Cooking from "Fiesta at Rick's" by Rick Bayless

[heidih]

Roasted Garlic Tamales with Ricotta and Swiss Chard (pp. 222–223)

Creamy Roasted Jalapeño Salsa (p. 185)

Roasted Beet Salad with Red Onion, Poblano and Lime (p. 159)

This trio and your review of it have me thinking I should at a minimum check it out at the bookstore and/or library. I am interested in the vegetable-centric Mexican dishes and this sounds interesting and satisfying.

[Chris Hennes]

Just remember that while these may be "vegetable-centric," those tamales are by no means "vegetarian"! There is a huge pork chop's worth of lard in every one of them...

[heidih]

Just remember that while these may be "vegetable-centric," those tamales are by no means "vegetarian"! There is a huge pork chop's worth of lard in every one of them...

I realize that - but I am interested in the vegetable usage in Mexican cuisine. Sometimes the only veggies we see in the more accessible Mexican dishes are in the salsas or the add-ins. When an employee was helping me out at home and saw zucchini flowers in my garden he commented on his mom making quesadillas with them. That sort of usage interests me.

[Alcuin]

I always find myself adding a lot more vinegar than I read in recipes for things en escabeche, maybe even a 1/4 cup but I don't measure. I like things tart though. It looks like the chicken in this recipe is pulled right? I like whole pieces poached, slathered in spice paste, grilled broiled or seared, then put in the pickling sauce. That might not work on a tostada though and its probably not easy either. But it is delicious (with extra vinegar!).

edited for clarity

I don't have the recipe in front of me, but the problem lies in it's simplicity. The ingredients are vinegar (I used apple cider), water, cinnamon, clove, oregano, chicken and salt and pepper. There is just nothing there, but the vinegar and the spices; the oregano is totally lost.

I keep wanting to compare this dish to a Filipino adobo, and while I realize that is not a fair assessment, at least adobo has the umami from the soy sauce and the fattiness/richness from the pork (which is browned before cooking) to balance out the vinegar. This recipe is just watered down vinegar and spice and that is what the chicken ends up tasting like. Personally I thought the beans helped add the richness the chicken was missing, but the chicken just wasn't very good to begin with.

Not to say this recipe couldn't be tweaked. I'm sure it could be, but I think Bayless was deliberately trying to keep this one simple. He even names it "Easy Tostadas," but in this case I believe minimalism did not make for the best final product.

I really don't like the idea of shredded chicken in escabeche. The reason I really like this dish is that the flavors are deep and layered from the initial poaching (resulting stock makes good rice) to the searing with the spice paste that brings out their aroma and adds some crust to the chicken, to the specially prepared and tweaked pickling sauce. One of my favorite dishes, but like any thing if you pare it down to much it;s no longer greater than the sum of its parts. It becomes just equal to the sum of its parts, maybe the worst thing to happen to a dish. Ah well, it's at least good to confirm the superiority of one method, even in contrast to the lameness of another.

[Alcuin]

Just remember that while these may be "vegetable-centric," those tamales are by no means "vegetarian"! There is a huge pork chop's worth of lard in every one of them...

I realize that - but I am interested in the vegetable usage in Mexican cuisine. Sometimes the only veggies we see in the more accessible Mexican dishes are in the salsas or the add-ins. When an employee was helping me out at home and saw zucchini flowers in my garden he commented on his mom making quesadillas with them. That sort of usage interests me.

Have you taken a look at Bayless' _Authentic Mexican_? There are some nice vegetable dishes there too, like stewed squash blossom quesadillas, stewed mushroom quessadillas, potatoes and rajas, chile bathed vegetable tostadas, and vegetable enchiladas he calls I think enchiladas de la plaza. Good stuff.

A lot of times I like to add a couple of squash blossoms in my cheese quesadillas too. You need a lot of blossoms though-they tend to shrink away when you heat them.

[Darienne]

A lot of times I like to add a couple of squash blossoms in my cheese quesadillas too. You need a lot of blossoms though-they tend to shrink away when you heat them.

Where do you get squash blossoms? In a grocery store? Outdoor market? Do they have a short or long season? Are they expensive?

We're off to Utah again soon, and I've never seen a squash blossom in the local Kroger's, but then I didn't look. Not sure of the local Hispanic population. Certainly no Hispanic grocery stores.

[heidih]

Squash blossoms are usually at farmer's markets when the zucchini is putting out lots of flowers - usually June and July where I am. They are not something to be packed and shipped. In most locations the season is ending or has passed.

[kalypso]

One of the things that I've found as I cook more Mexican food (both from Bayless and Kennedy) is that the flavors of Mexico are much more varied than what we typically see up here in the States: it's been fun to discover that variety.

I just got home a few hours ago from a quick trip to Morelia, Michoacan where I had the good fortune to eat some really amazing food, both traditional and less traditional. None of it would I find here in San Diego, which is on the border. You're absolutely right, Chris, the flavor profiles are substantially more varied and diverse than what is typically seen in the U.S.

I would also suggst adding Zarela Martinez's Veracruz cookbook to your author list. I like it quite a bit and have really good luck cooking from it. Some of her recipes call for what seems like a lot of oil, you can cut it back without affecting the overall quality of the finished dish.

[Chris Hennes]

Is this the right one? Zarela's Veracruz: Mexico's Simplest Cuisine

[Chris Hennes]

Panela en Salsa Verde (pp. 144–145)

I now understand why Bayless chose not to include a photo of this dish in the book:

Sorta like badly undercooked scrambled eggs, no? Can I assume that I cooked the cheese for too long? Or that my Panela (I did use Panela, not mozzarella) was somehow inferior? I sure hope it's not supposed to look like that...

Aesthetics aside, the taste is actually very good: it's a basic salsa verde on a pretty tasty cheese, so pretty hard to screw up. I'd love for someone else to have a go at this and see if they can get it to look better than mine...

[kalypso]

Is this the right one? Zarela's Veracruz: Mexico's Simplest Cuisine

Yes, that's the book.

[Chris Hennes]

Can I assume that I cooked the cheese for too long? Or that my Panela (I did use Panela, not mozzarella) was somehow inferior? I sure hope it's not supposed to look like that...

According to Bayless, my Panela was garbage. In the recipe itself he actually suggests using a local fresh mozzarella instead of the generally poor-quality Panela available in the US, so I might have to give this another shot. After all, it did taste good.

[Alcuin]

A lot of times I like to add a couple of squash blossoms in my cheese quesadillas too. You need a lot of blossoms though-they tend to shrink away when you heat them.

Where do you get squash blossoms? In a grocery store? Outdoor market? Do they have a short or long season? Are they expensive?

We're off to Utah again soon, and I've never seen a squash blossom in the local Kroger's, but then I didn't look. Not sure of the local Hispanic population. Certainly no Hispanic grocery stores.

I've seen them in farmer's markets, but they tend to go down hill pretty fast. I just pick them from my garden where they're plentiful most of the summer.

[Chris Hennes]

Almendras Enchipotladas (Chipotle-Roasted Almonds) (p. 36)

These wound up overcooked by three or four minutes, I think due to the fact that the almonds were still hot from toasting when they went back into the oven with the chipotle sauce. So lesson number one: watch these closely as they near done, it's a fine line between cooked and overcooked. These aren't quite burnt yet (they are edible), but there is a bitter note where the brown sugar started to get into the "dark caramel" phase. They end up quite spicy, which I like, so I'm going to make another batch. I ended up making a double batch of the sauce because I didn't trust that my blender would handle the very small amount the recipe makes. I'm not sure if that was necessary or not.

[Chris Hennes]

Ensalada de Nopales Asado con Jaiba (Grilled Cactus and Onion Salad with Crab and Red Chile) (p. 158)

This was great. I was worried at first that the crab would get lost (there is not much in there), but it actually wound up perfectly balanced: you could taste each individual ingredient quite clearly. The only thing I would change is the nopales: I think 1/4" is too thick, I will slice them thinner next time. This recipe is yet another new flavor set for me, again it's quite different from the typical Southwestern US Tex-Mex fare. The red chile actually comes from hot sauce here, which makes the recipe very easy (and the hot sauce provides the acid necessary for the dressing). I used the Valentina Muy Picante variety, which was excellent, and gave the dish a really nice kick. Others Bayless suggests are Tamazula and Búfalo... my store had the Búfalo, but not the Tamazula, so I'm not sure what the regional distributions of these sauces are. I'm not sure how well something like the Cholula would work, and in this recipe the flavor from the hot sauce is critical, so I suggest seeking out his suggestions.

ETA: Also, the recipe states that he uses 7 medium nopales, and that this comes to 14 ounces total. So I guess I get REALLY HUGE nopales, because I needed 3 1/2 to get to 14 ounces.

[Chris Hennes]

Impossible Cake (Chocoflan) (pp. 290–291)

I figured everybody else was making this one, I had better give it a shot. I had the same problem kalypso did with the cooking time, and in fact, mine was off even further. I baked it for 20 minutes longer and the toothpick still wasn't coming out clean, but I didn't want to overcook the rest so I pulled it then. As you can see from the slice photo below, the cake is half overcooked and half undercooked: basically, just wrong. I am not sure where we are going wrong here. Is it a difference in the temperature of our hot water baths? The recipe does not state that it is looking for boiling water, so mine was probably quite a bit below that, but it was pretty hot.

It looks from the photo that Bayless makes these as individual flans: I wonder if the oven temp and cooking time didn't translate properly to a full-size cake?

Setting the texture aside: I made the recipe exactly as written, including using cajeta, and I hunted down some non-Dutch-process cocoa (I wonder what he doesn't like about the DP cocoa, that's all I usually use). I use the instant espresso powder rather than fresh espresso, and I did not find the coffee flavor to overwhelm the other tastes: the cake had a mocha sort of feel to it that my wife and I thought was pretty good. The flan was unremarkable, but fine, and I like the cajeta on top, again I thought it balanced well. It's a shame the cake's texture was so poor due to the cooking time issue: if we could resolve that this cake might be a party staple.

[Chris Hennes]

According to Bayless the recipe time and temp in the book is exactly what they do in his restaurant, so it's transcribed correctly. I'm wondering if my problems are related to the rack I used. I put the pan on the middle rack in my oven, but with such a tall cake pan, and placing it inside another pan, that wound up putting the top of the cake pretty close to the top of the oven. I think I'll try this recipe again on a lower rack and see if that helps (I don't have a convection oven).

[Chris Hennes]

Dzik de Res (Yucatecan Shredded Steak Salad) (p. 139)

Another new set of flavors, and another winning dish. Maybe not in my top five from this book, but good nonetheless. It's also pretty simple to make, although you have to plan ahead because the meat takes an hour to cook, then you cool it, shred it, and refrigerate it for 30 minutes. So, simple, but not quick. I had to use lime juice because I don't have a source for sour oranges yet, but I still liked it.

[kalypso]

According to Bayless the recipe time and temp in the book is exactly what they do in his restaurant, so it's transcribed correctly. I'm wondering if my problems are related to the rack I used. I put the pan on the middle rack in my oven, but with such a tall cake pan, and placing it inside another pan, that wound up putting the top of the cake pretty close to the top of the oven. I think I'll try this recipe again on a lower rack and see if that helps (I don't have a convection oven).

Chris, I think you're being too kind. I think this is basically a flawed recipe.

Both times I made it I used a 10" springform pan set in a large roasting pan. It went in on the middle rack but was not anywhere near the top of the oven. I did put the tea kettle on to boil when I started the cake. I added the boiling water to the roaster once I got it set on the oven fack with the chocoflan in it. The water reached somewhere between half and two-thirds of the way up the side of the springform pan.

My cake was baked all the way through both times. I did not get the half baked result you did. The center of the 2nd cake I did, did sink, which was unfortuante. It's actually a nice recipe, but I think it's flawed with regard to baking time.

I used plain old Hershey's cocoa powder with no problems. Dutch processed cocoa powder is alkalized and will not react with baking soda. I also used some new espresso powder the second time I made the cake and the mocha flavor was much better.

[Chris Hennes]

The water reached somewhere between half and two-thirds of the way up the side of the springform pan.

That sounds to me like the water is too deep: the recipe only calls for an inch, since it's only supposed to protect the custard part while the cake bakes.

My cake was almost certainly too close to the top of my (rather small) oven, Bayless agrees that is likely the cause if my uneven baking. I hesitate to condemn the whole recipe after I have only given it one attempt, and probably screwed it up. Especially since it tastes good .

[Florida]

According to Bayless the recipe time and temp in the book is exactly what they do in his restaurant, so it's transcribed correctly.

Are you conversing with Bayless directly about these recipes?

[Chris Hennes]

Yeah—the man is a Twitter maniac. If you post a question and include @Rick_Bayless he (or maybe a minion) usually direct-messages back (or at least, he has the last few times I've done it).

[DanM]

Where do you get squash blossoms? In a grocery store? Outdoor market? Do they have a short or long season? Are they expensive?

I have a local pick your own farm that offers pick your own squash blossoms at $6 per pound... you get a ton for a pound!! Otherwise, you will find them at the farmer's market. If you are lucky, you will find female flowers with a finger sized sqashed attached. They are the sweetest, tastiest squashes around.

Impossible Cake (Chocoflan) (pp. 290–291)

Setting the texture aside: I made the recipe exactly as written, including using cajeta, and I hunted down some non-Dutch-process cocoa (I wonder what he doesn't like about the DP cocoa, that's all I usually use). I use the instant espresso powder rather than fresh espresso, and I did not find the coffee flavor to overwhelm the other tastes: the cake had a mocha sort of feel to it that my wife and I thought was pretty good. The flan was unremarkable, but fine, and I like the cajeta on top, again I thought it balanced well. It's a shame the cake's texture was so poor due to the cooking time issue: if we could resolve that this cake might be a party staple.

Dutch processed cocoa is treated with an alkali to smooth out the flavor and improve colour. Sometimes you will see Dutch process over natural cocoa due to the higher PH. Natural cocoa might react with the baking soda/powder and give you an over leavened mess.

Dan

[Chris Hennes]

Manitas con Crema y Chile Jalapeño (Pickled Pigs' Feet with Jalapeños and Crema) (p. 149)

I went in with an open mind, I swear I did. But the texture of pickled pigs' feet is not one of my favorite things. This recipe mitigates that significantly by adding a lot of raw onion, and I served it on top of crisp tostadas (I can't imagine this as a soft taco filling), but that gelatinous meat is still in there. So while the flavors here are great, I'm not sure this is going onto my regular lunch rotation.

[kalypso]

I hesitate to condemn the whole recipe after I have only given it one attempt, and probably screwed it up. Especially since it tastes good .

Chris, don't get me wrong I actually like this cake, but I do think there is a serious error in it with regard to cooking times which should have been sorted out in recipe testing before it ever got put into the book. That's not necessarily Rick's fault, but it should have been caught somewhere in the editing process.

Perhaps the cooking time is for the individual chocoflans, or perhaps the recipe was tested in a commercial oven at one of his restaurants. The problem with the baking time still remains. You got a half baked cake, I didn't. I got 2 cakes with good flavor but slightly dry and overdone around the outer edges.

That said, I think the basic recipe is good enough to use as a template for variations. I'm thinking about trying to do a lemon/lime or mango flan impossible. The flan recipe is a no brainer, and, for the most part, the cake recipe is pretty workable too. I think with a little bit of tinkering, I can adapte the cake element to a non-chocolate base.

On the newsstands in Mexico they have these little cooking magazines usually devoted to one topic. When I was in Tlaxcala last year I happened to find one (and purchased it) that was all about flanes impossibles. All those recipes started with a box of cake mix. They made them in all kinds of flavors (Baily's Irish Cream, Prune, coconut) and baked them in all kinds of molds, inlcuding some pretty fancy gelatin molds. Since I don't particularly want to use a cake mix I figured I could use Rick's basic batter recipe and try and create my own version of some of the flan impossible recipes I saw in the Mexican cooking magazine.

I think part of my problem is that I've got every RB cookbook and have cooked from all of them with good to very good results. His recipes are usually structurally sound with very few errors. In his other books, if it say's "bake 35 minutes", you can pretty much count on the baking time being 35 minutes. I've made several dishes from Fiesta's so far and I haven't found the same attention to detail in this book that I think was evident in others. I'm disappointed.