Cooking from Rick Bayless's "Mexican Kitchen"

[LindaK]

As a note.. the vast majority of Mexican soups that call for corn.. call for it on the cob (cut in thirds0... the flavor addition from the cob itself is a big plus, people fish it out and eat it with their hands... its also fantastic to suck the broth off the bare cob... but this is under very informal conditions.. in upscale restaurants they tend to simmer the bare cob with the broth for the flavor but only serve the corn kernels in the bowl.

Thanks, EatNopales, I did wonder whether the cob was an important flavor component. When fresh corn is around, I'll use it. Overall, I found the final dish to be informal eating of the finest kind. And regardless, I'm not embarrassed to eat with my hands, when it's practical, even in many restaurants. So far no frowns of disapproval.

[KateBChi]

My sister wanted to make a mole to serve with grilled pork for Easter. We opted to make the Mole Teloapense (p 277-280) after I saw my notation in her copy of the cookbook "RB's Mexican Kitchen" that read "excellent recipe" dated in 2003 along with some changes I made in the margins. This recipe is a whole lot of work but mostly of the mindless variety (stemming and seeding chiles, measuring ingredients, toasting and pulverizing seeds, frying ingredients and making home made stock). I spread the task over three days. Day one making stock. Day two toasting and pulverizing seeds and seasonings and stemming and seeding chiles and measuring nuts and other ingredients. Because of my sister's schedule I ended up making it solo so I was pretty much hating every single ingredient that I had to prep by the time I was ready to actually make the sauce. Since we were making this for pork we skipped anything to do with the turkey. The recipe needed a little tweaking but that may well have been the fault of our ingredients. For example my sister had purchased the "Mexican chocolate" called for in the recipe but it was a pre-sweetened brand (Ibarra) and additional sugar was totally unnecessary! It also needed some acid (lime juice) and we subbed ground annatto seed for the avocado leaf and grated avocado pit.

The result was AMAZING! One of the best moles I have ever tasted. My elderly father who claimed to not like mole (he announced this as he watched me pureeing the sauce first in a food processor and then in a blender and laboriously straining it in multiple batches!) declared it fantastic. It's only been two days since I made it and I would honestly make it again despite the effort and mess involved. Fortunately the recipe makes for a ton of leftovers which freeze very well so that is something I can avoid for quite a while.

Kate