Adobo

Mole Marinated Roast Poultry

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Happy November full moon! Amy here today experimenting with roast poultry.

I wanted to make a roast chicken with mole as a seasoning, rather than as a sauce. Something exciting but still traditional enough for a roast chicken or turkey. Also, I couldn’t decide which variety of mole to use. So I separately mixed some Mano Y Metate Adobo and Mole Negro powders with olive oil and rubbed them one on each side of a chicken. I slid some under the skin and in the cavity. I sprinkled a little salt everywhere, too.

I trussed the wings and legs with dental floss.

I let it marinate uncovered in the refrigerator for 36 hours. Supposedly this helps the skin get crisp when baking.

In that time the mole dyed the skin a deep color, but it looked dull. So I moistened it with a little more olive oil and set in a 375 degrees F oven.

As it baked, I basted it a few times with its own drippings.

After it was almost to temperature (160 degrees F) I cranked the oven to 400 to crisp the skin for the last few minutes. Then I removed it from the oven, and while resting ensured the breast temperature climbed over 165F.

The skin was crisp and spicy! The meat was savory, flavorful and complex but less spicy. It was bold and special without feeling wild and crazy, or that the sides needed to work around the mole theme.

As for Mole Negro vs Adobo, I think the extra heat of the Mole Negro was my favorite, but the Adobo made the prettier crust and would be my choice for a serving a crowd.

I considered making mole sauce to spoon on the plate, but instead put some of the drippings into and on top of the mashed potatoes. Delicious!!!!!

The bones and drippings made an incredibly rich colored broth with hints of mole. It was spicier than I thought it would be. I can’t wait to make it into soups, the best part of roasting a bird. Enjoy the weather and happy cooking!

Rosie Bravo’s Chimichangas

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Hello, Amy here. Once I lived next door to Rosie, who made food that her husband Arturo peddled in the neighborhood. She made Sonoran classics including tamales de res, THE BEST tamales de elote, Mexican interpretations of Chinese food (for parties), and her own creations. One of Rosie’s creations was a spicy bean burrito, wrapped in bacon and fried, served with her own salsa roja.

Inspired by Sonoran Hot Dogs wrapped in bacon, she had no name for this delicious lunch, but it seems to me to classify as a chimichanga. The chimichanga has a few often sited origin stories, but it is a logical thing to fry stuffed flour tortillas just like you do corn tortillas!

 

To replicate Rosie’s dish, I started with Mano y Metate Adobo Powder. I cooked a couple tablespoons of powder in a splash of grape seed oil until it got bubbly and slightly brown.

 

Then I added a couple cups of cooked pinto beans and their cooking liquid. (Yes, these were from the freezer.) Of course, any bean would be delicious.

I let them defrost and reduced the liquid until it was almost dry. Then I mashed the beans by hand.

I heated a big wheat flour tortilla in by biggest pan JUST until pliable, an important step in making any burrito. Skipping this step makes for cracked, loosely rolled burritos. That is never good, but for this project would be a disaster.

The beans have to be spread pretty thinly, because these are only rolled without folding the ends, and because they have to be sturdy enough to fry.

Then a strip of bacon (or two) are wrapped around the burrito and fastened with toothpicks. (Yes, you could totally just fry the burrito without the bacon!)

Fry until golden and crispy. I had to add a little splash of oil to the pan, but by no means was it deep fried. Simply roll the chimichanga to brown on all sides. The bacon shrinks and attaches firmly to the tortilla as it cooks. If you started with a good flour tortilla, it might shed flakes of crispy dough, so handle gently.

I suggest eating immediately. (Yes, before you cook the next one.) Rosie used to pack each in small brown paper bag, to keep them crispy. But they are still wonderful at room temperature. ¡Buen Provecho!

 

 

 

Onion rings spiced with Adobo

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Hello, Amy here on a crisp and sunny winter day, making crisp and sunny food. I wanted to make something spicy and different, and onion rings sounded fun to make.

I started with tempura batter: rice flour, egg yolk, salt and cold seltzer water.

For half a cup of rice flour, I added half an egg yolk, combining the other half of the yolk with the white to scramble for breakfast. Then a dash of salt and enough seltzer water to make a light batter. Then I added a tablespoon of Mano Y Metate Adobo powder.

I sliced an onion, but many other veggies could go into the same batter.

Through the batter went the rings…

…and into hot oil!

When the vigorous bubbling subsides, they are ready to flip. When golden on both sides, they are done. I skimmed the stray bits of batter and sprinkled over a crispy lettuce and radish salad.

Draining the rings on a wire cooling rack prevents any condensation they might get resting on paper towels, and the whole tray can go into a warm oven for holding.

For additional zip, I sprinkled with extra salt and Adobo powder. Eat as soon as they are cool enough to bite!

Easy Homemade Chorizo, Vegan Cauliflower or Traditional

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Cauliflower chorizo on bean tosdada

Hello, Amy here on a cold sunny day looking for spicy comfort food. I remember my grandfather made huge batches of great homemade chorizo, usually from beef, and froze it in half or quarter pound balls for use later. We had it for breakfast mixed into skillet fried potatoes like hash, or scrambled into eggs and wrapped in hot flour tortillas. Also, he would mix it into mashed pinto beans for tostadas.

It turns out that Mano Y Metate Adobo powder is nearly all you need to season homemade chorizo. I’ve made it with beef, lamb, a mix of pork and beef, or tofu with great success. Extra firm non-silken tofu, squeezed of excess water, was surprisingly realistic when well fried and scrambled into eggs.

But I recently heard of someone making chorizo out of cauliflower, and sure enough, a quick internet search turned up plenty of variations. Cooks added all manner of creative ingredients with cauliflower to simulate a meaty taste and texture. I happened to have a huge beautiful head of cauliflower from Tucson CSA/Crooked Sky Farms, so I simply substituted cauliflower for raw meat to start. YUM! While searching, I also found a dozen places to substitute cauliflower for other traditional ingredients. Potatoes, wheat, rice, look out!

The following measurements are strictly to taste, and you can always spike with some crushed chiltepin or hot crushed red chile.

I put about half a pound of ground beef with a tin of Adobo powder and two teaspoons of vinegar. Yes, the whole tin. If you use less, it could be bland. I did the same with a cup of (packed) cauliflower I had minced in the food processor.

If possible, marinate in the refrigerator for a couple days.

Then fry in a skillet until brown. The cauliflower needed quite a bit of oil to brown, the beef none. Salt to taste.

Then I heaped the cauliflower chorizo on a bean tostada, and garnished with cilantro and I’itois green onion. I’ll be serving that at a vegetarian potluck very soon!

Fermented Citrus: Marmalade, Indian Pickle, Mole Pickle

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20170122_133637_001Hello friends, Amy here with more fermentation experiments.

It’s a good year for citrus, and I’ve come across a few mystery specimens lately, all very tart. Lemons that look like sour oranges with a lumpy, thick zest. Kumquats that were maybe calamondins. Some called calamondins, but biger, with skin and pith as thick as an orange. Something labeled meyers that were orange and more sour than a regular lemon. Rather than attempt to decipher the cultivars, I’ve just been enjoying them!

Indian Lemon Pickle

A friend’s mom from India fed me some lemon pickle. Wow!!!! Sour!!!! Salty!!!! Spicy, too! It looked as if it was going to be killer spicy, but it was only medium heat. It can be served as a condiment on the table, like with rice and cooked greens. It’s good in a vinaigrette. Any leftover soup or stew suddenly becomes new and exciting! I’m going to try marinating some chicken in it before grilling.

To make Indian lemon pickle, cut sour citrus into small pieces (about 2 cups) and remove the seeds. Add juice to nearly cover the fruit.

20170124_13340720170124_133453Add salt (2 tablespoons) and turmeric (1/2 teaspoon). The spices can be omitted if desired, like classic Moroccan preserved lemons used in cooking or Vietnamese lemons used in lemonade. I’m sure many other cuisines ferment citrus also.

Cover and let ferment at room temperature for a week or two, stirring daily. When the fruit is soft, it is ready to enjoy or spice further.

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Dry toast fenugreek seed (1 tablespoon), cool and grind. Gently heat oil (3 tablespoons) and cook black mustard seeds (half teaspoon) until they sputter! Turn down the heat and add asafoetida powder (1 teaspoon) and the prepared fenugreek. Cook briefly while stirring.

 

 

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Add the cooled spicy oil mixture and the chile to the lemon and taste! It stores beautifully in the refrigerator for a long time, thanks to high salt content. Keep the citrus pieces submerged in the brine. The salt can be reduced, but it may not keep as well.

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Mole Pickle

On a creative streak, I decided to use Mano Y Metate Adobo powder in place of the other spices. tin4I cooked Adobo powder (half a tin) in oil (3 tablespoons, cooled and added to the same fermented lemons. Yummy! The fenugreek seed in the other batch has a slight bitter edge that the Adobo version did not have. The richness of the sesame tempered the sharpness of the lemon, but it is still very potent. Perfect for tacos!!!!

 

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Fermented Marmalade

Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon has a recipe for a fermented Orange or Kumquat Marmalade, so I had to try.

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I chopped three heaping cups of sour citrus and added one tablespoon salt, half a cup filtered water, a quarter cup evaporated cane juice (granulated sugar would be fine) and one quarter cup whey (drained from yogurt) as a starter culture. Fruit normally has enough beneficial Lactobacillus cultures and the salt favors their growth over the harmful microorganisms. However, I followed the recipe since this jar had lower salt concentration and added sugar. (The sugar favors different beneficial cultures to grow.) After sitting for a couple weeks and stirring daily, it was slightly fizzy and delicious!

I made some with sliced fruit and some with fruit chopped in the food processor. The barely salty “brine” was less sour than the ferments in sour juice, slightly sweet, and tasty to sip! We ate the softened fruit on buttered toast, with or without additional evaporated cane juice sprinkled on top. Honey would be good, too.

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Enjoy, and happy experimenting!

 

 

Soup Weather: Adobo Mixed Veggie Stew

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013 Hello, this is Amy. I always love a bowl of hot soup, but especially when evenings are cool. We’ve been camping in the yard this week with our new dog, Leila and eating lots of soup. I have many basic templates and here is one of the easiest. Adobo powder really brings together the disparate characters in the veggie drawer. The entire CSA share in one big pot!A1 tin

Adobo refers to many different things around the world. It comes from the word adobar, to marinate. Made into a sauce (especially with vinegar) or used dry, it does make an excellent marinade. Mano Y Metate Adobo is made with Santa Cruz Chili, hot. This is very special chile from Tumacacori, Arizona. That bright red color! I pair that with a little chile ancho for depth. Sesame seed and organic corn tortilla meal give the finished soup or sauce some body. Cumin and Mexican oregano are two of the standout spices, with cloves and Mexican cinnamon in the background. Five flavors: spicy chile, the little bit of ancho has a hint of bitter, plenty of salt and evaporated cane juice for balance. All that’s missing is sour from a lime wedge squeezed into the bowl.

A2 pdr

To make a soup, put a tin of Adobo powder and a few tablespoons of oil in a soup pot.

A3 paste

Cook over medium heat until it turns a shade darker in color and smells fragrant.

a4diced veg

I have listed below some of the specific vegetables I used simply because I love them. Use what you have and love. Fresh or leftover meat is a great addition. Every single ingredient in this recipe is optional.

a5add veggies

Add the longer cooking veggies and stir to prevent sticking. Before it burns, add a quart of water or broth. When making Adobo into a sauce, I insist upon using broth. However, for this soup water works fine.

a6blue posole

Add the quicker cooking veggies as inspired, including precooked posole or beans, if using. I cook the posole and beans separately to ensure that they cook thoroughly but not at the expense of overcooking the tender veggies.

a7 soup cooking

When everything is tender, salt to taste. Garnish with lime wedges, avocado, thinly sliced white or green onion and cilantro.

Ingredients:

Mano Y Metate Adobo Powder
Cooking oil, like mild olive
Water or broth
Summer squash (zucchini, patty pan)
Winter squash (Delicata)
Potatoes (Red LaSoda, Yukon Gold, Purple)
Sweet Potato (Beauregard)
Sweet peppers (various colors and shapes)
Chiles (roasted and peeled, or diced and sautéed in oil first)
Tomatillo
Onion (red)
Garlic
Blue posole (heirloom dry posole available from NS/S or Flor de Mayo. The Savor Sisters promise at least one post soon about traditional posole.)
White Tepary Beans
Salt
Lime wedges, green onion, avocado and cilantro for garnish

Mac and Leila

Mac and Leila