I'm smokin' hot (sauce)

Every year I plant hot peppers in my lovely little garden. I tend to have a bit of a variety but every year I put in cayenne peppers because they never disappoint. This year I only had one plant but supplemented it with some serranos and jalapenos, so had a good variety of hot peppers. And at the end of the season, there are always lots left over. So what to do with lots of fiery little chiles?  Well make them into hot sauce, of course! 

Here's my quite simple hot sauce recipe from the archives:

Yield: about 100 ml

Ingredients:

1 dozen cayenne peppers
2 heads of garlic
3/4 cup of vinegar
salt
pinch of sugar

I had a lot of cayenne peppers and the others that I also grew, so threw a few of those in the mix, and made 4x the recipe.

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First cut off the stem, slit, and remove the seeds of each pepper. Please do this with gloves. And don't touch your eyes, nose, or mouth while you're doing the deed. The burn is fierce.

The traditional Tobasco Sauce has "aged" peppers but in the age of instant gratification, I deepened the flavour by roasting the peppers a bit. I used my favourite Mexican style of dry roasting on the comal, but you can do it in a large non-stick frying pan or by broiling them in the oven until the skin turns a bit black. Some people suggest taking the skins off after the roasting but seriously, that's a bunch of fiddling around that takes up time I'll never get back. So I just tossed them, the garlic (which I also roasted but there's no need to), and the vinegar into the blender and wazzed it all up.

Once it's all lovely and liquidized, simmer the mix on the stove for about 20 minutes. At this point, the whole kitchen, if not house, will start smelling like hot sauce. There may be some burning eyes. It's all for a good cause.

Once the simmering of the flavours is done, run the whole thing through a sieve to clear out the pulp, seeds, and skin.

This, I would say is the time to add the salt, if you're not too busy forgetting to do it like I did, and sugar.

You need to prepare some jars to put this lovely concotion in. I didn't have any traditional style bottles so I used small jam jars (125 ml each). They need to be washed out with boiling water and new lids prepared in boiling water. Once that's all ready, pour the sauce in, seal and you're ready to go with some smokin' hot sauce!

Roast duck tacos

Sometimes you just need a break from chicken and duck is a great alternative. Not to mention, these are an excellent option for using leftover duck that you may have made for Thanksgiving or some other special occasion that had you experimenting with non-turkey options.

If you’re starting from scratch, this dish does take a while but it’s totally worth it. If you are using a frozen duck, which are available in most grocery stores, make sure it is completely defrosted before you start. You can use the first part of the recipe simply to make a delectable, spicy roast duck or you can go all the way and serve up some unusual tacos to a tableful of lucky dinner guests.

I have set up the recipe with the instructions for the roast duck first, followed by the one for the salsa, which stars my personal favourite poblano peppers.

Yield: 4-8 servings

Ingredients:

1 whole duck
2 tsp chipotle powder
1 tsp salt
pinch of black pepper

Sauce:
2 poblanos
2 tomatillos, husked and rinsed
2 serrano peppers
1 large tomato
2 garlic cloves
1/2 onion, thickly sliced
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp salt
Juice of half a lime

Garnish:
Chopped radishes
Chopped cilantro
Sliced or mashed avocado
Chopped tomatoes
Lime wedges

Corn tortillas

Roasting the duck

Preheat the oven to 450F

Clean the duck – ie: remove all the giblets, cut off excess fat etc. and rinse.  Prick the skin in all over and then gently put the duck in a large pot of boiling water for about 10 minutes. This action will give you super crispy skin down the road. Totally worth doing it even though you don’t need to. After 10 minutes, remove the duck from the pot and let cool.

Mix the chipotle powder, salt, and black pepper in a small bowl. Once the duck is cool, rub seasoning mix inside and out.  Place the seasoned bird breast up on a rack in a roasting pan and cook in the oven for 15 minutes. After that, turn the oven down to 350F and cook for another 40 minutes.

At this point, take the duck out of the oven and carefully turn it over so you don’t tear the skin. Also add about a 1/4 cup of water to the fat and drippings that have collected in the bottom of the pan. Return the duck to the oven for another 35 minutes. After that turn the bird one more time and cook for about another 15 minutes. It’s ready when the drumsticks feel loose. Don’t overcook though because it will be dry, rubbery, and stringy. Remove from the oven.

This duck is now spicy and delicious with some awesome crispy skin. Be sure to save the duck fat and juices that have collected in the bottom of the pan.

One duck provides enough meat for 6 to 8 people to have a large meal of off-the-charts duck tacos. So usually for four, I use half the duck and save the other half for other meals. Conversely, you can eat the fresh roasted duck right away because it is hot and delectable and then use the leftovers for tacos.

Once you make the decision on how to proceed with consuming this bird, let the portion for tacos cool then remove the skin and shred the meat into a bowl.

Making the salsa

While the duck is cooking, you can prepare the salsa. Start by roasting the poblano peppers. If you have a bbq or gas stove, char the skin over the flame. In this case, it’s a bit more complicated if you have to use the oven. You can either wait until the duck is cooked or put them under the broiler beforehand for 10-15 minutes, turning so all sides get charred.

Put the hot peppers in a bowl, cover them with a tea towel, and let them sit/steam for 10 minutes or more. The skin should now come off easily when you rub it. Remove as much of the skin as you can then cut out the stem and seed. Rinse them to get all the black stuff off and remove the final few stubborn seeds. Cut them up into a few large pieces and put into a blender jar.

On a comal or in a large non-stick frying pan, dry roast the garlic (leave it whole with the skin on), slices of onion, tomatillos, and tomatoes. All the vegetables should be nicely charred with the tomatoes and tomatillos just starting to ooze some juice. Put all but the garlic into the blender. Let the soft, blackened garlic cool then peel and chuck in the blender. Add the cilantro, salt, and lime juice and blend for about a minute.

In a small saucepan, pour two or three tablespoons of the duck fat/dripping mixture. When hot pour in the salsa mixture. You will get a tremendously satisfying sizzle from this operation!  Turn the heat down and let it slowly bubble away for 10 minutes or so until it turns a deeper shade of green. Check the seasonings.

Now let’s make some tacos

Warm the tortillas in the microwave either in a paper towel or tortilla warmer.

Fill them up with the shredded duck, a couple of spoonfuls of the salsa, and the garnish of your choice.  Serve with lime wedges. Enjoy!

© 2016 Gail J. Cohen

Salsa verde: once you go green there's no going back

Salsa verde can mean a lot of different things from a totally fresh sauce to one much more complex. This version of Mexican salsa verde is tomtaillo-based and has become one of my favourites.  Of course, it was the very first dish that was prepared for me when I arrived in Oaxaca last year. So simple and so mind blowing. Enjoy it, over and over again.

Yield: 2 cups

Ingredients:

1 lb tomatillos husked and washed
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
2 garlic cloves with skin still on
½ white onion sliced
1 fresh jalapeno or serrano chile
Juice of ½ a lime
2 tsp of oil

Dry roast the tomatillos, garlic, chiles, and onions on a comal or in a large non-stick frying pan. Once the garlic is blackend, take it off the comal and cool it, then peel and put it in a blender.

You can definitely use canned tomatillos for this. It doesn't have quite the same fresh flavour but it works and you don't need to roast them, just toss in the blender and keep going.

Add all the other ingredients to the blender and blend it all until smooth, about 2-3 minutes. If it’s very thick, add a bit of water to thin but don’t make it too thin.

Heat the oil in a pot and once it’s very hot, pour the tomatillo mixture into the pot so it sizzles. Stir and boil for a couple of minutes and then it’s ready to use in any variety of delicious ways.

Good tasting isn't always good looking when it comes to food!

The most simple dish involves dry frying a couple of corn tortillas, daubing some salsa on a plate, then layering salsa and tortillas, and toppping with some queso fresco and sliced avocado or guacamole . Makes a great breakfast. Add a soft fried egg and now you’ve some perfection. We probably eat this for a light dinner even more often than breakfast.

For a bit more of a substantial meal, you can poach or grill some chicken and serve it with rice, avocado and a bit of salad.

© 2016 Gail J. Cohen

A spicy meatball (aka albondigas picantes)

The coming together of two loves is a beautiful thing. In this: the meatball and the flavours of Oaxaca. It’s Sunday and I want to whip up something delicious that uses some of the many Mexican chiles in the cupboard as well as the ground beef I took out the other night but didn’t end up using.  This happened:

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

Sauce:

4 medium tomatoes

2 Oaxacan pasilla chiles

1 ancho chile

2 avocado leaves

2-4 garlic cloves (depends on the quality of your garlic)

1 tbsp chopped cilantro

1 small onion, sliced into four or so thick rounds

¼ tsp ground coriander

½ tsp ground cumin

1 tsp Mexican oregano

1 cup chicken stock

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tbsp oil

Meatballs

1 lb extra-lean ground beef

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 egg

¼ cup breadcrumbs

Salt & pepper to taste

Stem and seed the dried chiles. On your comal or in a large non-stick frying pan, gently toast the chiles for a 10 or 15 seconds on each side until they are soft. Don’t burn or blacken them because your sauce will be bitter. Then place them in a bowl of enough boiling water so they are covered. You can add your avocado leaves to this too if they are very dry (ie: have been at your local grocer or in your cupboard for some lengthy period of time.)

Then dry roast the garlic (you can leave the husk on and peel it off afterwards), onion, and tomatoes on the comal.  Turn the tomatoes so you get blackening on all sides but don’t let them get too soft or all is lost. (You can also roast them under the broiler in your oven for 10 minutes or so until they’re blackened). Once everything is nicely toasted, add it all to your blender.

Add the chiles, avocado leaves, chopped cilantro, cumin, oregano, coriander, salt and a few tablespoons of the chile liquid to the blender and waz it up. Taste for salt and add more. If it’s a tiny bit bitter, you can add some sugar to counteract.

Heat the oil in a medium sized saucepan and once it’s good and hot, pour in the tomato-chile mixture so it sizzles. Add the cup of chicken stock and stir. If it’s still very thick, add a bit of the chile soaking water or just plain water to it. Turn it to low and let the mixture boil for 5 or 10 minutes. It’ll turn a deep shade of red.

In the meantime, add the egg to a glass bowl and beat it. Then add the ground beef, tomato paste, breadcrumbs, and salt and pepper. Mix it all together with your hands. Once everything is well mixed, form walnut sized balls and add them to the boiling tomato-chile sauce.

Bring it all back to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for half an hour.

You can eat them right away or let them sit and get cozier with the flavours for a while longer. They are fine overnight in the fridge too.

Serve with the rice of your choice and topped with some sliced avocado.

(Weight Watcher Smart Points = 6 per serving)

© Gail J. Cohen 2016

5-pepper and cheese tamales

When I was in Oaxaca, I had the pleasure of spending some time in the kitchen with my host family making tamales. They are impossible to reproduce at home due to the lack of fresh, soft masa and lard (which I wouldn’t use anyway but it sure does make for a rich and light tamal dough). So this recipe was inspired by that cooking adventure as Eunice uses swiss chard to wrap the tamales, rather than the traditional banana leaf or corn husk. I really enjoy the flavour the greens infuse into the tamale. And this version is 100% vegetarian.

These take a while to make, so be prepared to spend some quality time in the kitchen on a weekend. Your guests will be impressed.

These unique tamales are wrapped in swiss chard, which you also eat, rather banana leaves or corn husks that get tossed.

Yield: 10-14 tamales

Ingredients:

For the tamal dough:

(This will make double the amount of dough you need, so you can double the rest of the ingredients and make lots or you can use the remaining masa to make another kind of tamal. I made some amarillo mole with chicken tamales wrapped in corn husks with the remainder). 

280 g vegetable shortening, at room temperature 
Salt
1½ tsp baking powder
3½ cups dried masa harina for tamales mixed with 2¾-3 cups hot water
1 to 1½ cups vegetable stock

For the tamales:

·        2 big bunches of swiss chard

·        1 jalapeno

·        2 serrano chiles

·        1 red pepper

·        1 anaheim or banana pepper

·        1 poblano pepper

·        200 g of mushrooms

·        2 large or 3 smaller roma tomatoes

·        ½ onion

·        100-120g of monterey jack cheese with pepper in it (or really any melty cheese you want)

·        Salt

·        1 tsp Mexican oregano

·        Juice of half a lime

·        2 tbsp olive oil

For garnish:

·        Queso fresco or fresh ricotta

·        Salsa of your choosing, but freshly made is always best

·        Sour cream

Wash the swiss chard and let it dry. Then remove the stems so you are left only with soft leaves. I added probably about ¼ cup of finely sliced stems to the filling mixture, so cut and save that while you’re cleaning the leaves.

Tamal dough:

Mix the water and dried masa harina together until you have a soft dough. If it doesn’t hold together or is still a bit crumbly, add a bit more water until you can get a good ball of it. Sometimes if your masa harina has been around a while, it can get really dry so needs more water to reconstitute. Use hot but not boiling water for this as boiling water is really hard on the old hands when mixing it all together (obviously a lesson learned the hard way).

You can make the rest of the dough by hand, but it is much easier with a stand mixer so those are the instructions I’ll provide.

With your mixer on medium-high speed, beat the shortening, 2 teaspoons salt, and the baking powder for a minute or two. Continue beating as you add the masa in small handfuls.

Reduce the speed to medium-low and add 1 cup of stock. You should be able to roll the masa into a ball without it either breaking apart or being so soft it sticks to your hands so add more stock if you need to but be careful not to add too much. Continue beating for another minute or so, until a ½ teaspoon of the batter floats in a cup of cold water (if it floats you can be sure the tamales will be tender and light).

Taste the batter and season with more salt if you think it needs some. You can, if you have time, refrigerate the batter for an hour or so, then rebeat, adding a little more stock or water if you need to bring the mixture to the soft consistency it had before. This can make your dough a bit lighter.

Filling:

Roast the poblano. If you have a bbq or gas stove, char the skin over the flame. If you have an electric stove, put it under the broiler for 10-15 minutes turning it so all sides get charred.  Put the hot pepper in a bowl, cover it with a towel, and let it sit/steam while you chop up the other ingredients so it will be easy to peel. Then remove the skin, stem, and seeds. Rinse it to get all the black stuff off. Then cut into 2” slivers.

Stem and deseed all the peppers and chiles. (You might want to wear gloves for this part). Then cut them into fine slivers about 2” long. Finely slice the onion and the mushrooms. Chop the tomatoes into small pieces.

Heat the oil in a medium-sized frying pan and add the peppers, chiles, onions, mushrooms, oregano, and a pinch of salt. Saute until soft, then remove and put in a mixing bowl. Using the same pan, cook the tomatoes, along with the lime juice, until they’re soft. You may have to add a bit of water and squash them in the pan to make it all saucy. Pour the saucy tomatoes into the vegetable mixture.

Cut the cheese into 2” long slivers.

Making the tamales

To steam the tamales you will need a really big pot with a wire rack or vegetable steamer on the bottom. Add water to the bottom of the pot until it is just below the rack. Lay a couple of swiss chard leaves or parchement paper (with a few holes poked in it) across the rack so you won’t have the steam directly hitting the tamales.

Take enough masa dough to roll into a walnut-sized ball.  Starting with pushing your thumb into the middle of the ball, proceed to flatten the ball on the palm of your hand. Add a tablespoon or so of filling as well as two or three strips of cheese onto the flattened ball. Then bring the edges up and make a bit of a dough packet.

Wrap each ball in a leaf of the swiss chard. Try to make sure that there is no dough peeking out but the wrapping doesn’t have to be super neat because once it’s steamed, you won’t be able to tell. Place the wrapped tamales into the steaming pot making sure you leave a space in the middle of the pot for the steam to travel through. If you don’t have a huge pot, you may have to steam in a couple of batches.

Once you have all of the tamales wrapped and placed in the pot, turn it on and get the water boiling. Once it has started to boil, turn the heat down to a very low simmer, cover and let the tamales steam for about 1½  hours.

Once they’re ready, gently remove them from the pot (it’s a bit tricky because the steamed chard is so soft and you don’t want to tear it) and place them on individual plates. Garnish with a bit of salsa, crumbled cheese, and sour cream on top.

You can have these as a whole meal accompanied with rice and a bit of salad or by themselves as an appetizer or snack.

(10 Weight Watchers SmartPoints per serving)

© 2016 Gail J. Cohen

Tamales!

They are crazy for tamales in Oaxaca. I thought tamales were mostly made for festivals because they take forever but here they eat them all the time - stuffed with moles, veg, chicken, etc. I have probably eaten tamales at least every second day since arriving. 

While I am in Oaxaca, I am staying with a family along with three other students from my language school. The four of us, along with the family of five, plus a dog and cute puppy make for a big household. Although the house is big and the students all have rooms with an ensuite (mini) bathroom to ourselves. While here, we get breakfast as well as the choice  of having our main meal. There's also a little restaurant in the garage that pops up every night. So there's cooking going on around here.  So I asked my host Eunice the other day if I could cook tamales with them one day and today was the day.

After lunch at 3, I hung around in the kitchen and tamale making started. Usually tamales are wrapped in either dried corn husks or banana leaves. Today, we used swiss chard, which was really awesome.

The tamales were pretty basic and easy to make, as tamales go.

Eunice showing me how the pros do it; the salsa, and the wrapped tamales getting ready for a steam.

The stuffing was thin slices of jalapenos (rajas de jalapeno), tons of onion, and tomato and shredded chicken. That's it. Basically cook it up into a salsa. In order to use it for the stuffing, just scoop some out of the pan and strain it so you don't get all the sauce, then add some chicken and that's it.

The masa (corn meal mixture) that is used for tamales is really hard to replicate back home but you can do a decent approximation using the pre-packaged masa that's available in lots of stores. Here's it's fresh and therefore much lighter and smoother. To the masa, which you can buy around the corner from pretty much anywhere, you add quite a bit of fat which makes the batter rich, and a few teaspoons of baking powder. 

Roll the masa into little balls, then turn those into a little cup, fill with salsa and chicken, seal them up, then wrap in the swiss chard. Then you just steam them until they're ready. In a pressure cooker it takes less time but in a regular pot, steaming would take about an hour and half. 

Once they're ready, simply serve with a bit of the salsa with juice as well as a bit of crema and crumbled queso fresco. Easy, peasy (and no messing around with unwrapping steaming hot leaves or corn husks!)

During the whole affair, I was chatting away in Spanish with Eunice, who told me my Spanish was pretty good. Her mom even said she understood most of what I was saying. So the whole Spanish lesson thing seems to be paying off. Maybe by the end of all this I'll be able to read and understand those kids books I bought at the book fair in the zocalo last night.