Albondigas en Chipotle

Good 'ole meatballs. A 1001 variations, tasty little morsels all. Translated to the Mexican table, albondigas (Spanish for meatball) are a national standby, appearing regularly on comida corrida menus.

What's comida corrida? They're fixed price menus served at lunch, usually 3 or 4 courses, quick and economical.

Albondigas in a tomato chipotle sauce is one variation served for the plato fuerte, or main dish.

I usually end up making up the recipe as I go along, depending on the inspiration of the moment and what I have on hand.

For the meatballs

1/2 lb. lean ground beef

1/2 lb. ground pork

1 1/2 T dried oregano

6 sprigs fresh thyme

10 peppercorns, crushed

1 T cumin seed, crushed

 3-4 garlic cloves, crushed

Sea salt

1/3 cup white rice, soaked in boiling water for 20 minutes and drained

Tomato-Chipotle Sauce

3/4 lb. ripe red tomatoes

3 chipotles en adobo

1 cup chicken or beef stock

1 T. veg. oil

Mix ingredients together for the meatballs. Decide on the size you'd like and start rolling. Place on a plate and refrigerate while you make the sauce.

With a sharp knife, put an X on the bottom of each tomato. Bring water to the boil in a saucepan and place the tomatoes in the water for at least 40 seconds. Transfer to a bowl and let cool. The tomato skins should peel off easily.

Put tomatoes and the chipotles in the blender and blend until smooth.

Heat the oil in a saucepan and when hot, add the sauce and cook over med high heat for at least five minutes, stirring continuously. Add broth, and when almost to the boil, add the albondigas, heating again. Reduce to a simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. The meatballs will be cooked and the sauce should be thick.

Serves 4

Albondigas. Fun to say. Fun to eat. 

Summer Bean Salad

No matter how hard we try to grow various kinds of vegetables, I swear it's the garden that dictates what grows and what doesn't. And the garden says, beans. Our runner beans are a given every year, and the last two years, yellow beans have been added to the mix.
Blanch the beans in boiling salted water. Plunge into an ice bath, drain and pat dry on paper towels. Cut into desired pieces, add a thinly sliced green onion.
Add some chopped basil - not from our garden - some quartered supersweet tomatoes from Sun Wing Farms, chopped lemon zest, salt and pepper. Add the juice of one lemon and a good drizzle of your finest olive oil.

Toss ingredients together with your clean hands - the original salad tongs.
Delicious! If you're still not satisfied with the result, use this base to make a bread salad, or add feta and olives for a riff on Greek Salad. 

Remember: Use your imagination.

Iron Chef

Long ago and far away, my one room apartment came with only a hot plate. It was common knowledge that to make toast, you simply had to twist up a coat hanger so bread could rest over the red hot plate at just the right height.

I wish I had known about the iron's talent in the kitchen in those lean days.  

Spied in a French Canadian film titled Crazy a few years ago, the mother in the movie regularly makes her son toast on the kitchen counter using her iron. Perfect every time.

Subsequently, I've heard dorm room tales of making grilled cheese sandwiches with the aid of tin foil and hot iron. Always on the cotton setting.

Line 'em up. One with butter on the outside, the other without. Orange cheddar seems to fit, although you could take this to gourmet heights. I used a sourdough bread today but any bread should stand up to the hot iron, even something multi-grain.
Press both sides, varying in time, from 3 to 4 minutes. Take a peek if you like.
It works.

Of Tomatillos, Guacamole and Chicken Kabobs

Tomatillos, that green fruit surrounded by a papery husk has been a staple of the Mexican diet for eons.

It's easy to buy ones of uniform size in Mexico, but in Victoria, B.C., size and availability wavers considerably.

Before using for a salsa, remove the papery husk and wash, ridding them of any stickiness.
The salsa can either be cooked in water, roasted on the comal, or in ashes, or used raw.

Let's try a completely raw number. 

Chop one pound of tomatillos roughly into four pieces each and place in a blender along with two chilie serranos, 2 T chopped white onion, 2 cloves of garlic, chopped, and a good handful of cilantro sprigs.

Do not add water to this mix. Keep pulsing and pushing down the ingredients to catch the blade, and poof, the tomatillos will exude a surprising amount of liquid. Blend until smooth and add salt to taste. Bright and acidic, this wonderful sauce goes well with grilled chicken.

Next, a cooked salsa.

Add 3/4 lb of tomatillos and 2 serranos to a saucepan covered with water. Bring to the boil, and simmer until the chilies and tomatillos are soft - not broken apart. The tomatillos will also change colour to a dull green.
The size variance will dictate that you pay attention, removing smaller tomatillos before the larger.

Place the cooked tomatillos and serranos in the blender along with half of the cooking water. Add a chopped clove of garlic and cilantro - about 10 sprigs - and blend, maintaining some texture.

Heat 1 T. veg oil in a sauce pan and when hot, pour in the salsa mixture. Cook over high heat until thickened. Adjust salt.
The cooked one is on the right, the raw on the left. The latter is brightly acidic, the former develops a rounder acidity.
To accompany the two salsas, and since peaches are in season,  I propose a rarely seen guacamole that hails from Guanajuato.
Grind 2 serranos, 2 T. chopped white onion and salt in a molcajete until you achieve a nice paste.
Add the mashed meat of two avocadoes, 1/2 cup of green grapes, halved or quartered -depending on the size - and the finely chopped fruit of one very ripe peach. Add the juice of one small lime, and salt to taste.
Mix well. Garnish with chopped chile serrano, or if you're lucky, fresh pomegranate seeds.

Serve with chips and your favourite ice cold beverages.

(You can read about this guacamole in Diana Kennedy's book My Mexico and Roberto Santibanez' Rosa's New Mexican Table).
Now the chicken that goes so well with salsa.

I deboned and skinned 8 chicken thighs and cubed the meat. Next came the marinade of tequila, lime juice, 2 crushed cloves of garlic, dried oregano, 1 T piloncillo ( or brown sugar),  1 chile de arbol, a delicate drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper.

Let marinate for at least 4 hours, before skewering up.

Grill until done.

Salsa Arriera "Mule Driver's" Salsa

Any budding aficionado of Mexican cuisine should have one - or the whole collection - of Diana Kennedy's cook books. Therein you'll find a rich resource of dishes - obscure and well known - that should keep you occupied for a lifetime.

A fiery salsa that I like from her book, The Essential Cuisines,  is salsa arriera, a simple and quick sauce eaten on hot tortillas with strong white cheese. 

First, 20 chilie serranos are blistered and charred on a comal, hot griddle or cast iron pan.

Removed the stems, and while still hot, grind the chilies with 2 T. roughly chopped white onion, 1 garlic clove, roughly chopped, sea salt and a few T. of water. Do this in a molcajete if you have one, or use a blender on the pulse mode.

I prefer a molcajete.

Grind to a rough paste. Taste for salt. 

(The other day a few of these serranos had no heat, but this time, they redeemed themselves some what. If you do buy a batch of serranos or jalapenos that are searingly picante, you can always remove seeds from half the amount, after they're roasted). 

We had it for breakfast this morning on hot tortillas. Goat cheese on one, scrambled eggs on an another.  

Oregano

Oh lovely aromatic oregano. 

I harvested my oregano today. It's filled with white flowers and tender leaves.

I plan on chopping some of the fresh leaves and flowers for a Greek salad later today, but what should I do with the rest? How should I dry it? Can anyone offer advice?

Nopales/Cactus Paddles/ Guacamole, etc.

A prickly subject. Nopales or cactus paddles are a tasty treat if you can get beyond its stubble. They are worth the trouble and so much better than the cactus bits you can get in a can. I like to buy the thinner and smaller ones if possible. Where I live in B.C., we usually have to take what we can get, but in the markets of Mexico you can purchase the smaller, tender ones that are already cleaned and ready to cook.

But I digress.

Take your knife and run it straight down the length of each paddle, each side, removing the stubble. Then run it along the edge doing the same. Rinse. Splay the paddle like a hand leaving the end stump intact.
Grill on each side. It will change to a darker colour. Set aside and cut into cubes. Keep warm until ready to use.
Make a guacamole. Chop white onion and serranos. I just purchased a big bag of serranos today and upon using them, and tasting, I noticed they had no heat. None. I ate a whole one to no affect. Kind of miffed. I had to add those local fiery jalapenos I had on hand.

I use my molcajete to make guac. Add salt to the onion and chilies and grind to a mushy paste.
Add avocados and mush around. Add chopped white onion, tomatoes and cilantro. This is a classic Mexican dish that celebrates the colours of their flag, something you'll see a lot in the cuisines of Mexico. A very patriotic country.
Dinner time. Hot corn tortillas, thin grilled slices of hormone-free beef, nopales, guacamole and that salsa macha from the other day.
Rustic. Delicious.

Watermelon Margaritas

Thirsty? The best way to make easy work of an oversized watermelon is to juice it. Cut off the peel of a seedless watermelon and whip the melon in a blender, until you have juice. There you have an agua fresca, super refreshing served over ice with a hit of lime.

For sunset cocktails, bring out the tequila.

For ease, I pour the melon juice into chilled martini glasses with crushed ice, shaker at the ready. 

For each glass

1 oz tequila

1/2 oz triple sec

Toss each glassful in shaker and well, shake. Pour ice and ingredients into glass. Garnish with mint or lime and enjoy.

 

Salsa Macha

Not for sissies.According to my notes, this earthy salsa macha hails from Central Veracruz.

Toast 20 - 24 chiles de arbol, stemmed. Careful not to burn. I use a root brush for scooting the chilies around the comal.

Meanwhile, roast 1/2 cup unsalted, skinned peanuts in a hot oven (450') until evenly brown.
Grind the ingredients - chilie seeds too! - in a blender with 1/3 cup of veg oil to release the blades and get everything into a cohesive mass. Salt to taste. Remember to add the oil in a slow smooth stream to allow it to incorporate easily.

There is still texture here, which is lovely. It's a real ripper of a salsa, great on a tortilla wrapped around grilled meats and vegetables.

Salsa, an ongoing exploration

One thing is certain, salsa in Mexico is always on the table. 

Going through my Mexican food journals and recipe files I was struck with the endless combinations and possibilities for that ever present condiment. 

Most of us are familiar with the refreshing and versatile salsa fresca, a simple blend of freshly chopped tomatoes, cilantro, white onion, and chilie jalapeno or serrano. But let's take a step away from the familiar for a while, as I explore my notes and rekindle my romance with the Mexican table. 

The ingredients for a salsa can be toasted, roasted, boiled or used in their raw state. Many feature dried chilies, toasted slightly and ground, or soaked briefly after being toasted and blended with garlic and salt, or other ingredients. Others are ground with roasted peanuts or pumpkin seeds, while others feature fruit or avocadoes taking the place of tomatoes or tomatillos. In Huatulco for example, I recently enjoyed a salsa of chopped serranos and pineapple. This was served with a pork dish called al Pastor.

In the Zapotec village of Teotitlan del Valle,  I savoured a salsa where a dried and smoked chilie was first toasted in hot ashes, and "emergency" salsas where a couple of jalapenos or serranos were thrown into a blender with a bit of water and salt. And a previous post that shows gusanos ground with wild tomatoes.

Then there was that chile manzano salsa in Patzcuaro, and that one from the east coast with a roasted habanero and ground pumpkin seeds. (Habaneros are surprising for their delicate apricot notes, especially when roasted). I found some more notes this morning that talks about a salsa with the addition of a tortilla,  I'm assuming to add extra body. (I'll have to make that one soon). 

There are breakfast salsas to be enjoyed with beans, ones for grilled meats, while others suit the purpose of chips or tostadas and a margarita in the afternoon.

No matter how many ingredients, or how they are prepared, making a salsa is always about balance. You want the flavours to sing but never off key. No overdose of onion please, and go easy on the garlic, especially raw. It just ruins the palate. Like bad tequila.

Stay tuned.

  

Weekend Highlights

Daidoco is making mochi cakes again. Filled with the ripest organic strawberries and sweet red bean.

I don't really like jam but raspberries make a great stand in on top of toast and peanut butter.

A pig roast at the Hotel Grand Pacific. 75 pound Sloping Hills pork with the most perfect crackling.


Martinis on the Empress verandah.

Cool shoes at French Mint Cooking School.

Akemi made gyoza, while gougeres were passed around.