America's Test Chicken: Mexican food

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Homemade Chorizo Mexican Sausage + Beef Tamale Filling

America's Test Chicken consists of two separate chickens, each with her own take on this cooking thing. Check out Chicken One's related blog, A Travel for Taste where she shares travel stories and recipes collected whenever she ventures abroad. And give Chicken Two's new, also-related blog, Poop from the Coop a read. There you can find stories about her personal adventure re-experiencing the kitchen after many years away. Please join our Facebook group to share your own recipes, kitchen practices and know-how. We are also on Pinterest and Instagram.

The complete recipes appear at the end of this post.

From Chicken One:
Chorizo Sausage
In keeping with the Mexican food theme we are following these days, I made homemade chorizo, which is a pork sausage. Now, if you research the word "chorizo" at all online, you'll find so many variations it will make your head spin! There are Spanish, Portuguese and Mexican varieties; European types use lots of paprika where Mexican types use mainly chili peppers; you can find it in casings or not; it can be cured, smoked or cooked; you get the idea.

Although all my cookbooks and thousands of websites have slightly different recipes, I started with a recipe from a wonderful new cookbook, The Gourmet Mexican Kitchen by Shannon Bard.

I got to use four types of dried chili pepper (from upper left clockwise in the photo): ancho, guajillo, chipotle and de árbol:

I'm slowly learning the differences among chilis by using them. I learned so far (without looking it up) that anchos are dried poblanos and very mild; chipotles are smoked jalepeños; and de árbols will hurt you if you're not careful because they are so hot!

I bought these dried in the local supermarket, which has a great international aisle. They must be rehydrated in boiling water for a half hour or so; I used some small dishes to keep them submerged:

The directions are easy to follow. Here the combined ingredients cook.I've noted before that Mexican cuisine is so similar to Indian cuisine, and the chili peppers and processing are very much alike. In addition, toasting whole spices then grinding them is also similar. I did that with the chorizo spices as well:

Then I put the rehydrated chilis, spice mixture, chopped garlic and salt in a food processor:

This all got ground to a paste:

Then, I just incorporated it into some ground pork.

Viola! Chorizo!

You're supposed to age it in the fridge overnight or for a couple of days, but I fried some up after about an hour to go with the tortillas we made just to try it out. It was good, but I have some things I'd recommend for the next time:
1. use fattier pork - it was a little dry and I had to add cooking oil to the skillet to cook it, a travesty for sausage!
2. use much more of the hot chilis because I like my chorizo spicy; this was very, very mild

In any case, making chorizo was much easier than I expected - and I WILL be making my own sausage from now on. Can't wait to try breakfast sausage, Italian sausage, etc.

From Chicken Two:
Chipotle Beef Tamale Filling

I've had a lot of fun exploring Mexican recipes, but mostly it's been fun exploring the markets filled with spices and food I've never used before. For this recipe, I actually bought the beef from a mexican butcher near me who, it seems, spoke no English. Talk about putting my rudimentary Spanish to the test!
The directions are easy to follow. Here the combined ingredients cook.

..and reduced to a smooth sauce in the blender before returning it to the skillet.

Cook the meat in the broth and remove it to a cutting board. Using two forks, pull the meat apart.

Add the vinegar to the sauce with salt, pepper and sugar to taste, add the meat and toss.

Serve with the tamales.

Couple of hints: Make sure your food processor is tight and in place properly. It will leak otherwise. Also, be sure to cool the meat before trying to pull it apart. It's quite hot and is easier to handle when cooler.

Enjoy!

Mexican Chorizo Recipe

5 whole peppercorns

3 whole cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, preferably Mexican

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

2 teaspoons (5 g) paprika

2 teaspoons (10 g) salt

2 dried ancho chilis

1 dried guajillo chili

1 dried chipotle chili

1 dried chili de árbol

2 cloves garlic

3 tablespoons (45 ml) apple cider vinegar

1 pound (450 g) fatty pork, coarsely ground

Grind the peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, oregano, thyme, paprika and salt in a spice grinder and grind to a powder.

Remove the stems and seeds from the dried chili peppers. Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat and press the chilis into the skillet with a utensil to dry roast them on each side. Place dry-roasted chilis in a bowl and pour boiling water over them to cover. Place a small plate on top to keep them submerged. Let stand 30 minutes til completely rehydrated.

Combine spice mixture, rehydrated chilis, garlic and vinegar in a food processor and process into a paste.

Mix paste and pork thoroughly together with a wooden spoon or your hands.

Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight to allow flavors to marry.Cook

Chipotle Beef Tamale Filling Recipe

4 dried anchos chiles, stemmed, seeded and torn into 1/2 inch pieces

3 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 large onion, chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 Tbsp miced canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp sugar, plus extra as needed

3/4 cup ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground cloves

Salt and Pepper

3 cups beef broth

1 3/4 pounds top blade steaks, trimmed

1 1/2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

1. Toast anchos in skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently until fragrant. 2-6 minutes and transfer fo bowl.

2. Heat oil in skillet and add onion and cook until softened. Stir in garlic, chipotle, oregano, sugar, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, 1 tsp salt, and toasted chiles and cook for 30 seconds. Stir in broth and simmer until slightly reduced, about 10 minutes. Transer mixture to blender and process until smooth, about 20 seconds, return to skillet.

3. Season beef with salt and pepper, nestle into skillet, and bring to simmer over medium heat. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook until beef is very tender, about 1 1/2 hours.

Transfer beef to carving board and let cool slightly. Using 2 forks, shred beef into small pieces. Stir vinegar into sauce and season with salt, pepper and sugar to taste. Toss shredded beef with 1 cup sauce. Reheat remaining sauce and serve with tamales.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Homemade Corn and Flour Tortillas

The complete recipes appear at the end of this post.

From Chicken One:
Flour Tortillas

By the time Chicken Two made her corn tortillas, I'd already made them two or three times. Click here to see the detailed tutorial on my A Travel for Taste blog. It was a fun experiment using the ground corn, or masa harina, and tortilla press for the first time.

I especially loved using the tortilla press, but for this post I wanted to try my hand at flour tortillas since I'd never made them before. Not only was it the first time I made them from flour, it's the first time in forever that I used actual lard for an ingredient. I will try other fats in the future, but for the first attempt I always try to use the real deal recipe.

So I mixed up flour, lard, salt and water in the stand mixer per the instructions in one of my favorite cookbooks, Tacos by Alex Stupak.

Unfortunately you can't effectively use the press for flour tortillas, so I rolled them out with a rolling pin. It's interesting that I used my Indian belan (rolling pin) and chakla (rolling platform) for this. It's not the first time I've remarked on the similarity between Indian and Mexican cuisine procedures!

I've never worked much with lard, but I am here to tell you that the dough was so silky and smooth! I loved the feel and workability of it. It was like rolling out a heavenly mini-pizza.

Flour tortillas are cooked the same way as corn ones, i.e., on a hot griddle or cast iron pan. I used cast iron but have since tried it on the Indian tava (griddle), which worked equally well.

I also used the fabric warmer to keep them warm after cooking. Note that, unlike corn tortillas, leftover flour ones can be refrigerated or frozen and reheated later.

The same day I also tried homemade chorizo, and Chicken Two made beef tamale filling, both of which we used for taco filling.We'll post a future blog about those, so stay tuned.

I'm still looking for an authentic Mexican comal, and I'll make these again when I find one. Fortunately, Chicken Two and I found a wonderful Latin market in the same neighborhood as our favorite Indian market. It's called La Mexicana Latin, and it's truly authentic. There are so many spices, handmade ceramics, treats and worlds of unfamiliar things in there that I can't wait to explore more closely!

From Chicken Two:
Masa Harina (Corn) Tortillas
Many years ago, (as in over 30..yikes) I lived in Denver and had a wonderful friend who was married to a handsome man of Mexican descent. I remember watching her make tortillas and other Mexican food and envying her culinary abilities. I've always wanted to make my own tortillas, so I'm very excited that we chickens are now venturing into Mexican cuisine.

Step 1: Get a good Mexican cookbook. I chose America's Test Kitchen's The Best Mexican Recipes.
Step 2: Get a good tortilla press and a warmer. We both chose the cast iron ones, though I'm sure the lighter ones are just as good.

Just follow the recipe below. I've added some pics of my process to give you a frame of reference. You will be amazed at how easy it is!

Be sure to use the plastic bag!

Isn't it pretty? I used a cast-iron pan, which worked really well.

This is where the warmer comes in handy! I plan on making these often...give it a try and let me know how you do!

Flour Tortilla Recipe

Ingredients:

4 cups AP flour

1/2 cup lard

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup water + more as needed

Instructions:

Combine flour, lard and salt in stand mixer or by hand until well incorporated and mealy.
Add 1 cup water and mix until dough just comes together.
Transfer dough to smooth, floured work surface and knead gently; do not overwork.
Cover dough with damp cloth and rest 10 minutes.
Make a small ball of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll it out into a 6-inch disk.
Cook on a pre-heated griddle over medium-high heat, 2 minutes on each side. If resulting tortilla is too heavy and the edges cracked, the dough is too dry. Add 1 teaspoon water at a time to the dough until moist and malleable.
Divide rest of dough into 12 equal balls. Roll each ball out into a 6-inch disk and cook one at a time on the griddle 2 minutes on each side. Keep in a warmer until ready to serve or seal in an airtight container and refrigerate or freeze.

Corn Tortilla Recipe

2 cups (8 ounces) masa harina

2 tsp vegetable oil

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups warm tap water, plus extra as needed

Mix masa, 1 tsp oil, and salt together in a medium bowl, then fold water in with rubber spatula. Using your hands, knead mixture in bowl adding additional water 1 tbsp at a time, as needed, until dough is soft and tacky but not sticky, and has the texture of Play-Doh. Cover dough with damp dish towel and let sit for 5 minutes.

Cut sides of 1 quart zipper lock bag, leaving bottom seam intact. Line large plate with 2 damp dish towels (or use the warmer, like I did. Got it on Amazon!). Divide dough into 12 equal pieces: keep covered. Working with 1 piece at a time, roll into ball, place on 1 side of zipper lock bag, and fold other side over top. Press dough flat into 6 1/2 - inch wide tortilla (about 1/8 inch thick) using tortilla press. (you could use a pie plate if you don't have a press)

Leave tortilla between plastic until skillet is hot.

Heat remaining 1 tsp oil in 8 inch non stick skillet over medium high heat until shimmering. Using paper towel, wipe out skillet, leaving thin film of oil on bottom. Remove plastic on top of tortilla, flip tortilla onto your palm, then remove plastic on bottom and lay tortilla in skillet. Cook tortilla, without moving it, until it moves freely when pan is shaken and has shrunken slightly in size, about 45 seconds.

Flip tortilla over and cook until edges curl and bottom in spotty brown, about 1 minute. Flip tortilla back over and continue to cook until first side is spotty brown and puffs up in the center, 30 to 60 seconds. Lay toasted tortilla in warmer or between damp dish towels. Repeat with remaining dough. Tortillas can be refrigerated for up to 5 days, and rewarmed.

Give it a try! It's pretty easy and a lot of fun! Just imagine the fillings you can make for it. Actually, next time, we'll talk about fillings so stay tuned!