Andes Chocolate Creme de Menthe Cookies

For your consideration in your Christmas baking - I can't decide whether these or the orange chocolate chip cookies are my all-time favorites.  I also made almond macaroons and cranberry streusel shortbread cookies, which were both very good, but not an epiphany.

This one's for Eileen, who insisted I post this on my blog.  These are a dark chocolate cookie with Andes chocolate mints in them.  They're kind of like thin mint cookies, but better because they're crispy and chewy.  I wish I could remember where I got the recipe.  It has been too long.  Originally, I was making a chocolate cookie and adding the andes mints, but I think perhaps I got this off the package.

Andes Chocolate Creme de Menthe Cookies

1/2 c. salted butter
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
2 t. vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/4 c. flour

1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1/2 c. cocoa powder (special dark cocoa makes for dramatically dark color)

1 package (10 oz) Andes creme de menthe baking chips

Blend butter and sugars until fluffy, then mix in vanilla and eggs.  Sift dry ingredients together, then stir them into the butter mixture.  Stir in the mints.  Shape in 1 oz. balls (I use a small cookie dough scoop).  Bake at 350 for 8-10  min.  Makes about 3 dozen.

Carrot Soup with Dill Pesto

I know, the title sounds like too much work, but really it's very simple and way worth it.  I finally got around to trying this recipe from our farmer tonight, and I can't even hope to post pictures of the leftovers because we ate every last drop.  So if you have more than 3 people, you'd better make more and allow a little more cooking time.   I expected the dill to have a much stronger taste than it did, but it tasted super fresh and summery and was the perfect compliment to the sweetness of the carrots and onions.  I think I can even give you the recipe from memory.  We had it with some toasted "English Muffin Bread" (a recipe I found on Pinterest which is super easy).  It was a nice warming meal to have in the face of all of this drizzling rain.

Carrot Soup with Dill Pesto

for the soup
2 Tbs. butter
1 onion, chopped
4 large carrots, sliced
1 tsp. dill seed
1 quart chicken or vegetable broth
 for the pesto
1 cup chopped fresh dill
2 Tbs. pinenuts
2 Tbs. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion and carrots and dill seed in butter until tender, about 10 minutes.  Add the broth, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until carrots are very soft, about 30 minutes.  Use a hand blender or transfer in batches to a regular blender and blend until smooth.  Salt and pepper to taste. 

While the soup is cooking, make the dill pesto:  in a food processor finely chop the fresh dill and pinenuts, using on/off and scraping down the sides as necessary.  Slowly drizzle in the oil and blend well, then add salt and pepper to taste. 

To serve, ladle soup into bowls and top with a dollop of dill pesto.

Delicious Everyday Dahl

I make this as an easy side to other Indian dishes.  I suppose it could stand alone with rice, but if I'm just making one dish, I prefer to make the "Curried Vegetables with Dahl" (let me know if you want that one too).  This one is pretty easy.  It needs to cook for about a half hour, but the most time consuming part is chopping the onions. Then you  just dump it all in and let it simmer.  I've been known, in a pinch, to substitute dried onions.  I also sometimes add a bit of coconut milk if I happen to have a little extra from another recipe.  I adapted this recipe from a little book called "Curries Without Worries".  It says it makes 4 servings, but maybe because we're always eating other dishes with it, we get a lot more servings out of this than that.

Delicious Everyday Dahl

1 cup lentils (I use red lentils)
6 cups water
1 dash salt, to taste
3 ripe tomatoes, chopped (or a large can of diced tomatoes)
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs. fresh ginger, finely chopped (I often add more)
4 Tbs. ghee (I leave this out)
1 tsp. ground turmeric
1 tsp. cumin seed
2 dry hot peppers (I just put in a couple shakes of red pepper flakes)
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

Bring all but the cilantro to a boil on high heat.  Reduce to low, cook until tender.  Red lentils will kind of dissolve.  The cooking time will depend on what type of lentil you use.  Garnish with cilantro.  

Gulf Coast-Style White Rice Pilaf

This rice recipe from Rick Bayless's Mexican Everyday has become a standby for me.  I make it all the time (along with black beans) as an accompaniment to his meat dishes like Chicken Veracruzana and Yucatecan Pork.  In fact, I'm often happy just eating the beans and rice for a meal with just a little good salsa on top.  I don't think I've ever eaten anything like what we call Mexican Rice (you, know, the red rice cooked with tomato & some chiles) in Mexico, though I know there are areas where they do eat that.  So this is the rice side dish I choose.  I got a rice cooker only about a month ago, and I found that it worked just fine on the stove before that, but the benefit of the rice cooker is that it requires a little less checking, doesn't take up a burner on the stove, and keeps at a good temperature and consistency for a longer period of time so it's ready to eat whenever the rest of the food is, which is great for parties.  The original recipe actually calls for baking it in a 350 degree oven for 25 min, but I just cooked it in a covered pot on the stove like I would any rice, so I'll give those directions here. 

Gulf Coast-Style White Rice Pilaf 

Arroz Blanco

1 1/2 Tbs. vegetable or olive oil (I use canola)
1 1/2 cups white rice
1 small white onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 3/4 cup chicken broth (or vegetable broth, for vegetarians)
1 tsp. salt
3 Tbs. coarsely chopped flat-leafed parsley, for garnish

Set a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add the oil, rice and onion.  Stir frequently until the grains of rice turn from translucent to milky-white, about 5 minutes.  They shouldn't brown.  Add the garlic and stir a few seconds, until fragrant, then add the broth and 1 tsp salt.  Stir a couple of times, the let the mixture come to a full boil.  Reduce the heat to the lowest setting, cover tightly and allow it to simmer for about 20 minutes.  Don't lift the lid until near the very end of the cooking time, when you just lift it enough to test a bit of the rice from the top and middle of the pan (which is the last spot to finish cooking in a pot of rice).  If it isn't done yet, tilt the pan and lift the edge of the rice to make sure there is still enough liquid in the bottom to cook a little longer, add another 1-2 Tbs. of water if it's dry, and put it back on.  You shouldn't ever stir the rice while it's cooking. When it's done, take it off the heat and let it stand about 5 minutes before serving.  Then you can fluff it with a fork and sprinkle it with the parsley for garnish.

For a rice cooker, saute the rice in the saucepan, then scrape it into the rice cooker, add the broth and salt, and let the rice cooker do the rest.

Kale Chips Update

I recently have been using a new recipe for kale chips that works better than my old one.  I have adapted it somewhat here, but the key is that it bakes at a lower temperature so they crisp before they burn and they cook more evenly.  It also has a bit of heartiness from a lovely sprinkling of ground cashews and the tartness of lemon.  Z and I like the nutritional yeast, but C prefers it without.

1 large bunch of kale, washed and dried

3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp kosher salt
juice from half a lemon
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, optional

1/3 cup cashews

1 Tbs nutritional yeast, optional

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.  In a large mixing bowl, mix the olive oil, salt, lemon, and cayenne and set aside. Rip the tough stalks off the kale and rip the rest of the kale into pieces. Remember they will shrink a bit in the oven so bigger is typically better. Grind the cashews with the optional nutritional yeast in a food processor or blender or coffee grinder. You want them to be powdery/crumbly, not cashew butter.

Toss the kale in the dressing so that each piece is coated and sprinkle the cashew mixture on the kale, tossing lightly to make sure each piece gets some.  Lay the kale out in a single layer on 2 large baking sheets. Put the cookie sheets in the oven using both racks and set timer for 30 minutes. Every 30 minutes rotate the cookie sheets up/down, back/forth for more even cooking.  After an hour start sampling. They are done when they are crispy, not soggy. This tends to take about 90 minutes for all of them, but I will pull some kale chips off earlier and give other chips more time. Store in an airtight container.

Miso Ginger Carrot Dressing

Fun times for Labor Day. First a last trip to the pool with some friends that included a discounted hotdog at the snack bar and a good laugh at the looks a passing child gave their youngest as she was singing to herself by the side of the pool. Then off to more food and friends with a sushi feast and viewing of the charming and awe-inspiring documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi".

This is a delicious, low calorie Japanese style dressing that we like to have on spring greens as a side dish when me make sushi. (You can see the jar in the back of the photo, next to the salad). Sometimes I have a salad the next day for lunch with this dressing and the extra sushi fillings (cucumber, carrot, green onion, avocado, asparagus, tofu, etc. - not the fish). I like to think it counteracts having overeaten the night before.

Miso Ginger Carrot Dressing

1 Tbs. peanut, grapeseed, corn, or canola oil
1/4 c. rice vinegar (not seasoned)
3 Tbs. white miso
1 Tbs. dark sesame oil
2 medium carrots, peeled, in chunks
2 inches ginger, peeled, sliced across the grain
1tsp. sugar

Blend well in a blender until smooth. Makes about 11/2 cups.

Notes: Sometimes I have to add a little water to make it thin enough to blend. The original recipe had 1/4 cup of oil instead of 1 Tbs., but I like it fine without the extra oil.

Moosewood Gazpacho

Here's the other Gazpacho recipe, in case you want to try them both.  

Gazpacho 

from the Moosewood Cookbook

6 servings

4 cups cold tomato juice
1 small, minced onion
2 cups freshly diced tomatoes
1 cup minced green pepper
1 clove crushed garlic
1 diced cucumber
2 scallions chopped
1/4 cup freshly-chopped parsley
juice of 1/2 lemon & 1 lime
1 tsp. honey
2 Tbs. wine vinegar
1 tsp. dried tarragon
1 tsp dried basil
dash of ground cumin
dash of tabasco sauce
1-2 Tbs. olive oil
salt & black pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and chill for at least 2 hours.  Sometimes I chop it all finely, and other times I put it in the food processor.  Both ways are great.

Sarah Jay's Gazpacho

Do I ever post a recipe that doesn't come from Fine Cooking or Rick Bayless?  I'm not sure.  But here's another one that we loved from Fine Cooking.  This one caught my eye despite the fact that I'm a diehard fan of the Moosewood Cookbook's Gazpacho recipe.  That one is not at all a traditional Spanish gazpacho, but it's so light and fresh and tastes so good for you its like medicine for the soul and a mouthful of summer all in one.  This one caught my eye because it was a recipe by Sarah Jay, who once served me the best Paella I've ever eaten when we were both visiting our husbands at a residency at the lovely Millay Colony, back before I'd ever heard of Fine Cooking, where she worked.  I was never tempted to repeat her Paella after seeing how much washing up it required, but I figured I could handle a cold tomato soup. 

The recipe is adapted from the traditional one by her Spanish mother-in-law, and it tasted so much like the ones we ate in Spain!  It was full-bodied and smooth on the tongue.  It's a totally different creature than the Moosewood Gazpacho, but I adore them both.  Such a nice way to enjoy these late summer tomatoes!

Gazpacho

by Sarah Jay

Best served icy cold, gazpacho needs to be chilled for at least an hour. Here it's garnished with croutons for crunch and cilantro for a burst of bright flavor, but chopped cucumbers and onions are another traditional garnish. Serves 4 or 5

1-3/4 lb. ripe tomatoes, cored and coarsely chopped (about 4 cups)
1/2 medium green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and coarsely chopped (3/4 cup)
1/2 small red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and coarsely chopped (1/2 cup)
1/4 cup packed torn fresh bread, such as a soft baguette, Portuguese roll, or slice of white sandwich bread, plus 1/4 cup packed 1/2-inch cubes (crusts removed) for croutons
9 Tbs. good-quality extra-virgin olive oil; more for drizzling
2 tsp. sherry vinegar
1 small clove garlic
Kosher salt
Ground cumin
1 Tbs. chopped fresh cilantro 

Put the tomatoes, bell peppers, torn bread, 6 Tbs. of the olive oil, the vinegar, garlic, 1 tsp. salt, and a pinch or two of cumin in a blender. Pulse until coarsely puréed, then blend until very smooth, 4 to 5 minutes (it may be a bit frothy). Season to taste with salt and refrigerate until very cold, at least 1 hour.
Meanwhile, heat the remaining 3 Tbs. olive oil in an 8-inch skillet over medium heat. Add a bread cube; if it sizzles immediately, add the remaining cubes (if it doesn’t, continue to heat the oil). Cook, stirring frequently, until golden brown all over, about 1 minute. Transfer the croutons to paper towels to drain and cool.
Taste the gazpacho just before serving and adjust the seasonings as needed. Serve drizzled with oil and garnished with the croutons and cilantro.

Make Ahead Tips

The gazpacho can be made up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated, covered. The croutons should be made the day of serving the gazpacho.

Guajillo Pork and Potatoes

Sorry not to post for so long. I've tried some great new recipes that I ought to pass on. Here's the first for you (I didn't take pictures tonight, but will try to get one of the leftovers tomorrow):

Tried a new recipe today, with some friends as guinea pigs. It was delicious, as I fully expected from my buddy Ricky (can I call him that if I only have an imaginary friendship with him where we hang out in Oaxaca and cook excellent food with the locals?). I had a little struggle with the chiles because I couldn't find regular guajillo chiles and substituted guajillo pulla chiles, which were a little old and dry (meaning they shattered when I tried to split and seed them, unlike fresh dried chiles, which are more leathery and flexible), and they were also quite a bit smaller and hotter than regular guajillos (meaning I had to split and seed and toast many more of them to make 2 oz). I made the chile sauce part and trimmed and cubed the pork the night before, knowing I wouldn't have a lot of time in the morning to throw it all in the crockpot. So you can imagine me in the kitchen at midnight, deciding that the sauce was way too hot and then doubling all the other ingredients and doubling them again, making quite a mess in the kitchen in the process. In the end, it turned out that all my doubling was unnecessary. After the long simmer and adding the other ingredients it turned out the guajillo pullas weren't as hot as I was afraid, and I think the original recipe would have worked out just fine. I ended up mixing back in quite a bit of the full strength original batch. This recipe is very easy if you don't make the mistakes I did, if your dried chiles are fresher and larger than mine, and you don't make the sauce 4 times. The recipe was delicious and well worth the effort, and thanks to all my doubling, we now have enough sauce for another batch. It made enough to serve 8 adults with leftovers (we also had tortillas, beans, rice, salad, etc.).

Guajillo-Spiced Pork and Potatoes

Serves 6-8
Adapted from Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless
6 medium (1.5 lbs. total) redskin boiling or yukon gold potatoes, cut into 6 wedges
1.5 – 2 lbs. boneless pork shoulder roast, cut into 1″ cubes
8 medium (2 oz. total) dried guajillo chiles, stemmed, seeded, and torn into flat pieces
1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted
4 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
2 tsp. dried oregano, preferably Mexican
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
salt
cilantro and chopped white onions (I used green) for garnish
Spread the potatoes over the bottom of your slowcooker and top with the pork.
Set a small (8″) skillet over medium heat and once it’s hot, toast the chile pieces, pressing them against the pan with a spatula until they are aromatic and lightened in color underneath–about 10 seconds per side. (Anything more than a whiff of smoke and they're burning - take them off FAST. And don't breath the smoke. Trust me). Transfer the chiles to a blender.
Add the tomatoes, garlic, oregano, Worcestershire, about 1.5 tsp. salt and 1 – 1.5 cups of water (I would choose this based on your slowcooker’s history for drying out foods, how much liquid is already in your tomatoes, etc.). Blend until as smooth as possible, and then strain the mixture through a mesh strainer directly into the slowcooker.
Cook on high for 6 hours, then it can keep on the warm setting for up to 4 hours. I spooned most of the fat off the top and discarded it. Also, my sauce was too runny because I had added the extra tomatoes, etc., so I ended up simmering down some of the sauce to thicken it and returned it to the crockpot.

This was my first attempt at a goal I have for the next year to have people over at least once a month. With so many dear friends moving away, I'm starting to feel cut off and decided I need to make more of an effort to reach out to other friends and to make some new ones. This recipe was a good one for keeping today low stress - once I had it in the cooker this morning, there was little else to prepare. Just threw together a salad, heated some tortillas, warmed beans from the freezer and put some of Rick's Gulf Coast White Rice Pilaf in the rice cooker. It was nice to have so little last minute preparations to do when our friends arrived. Lower stress and more time to enjoy their company. Plus it helps to let them do some of the prep work: one brought guacamole and the other brought a flourless chocolate cake. Both were fantastic. Good company, good food; I think I can get into this new habit! Anyone up for an Indian curry party next month? Everyone has to bring a curry. (Yes, A, I obviously stole the idea from you).

Menu planning

Sometimes it's a bit difficult to transition to summer menus. I'm afraid the meals I've planned are too heavy, but they use what we have on hand. Recently I've been planning 2 weeks ahead, which I think should save me some shopping time, since then I can get obscure ingredients when I happen to be in the neighborhood of whatever store carries them.

For this week, my monthly menu plan overview suggested:
lentils
chinese
leftovers
tacos or quesadillas
polenta
fish
bean soup/chili.

It helps me to have the starting point of ideas and to remind me that I want to eat more legumes and fish.

I started my menu with a carryover I never got around to last week, African pineapple peanut kale stew, to use up the rest of the kale in our garden from last year. I'll have to do a post on that recipe if I end up making it.

In place of lentils, I decided I wanted an interesting summery salad that I could share with our vegetarian friends, so I chose a new recipe I haven't tried before, Quinoa Black Bean Salad with Smoky Lime Dressing.

For Chinese, I remembered that I had some fat udon noodles in the freezer that I picked up at the Japanese grocery store a couple of weeks ago. I found a recipe in Fine Cooking Magazine that I want to try: Udon with Tofu and Stir-fried Vegetables. We loved a recipe from the same article for Chinese Egg Noodles with Five-Spice Pork, and I've been wanting to try more of those recipes.

For Tacos, I chose Chicken Veracruzana tacos. It's been too long since I've made that and I have most of the ingredients on hand.

For Polenta, I chose our most frequently made version, where I top it with caramelized peppers and onions and some blue cheese.

For Fish, I decided to skip it this week because I already have too many things to make with the carryover of the African stew.

For Bean Soup/Chile, I chose to use some bean soup out of the freezer, either White Bean and Ham Soup or White Bean Pesto.

For next week, the suggestions and my choices were:
Potatoes: Kale and Mashed Potatoes with ham (in the freezer, leftover from Easter)
Thai: Salmon with Thai Curry Spinach (adds in the fish I skipped the week before). I may also make Thai Chickpeas and Sweet Potatoes to use up ingredients on hand.
Leftovers: just clear out the fridge
Burritos: whatever fillings we have on hand, usually bean and cheese. Might have some leftover chicken from the week before.
Use-it-up Pasta: skip (pasta being used in the Pork Ragu)
Meat: Pork Shoulder Ragu (I've been wanting to try this recipe from Dinner a Love Story)
Vegetable Soup: Quick Blender Tomato Soup with some crusty bread or melted cheese sandwiches.

I generally find that even planning for one night a week of leftovers, between eating out and with friends I often have one more dinner plan per week than I manage to make. I sometimes just push it to the next week, sometimes make it for a lunch, and sometimes skip it altogether.

Maybe this will give you some ideas for your menu this week!

Cooking Class: Mole Negro and Quesadillas

I just spent a most pleasant morning at a cooking class with Pilar Cabrera, chef of "La Olla" restaurant in Oaxaca. We have been consistently delighted with the food at her restaurant and as soon as C tasted her mole de fandango, he said I really ought to take her cooking class and get that recipe! So I did.














We started by preparing some of the ingredients for the mole. She had them already measured out.













We took the seeds out of the chiles and roasted the chiles and the garlic on a comal (a large flat ceramic dish) over a charcoal fire.













Pilar sauteed the other ingredients in a ceramic casserole over a charcoal fire, starting with the nuts,














then moving on to the raisins, the bread, the spices, and the plantain.












Finally, she toasted the chile seeds over the coals until they were black. That made for some seriously lung burning smoke.













Then we went to the market, where we bought ingredients for the rest of our meal. We bought huitlacoche and bean blossoms from this woman.












I learned a few new things there about some of the ingredients, like the difference between quesillo doble crema and plain quesillo. It made me wish I had more time to spend enjoying the new foods I learned about: queso botanero, a salsa sold at the butchers, blue corn tortillas and fresh salsas at the entrance, the best vendor for fresh vegetables...









Then we stopped at the molinillo, where they ground our mole ingredients in a big grinder. They had a different grinder for each of the things they grind: coffee, corn for tamales and tortillas, cooked black beans, rice for horchata, and the one for mole. They ground first all the spices, nuts, bread and plantains, then the dried chiles, adding just enough water to make a good paste.













Back at her house, we started with the rose petal sorbet: we cooked together sugar, milk, blanched almonds, and dried and fresh rose petals, then cooled it in an ice-water bath, blended them in a blender, then froze the mixture in an ice-cream freezer.










In the meantime, we prepared the ingredients for the quesadillas. We cleaned and sauteed huitlacoche with a bit of garlic and salt. Huitlachoche is a highly prized corn fungus that has a delicious mushroom taste - they call it the Oaxacan truffle. I never dared try it before this visit, but I'm so glad I have. We also sauteed pretty red blossoms from a bean plant - they kind of look like scarlet runner bean blossoms. We shredded quesillo doble crema, the stringy Oaxacan cheese that vaguely resembles fresh mozzarella. We chopped yerba santa and cleaned squash blossoms.





We toasted and peeled chiles de agua (hot green chiles) and tomatoes,













then I ground them into a salsa with a molcajete - starting with garlic and sea salt, then adding the chiles and then last the tomatoes and a bit of green onion. We made a minted rice with soaked and drained rice, sauteed in garlic and onion, then cooked with chicken broth and a few sprigs of mint. The staff did all the clean up as we went, and they also washed the produce and cooked the chicken for the mole. It was amazing how much faster so much cooking went with their skilled help.







We went back into the courtyard where we had cooked over the charcoal fire and cooked the mole,



















then made little tortillas and made them into quesadillas with the different fillings: squash blossoms, bean flowers, and huitlacoche, all with a bit of hierbasanta, which is an herb you can only find here that tastes more like fennel than anything else I can think of.

After everyone else tasted some mescal with lime, orange, and sal de gusano (salt ground with chiles and -yuk- maguey worms), we sat down to a feast of quesadillas with the fresh roasted tomato salsa, mole and rice, and the rose petal sorbet for dessert.



Pilar was a good teacher, giving lots of details and answering lots of questions. She was very personable and patient (even with the British woman in our group who thinks Mexican food is "stodgy" and had never even heard of tamales - I still can't quite figure out why she took the class).

All in all, an excellent experience!








Mole Negro

Serves 10

4 chilhuacle chiles
8 mulato or ancho chiles
8 pasilla mexicana chiles
3 tsp. lard
1/4 c. almonds
1/4 c. raisins
1/4 c. pumpkin seeds
1/4 c. peanuts
1/4 c. pecans
4 slices of egg bread
1/4 c. sesame seeds
1 tsp. dried thyme, marjoram and oregano
2 cinnamon sticks
1/8 tsp. anise
3 whole cloves
1/8 tsp cumin
3 whole black peppercorns
2 plantains, cut in slices
1 tomato, roasted
3 tomatillos, roasted
3 cloves of garlic, roasted
1/2 medium onion, roasted
4 cups chicken broth
8 pieces of cooked chicken
3 tsp. sugar
1/2 cup Oaxacan chocolate
salt to taste
4 avocado leaves

Preparation:
1. Clean the dried chiles with a damp cloth. Open the chiles by making a lengthwise slit down one side of each. Take out the seeds, veins, and stems. Reserve the seeds.

2. Fry the chiles in a saucepan. Remove each chile from the saucepan as soon as it begins to change colors and blister, and place them in a bowl lined with absorbent paper towels.

3. Fry the raisins until they puff up and brown a bit. Remove the raisins and add the almonds, pecans, and peanuts, frying for 5 minutes until they are a dark brown color. Fry the pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, cinnamon, anise, cloves, cumin and black peppercorns, until they obtain a deep brown color, remove them and add the dried bread pieces in the remaining lard for 2 minutes, then remove.

4. Fry the plantains in oil until they are golden.

5. Roast the tomatoes, tomatillos, onion, and garlic on a comal. Peel the tomatoes.

6. Place in a food processor the spices, tomatoes, one plantain and 1 cup of chicken broth. Blend until the mixture is smooth. Transfer to a blender and blend again until as smooth as possible. Put into a bowl and set aside.

7. Place the toasted chiles and 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth into the food processor, then blender. Blend until the mixture is a smooth paste.

8. Heat the remaining unused lard in a deep, very hot pot (le crueset or cast iron are good substitutes for the ceramic dish) and pour the blended chiles into the pot. Cook for 3 minutes, then add the spice mixture and cook for 3 more minutes. Add more chicken broth as needed.
Add the sugar and chocolate, and stir for 5 minutes. The sauce is ready when, while stirring, you can see the depth of the pot.

9. Add the rest of the chicken broth and avocado leaves. Season with salt. Cook for 3 more minutes over medium heat. Add the pieces of chicken before serving.

Please note that I added photos (finally) to my post about the baptism.

El Bautizo

Our hosts, Carlos and Concepcion graciously invited us to join them this morning at a baptism for a little girl that they are (now) Godparents to. We expressed some reluctance to impose, but they encouraged us to come, and we were glad we did. It was an interesting experience.











There's a little goldfinch that likes to fly around and eat ants on the pomelo tree in front of me. It's distracting and beautiful. This is a shot of Z on the balcony in front of our room by the pomelo tree.












Anyway, back to the baptism. We first waited about an hour for the priest to come out of the cathedral by the Zocalo - they had arranged to pick him up and take him out to the village where the baptism was (in Teotitlan del Valle, known for it's wool carpet weaving). Once we arrived, we went into the courtyard of the family. There was livestock on the left, everything from goats, burros and cows to chickens and geese. On the right was the family's living space, with an open space in the middle and arches around, opening onto covered patio spaces, then closed rooms beyond those. You can kind of see the women's table and a few of the animals in the background of this photo.




Lots of women were working in the courtyard, stirring large pots over open fires, grinding on metates, and whisking up foamy drinks. One pot was about 3 feet in diameter. Other women were sitting around a table eating already and when we went in, the priest, a little old man dressed in a wrinkled tracksuit and running shoes, sat right down at the table with the women and started to eat (which was a great source of amusement to everyone else, since traditionally the women and men eat at different tables, and he didn't bother with the formalities that were still to come).





We went into the family's chapel - kind of a long room with an altar at one end - and sat in a row of chairs. Then the family gathered and stood in precise order of their importance to the occasion, with women in front in one row and men in another row behind. Our hosts made formal statements about how pleased they were to be the Padrinos (Godparents) and how they wished the best for the little girl. Then the family returned with their thanks for coming and taking part. Our hosts presented the family with gifts - the girl's little white satin baptism dress (and socks and shoes and hat, and everything) as well as a couple of cases of beer. The mother took the dress and kissed it and passed it down the line of women, each of whom looked at it and kissed it, then they gave a formal thank you for their generosity. Then we all went down the line, kind of like in a wedding reception, and shook hands and said good morning.

Finally they invited us all out to have breakfast on the patio. We sat down and first they offered everyone a drink of Mezcal (a local drink made from agave that's kind of like tequila, I'm told) and they brought us each a large plate of an assortment of sweet breads - about 6 per person, with a little mug of hot chocolate. Carlos and Concepcion (who had warned us that we'd be given more bread than any person could possibly eat), joked that we had to eat it all before we could leave the table.







You can see the looms in the background of this photo, as well as how delighted (or amused and nervous) they were to have us there. They brought out trays piled high with huge handmade corn tortillas, about 1 1/2 feet in diameter, with a little saucer of salt on each stack. Then we each got an enormous bowl of "higaditos", a kind of soup with turkey broth, shredded turkey bits, and scrambled eggs, half a tomato floating on top with some hot sauce in it. That alone was more than 3 of us could eat in one sitting. Then we got bowls of "espuma", which was what the women had been grinding and beating into a froth in the courtyard. It was a hot, mildly sweet drink, kind of like a chocolate atole, with a good 3 inches of foam on top. There's a great post about how they make it here, which looks like what I saw them doing. When we couldn't eat anymore, they brought us bags to put our bread in to take home.

We drove over to the church, which had been built centuries ago with stones from the local ruins - they had the Zapotec carvings on them. The inside of the church was more simple than many we've seen, mainly because it wasn't loaded with baroque gold-leaf carvings, but it had lots of decorative painting on the interior walls. We sat through the baptism and mass, which went longer than expected, apparently. The priest really wanted everyone to take communion and dragged that part out for a long time, staring at each person until most surrendered and took it. He stared at me long enough for everyone else to turn and see who he was looking at. Pretty uncomfortable! The baptism itself was lovely, though. The church bells rang and they set off firecrackers just outside the church. The godparents promised, along with the parents, to care for and protect the little girl throughout her life.

We drove back to the house for another round of formal thank yous and shaking hands and giving hugs down the line and mezcal served in little brightly painted gourds. They insisted that we at least take the gourds as a momento, and someone joked that these women didn't know how to make tejate, which is a local drink that is usually served in gourds like those, as if the mescal were the worst tejate they'd ever drunk, when they are nothing alike.

Tejate is a kind of cold drink made, according to wickipedia, from "toasted maize flour, fermented cacao beans, mamey pits and flor de cacao (chocolate blossoms). These are finely ground into a paste. The paste is mixed with water, usually by hand, and when it is ready, the flor de cacao rises to the top to form a pasty foam." It tastes kind of nutty.


We left around noon, but Carlos told us the next day they'd stayed until quite late at night for the dinner and dance. I was touched by the display of generosity and the commitment to celebration in spite of financial limitations.