Chris Hennes

Spicy Bacon-and-egg Fried Rice with Pickled Jalapeños and Cilantro (p. 266) This is probably not a dish to serve guests, since I really don't think there is a way to make it look good on the plate. The red rice isn't as dry as a plain white rice, so when you stir fry it it comes out as more of a single mass rather than as individual grains. Maybe made in a rice cooker its texture comes out drier? Oh well. Once again the dish was delicious. I used homemade Modernist Cuisine bacon, home-canned pickled jalapeños, and Valentina hot sauce. Hard to go wrong given those ingredients.

Crispy Rice Cakes with White Beans, Roasted Garlic, Aged Cheese and Smoky Chile (p. 265) I think we all have those dishes that we ostensibly make with "leftovers" where the new dish is actually better than the original. This is one of those. His recipe for Mexican Red Rice makes something like ten cups of rice. Obviously it's not intended to be used all in one sitting, so he includes three different recipes to use up the extra. In this dish, the rice is combined with a puree of white beans, cheese, cilantro, and garlic, then fried. I had a hard time getting mine to stay together when flipping, but aesthetics aside the cakes were delicious. I served them with a roasted tomato salsa as suggested in the book. I noticed as I typed in the title that it includes "smoky chile" -- I wonder if this dish was a last-minute change and they forgot to update the title? There is no chile involved.

Slow-Grilled Pork Shoulder with Ancho Barbecue Sauce (p. 302) Garlicky Tomato Rice (p. 251) I'm going to report on these since I did in fact make them, but you'll have to take the review with a grain of salt since I shortchanged the recipe a bit. I'll start with the pork shoulder. I ran mine on the rotisserie attachment to save myself the trouble of basting the pork, but Bayless has you serve this sliced rather than pulled so it looks a little odd on the plate, what with the square hole in the middle of every slice. Probably should have read the serving instructions first, huh? That said, I'm not really a huge fan of a roasted pork shoulder served sliced like this, I prefer the texture when it's pulled and mixed up a bit, so you get a good mix of fat, burnt-ends, and muscle in each bite. I waited too long to make the barbecue sauce, too, so it didn't really get its full 45 minute simmer and I think suffered for it. I personally would have preferred more vinegar and less sugar as well, but that's an easy fix. The garlicky tomato rice is one of three variations he provides in his "creamy rice" section. Once again I tried to multitask and wound up overcooking the rice. The flavors were fine, though nothing particularly special, but the texture of overcooked rice is of course not all that great. The recipe calls for making it in the rice cooker, which would of course bypass this problem entirely. So, you are welcome to learn from my mistakes: cook the sauce for the full length of time, and make the rice the way you would risotto, or in a rice cooker.

The large bits are peas and the small are parsley.

Cilantro-Poached Mahi Mahi (p. 330) Mexican Red Rice (p. 262) The flavor of the sauce on the fish (the recipe is actually for halibut) was really quite unexpected. The sauce contains half a lime's worth of lime zest, which the recipe specifically asks that you remove in strips with a vegetable peeler. I found that removing it with a vegetable peeler resulted in quite a bit of pith remaining attached, which ultimately gave the sauce a bitter note. I have no idea why he suggests a vegetable peeler in this application, but I think I'd be inclined to go back to my microplane next time. The bitterness was interesting, but I doubt it was actually intended, and I think the sauce would be better without it. The red rice was a completely standard recipe that I actually made in anticipation of several recipes that call for the rice as a component of the dish. More on those next week...

Grilled Asparagus with Creamy Pasilla Chile (p. 198) This is a simple sauce of well-browned onions, pasilla chiles, and crema. Half is blended to a smooth paste and half is left whole and sprinkled on top. The sauce was delicious, and would be great on pretty much anything. I'd probably leave out the unground strips of pasilla, though, I didn't care much for their texture.

Well, I finally managed to kill one of my Anova circulators. Actually, I'm not really very sure what I did to it... I ran a rather lengthy unheated sous-vide thaw job out on my back patio in just-above-freezing temperatures, put it away for a couple months, and when I came back to it the unit tripped my breaker upon being plugged in. The good news is that Anova cross-shipped a replacement overnight when I inquired about repairs.

Celery Root Pancakes with Chipotle Crema and Cilantro (p. 208) These are essentially latkes with a Mexican flair, so of course they are awesome. I love the addition of the celery root, and the chipotle gives them just enough bite so you notice it, without being overwhelming. They are also really easy to make for a weeknight dinner or snack.

Roasted Garlic Chicken with Mushrooms, Potatoes, and Spinach (p. 296) This is a simple chicken thigh braised with mushrooms, onions, potatoes. The spinach is added at the end and cooked just to wilt, and you add a bit of roasted garlic mojo at the beginning. There are a lot of mushrooms in it, so the broth winds up very rich. I thought the overall effect was delicious, though I think I'd be inclined to add a bit more mojo at the end, and maybe more peppers since there wasn't much of a kick to it. I used epazote rather than parsley (he suggests either) which was delicious.

One of the nice things about this approach to cookbooks is that it makes menu planning much simpler by narrowing down the list of choices. If I don't, I fall into a rut where I am overwhelmed by my options and wind up making the same ten dishes over and over. I like trying new things too much to deal with that for long. Cheesy Open-Face Mollete (p. 289) This is from a part of the book called "Five simple meals from a pot of beans" -- he's got a recipe for making beans in a slow cooker, but I just made them on the stovetop. I used these gorgeous Ayocote Morados, and couldn't bring myself to mash them up as completely as you normally would when making refried beans. I also added a sprig of epazote that I found growing amongst the cilantro to the bean cooking pot, which adds an amazing taste and smell. For the cheese I used a blend of extra sharp cheddar, pepper jack, and cotija. I had some excellent tomatillo salsa in the fridge that I was supposed to serve with them, and forgot all about until we'd already finished eating! Finally, although he calls for broiling them, I grilled them and torched the tops to make sure the rolls got crispy. Delicious.

Mango Licuado (p. 226) This is a recipe that contains a lot of "riffs" with various other stone fruits, spices, etc. I made it as-written as a first pass. I'm not sure the photo quite captures the electric-yellow color. I really enjoy the aggressive lime note in this drink. Including the zest as well as the juice of the limes really highlights the lime flavor, letting it compete on equal footing with what can otherwise be an overpowering mango flavor. I do find myself wondering if it wouldn't perhaps benefit from a shot or two of tequila, however...

Chicken Barbacoa (p. 324) I don't quite understand why this was not labelled a "weekend dish" when for most people it clearly is: it takes about two hours to make, which is far more than I am willing to commit to dinner on a weeknight. The upside, however, is that you can easily make it ahead and simply reheat and serve, which is what I did. The recipe calls for avocado leaves if you can get them (I can, dried), or banana leaves if you can't. Otherwise it's very easy to make assuming you already have the Adobo in the fridge. I served it both as a sort of soup, as well as as a taco filling. It was delicious in both applications, but I think as a taco filling it needs the extra adobo the recipe optionally includes at the end, and which I didn't use.

Spicy, Garlicky Grilled Cauliflower Steaks with Browned Butter, Toasted Nuts and Tequila Raisins (p. 319) The name is a mouthful, but the dish is excellent. The raisin and pumpkin seed relish is superb, and would go wonderfully on a number of things (chicken, fish, etc.). It lent a very meaty flavor profile to the "steaks". My one objection is that as a general rule cauliflower steaks are never quite as manageable as recipes make them seem. I am rarely if ever able to get more than two intact steaks from a head of cauliflower: slices nearer the side simply disintegrate, pulling apart into lobes. I think next time I'd be inclined to just go with chunks, instead of going for the pretty plating option of steaks.

Nopal Cactus and Poached Egg in Roasted Tomato-Chipotle Broth (p. 163) Green Chile Chicken Thighs (p. 305) Before grilling: The packet after grilling: Opening the packet: Plated for service as whole thighs (book suggestion): Actually served shredded as taco filling: Both of these dishes were good but not amazing. The nopal soup had great body and texture for the most part, but I think some kind of firmer inclusion would be nice, either shredded chicken, beef, or maybe beans. The chicken thighs were fine, but once again it was the potatoes that won in this arrangement, picking up tons of flavor from the cooking chicken and the poblano relish. I think this might have been better if the thighs had first been high-heat direct-fire grilled, and then completely encased in banana leaf and steamed en papillote over a gentler heat.

Yeah, it's non-stick. I choose it because of its low sides, not its non-stick properties, though. I have burnt myself on higher-sided pans shen dropping the tortilla in.

I took a video: it looks like about 1:20, give or take a few seconds. Obviously I can make no claim that this is the only possible time/temperature combination, or that I am any particular expert (though I do make a lot of tortillas). It probably also depends on the thickness of your tortillas. I make mine pretty thick.

My IR thermometer says mine is 550°F or thereabouts. It probably drifts a bit hotter than that towards the end of cooking.

Nice. Where do you get those chiles? I've never seen them before.

How did you serve it? As a vegetable side?

Well, it's been four years since I last posted about the Modernist Cuisine burger bun recipe. I have made them a couple times since, and have finally dialed in the techniques. This time I stayed more carefully with the MC proportions, and I actually have the correct size ring molds now. I also ignored the suggested proofing time and simply let them proof until they filled the ring molds. Man these are good buns. The texture is spot-on perfect. When reheated on the grill they develop a crisp but super-thin shell layer and a fluffy, absorbent interior that yields to a bite immediately with no hint of chewiness. Hard to imagine a better burger bun, in my opinion. The finished burger can be seen in the Cooking with Rick Bayless's More Mexican Everyday topic. Nothing Modernist about the rest of it I'm afraid!

Queso Fundido Burger (p. 314) Pickled Tomatillo Salad with Little Gem Lettuce and Pumpkin Seeds (p. 152) I love burgers in pretty much any form, so it was a forgone conclusion that I would like this one. In it, you mix some cooked chorizo in with the beef, and top the burger with rajas and monterrey jack cheese (I used pepper jack instead). I think in the future I'd be inclined to skip the chorizo and simply add chorizo seasonings to the patty, or even as a sauce, since that would have simplified the construction process. He lists this as a "Weekend Dish" but I'm not sure why. It doesn't take particularly long to make, not really any more than any other burger with a cooked topping. The logistical challenge for me was getting the buns made in time for dinner! The Modernist Cuisine burger bun recipe makes awesome buns, but of course it's a bit finicky and time-consuming. I served the burger with a pickled tomatillo salad. I think that his portion size here is off, a whole head of little gem is a bit much for one person when it's also got the tomatillos and is served as a side dish. The dressing for the salad, a blend of lime juice and olive oil thickened with pumpkin seeds, was delicious, and in fact I think was better on its own that it was as a component of the salad. It would make a fantastic dip for vegetables, or even chips.

I use mine to defrost frozen meats on a pretty regular basis, I just set the temp to 0 and let it circulate a cold-water bath.

Interesting. I guess I'm coming at it from the French tradition of Boeuf Bourguignon and its ilk. I actually just watched the first episode of Julia Child's The French Chef on Amazon instant video last night: after browning the beef, she deglazes the pan with wine, then adds that and some beef stock to the beef. So I don't think braising with other liquids is at all uncommon. With a braise I find I am seldom interested in "clarity" and find depth of flavor and complexity to be more compelling.

Pork and Black Bean Dinner (p. 100) Roasted Chayote with Herbs and Goat Cheese (p. 142) At first I was disappointed in the pork and black bean recipe: it starts out by braising the pork and beans with water as the braising liquid. I basically never braise with water, I always use wine, beer, or stock. So I thought Bayless was missing an opportunity to add flavor here. And I guess he was, but it turned out to be a completely moot point, the finished braise was actually incredibly flavorful (and not just a little spicy!). I used Rancho Gordo black beans which themselves have great flavor, and coupled with the pork and the salsa that it is served with the dish was definitely not short on taste. This is not a complicated dish, and is designed for a slow cooker. I used a Dutch oven, which works fine. I only wish my avocado hadn't gone bad, it would have been a welcome addition. The roasted chayote was also very simple, it's just tossed with green chile adobo (one of the condiments that he has you make in the first chapter) and goat cheese (or silken tofu, but I used the goat cheese). It was also quite spicy due to the adobo, so in retrospect this was probably not the cleverest of pairings on my part. Still, they were both delicious.

I think it's particularly telling that in the introductory paragraph Bayless doesn't mention any of the various claims that fans make about beer can chicken: he describes it as "just a novel way to turn out a roast chicken." And of course, in his recipe none of the beer goes to waste. Next time I would be inclined to season the bird much farther ahead, and to simply cook the chicken on my rotisserie with potatoes in a pan underneath to catch the drippings. You can make the beer glaze without having to do the whole beer-can-chicken thing, and you can certainly add beer to the potatoes to finish them as well.