Holy Mole!

This is a quick and easy way to make mole sauce with chicken thighs from a packaged mix of chilies, seeds and 30+ other ingredients. We picked up a packet in Cualtepec, Mexico from Casa Mercado, which had a little store, restaurant and a mole museum which told the history of mole from ancient times to the present. I was surprised that the ancients did not add chocolate to their mole.

If you can only make it as far as your local Mexican market and buy a jar of mole, this method works too. The recipe is approximate, depending on the amount of mole in the packet or jar.

Ingredients:

4 – 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

Salt

2 Tb canola or grapeseed oil

2 cups chicken stock

1 heaping tablespoon cocoa powder. If you prefer a sweeter mole, use a disk of Mexican chocolate such as Ibarra

1 heaping tablespoon peanut butter.

Directions:

Cut thighs in half and trim excess fat. Salt each side with salt shaker.

Heat oil in large Dutch oven or heavy pan. Add thighs and brown each side over medium-high heat. Remove from pan onto a plate

Pour chicken broth into the pan and stir to loosen any brown bits. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium. Add the mole mix, chocolate and peanut butter. Use a potato masher to break up the mole, then whisk until smooth. Add the chicken back in and gently stir with a large spoon until it’s covered with the sauce. Cook covered on medium-low for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until chicken is tender.

Serve with tortillas to mop up the sauce. Or make enchiladas by dipping hot tortillas in the sauce and filling them with the shredded chicken, topping with avocado slices and a sprinkling of cotija cheese.

Orange-Scented French Toast

Orange zest adds a delicious scent and taste to French Toast.

Ingredients

One large orange, zested, one teaspoon vanilla, 1/4 tsp cinnamon and a shake of nutmeg

Per slice of bread: One egg and 3 Tb milk.

Directions:

Zest the orange and slice it, and set the sliced orange on a plate. Mix the zest with the rest of the ingredients in a shallow pan.

Dip the bread into the custard mix until it is saturated.

Heat a pan with a bit of butter and pan fry the French Toast.

Serve the French Toast with the sliced oranges on the side. For an extra treat, top with sliced strawberries and blueberries. I make blueberry syrup by mixing 1/4 cup blueberries (fresh or defrosted, depending on the season) and 1 Tb maple syrup.

Grilled Portobellos

These meaty giant mushrooms are perfect for grilling, and a quick marinade deepens their unami flavor. Serve slices on a salad or atop polenta, rice, quinoa or pasta.

Makes 2 portobellos:

Remove stems from the portobellos. Give mushrooms a quick rinse and wipe dirt off with a wet paper towel.

Stir together and place in a shallow dish:

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 minced garlic clove

1 sprig of rosemary, minced

1 sprig of thyme, minced, or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1 pinch sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

several grinds black pepper

Marinade for 15 minutes, about 7-8 minutes on each side.

Oil the grill with canola oil (spray or brush) and heat to medium. Grill mushrooms for five minutes on each side, brushing with marinade.

Place in marinade after grilling. If you choose to slice them, place in the marinade again to soak it up

A homily to hominy

This hominy beats opening a can, although the clerk in the Mexican market assured me that the canned version was much faster to make. Faster maybe, but much less fun! And the texture and taste of homemade is far superior. Plus my husband was filled with nostalgia when I was cooking the hominy, because it smelled just like his mom’s kitchen when he was growing up. His mom regularly made hominy and he would take it in a bucket to the mill in their small South Texas town to grind it into masa dough for corn tortillas.

To make about 4 cups cooked hominy, use 3 cups of field corn. It goes by many names: dried maize in English, maiz seco or maiz pozolero in Spanish, and maiz cacahuazintl in the Aztec language Nahuatl . Because I’m fortunate to live near a Mexican store that has it in bins, I filled a bag with the amount I needed. They had bins with both purple and white maiz, but since I was going to use it to make posole verde, I figured purple would be a weird color clash with the green soup. But it works with posole rojo (red).

Rinse the corn in a colander to clean it. Fill a large pot about 2/3 full of water and bring it to a boil. Stir in 1 1/2 tsp of slaked lime, also known as food grade calcium hydroxide and as Cal in Spanish. This alkaline compound magically transforms the dried corn into a digestible grain and makes the niacin available. This technique was developed by Natives in Mexico and other countries in the Americas long before Europeans appeared. The Aztecs called the transformed corn “Nixtamal”.

Stir in the corn and simmer for one hour and 20 minutes. Let cool and then refrigerate until the next day. The water will turn very cloudy.

The next day dump it into a colander and rise well. Pour the rinsed corn into a large pot and fill it with water, stir it around and then dump it back into the colander. Repeat this process several times until the water stays clear. Then rub the corn in your hands under running water to remove any remaining cal and the softened corn husks. Once it’s no longer slimy, it should be done.

In a clean large pot, heat water to boiling and stir in the cleaned hominy with a teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil and cook over high heat for an hour and 20 minutes. Your kitchen will smell wonderful. Let cool and drain. It is now ready to make posole, or if you have a way to grind it, fresh tortillas.

Succulent Succotash

Contrary to what Sylvester the Cat exclaims, this succotash is not sufferin’! The Narragansett tribe in Rhode Island called this vegetable stew sahquttahhash, meaning “broken corn kernels.” The dish spread to the southern states and I was fortunate to eat some delicious succotash on a recent trip to rural Georgia. The bland lima beans of my youth were transformed into a somewhat spicy and excellently seasoned dish. I tried to recreate it for my upcoming Thanksgiving feast.

Ingredients makes about 8 1/2 cups 

• 2 Tb olive-avocado oil or olive oil 
• 1 small onion minced
• 1 1/2 cups chopped fresh or frozen bell peppers 
• 3 cloves garlic minced fine
• 2 cups frozen lima beans
• 1 medium delicata squash 
• 1 cup diced tomato (canned is fine)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt to taste 
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano 
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic or garlic powder 
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated onion or onion powder 
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika 
• 1/4 teaspoon sweet paprika 
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup chicken stock (sub vegetable stock or water to make this vegetarian/ vegan
• 1/3 cup salsa to taste 
• 2 1/2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels 

Directions

Heat oil in Dutch oven or large pot. Add the onion and bell peppers and cook until they begin to soften, then stir in garlic and cook about a minute. Stir in the lima beans, squash, tomato, tomato sauce, salsa, broth, and seasonings.  Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the corn and simmer for another 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Light Summer Corn Soup with Fresh Herbs

I used late summer white corn on the cob in this light version of corn chowder. I boiled the stripped cobs for extra corn flavor. I added a cup of frozen white corn, just because I didn’t have enough cobs on hand, but you could make this with four cobs (figure about 1/2 cup corn per cob.) I put in some chopped zucchini at the end for a summer treat. I used almond milk instead of the traditional cream and it worked just fine. You could use your choice of plant milk or regular cow’s milk if you prefer.

Ingredients: Makes 4 to 5 large bowls

2 cobs of white corn plus 1 cup frozen white corn OR 4 cobs white corn

2 Tb butter

1 medium leek (white and light green parts), chopped and rinsed well

2 large celery ribs, chopped

1 cup chopped bell peppers (fresh or frozen. I used Trader Joe’s Melange a Trois)

1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, thinly sliced

7 cups chicken broth (you can use vegetable broth to make this vegetarian)

1 cup almond milk (or plant milk of your choice or cow’s milk)

2 medium zucchini, chopped finely

A few sprigs parsley, thyme and basil, minced

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Melt butter in large pot. Add leeks, celery and bell peppers and saute until beginning to soften. Add corn on the cob. Add garlic and saute until you can smell it but it’s not brown.

Add the chicken stock (or vegetable stock for vegetarian soup) and bring to a boil, then cook on medium.

When corn kernels are puffy, remove corn and let cool on a plate. When it’s cool, strip the kernels from the corn and set half a cup of the kernels aside (one cob’s worth). Add the rest of the kernels and the corn cobs back to the broth. If using frozen corn, add it to the broth.

Cook for 15 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit for 10 minutes, then add almond milk.

Remove cobs from the soup. Pour the soup into a blender or use an immersion blender in the pot. Run it on high for about a minute, then pour it back in the pot. Add the corn you set aside and the chopped zucchini and bring to a boil and cook until zucchini and corn are tender, about another 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve garnished with minced herbs

Avocado-Massaged Kale Salad with Roasted Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts

Instead of oil, I used 1/4 avocado to massage until it disappears into the kale. I dress it with lemon juice and sprinkle salt, pepper, garlic powder. I balance the bitterness of the kale with grated carrot and fennel root and cherry tomatoes. I sprinkle with raw pepitas for crunch and add the roasted cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts along with hard boiled eggs and garbanzo beans to make a meal.

INGREDIENTS:

5 cups shredded curly kale, stems removed.

1 small head or half medium head of cauliflower

5-10 Brussels sprouts

olive oil cooking spray

Kosher salt

black pepper

paprika

2 Tb nutritional yeast

1/4 medium or large avocado

1 carrot, grated

1/2 bulb fennel root, grated

1 Tb raw pepitas

5 cherry tomatoes

1/2 cup garbanzo beans

1 or 2 hard boiled eggs

1/2 lemon, juiced

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 425′

Tear kale into bite-sized pieces, discarding stems. Rinse several times under cold water and spin dry several times. Roll into a kitchen towel and squeeze tightly, unroll and repeat. Put aside in a large bowl.

Cut cauliflower into florets and tender young leaves, rinse and dry well in paper towels or a kitchen towel. Spray a baking pan with olive oil spray, add the cauliflower and spray it evenly. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and paprika and 1 Tb nutritional yeast. Toss and separate in the pan. Roast for 20 minutes until beginning to brown on the bottom. The leaves are nice and crunchy.

Remove the cauliflower and set aside on a plate. I like to nosh on it as I’m preparing the rest of the salad. Cut Brussels sprouts into quarters and sprinkle with salt and pepper, and paprika and 1 Tb nutritional yeast. Toss and separate in the pan. Roast for 10 to 15 minutes until beginning to brown.

While vegetables are roasting, rub the avocado into the kale until it disappears. Grate a carrot and half a fennel bulb over the kale and sprinkle with pepitas.

Add cherry tomatoes, roasted veggies and garbanzos. Place hard boiled eggs on top, sprinkle lemon juice, salt, pepper and garlic powder over the salad.

This salad is flexible and you can add or subtract the ingredients. Here it is without the garbanzos or roast veggies , although I think they add a special something to it.

Strawberry-Banana Tofu Smoothie

This is an easy, filling, high protein, low calorie breakfast. The silken tofu gives this a super rich and creamy texture. Strawberries and ripe bananas add just the right amount of sweetness, so I don’t add any sweetener, but you can add a spoonful or some orange juice if you desire. You can use frozen strawberries and skip the ice.

Ingredients: Makes 3 glasses

2 speckled bananas, sliced

8 medium strawberries, sliced

1/2 block silken tofu (8 oz)

1 or 2 ice cubes

1 1/2 cups (12 oz) almond milk, or other milk substitute (or milk)

Directions:

Drain tofu and fold into paper towels to absorb excess moisture

Add sliced bananas, strawberries and tofu to a high speed blender and run on high for a minute.

Add almond milk and ice cubes and blend another minute

Serve and enjoy!

Cioppino Seafood Stew

Although some people think that Cioppino is native to Italy, it was actually invented by Sicilian fisherman in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. They made an Italian-style stew of what was left of the day’s catch at the end of the day. As a SF Bay Area native, I’m proud that my home is the birthplace of this delicious dish.

Ingredients: (Serves 2) Like the originators of this stew, you can vary the type of seafood you want to add to it. Crab is in season in winter here, so bought a few crab legs to top it when I made it for my husband on Valentine’s Day.

Fish stock: (you can make it earlier in the day and refrigerate it until you’re ready to make the cioppino.) Boil 1 cup chicken broth or water with bay leaf, slice of onion and black pepper. Add shrimp and crab shells and salmon skin and boil for an hour. Strain the stock to make 2/3 cup.

1 tsp fish sauce (I like Red Boat brand).

8 oz bottle clam juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/3 onion, chopped

1 large shallot, chopped

1 small fennel bulb, sliced

1 teaspoon salt

several grinds black pepper

2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes

14-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice (San Marzano tomatoes are the sweetest and tastiest)

1 Tb tomato paste

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 bay leaf

1/3 pound manila clams, scrubbed and purged

1/2 pound mussels, purged, de-bearded and scrubbed

1/2 pound salmon, skinned and cut into 2-inch chunks (use the skin to flavor the fish stock) or other firm fleshed fish (but not cod which will fall apart.)

1/4 pound scallops 

1/3 pound uncooked large shrimp, peeled and deveined (use shells in the fish stock)

4 shelled cooked crab legs (use the shells to flavor the fish stock)

1/4 cup Italian parsley, diced

Directions:

Add fish sauce and clam juice to the fish stock.

Heat oil in a gallon pot until it shimmers. Add onions and fennel and stir about 10 minutes until they soften. Add garlic and stir until it is fragrant, and add red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Pour in fish stock mixture and tomatoes and heat to boiling. Stir in tomato paste, wine and bay leaf. Let soup simmer for 15 minutes. Then add fish in this order:

Clams They will take about 6 minutes to open

Mussels: They will take about 5 minutes to open

Fish

Scallops

Shrimp (they only take a minute or two to turn pink)

When all seafood is cooked, ladle it into two large bowls. Top with the cooked crab meat and spoon some of the hot broth over it to warm it. Garnish with parsley and a lemon to squeeze on the side. Serve with hot French bread or sourdough.

Soulful Greens in Instant Pot

Greens are my favorite African-American soul food, a style of cooking which dates back to African and Southern antebellum times. They are very nutritious. The central ingredient, collard greens, contains the highest level of calcium of any vegetable.

As a Californian raised by New Yorkers who’d never had soul food, I needed some advice beyond the internet to make the greens. I asked two Black girlfriends who are expert soul food cooks, Nita and Tomita, for advice, and they generously shared their recipes with me. Nita told me that her mother taught her to add turnips to hers, and Tomita combines kale and turnip greens with the traditional collard greens for a nutritious mix.

Although greens are traditionally made with either bacon or ham hocks, I didn’t want to add pork. I used Veggie Chick’s vegan instant pot collard greens as a guide, but it lacked a certain oomph that can only come from added meat. Tomita told me that she adds smoked turkey wings to hers. Nita adds a can of Glory southern style greens which amps up the flavor with pork brine and tiny bits of pork. The Glory greens really hit the spot.

I make my greens in a 6 quart Instant Pot.

Ingredients

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds (available at Indian and Halal markets, and Berkeley Bowl bins
• 1 small yellow onion 
• 1 red bell pepper for color (optional)
• 3 garlic cloves 
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• several grinds black pepper
• several dashes cayenne or a pinch of red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 bunch collard greens – (about 4 cups packed)
• 1 bunch of kale (I generally use lacinato kale, but curly kale works too)
• 1 bunch turnip greens with small turnips attached, or 1 medium turnip sold separately (depending on what will turn up in the produce department.)
• 15-ounce can diced tomatoes or 2 chopped tomatoes
• 27-oz can of Glory seasoned southern style collard greens or mixed greens (available at Lucky’s stores)
• 2 cups cooked black eyed peas (optional)

Directions:

Tear collards, kale and turnips off of tough central stems and chop well. (I save the stems to put in vegetable broth or chicken stock.) Rinse several times in a salad spinner.

Peel and roughly chop the turnip(s).

Dice the onion, chop the red bell pepper and mince the garlic.

Turn instant pot to sauté function and add oil. When it’s hot, add the mustard seeds and let them cook until you hear them pop. Stir in onion and cook for 3 minutes, then stir in red bell pepper, garlic, and spices.

Add the greens, tomato and can of Glory greens, and black eyed peas if using. Stir gently until the greens begin to wilt. Turn instant pot off, then pressure cook for 6 minutes, Natural Pressure release. Adjust salt if desired.

Nice served with barbecued chicken and rice or Olive Oil Cornbread to soak up the pot liquor (also spelled pot likker), the delicious liquid that is created when the greens are cooked.