Tried some new (for me) Mexican-inspired recipes this weekend. I don't know if I would combine them

J

joe

Well-known member
in the same menu again--the chiles and the chicken sauces were both the same shade of brown, as was the caramel sauce for dessert, so the effect was a bit heavy for summer. But everything was delicious! (Perhaps a colorful fish dish would have been a better choice after the chiles than the chicken.)

Grand Marnier Margaritas

Hamachi Ceviche with Avocado on Fried Wontons (our friends brought these)

Blue Corn Chiles Rellenos with Chipotle Sauce

Diana Kennedy's Pollo en Pipian Rojo (Chicken in red sesame sauce)

(Chateau de Pampelonne (Cotes de Provence) rose, and Marques de Caceres Verdejo (a Spanish white.) Our friends brought these too.)

Jicama Salad

Julia's Cinnamon Toast Flan

Ahead of Time: The day before, I roasted and stuffed the chiles, and made their sauce. They were fried and served at the last minute. I also made the chicken pipian sauce the day before, using stock from my freezer, then poached the chicken in the afternoon (and now I have broth for the freezer again.) It was so easy to reheat the sauce, add the chicken and leave it over a tiny flame until serving time. The flan could be made ahead but I wanted it warm so it went into the oven as the guests arrived.

 
Grand Marnier Margaritas. Equal parts Grand Marnier, fresh lime juice and tequila,

served over ice in a salted glass.

 
Blue Corn Chiles Rellenos with Chipotle Sauce

Blue Corn Poblanos Rellenos.

From The Border Cookbook by Cheryl and Bill Jamison, based on a dish from Authentic Cafe in Los Angeles.

Sauce:
2 dried chipotle chiles
1½ cups chicken stock
1 whole small tomato, preferably Roma or Italian plum, roasted
1/3 medium onion, chunked
1 garlic clove
½ tsp. cumin seeds, toasted
¼ tsp. dried thyme
¼ tsp. salt, or more to taste
1/8 tsp dried epazote (I used a few leaves fresh)
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. Butter

Filling:
4 oz. Chihuahua or Muenster cheese, grated
4 oz. Monterrey Jack cheese, grated
4 oz. fresh creamy goat cheese, at room temperaturea (I used 6 oz. each goat and Jack)
2 Tbs. minced red onion
1 garlic clove, minced
¼ tsp. dried epazote (I used 1 tsp. minced fresh)

6 poblano or other fresh mild green chile, roasted, peeled, slit open, seeds removed. (I used 12 small Anaheim chiles)

Coating:
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs
¼ cup cream
1 cup stone-ground blue cornmeal
1/3 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal
½ tsp. cumin seeds, toasted and ground
½ tsp. salt

Vegetable oil for deep frying

To prepare the sauce, simmer the chiles with half of the stock for 20 minutes, or until very soft. Tranfer the chiles and stock to a blender. Add the tomato, onion, garlic, cumin, salt and epazote and puree.

In a heavy saucepan, warm the oil and butter over medium heat. Pour the sauce into the pan, being careful to avoid splatters as the liquid hits the hot oil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until reduced and somewhat thick. Stir in remaining stock and heat through. Taste the sauce and add more sat if you wish. Keep the sauce warm. (Can be made a day ahead and refrigerated. Warm the sauce before proceeding.)

To prepare the chiles' filling, mix together the ingredients in a bowl. Stuff the mixture equally into the chiles, binging the slit edges of each chile back together tightly. (My chiles shredded badly, but the coating held them together while frying.)

Place the flour in a shallow dish, whisk the eggs and cream together in another, and stir together the cornmeals, cumin and salt in another.

Pour 4” of oil into a heavy skillet or saucepan. Heat the oil to 350ºF.

Coat each chile in flour, dunk it in the egg mixture, and then into the cornmeal. Fry the chiles a few at a time for about 2½ to 3 minutes, until lightly browned and crisped. Drain and serve immediately, on pools of sauce.

 
Diana Kennedy's Pollo en Pipian Rojo (Chicken in red sesame sauce)

POLLO EN PIPIAN ROJO (CHICKEN IN RED SESAME SEED SAUCE)

from The Cuisines of Mexico by Diana Kennedy,
Ingredients:

1 3½ to 4 lb. chicken
The chicken giblets
1/2 onion sliced
2 cloves garlic peeled
1 sprig of parsley
1 bay leaf
A little thyme
1 tablespon salt (I used less)
Water to cover

For the sauce:
6 chiles anchos
1 tablespoon chili seeds well toasted
1/2 inch stick of cinnamon
3 whole cloves
5 peppercorns
3/4 cup sesame seeds
3 tbs. Lard (I used duck fat)
1/2 cup of the reserved chicken broth
1 clove garlic peeled

3 cups reserved broth

1 avocado leaf

Method:

Put the chicken, giblets and all other ingredients in a pan, cover with water and bring to the simmer. Lower the flame and simmer gently the chicken is just cooked. Let it cool in the broth, then cut in serving pieces. Strain of the broth and setaside.

Toast the chilies lightly on a griddle or comal, slit them and removed the seeds and veins. Reserve the seeds. Cover the chilies with hot water and leave them to soak for 15 - 20 minutes.

In a spice grinder, add the toasted cooked seeds and the spices together and grind fine.

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan until they are deep gold in color. Grind finely in the spice grinder and add to the spice mixture.

In a flameproof serving dish, melt the lard and fry the ground seeds and spices over low heat for a few minutes, stirring constantly.

With a slotted spoon, put the soaked chillies in a blender with ½ cup of the reserved chicken broth and the garlic and blend to a smooth puree.

Add the puree to the fried spice mix and cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes.

Add the 3 cups broth and let the sauce continue cooking over low flame for around 20 minutes, or until it thickens and is well seasoned.

Add the chicken, warm it through.

Toast the avocado leaf on a hot plate or comal briefly, grind it with a mortar and pestle and add it to the sauce.

In Mexico this would be served with hot tortillas only, but plain white rice goes very well with it.

 
Jicama Salad

Ensalada de Jicama
(Jicama Salad)

From The Border Cookbook by Cheryl and Bill Jamison

1 small jicama (about 1 pound) peeled and diced
½ cup fresh orange juice
2 Tbs. fresh lime juice
¼ tsp. salt
Barest pinch of ground cloves
2 medium oranges, peeled, membranes removed, and sections sliced in half
8 oz. Cantaloupe, honeydew, or other melon, or fresh pineapple, diced
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
½ to 1 tsp. chile caribe or other dried red chile flakes
Pinch of sugar
2 Tbs. Minced fresh cilantro.

In a large bowl, combine the jicama with the fruit juices and salt. Refrigerate for 30 to 60 minutes

Add the remaining ingredients except for the cilantro, to the jicama and juices and toss well. The salad can be refrigerated for several hours, if you wish, before serving. Stir in the cilantro before serving.

 
Julia's Cinnamon Toast flan

Cinnamon Toast Flan

from The Way to Cook by Julia Child

For a 6-cup baking dish 2 inches deep, serving 6 to 8 (I used a 2-qt. oval gratin dish and it was full).

ingredients
4 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
6 or 7 slices white sandwich bread, crusts left on
¼ cup sugar mixed with 2 tsp ground cinnamon
5 "large" eggs
5 egg yolks
¾ cup sugar
3¾ cups hot milk
1½ tablespoons vanilla extract
Caramel Sauce (below) or a fruit sauce, and/or cut up fruit, for serving.

Butter the bread slices on one side, using half the butter. Arrange them buttered side up on a broiling rack and sprinkle cinnamon sugar over each. Watching carefully, broil a few seconds, until sugar bubbles up. Cut each slice into 4 triangles. Smear the remaining butter inside the baking dish, and fill with the toast triangles, sugar side up.

Whisk the eggs and yolks in a bowl, beat in the sugar, then the milk and vanilla, and pour half through a sieve over the toast. Let soak 5 minutes, then sieve on the remaining custard.

Place the dish in a roasting pan and set in the lower-middle of a preheated 350°F. oven. Pour boiling water into the pan to come halfway up the baking dish. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, keeping the water bath at just below the simmer. It is done when a skewer plunged into the custard an inch from the side comes out clean.

Serve hot, at room temperature, or cold, accompanied with caramel sauce, a fruit sauce or cut-up fresh fruits. (It will keep 2 days in the refrigerator.)


Caramel Sauce

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 cup cream
Pinch of salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine the sugar and water in a small pan. Bring to a boil, covered, until syrup is clear and the steam has washed down the sides of the pan. Uncover and boil until deep amber in color. Do not stir.

Add the cream carefully—it will boil up and congeal the caramel. Stir over heat until smooth. Stir in the salt and vanilla. Store in a jar and refrigerate for up to several weeks. To rewarm and liquefy, set the jar in a pan of simmering water.

 
Not very. I think the chiles I had were very mild. They're dried poblanos, so they can vary.

 
This is how John makes them and in fact we just had one last

week with enchiladas. We have made the change to the poor man's version and use Triple Sec instead of Marnier. Taste's just as good but much nicer to the pocket book.

 
Yum. we originally got it from a Grand Marnier ad insert in Bon Appetit many years ago.

I've used other orange liqueurs too.

 
I'm confused with the chili seeds. Does it mean the dried seeds

that are in the dried chili's? And I always thought pasilla were dried poblano's and ancho was a different pepper. I'm wrong? I tried doing a search and the answers are as clear as mud.

 
Yes, the seeds you take out of the toasted chiles. You save 1 Tbs. of them (or more if you like)

and toast them on their own.

As I understand it, most of Mexico and southwest US call the common dark green, heart shaped chiles "chiles poblanos," and the dark brown dried version of the same "anchos," but in both Califonias, they are often called "pasillas," fresh or dried.

Meanwhile, what Californians call "Chile Negro," a dark brown, dried finger-shaped chile, is called "pasilla" everywhere else.

 
I don't believe I'm going to be able to get the blue cornmeal but

I can just use yellow right? I just hate paying more for shipping than the product costs.

 
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