Stitches and SNPs

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Holy Mole

In a slightly belated celebration of Cinco de Mayo, I decided to kick-off my Mexican culinary odyssey with the intimidating Mole Poblano. This dish hails from the city of Puebla where the battle we celebrate on Cinco de Mayo was fought so I thought it would be appropriate. When I order mole in restaurants, I love it about 40% of the time and hate it about 60% - there doesn't seem to be much middle ground. So I was hoping to up my odds by learning to make it at home.

I started with a recipe from Rick Bayless' Authentic Mexican. Unfortunately, the bourgeois grocery stores in our neighborhood had a relatively limited supply of dried chiles. I'm sure the south side of town has many more options. So we had to limit it to just ancho and guajilla chiles. Not a problem, though, because there were still 24 more ingredients!!

Wisely, the first step in the recipe is to set out your mise en place (this is just French* for "things in place", but it does sound fancy doesn't it?).

While the chiles soak in hot water, all the other ingredients get fried. The raisins puff back up till they look like grapes again and then deflate as soon as they are off the heat - who knew?

The chiles get pureed and then that gets fried. Do yourself a favor and remember to turn on the exhaust hood before you do this.

Everything else gets pureed down as well and it all goes into a big pot with some chicken stock. This fantastic mix slowly simmers away for an agonizing hour while perfuming your whole house.

When you can't stand it any more, smother some chicken breasts in the mole and bake for 20-30 minutes until just done.

When it emerges, the mole will be darker and thicker. Slice up the chicken, wrap in some warmed tortillas, spoon on more sauce, and snarf.

Surprisingly, since the sauce starts with no fewer than 27 chiles, the final sauce was spicy but not overly hot. The only thing missing from the sauce is a little acid to round out the flavors. If you can take the heat, the vinegary hit of hot sauce is a nice finishing touch. If you planned ahead better than we did, some sliced avocado or queso fresco would be good but not essential.

*Is it inappropriate to use French cooking terms in a post celebrating a holiday that represents Mexico winning a battle over France?

Friday, May 6, 2011

Foto Friday

Saturday April 30: Homemade Pizza

Sunday May 1: Yarn for a Special Project

Monday May 2: Such a Hard Life

Tuesday May 3: Bonus Cookies!

Wednesday May 4: May the 4th be with You!

Thursday May 4: Gelato

Friday May 5: Ready to Be Mole

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

May the Fourth Be with You

Happy Star Wars Day!! I didn't know that it was Star Wars Day until I saw all the greetings flying around Facebook this morning, but I knew I had to find someway to use these adorable cookie cutters I got for Christmas.

I just made cookies last night (more on that soon) or else I would have made some of these super cute chocolate shortbread cookies. Instead, I cut out some slices of bread and painted them with food color to make croutons to add a little crunch to the mushroom-quinoa bake I made for dinner. Yoda was my favorite. Look how cute he was perched on top of my salad.

p.s. What do you think of my new header and layout?

Sunday, May 1, 2011

April Baking Challenge: Cinnamon Rolls

They're part of a complete breakfast.

Long, complicated recipes resulting in me finding flour behind my ears days later. That was the sort of thing I was thinking when I came up with the idea of a monthly baking challenge. Perfectly chewy bagels, impossibly light macrons, an intricate gingerbread house, these are all things that are coming over the next few year. But first, cinnamon rolls.

On the rare occasion that I buy a cinnamon roll, it is almost always tough and dry when I want them to be tender, moist, and just the right balance between sweet and spicy. Recipes abound on the internet and most are reasonably simple if you if you are comfortable making a basic enriched dough. But this one from not so humble pie spoke to me. Perhaps that it comes from the kitchen of a biological anthropologist. Is it the slight condescension of only making dough by hand (I used the dough hook on my mixer - don't tell!). Or maybe, probably, it was the cream cheese frosting.

Why have I been tolerating cinnamon rolls topped with an insipid glaze all of these years? The cream cheese frosting, lightened (in texture, not calories) by whipped cream is really what makes these rolls. The contrast between the sweetness of the rolls and the tanginess of the cheese is perfect. I made a half recipe of the rolls and a 1/3 recipe of the frosting. It was just right. Someone in the comments said she served them with the frosting on the side - don't do that.

The rolls were perfectly tender the first morning with a cup of coffee and a big bowl of fruit to break up the decadence of the roll. The next morning I microwaved them for about 20 seconds covered in a slightly damp paper towel before adding a dollop of frosting. The texture is a a slight bit tougher, but I was surprised at how well they held up...and that we didn't polish them all off the first day.