Chufi

Yeah, it's a lot of work isn't it? Re the bitterness: When I tasted the stock I cooked the chiles in, it was quite bitter and that worried me. But the finished sauce does not taste bitter at all. Your sauce looks great. In fact, it looks very much like mine..

Congrats Susan! That steak must have tasted wonderful. Our dinner last night was asparagus feast. The classic way: white asparagus with boiled eggs, steamed potatoes, very good ham and lots of melted butter. Viognier in the glass. The weather was nice so we could have dinner on the balcony. It does not get much better than this.. Today another feast, although very different: chicken in Mole Poblano, thanks to the Mole cookoff. With the chicken, side dishes of guacamole, corn cakes, mexican rice, black beans, sour cream-chipotle sauce, and a green salad. Picture can be seen here (in post #63) bananacreams with toasted pine nuts and chestnut honey for dessert. Fleurie, brought from Burgundy, in the glass. It was a good weekend...

Dinner: chicken in Mole Poblano, guacamole, corn cakes with chipotle creme fraiche, rice. There were also black beans and a green salad but they're not in the pic. It was wonderful.

So, my mole is sitting in the fridge and I have invited some friends over for a "mystery dinner" (if I had said "come over for mole" , they would have no idea what they would get). I think I will saute some chicken pieces and then cover them with mole and heat. Sprinkle with sesame seeds before serving. Good idea? I will serve them with my own, maybe not authentic, but mexican inspired side dishes: mexican rice, corncakes, guacamole, black beans and green salad. Will report back tomorrow. Meanwhile, my mole is feeling a bit lonely. I would love to see some other experiments!

Susan, after seeing a number of your breakfasts being accompanied by some sort of stout, I finally have to ask. So you're basically having alcohol with your breakfast? I have to say that to me that is quite unusual.. Is it a US thing? or a Florida thing? Please enlighten me!

Grub, that Bearnaise looks luscious! More questions for you jambon d'ardenne, I haven't heard of this? Is this a regional specialty? Also the sauce...Is this something you make and serve on the side? ← it's a kind of dry, cured ham from Belgium.. quite salty.. it was from the supermarket and not very high quality (can be extremeley good though) but good enough for the gratin. I mixed cream, grated gruyere and dijon mustard, poured it over the the belgian endive that was rolled in ham, and baked.

So, I thought I'd kick off this cook-off.. tonight was mole night. I came home from work, and made chicken stock and rendered some lard while making dinner for my husband and stepdaughter. Then on to mole! I used the recipe that Abra linked to, although I have to admit I did some cheating. I had no mulato chilies, so I used anchos and pasillas, and some of the other chiles (noras and choriceros) that I pictured upthread. No plantain so I added some green ordinary banana. No tomatillos, and because I've seen recipes for mole without tomatillos, I just left them out and added a bit more tomato. No mexican sugar or chocolate.. so I used dark sugar and the darkest chocolate I could find. Here are the simmered chiles, after pureeing, being sieved. Next to it, the nut mush. I have to explain that I do not have a blender. I pureed everything in my old food processor, which makes a pretty course texture, so I had to put batch after batch of unappetizing brown mush through a sieve In the end the texture is still not as smooth as I would have liked, but ah well. Another thing. I could not get this sauce to come to a gentle simmer. It kept erupting like a volcano, leaving brown tracks all over the kitchen walls. Not until after sugar and chocolate were added, did it simmer away nicely, looking like this: Oh and this is what my counter looked like halfway through the process. I am normally a pretty tidy cook, but you have to be extremely organized to stay tidy while making mole.. I did not succeed Did I mention it tastes wonderful? Susan, I would not worry about the cloves. It really does not taste like cloves (and I love cloves). Mole is one of those magical dishes that tastes of everything, yet of nothing in particular, it is just one big round earthy complex flavor. Ok I have one more question. Now that have a pot of mole.. what do I do with it? I remember last time I made it (years ago, not as good as this one) I served it with some sauteed chicken. Other suggestions (for easy dishes please )

there was an interesting discussion here a couple of months ago, about roasting vegetables and the preference for roasting for a short time at high temp, or for a long time at low temp. Since then I've been meaning to do a side by side comparison of the two methods, I always do the hight temp/short time myself, but I'm curious about the differences in flavor & texture with the 2 methods. edited to add: green beans are my favorite thing to roast, the roasting really transforms them.

take a look at the green tea cookie thread. scroll all the way down for my cookies I used JasonTrue's recipe, the link is in post #13 They are my new addiction!

Gratin of belgian endive and jambon d'ardenne, with a gruyere/dijon mustard sauce. Parsley lemon pasta. more of those fantastic green tea cookies for dessert.

it's a shop that has a lot of different sections: japanese, thai, surinamese, indian, chinese, mexican, american (that's ethnic to me , they sell crisco, jiffy etc.). It's a very small shop with an amazing variety of ingredients!

My husband wasn't feeling well and requested his favorite "when I'm under the weather" dinner: plain white rice, grilled fish, steamed spinach. Now that's defintely not my favorite dinner so I said he could have 2 out of 3 and I ended up making: panfried fillets of red mullet plain rice (which I didn't eat) salad of plum tomatoes, radishes, sweetcorn and mint. then we had green tea cookies for dessert (thanks to the green tea cookie thread ). they are so delicious that I actually had some as an appetizer too

I made the cookies today, from Jason's recipe.. they were (are!) delicious. I didn't use the chocolate, and even without adding extra sugar I found them still quite sweet.. a little less sugar is more to European taste I guess.. But they are goooood. Thanks for the recipe.

So, I went on a chile hunt today. And a very succesfull one it was! First I went to my Spanish deli. No mexican peppers there but they did have 2 kinds of dried peppers: Noras and Choriceros. The lady in the shop said both are not hot, but very aromatic. The choriceros has a kind of smoky scent. So I bought those, thinking it would be better than nothing, and went to my favorite ethnic foodshop. And guess what, they had both anchos and pasillas! I should have had more faith in my city, it always supplies me with what I need... so here's what I have:

That is so true. I always wonder when people say: "Oh no I am not allowed to eat that, because I am on a diet". When you look at the food you eat as a kind of punishment, how can it nourish you? It won't. So that's when you will start craving the other stuff again, the food that you're 'not allowed to eat', which becomes all the more desirable because it's forbidden. And you give in and then you can say: see, diets don't work.

I just want to say how much I love this thread. I think there's not a single dish you cooked that I would not want to eat, and many of them I want to cook! Your enthousiasm is very inspirational. I willbe following you all over Italy!

What are middle eastern chiles? Every single cook-off brings me more questions.. hey, I could get those in a can Well, at least I know what my weekend is going to be like

spaghetti with a sauce of caramelized onion and fennel, anchovies, a splash of red wine, and lots of fresh basil. Parmesan to serve. Desssert: Thick greek joghurt with chestnut honey. Ohh.. that could become my new addiction.

Between the Indonesian and North African immigrants/residents I think you would be able to find most if not all of the spices and chilis or reasonable subsitutes. Or am I just way off in assuming that Amsterdam would have at least a few 'ethnic' markets? ← yes, lots of ethnic markets here, but neither the Indonesian/Chinese/Asian stores nor the Turkish/Moroccan shops sell Mexican chiles. (assuming these are uniquely Mexican. Ah, ignorance!)

now that is one of the kindest offers I've ever had! It's just very hard for me to believe that I can't get these chiles in Amsterdam. But the fact is that Mexican/South American cooking is not very big here. I've remembered where I got them last time: I was friends with a guy who owns a restaurant, and I went with him to this huge wholesale place for people in the business (what's that called in English). Alas, I don't have access to a place like that anymore. And I have no clue what other place would be selling this stuff in Amsterdam. I've never seen it. So I might take you up on that offer!

Yay! a Fifi blog! I'm so glad this glum-looking week now has something I can look forward to every day.

Thanks Bleudauvergne! the carrot puree in the meurette sauce is interesting. To thicken/sweeten it? Btw both versions of Oeufs en meurette that I tasted in Burgundy, had little bits of bacon (nonsmoked, I think) in the sauce. What do you think?

I have considered ordering them at the Cool Chile company, they seem to have everything chile-related, but the postage costs are very high. They only deliver in GB and Europe

I made the one from Elizabeth Lambert Ortiz' book of Latin American Cooking a couple of times. It's less elaborate than the one on Epicurious that Abra made, but still a lot of work! I remember I had trouble locating the chiles and I don't even remember where I ended up getting them. So, my participation in this cook-off will depend enterely on the fact if I'm able to find the right chiles.

Susan, another dinnersuggestion: hummus, made as liquid as you need it to be eaten succesfully with some stock. Cold ar warm whatever. Great comfortfood and a nice change from mashed potatoes. edited to add: I recently made a salad of roast cualiflower and chickpeas, and was suprised how well these flavors went together. So maybe you could blend hummus with roast cauliflower? Ha, that would make a great soup, even for people who did not have dental surgery