Mexican Cooking Challenge #3

Last night I made meal number three from the Saveur Mexican cooking issue.  I had to make this recipe last night because one of the ingredients is this close to being out of season and after this week will be completely unavailable until next August/September.  That would not work with the fact that I would like to make all of these recipes before spring sets in.  The ingredient at issue - squash blossoms.

Squash blossoms?  Yes, they are the flower that comes before a squash grows.  Yes, the flower is eatable.  In this recipe it is more decorative than flavorful.  But, I did not know that until we ate them last night. You are probably wondering what I made with squash blossoms.  Soup.  Sinus clearing spicy, chicken soup.  This recipe was actually really easy to make.  So, if you have a cold and are not feeling well, this chicken soup is spicy enough to make that cold go away.  You really don't need the squash blossoms to make this recipe, but it was required as Saveur wrote the recipe, so I used them.

Before I continue, I must say "Thank you" to my neighbor Jenny for the squash blossoms.  She and her sons are growing squash this year.  She allowed me to go into her backyard and pick as many as I wanted.  So, thank you Jenny.  I dedicate this soup recipe to you.

 I must also let you know that I partially made a second recipe.  I made a tomatillo salsa that is supposed to be served with an avocado.  I had everything in the house, but when it got around to the avocado, it was not quite ripe (I forgot to tell TS how to tell if an avocado is ripe when he went grocery shopping).  Not ripe avocados are not tasty.  I went ahead and served the salsa with the queso fresco and tortillas as a side to the soup, but I will have to make this recipe again so I say I made the complete recipe.  I will give you the recipe for the tomatillo salsa in the mean time because it was really good.  It was actually kind of mild and a nice addition as a side to the soup. 

First the soup recipe: Caldo Xochitl con Flor de Calabaza (Squash Blossom Soup)
(The Saveur recipe can be found here)

 
Serves 6-8

INGREDIENTS
8 cups chicken stock
8 bone-in, skinless chicken thighs
2 cups crumbled queso fresco
1 cup cooked rice
8 chipotle chiles in adobo, finely chopped
4 serrano chiles, stemmed, seeded, and minced
½ medium white onion, minced
1 cup roughly torn squash blossoms
½ cup minced cilantro leaves

RECIPE
1. Bring stock and chicken to a boil over medium-high heat
2. Once boiled, reduce heat to medium-low and cook, covered, until chicken is cooked through, about 25 minutes.
3. While chicken is cooking in the broth, assemble the queso fresco, the chipotles, serrano chiles, onion, squash blossoms and cilantro.  As each one is chopped, minced or torn, put that ingredient in a separate bowl.
4. When chicken is cooked, remove chicken and transfer to a bowl and finely shred chicken.
5. To serve: divide chicken, cheese, rice, both chiles, and onion among serving bowls; top with squash blossoms, and then ladle hot broth into bowls. Sprinkle with cilantro before serving.

Now for the tomatillo salsa recipe:

INGREDIENTS

8oz. tomatillos, husks removed, rinsed

⅓ cup plus 2 tbsp. roughly chopped cilantro
¼ cup minced white onion
2 serrano chiles, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
Kosher salt, to taste

RECIPE
  1. Bring tomatillos and 4 cups water to a boil in a 4-qt. saucepan; cook until tomatillos are just soft, about 5 minutes. 
2. Drain and set tomatillos aside to cool.
3. In a food processor, put tomatillos, 1/3 cup cilantro, 2 tbsp onion, serrano chile, garlic and salt.
4. Pulse food processor until slightly chunky (about 20 pulses).

I will probably make the full recipe, as posted on Saveur, later this week when the avocado has ripened. 





 

Mexican Cooking Challenge Part 2

I was serious when I said I was going to cook every recipe in the Saveur Mexican Issue.  (In case you forgot the magazine can be found at www.saveur.com) There are well over 30 recipes in this magazine which includes everything from salsas to stews to churros (that's going to be a fun one to make).  Well, I have now made 2 of the recipes.

Friday night I decided to make the Enchiladas de Chile Ajo (Oaxacan Red Chile Enchiladas).  I must give warning ahead of time that this is a spicy recipe, so you Minnesotans who are reading this blog, you might want to "have some beer or a pop next to you" when you eat it.  (That is what the cheese/general store owner told TS and I when we were buying spicy cheese curds last weekend when we brought my parents to see the twine ball.  The cheese curds aren't that spicy).

The recipe may seem intense, and I'm not going to lie, it did require me to perform multiple tasks at one time.  I recommend reading the whole recipe through so you know what has to be done at each step.  It is not like I don't read every recipe all the way through multiple times before I start, but with this one I was especially glad I did.  If you do read the recipe all the way through, it is not much to tackle.  Just make sure you are using the time stuff is resting or cooking to do something else.

All that being said, this recipe was well worth the effort.  All the time and effort was put into making the enchilada sauce.  This recipe made A LOT of enchilada sauce.

This is the leftovers! Let's just say TS and I will eat a few more meals using the enchilada sauce.  To me, making a recipe that provides leftovers is the next best thing to going out.

And the final product looked like this:

 

The recipe from Saveur for Enchiladas de Chile Ajo can be found here.  My adaption (which isn't much of an adaption) is below.

INGREDIENTS 
3 oz. dried guajillo chiles (can be found at your local Mexican market)
8 cloves garlic, peeled
6 plum tomatoes, cored
2 serrano chiles, stemmed (also can be found at your local Mexican market)
½ large white onion, cut into ½" slices, plus 1 medium white onion, minced
1 tbsp. canola oil
2 cups chicken stock
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried thyme
¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 slice white sandwich bread, toasted and crumbled (I actually used some left over challah that my mom made for me last week)
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
2 tbsp. fresh lime juice
Kosher salt, to taste
18 6" corn tortillas (for 2 of us I only made 7 tortillas, but as you saw there was plenty of sauce)
1 ½ cups shredded cooked chicken  (I used left over chicken breasts and shredded the meat, but if you do not have left over chicken you can buy a roasted chicken from your grocery store and shred the meat)
¾ cup crumbled Cotija cheese, plus more to garnish (you can find this at your local Mexican market)

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Heat a 12" skillet over high heat, and add guajillo chiles.
    1a. Cook, turning once, until lightly toasted, about 2 minutes.
    1b. Transfer to a bowl and cover with 3 cups boiling water; let sit until soft, about 20 minutes.
    1c. Drain chiles, reserving soaking liquid, and remove stems and seeds.
    1d. Transfer chiles to a blender along with 1 ½ cups soaking liquid; purée until smooth, and set chile purée aside.

2. While guajillo chiles are steaming, return skillet to high heat, and add garlic, tomatoes, chiles, and large onion slices.
    2a. Cook, turning as needed, until vegetables are lightly charred all over, about 8 minutes for the garlic, 14 minutes for the tomatoes, chiles, and onion slices.
    2b. Transfer vegetables to a bowl, and let cool.

3.  Once vegetables are done cooking and set to cool and you have followed all of step 1, return skillet to high heat, and add 1 tbsp. oil; add chile purée, and fry, stirring constantly, until thickened to a paste, about 12 minutes.

4. After making the paste, pour it into a blender adding charred vegetables, chicken stock, oregano, thyme, pepper, and bread; purée until smooth, at least 2 minutes.

5. Pour through a fine strainer into skillet, and return skillet to medium-high heat; bring to a boil.
    5a. Once sauce has begun to boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until slightly reduced, about 6 minutes.
    5b. Stir in brown sugar and lime juice, and season with salt.
    5c.  Keep enchilada sauce warm in skillet.

6. Spray a skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium-high heat.
    6a. Heat 1 tortilla at a time, about 30 seconds on each side.
    6b. Grasp tortilla with tongs and transfer tortillas to skillet with enchilada sauce, flip the tortilla so each side is coated.
    6c. Place coated tortilla on a place and add some cheese, diced onion and chicken in the center of the tortilla and roll tortilla to form tight roll.
    6d.  Transfer rolled tortilla to a baking pan (I used my Pyrex baking pan) and repeat steps 6a-6c until complete.

7.  Sprinkle cheese on top of enchiladas and serve.

TS said that this recipe was one I could make anytime I wanted to!  Seeing how much sauce I have left over, we will be eating this again really soon.