chichilo negro

I have to admit, I have never made mole from scratch and I get asked about from time to time. Meaning "sauce" or "concoction", mole is a laborious dish, involving individual preparation of any combination of chiles, vegetables, spices, herbs, seeds, and nuts which are either toasted, fried, or charred.  These ingredients are then blended together and fried in lard or some other sort of fat and combined with meat broth to coomplete the final sauce.  Though they seem to involve an excessive amount of ingredients, they all meld together to create one unique sauce. I guess it is the complexity of mole that has held me back, but I want to change that.  I want to challenge myself and take the time it requires to make good food. I want to explore and keep learning new things in the kitchen, to really experience these the smells and the sounds of new procedures, and to keep honing my skills.

The recipe I chose to go with to begin my mole journey is from Diana Kennedy's The Art of Mexican Cooking. This book is more a collection of family favorite dishes from different regions of Mexico.  Many of these recipes I have never seen, and are specific to each cook. There are various mole recipes with their own variations and special touches. One of my other goals is to work through this book in it's entirety so I'm also glad to get started on that.

The dish I chose is chichilo negro or black beef stew. It is a darker sauce due to the charring of various of the components and it's traditional use of a black chile, the chilhuacle.  I was not able to find this chile, but Kennedy offers guajillos as an option of which there are plenty here. This mole was also interesting in that it uses primarily beef and some pork.

The cut of beef I used was beef short ribs.  The recipe called for either ribs or brisket.  I definitely want to give brisket a shot for the next time I make this. I also used about a pound of cubed pork shoulder meat.  I placed the beef and pork into a large pot with one chopped onion and 1 crushed clove of garlic.  I added just enough water to cover the meat and let it simmer for about 1 hour.  The resulting liquid will be used as the final component in the mole.

My first group of ingredients to prepare were the chile pasilla, chile guajillo, onion, tomatillos, and garlic.  I prepared the chiles by slicing lengthwise and removing all the seeds.  I saved the seeds as these become a component of the sauce itself.  19 dried chiles can be somewhat tedious but I found with each chile, the process became more familiar and seemed to go a bit more quickly. I heated up a wide skillet over high heat to begin toasting the chiles.

The smell of the chiles as they cooked on the skillet was amazing.  It is a smoky fruity aroma that is just every comforting and welcoming.  I tried to get a decent char on each side.  Actually, Kennedy suggests toasting each side of the guajillo until completely blackened.  I didn't take them this far unfortunately and will probably try getting them darker next time.  I would imagine this adds a bit more of a bitter and smoky flavor of the sauce. The chile in the back is the lone pasilla, the flesh got a bit more tobacco brown as it heated up in the skillet.

After removing from the chiles from the skillet, I rinsed them in cold water, then covered them in hot water for 15 min.  They'll soften during this time, so that they can be blended into the mole.

After I was done with the chiles, I added the onion, unpeeled garlic, and tomatillos to the dry skillet. As with the chiles, the goal was to get somewhat of a char on each side. I got a bit impatient during this step but eventually the vegetables got cooked through after several minutes of turning on the skillet.

I first removed the garlic, notice how the skins get black in certain parts.  The clove just slips right out at this point. The garlic was sweet and sticky but still pungent, I kind of wanted to just eat one at that point.  The tomatillos onions softed and got blackened in places.  I wanted to let these go further but was getting some seriously smoke coming from the skillet.  Next time, I'm going to try a combination of cooking in the skillet on the stove top as well as in the broiler to get more of a consistent roast all around.

I saved the seeds from 1 pasilla and 18 guajillos.  It ultimately didn't seem like a lot considering how much seemed come out of each individual chile.  The recipe called for toasting these until black.  New smells came from the seeds as they cooked, nutty and sweet, it almost smelled like bread was baking. On the other burner, I began toasting a tortilla over an open flame.  As the recipe suggested, I let the tortilla burn until flaming and then tossed on top of the seeds in the pot.

I did this with one more tortilla before dousing in cold water. I let this combination sit for about 5 minutes before draining. Considering that this particular mole doesn't have any other nuts, it seems that the chile seeds would serve this purpose.  I was curious to see how this flavor plays out in the final dish. This along with the other previously roasted ingredients are used to start the base for the mole.

It was interesting to find out that there is a specific type of oregano used for this dish that is Oaxacan oregano.  Apparently this is different from Mexican oregano.  Thankfully, the recipe showed an alternate measurement for the latter.  The other spices and herbs I used were cumin seeds, cloves, allspice, and thyme. The recipe also called for marjoram, which I unfortunately didn't have at the time.

I added all the ingredients except for the chiles in a large pitcher and combined using a stick blender. It was interesting to see the sauce at this point.  It was gray, the color of the seeds and tortillas at the time really showed through.

I added the chiles a few at a time and blending in between additions.  I think this is because makes it easier to really grind down the chiles and properly combine them into the rest of the mole.  To loosen the sauce as I blended it, I added a bit of broth from boiled chayote and green beans that are later added to the dish.  Once, all the ingredients were combined, I added a couple of tablespoons of lard to a large pot and fried the mole on high.  I scraped the bottom of the pan to make sure it wasn't sticking. After about 25 min the sauce thickens, and the flavors concentrate.

After simmering for about an hour, the beef was tender and the bones easily slid out.  I set these aside along with the pork to cool down.  I later chopped these into large chunks to be later added to the mole.

The second to last component of the dish is a ball of masa that is first blended with some of the beef broth, then added to the mole. The original recipe calls for masa made from cooking dried corn in water and powdered lime.  I hope to make this at some point, but for this recipe, I used masa harina mixed with water. The masa acts as a thickening agent while imparting some additional corn flavor.   After stirring in the masa and broth mixture, I cooked for 5 min, before adding in the remaining beef broth. I added the beef and pork that I chopped earlier, then simmered for an additional 15 minutes.

I served the chichilo negro with white rice that I cooked in vegetable broth along with boiled chayote and green beans.  The sauce was rich and had a nutty taste to it.  It wasn't as spicy as I had expected, but I still got a good touch of heat at the end.  The guajillos added some degree of sweetness that you sometimes expect in a mole as well. Overal it had a wonderful and complex taste.  I definitely got the roasted flavor, but can see that I needed to do a bit more charring during my preparation.

There were various components to this dish, and I felt it was a good introduction to the process involved in creating a mole. I felt that I learned some things I can't quite pinpoint, maybe it was the patience to prepare each individual ingredient.  I also feel a lot of it was tied to the smells that came from each ingredient, or the way the chiles changed texture when they were being toasted then again after being soaked. I was impressed with the flavor the seeds brought to the dish, it is something I never did before, but can definitely see using from now on. It is one of those things I kind of assumed I knew how it would go, until I actually tried it.

coconut milk braised pork

I love pork and I love coconut so obviously both together would be amazing.  I had a spare can of coconut milk in my cabinet and wanted to use it.  I initially thought of other recipes I've done which basically involve braising pork shoulder in liquid. Most recipes I found seem to incorporate ginger and lemongrass. That sounded good so I went with that. I also wanted it to be fairly spiced with cumin and coriander.

I began by first adding ginger, lemongrass, chile serrano, and garlic cloves to a molcajete.

I smashed all the ingredients together until it formed somewhat of a paste.

These are pork shoulder steaks.  These seemed easier to manage versus a full shoulder for a weekday meal.

Adding salt to the pork steaks before browning in the dutch oven.

After flipping the second steak.  I'm getting better at not checking it and just letting it get nice and brown.

I removed the pork steaks after cooking at set to the side to prepare the rest of the stew ingredients.

I added coriander and cumin seeds and heated through in the remaining oil and pork fat to extract the flavor.

I added my garlic/ginger/lemongrass/chile paste and sliced onion to the porky spices in the pot.

I added the can of coconut milk along with a canful of water and scraped the pork pieces stuck to the pan.

I placed the pork steaks in the coconut mixture then let it boil slightly before covering and braising on low.

The pork was falling apart after a few hours. It was tender and and the coconut came through.

Not wanting to waste the delicious porky coconut goodness, I added kale to the leftover broth.

I broke the pork up into pieces and placed over rice.  I then ladled kale and coconut broth over.  The dish is rich as expected so to counteract that a little bit I squeezed limed juice before serving.  The spices really came through well and I especially the cumin coming through in the coconut milk.

smoked shrimp curry

Over the weekend I got the opportunity to check out Calumet Fisheries on the south side.  Once I walked in and smelled the smoked fish, I knew I was in heaven.  I picked up a lovely piece of smoked salmon (more on that later) as well as a few pieces of smoked shrimp.

I got to work on the shrimp by splitting them in half, discarding the vein and holding on to the shells to make a flavorful broth.

I began by taking the shrimp shells and frying them in a sautee pan before placing in the oven to roast until crispy and the shell turns a more solid pink.

After removing from the oven I placed teh sautee pan back on the burner and added water and proceed to boil to extract as much of the flavor from the shells as possible.

As the shells boiled I added to another pan onion, garlic, ginger, jalapeño, cumin and coriander, and sauteed until the onion turned opaque.  I added a couple of diced potato as well as a few ladlefulls of shrimp broth and slowly simmered.

 Just before the potato finished cooking I added back the shrimp meat and let everything simmer together.  The starch in the potato helped to thicken the sauce a bit.  To serve I placed over a bed of brown rice that was cooked in remaining shirmp broth.



The dish was delicious.  The way the smokey flavors of the shrimp worked in conjunction with the heat and spices in the curry really made for a satisfying dish.  The flavor of the shrimp broth really shined through in the dish.  I will definitely be heading back to Calument Fisheries soon to pick up some more soon!

a great dinner with friends

This weekend our dear friends Justin and Amy came over for dinner and I wanted to prepare something special.  I was wracking my brain for a few days trying to come up with an idea, then one day on the drive home from work I heard a piece on NPR about a recipe for stuffed pumpkin.  The original recipe called for pumpkin stuffed with breadcrumbs, bacon, and cheese, topped with heavy cream and nutmeg and baked in the oven.  This sounded pretty amazing so I wanted to make my own interpretation.  For my version I utilized acorn squash, they were the perfect size for individual servings.  Since in my last post I did a recipe for stuffed calabacita, I decided to use this as the stuffing for my squash, along with rice and manchego cheese.  To serve along with the pumpkin I prepared an arugula salad with roasted beets, roasted fresh chick peas and goat cheese.

To prepare the squash I first took 4 fresh acorn squash and sliced a tiny bit off the bottom, making sure not to cut through to the cavity of the squash, so that they can stand upright.  I then proceeded to cut the tops off the squash to create an opening to the inner cavity. Using a spoon I gutted the squash, taking out all the seeds and fibrous material to prepare it for the stuffing.

The stuffing consisted of diced calabacita, rice, manchego cheese, knob onions and garlic.  I tossed all these ingredients in a bowl with salt and pepper and stuffed into the squash.  I filled the squash with a combination of heavy cream, vegetable broth that I reduced by half and nutmeg.  This serves as the liquid base which will cook through the rice as well as make for a rich flavorful stuffing.

I covered the squash with their respective tops in the oven for 3 hours until the squash cooked through and the majority of the liquid was absorbed.  I removed from the oven, sprinkled shredded manchego cheese over the top and placed back in the oven for another 15 minutes until the cheese was melted and golden brown.  

For the arugula salad, I began by preparing the vegetables.  At my local produce market, I found some fresh chick peas.  I never worked with these before but I had heard that you can roast them and they that they have a rich nutty flavor, somewhat similar to edamame.  I also purchased some beets which I peeled and chopped before placing on a baking sheet with the chick peas (shell on) to roast.  I roasted both vegetables in the oven for about 45minutes, occasionally moving the chick peas to make sure they don’t burn on one end.

chickpeas and beets, together at last!

Once the vegetables cooled, I shelled the chick peas and I combined them along with the beets in a large bowl.  I added a few handfuls of arugula and I tossed the salad in a simple vinaigrette I prepared with lemon, honey and olive oil.  I served the salad on individual plates and topped with goat cheese.

The squash was the perfect warming, comforting dish for our cozy dinner together.  The stuffing was rich, creamy and the rice cooked through quite nicely.  The squash went well with stuffing and the nutmeg tied all the flavors together.  Despite the 3 hours in the oven, the dish overall is fairly easy to make and the results are well worth the wait.  The salad was a nice addition to break up the richness of the squash dish.  The chickpeas added a bit of texture and nuttiness that went well with the beets and goat cheese while the arugula and lemon vinaigrette added a bit of freshness and bite. 

We had a great night with our friends filled with interesting conversation and plenty of laughter.  I feel truly honored to be able to cook for my friends, have a few beers and spend a wonderful evening together.