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.

88 recipes down, 67 to go

I really have made an effort since getting back from Florida to do some Mexican cooking.  I’ve just been slow to post.  So here it is. (Kind of a pathetic intro, I know, I just have this laryngitis turned into sinus cold that I can’t seem to shake.  It’s leaking into my writing).

On the Friday after returning from Florida (the 9th), I made Tomatillo-Braised Pork Country Ribs with Mexican Greens (MD30).  This had one of my favorite sauce bases: Essential Simmered Tomatillo-Serrano Sauce.  It was also a good one-pot meal with the meat, starch and veggies all together.  This iteration of the sauce was spicy, but good.  I also liked both the potatoes and the chard and overall I liked the dish too.  My only complaint was about the pork country ribs.  I just found them to be a little too fatty for my taste.  This is the same feeling that comes to me whenever I have short ribs.  The sauce is always good but the meat has too much fat.

I got right back to cooking on Sunday (the 11th), making both Grilled Steak with Spicy Guajillo Sauce (MD22) and Sonoran Fried Beans with Chorizo and Cheese (VBRED12).  I had some leftover Essential Simmered Guajillo Sauce in the freezer that I decided to use now that it was finally nice enough out to fire up the grill.  Because I already had the sauce, this recipe was very easy.  Just marinate the steaks with some of the sauce and some vinegar, grill and serve with some grilled red onion slices and additional sauce.

The steaks were good, although really not spicy.  My sauce had been in the freezer for awhile and so I’m sure that some of the flavor had been lost.  It was also interesting to see some visible pieces of chile in the sauce.  I immediately thought how much better it would be if I had redone it with my new blender.  The grilled onions were a really nice addition to the steaks and their sweetness really complemented the chile sauce.

Because the steaks were so easy, I figured I could knock out the final bean dish in the book.  These require a lot of unattended cooking so are easy if you’re going to be home.  After simmering the beans for a couple of hours, you fry up some chorizo, add that to the beans and then in the chorizo drippings, you fry some dried, ground chile (I used Penzey’s ancho).  The beans and chorizo are then added back to this and shredded Chihuahua cheese is added.  John really liked the beans; I thought they were ok.  The texture was good and I liked the cheese, but for me, I didn’t like the addition of the dried, ground ancho, which I thought had a slightly bitter taste.  Now that I’ve made all of the bean dishes, my favorite is still Classic Mexican Fried Beans.

Finally, last Friday (the 16th) I made Smoky Shredded Chicken and Potatoes with Roasted Tomatoes (MD5).  This was the best dish of the bunch!  It called for Essential Quick-Cooked Tomato-Chipotle Sauce which I decided to make with canned chipotle chiles en adobo.  This eliminates the frying and re-hydrating of the dried chipotles.  Plus, I still have a few frozen roasted tomatoes so the sauce was easy to put together.  Skinned chicken thighs are cooked in the sauce, removed and meat torn from the bones.  In another skillet grated potato and sliced onion are cooked in oil.  Then everything is combined: the chicken, sauce, potatoes and onion.  To serve the mixture is topped with queso fresco and avocado and served with tortillas.

I loved this dish!  The combination of flavors and textures was perfect.  You know when you make something and it’s so good that you look forward to lunch the next day when you can have the leftovers?  That’s how I felt about this dish.

Ok, you can now consider yourselves updated and I can stop feeling guilty about not posting.  I’ll soon move on to some guilt over not doing more cooking   See you at the Month 8 update.

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.