recipe Archives - Page 5 of 30

recipe

The fruit-laden surprise of manchamanteles

Posted on January 23, 2021January 22, 2021 by Pat and David

We've always thought that part of the appeal of mole poblano to American palates is the sweetness imparted by Mexican chocolate in the sauce. By that standard, manchamanteles should be an even bigger hit. This bright sauce always features chunks of pineapple and fried plantains. We've been curious to try making it since first tasting it in a restaurant years ago. Adapted from recipes by Rick Bayless, Zarela Martinez, and Diana Kennedy, this variant also adds sweet potato pieces to the stew. Some cooks make this classic Oaxacan mole with a dizzying array of chiles and dried fruits. We've opted for a streamlined version of this labor-intensive recipe. In the interest of simplicity, we've specified lard as the cooking fat. Vegetable shortening is a perfectly...Read More

Mole negro with sweet potato and feta salad

Posted on January 17, 2021January 16, 2021 by Pat and David

Fans of Mexican cuisine dream about this mole. It's practically the national food of the region of Oaxaca. If you go to the fresh market in Oaxaca city, you can select all your ingredients and have the market miller grind them together for you into a paste. (The miller will use toasted cacao seeds, sugar, and almonds rather than pre-made chocolate tablets.) Admittedly, the market approach has a few disadvantages. You don't get the rounded flavor that comes from roasting the seeds, nuts, and spices. This recipe gives you full control, but it takes most of a day to make. We often double the recipe and pressure-can the leftovers in 12-ounce canning jars. That way we can enjoy mole negro at will. If you're a...Read More

Delicious pumpkin seed mole tops salmon steak

Posted on January 9, 2021January 8, 2021 by Pat and David

Also known as pepían or mole verde, this sauce starts off bright green but mellows to a less neon hue as it cooks. Whereas most moles are thickened with sesame seeds or almonds, this one—as the name suggests—is thickened with a paste of toasted, ground pumpkin seeds. Everything dark in most moles is light and green in this one. Green pumpkin seeds combine with fresh green chiles, fresh green herbs, and fresh green vegetables for an appealingly bright flavor that's welcome in the winter months. Pumpkin seeds—pepitas in Spanish—are widely sold roasted and salted as snack food. But raw seeds are key to getting the right flavor for this sauce. If you can't find them locally, order from Nuts.com. Many traditional Oaxacan recipes call for...Read More

Mole coloradito brightens any early winter meal

Posted on January 2, 2021December 31, 2020 by Pat and David

As one of the seven classics, mole coloradito occupies the sweet spot between the bright punch of mole amarillo and the luscious richness of the darker moles. Brick-red in color and somewhat thinner than many other moles, it is straightforward to prepare. This recipe uses only guajillo peppers, a moderately hot chile with thin walls and a smoky, fruity flavor. The sauce is fairly harsh when you first start cooking but becomes smooth and mellow somewhere around the two-hour mark. The finished mole is surprisingly fruity and pairs nicely with cold sauvignon blanc wine. Coloradito is very versatile when it comes time to serve. Traditionally, it's ladled over a pork roast, over roasted leg and thigh of chicken, or over enchiladas. In Oaxaca, the sauce...Read More

Mole amarillo meets champagne for New Years Eve

Posted on December 26, 2020March 2, 2021 by Pat and David

If there's one shortcoming of Mexican mole sauces, it's that many of them are not exactly wine-friendly. Mole amarillo, however, is an extreme exception. It's a bright, sprightly sauce with a nice acidic tang and a heady combination of sunny spices. Amarillo is a perfect riposte to the cold and dark days immediately following the winter solstice. It also pairs spectacularly with sparkling wines, champagne included. One of our favorite choices is Gruët Brut, a terrific American sparkling wine from New Mexico made by a family with roots in France's Champagne district (gruetwinery.com). They blend it from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grown at 4,000-5,000 feet of elevation between Albuquerque and Las Cruces, New Mexico. (The company's Blancs de Blancs and Blanc de Noirs also go...Read More

Starting on Oaxaca’s seven moles with mole rojo

Posted on December 19, 2020March 2, 2021 by Pat and David

For many years we cooked a Christmas Eve spread for around 25 family members. Since we have only our own palates to please this year, we decided to make the holidays festive by beginning a marathon of cooking dishes often associated with good times and holiday cheer, at least in Mexican and Latinx households. We're talking about tamales and moles (MOH-lays, in case you were wondering how to pronounce it). This will be the beginning of a series with recipes for our versions of the seven classic moles of Oaxaca and some ways to serve them. Why Oaxaca? Mexico has a rich variety of regional cuisines, but we think of Oaxaca as the mother kitchen for them all. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec was the spice...Read More

Our modest addition to the Christmas cookie canon

Posted on December 12, 2020December 11, 2020 by Pat and David

A plate of Christmas cookies isn't the same without some form of shortbread cookie. We love traditional Scottish shortbread and fondly recall Pat's mother's chocolate chip shortbread bites. But our personal favorite is the saffron shortbread we first concocted nearly a decade ago. We hope it could become one of your favorites, too. When we could travel, we often purchased saffron in Spain, which is one of the world's largest producers. This year we had to resort to mail-order. One good choice is the Afghan saffron from Vanilla Saffron (www.saffron.com) in San Francisco. The best buy is by the ounce (28 grams). We find the flavor virtually identical to Spanish, and the Afghan product from Vanilla Saffron is of the highest grade, with very few...Read More

Finally, vegan cookbook whose recipes hit the spot

Posted on December 5, 2020 by Pat and David

In the foreword to her new cookbook, Karoline Jönsson writes, ‶Happy Vegan Comfort Food is the book I needed when I decided to quit eating animals. It would have saved me years of finding my way in the green jungle.″ To that, we'd add that Happy Vegan Comfort Food (Pavilion/Rizzoli, $19.95) is the vegan cookbook we've been waiting for. We're omnivores, but we eat less and less meat and other animal products. This book broadens our culinary horizons with some really tasty dishes. Instead of being all about what the author doesn't or won't eat, the cookbook is a wholehearted embrace of really good food that—oh, by the way—is entirely plant-based. Rarely does Jönsson fall back on meat analogs. She does use tofu and seitan,...Read More

San Marzano DOP tomatoes to the rescue

Posted on November 13, 2020November 13, 2020 by Pat and David

When our garden was hit with the first killing frost (and four inches of snow) on Halloween, we were lucky. We had harvested all our green tomatoes and a bucket of partially ripe cherry tomatoes before the mercury plunged. So we will still be cooking with fresh tomatoes for another week or so. But end-of-the-season tomatoes can't hold a candle to the sweet, juicy beauties of summer. Ditto the greenhouse tomatoes that we buy over the winter. Every year we talk ourselves into their virtues and overlook their faults. At some point great canned tomatoes are superior to just okay fresh ones. Finding the best canned tomatoes in the world We look for cans labeled ‶Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP.″ Sometimes it's a subtitle...Read More

Timely ‘Soupology’ arrives as the weather cools

Posted on October 20, 2020October 17, 2020 by Pat and David

As soon as we catch the first whiff of frost, we mentally switch cooking modes from salads, stir fries, and grilled vegetables to ragouts, daubes, and rich stocks. In perfect synchrony with the falling thermometer, the North American edition of Soupology: The Art of Soup from Six Simple Broths by Drew Smith (Rizzoli, 2020, $29.99) launched last month. Earlier in his career, Smith was a deft restaurant reviewer for The Guardian and for many years edited The Good Food Guide, an annual review of Britain's best restaurants. This volume is more about home cooking and the tone is friendly and intimate. It's easy to imagine looking over his shoulder as he shows how to make a delicious range of soups. Don't be put off by...Read More