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.

Chicken Veracruzana

I'm surprised I haven't posted this recipe yet. It smells heavenly while it's cooking. It's fairly quick to assemble if you use skinless chicken thighs. This time I'm actually using the chicken quarters with skin on, and it took much longer to peel off the skin and cut off the extra fat. I would prefer to use the boneless skinless thighs again next time. I like to serve it with warmed corn tortillas and a side salad. We have the leftovers in tacos or on tostadas.

Chicken Veracruzana (from Rick Bayless's Mexican Everyday)

1 lbs (4 medium) red-skin boiling or Yukon Gold potatoes, cut in wedges
6 (3 lbs. total) chicken leg and thigh quarters, skin pulled off
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes in juice (preferably fire roasted), drained
4-6 canned pickled jalapenos, stemmed, seeded and cut into strips
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped or pressed
2 Tbs. Worchestershire sauce
1/8 tsp. dried thyme
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
salt
1/4-1/2 cup coarsely chopped green olives
1/4 c. roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley

Spread the potatoes over the bottom of a slow-cooker and top with the chicken. In a medium bowl, mix together the tomatoes, jalapenos, garlic, Worcestershire, thyme, cloves, cinnamon and a scant 1 1/2 tsp. salt. Pour evenly over the chicken. Set the lid in place and slow-cook on high for 6 hours (the dish can hold on the warm setting for another 4 hours or so).

Carefully transfer a portion of chicken and potatoes to each of six dinner plates, leaving as much sauce behind as possible. Mix the olives and parsley into the sauce, then taste and season with more salt if needed and spoon the sauce over the chicken.

Southwestern Grilled Chicken Salad with Tomato Black Bean Salsa

New recipe of the week comes from Fine Cooking Magazine.
Southwestern Grilled Chicken Salad with Tomato Black Bean Salsa

This was a very satisfying and delicious summer meal. Good for hot summer days when you can't bear to turn on the stove and heat up the house. It used up some of those delicious summer tomatoes and the cilantro we got from the farmer this week. Also the leftovers make a good lunch. I doubled the chicken, since I had two chicken breasts, thinking we'd eat the leftovers later in burritos, but we ate it all with the salad.

Chicken Noodle Soup

This one I make without a recipe, so it's a bit different every time, depending on what I have. I usually try to freeze some of the leftovers so we have something comforting when someone gets sick. The current incarnation was made for my dear husband, who got what we think was food poisoning from the catering at my family reunion. He was violently ill, recovered enough for us to travel home again (6 hours driving on Tuesday, then traveling from 6 am until 10:30 pm on Wednesday getting to and from airports and flying from Phoenix to Pittsburgh). At about 10 pm his fever and chills came back. And he's still not better! So anyway, I made him this chicken noodle soup.

1 small onion
2 stalks celery, with leaves
2-3 medium carrots
1 chicken breast
2 quarts chicken stock or broth
3/4 cup noodles (I had star shaped)
a small bunch of herbs: parsley, thyme, and sage (optional)

Chop the veggies and sautee them in a bit of olive oil until tender. Add some kosher salt. Add the chicken stock and the chicken breast and boil until the chicken is cooked, about 8 minutes. Pull out the chicken, shred, then return to the pot. Add the herbs and the noodles. If you tie the herbs together, they're easier to fish out at the end. I also added a few dried mushrooms to add more depth to the flavor of the broth. It was good, but entirely optional. Cook until the noodles are soft. Add more broth/stock/water until the soup has the right proportion of broth to other things. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Curried Chicken Salad

This recipe I made up myself, based on a dish I had at a cafe once. I don't actually ever measure the ingredients, but just judge by look and taste, so feel free to adjust the amounts based on your personal preference. This is my best guess as to the proportions I use. This is one of our favorite ways to eat leftover roast chicken and it works with turkey breast as well. I like to have this with some spring greens and a piece of toast, and Zoe loves it in her school lunch with a croissant.

Curried Chicken Salad

2 cups cooked and coarsely chopped and/or shredded chicken
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 Tbs. light sour cream
1 1/2 tsp. yellow curry powder
1 1/2 cups red grapes (cut in half if you have the time)
1/3 cup toasted pecans (to top when you serve it)

Mix it all together, adding the pecans when you serve so they don't get soggy. The rest keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days.

Chicken Chilaquiles

There are lot's of versions of this out there. I like this one from Leanne Ely because it's easy and good, but I haven't often had one I don't like. I also like the addition of black beans. I usually split this recipe into two 8" square pans and freeze one to bake later. One of these smaller pans is just the right amount for the 3 of us. If I line the pan with foil before freezing it, then it slides out easily into a gallon bag and I can use the pan in the meantime. I also often use a little less chicken and more tortillas. More tortillas require more sauce, though, so keep that in mind. This is very flexible and I often substitute diced green chiles and green salsa for some or all of the enchilada sauce.

This is good with baked winter squash as a side dish - it cooks at the same time as the chilaquiles. I cut it in half, seed it, then turn it upside down in an oil-sprayed baking dish and bake until soft. then I top it with a little butter, brown sugar, and cardamom. Get the squash in the oven before you assemble the chilaquiles.

Chicken Chilaquiles

2 cans green enchilada sauce
1 cup salsa
2 cups cooked shredded chicken
1 Tbs. cumin
1 Tbs. garlic powder (opt.)
12 corn tortillas, cut into pieces
1 can black beans, drained
1/2 lb. cheddar, shredded

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan. Combine sauce and salsa with the cumin and garlic powder. Start layering in pan, starting with just enough sauce to cover bottom, then tortillas, then chicken, beans, and a little cheese. Repeat until you end with remaining sauce and cheese. Bake uncovered 30-40 min. Let it rest 10 minutes, then dig in.