recipes

Mar

07

Posole

family recipes / soup  Posted by / 0 comments

My daughter-in-law Mireya is from the state of Puebla in Mexico.  Sitting in her very modern kitchen 2200 odd miles from where I was born and raised, brings back memories of another time, another kitchen.  In that kitchen with it’s creaky old floors, the Los Angeles sunlight that streamed through the small window along with the smell of herbs and flowers, and most of all the love of my grandparents; I learned to love cooking.

This kitchen is cold to my L.A. body used to sunlight and drought.  It’s very modern and sleek with its black granite counters and stainless steel appliances and the glaring white of the snow outside, but its an incredibly warm kitchen in the ways that count.  There is love here in abundance, there is a keeping of tradition, a love of culture and family and the tastes and smells of it bring me home, keep my grandmother’s memory alive and bond me with this wonderful woman my son married.

Today she is making posole, but not the posole I am used to.  She is making what is known to be the traditional posole which is what we call posole blanco or white posole.  It is different from the one I make (Posole Tapatio) which is red and flavored with epazote.  Her recipe is exciting for me, a new one to learn and it belongs here in the archives of my family.

Last week we had green posole made with chicken, hominy and yerba santa.  It was delicious and completely different from what I am used to.

I watch my daughter-in-law work in brisk, quick steps.  She is deft in the kitchen, reminds me of the purposeful, quick moves of my grandmother and great aunts in their kitchens.  In some ways, she reminds me of my dear friend Elodia who moves with the same purpose and body language.  Mireya is nothing like Elodia though.  Lochi’s as I call her is tall, light skinned and thin where Mireya is very petite, dark-skinned and curvy.  They move the same though and as I watch my daughter-in-law, I am transported back to the kitchen of my friend near the hills of Griffith  Park where I grew up and can almost hear the years of laughter and good talks had at her kitchen table.

I read somewhere that Posole is an ancient recipe from Aztec/Mexica times which I well believe, given mole is from the same pre-Hispanic origin.  The word pozole in Nahuatl means espuma or foam and it gets its name from the foam that arises when the dried corn or cacahuazintle is boiled.  There are Conquest documents that talk about the pozole of Mocetuzuma having body parts in it but I highly doubt the veracity of any Conquest document.  To them, the Mexica people were the very devil, so I take most of what they said with a grain or two of salt.

Mireya’s Posole Blanco

1 pound of dried corn or cacahuazintle, prepared Nixtamal or  2 15-oz cans of hominy if you prefer it
2 pounds pork shoulder, cubed
oregano
salt to taste
chile pequin powder
shredded lettuce
diced white onion
lemons

If you’re using the maiz (nixtamal corn)they sell bagged in the store for posole, there’s no need to use the lye to soften it.  Just open the bag and let it soak overnight in water.  Clean off all the floating bits and strain it out.  If you want to try dried corn, you’re gonna have to use lye and that’s another post in the making.   Mireya uses canned hominy because that’s what my grandson Luis likes.  Kids tend to prefer canned hominy over the more gritty maiz or nixtamal.

Fill a stockpot half way with water, add the pork and hominy, salt to taste and a pinch oregano and cover.  Should boil on low flame 2-3 hours till the pork is so tender it falls apart at the touch of a fork.

If you are using the nixtamal, the maiz should boil first with salt to taste and a clove or two of garlic if you want, until it blossoms into what looks like little flowers and gives off the characteristic foam that gives the stew its name.  When the maiz blossoms, its time to add the pork and continue cooking.

Pour the stew into bowls and top with chopped onion, pinch of the powdered chile pequin for color and flavor, oregano, shredded lettuce and squeeze a lemon over it.

Serve with corn tortillas.

Sep

03

Call Me Crazy – Cream Puff Crazy

baked goods / Challenges / desserts / drinks / main dishes  Posted by / 1 comments

creampuffs

So there was this chocolate sauce just sitting in my fridge, left over from the eclairs.  The chocolate glaze was in there too.  Seriously, they were calling me, begging not to be left in there on their own.  Several times, i walked over and thought maybe I should make more eclairs.  Maybe creampuffs.  No, it’s too hot. Then today it got to be too much.  I finished the chapter in the book I was reading and headed for the kitchen .  I sat at the table with the recipe and my cup of coffee and decided to go for it.

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The chocolate glaze had hardened so I set it in simmering water.  I decided to do the same lavender-orange pastry cream since it turned out so delicious and decided at the last moment to pour a little lavender into the chocolate glaze.  I love lavender chocolate.

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The pâte à choux was easier to do work with this time.  I’m not sure why but it was.  In fact, the whole thing was so simple, I am worried for my hips.  I could easily make these all the time.

I piped big fat circles onto parchment paper covered baking sheets and set them to bake.  I know!  Baking again in August.  Crazy I tell you.  Estoy pero bien loca.  That means I’m pretty crazy in Spanish.

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The circles puffed beautifully, everything went like clockwork.  I decided to scoop the remaining chocolate sauce on the bottom of each cream puff, then load it with the cream and top with glaze.  They were delicious, rich and sinfully decadent.

I think I’m going to live to regret having these in my repertoire…you see my dilemna.

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Aug

31

Daring Baker’s Challenge – Eclairs in August

baked goods / Challenges / desserts / salsa / sauces  Posted by / 2 comments

 

Jasmine really loved the chocolate glaze.

The Challenge: Chocolate Eclairs from Pierre Hermé’s book, Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé.

The Hosts: Tony Tahanand/Meetak

Many, many thanks to our wonderful hosts this month. What a wonderful recipe they chose and how supportive and marvelous they were. (Insert applause here).

Hurry up Autumn, I’m getting a little tired of baking in a 100 degree kitchen and worrying I’m going to drip sweat into dough or something. This month’s challenge was Pierre Hermé’s (swoons  because I worship the pastry laden, rose petal Isapahan ground he walks on) luscious chocolate éclairs.

Did I stay true to my idol’s recipe? Um well, I changed one little thing. The cream filling was not chocolate but something summery and lighter. Lavender-orange pastry cream. The rest was true to Mr. Hermé’s recipes (is it not wonderful that he is not only a pastry God but has the same last name as that vintage buttery leather 72k handbag on ebay)? I’m just saying. Pastry, Birken…ecstasy, heaven. Okay, okay get on with the recipe. No one cares about my obsession with Hermé, both the bags and the chef. And yes, I know the bag is Hermes but its close enough for me.

Marissa dropped the kids off early and we washed up and got ready to bake. The first thing we started with was the pastry cream. It turned out perfectly, smooth, thick and lucious until i put it into its ice water bath. I turned to grab ingredients for the chocolate sauce and Aiden took the opportunity to add about a quarter cup of ice water INTO THE CREAM! Yeah, so. I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t. He’s three, he thought he was creating something wondrous and being helpful. I wanted to fix it, but I couldn’t. It was his little creation. So we had runny cream filling, so what?

 

This is when he did it

I took several deep breaths and moved onto the chocolate sauce, which was divine. Mmmmm chocolate. Jasmine and I made the glaze together. She looked at me and said, “Grammy, you’re going to put chocolate in chocolate?” and looked puzzled. When I said yes, she beamed and squealed something about chocolate and more chocolate. I agreed. Chocolate on chocolate is a marvelous thing. When it was all done, I reached for a bowl to pour it in and Jasmine quickly grabbed her favorite Barbie bowl instead. Beaming proudly, she said “Grammy that yummy chocolate can use my bowl.” So it was that Pierre Hermé’s sleek, sophisticated chocolate glaze ended up in a 99 cent pink plastic Barbie bowl. I won’t get into my militant feelings about Barbie because Jasmine can read now.

Next up the Pâte à Choux. Yeah oooooooooh. I was dubious about the whole cooked dough thing and I could tell Jasmine was too. She wanted to know why it wasn’t going straight to the Kitchen-Aid but I just shrugged and started heating the milk. When it was boiling, I handed her the cup of flour and nodded. “All of it Grammy?”, she asked. I nodded. She looked at me, her little eyes wide and then shrugged and dumped it in. Wow. I started stirred and we had a big lump of golden dough. I kept stirring to dry the dough and it did create a little crust on the bottom of the pan. Once it had been dryed enough, I transferred it to the Kitchen-aid and started mixing.

Now the crap part they don’t tell you about. Pâte à Choux is sticky, way sticky. Getting it into the pastry bag was a mess. Working with it was tough. I thought I had done something wrong, so I took a minute to chat online with a chef friend. “Is Pâte à Choux supposed to be stick?” Answer: “it has been every time I’ve worked with it” Great. Back to work. Aiden kept eating the sticky dough and I couldn’t get the gunk off my hands but managed to pipe some éclair-like blobs onto the baking sheet. I popped them into the oven and did the oven door wooden spoon trick later in the baking. They came out beautifully and puffed up proudly. Things were looking up.

 

Jasmine and Aiden were so excited they couldn’t stand it. I could barely fill the mini-eclairs and cream puffs fast enough. The lavender-orange filling was so good with all that chocolate. Marissa came home and ate several in quick succession and we both decided for the sake of our butts to take the rest of the platter over to That Yarn Store for David and the gang to munch on.

We had so much fun making these and I can’t wait till the weather is cool and we can do it again. Next time though, I’ll make cream puffs only. They held much more pastry cream and were easier to pipe.

 

Pierre Hermé’s Chocolate Éclairs
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 20-24 Éclairs)

• Cream Puff Dough (see below for recipe), fresh and still warm

1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds by
positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with
waxed or parchment paper.

2) Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough.
Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers.
Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff.
The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.

3) Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the
handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the
oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue
baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking
time should be approximately 20 minutes.

Notes:
1) The éclairs can be kept in a cool, dry place for several hours before filling.

Assembling the éclairs:

• Chocolate glaze (see below for recipe)
• Chocolate pastry cream (see below for recipe)

1) Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the
bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.

2) The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40
degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops of
the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the
bottoms with the pastry cream.

3) Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms
with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream
and wriggle gently to settle them.

Notes:
1) If you have chilled your chocolate glaze, reheat by placing it in a bowl over simmering water,
stirring it gently with a wooden spoon. Do not stir too vigorously as you do not want to create
bubbles.

2) The éclairs should be served as soon as they have been filled.

Pierre Hermé’s Cream Puff Dough
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 20-24 Éclairs)

• ½ cup (125g) whole milk
• ½ cup (125g) water
• 1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
• 5 large eggs, at room temperature

1) In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the
boil.

2) Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium
and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very
quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You
need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough
will be very soft and smooth.

3) Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your
handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time,
beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough.
You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do
not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you
have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it
should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.

4) The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs as directed above.

Notes:
1) Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately.

2) You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking
sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the
piped shapes into freezer bags. They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

Chocolate Pastry Cream
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by PierreHermé

• 2 cups (500g) whole milk
• 4 large egg yolks
• 6 tbsp (75g) sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
• 7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate, preferably Velrhona Guanaja, melted
• 2½ tbsp (1¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1) In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy?bottomed saucepan.

2) Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture.Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

3) Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.

4) Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice?water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.

5) Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice?water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice?water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.

[bNotes:[/b]
1) The pastry cream can be made 2?3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

2) In order to avoid a skin forming on the pastry cream, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the cream.

3) Tempering the eggs raises the temperature of the eggs slowly so that they do not scramble.

Chocolate Glaze
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 1 cup or 300g)

• 1/3 cup (80g) heavy cream
• 3½ oz (100g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 tsp (20 g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
• 7 tbsp (110 g) Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature

1)In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.

2) Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.

Notes:
1) If the chocolate glaze is too cool (i.e. not liquid enough) you may heat it briefly
in the microwave or over a double boiler. A double boiler is basically a bowl sitting over (not touching) simmering water.

2) It is best to glaze the eclairs after the glaze is made, but if you are pressed for time, you can make the glaze a couple days ahead of time, store it in the fridge and bring it up to the proper temperature (95 to 104 F) when ready to glaze.

Chocolate Sauce
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 1½ cups or 525 g)

• 4½ oz (130 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 cup (250 g) water
• ½ cup (125 g) crème fraîche, or heavy cream
• 1/3 cup (70 g) sugar

1) Place all the ingredients into a heavy?bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.

2) It may take 10-15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.

Notes:
1) You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks. Reheat the sauce in a microwave oven or a double boiler before using.
2) This sauce is also great for cakes, ice-cream and tarts.

 

Aug

18

Arroz con pollo

chicken / family recipes / main dishes / rice  Posted by / 5 comments
Arroz con pollo

Arroz con pollo

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delicioso!

I’ve been craving my grandmother’s arroz con pollo for a couple of days now.  I’ve been a little obsessed actually.  I can’t remember when the last time I had it was, but it had to have been when I was in my teens.  I tried making it a couple of times when I was married, but it just didn’t work out.  Neither did the marriage.

Today, Marissa and the kids came by and I decided to give it a shot.  I pulled out rice, onions, garlic, red peppers, the Bijol (a Mexican spice blend), saffron and oregano.  I didn’t have peas but Marissa doesn’t like them anyway, so I figured we were good to go.

I handed Marissa the camera and got to work chopping onion into nice thick squares, slivers of garlic, rounds of red pepper.  Jasmine and Aiden started to get excited and Aiden helped pour out the oregano.  I only know my grandmother’s recipe, which is no recipe – it’s a handful of this, a bit of that, un poquito aqui, un manito aya.  I hope my readers can figure it out from the pictures and the story because this time, this time it was like my memories of a fluffy mound of golden delicately flavored rice that melted on the tongue and the tenderest, chicken falling off the bone and flavored with the soul of the crocus.  It was magical.

Arroz con pollo/Chicken with rice

One cut up chicken
Enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a large frying pan
1 onion
five cloves of garlice, sliced thinly
chopped red peppers (not the hot kind)
dos manotes de arroz (two big handfuls of rice)
a manito (little handful of oregano) I think this ended up being about a tablespoon
un poquito de saffron (a little bit of saffron) like a pinch
un poquito de Bijol (about a ¼ tsp)
salt and pepper to taste
peas (optional)
chopped tomatoes (we were out of fresh so I used a 16 oz can of stewed)
water

Coat the frying pan with olive oil and let it heat on the stove.  Not too high a flame, you don’t want smoking oil.  Just get it nice and hot.

Wash the chicken pieces and pat them dry.  Season with salt and cracked pepper.

Add the chicken to hot oil and let fry till crispy brown on one side, then turn and do the same with the other side.  It takes as long as it takes.  Use a lid or it will pop all over.

Once the chicken is browned completely, scoop it out and set it aside on a platter.

Drain the oil from that pan and pour it into another large skillet (one that has a tight fitting lid).

Add the oregano, garlic, saffron, and peppers to the same pan and deglaze it with about a cup of water.  Set that aside.

Heat up the oil in the second skillet.  Add in the onions and about two cups of long grain rice and let brown completely, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.

When it’s all browned, add the water and spices from the deglazed pan to the rice. Add salt to taste, I’d say about a teaspoon.

Add the chicken pieces one by one, skin side up around the pan.  Add just enough water to be about a half inch from the top of the pan.  Cover, lower flame to the lowest it will go and then simmer for about 40 minutes.  The rice should be fluffy and golden and the chicken so tender it falls apart at the touch of a fork.  All the water should have been absorbed by the rice.

Serve and enjoy!

Buen provecho.

Apr

14

Avocados Stuffed with Tofu & Quelites Ceviche

main dishes  Posted by / 2 comments

When I was a little girl, I was fascinated all the things my grandparents could do with and knew about plants. That fascination deepened as I grew older and even now, the sight of hollyhocks or lamb’s quarters growing on the side of the road always makes me want to stop and forage.

My grandmother’s knowledge of the healing properties of plants was formidable and I wished I had thought to write everything she showed me down into notebooks when I was little and even a teenager. With the arrogance of youth, I’d thought she’d always be around and she’s not so I have my memory to rely on. I also rely on books about herbs and wild plants as well as the internet. Nothing beats my grandmother’s stories though. She knew the name of every plant and flower and she always knew a story for it, a legend or a myth. She’d tell me when the best time to gather them, which way to cook or prepare them to maximize their healing properties. I loved walking outside with my grandmother and a basket. We’d stop and gather, clip and she’d tell me the story behind each plant we picked. Those were magical times.

My grandfather, another formidable source of gardening lore, was a little different, He knew how to plant, when to plant, ingenious ways to irrigate like his amazing maze of glass coffee jars that poured water and re-directed it into the different furrows of his garden. What he knew, he used in different ways. He was a healer – you would say masseuse here but that’s not quite accurate. He was a sobador or a huesero. In other words, he healed by massage. That was magical too. People came by the house all the time, and he’d clap his strong hands together and get out his special olive oil and fix em right up. He never took money for it, although people tried and tried to give it to him. He’d say, “no cobramos por ayuda” We don’t charge when someone needs help. I remember a man who brought his daughter often. The daughter had one leg shorter than the other and she limped. It took a few years but my Papa (that’s what I called him) healed her. The last time I saw her she walked without a limp. He would use certain herbs to steep in olive oil for different effects. Thanks to both my grandparents, I’ll never starve if left to fend for myself in the woods or someplace like that.

One of the wild plants my grandmother loved to make was quelites or lambs-quarters. It was a weed that just grew everywhere along with verdolargas (sorrel) in the springtime here in L.A. She made them lots of different ways and I always loved them. To me, the taste was of springtime and summer. I love verdolargas too and their tangy spring taste always makes me smile. The other day at the Farmer’s Market here in town, I came across a man selling quelites and immediately started thinking of cooking them. It had been years since I’ve had them and my mouth was already watering. I bought several bunches to make in different ways and headed home gleefully clutching my bounty. Quelites are very versatile and their taste is somewhat like spinach, only more delicate.

I made chicken soup for the grandkids one day and threw in a couple of bunches of quelites. I know now that lambs-quarters are a powerhouse of nutrition (check out the nutrition table ), so I was excited to feed them to the little ones who were just getting over a cold.

Today I went to a Dodger game and came home hot and hungry. It’s only April but it feels like August. As I type this at 8:30 p.m., my thermometer says its 80 degrees. I wanted something cold and crunchy, something healthy and good and I remembered the quelites. I also remembered that I had tofu in the fridge. Yum! I knew I was going to make faux ceviche, using the tofu as my seafood. If you don’t have quelites in your neighborhood, use fresh spinach or any green leafy. It will be wonderful. I am trying to cut down on my intake of tortilla so instead of a tostada shell, I served the ceviche inside an avocado half. Either way, it’s a fast, yummy, healthy and tasty treat.

Tofu and Quelites Ceviche

I pound extra firm or firm Tofu, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
1 bunch of chopped quelites or green of your choice – for this I used both spinach and quelites
4 sticks of celery, sliced thinly
1 bunch of chopped cilantro (substitute parsley if you can’t find cilantro)
1 bunch of green onions sliced thinly
Salt and pepper to taste
Lemon juice to taste

Chop everything and place in a bowl, gently toss so the Tofu doesn’t break down and serve in a halved avocado or on top of a tostada shell. Add Tapatio or other hot sauce if desired.

Buen provecho!

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