The Sublime and the Beautiful in the Kitchen

I've been reading Burke for my Romanticism class, and in case you were unaware, the Sublime is something that is obscure and inspires terror. Rather like a daunting recipe you have never tried before. The Beautiful, meanwhile, is small, round, pleasantly varied in texture, and non-threatening. Like a frittata.

My current menu is a schizo mix of ambitious grand project meals and comfortable "I'd rather not cook tonight but I should" fallbacks. It's always good to have a little bit of both. The benefits of the ambitious meals are that, if you pull them off you have the satisfaction of being really impressed with your intrepidness and skill in the kitchen, and you also have a new thing that you now know how to make. The benefits of the fallbacks are that they are familiar and thus easy, and you know that although they may not blow your mind, they will always be good.

This is my menu:

Miso shrimp with rice x 3

Roasted potatoes in Romesco sauce x 4

Pork carnitas tacos x 3

Spinach and mushroom frittata x 4

Baked polenta and mushrooms x 4

Skillet black beans and potatoes x 4

Penne with chicken and spinach x 4

I present you now with recipes for one grand project (that I pulled off handily) and one fallback that never fails to please. The first is pork carnitas, a time-consuming but deceptively simple and maximally delicious way to prepare an inexpensive cut of pork. I reserve the right to apply my name to this recipe, because I made some changes to recipes I found online that I feel make these carnitas distinctive yet authentically Mexican in flavor.

Emily's Pork Carnitas Tacos

1 lb pork butt (aka pork shoulder), cut into 2” cubes

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 serrano pepper, minced

1 cup orange juice

1 splash of beer (preferably not a dark beer)

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp cumin

½ tsp black pepper

1 tsp coarse salt

For the tacos:

Corn tortillas (I use Alejandro's corn gorditas--made here in Tucson)

Diced white onion, radish, avocado, cilantro and lime wedges for garnish

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Combine the spices in a bowl. Heat some olive oil in the bottom of a cast iron baking dish, or skillet with a lid, over medium-high heat. Toss the pork in the spices until well coated and braise in batches. Remove the braised pork to a plate. Add the orange juice, beer, garlic and serrano to the dish and return the meat to the dish. Add enough water to just cover the meat. When the liquid reaches the simmering point, remove from the heat and place in the oven. Cook covered for three hours, giving the meat a stir every ½ hour to hour. When the pork is done, move the meat to a dish to cool, reserving the cooking juices. While the pork cools, prep the taco garnish and set aside. When the pork is cool, shred it with your fingers. It should shred quite easily. Heat some of the reserved cooking liquid in a skillet over medium high heat until it simmers. Add enough shredded pork to cover the bottom of the pan and let it cook until it begins to crisp. Let it crisp on both sides. Scoop a little of the pork onto warm corn tortillas and serve topped with the garnish, a fresh squeeze of lime, and a pinch of salt. Yields 8 small tacos.

The second recipe is a simple frittata, variations upon which I make a lot because they are quick, tasty, light, and easily adaptable to whatever ingredients you may have on hand. If you're not familiar with frittata, it's kind of like a quiche without the crust--and while it might seem tricky, with a little practice it's quite easy. This is one of those great dishes that works equally well as dinner or breakfast. Although I've thrown every vegetable imaginable into frittatas before, this minimalist interpretation is one of my favorites.

Spinach and Mushroom Frittata

6 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 cup sliced mushrooms (I used a combination of white and baby bellas)

2 cups sliced baby spinach

1/4 cup grated cheese + 2 Tbsps Parmesan (I used white cheddar this time, but almost any cheese will do. I've used Swiss, jack, smoked gouda, feta, even bleu in the past)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In an oven-safe non-stick skillet (about 12" in diameter), heat about 1 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and allow them to saute until they just start giving of their liquid. While they cook, beat the eggs with the milk and stir in the grated cheese, salt, pepper, and paprika. Add the spinach to the skillet, and cook until it just starts to wilt. Pour the egg mixture into the skillet, give it a gentle stir, and sprinkle the top with parmesan and nutmeg. Taking care that the flame is not too high (you don't want to make the bottom of the frittata rubbery), cook the frittata just until the edges start to set. When you can gently lift the edge away from the pan with a rubber spatula, but the center is still liquid, transfer the skillet to the oven and bake uncovered for 10-15 minutes, or just until it puffs up and the center is set. You can check by jiggling the pan. If the center jiggles, it needs more time. Once it is done, take it out of the oven and let it cool for at least a minute before removing from the pan. If you are adventurous and dextrous, you can remove it from the pan by placing a plate on top and quickly flipping it. If you are like me and prone to clumsiness, use a rubber spatula to gently loosen the frittata from the bottom of the pan and carefully slide it onto a cutting board. Cut into four wedges. Delicious served with a side of pears and walnuts with a little balsamic vinegar.

Holé Molé

So I made some molé sauce from scratch and turned it into chicken enchiladas. No big deal.

Actually, I'm really proud of myself because molé is a little complicated, and I haven't been able to find two recipes out there that are remotely the same. Most include onion, some kind of dried chiles, and unsweetened chocolate. Some have peanuts, some don't, some have tomato sauce, some don't, the spices and amounts vary wildly...you get the idea. So I looked at three or four recipes that had some basic elements in common, and tried to combine them to approximate what molé, in my mind, should taste like.

I guess I should say what molé is. Since I've lived in Arizona and California my whole life, I've maybe had more exposure to it than a lot of people. Don't quote me on it, but I don't think you can get anything molé-related at Taco Bell, for instance. This is understandable; it's less accessible than a lot of Mexican dishes because the spicing is pretty unique. It includes chocolate as a spice. It's unsweetened, but still. A lot of people think reflexively of chocolate and meat mixed together as some kind of abomination that is probably prohibited in the Bible. To my knowledge, it's not, but even if it were, I would trust my own taste buds over the word of God in this case. I ignored what God had to say about eating shrimp and shellfish, and I have yet to regret that. Anyway.

Wikipedia says that molé (which is really spelled with out the accent, but saying I made "mole" sauce is just confusing/gross) is really just a generic word for sauce that comes from the Nahuatl "molli." When we talk about molé in the US, what we're usually talking about...well, it's ambiguous. It could be mole poblano, named for the state of Puebla from whence it comes, or mole negro, which comes from Oaxaca, and is similar but, apparently, as the name would suggest, darker because it contains additional spices. In any case, turkey or chicken with molé is typically a celebration thing that you might have for weddings or holidays. I think what I ended up making was maybe closer to mole negro? But I'm not sure. It was pretty tasty, though. Better, I feel confident in boasting, than the molé chicken I ate at El Charro here in Tucson. So there.

Some of the items you might have better luck finding in a specialty market, but I think most supermarkets have an area, usually in the "Ethnic Foods" or whatever they call it aisle, that sells Mexican spices. If you can't find Ibarra-brand chocolate, just get a bar of unsweetened baking chocolate. I got some Ghirardelli's and it worked fine.

Molé

4 dried pasilla (aka ancho) peppers

15 almonds

2 Tbsps pumpkin seeds

1 Tbsp sesame seeds

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp black peppercorns

1 whole clove

1 whole allspice

1 corn tortilla

1 yellow onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, sliced

2 Tbsps orange juice

1/2 cup canned crushed tomato

1 cup+ water (I continued to add water little by little as I went along to get the right texture. I suggest you follow the same policy)

1 oz unsweetened chocolate (1/4 of a 4 oz bar), grated (Grating the chocolate is messy! Do thison a large plate with a rim to catch the excess

2 tsps sugar

salt to taste

Bring a pot of water to boil; pour the boiling water over the dried chiles and let sit covered until they soften, 15 minutes to 1/2 an hour. Meanwhile, toast the almonds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, whole spices, cinnamon and cumin in a skillet over medium low heat, stirring occasionally. When the sesame seeds start to turn golden, remove from heat and grind into a fine powder--I cleaned out my coffee grinder really well and used that; if you want to be old school I suppose you could use a mortar and pestle. Cook the corn tortilla in a little oil until it softens, then tear into pieces and set aside. Cook the onion in the same skillet until it begins to soften, then add the garlic and cook a little longer.

Drop the nut-seed-spice powder, tortilla pieces, chiles, cooked onion and garlic, tomato, orange juice, and water into a blender or food processor and process until you have a smooth paste, somewhat thicker than ketchup. If it is too thick, add more water. Pour the sauce back into the skillet and cook over medium low heat until it starts to bubble. Add in the chocolate and sugar, stirring well to incorporate. By the way, you should taste the sauce as you go to decide if you think the seasonings need tweaking. You may want it to be sweeter or spicier than mine ended up being. There you go, there's your molé. This makes about 4 cups, I would say, but I don't know how much water I ultimately ended up using. You can use it right away, either as a sauce for chicken or turkey, or for enchiladas, or you can freeze it. If you use it for enchiladas, you may want to dilute it with more water.

Mole enchiladas

2 chicken breasts, cut in 1-inch cubes

8 corn tortillas

Mole sauce

Cooking oil

1 cup shredded jack cheese + more for garnish (optional)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop in the chicken and cook until cooked through, 15 minutes or so. You don't have to worry about overcooking the chicken in this case. Drain the cooked chicken and, after it has cooled, shred it. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix half of the mole sauce with the shredded chicken and the shredded cheese. Reserve the other half for coating the tortillas. Now, before you get ready to cook the tortillas, make sure your workspace is organized. Have your bowl of mole sauce, your baking pan, and your bowl of enchilada filling lined up in that order for efficient assembly. Enchiladas are easy to make once you get the hang of it, but you need to plan well. Over medium heat, heat enough oil to cover the bottom of the skillet until an edge of corn tortilla dipped in bubbles on contact. Carefully place one tortilla in the skillet. After just a few seconds, flip it with your tongs, and then place it in the bowl of sauce. Be careful not to get sauce on your tongs, or you will cause the oil to sputter and possibly burn yourself when you go to flip the next tortilla. Coat the tortilla well in the sauce and place in the baking dish. Scoop about 1/3 cup of the enchilada filling into the middle of the tortilla and wrap it it up tightly, being careful not to rip the tortilla (not that it will matter much once it's baked, but still). Repeat these steps until you have eight happy little enchiladas tucked into the dish. Pour any remaining sauce over the top and sprinkle with additional cheese. Bake for about 15 minutes. This makes about 4 servings. ¡Olé!

This meal is labor intensive, and messy, I'm not going to lie. Stupidly, I was not wearing the apron my dear mother gave me, and at one point I zinged hot sauce all over myself slasher-movie style and nearly ruined my favorite white shirt. But if you have the time and the energy, I highly recommend that you try this, because you will feel accomplished for having done it...and you will have yummy food in your fridge.

Puerco Pibil (Robert Rodriguez, Te Amo)

"Not knowing how to cook is like not knowing how to fuck." --Robert Rodriguez

If you don't know who Robert Rodriguez is, he's the director behind the films El Mariachi, Desperado, and, most pertinent to this post, Once Upon A Time In Mexico. In Once Upon A Time In Mexico, Johnny Depp's character Special Agent Sands is obsessed with puerco pibil, a traditional Mexican dish of slow-roasted pork in achiote sauce. I don't know why I decided to give puerco pibil a try; it wasn't because of the movie. However, when looking for a recipe, I came across a video of Rodriguez demonstrating how to cook this dish like in the movie. Being a fancy-pants director and all, the video is very well done, and fun to watch, so I encourage you to check it out.

The main component of puerco pibil, aside from pork butt, is achiote paste, a Mexican spice blend utilizing achiote (aka annatto) seeds, which impart a distinct yellow-orange color to dishes. Not having the items on hand to make traditional achiote paste, I was honestly going to fudge it with some turmeric, but after watching Rodriguez's video I felt I would be doing the spirit of the dish a disservice if I half-assed it. So I made an unscheduled run by Whole Foods on my way home from school and picked up the requisite spices. Now, while I try to avoid unscheduled store runs as much as possible, I defend them where spices are concerned, because spices can make or break a meal and, more importantly, they are an investment. Shelling out for the spices needed to make, say, traditional Indian food, may set you back quite a bit initially, but it will be a long long time before you have to buy them again, and the range of culinary possibilities a well-stocked spice rack allows you pursue is well worth the initial cost. Anyway. About this pork.

Something that comes to mind after eating my puerco pibil is, gosh, it must suck to be a Jew, or a Muslim, or (god forbid) a vegan. They are so missing out on the glory of this pork. Oh my god. This might be the most amazing dish I have ever produced with my own hands. Seriously, it's so good that when I took a piece out of the package to test if it was done, I almost cut myself in my rush to get it on my plate. And...it...was...SO...EASY. You do need a food processor or a blender, though.

I must admit, I did not follow Rodriguez's recipe to the letter. I did not, for instance, throw in a tablespoon of "the finest tequila I could find." I'm not much of a tequila drinker, nor am I a fancy pants big shot movie director, so I opted to not drop the money on a bottle of tequila just to throw a splash into my meat. I did, however, pick up a six pack of hop shock IPA on my unscheduled store run, and a splash of that did just fine.

Here's Rodriguez's recipe with my slight tweakings. I made a much smaller amount than he did. However, I would suggest that you make the full amount of achiote paste and use only as much as you need and freeze the rest for another day.

Achiote paste:

5 Tbsp annatto seeds

1 Tbsp whole black pepper corns

8 whole allspice

2 tsps cumin

1/2 tsp whole cloves

8 cloves garlic

2 Tbsps salt

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup white vinegar

Grind the spices together in a very clean coffee grinder (no coffee residue) until very fine. Add to a food processor with the garlic, salt, orange juice and vinegar, and pulse until smooth. Use 1/5 of this amount of achiote per one pound of meat; freeze any leftover paste.

The pork:

2 lbs pork butt, cut into 1-2 inch cubes

2/5 of the achiote paste made using above method

2 serrano peppers, minced (Rodriguez uses habanero, but that may be a hotness bridge too far. Start out with the milder serranos and work up to the habanero if that's what you're into.)

Juice of two lemons

1 Tbsp tequila, if you have it. I used beer.

tin foil (my substitution for the more-exotic and authentic banana leaves)

Preheat the oven to 325. Combine all the ingredients and mix well to coat. In a roasting pan or baking dish, lay out two or three pieces of foil, rather larger than the size of the dish, and overlap to keep the juices from running out. Pour the pork and all the sauce into the tinfoil and fold it up into a tight package. Roasting time is approximately 1 hour per pound of meat. Serve the hot pork over rice or hot corn tortillas topped with fresh avocado slices and a squeeze of lime. And have a beer on the side. Holy shit, is it good. Make this for all your friends.