chapter!  Rick says that he looks forward to the recipes in this chapter more than any other ones in the book (275).  We chose to make Braised Turkey in Teloloapan Red Mole (CFF1).  Here is an excerpt from Rick’s description of the recipe: “This is cooking for people who love to cook and who love to share their creations with enthusiastic eaters.  It’s cooking that takes up the greater part of a day (or parts of several days) — definitely special-occasion fare” (277).  I heartily concur with Rick’s assessment.  We had almost all of that.  We love to cook and share our creations.  On this particular day we had last minute visitors to our table: John’s parents.  While they are enthusiastic eaters, my sense is that the result was a little spicy for their taste.  They were however fans of the Classic White Rice that was served as an accompaniment so they were happy with mainly turkey and rice with just a small amount of mole.  And, the recipe really did take the greater part of the day to prepare.

I guess it goes without saying that any recipe with 28 ingredients is going to take some effort to put together.  And even by the standards of some of the other mole recipes (that I’ve made pre-project), this one is complex.  This was not, however, the first time that I’d made this recipe, just the first time for the project.  There are some ingredients that make you wonder what they’re doing in the recipe (grated avocado pit comes to mind).  There was also a lot of frying of ingredients in lard: dried chiles, nuts, raisins, bread, etc.  Two separate purées were made, a chile purée and a seed purée.

chile purée

seed purée

These are ultimately cooked and combined along with broth and Mexican chocolate to make the mole.  Then the turkey breast (which has previously been browned) is braised in the mole.

This recipe is far too detailed to go over each step (this is a blog, not a book).  That said, I will make one aside to talk about the frying of the dried chiles (ancho and guajillo) in the lard.  As I said, I’ve made this before and I remember the chiles frying too quickly and getting a bitter smell to them and thus to the soaking liquid as well.  I remembered  from making the Plantain Turnovers that the oil should not be as hot as you might think, so I erred on the side of keeping the oil cooler so as not to overcook the chiles.  This seemed to work as my soaking liquid was not bitter at all and was able to be used in the chile purée.

Now for the results.  The mole was everything that Mexican food should be: sweet, spicy, complex, fantastic!  Also, the turkey breast was cooked to perfection.  This is one of those sauces that you taste and first you sense the sweetness of the sugar and the chocolate.  Then, a couple of seconds later the spice coats your mouth.  It really was quite spicy but you could adjust the ratio of sauce to turkey and rice to find a good balance for any palate.  We had made this mole before and I’m sure we’ll make it again.  One more great thing about this recipe is that it really makes more sauce than you need and so there was plenty not only for all of the leftover turkey but also a sizable amount to freeze.  And what’s so great about freezing the sauce is that you can then in the future whip up a fantastic meal with little effort.  This really was the perfect way to ring in 2010 and I look forward to a lot more Mexican cooking in the months ahead

Month 4

So what can I tell you about Month 4 in Susie’s Mexican Cooking Project? Well, apparently preparing for Christmas (including a cross-country driving trip) has about that same effect on my ability to cook as a month’s worth of illness (see Month 3). It is, in fact, apparently worse. I managed only 6 new recipes. However, like the recipes from Month 3, these were all good. Plus, let’s not forget that I got to enjoy a wonderful meal at Topolobampo where I realized that a lot of what I cook is as good as what I can get at Rick’s restaurants – a triumph in and of itself. As for the best meal of the month? This was hard and honestly a toss up. I will probably make all of these recipes again. But being pressed to choose, I choose:
Oval Masa Cakes with Black Bean Filling
Smoky Shredded Pork Tacos
Green Poblano Rice
And in case you haven’t looked at the calendar, Month 5 is already underway. Not only did I cook for my family over Christmas (a meal to be detailed soon), I have convinced John that Braised Turkey with Red Mole is a good idea for New Year’s Day. As always, stay tuned!

56 recipes down, 99 to go

Woohoo! I finally have fewer than 100 recipes to go! And what a great recipe to have helped me past this threshold. Since we were traveling for Christmas and getting ready for that I knew that for this last mid-week recipe I couldn’t pick anything too involved. I came up with Tomato-Rice Casserole with Poblanos and Melted Cheese (VBRED20), which has as its base Essential Roasted Poblano Rajas.

Let’s start with the rajas, which (after my initial disappointment with what turned out to be inordinately spicy poblanos in the Roasted Tomato Soup) is fast becoming one of my favorite bases. For me the key to this base is slicing both the onions and the roasted poblanos a little more thinly than what Rick suggests. He says 1/4 inch; I say slice them as thinly as you can.
The rajas is then cooked with the roasted tomatoes. I am using tomatoes that I roasted and froze at the end of the summer. And what a brilliant idea that was! It requires just a little bit of effort when the tomatoes are abundant and then it’s so easy to just pop what you need out of the freezer and that’s one less dirty pan for each recipe calling for roasted tomatoes.
To assemble the casserole you layer cooked rice, the rajas-tomato mixture and Chihuahua cheese. We took Rick’s suggestion and added the optional layer of shredded grilled skirt steak which I cooked on our stove-top griddle.
The result was excellent! The rajas mixture gives the whole dish a really pleasant but mild spice. The rice lends a nice texture and I love the chihuahua cheese. I don’t even mind having to buy a pound of it (the only increment in which it is sold at Whole Foods) because the kids like to eat it too. Adding the steak definitely made it a one dish meal. I will happily make this again once the project is over.

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.

17 recipes down, 138 to go

Tonight I made Menu 42 (also VBRED21) Mexican Rice Supper with Chorizo, Zucchini and Corn. This recipe uses EF3 Essential Chopped Tomato-Serrano Salsa as its base. This was a quick meal that is perfect for a weeknight. I easily made it with minimal flack from the kids. Of course, it was a plus that my large zucchini provided enough extra so that both Jack and Scarlett had something to chop that didn’t have to go in the recipe. It’s also the perfect meal to make with all that in season stuff from the farmers’ market.
The salsa was just chopped tomato, onion, serrano chile, garlic and cilantro. For the recipe, first you cook and set aside the chorizo, then cook the rice, add the salsa, add some broth, and finally add the corn, zucchini and cooked chorizo. And it’s done!
This dish was simple and good. The serranos gave a nice even spice that wasn’t overly strong. The chorizo had a tangy flavor and contrasted nicely with the crispness of the fresh corn and zucchini.

The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have followed Rick’s suggestion in the intro to the recipe to serve it with some warm tortillas. Maybe next time. It’s been a nice, relatively quiet week in the kitchen. Tomorrow I’ll do next week’s menu planning and see if I can find myself some puffed amaranth.