Cooking with Rick Bayless's "More Mexican Everyday"

[Chris Hennes]

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.

[Chris Hennes]

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...

[Darienne]

Looks delicious, Chris.  What are the visible green bits in the rice, please.

[Chris Hennes]

The large bits are peas and the small are parsley.

[Darienne]

Chris, I think I would like to come to your house for dinner for a few months or so. 

[Chris Hennes]

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.

[Chris Hennes]

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.

[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.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Chris,

 

Very nice Mexican food coming out of your kitchen.

 

Those crispy rice and bean cakes look like a dish that would be right up my alley. I frequently have leftover Mexican rice, and/or beans, and love a simple entree idea to use them up.

 

What cheese(s) does Mr. Bayless call for in his recipe? No egg in it to help bind the patties?

[Chris Hennes]

No egg in the patties, and he just calls for "Queso Anejo", so I used whatever was available at the store (their selection of aged Mexican cheeses is small).

[Chris Hennes]

Creamy Rice Soup with Poblano and Spinach (p. 264)

 

 

In this final installation of "what to do with leftover Mexican Red Rice" the rice is used as a thickening agent in a chicken-stock-based soup. The soup is otherwise a very simple affair, with poblanos and spinach added to the stock/rice puree, then finished with crema or Greek yogurt. I added chicken (one of the alternate suggestions in the recipe), and in retrospect some crushed tortilla chips would have also been welcome to up the textural contrast. Still, it's a good soup, if not exactly groundbreaking. Obviously it pays to use a good stock, as always in soups.

[gfweb]

If i could find a Mexican restaurant that served food like this....

[Chris Hennes]

Chipotle Rice with Shrimp (p. 260)

 

 

For this recipe I basically used the ingredients Bayless lists, but ignored the cooking instructions. I don't have a rice cooker, so I just cooked the rice in a pot the way I normally do, using chicken stock as the cooking liquid. Well, sort of. I first simmered the shrimp shells in the stock for a half hour or so. Then I cooked the shrimp sous vide in a bit of stock, and when they were cooked I added that stock back into the rice. This resulted in perfectly cooked rice and shrimp, with every bit of shrimp flavor I could muster. Another one of those "hard to go wrong" dishes. I forgot to add the cilantro at the end, though!

[Chris Hennes]

Grilled Salmon in Toasty Peanut Salsa (p. 316)

 

 

The sauce here is basically a peanut butter with garlic, guajillo chiles, and chipotles. It's funny to read his writeup where he describes it as "simplicity come to life in the best possible way." I don't think I'd describe the flavor profile of this dish as "simple" in any way, shape, or form. The sauce complements the salmon very well, but it's no shrinking violet. The flavors in this dish actually come out fairly complex and layered, as I find is pretty typical of sauces made with dried chiles. You will want to use a flavorful salmon here or I think it would get lost.

[Darienne]

Salmon and peanuts.  Boggles my mind.  Must try it sometime...  Thanks.

[rotuts]

Im also surprised as well

 

what are the white 'tubules'  green onion bottom's from green onion w bigger bottoms ?

 

will be polite and not comment on the celery.

[Chris Hennes]

The onions have a larger bulb at the bottom, and once cooked they don't like to slice nicely. I'm not sure what you mean by the celery. Not a fan of celery root?

[rotuts]

correct.   I do like the onions they way you have them.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Chipotle Rice with Shrimp (p. 260)

 

I forgot to add the cilantro at the end, though!

 

Chris,

 

Apparently forgetting the garnish has become my signature. I cannot tell you how may times I serve plates and then have to make an extra trip with the garnish. Sliced and deseeded lemons on the cutting board for seafood, chopped herbs on the cutting board, olives, halved grape tomatoes, cheese. These are all prepped ingredients.

 

I suppose my wish to put food on the table while it's piping hot is to blame? I sure wouldn't be a good micro greens tweezer-garnishing chef while the food got stone cold, would I? 

[Chris Hennes]

Spring Green Licuado (p. 224)

 

 

The color here comes mainly from kale, and a bit from the mint. The flavor is mostly the mint, however. It was refreshing and delicious, though I admit to adding a bit more mint than the recipe called for since my mint is running amok and needed to be slowed down a bit.

[Chris Hennes]

Red Peanut Mole with Chicken (p. 105)

 

Smoky Red Chile Rice (p. 251)

 

 

I was surprised to see a mole of any kind in a book focused on "everyday" cooking, but this recipe distills the ideas of a mole into something that can be made in just a few hours. It is still labelled a "weekend" dish, but it is dramatically simplified as compared to the more traditional moles of his other books. Despite that simplification, it is a delicious sauce. Based on peanuts, it has a mafe-like character to it, while still recognizable as Mexican due to the inclusion of the dried chiles. The version I made, one of two options presented, is the "savory" option with added red wine and vinegar, and no chocolate.

 

The writeup for the mole was interesting in that it was clear that Bayless has taken some flak for including a small amount of sugar in the recipe. He spends a solid paragraph defending that addition, and I think his points are good. The sauce is not sweet, he's adding just enough sugar to highlight the flavor of the chiles. Tasted before and after that addition I think he's spot-on in that inclusion, it does help the sauce come together without adding a pronounced sweetness. 

 

I served this with the last of the variations on the "creamy rice and beans", the "smoky red chile rice". This has chipotles, chipotle canning sauce, and Spanish paprika in it... needless to say, it's a bit on the spicy side! I should have served some kind of cool pickle with the pair, I think, to round out the meal. Live and learn!

[Chris Hennes]

Butternut with Bacon, Tomatillo and Chipotle (p. 174)

 

 

I served this as a taco filling, though Bayless tries to de-emphasize that use for the recipes in this chapter. But it's so easy! This would make a great vegetable side dish. The flavors are not so exotic that a normal American audience would reject it, while still being much more complex than most standard squash recipes. The tomatillos lend a great acidity and vibrancy to the warmth of the squash, and the chipotle adds a welcome touch of heat. This was one of the best recipes in the book.

[heidih]

That makes so much sense - sweet winter squash, complex tomatillo acid, and smoky chipotle. In my file for winter squash season - a light version as a salad with delicata and a hefty version (maybe with cheese) using kabocha. Thanks!

[huiray]

 

The writeup for the mole was interesting in that it was clear that Bayless has taken some flak for including a small amount of sugar in the recipe. He spends a solid paragraph defending that addition, and I think his points are good. The sauce is not sweet, he's adding just enough sugar to highlight the flavor of the chiles. Tasted before and after that addition I think he's spot-on in that inclusion, it does help the sauce come together without adding a pronounced sweetness. 

 

 

Interesting.  I thought there were sweet moles, too, even besides using/not using chocolate in a mole - but was it the case, you think, that folks were thinking that "savory"** meant "not in least bit sweet/no sugar by definition" ?   I am not well acquainted with Mexican cuisine so am also curious how widespread the addition of sugar is in the cuisine(s).  I also took a quick look around and this recipe for "mole sauce" (at the top on the Google answer set) has not only chocolate but also brown sugar in it.

 

I took a look at the mafe thread you linked to (in the context of your comparing this "savory" peanut mole to being mafe-like) also and the third post there from someone who made it frequently instructs one to add "sweetish vegetables" which would serve to introduce definite amounts of sugars into the mix?

 

** "Savory" dishes in other cuisines (think of Thai, Vietnamese, Nyonya, Malay, as some examples; even Chinese and certainly Japanese) would have sugar in numerous dishes (if not most of the time) to balance the heat (chili-heat) in tandem with the other characteristics...although there are certainly some dishes where one taste is purposely accentuated - very sour Southern Thai curries, for example.

[Chris Hennes]

I wouldn't say "widespread" the same way it is in many East Asian cuisines, but it's not unheard of. If you take Diana Kennedy as the gold standard of "authentic" Mexican cuisine (which Bayless isn't even attempting, as he cheerfully points out) sugar in savory dishes is rare, but not unheard of. For example, the Mole Negro Mixteco in Oaxaca al Gusto has sugar added to it in much the same way Bayless adds it here.