Real Mexican Food

For real Mexican food you have to go to the countryside throughout Mexico. You have to visit the fishing villages and farming communities - away from the vast urban centers. On this week's program I made chilaquiles, a dish that one could classify as "peasant food," as it is one of those conglomerations that farmers might make with whatever was in their larder.

When I titled this blog post "Real Mexican Food," I was actually referring to these countryside dishes that Chef Rick Bayless and Chef Lorena Garcia have popularized.

It also brings to mind a trip I made to Mexico more than 20 years ago. My brother and I went to Mazatlan for a few days and we met up with a few other American guys and several Canadians. But five or six of us stuck together -- ordering buckets of beers on the beach and otherwise having a rousing good time. We soon learned that Mazatlan was also a popular vacation spot for Mexicans of means and we met up with a group of young women who seemed to get a kick out of the rousing good time the five of us were having.

They spoke almost no English and I was the only one who could speak Spanish with any competency, so I became the official translator. Since this is a food blog, we'll talk about the food aspect of this story, rather than the -- er, um -- social component.

The girls told me they were going into the "real" Mazatlan for dinner -- and would we like to join them? My first question was, "What do you mean "the real Mazatlan?" As it turns out, there are actually two Mazatlans. One for us tourists and one for the true residents of Mazatlan. It was a fairly short taxi ride away, but what an incredible difference in the atmosphere, the commerce, and especially the food.

In the resort Mazatlan, the food offerings were what Americans and Canadians expected of Mexican food: tacos, burritos, chalupas, salsa and chips, nachos -- and beer. Lots and lots of beer. And shots of tequila with mariachi bands at places like Senor Frog's and other such tourist havens.

But in the real Mazatlan, we found elegant restaurants with expertly prepared food -- great seafood and perfectly grilled meats and vegetables. There was hardly a tortilla in sight. The guacamole was relish-like rather than a smooth green paste. The ingredients in the salsas showed that the kitchen staff had knife skills and cared about the proportion of vegetables to spices, etc.

That's when I first learned that there is Mexican cuisine in addition to Mexican food. Most of what passes for Mexican food in this country is actually "Tex-Mex," created in Texas and because of the state's proximity to Mexico, the ingredients are largely those found in true Mexican food.

That's what this week's recipe is about: Real Mexican Food. Chilaquiles -- also known as Salsa-Simmered Tortilla Chips -- it's a true country dish from the farms of Mexico. It often will have shredded meats, either chicken, pork or beef, whatever may be left over from last night's dinner. And sometimes it is even made lasagna style -- layering the fried tortilla chips in between layers of the meat and the roasted vegetables that make up the salsa.

Here's this week's video and the recipe:

6 Roma (plum) tomatoes

2 garlic cloves

1 jalapeño, stemmed, halved and seeded

1 small white onion, quartered

2 Tbsp vegetable oil, plus more for deep-frying

4 canned chipotle chiles in adobo

4 Tbsp cilantro, roughly chopped

1 1/2 Tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

1/4 tsp dried oregano (Mexican if you have it)

10 6-inch corn tortillas, stacked and cut into 1/2-inch squares

salt to taste

6 oz chorizo sausage, removed from casing and chopped

1/4 cup sour cream (or crema)

2 oz Cotija cheese (or Feta)

4 radishes, thinly sliced, for garnish

Heat the oven using the broiler. In a bowl, toss the tomatoes, garlic, jalapeño and onions with 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil. Transfer the vegetables to a foil-lined baking sheet and broil, turning occasionally until the tomato skins blister and begin to blacken.

Transfer roasted vegetables to the bowl of a food processor, add the chipotles with adobo, along with 2 Tbsp cilantro, sesame seeds, oregano and 1/4 cup of water and puree until smooth. Set the sauce aside.

Pour vegetable oil into a skillet to a depth of 1 inch. Heat until your thermometer (candy or deep-fry) reaches 350. Fry the tortillas squares until golden brown and crisp and drain on paper towels. Season with salt.

Heat another large skillet over medium high heat and add the chorizo. Cook, breaking up the pieces with a wooden spoon until cooked through and browned. Add the pureed sauce to the skillet and stir to combine. Season with salt. Bring to a simmer and add the fried tortilla chips, stirring to combine.

Cook just long enough until the chips begin to soften slightly, then transfer to a serving plate and garnish with sour cream, Cotija and sliced radishes.

The Starbucking of New York

The city I've called home twice in my career has changed -- and not for the better, in my opinion. I just returned from a business/pleasure trip to New York and I didn't care much for what I saw.

Midtown Manhattan has been overtaken -- conquered might be a better word -- by Starbucks. There's one on every block. Sometimes two. And New Yorkers are famously so blase about most everything, I think that maybe they haven't even noticed.

The last time I lived in New York (paying more in rent for my one-bedroom apartment than my wife and I paid for the mortgage on our three-bedroom home), there was a sense of community in each neighborhood in Manhattan. Yes, despite the massive skyscrapers and never-ending traffic, the luxury retailers and department stores, Manhattan is actually a conglomeration of neighborhoods. And each has its own character.

Even Midtown used to have locally-owned coffee shops, diners, groceries and the like. They're still there, but not in the numbers they used to be. Companies like Starbucks have squeezed out most of the independent coffee shops and diners, not unlike Wal-Mart decimating downtown retail everywhere it builds one of its massive boxes.

I was actually on a mission to bring back a piece of New York that I truly miss: full sour kosher dill pickles. These are not available anywhere else in the world except in New York delis. And the delis that I used to patronize for lunch are long gone. Even the 800-pound gorillas -- the Carnegie Deli and the Stage Delicatessen -- are out of business. A piece of New York that's gone forever.

Now that doesn't mean that New York doesn't have good places to eat. It's still the center of the American culinary universe. Happily, I did eat some excellent meals and not once did I ever have to tell a bartender that a martini without vermouth is not a martini.

Here are a few of the dishes we had at Cellini, a well-known and long-established Italian restaurant in midtown Manhattan: From top to bottom: Caprese salad with roasted red peppers, capers, yellow tomato slice, fresh mozzarella, basil and balsamic syrup; Tuna carpaccio; Seafood Rissotto; and Rack of Veal.

Coincidentally, this week's Kitchen Guy episode is also an Italian dish: Flank Steak Tagliata. Here's the video and the recipe:

2 lbs. flank steak
Coarse salt and black peppercorns
Several sprigs of rosemary
6 garlic cloves, sliced thin
Extra virgin olive oil
Arugula or Radicchio
Parmesan or Pecorino Roman wedge
Lemon wedges for garnish

Lay flank steak on a baking sheet and season well on both sides with coarse salt and ground black peppercorns. Strip the rosemary sprigs and press leaves and garlic slices into the meat. Then coat the flank steak with a thin film of olive oil and "massage" the meat. Leave the meat at room temperature for about an hour.

While the meat is marinating, heat the oven to 450 and place a cast iron pan or grill pan on the bottom rack and let it heat up with the oven.

Carefully remove the pan from the oven and place the flank steak in the pan and return it to the oven to cook for about 5 minutes. Then flip the meat (make sure the bottom is well-seared) and cook for an additional 4 minutes for medium rare, longer for medium.

Remove the pan and place the steak on a cutting board to rest for about 10 minutes.

Cut the meat against the grain, on the diagonal. Arrange on a platter on top of arugula or radicchio and garnish with lemon wedges. Shave Parmesan or Pecorino from the wedge with a vegetable peeler.

"Puffy" Pizza - Not a Seinfeld Episode

I want to begin by expressing my gratitude to Pepperidge Farms for making puff pastry accessible to all. I love working with puff pastry and I'm thinking about establishing a ministry to extoll the virtues of cooking and baking with it.

It's something of an ordeal to make from scratch. Gobs of butter must be incorporated into dough that is folded into itself multiple times. But buying it ready-made, either in sheets or in shells right form the freezer case in the supermarket, is the way to go.

There's really only one thing you need to remember about puff pastry. It won't rise (puff) properly unless your oven is set at 400 degrees (we're talking Fahrenheit).

Puff pastry works with savory dishes equally as well as it does with desserts and that's what this week's episode is all about. I basically put pizza toppings inside a puff pastry triangle, sealed and crimped the edges, baked them at 400 and -- Voila! -- about 20 minutes or so later, beautiful puffy triangles with sizzling hot pizza fixings inside. It's sort of a larger version of those miniature factory-produced snacks you used to see advertised on television.

And here's the recipe:

1 pkg frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed

1/2 lb Italian sausage (you choose: hot or sweet)

1 cup sliced Cremini mushrooms

1/2 cup onion, finely diced

1 cup pizza sauce (store-bought is okay)

1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1 large egg beaten with 1 Tbsp water

Flour to dust the work surface

Thaw the puff pastry for about 20 minutes, unwrapped, at room temperature.

Remove the sausage from the casing if necessary and brown in a large skillet over medium heat, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon. Drain and discard any accumulated fat. Add the mushrooms and onions and cook, stirring until tender. Remove from the heat and stir in the pizza sauce. When cooled slightly, stir in the cheeses.

Make the egg wash with the beaten egg and water. Set it aside for a moment.

Preheat the oven to 400.

On a lightly floured board, roll out each sheet of puff pastry to approximately 11-inch squares. Cut each square in half on the diagonal to create four triangles.

Divide the filling among the triangular pieces of puff pastry and brush the edges with the egg wash. Fold over the dough and crimp the edges with the tines of a fork.

Gently dust off any excess flour from the filled pastries and brush with additional egg wash.

Oil or spray a rimmed baking sheet and place the turnovers on the sheets. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes until the pastries are puffed and golden brown.

* * * * *
ERRATUM

From the New York State Department of Corrections: In last week's blog post, I wrote that Kimmelweck rolls were from a bakery by the same name in Buffalo, NY. Not so. Kimmelweck is actually a derivative of a German word for the roll, the key part of the word being "kimmel," which means caraway seed in German.  If anyone in Buffalo or elsewhere was offended, insulted, disturbed or otherwise bothered by this misstatement of fact, I apologize for the error.

As Henry Kissinger once said, "I am often mistaken, but never in doubt."

Travelin' Man Plus Red Velvet Pancakes

I'm on a trek east this week and because of my travel schedule, I missed posting the video here as I regularly do. Fear not, for it will appear at the end of this blog.

On the way to New York, we stopped in Buffalo to visit family. While there, one of the family took us to a relatively new gastropub, The Phoenix, aptly named because it rose from the detritus of Buffalo's economic decline and is now part of the revival of a number of similar projects in the city's ethnic neighborhoods.

It was well after 9 on Friday night, and the place was hopping. And as busy as they were, the hostess, bartender, and the waitstaff were not too busy to smile, greet you warmly and make sure that you got what you wanted in a hurry. And that was very much appreciated after a day-long sojourn filled with airport food and airline "snacks."

The menu at The Phoenix is limited but very creative. When I saw the size of the kitchen (postage stamps come to mind), it's easy to see why they limit the menu. But it didn't stop them from having a pretty extensive selection of chalkboard specials, one of which I had and, in my opinion, it was nothing short of a brilliant riff on the iconic Buffalo sandwich, "Beef on Weck."

If you're not familiar with that, it originated largely with a roll produced by the long-closed Kimmelweck Bakery in Buffalo. It's essentially a Kaiser roll with coarse salt and caraway seeds, and it's delicious. My wife and I like them so much that every time we visit Buffalo, we call up the nearest Wegman's and order two or three dozen. We then take them to one of our relatives' homes and wrap each individually in Saran, box them up and FedEx them to ourselves back in Montana. It's our Sunday morning treat, so we have between 12 and 18 weeks' worth.

I digress. The "Beef on Weck" riff by The Phoenix was a flatbread version of the sandwich. Actually, the kitchen baked up some naan and then put the Kimmelweck toppings -- coarse salt and caraway on top. Then they loaded with flatbread with tender shaved beef, melted white cheddar, very pungent horseradish and fresh baby spinach leaves.

We also sampled a few other dishes, including menu staple Shrimp and Grits. Lest any of you think that a sausage-maker in Buffalo, New York cannot make andouille sausage every bit as good as a sausage-maker anywhere in Louisiana, do not be so sure. This kitchen knows how to do Shrimp and Grits and the addition of andouille sausage disks made locally was pretty darn tasty.

We also tasted two soups -- clam chowder and black bean. They were both quite good and well-made, but could have used a more effective soup warmer, because they came to the table only luke-warm. Also on our tasting list was the banana pepper and cheese dip appetizer. And I could not resist the side of polenta fries with lemon aioli.

I loved The Phoenix. I loved the atmosphere, admired the renovation they did of an old and decrepit shot-and-a-beer bar, I enjoyed the service and -- as you no doubt deduced -- the food. If you ever find yourself in Buffalo, make your way to the Black Rock section and go to The Phoenix. You won't regret it.

We're in New York City now and I'll have a few things to say about the food I've eaten thus far and will be eating over the next couple of days -- but you'll have to wait until next week for that.

In the meantime, here's the video and recipe from this past week's episode of Kitchen Guy -- my Mother's Day special: Red Velvet Pancakes with Cream Cheese Glaze.




And here's the recipe

For the Pancakes:

2 cups all-purpose flour

3 Tbsp cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups buttermilk*

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 Tbsp red food coloring

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup butter, melted

For the Cream Cheese Glaze:

6 oz. cream cheese, softened

6 Tbsp butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup milk, or more to make glaze looser if desired

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

*If you don't have buttermilk, add, 2 Tbsp of white vinegar to regular whole milk.

Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.

Pour buttermilk into a separate bowl and add in sugar, beaten eggs, red food coloring, vanilla and melted butter. Whisk until well-combined.

While whisking, slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Lumps in the batter are okay.

Heat a griddle or the largest skillet you have and grease the surface.

Ladle out a scant quarter-cup of batter onto the heated grill. Cook until the pancakes have bubbles on the surface and the edges begin to cook. Flip carefully and cook opposite side until pancake is cooked through.

To make the cream cheese glaze, with an electric mixer, blend together cream cheese and butter and until combined and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in remaining ingredients and mix another minute or so, adding additional milk to thin the mixture if needed.

The picture above shows the pancakes after I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to make "pancake hearts." Drizzle the glaze over the pancakes and garnish with fresh berries.

Minor Battle - Major Party

So while the North and South were slaughtering each other in 1862, the Mexicans were fighting their own war with colonialist France. On May 5, 1862, the Mexican army defeated the formidable French army at the Battle of Puebla.

And so the Mexicans created a holiday -- minor, I'm told -- and just called it Cinqo de Mayo, the 5th of May.

The importers, distributors and purveyors of Mexican beers and foods convinced the taverns of our country that Cinqo de Mayo would be a marketing bonanza - maybe as big as St. Patrick's Day. An exaggeration, I'm sure, but untold numbers of Americans will be out in force on May 5th to guzzle Corona, Dos Equis, Tecate and others, along with burritos, tacos and enchiladas.

So I know a trend when I see one. And that was a good enough reason to present my version of Black Bean Soup -- not entirely a Mexican culinary invention, but more Tex-Mex and Southwestern in character. But it's hard to find a sit-down Mexican restaurant in this country that doesn't offer this soup in one form or another.

The black beans are similar to the beans (but not necessarily the same) as those used in refried beans -- that ubiquitous side that comes with almost anything you order in Mexican restaurants.

You'll notice that I've pureed most of the product. But if you're looking for some additional texture, you can certainly hold out some of the cooked product before you load the rest into the blender.

And just a note of caution before you make this. When you put hot liquids in a blender or food processor, it's best to err on the side of caution and hold down the lid with a towel, as hot liquids tend to expand. You probably don't want to wear your Black Bean Soup. You want to eat it. So here's the video and the recipe:

2 Cans Black Beans, drained and rinsed twice

1 small onion, diced

1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 large carrot, diced

1 celery stalk, diced

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

2 small jalapeño peppers, seeded and cut into small dice

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 medium tomato, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 cup salsa, medium hot

Sauté onion, bell pepper, carrot, celery, cilantro and jalapeño in butter over medium high heat. Add tomatoes and garlic and continue to cook over medium heat for 5 minutes.

Place sautéed vegetables in a large soup pot, add the beans and cover with 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook uncovered until the beans are tender. Stir occasionally and add water if needed. When the beans are softened to your taste, take the pot off the heat and let cool slightly.

Drain the beans and vegetables, reserving the liquid. Carefully puree the beans and vegetables in batches, along with a small amount of the reserved liquid along with the cumin in a blender or food processor. (You should reserve some of the beans and vegetables to add to the soup for texture). Mix in enough reserved liquid to create a soup-like consistency.

Add any remaining cumin and the salsa. Top with sour cream or Mexican crema and additional chopped cilantro.