Making Mexican at home

[C. sapidus]

. . . Authentic Mexican isn't my favorite Rick Bayless book (though it is really good) but I've had very good luck using his recipes in general.

Good luck with the pre-holiday diet. Which Rick Bayless book(s) do you prefer?

Have you by any chance made Pavo Horneado y Jugo de Pavo La Parroquia from Zarela's Veracruz? I'm seriously considering making it for Thanksgiving instead of our regular bird. The recipe looks good and appears to be fairly simple to prepare, leaving more time for all the other dishes. . . .

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I have not cooked Zarela’s roast turkey, but I would be very interested to hear your evaluation if you try it. We made mostly Mexican food for our holiday dinner last year. It went over well, but this year we will probably try something different.

[kalypso]

Good luck with the pre-holiday diet. Which Rick Bayless book(s) do you prefer?

I have not cooked Zarela’s roast turkey, but I would be very interested to hear your evaluation if you try it. We made mostly Mexican food for our holiday dinner last year. It went over well, but this year we will probably try something different.

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I'll preface this response by saying I own every Rick Bayless cookbook save one and I've done extended cooking classes with him. I think Authentic Mexican is a pretty good book, but it just doesn't turn my crank. I purchased it when it was first published and just never warmed to the book so much. I think the physical layout of the book might have something to do with that.

I will be in the minority on this, but my favorite Rick Bayless cookbook is Salsa's That Cook. It's a tiny little book with 8 basic salsa recipes and 50 recipes for using those salsas. It's tight, concise, approachable for the novice to Mexican cooking but gives those more familiar and skilled a lot of ideas and different ways to make standard dishes. I also like Mexican Kitchen really well and have cooked pretty successfully from that.

I've tried quite a few dishes out of Everyday Mexican and liked the slower cooker and salad dressing recipes quite a bit.

But, back to the turkey...I will probably do Zarela's turkey recipe. If I can remember to take photos I will and post them. It's the remembering to do it that's going to be the problem....

[C. sapidus]

kalypso, any Thanksgiving cooking news to report?

Every year the arrival of cold weather makes me crave Mexican food. Tonight's dinner, served with warm flour tortillas, tasted better than it looked.

Papas chirrionas (from The Art of Mexican Cooking): Basically, spicy hash browns with egg. We blended toasted chile pasilla, roasted tomatillos, and garlic to a chunky sauce, fried the sauce with the browned onions and potatoes, stirred in beaten eggs, and finished with Mexican oregano and (in our case) grated parmigiano reggiano.

Salsa de chile pasilla (from Seasons of My Heart): Tomatillos, garlic, and chile pasilla de Oaxaca, toasted on a comal and blended with a little water to a chunky salsa. Chile pasilla de Oaxaca is smoke-dried like chile chipotle, and we scored a bag from Sweet Freedom Farm (clicky). This salsa will probably show up again this week.

Calabacitas al mojo de ajo (from Authentic Mexican): Sauteed zucchini with toasted garlic slices, finished with lime juice, Mexican oregano, and flat-leaf parsley. I could make a meal of the butter-browned garlic chips.

For dessert, Mrs. C and the boys made a delicious apple and raspberry pie, served warm with vanilla ice cream.

[kalypso]

kalypso, any Thanksgiving cooking news to report?

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As a matter of fact...yes

I did follow through and make the Pavo Horneado y Jugo de Pavo recipe form Zarela's Veracruz. While not the best turkey I've ever made, it certain was very good and I will probably prepare it again sometime. Our Thanksgiving menu looked like this...

Guava & Chile Spiked Margaritas

Panela con Oregano (from Mexico: The Beautiful Cookbook)

Pavo Horneado y Jugo de Pavo

Cornbread & Tortilla stuffing (Dean Fearing recipe from 11/2007 Food & Wine)

Mashed Potatoes

Steamed Green Beans

Creamed Onions (Dean Fearing recipe from 11/2007 Food & Wine mag)

Cranberries (Dorie Greenspan recipe from 11/9/08 Parade, which was a real DUD)

Pecan Pie

The absolute home run hit of the meal was the Panela con Oregano that I served as an appetizer. I substituted queso fresco for the panela. We were stunned at how good this very easy recipe turned out. The queso was marinated overnight in a combination of corn and olive oils, dried Mexican orgeano and severalcloves of minced garlic, then baked for about 15 mintues to heat it through. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it

The chile paste for the turkey was easy to put together, though I can't say much for Zarela's tomato charring technique using a griddle on the range-top. I reverted to broiling them.

Mind you, I am not a very good photographer; here's the bird finally ready to go

It went onto a bed of aromatics that included the biggest white onion I could find, a whole head of peeled garlic, a bunch of bay leaves and some sprigs of oregano and thyme

2 1/2 hours later it looked like this

The recipe called for turning the turkey every half hour. I found that a little cumbersome, so as soon as the turkey rendered some fat I began basting with that instead.

The onions left in the roaster after the turkey was removed were pretty crispy and charred which caused a few moments pause for concern about whether or not the pan sauce would turn out burned and bitter. But... I went ahead and poured in the turkey broth that had been prepared with the neck, gizzards, tail, onions and other aromatics and proceeded to follow Zarela's instruction to "boil furiously" until reduced to sauce consistency. W-O-W. The "jugo" was fabulous.

We had gravy left over. The next day when I took it out of the fridge, it had, of course, separated into the fat layer on top and the juice on the bottom since there was no binder in it. That juice layer is phenomenal. Extremely rich, meaty, rather like a turkey demi-glace. I'd make the turkey again just for this juice.

The Cornbread & Tortilla stuffing was a departure from our usual tried and true dressing, but turned out really well. My 89 year old mother who is a real purist when it comes to Thanksgiving - and especially dressing - said "I'd vote for this again". It passed the old folks test The recipe uses tortilla broth as the liquid for the dressing and it was pretty fabulous. I think I'd be inclined to use it as a soup base rather than in the dressing. I liked it better than the finished dressing.

The creamed onion recipe I'd make again in a heartbeat. It was super simple and didn't take very long. It's essentially caramelized onions, a few herbs and seasonings and heavy cream reduced down to sauce consistency. Heart attack on a plate probably with the cream, but if it's only once a year it probably won't kill you Not very pretty to look at, but quite tasty

And last, but not least, the pecan pie

So there you go, my Mexican-Southwest inspired Thanksgiving dinner

[chefsteban]

kalypso, any Thanksgiving cooking news to report?

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As a matter of fact...yes

I did follow through and make the Pavo Horneado y Jugo de Pavo recipe form Zarela's Veracruz. While not the best turkey I've ever made, it certain was very good and I will probably prepare it again sometime. Our Thanksgiving menu looked like this...

Guava & Chile Spiked Margaritas

Panela con Oregano (from Mexico: The Beautiful Cookbook)

Pavo Horneado y Jugo de Pavo

Cornbread & Tortilla stuffing (Dean Fearing recipe from 11/2007 Food & Wine)

Mashed Potatoes

Steamed Green Beans

Creamed Onions (Dean Fearing recipe from 11/2007 Food & Wine mag)

Cranberries (Dorie Greenspan recipe from 11/9/08 Parade, which was a real DUD)

Pecan Pie

The absolute home run hit of the meal was the Panela con Oregano that I served as an appetizer. I substituted queso fresco for the panela. We were stunned at how good this very easy recipe turned out. The queso was marinated overnight in a combination of corn and olive oils, dried Mexican orgeano and severalcloves of minced garlic, then baked for about 15 mintues to heat it through. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it

The chile paste for the turkey was easy to put together, though I can't say much for Zarela's tomato charring technique using a griddle on the range-top. I reverted to broiling them.

Mind you, I am not a very good photographer; here's the bird finally ready to go

It went onto a bed of aromatics that included the biggest white onion I could find, a whole head of peeled garlic, a bunch of bay leaves and some sprigs of oregano and thyme

2 1/2 hours later it looked like this

The recipe called for turning the turkey every half hour. I found that a little cumbersome, so as soon as the turkey rendered some fat I began basting with that instead.

The onions left in the roaster after the turkey was removed were pretty crispy and charred which caused a few moments pause for concern about whether or not the pan sauce would turn out burned and bitter. But... I went ahead and poured in the turkey broth that had been prepared with the neck, gizzards, tail, onions and other aromatics and proceeded to follow Zarela's instruction to "boil furiously" until reduced to sauce consistency. W-O-W. The "jugo" was fabulous.

We had gravy left over. The next day when I took it out of the fridge, it had, of course, separated into the fat layer on top and the juice on the bottom since there was no binder in it. That juice layer is phenomenal. Extremely rich, meaty, rather like a turkey demi-glace. I'd make the turkey again just for this juice.

The Cornbread & Tortilla stuffing was a departure from our usual tried and true dressing, but turned out really well. My 89 year old mother who is a real purist when it comes to Thanksgiving - and especially dressing - said "I'd vote for this again". It passed the old folks test The recipe uses tortilla broth as the liquid for the dressing and it was pretty fabulous. I think I'd be inclined to use it as a soup base rather than in the dressing. I liked it better than the finished dressing.

The creamed onion recipe I'd make again in a heartbeat. It was super simple and didn't take very long. It's essentially caramelized onions, a few herbs and seasonings and heavy cream reduced down to sauce consistency. Heart attack on a plate probably with the cream, but if it's only once a year it probably won't kill you Not very pretty to look at, but quite tasty

And last, but not least, the pecan pie

So there you go, my Mexican-Southwest inspired Thanksgiving dinner

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wow is all I can say kalypso. What a wonderful meal that must have been.

[C. sapidus]

kalypso, wow, that feast looks amazing. Did the chile paste flavor penetrate into the turkey, or was that job left for the incredible-looking jugo?

For tonight’s comparatively modest dinner, the chileajo and arroz blanco were from Susanna Trilling’s Seasons of My Heart.

Chileajo de puerco (pork with chile garlic sauce): We made pork stock with cubed pork shoulder, the shoulder bone, and aromatics. The sauce included chiles costenos, tomatoes, tomatillos, sesame seeds, garlic, cumin, thyme, and Mexican oregano, all blended, strained, and thinned with pork stock. Mrs. C pointed out that chiles costenos have a flavor reminiscent of Tabasco sauce (but without the overpowering taste of vinegar, thankfully).

Arroz blanco con platanos fritos (White rice with fried plantains): Pork stock, onions, garlic, and flat-leaf parsley (subbed for mint). Plantains were on the starchy side, unfortunately, but otherwise the rice was a big hit.

Green beans with bacon and onion: Not particularly Mexican, but we used white onions and blanched the green beans in the pork stock. Elder son gave this an 8.5, an unusually high score for a vegetable.

[kalypso]

kalypso, wow, that feast looks amazing. Did the chile paste flavor penetrate into the turkey, or was that job left for the incredible-looking jugo?

Green beans with bacon and onion: Not particularly Mexican, but we used white onions and blanched the green beans in the pork stock. Elder son gave this an 8.5, an unusually high score for a vegetable.

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Wow, I'd give those green beans an 8.5 too, they look marvelous. The chileajo looked pretty good too, but those green beans looked perfect! My sister's motto is "everything's better with bacon"...I couldn't agree more

The chile paste on my turkey was rubbed inside and out and allowed to stand for 30 minutes prior to roasting. The majority of the flavor did end up in the jugo with just a little bit penetrating the skin, which BTW, was crisp with a lot of chile flavor but not a lot of kick.

The chile paste recipe made quite a bit, more than I could get on the turkey, so we saved the extra. This evening I thinned it out with some of turkey stock I had made with the carcass and all the bones that had been stripped of meat. Then I added the rest of the turkey that remained after leftovers and sandwiches and stashed it in the freezer. It will become the filling for tamales in a couple of weeks.

Next up for me is the Jamoncillo recipe from the current (Dec.) issue of Sauver. I've been making candy for nearly 40 years and not only do I have a sweet tooth, I am particularly fond of jamoncillo. The method for this recipe is rather unusual so I'm really anxious to try it out and see what happens. The photo in Sauver looks almost good enough to eat; if mine turns out looking half that good I'll be happy.

I'm also thinking about test driving a Pollo en Salsa de Uvas recipe that is a specialty of Guanajuato.

[C. sapidus]

kalypso, thank you for the information and kind words. I look forward to seeing what you make next.

Pollo deshebrado a la Nortena (shredded chicken with tomatoes, from Authentic Mexican): We poached chicken thighs with onion, bay leaves, Mexican oregano, and thyme, let the chicken cool in the broth, and then deboned and shredded the meat. We tossed the chicken with a sauce of fried onion, garlic, chiles, tomatoes, scallions, and reduced chicken broth.

Very popular served on warm flour tortillas with leftover salsa de chile pasilla. As a bonus, we now have several cups of flavorful chicken broth in the freezer.

Ensalada de pina, jicama, y aguacate (pineapple, jicama, and avocado salad, from Seasons of My Heart): Tossed with red onions, crunchy pecan halves, cubed cream cheese, and a dressing of pineapple juice, cider vinegar, olive oil, and cilantro. Quite popular with the grown-ups.

[C. sapidus]

Dinner from Mexican Everyday. Edited to add: We used frozen broth from last week's pollo deshebrado in both dishes.

Chileatole rojo de pollo, with potatoes and green beans. Yes, it looks like chileajo but tastes rather different.

Arroz Poblana with black beans and fried plantains

Edited December 11, 2008 by C. sapidus (log)

[kalypso]

I have a fondness for meatballs so when I followed a link in another thread to a Mexican food blog and found recipes for albondigas, I knew I'd also found dinner. Usually I'll revert to an old Diana Kennedy recipe for algondigas using rice and egg as the binder and mint and oregano as the seasoning. This recipe used marjoram and cumin as the seasonings and a paste made out of onions, soda crackers, the seasonings and water. The yield was more than I knew I needed for one meal, so, since meatballs are rather versatile, I ended up with two different meals from the same recipe

Albondigas en Salsa Chipotle

The salsa chipotle recipe also came from the Mexican food blog and was quite good. However, I think next time I'll strain the sauce to make it a little silkier and more refined. The rustic version was just fine

Sopa de Albondigas

Other than the meatballs the rest of the soup recipe was from DK's The Art of Mexican Cooking with one other minor change. I forgot to buy a zucchini, so I subbed in some green beans that I had on hand.

I wish the photos had turned out better, but I think everyone will get the drift...

[C. sapidus]

Lovely albondigas, Kalypso.

Manchamanteles in progress. This is the same Rick Bayless recipe we made upthread, but simplified. The previous batch, with fried plantains and a mix of ancho and pasilla chiles, turned out much better. Still, not bad, and I like the mix of pork shoulder, chicken, chorizo, and pineapple with spicy-sweet mole.

We sprinkled thinly-sliced pickled jalapenos over the manachamanteles before serving.

[kalypso]

This should probably fall into the better late than never category

I was 10 years old when my aunt first started teaching me how to make candy. I'm quite a bit older than that now but the tradition of making candy during the holidays has stuck. So when the Dec. issue of Saveur arrived on my doorstep with an article about candymaking in Puebla, including several recipes, I knew a trip into the kitchen would not be far behind.

I settled on the recipe for Jamoncillo de Frutas y Nueces (pg. 30 of the Dec. 2008 issue of Saveur), which I really like. The recipe accompanying the article was based on old convent recipes and the method was somewhat unorthodox to me. With no assurances as to what I'd really end up with I hauled out my trusty candy thermometer (a real relic) and an 8 qt stock pot into which I pour milk, corn syrup and sugar, broke up a couple of sticks of canela and added a dab of baking soda. The recipe was quite explicit, bring it to a simmer over medium heat and do not stir.

So...here's where I started

After about 35 minutes of simmering, spooning off any foam and occasionally washing down the sides to prevent crystalization, but not stirring, the mixture reached 240* and I took it off the heat

The next step was to add some butter and vanilla and let it cool to 180*, all the while still NOT stirring. It cooled rather quickly but sure didn't look so appealing.

Once cooled I took a wooden spoon to the mixture and started beating the daylights out of it until it loss it's glossy appearance. It took about 5 or 6 mintues and I got a pretty good upper body workout. Waiting on deck were the add-ins

There were 3 kinds of nuts, all toasted, and mixed candied fruits. The bananas in the photo had nothing to do with the jamoncillo, they just happened to be on the counter when I took the photo (oops). I found some good quality candied fruits through the back pages of Saveur and they worked out well. A few stirs to get the fruit and nuts mixed up and into the prepared pan it went.

After chilling overnight I cut the pan 8x8 into 64 pieces. The candy is rich, sweet and very different for the American palate. I thought the candy was outstanding as did almost everyone who tasted it. There were a few dissenters who did not care for it and I noticed that older people liked it better than younger ones. I do think there is something somewhat old fashioned about this particular candy as it's flavor profile doesn't easily fit into today's mainstream candy tastes.

I will make this again next Christmas with only few modifications. I may trade out the pine nuts for additional walnuts and pecans. I may have to make a special trip down to Mercado Hidalgo in Tijuana to get some real Mexican candied fruits to use. But most of all, I think I'll criss-cross a couple of strips of wax paper over the bottom of the empty pan with the ends extending out, so that I can lift the finished candy out of the pan to cut it more easily. While the candy cuts really easily, it's pretty dense and getting the first few pieces out was difficult. This was an experiment well worth trying and the results were divine.

[kalypso]

I spent 4 1/2 hours on Sunday making Mole de Xico paste from scratch. Totally from scratch. Lots of roasting, toasting, frying, grinding, blending and pureeing. Not much in the way of chopping. I used a cookie sheet, a big skillet and a small one, a spice grinder, a food processor and a blender. The recipe wasn't hard, just a lot of ingredients and rather time consuming.

But, OH...MY...GOD! We had some for dinner last night and it was truly spectactular. I've eaten my share of mole in Mexico and brought assorted mole pastes home, but only a few of them have approached the same level as the mole paste I just made. I am sure a lot of my success had to do with the use of fresh ingredients and the fact it was hand made.

Xico is a small town in Veracruz not too far from Xalapa and Coatepec. Their signature mole tends to be a little sweeter than others. The recipe I used was from Zarela's Veracruz. And kudos to Zarela for the recipe method, it was clear, concise and extremely accurate, particularly with regard to cooking times for each of the ingredients.

I decided to tackle this recipe because I had the time, almost all the ingredients and I'm leaving for Veracruz in 3 weeks. I jsut thought it might be interesting to compare a mole recipe from an American cookbook to the real thing, which I wouldn't be able to do unless I actually made the recipe. I did and it turned out better than I could have imagined in my wildest dreams.

[C. sapidus]

kalypso, enjoy your trip to Veracruz.

You make a compelling case for mole de Xico. My book already had an asterisk by the recipe, but I added another. What meat did you grace with your mole?

[kalypso]

kalypso, enjoy your trip to Veracruz.

You make a compelling case for mole de Xico. My book already had an asterisk by the recipe, but I added another. What meat did you grace with your mole?

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Bruce, make this mole, you won't be sorry. I kept looking at the recipe too and wavering back and forth between wanting to make it and not wanting to spend the time. Spend the time, it's worth every single minute. What finally pushed me over the edge into making it was not only my impending trip to Veracruz but the fact I had a bunch of chiles in my pantry I wanted to move out so I could bring a fresh supply home from Mexico. The recipe calls for a huge amount of chiles. Zarela gives weights and count, I measured them out by weight and ignored the per chile count. Her method of oven toasting them on cookie sheets worked like a charm. The direction then proceeds to say to grind them in a food processor. I couldn't get them fine enough in my food processor so I finished the grinding in my spice grinder. That was about the only thing I did differently with the recipe method and I would really recommend using the spice grinder to finish the chiles if a food processor doesn't grind them fine enough.

I used a small pork loin roast that we got from Costco for the meat. I simmered the meat, unseasoned, in some water (not to cover) until it was about half way done, then sliced what I needed for the meal and finished it in the sauce. I think this recipe would work equally well with any cut of pork, chicken, duck, turkey, quail, rabbit and believe it or not, shrimp. I'm also tempted to say it would work with salmon. This mole has a nice sweetness to it from all the fruit without being overly sweet, it's just enough. And there's just enough heat from the chiles to make the sauce interesting but not bitter or flaming hot in the mouth. So any protein that can hold up to some sweetness is probably going to pair pretty well with this mole. I also think it would work well with an assortment of steamed vegetables, particularly things like chayote, carrots, calabacitas, potatoes, corn, onions, all the typical vegetables you'd find in a Mexican market.

According to Zarela's directions for reconstituting the mole paste the ratio was 2 1/2 cups of water to 3 cups of paste. I used only 1 cup of mole paste and somewhere between 1 2/3 to 1 3/4 cups of pork broth. To start the dilution I added only about 3/4 of a cup of broth and it was apparent very quickly that was insufficient so I added about a 1/2 cup more and then just kind of kept adding more little by little until I had the consistency I wanted. Her dilution ratio was really the only direction in the recipe that I found was slightly off.

The recipe yielded a generous 8 cups of mole paste. I've got 3 - 2 cup packages vacuum sealed in the freezer along with a 1-cup package. It makes a lot

Edited January 29, 2009 by kalypso (log)

[kalypso]

It was a dark and stormy night...so I made Cocido, aka Caldo de Res, aka Vegetable Beef Soup

There are probably as many recipes and variations for cocido as there are cooks in Mexico. There were 2 in Diana Kennedy's The Art of Mexican Cooking, estilo Oaxaqueno and estilo Michoacano. I made the latter using short ribs that I deboned and defatted, onion, garlic, carrots, chayote, jicama, cabbage, green beans, zucchini, corn and potatoes. I know the potates in the photo look enormous; they really weren't, they were actually small fingerlings! The house smelled wonderful while the soup was cooking and it tasted even better. The chopped chile, cilantro and a squeeze or two of lime made it even better. This is real comfort food.

We're between storms today. I've got a lot of soup leftover. I'm sure it will continue to get better as the days go by and it will definitely be the perfect meal for cold, wet weather. Today I'm adding some chopped avocado to the garnish plate. And perhaps some fresh, hot corn tortillas if I can get motivated enough to make them

[C. sapidus]

Kalypso, those soups would match our weather nicely.

We made a batch of salsa negra from Rick Bayless’ Mexican Kitchen. Ingredients:

We fried the chipotles and garlic cloves, ground them to a paste with piloncillo syrup, and then fried the paste to intensify the flavors. The end result reminded me of a deliciously smoky nahm phrik pao, but without the oil slick. I can see adding a dab of this salsa to anything that can be improved with a jolt of sweet-smoky chile heat. You can see how salsa negra earned its name:

We used this salsa to make camarones enchipotladas. We dry-roasted and pureed garlic, white onion, and tomatoes with ground cloves and pepper, fried the sauce to concentrate the flavors, added salsa negra, and then cooked the shrimp in the sauce. Unfortunately I added salsa negra too enthusiastically, so results were muy picante, too much so for the family. We have lots of salsa negra left over, so I am determined to make better use of it next time.

Served with arroz blanco, fortified with chicken stock, white onion, frozen peas and chunks of leftover chicken. The camarones also made a nice topping for green salad.

[C. sapidus]

Grilled chicken, Sinaloa-style (Authentic Mexican); arroz blanco (Mexican Everyday); and corn-mango salsa (Vegetables Everyday). We marinated the chicken with fresh-squeezed orange juice and pureed onion, garlic, thyme, Mexican oregano, bay leaves, and S&P.

For the salsa we boiled frozen corn on the cob, sliced off the kernels, and mixed in chopped Champagne mango, minced jalapeno chile, lime juice, salt, and cilantro. Delicious, although perhaps not traditional. The corn and mango were so sweet that the salsa needed extra lime juice and salt to balance.

Edited March 8, 2009 by C. sapidus (log)

[Domestic Goddess]

It was a dark and stormy night...so I made Cocido, aka Caldo de Res, aka Vegetable Beef Soup

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With the exception of the zuchinni and jicama, that sounds like the Boiled Beef soup that my mother would make for cold, rainy days. It makes sense though, I come from a city where a lot of Spanish and Mexican sailors have migrated a couple of centuries ago (think Galleon trade).

[C. sapidus]

Chileatole verde, from Zarela’s Veracruz. Chunks of chayote and zucchini simmered until barely tender in a broth of pureed spinach, tomatillos, onion, garlic, jalapenos, cilantro, tarragon (sub for hoya santa), parsley, and epazote in homemade chicken stock. Pureed toasted sesame seeds thickened the chileatole and added a lovely flavor.

This had an unusual (in a good way) combination of flavors that I keep thinking about. Definitely worth making again, and further motivation to find a sunny window to grow hoya santa.

[v. gautam]

Bruce,

Not a speck of sliced cucumber or even green bean in sight! For how many consecutive days? An essential food group. What on earth were you thinking?

Besides Hoya Santa, plant a chayote, having sprouted it first indoors. It is a vigorous climber, so not much ground space is required. It will clamber a warm wall, like east, with partial afternoon shade, to flourish in your MD climate with 180+ growing days. The point is to harvest the greens & treat yourself to a unique taste. How many people have you known who have tasted chayote greens? Yet that is one of its most important functions in India. In the mild temperate hill climate, it is a perennial [even where it dies down and returns in spring] that makes a fleshy underground root-like organ that is prized. MD may be too cold for that to form to adequate size, but who knows? Interesting experiment, interesting tastes from the Latin American zone.

Just take the whole pear, place it in a very shallow saucer of water, like a Bosc pear standing with its blossom end in the scant water. It will send out white roots along the suture. Then you may plant it in a 4 inch pot [potting mix] with the suture facing down and wait for the plant to get established before transplanting outdoors.

Edited March 10, 2009 by v. gautam (log)

[kalypso]

Bruce, your Chileatole looks fabulous. I played around this past weekend with the Chilelímon recipe from Zarela's Veracruz. Wow, was it ever good. Used it with both some halibut and chicken and it worked extremely well with both of them. This sauce is definitely a keeper.

[C. sapidus]

Not a speck of sliced cucumber or even green bean in sight! For how many consecutive days?

Gautam, I doubt we have gone many days without cucumbers, but perhaps I am delusional from a lack of cucumbers.

. . . The point is to harvest the greens & treat yourself to a unique taste. How many people have you known who have tasted chayote greens? Yet that is one of its most important functions in India.

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We will be making do with limited vegetable garden space again this summer, but I am intrigued by your suggestion. Perhaps this belongs on another thread, but what do chayote leaves taste like and how would one typically use them?

Bruce, your Chileatole looks fabulous.  I played around this past weekend with the Chilelímon recipe from Zarela's Veracruz.  Wow, was it ever good. Used it with both some halibut and chicken and it worked extremely well with both of them. This sauce is definitely a keeper.

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Thanks, kalypso! I liked chile limon, too, and using it with chicken sounds like a nice twist.

Crema de palmitos from Zarela’s Veracruz: saute garlic, three bunches of chopped scallion whites, and chopped hearts of palm. Add chicken broth, buzz with a stick blender, heat through, and garnish with scallion greens. Simple, good, and quite rich (even without any crema).

[nakji]

Chileatole verde, from Zarela’s Veracruz. Chunks of chayote and zucchini simmered until barely tender in a broth of pureed spinach, tomatillos, onion, garlic, jalapenos, cilantro, tarragon (sub for hoya santa), parsley, and epazote in homemade chicken stock. Pureed toasted sesame seeds thickened the chileatole and added a lovely flavor.

Both of your recent soups look lovely. To paraphrase Brillat-Savarin, the discovery of a new zucchini dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.

Crema de palmitos from Zarela’s Veracruz: saute garlic, three bunches of chopped scallion whites, and chopped hearts of palm. Add chicken broth, buzz with a stick blender, heat through, and garnish with scallion greens. Simple, good, and quite rich (even without any crema).

I don't think I've ever seen a heart of palm. Could you be so kind as to post a picture? Only I'm wondering if I could substitute bamboo shoots and get a similar sort of soup.

[C. sapidus]

. . . To paraphrase Brillat-Savarin, the discovery of a new zucchini dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.

Thanks, nakji. I take it that you are fond of zucchini?

I don't think I've ever seen a heart of palm. Could you be so kind as to post a picture? Only I'm wondering if I could substitute bamboo shoots and get a similar sort of soup.

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I have never seen fresh hearts of palm, so we used canned (pictured on Wikipedia - clicky). Canned hearts of palm taste sweet, somewhat unctuous, and are soft enough to cut easily with a dull knife. Artichoke hearts (or perhaps white asparagus) might be a closer substitute than bamboo shoots.

As always, I love hearing about what you create, adapt, and overcome.