kanljung

This thread is really timely. A couple of days ago, I browsed through the fish chapter in “The New Book of Middle Eastern Food” by Claudia Roden. There were many mouth watering fish recipes and Samke Harra was one that particularly caught my attention. Elie, when you use fillets, how do you apply the "stuffing"? Spread it on top of the fillets and bake them flat?

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.. ← Thanks, Chufi. When I tasted the chili stock I thought that it was way too bitter to go into the mole. Even though I didn't use the chili stock I still felt a slight bitternes in the pure chili puree, but it also disappeared as the mole was simmered and other ingredients were added. In hindsight, maybe I should have used the chili stock. I know that the chilies that are used in a mole aren't that hot, but I wonder if I didn't let some of the heat slip away when I discarded the chili stock.

I used all dried chilies. The flourescent lights above my countertop has given my pictures a yellowish tint.

Yesterday a large part of my day was taken up by making mole. This was the first time that I've made any sort of mole and I've never tasted mole before, so besides what I've read I didn't know what a treat I was in for. I used the ingredient list from a recipe in The New Complete Book of Mexican Cooking by Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz with some modifications but applied the methods of the recipe that abra linked to. The reason for doing this was that the former recipe has less hard to find ingredients but the methods of the later sounded more intriguing, even though it involved more work. After my modifications, the ingredient list was: 5 ancho chilies 3 pasilla chilies 4 mulato chilies canola oil 2 onions 4 cloves of garlic 1/2 teaspoon ground anise 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seeds 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns 2 tbsp sesame seeds 2 stale ~6" tortillas 450g tomatoes 120g flaked blanched almonds 50g raisins 40g unsweetend chocolate (99%) 1 teaspoon dark brown sugar. Some commets about the ingredients: I used canola oil instead of lard since I thoguh that it was enough work involved with the mole without redering any lard. I substituted mexican chocolate with 99% french chocolate. Since the fresh tomatoes still aren't very good I mixed fresh tomatoes with good quality whole canned tomatoes. So. on to the mole making process: I started off with poaching a nice corn-fed chicken together with a quartered onion and a head of garlic. In this way I got some chicken to serve with the mole and chicken broth to use when making the mole. Next I prepared the chilies: I fried them briefly in some canola oil and then I removed the seeds and veins of them. I put them in a pot with some simmering water and let them soak for 30 minutes. After reading a thread about anchos and bitterness, I decided to not use the soaking water and rinse the soaked chilies in cold water before using them. Then I put the rinsed chilies in a blender together with some chicken broth and pureed them. After this the recipe called for the chili puree to be fried in lard or oil. The splattering of the chili puree as it hit the hot oil in the pan sent chile stains all over the place. It has been suggested that a deep stock pot should be used to reduce this problem, but I guess that my pot wasn't deep enough. In the next step I dry roasted the flaked almond and the sesame seeds. I then pureed them in the blender together with some chicken broth and then put the puree in the now simmering chili puree. Then on to sauteeing the tomatoes, which then were pureed with the raisins and some broth. This was then added to the simmering mole. Next step was to roast onions and garlic in a dry skillet. After they had been softened and browned they were pureed with the dry spices and some broth and then added to the mole. Then I fried the tortillas in some oil and again: puree in blender with broth and add to mole At last the chocolate was added to the simmeriering mole. After it had melted, some more broth were added and the mole simmered for another 30 minutes. The resulting mole: Today I reheated the poached chicken in some of the mole (diluted with some more broth). I served this with some Arroz alla mexicana (also from the Ortiz book). The mole was really delightful. It was really as complex tastewise as it had been described. In its undiluted state, it reminded me a little bit of the nutty paprika taste of the catalan romesco sauce. Now I've got a large supply of mole to put in the freezer, so I would also welcome suggestion on what to do with it other than use it with chicken. Carnitas and mole, would that work?

I also live in an area that is totally void of any mexican stores, but at least I've been able to track down some chilies. I was lucky enough to stock up on some pasillas the other week, so yesterday I went out hunting for anchos and mulatos. Ancho chilies are available in most well stocked green grocers around here so I had no problem finding those. Then I found some chilies that I suspect may be mulatos. The jar that I picked them from was marked "poblano" and they looked more pointed than my anchos. I won't even try to find any mexican chocolate, instead I will use a 99% chocolate as suggested by fiftydollars. I will be using either this recipe or a recipe from The New Complete Book of Mexican Cooking by Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz. Both of these recipes ony contains ingredients that I can get hold of here.

I'm up for carnitas. I've just started to dig into Mexican cuisine, so it would fit nicely. It is also a cuisine that the cook-off series haven't dealt with yet. It would be really interesting to see all the different ways the carnitas are used and served. Or we could do a spanish paella. It could be seafood based or meat-based depending on what you prefer and/or can get hold of.

Starobrno Czech lager together with some quesadillas and then a bottle of Ruddles county ale, a really splendid english ale.

If my mind serves me right, the catalan sauce romesco contains hazelnuts. It's really nice with grilled meats or firm fleshed grilled fish like monkfish or halibut. For walnuts there is a great ligurian pasta sauce and then there is the middle eastern tarrator sauce. I've got no recipes at hand right now, but I may post some later if there is any interest.

First of all, congratulations on a fantastic thread! I only started to read it the other week and I still have a lot of catching up to do. This rome month has really expanded my view of this region further than that of the most famous dishes. Now you've got me longing for a trip to Rome but I'll have to settle for the Downie book for now. That sounds like a great way to treat smoky bacon to get it more pancetta like. I'll have to try it. Have you considered curing your own (flat) pancetta from scratch? I've seen at least two receipes for amatriciana sauce that uses onions. These may not be true to the origins though. Have you checked with any other sources than Downie on this? Almost all recipes I've seen on saltimbocca alla romana uses marsala. Why, one might ask, if a true roman version uses white wine?

I agree with Kevin that the best part is curdled sauce. I make this really nice dish with pork loin in either an Italian version or a Spanish version. For the Italian one I use sage and lemon in the braise, but I've seen recipes that uses rosemary instead. The spanish version uses bay leafs and cinnamon.

For sunday dinner we had lemon-broiled chicken with guacamole, summer rice and a cranberry bean salad. All of it based on recipes in Huntley Dent's "The Feast of Santa Fe". A large corn fed chicken was a sectioned in six pieces, marinated in green chili, jalapeno, lemon juice, olive oil and cilantro. The it was broiled in the oven. Summer rice was with with grated zucchini. The bean salad should have been using pinto beans but all that I could get hold of at the time was dried cranberry beans.

Yesterday evening I made the moussaka. I didn't fivert too far away from the Claudia Roden recipe that I used. The meat filling consisted of 100% ground lamb, onions, tomato puree, a couple of chopped canned tomatoes, allspice, cinnamon and parsley. I used both eggplants and potatoes. I didn't do the eggplant salting routine, as I never do nowadays, so I just sliced the eggplants and fried them in oil. The potato slices were also fried briefly in oil. Between each layer I sprinkled some grated cheese. I had no luck in finding the kefalotiri cheese so I settled for a really great tasting pecorino (not romano though). The layers were: eggplant, meat, potatoes, meat, eggplant, meat and potatoes. Then some bechamel were poured over the top layer. The recipe suggested using eggs in the bechamel but I omitted these. At last I sprinkled some more pecorino over the bechamel. The moussaka was then put in the lower half of the oven for 40 minutes at 350 deg F. The moussaka just after it has been reheated for lunch today. Served together with the tiny amount of non-wilted lettuce that I could find at home. The whole family was very happy with the result and I'm sure that moussaka will make regular apperances at our dinner table in the future.

There is a parsley and fennel seed sauce in the Moro Cookbook. Garlic, parsley and fennel seeds are pounded in a mortar, then EVOO and lemon juice are added. It's really good with grilled fish.

I have another Claudia Roden recipe that suggests a cheese named kefalotiri. It is apparently a greek hard sheeps milk cheese. I will have a go at finding it, but if I'm unsuccesfull, I will go for pecorino romano. Rachel, your moussaka looks delicious!

I will use a recipe from "A New Book of Middle Eastern food" by Claudia Roden. This recipe. It uses a bechamel sauce enrichened with eggs and states potatoes as being optional. I'll definitely include the potatoes. I will be using ground lamb since it is rather easy to get here in Sweden but the recipe above states that ground beef may be used as well. Half the time I get moussaka in greek restaurants, it is made with ground beef. Does any one know which is more authentic? Could this be a regional issue? Unfortunately I will not have the time to the moussaka until next weekend.

Some typical swedish meals to try besides those that already have been mentioned are: Salt-brined pork hocks with rootvegatable mash. (Rimmad fälsklägg med rotmos) A swedish sausage called "Isterband". It is stuffed with pork, pearl barley and potatoes. It is often served with potatoes stewed in cream. Salt-brined beef brisket with horseradish sauce. (Rimmad oxbringa med) It is becomming harder and harder to find these sorts of dishes at restaurants though. The best bet to find them are as lunch specials. Look out for the word "Husman or husmanskost" which loosely translated means "homely traditional swedish food". Two places I recommend are "Amanda Boman" in the Indoor food market called "Saluhallen" and a place called Sandberg & Månsson at Magasinsgatan. Many of the high end restaurants in Gothenburg often has a modern french touch to the food although the ingredients may be typical swedish. A couple of restaurants in Gothenburg that I'd recommend are: - Sjömagasinet is a great seafood restaurant at the riverside in the Gothenburg harbour. - Fond at Götaplatsen is usually good and has many courses with a swedish touch, especially in the seafood section of the menu. There are a couple of other good ones, but they lean more toward the french inspired. It's been a while since I dined in Stockholm, but there is one place that I've not been to, but that I've read a lot of good about lately. It's called "Leijontornet" and is located in the Old town. They are using old and almost forgotten traditional swedish ingredients and applies modern preparations and techniques to these.