Carne asada en adobe de guajillo

My friend Sarah recently returned from Arizona with a couple of bags of chiles in tow; keen to use them but not really sure what to do with them. So I offered to help. If you have a “I want to make things with chiles but don’t really know where to turn” emergency, I’m you’re gal. So we set a date for some Mexican cooking basic training and I set out figuring out something delicious to do with either cascabel or guajillo chiles.

I particularly enjoy guajillos because they have a beautiful deep red colour as well as a lovely fruity flavour without too much heat. Quite often people are afraid of cooking with chiles because they don’t want to eat spicy foods but the beauty of many Mexican chiles is that they’re not crazy hot but deliver a delightful flavour punch.

If you’re ready for some great grilling, this marinade is absolutely spectacular and worth making over and over again on the BBQ this summer (and also winter if you’re anything like me.)

Ingredients:

2 pounds flank or skirt steak

Marinade:

4 dried guajillo chiles

2 cloves of garlic

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp cider vinegar

pinch of salt

pinch of sugar

Boil up some water. Stem and seed the guajillo chiles. Soften them slightly on a comal or in a non-stick frying pan. Just heat them for a few minutes on each side until they are soft, don’t burn the flesh because it’ll make your sauce bitter. Put the chiles in a glass bowl, cover with boiled water, and let sit for about 15 minutes or so. Dry roast the garlic (with the skins still on) also in the pan or on the comal.

Once blackened, let the garlic cloves cool then peel and toss them into a blender along with the reconstituted chiles, vinegar, salt, sugar, cumin, and a 1/4 cup or so of the chile liquid. Waz it up until you get a really great smooth paste. If it’s too thick, just add a bit more water.

Take the steak and cut it into two pieces then put it in a non-reactive (preferably glass) plate and smother the meat with the marinade. You want every bit covered in it. Cover and put it in the fridge to marinate for at least four hours but better for eight or so.

When ready to cook, heat the grill until it is super hot. Put the meat on and sear each side for 8 or so minutes. Then flip it a couple of times to finish it off. Make sure you use up all the delicious marinade during the cooking process. Remove it from the heat and let it sit for about 10 minutes, then slice thinly and serve in a taco or over rice.

And why not grill up some shrimp along with it! They are great with salsa verde or marinated in lime and garlic.

© Gail J. Cohen 2016

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

Blueberry-avocado smoothie

I've not really been feeling particularly creative in the kitchen the last few weeks. Lots of repeating the easy, well-tried, known-to-not-disappoint dishes.

This morning though, I woke up with a hankering for a smoothie. There was a literally a hole-in-the wall juice bar near where I used to live. They made an apple and avocado smoothie which kind of rocked my world. Never thought of drinking avocado but I was open to try anything made with the beautiful green fruit. So wilth that fine memory in mind, I tried this out this morning and it was delicious.

Ingredients

1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 avocado
1 tbsp orange blossom honey
1-1/2 cups of 1% milk

Waz it all up. Drink it all up.  Smile all day.

Albondigas verde

I thought I'd repurpose some of my recipes from other places so I can have all of them in this new blog. So here goes.

From the archives

For the many Sephardim that read this blog (and there are so many of you I can barely count you on one finger), you'll be familiar with the traditional version of albondigas that we've been eating (and loving!) since we were all tiny. They're red, it's all about the tomato. Well tonight I went off the beaten path, well onto the somewhat beaten path of Mexican flavours that I've embraced and turned the blessed albondiga of my youth on its ear! Tonight's were green, that's verde, yes!

I had some tomatillos sitting in the fridge that I had picked up at a farmers' market a while ago. I needed to use them. I was not willing to let those beauties go to waste but I needed something one step up from salsa verde, because that does not a dinner make. So a little searching and a little cobbling together and here's what I came up with.

Albondigas verde

• 1-2 pounds of ground beef
• 10 or so tomatillos
• 2 poblano peppers or a couple of jalapenos
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 big white onion (1/2 cut into chunks, 1/4 chopped super finely)
• 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro
• 2 tbsp of uncooked rice
• few tablespoons of oil
• salt 
• 1 or 2 eggs

Clean and remove the husks from the tomatillos and put them in a pot of water to boil for about 15 min until they turn a little yellowish. If using jalepenos, boil with the tomatillos and remove seeds etc once cooked.. Once ready, drain the water from the pot.

Roast the poblano peppers (either under the broiler or over the flame of a gas stove) until they are fairly charred. Put in a plastic bag and let sweat for about 10 minutes so the skin will be easy to get off. Clean the skin off, remove the seeds and rinse the pepper to get all the black bits and seeds off.  

Chuck the cooked tomatillos, poblano peppers/jalapenos, chunks of onions, cilantro, garlic, and about a cup of water into a blender and blend until it is a very nice green colour.

To make the meatballs, mix the eggs, ground beef, finely chopped onion, rice and a couple of pinches of salt into a bowl and then form into walnut sized balls. Not too tiny but not big either.

In a pot large enough to fit the balls essentially in one layer, add the oil and let it get hot. Pour the tomatillo mixture in (and enjoy the sizzle). Mix and let it come to the boil. You should add a bit of water to thin it out now (I used the blender and got all the rest of the tomatillo mixture out with the water). 

Once the sauce comes back to the boil, add the balls, turn down the heat, and let it simmer partially covered for 30 minutes. Add salt etc as required to taste.

I served this over pink rice and a little Mexican style salad with chopped onion, a few of the last stragglers from my tomato crop, chopped lettuce, and some chunks of avocado dressed simply wiht some lime juice, olive oil and a bit of salt.  They don't look all that fantastic in pictures but we're about flavour here, not looks!

(c) 2013 Gail J. Cohen

Chile powder

My love of chiles knows no bounds, so I'm always looking for different things to do with them. The reality is, though, that you can't cook every meal with chiles because the people you live with might not be quite as in love with them as you are. That doesn't mean my mind isn't always thinking about things to cook and ways to use all the beautiful chiles Mexico has to offer.

The most recent round of chile idea generation was spakred by my friend Sarah, who recently went to Arizona and came home with a big bag of cascabels. Cascabels are cutie little chiles - they look like big cherries, but, you know, with a bit of a kick. Unlike many chiles, the cascabels don't flatten out when they dry. Literally cascabel translates to "rattle" as the seed inside rattle around when the chile is dried and you shake it all about. The Gourmet Sleuth describes cascabels as "moderately hot and have a nutty flavor with a rich tannic and slightly smoky nuance."

While Taco Tuesday has become quite the thing, I am all about Taco Everyday. So I figured I'd try making some chile powder to make tacos later. This is what I whipped up it's still making my nose tickle hours later.


Yield: 2-3 tablespoons

Ingredients

2 dried cascabel chiles
2 dried chiles morito (chipotles)
2 dried cayenne peppers (I grew these in my garden last summer)
1 tsp dried cumin
1 tbsp Mexican oregano
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried coriander

Deseed the chiles. Then add all the ingredients to a grinder - I have a coffee grinder that I use only for spices. Grind it all up until it's a fine powder.

Use it as you would any chile powder.

(c) 2016 Gail J Cohen

*********

With this, I made some tasty beef taco. Just took 3 teaspoons of the chile powder, 1 pound of ground beef, 1 chopped/sauted onions, and a tablespoon of tomato paste and cook it all up for 20 minutes or so.  Then add the fixings and it's  Taco Saturday Night!

Corn and poblano soup

There really are few things I love more than corn and poblano peppers (well avocados but who’s counting). So any opportunity to have them together is a win-win for me. Poblanos have to be roasted before you use them, which gives them a beautiful smokey flavour. And while it’s a little finicky to do it and clean them, I absolutely adore the smell as they are roasting over the flames of the gas stove. Try it, you’ll love it. 

It sure is easy eating green.

This soup can be spicy but it totally depends on the poblanos you have. You can also add other green chiles or peppers if you want. If you want to ensure heat, toss in a jalapeno or serrano. I had some Anaheims kicking around so roasted and added one. 

And consider this my latest installment in the poblano soup series, which also includes Poblano, Leek, and Potato soup, and more to come.

Serves 6

Ingredients

2 or 3 poblanos, roasted

3 cups chicken stock (use vegetable stock for a vegetarian version)
1 onion

1 clove of garlic

1-2 tbsp butter or oil

couple of sprigs of fresh thyme

1 stick of celery

1 can corn niblets

1 can creamed corn (oh yeah!)

or one or two ears of fresh roasted corn cut off the cob

1 tbsp lime juice

salt and pepper to taste

Roast the poblanos. 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 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 as you can then cut out the stem and seed. Rinse it to get all the black stuff off and remove the final few stubborn seeds. Then roughly slice or chop.

Thinly slice the onions and celery then chop the garlic.

Heat the butter or oil in a medium to large pot and then add the onions and celery. Sautee until the onions are translucent. Then add the garlic and fry for another minute or so.

Add the stock, pinch of salt, thyme, and chopped up peppers to the pot. Slowly add the corn so you don’t splash yourself.

Stir it up a bit, bring to the boil and then lower the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Take the pot off the heat and use a hand blender to waz it all up and make a smoothish soup. With the corn, it’ll never be velvety, but don’t worry about it. Just make sure there aren’t chunks.

Taste, add salt and pepper as required. Squeeze in the lime. Stir and serve.

© 2016 Gail J. Cohen

Sopa de albondigas de pollo

Wanted to try something new with the ground chicken we had in the freezer. I love soup and meatballs so figured I could Mex it up and create a deeply flavoured broth with some beautiful chiles. If you like it smoky, use chipotle or my absolute favourite pasilla Oaxqueno, otherwise guajillo would work well.

6 servings

Meatballs

1 lb ground chicken

1 tbsp chopped cilantro

1 egg, beaten

2 tbsp breadcrumbs or matzoh meal

1 tsp Mexican oregano

1 tsp tomato paste

3 tbsp chopped onion

1 clove garlic

Salt and pepper

Broth

½ onion

1 garlic clove

1-2 dried chiles

1 bay leaf

1 cup pasata or crushed tomatoes

6 cups chicken stock

¼ cup rice

Juice of half a lime

Salt and pepper

Slice an onion in thick rondelles and put that and the unpeeled garlic cloves on a comal or non-stick pan and dry roast.

Stem and seed your chiles and dry roast them quickly on the comal and then put in a bowl of boiling water for 15 minutes to soften.

Take a couple of the slices of onion and one of the cloves of garlic (peel it first) and chop them finely for the meatballs.

Put the beaten egg, ground chicken, chopped onions, chopped garlic, breadcrumbs/matzoh meal, cilantro, oregano, and tomato paste into a medium sized bowl and get your hands in there and mix it all together. Add a bit of salt and pepper to taste.

Take about a heaping teaspoon worth of the meatball mixture and roll it into a small ball with your hands. Put the balls on a cutting board. Continue until you’ve used up all the meat mixture.

For the soup broth, put the rest of the roasted onion and peeled garlic into a blender with the tomato sauce and chiles. Waz it all up and add a little bit of the chile water for extra oomph.

In a medium-large pot, pour in the chicken stock and then add the tomato mixture and bay leaf. Add a bit of salt and pepper then bring it to the boil. Once it’s boiling CAREFULLY drop the meatballs in. Finally add the rice, turn the temperature down to med-low and let it simmer away for at least half an hour.

Once it’s cooked, give the broth a try and add more salt if you need to. Add the lime juice to taste (you may want a bit more or a bit less), and then serve this up. With a salad, or all on its own, this makes a nice light dinner. Of course, if you have fresh tortillas, do eat them with the soup. Crispy tortilla strips served on the top would also be a nice touch.

It is delicious and super-low calorie! (3 points per serving if you're counting it in Weight Watchers Smartpoints)

(c) 2016 Gail J Cohen