Making Mole Verde

I know this now: mole just means sauce, or mixture. (So guacamole = avocado mixture.) Previously I thought there was mole*, and it was a brown, chocolaty sauce in which chicken parts were braised. Then I started taking note of the different moles at different establishments. I was eating a fine meal at Chicago's Mixteco Grill recently and everyone's mole was so different - some smoky from the chipotle peppers, some more chocolaty, some sort of vinegary. I had never sampled mole verde, so when the opportunity presented itself to cook it myself I jumped at it.

It was a fun cooking experience. Araceli, a great Mexican cook, and my teacher in this lesson, explained that the mole verde is a great starter mole because it's quicker and easier to make than the others. It wasn't hard, but there were many steps and ingredients that surprised me. Boiling peppers? Pumpkin seeds? LETTUCE?!?

Pollo con Mole Verde
Serves 4

YOU WILL NEED:
Four skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds, or a jar of Dona Maria Mole Verde - the principal ingredient is pepitas
One onion
One bunch cilantro
Six tomatillos
Three poblano peppers
One jalapeno
One head Romaine hearts (or equivalent)

METHOD
Place in a medium stockpot:
chicken breasts
1/2 onion, peeled and quartered
few springs cilantro
1/2 t salt

Cover with water and bring to a boil. Cover loosely, reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes. Save the cooking broth - you'll use it later. (Alternately, you could marinate and grill the chicken - just have some chicken broth on hand for the mole.)

Meanwhile, cut the poblanos in half and remove seeds and veins. Place in a small saucepan and fill halfway with water. Bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes.

Now you need pumpkin seeds, or pepitas, to lend the mole it's classic flavor. We used a jarred pepita mole for this, but next time I'd just grind the pepitas myself. They're widely available, so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding them. Just make sure they're green and shelled. Toast them first in the oven or in a pan - just about 5-10 minutes ought to do it - just til they're fragrant. Then let them cool. Grind them up in a blender with a half-cup or so of chicken broth - blend until as smooth as you can get them.

Now you need to blend everything else. You will have to do this in two or three batches. Add to the blender (you can keep the pepitas in):

Poblanos
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded
1/4 onion
6 tomatillos, husked and rinsed
bunch cilantro
small head romaine lettuce (or 6-8 big leaves)
2-3 cups chicken broth (cooking broth or other)


Now, heat a small splash of canola oil in a large saucepan. As you blend the batches of veggies, add to the saucepan. It's a beautiful thing. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes. It's gonna make a bit of a mess - it's like a burpy lava pool.


If you're doing this in advance, you can just let the mole sit at this point. When you're ready to serve dinner, add the chicken and reheat (cook some white rice while reheating). Taste for seasoning, too - you will probably want to add a bit more salt.

To serve, simply plate the chicken with a generous scoop of mole verde on top.

* For the record, I did at least know that it's pronounced MO-LAY, unlike my daughter who after seeing on our weekly menu was horrified that we were eating the furry maker of molehills.

Read Full Post

On the Menu This Week

I think I'm most looking forward to Crab Cakes on Mixed Greens and Tortilla Soup and Buffalo burgers and Avocado Salad. That's two meals, not one massive one. I like to eat, but I have limits.

Farmer's market corn is still wonderful, so my fresh corn tortilla soup will be great. And I nabbed some terrific looking avocados this weekend at Cermak Market/Fruteria in Wicker Park on the way home from lunch at Borinquen. Avocado salad is a summer thing, big time, and I'm squeezing it in while I still can. Oddly we haven't had buffalo burgers in awhile - and I'm truly looking forward to another. Whole Foods has some sesame seed burger buns I like a lot - made in house.

On Wednesday when we need a quick meal so we'll have Quick Pesto Pizza. I've still not been able to convince Whole Foods that Alvarado Street Bakery's pizza bread should grace their shelves. I've been settling instead for the 365 label whole wheat pizza crust. It's just ok - way better than that icky Boboli, but still not sprouted or protein-rich.

Fish tacos with Guacamole and Pico de Gallo will likely hit our plates on Thursday, assuming I can pick up some nice red snapper that day. To prep the fish I just douse red snapper fillets with fresh lime juice and either salt & pepper or a good blended seasoning (I like Paul Prudhomme's Blackened Redfish Magic for this) and grill it. Serve it up with warmed fresh corn tortillas, guac, pico, and - if you really want to make it AMAZING - mango-jalapeno salsa and chipotle crema. Yum. Spanish rice on the side will round out the plate.

We'll also enjoy Spaghetti and Meatballs, Kung Pao Chicken with Basmati Rice and try out a new dish harvested from the NY Times: Restaurant Pork Chop with Sweet Potato Fries. For the fries, sometimes I cheat and buy the good frozen ones at WF. If not, I trim sweet potatoes into batons, toss with a bit of canola oil and some chili powder and roast for 30 minutes or so at 425. I like to preheat the baking sheet inside the oven so that when the potatoes hit the hot pan they sizzle and sear.

As always, I'm happy to answer any questions. Enjoy your last days of September.

Read Full Post

Making Granola Before the Snow Flies

Light granola with coconut, almonds and sunflower seeds

It's fall, which means two things: first, granola; and second, time to get ready for ski season.

It's that time of year. Not by Midwestern standards, of course, but at 10,000 feet (where my mind often wanders) the leaves are golden and flying. And snow is in the forecast later in the week.

Seasons in Telluride are short - well, three of them anyway. Basically there's a long, white, glorious winter. It begins with the first real snow, often in late October, and ends when the ski area closes, usually the first week in April. Spring (beings the day after the ski area closes and ends May 31) is muddy, brown and, to be honest, smelly. Summer (June) is lovely and green with cool nights and some warm days. Not much of what you might call heat, more like heat's distant cousin from the left coast. June is the driest month of the year with the least precipitation. July and August is Monsoon Season. I don't care to speak about that. And fall, when the meadows and Aspen leaves all go from green to amber, is so very lovely and totally fleeting, almost always eclipsed by an early snowfall.

Which is why, come fall, you start outfitting your kids' ski gear. Skis can last a couple of years but bindings need to be adjusted to accommodate bigger boots. Helmets get checked and stickered. (There is NOTHING cooler than a well decorated helmet - I saw a five year old at a Wisconsin ski area last winter sporting a helmet covered in stickers from western ski resorts, but pole position was given to a podunk Midwestern ski hill).

While many western ski resorts open on Thanksgiving, a mere two months away, we've got at least until mid-January before there's enough snow to ski locally. Kids' feet can grow a lot in a season, so I'm holding myself back from outfitting them too soon.

Somehow, making granola helps. Filling the house with the comforting sweet and nutty smell is one of fall's best scents. Today I'm going to make a recipe my sister passed along from Martha Stewart. The first recipe below shows what I added to make it a little heartier. And following THAT is the granola I've been making for nearly 15 years, based on the recipe we used at Cafe Nola.

Light Granola
Print recipe only here

Makes 4 cups
INGREDIENTS
* 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
* 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
* 1/2 cup sliced almonds
* 2 tablespoons flax meal (ground flax seeds)
* 2 tablespoons wheat germ
* 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 2 tablespoons honey
* 1 cup dried blueberries, currants, sour cherries or dried fruit of your choice

METHOD
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine oats, coconut, and almonds. In a small bowl, stir together oil and honey. Pour over oat mixture and toss. Bake, tossing occasionally, until lightly toasted, 16 to 20 minutes. Let cool completely.

Place mixture in a large bowl and stir in dried fruit. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 month.


Hearty Granola
Print recipe only here

Makes 6 cups

Preheat oven to 350

Toss together in a large mixing bowl:
4 cups oats
1/2 cup dry milk (Whole Foods offers some organic options)
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 t nutmeg
1 t cinnamon
pinch clove
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Combine in a small saucepan over medium heat:
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup honey
1 t vanilla extract

Bring the liquids to a brief boil, then immediately pour over the oats. Stir together well. Spread on a baking sheet and bake, turning and shaking/stirring every so often, about 25 minutes, or until nicely golden.

Read Full Post

On the Menu this Week

I write my weekly menus on Sundays and get most of my groceries on Mondays. I usually know what day we'll eat what - certain days I don't have as much time to cook, so those nights dinner needs to require less prep time. For example, we don't have a ton of time on Wednesdays, so this week I'll pop a tri-tip steak into a Le Creuset French oven in the morning so that we can have a quick Italian Beef Sandwich that evening. Also Wednesday I'll swing by the Green City Market for Bennison's Ciabatta - definitely the best in Chicago - and more white corn. I made Ina's Fresh Corn Salad today and it was perfect in every way. I can't wait to have it again and there's not going to be many more corn days this fall.

We'll have gyros at the end of the week, when my dad and step-mom are in town - that's a great meal for a crowd. Not a lot of instruction on that one - all I do is roast or grill leg of lamb, make pita bread and taziki sauce and let everyone pile on the fixins (red onion, tomato, cucumber, bell pepper).

I also plan our fish days around shopping days. Assuming it looks good, I'll swing by Whole Foods tomorrow for trout, and again on Thursday for salmon. And if the trout or salmon doesn't look good I'll change the menu to include something different that does.

Pizza is a great weekend meal since it's more labor intensive. I've been experimenting with a lighter crust, which is pushing the limits of my patience a bit. I followed a pizza dough recipe that called for cake flour (at the opposite end of the gluten spectrum from bread flour) but wasn't too impressed. It was impossible to work with and wasn't appreciably lighter in texture than my standard crust.

Here's the whole menu:

• Hometown Trout and Gruyere Potatoes
• Cantonese Pork with Jasmine Rice and Broccoli
• Italian Beef Sandwich and Ina's Fresh Corn Salad
• Asian Grilled Salmon Salad
• Roast Lamb Gyros with Pita Bread, Taziki and Greek Salad
• Taco Party with Spanish Rice, Guacamole and Pico de Gallo
• Pizza Margherita with a Big Salad

Read Full Post

On Paper Towels and Patting Dry

I think there's a relationship here.

For years I was irritated by America's liberal use of paper towels. Then I became a parent and dog owner and quickly became a heavy handed user myself. There's nothing quicker and easier to grab when faced with something unsightly. But I'm still stingy with the paper towel for other uses - especially the most-oft ignored cooking method of patting meat dry in advance of browning it. For those of you who missed the Julie/Julia film, there's a scene where Julie is making Julia's boeuf Bourguignon, and (courtesy of Newsday.com, Critiquing 'Julie & Julia' food scenes):

...while she is browning the beef, Adams’ character informs her husband, “If you don’t dry meat, it won’t brown.” (Child’s exact words in her seminal cookbook “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” are “Dry the beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp.”)

It was during this screening of said film that I recognized that my stinginess with paper towels was interfering with the correct browning of meat in my kitchen. Not that I even brown a lot of meat! But sometimes I do and it's never good. There's definitely a relationship there. Surely I would brown more meat if when I browned it I did it right and it tasted good.

Do I need to do this to chicken too? My Kung Pao Chicken recipe calls for patting dry in the method, but I always skip it. Oh, dear.

Got more time to kill? Read about how Meryl Streep was brushed off by Julia Child in this piece from the Telegraph.

Read Full Post

Packing a Better Bagged Lunch

Reprinted from the Pinch archives

School lunch is an easy target for gross violation of healthy eating standards. But what about the standard issue bagged lunch? What can parents pack their children that will be nutritious, sustainable, eaten and enjoyed?

Four or five things go into my kids’ lunchboxes:

1. A water bottle. Both kids now have stainless steel water bottles ever since the BPA-leaching hysteria of polycarbonate bottles. In all truth, I think our old Nalgenes are just fine for daily use. The leaching centered over storage which is easily averted by tossing what comes home onto my houseplants. Am I mistaken?

9/2009 Update: Turns out I'm one of the Sigg owners with an older model, BPA-leaching liner. If you missed this bru-ha-ha, read this from the Tribune: SIGG CEO confirms BPA in metal water bottles' liners. Meanwhile, my daughters are back to toting Nalgenes. Oy.

2. A main course. This is usually a sandwich of sorts. I got my kids eating sprouted wheat bread when they first cut teeth so it's never been a source of complaint for them. And at 5 grams of protein per slice, a very nourishing lunch staple. On especially cold days they might take a thermos with pasta and some roasted chicken. I'd like to get them enjoying soups but they still don't. Other options are yogurt or a Caesar salad, with cut romaine in a container along with some Parmesan and slices of chicken breast, and a separate mini Tupperware pot of dressing and often croutons because, COME ON!! You gotta have croutons!

3. Fruit. It's often a whole pear or apple. Sometimes I cut up either one put it in a mini Tupperware container and sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar. Other times it's applesauce. My oldest loves cinnamon on her applesauce so I found her a little covered shaker at a camping supplies store and filled it with cinnamon.

4. Vegetable. Carrots. I'm not very ambitious here. Carrots get eaten and other stuff doesn't.

5. A treat. The treat doesn't go in every day but when it does it's either a couple of Hershey kisses, a few cookies (something from Whole Foods), a child-sized handful of chips, or a freshly baked cookie, straight from the toaster oven. Consider reducing waste by not buying individually packaged items. The packaging you employ will be far less that what's produced commercially.

Details please:
Waxed paper bags are available at Whole Foods and are good for sandwiches, cookies, chips. I admit to using the snack sized Ziploc bags for carrots. I could improve lunchbox sustainability by using containers or being better about reusing those plastic bags. (9/2009 Update: we're lots better about reusing the small plastic snack bags, but I still use the waxed bags for most things.)

I buy sprouted sandwich bread at Trader Joe's. I also really like the Alvarado Street sandwich bread available in the freezer at Whole Foods.

What do you pack in your children's lunchboxes that they enjoy?

Read Full Post

Salad Dressing vs. Cruet

Let's get something straight, right from the start. By SALAD DRESSING I mean something you make yourself by combining oil, acid and desired flavors, not something you buy at the store.

I make salad dressing - a few different kinds: caesar, a spicy garlic one I serve on baby spinach, and my house standard. When I was a kid, we only used oil and vinegar, self-service. I always knew our cruet tradition was a result of the years my dad spent in Rome. But it wasn't a tradition I continued in my own kitchen. And while I enjoyed the break from dressing this summer (and noted the profusion of cruet caddies across Italy) I'm sticking to my dressing- making custom. But I have a new favorite, inspired by our balsamic-laced late evening Italian dinners. And this is it:

Balsamico
5 T extra virgin olive oil
2-3 T balsamic vinegar (I like Colavita for a supermarket standard)
2-3 super-thin slices red onion, chopped a bit
pinch kosher salt
pinch sugar
Few turns ground pepper

Mix together and toss with a few big handfuls of your favorite lettuces and wedges of a nice ripe tomato. Serve immediately.

I mentioned the Colavita, which I really do find to be a good, flavorful value vinegar. I dropped some dough on a fine balsamic this summer, but have yet to crack the seal. Any of you ever scope the balsamic under lock and key at Zingerman's in Ann Arbor? If you have a favorite balsamic I'd love to hear about it.

Read Full Post