Chocolate-tinged red enchilada sauce

 This recipe makes a pretty traditional Mexican red enchilada sauce but the addition of some dark chocolate (I used the fantastic organic sea salt chocolate from Canadian chocolate company Xauxa) gives it a little more richness and depth.

Yield: 4 cups

Ingredients:

8 ancho chiles
2 pasilla chiles
3 guajillo chiles
1 medium onion quartered
2 plum or 1 large tomato
3 cloves garlic (skin on)
1/2 tsp Mexican oregano
1/2 tsp marjoram
3 tbsp canola or avocado oil
20 g Xuaxa sea salt dark chocolate, chopped
salt to taste

Method:

Wipe chiles clean and remove stems and seeds. Dry roast them in a hot pan or on a comal (no oil) for about 10 or 15 seconds each side. Don’t let them burn or your sauce will be bitter.  Soak chiles in a bowl of boiled water for about 20 minutes to soften.

Roast the onion, tomatoes, and garlic in the pan or on comal. Let the garlic cool and remove the skin.

Put the soaked chiles, onion, tomatoes, garlic, oregano and marjoram into a blender. (Save the chile soaking water). Blend all of it until smooth, about 3 minutes. It’ll feel like it’s a very long time but your patience will pay off with a silky smooth sauce. If sauce seems too thick add a small amount of the chile soaking water.

 

Heat two tablespoons of cooking oil in a medium sized pot.  Pour the sauce into the pot to fry it (be careful of potential spitting as the liquid hits the hot oil). Add the chopped chocolate and stir it into the sauce. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until the sauce has thickened. It will also turn a deeper shade of red. Check and stir occasionally to make sure it doesn’t stick. The sauce is ready when it coats the back of a spoon.

Add salt to taste.

Allow the sauce to sit for at least 2 hours so that the flavours can marry.

Once your sauce is ready, use it to make your favourite enchiladas rojos. I pretty much guarantee no matter how you choose to make your enchilada that this sauce will be better than most. It will keep in the fridge for about 5 days or freeze it for use anytime.

 © Gail J Cohen 2020

Blow your socks off 7-pot chocolate chile and honey BBQ sauce

What's the point of growing chiles in your garden if you aren't going to experiment with crazy sauces? This one uses 7-pot chocolate chiles (aka: 7 Pot Douglah), which is one of the hottest peppers in the world coming in at about 2 million on the Scoville scale. It's got a fruity nutty flavour but mostly these chiles are just fiery - as is this bbq sauce.

If you like hot chicken wings, this is the sauce for you!

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Yield: About 500 ml or 2 cups.

Ingredients:

2 finely chopped 7-pot chocolate chiles/habaneros/carolina reapers etc
(use 1 if you are not in the mood to remove layers from inside your mouth and throat 😊)
2 cups ketchup
½ cup cider vinegar
¼ cup packed brown sugar
2 tbsp honey (raw is best)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp lime juice
3-4 drops liquid smoke
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder
1 tsp kosher salt
¼ cup of water

Method:

Mix the black pepper, garlic and onion powders and the kosher salt in the ¼ cup of water and stir it up making sure there’s no clumps.

Stir chopped chiles, ketchup, honey, vinegar and brown sugar together in a pot over medium heat until it’s smooth.

Add the Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, lime juice and water with the seasoning to the chile and ketchup mixture in the pot and stir thoroughly. Bring to the boil and then reduce heat to low. Simmer for about 20 minutes. If it’s too thick for your liking, add a bit more water.

Remove from heat and let cool. It will keep in the fridge for a few weeks if put into sterilized glass containers. Also freezes well.

© 2020 Gail J Cohen

 

Tamales de mole amarillo

Mole amarillo is one of the most popular fillings for tamales, the best late-night treats available on the streets of Oaxaca, Mexico. This is my version created from the many different ones that I was shown and read about how to make. I use costeno amarillo chiles but unless you’ve got a stash that you picked up while in Oaxaca, you won’t have them. Substitute guajillos instead. The sauce will be a little more red/orange than yellowish in that case. There’s also some alternate vegetarian filling suggestions at the end.

These tamales are wrapped in banana leaves, which are available frozen in many Latin, Asian, and Indian grocery stores. I also use shortening rather than lard but if you are all about the lard, go ahead and use that for your masa. And if you don’t have comal, you can dry roast everything in a non-stick frying pan.

Makes 20-24 tamales

Ingredients:

Mole

4 chiles costeno amarillo
2 large plum tomatoes
½ small white onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves
2 med or 4 small tomatillos
2 cloves
Pinch of ground cinnamon
Pinch of cumin
1 ball of allspice
6 peppercorns
1 tsp oregano (preferably Mexican)
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/3 cup masa harina
2 cups chicken stock (use the water you poached your chicken in)
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste

Chicken for filling

8-10 chicken thighs
Handful of fresh parsley
1 clove of garlic
8 peppercorns
1 tsp salt

Masa for tamales

1 cup shortening
2 cups masa for tamales (store bought, dried)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1.5 cups warm chicken stock

1 pkg frozen banana leaves (defrosted)

Method:

1. Poach the chicken: Put chicken into a pot with parsley, garlic, salt, and peppercorns. Cover with water and poach chicken until done. Save stock to use in making mole. Set chicken aside to cool.
2. Remove stem and seeds from the chiles. Gently soften the chiles on the comal. Remove and place in a glass bowl and cover with boiling water. Let soak for at least 20 minutes.
3. Dry roast onion slices, garlic in the skin, tomatoes, tomatillos on the comal.
   
   Once ready put them all in the blender (remember to cool and remove the skin from the garlic). Add the cilantro, oregano, and chiles with some of their soaking liquid. Waz until smooth, about 3-4 minutes.
4. Grind the cloves, cumin, allspice, and pepper.
5. Heat oil in a small pot and quickly fry spices, including cinnamon, when hot. Add chile mixture and sear.  Bring to the boil and stir for about 5 minutes. Add masa harina as well as ½ a cup or so of chicken stock. Let boil for about 10 minutes. Add more stock if it’s too thick and let boil for a total of 15-20 minutes. Add salt to taste.
6. Shred the cooked chicken. Mix the shredded chicken and most of the mole together to make the tamale filling. It should be wet but not too runny. Add a little more of the mole and/or chicken broth until it is a good consistency.
7. The package of masa you have should have instructions on how to make the dough, so it’s best to follow those.  Basically mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl, then add the chicken stock and incorporate. It should create quite a damp (but not at all runny) dough. Beat the shortening in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer until it is quite fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Then add the masa to the shortening and beat until mixed together, about another 2-3 minutes. You can test to see if it’s fluffy enough by putting a small ball into a glass of water. If it floats, you’re good to go!
8. Put a layer of water about 5 cm/2” deep into a steamer pot or the largest pot you have in the house with a veg steamer tray in the bottom. The great thing about banana leaf tamales is you can just pile them one on top of another, unlike corn husk ones that need to be standing upright.
9. Wipe down the leaves and trim them with a scissors: cut off the stem and make squares approx. 20 cm/8” (they don’t need to be perfect). You should also cut them with the grain of the leaf rather than against it. Either cut some thin strings from the banana leaf or use cooking twine for wrapping up the parcels. 
10. Once your leaves are all prepared, pass them over a flame or grill, moving them constantly, until they soften and become pliable. The banana leaves have a white film on them. The heat should burn off the white film and make the leaves shinier. 
    
11. Place ¼ cup of masa onto each banana leaf and flatten (this works best with a rubber spatula). Put about 2 tbsp of filling on to the top half of the masa (not in the middle). Fold the leaf so the lower part masa covers the filling.
    
    You may have to roll or fold it again to close the packet up tightish. Then fold the sides of the banana leaf one at a time to form a package. Tie with string and place folded side down into the pot on the steamer tray. Pile them up neatly around the pot as you go.
    
    Once you have all them all wrapped and ready, cover the pot and turn on the burner to get the water boiling. Once boiling, turn down to low and let your tamales steam for about 45 minutes.
    
    
12. When done, remove from pot and let cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Top with a bit of salsa verde.

* Vegetarian fillings:

• Oaxacan cheese and rajas (slices of jalapeno or roasted poblano)
• Oaxacan cheese and refried beans

Caramelized Onion & Tomato Pie

This is a great summer brunch dish and also an excellent way to use some of the beautiful tomatoes that you’ve grown in your garden or got at the local market. Serve with a fresh salad.

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

2-3 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced

6 cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters

1 medium onion thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic finely sliced

1 sheet frozen puff pastry (defrosted)

1.5 cups grated gouda

1 egg, beaten

A few sprigs of fresh thyme or ½ tsp dried thyme

1 tsp balsamic vinegar (the more aged/thick the better)

1 tbsp of butter

Flour for dusting

Method:

Put the sliced and cut tomatoes onto a few sheets of paper towel and sprinkle lightly with salt. This will help to draw the liquid out and make your pie more crispy.

Heat the butter in a medium sized frying pan and saute the onions for about 15 minutes on medium. Sprinkle a bit of salt while they’re cooking and stir frequently. They should get all dark and soft and caramelized. Once they are just about ready, toss in the garlic and saute for a minute or so. You don’t want the garlic to burn as it’ll get very bitter. Take off the heat and set aside.

Preheat your oven to 425F and line a baking pan or pizza pan with parchment paper.

Dust your counter or board in preparation for the pastry. Take your now-defrosted puff pastry (or make it if you have nothing but time on your hands!) and roll it out a few times just to make it a bit thinner than it is out of the package.

A whole piece of puff pastry is probably too big so maybe cut a quarter off the end and use that to make a few either sweet or savoury turnover. (I made swiss chard and goat cheese ones).

Roll the pastry onto your roller and then unroll it nicely onto the parchment paper covered pan. Prick the pastry a bit with a fork.

Take your now cool onions and spread them on the pastry. Leave a bit of an edge because you’re going to fold the edge over for max prettiness.

Cover the onions with a layer of cheese. Then artfully place the sliced tomatoes on top of the cheese. Make a frame around the edge of the onion/cheese/tomatoes with the little wedges of cherry tomato. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and thyme. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar over the top of it all.

Now gently fold the extra pastry over the top. It will form a frame around the edge (whether you do it as a rectangle or a circle). Lastly, give a generous egg wash all around the pastry on the top.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes until the pastry is a nice darkish brown. If there’s a little too much liquid still in your tomatoes once the pastry is done, you can just daub it with a bit of paper towel once you take it out the oven.

Let it cool for a few minutes, top with some fresh basil, then serve and enjoy.

© 2020 Gail J Cohen