CB Cooks: Frijoles Borrachos (Drunk Beans)

Beans + bacon + tequila = awesome

This is not a "receta auténtico" by any means, it's more of a CB recipe based on some Mexican recipes and Rick Bayless' one by the same name. As I understand it, the general idea behind any type of frijoles borrachos (drunk beans) is to cook beans, then right before serving splash some tequila in them. Sometimes "borrachos" refers to cooking the beans in beer. Either way, sounds great, right? I've found cooking beans in beer makes them taste a little better, but adding some tequila right before serving makes them taste A LOT better.


As things get colder and we finally start making our way into winter, I thought this would be a great dish after a long day out on the cold water.


WHAT YOU NEED

Mayacoba aka peruano beans
they cook up big, yellow, and very creamy

- Beans - I used yellowish mayacoba beans; also known as peruano beans in some places. No matter what they're called, they cook up big and soft, much creamier than pintos or black beans.
- Onion - about half a white onion
- Garlic - 4-6 cloves
- Bacon - I used 3 long strips
- Green chiles - the name "green chile" really refers to any chile (aka "pepper" for us gringos) that is in it's green stage of ripeness. Although that's true, normally "green chile" refers to a mild green chile like anaheim or new mexico. I used a combination of poblano (the green fresh version of ancho) and jalapeño
-  Tomatos - I used a can of diced tomatoes, the ones at the store didn't look so nice (which is often the case)
- Salt, pepper, cumin
- Tequila (optional..?)
- Water

- Crock pot (or dutch over, or a pan or something)

HOW YOU MAKE IT
1) Fry the bacon, get it crispy, remove from pan, cut up, and add to crock pot

2) Add diced onions and green chiles to bacon fat, get them nice and golden

Mmmmmmm smells so good

3) Add minced garlic for 2-3 minutes, but don't burn it!

4) Add contents of pan to the crock pot

5) Add dry beans to crock pot (Some people swear by soaking beans overnight- I almost never do that, and they always turn out just fine. It may take longer to cook them, but if you're using a crockpot, who cares?)

6) Add the tomatoes and seasonings (salt, pepper, cumin, whatever else) and fill with water (or stock, or beer) generously

7) Crockpot: cook on low for a long time (8 hours?)
     Stovetop: bring to a boil, then simmer for a long time (2-3 hours?)

8) Once the beans are cooked (pick one out with a spoon and blow on it- if the skin wrinkles and peels back, it's done!) add a splash (a tablespoon or more) of tequila (or mezcal if you're daring)

9) Top with minced raw white onion, chopped cilantro and serve! Even better the next day, like most long-cooked dishes. The combination of bacon/cilantro/onion/tequila is pretty awesome- it's hard to imagine until you try it- it's delicious!

WHAT ELSE YOU COULD DO
- Almost anything! This is barely even a recipe...
- Substitute any smoked pork product for the bacon
- Use dried chiles instead of or in addition to fresh green chiles
- Use any other kind of bean (pinto, negro, great northern, etc.)
- Don't use tomatoes, or use tomatillos, or just splash with some vinegar, or lime juice
- More seasonings (like bay leaf, oregano, smoked paprika, anything good!)
- Cook the beans in beer (light beer like Corona or even dark beer like Negro Modelo)
- Cook the beans in stock (like chicken stock, beef stock, pork stock, veggie stock, whatever)
- Add more veggies like carrots, celery, etc.

CB Cooks: Mole ("moe-lay")

Makin' mole! (with my new homemade hand-carved mole stirrer)

When anybody mentions "mole" (the sauce, not the animal) a lot of things often come up.

"Oh yeah, the Mexican chocolate sauce," "It's super hard to make!" "It has so many ingredients in it" "It's too sweet for me" "I've had the premade kind and I don't like it one bit" "It was invented by nuns who had to feed some important guy and only had chiles and nuts and stale bread in their kitchen" "It takes three days to make" "How the hell do you pronounce it?"

As far as the last question, I'm pretty sure it's "moe-LAY" for us gringos, with the accent on the last syllable. Not sure why there isn't actually an accent there, perhaps because the word comes from a pre-columbian language. (In fact, I'm pretty sure "moe-LAY" just means a mixture of stuff or a sauce; the word "guacamole" just means "mixture/sauce of avocados". Pretty sure, not completely sure, so don't quote me on that. My spanish degree only covered spanish, not native mexican languages.)

I'm a huge fan of mexican food, and many say the concoction known as mole is the greatest accomplishment of the entire cuisine. In a lot of ways it is very complicated- many ingredients, many flavors, and the complexity only gets more complex when you serve it with other food like turkey (as is traditional for many moles). (Remember- "moe-LAYS" not "moles")

As I understand it, often mole is prepared on special occasions, because there are many ingredients; also, it's often paired with slow-cooked meat, which of course takes a while to cook. For these reasons (and probably many others) mole is one of those dishes (like tamales) that seems difficult and beyond reach for us lowly gringos. Especially on any day that isn't sunday!

Well I've got news for you! I'm definitely no expert in mexican cooking- but I think I have at least a handle on making "moe-LAY." In fact, I made some last night (on a wednesday night!). It took about an hour, and it will be even tastier today. I've made it a bunch of times, and I think I've come up with some rough guidelines (i.e. not an exact recipe) for making mole. In almost every mole recipe I've ever seen (in english OR spanish) there are certain types of ingredients that are always present. Based on that "research," I've come up with a list of ingredients- basically, you need at least one thing from each category to prepare your mole. Just to reiterate, I'm no mexican cooking expert, and this is most likely complete blasphemy... But it tastes just like mole in restaurants. If I had a mexican aunt, maybe this is what her mole would taste like.

Below I've listed the 6 categories, and some common ingredients that go in those categories. My idea is this: if you take at least one thing from each category, you will have something that is pretty much a mole.

INGREDIENTS:

FRUITS

- like dried chiles (absolutely necessary), raisins, bananas, plantains, etc

NUTS

- peanuts (or peanut butter!), walnuts, almonds, sesame seeds, pecans, etc

SPICES & HERBS & STUFF

- cinnamon (or mexican canela), anise, cloves, cumin, oregano, avocado leaves, allspice, coffee, and yes maybe even chocolate (but it's not entirely necessary!) - and SUGAR

VEGETABLES

- onions, garlic, tomatoes or tomato sauce, etc

LIQUID

- broth, stock, water, chile soaking liquid, beer, anything!?

THICKENERS

- masa (like prepackaged tamale mix i.e. Maseca, or fresh from the tortillería), stale tortillas, toasted stale bread, animal crackers (I've heard this is a common old mexican lady addition)

HOW YOU MAKE IT:

Most recipes call for a very involved individual frying of each set of ingredients before everything is combined and blended together. I don't doubt this makes a thicker, richer, more voluptuous sauce... But this also exponentially lengthens the time needed to make this dish. When I make this, generally, I just throw everything into a blender and blend away! (If I fry anything, I'll get some onion and garlic looking toasty in a pan with some oil before adding it to the blender). Basically, here's the process:

L-R: Cloves, allspice, ancho chiles, piloncillo (sugar), tortillas,
oregano, pepper, onion, cumin, garlic, peanut butter,
tahini, walnuts NOT PICTURED: oil, guajillo chiles

1) ASSEMBLE your ingredients (at least one from each category, and you pretty much must use some kind of chiles)

For my wednesday night mole, I used:

dried ancho and guajillo chiles (fruits), peanut butter, walnuts, and tahini (ground sesame paste) (nuts), cloves, cumin, oregano, allspice, and some mexican piloncillo sugar (spices), onions and garlic (vegetables), chile soaking liquid (liquid), and stale corn tortillas (thickeners)

2) If your dried chiles are hard and old, and you can't run out and get some more, you might want to rehydrate them. Put them in a bowl, cover with hot water, and let them sit for 30 minutes or so. Mine were old, so I did this yesterday. Rick Bayless says if the soaking water is bitter, throw the water away.. If not, use it in the recipe! Mine last night was sweet tasting, so I used it. Many people will toast their dry chiles in a dry skillet before soaking, but I didn't do that. If you do it, make sure not to BURN the chiles.

soaking chiles (smells a whole lot like raisins)

3) BLEND - Add everything to the blender, and blend the &*#$ out of it. It might be better to add things in steps, to make sure everything gets blended.

4) STRAIN everything! This is key. The idea is to get a homogenous, velvety sauce with no lumps whatsoever. I have a strainer I pretty much only use for mole, I call it my mole strainer. 

Strain! Check out that gorgeous color. All that red/orange is from the chiles,
no tomato products here

5) Take the strained liquid and put it in a pan. If it's really really thick, add more liquid.

6) SIMMER - Add salt, pepper, whatever, to taste, and simmer. If it's too bitter, add some sweet stuff like sugar, honey, etc. Chiles are relatively bitter, you'll probably need to sweeten the mole at least a little bit.

7) That's it! You can simmer it for a long time, or not... Definitely gets better the next day.

I really like it over bean enchiladas, or grilled chicken, or pretty much anything. You can even put it on eggs! It's a really versatile sauce, and since there can be so many flavors in it, it goes with almost everything.

Using those 6 categories, the combinations are endless! By varying the type of chiles used, or the amount of sweetness, or the amount of other fruits or nuts, this base recipe could create an infinite variety of moles. This isn't entirely authentic, but the flavor is pretty close. If you follow these simple steps, in a matter of minutes you can be on your way to creating your own custom mole!

Turkey Chipotle Tortilla Soup

I came back home this weekend with a container full of turkey and turkey stock... and some ideas! I've made "tortilla soup" before with the more usual chicken and chicken stock, but this is so tasty I had to share. The masa acts as a thickener and adds a wonderful corn flavor to the whole dish. Although I put some crumbled tortilla chips on top of the soup, really it's completely uneccesary- you get plenty of corn flavor from the masa and the kernel corn. I generally don't like soggy pieces of tortilla floating in my soup, which is why I add the masa instead of regular tortillas. After all, tortillas are made from masa! I also would have added some chopped cilantro after I was done simmering, but I didn't have any. Whole cooked beans would be great too.

Whatever you do, don't skip the lime juice! It really makes the dish.

WHAT YOU NEED

- Leftover turkey (cooked)

- Stock of some kind (homemade turkey stock would be the best, but chicken or veggie would be good too. The stock I had already had some carrots and celery in it- the more the merrier!)

- Onion, diced

- Garlic, minced or powdered (if using minced, quickly fry it before adding it to the pot)

- Some kind of diced green chile (I used poblano, you could use jalapeño or green bell pepper if you can't handle any heat)

- Chipotles en adobo (2 or more, diced) ***

- Some kind of dried red chile (I used ancho powder)

- A small can of tomato sauce (I used a 6oz can, I think)

- 2 tablespoons prepared dry masa, i.e. Maseca brand

- Corn (I used frozen yellow kernel corn)

- the juice of 1 small lime

- Salt, pepper, cumin

HOW YOU MAKE IT

1) Bring the stock and meat to a simmer
2) Add the chipotles, dried red chile, and tomato sauce
3) Combine the masa and some water in a glass; stir to combine, then pour into the pot
4) Taste and adjust seasonings, adding salt, pepper, garlic, and cumin etc. to taste
5) Once everything is nice and simmer-y, add in the onion and green chile
6) Simmer that stuff for about 5 minutes
7) Turn off the heat, then add the corn
8) Serve and enjoy! Even better the next day

SERVING SUGGESTIONS
Top with crumbled tortilla chips, or tortilla strips, more diced onions, avocado, julienned cabbage, pickled jalapeños, cilantro, etc.

*** Awesome tip! ***
When you buy a can of chipotles en adobo, sometimes it's hard to use all of them at once- especially if you're heat averse. The best way to save them for later is to pull out each chipotle and place it on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil, then put that in the freezer. After a few hours, pick up the chiles and put them in a ziplock bag back in the freezer. Now you can grab as many or as few chipotles as you need for your recipe.

Chipotles en adobo (dried smoked jalapeños in a vinegar-tomato sauce)

CB Cooks: Quick Salsa de Chile Árbol

Of all the things I regularly make at home, I've probably made this more than any other. When I first started making it, I did it the traditional mexican way of toasting the chiles, and roasting whole tomatoes, onions, and garlic over an open flame... As great as that tastes, it's time consuming. This is the quick version, the simple recipe I use to make our weekly salsa.

What you need:

- A can of whole tomatoes OR fresh tomatoes (I use the ~20oz cans- tomatoes at the grocery store are hit or miss- did you know that most of the tomatoes you find at the grocery store are actually GREEN unripe tomatoes that are artificially colored red with gas!??!?)
- 1/4 large white onion
- juice of 1 lime
- garlic (~4-6 cloves)
- handful chiles (I use árboles, but you could really use ANY chile, like serrano, jalapeño, ancho, etc)
- handful cilantro
- a blender

whatever you do, make sure you use lime juice!
lemons and vinegar have NO place in salsa

Chiles de Árbol look like this (they are a kind of dried chile)

How you make it:


1) Put onion, lime juice, garlic, and chiles in blender, and blend (you might need to add some tomato juice to get it to spin)

should look something like this

2) Add handful of (washed) cilantro, blend (but not too much- if you blend the cilantro too long, your salsa will take on a very green tinge- still tastes great, but doesn't look as nice. And it's not as appetizing to those who aren't in love with green food.)

You could stop here and use it as
a marinade, or extra-concentrated salsa

3) Add tomatoes (including juice- if you want a chunkier salsa, leave out the liquid), blend

4) Add salt, pepper, cumin to taste - sometimes I do, sometimes I don't... Just depends on how the salsa tastes.

5) Eat right away, and refrigerate what you don't eat. WARNING - gets hotter as it sits, so keep that in mind when adding chiles.

Uses: Put it on everything! Great on chips, beans, tacos, enchiladas, chili, meat dishes; if you make it without cilantro and cook it, it goes from being a salsa fresca to a salsa cocida, with a completely different flavor