When I made chicken in yellow mole the other day I made a double batch of sauce against a future dinner. Shrimp seemed like a good match for it but I only had one serving so I thawed some bay scallops as well. I make no claim to this being authentic but the flavors blended beautifully. Some simple white Mexican rice with lima beans rounded out a nice one-dish dinner.
Preheat the oven to 350° (325° for convection).
Heat 1 Tbsp. of oil in a heavy oven-proof pot with a tightly fitting lid over medium-high heat. Cook the onion, garlic, and rice in the hot oil for about 5 minutes or until the rice is chalky. Pour in the broth and bring to a boil. Add the lima beans, 1 tsp. of salt, and a good grind of black pepper. Cover and place in the oven for about 20 minutes.
When the rice is nearly done, heat the remaining 1 Tbsp. of oil in a large skillet and sprinkle in the crushed red pepper if using. Stir for a few seconds until fragrant then add the shellfish. Sauté until the shrimp are pink, about 2 or 3 minutes. Add the mole and cook until slightly thickened. Serve over the rice.
Variously called pastéis de bacalhau, croquettes de morue, cresciute di baccala, or any of dozens of other names, fried patties of fish and a starchy filler are found in one form or another in just about every cuisine. Although they are often made small as appetizers I find that they make a fine dinner entrée as well. The most common fish is cod, usually salt cod; I use frozen because it does not need long soaking and contains less salt when ready to cook. Aioli, garlic mayonnaise, is often served as an accompaniment but I chose store-bought light mayo fortified with Jamaican curry powder. However you make them, these are a great way to use up leftover mashed potatoes.
Thaw the fish either in the microwave or in cold water then cook in the microwave until done, about 2 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Heat the olive oil in a non-stick skillet and sauté the onion until soft. Add the garlic and continue to cook for about 1 minute. Set aside to cool.
Put the potatoes in a large bowl and add the fish, onion and garlic, seasonings, flour, and eggs. Fold together until smooth.
Heat the frying oil in a heavy cast iron skillet to 350°. Form the fish mixture into 4 equal balls and flatten into fat patties. Dredge lightly in corn starch, dip in egg wash, and coat with corn flakes. Fry in the hot oil for about 2 minutes on a side. Drain on paper towels before serving.
This is dish is from the cookbook I got for Christmas: Rick Bayless and Deann Groen Bayless, Mexican Everyday (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2005) 254-257. Since I followed the recipe in the book pretty closely reproducing it here would be tantamount to plagerism so I refer you to the original. The only change I made was to use chicken tenders instead of thighs because that is what I had on hand. I do plan to make with thighs, though, because they are more robust and would stand up to the flavorful mole better. Enjoy!
For Christmas my wife Glenda presented me with Rick Bayless’ Mexican Everyday (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2005). It is a lovely cookbook with simple, authentic recipes. This dish is rather loosely adapted from that book with full apologies to Mr. and Mrs. Bayless. For one thing, the original recipe calls for 6 hours of cooking in a slow cooker or braising in a Dutch oven for 3 hours. Not having a slow cooker or the 3 hours to use my Dutch oven I went to the opposite extreme and prepared the dish in my electric pressure cooker. For another, I did not have any pork shoulder roast as specified in the recipe so I used meat from the fattier end of the loin. And I made roughly a half recipe, adjusting the amount of water to ensure that it did not dry out. Except for that, it is the same dish—sort of. But then Mr. Bayless urges his readers to be creative; I hope he would approve.
Scrub the potatoes and cut into 6 or 8 wedges depending on their size. Place in the pressure cooker vessel then add the pork.
To reduce the heat, remove the seeds from the chiles (optional). Heat a dry cast iron skillet over medium-high heat and toast first the guajillo then the ancho chiles for 10 to 15 seconds per side or until they are fragrant but not smoking. Remove the chiles to a blender and pulverize them. Add the garlic, oregano, Worcestershire sauce, tomatoes, salt, and water to the blender jar. Puree on high speed until very smooth. Pour over the meat and potatoes. Stir to combine.
Cook at high pressure for 15 minutes, timed from when the pressure cooker comes to full pressure. Release the pressure according to manufacturer’s instructions. If the sauce seems thin, strain the dish into a large pot and boil down the liquid. Add the meat and potatoes to the pot, stir to warm through, check the seasoning, and serve.
One of my favorite ways of using up left over poultry is to make chicken salad or, for that matter, turkey salad. I find it is best with a combination of white and dark meat but just what parts you use is not all that important. A food processor makes the job simple and produces a nice smooth product. The recipe is easy to scale up or down, just make sure to use enough onion and celery.
Finely chop the garlic in a food processor. Add the onion and celery to the processor jar and chop medium-fine. Put the chicken in chunks into the food processor and chop coarsely. Add the tarragon, mustard, and mayonnaise and process to a smooth texture. Season to taste with salt and pepper, processing for a few seconds to combine.
Screech, as Newfoundland rum is called, is today a toned down version of a notoriously strong rum produced in Jamaica and traded for Canadian cod during the 19th century. The story is that back then it was carried in barrels that were also used for molasses and which often were not washed between trips. In the US it is only available in the three northern New England states so you may have to substitute a different dark rum. Sweet potatoes take well to a bit of strong spirits; bourbon being a common additive in the southern states.
Preheat the oven to 400° (375° for convection). Bake the sweet potatoes until quite soft, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool until they can be handled. Peel and mash in a large serving dish, mix in the butter and rum, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Warm in the oven before serving.
Roasted Rock Cornish game hen halves
Andouille and cornbread dressing
Mashed potatoes
Mashed sweet potatoes with Newfoundland rum
Creamed peas with petite onions
Giblet gravy
This garlicky olive spread is wonderful on crackers or thin slices of French bread. This classic recipe is from the back of large tin of anchovies.
Makes 1 cup
Process the garlic in a food processor for 30 seconds. Add the olives and process for another 30 seconds. Slowly pour in the olive oil while the food processor is running. Add the remaining ingredients and process to desired texture. Season to taste with black pepper.
This Cajun-style cornbread is easily made without wheat flour and so is perfect for those avoiding gluten. I like to use a mixture of yellow and white cornmeal along with corn flour or masa harina but any combination would work. The recipe I adapted this from in Emeril Lagasse’s Louisiana Real and Rustic (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1996) insists that one use lard or solid shortening. I use bacon drippings and oil instead with good result. You could use oil alone, as I have, but the bacon drippings really add to the final product. And in place of the cream and skim milk you could use all whole milk; I just did not have any on hand. Of course this cornbread is perfect for cornbread and Andouille dressing.
Preheat the oven to 400°. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl lightly beat the egg and add the milk and cream. Pour the liquid ingredients into the bowl with the dry and mix well. Add a bit of water or milk if the batter is too thick. Fold in the onion and corn.
Heat the bacon drippings and oil in a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. When the fat is just beginning to smoke pour in the batter. Cook for 3 or 4 minutes until the edges are beginning to brown. Place in the hot oven and bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.
Topped with a dollop of crème fraiche or sour cream and twist of gravlax or a bit of caviar these little Russian pancakes make a tasty, gluten-free hors d’œuvres. I make them with a combination of dark buckwheat flour—the kind most often found in the supermarket—and white buckwheat flour from Bouchard Family Farms in Maine. The latter is available throughout New England and in parts of upstate New York; otherwise you may have to order it online. You could use regular all-purpose flour but, of course, the blini would no longer be gluten-free. Feel free to experiment with other flour mixtures; pancakes are pretty forgiving. Most recipes call for whole milk and melted butter. I used a mixture of skim milk and heavy cream because that is what I had on hand. It worked just fine. One thing that distinguishes blini from similar hotcakes is that they are leaved with yeast. That makes the batter very sticky so be prepared for a bit of mess when you cook them! Serve the blini hot or at room temperature.
Makes about 3 dozen
Mix the milk and cream in a bowl then warm to about 110°, about 45 seconds in a microwave. Stir in the sugar and the yeast. Set aside in a warm place to proof for about 10 minutes.
Warm a large glass or earthenware bowl with hot water then dry and add the dry ingredients. Lightly beat the egg yolks reserving the whites. Pour the yeast mixture and egg yolks into the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. (If you use wheat flour, minimize the whisking so as not to develop the gluten and make the pancakes tough.) Cover the bowl with a towel and let the batter rise in a warm place for 1½ to 2 hours.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the batter. Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium-high heat. Brush with melted butter and dish on 1 Tbsp. of batter per blin (a #60 disher scoop would make this much easier than using a spoon as I did). Depending on the thickness of the batter the pancakes will be between 2 and 3 inches in diameter. Cook for about 30 seconds or until bubbles start to form then flip with a spatula and cook another 30 seconds.
Finished blini can be wrapped and stored overnight in the refrigerator. Warm to room temperature before serving.
