CB Makes Coleslaw

Vinegar-y, peppery slaw

I have this thing about unnecessarily cooking things from scratch. Why make my own BBQ sauce when there are millions of great store-bought varieties? Why cook beans from scratch when opening a can takes a fraction of the time? Why in the world would I want to make my own coleslaw when I can just get it already prepared from any grocery store?


There are two reasons, at least for me. The first is the ability to prepare said food item exactly the way I want it- assuming I can make it at all. The second is the satisfaction of not only preparing it myself, but gaining a better idea how it's made. For a long time there were many dishes and sauces shrouded in mystery; there was no way I could ever figure out how to make them. Things like pasta sauce, bread, chilli, salad dressing... Once I tried to make these things, I realized it's not too hard to find out how.


Turns out, there's the internet. And the internet knows a lot of stuff. All you have to do is weed out the bad stuff and take the good stuff!


I'm obsessed with barbeque (barbecue, barbacoa, whatever you want to call it... I prefer BBQ) for a bunch of reasons I'll probably mention later when I post the results of my Oven-Smoker Experiment. In my mind, the perfect accompaniment to a rich, savory and perhaps fatty piece of slow roasted meat is a sharp kick in the head in the form of something tangy, sour, and maybe even bitter. I love pickled cucumbers or jalapeños with my BBQ; I've made pickled red onions to go with carnitas... To top my hopefully delicious oven-smoked chopped bbq pork, I decided to try my hand at coleslaw.


Growing up I remember having all different kinds of coleslaw often; at home, at potlucks, at foot ball games... My favorite kind was always the extra-tangy, extra-peppery, and not-so creamy kind. Turns out, I was able to create a pretty tangy and peppery coleslaw that wasn't too creamy for me. (I loosely based it on this recipe.) If you make it yourself, feel free to vary the amounts to suit your own particular preferences. Pretty sure the Otts have a good recipe- might be a family secret though.


WHAT YOU NEED
For the slaw:
1 head of cabbage
2 carrots
1/4 white onion (or red, yellow, whatever)

For the dressing:
1 cup mayo
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste (I used a LOT of black pepper)

HOW YOU MAKE IT

1) Shred the cabbage (I was amazed how much shredded cabbage comes from a single head.. and also how cheap cabbage was.. I think $.88 a head!)

2) Shred the carrots (I used a veggie peeler to get carrot strips)

3) Slice the onion fine

4) Combine all the veggies in a big bowl

5) In a separate bowl, whisk/stir/whatever the mayo, vinegar, and any seasonings you'd like

6) Pour over veggies, stir well, taste for seasoning if desired

7) You can eat it immediately, but everything is a little too crispy at this point.. It's best if it sits in the fridge overnight. If there isn't a huge amount of dressing, it seems like a good idea to stir the slaw periodically.

WHAT ELSE YOU COULD DO
Because this recipe is so simple, you really could do pretty much anything else. Next time I might add some sliced radishes to the slaw; or use red onions instead of white; or add some thin poblano strips for a little bit of heat; I'm sure a little sour cream would make this very creamy, but I generally avoid creamy things. Except ice cream.

I will probably eat this alone (like I just did a second ago) or as a BBQ pork topping, or as a side dish to some other grilled piece of meat. As I type the vinegar and pepper still tingle in my mouth; I can't wait to see how this works with some slow cooked dry rubbed pork.

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!

CB Cooks: Roasted Squash and Apple Soup

It's actually squash, sweet potato, carrot, parsnip, and apple soup

As the weather gets colder, and my obsession with fishing gets more difficult to satisfy out in the cold, my fall cooking season is starting in earnest. I'm not done fishing for the year, but the weather is getting nastier and nastier... I've got to start doing some activities to replace my constant fishing fix. Cooking works great!

This is my combination of a bunch of different dishes I've had and really enjoyed. The inspiration for this dish comes from 3 places: 1) the squash and sweet potato soup from Big Bowl (it's very tasty, I highly recommend you get it) 2) A parsnip and apple soup Claire and I had on our honeymoon, and 3) A root vegetable purée from Brewery Vivant in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Don't let the possibly strange combination of squash and onion and apple turn you off- this is definitely worth trying. I think it's delicious! I was at the grocery store and saw some beautiful squash; here's what I did with it.

WHAT YOU NEED

Mmmmsquash

Squash - I used a big butternut squash grown by the good folks in Hudsonville, Michigan

Sweet potato - I used a single big one

Carrots - 2-3 would be good

Parsnip - I used just one, but adding more would be good too

Apple - we had a single golden delicious left in the fridge, and it was an excellent choice

Onion - I almost always use white onion

Garlic - you can never use too much

Stock or water - I didn't have any stock, I used plain old water

Oil - I used olive oil

Ginger, cinnamon, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper

A splash of coconut milk would probably be great; some garam masala or curry powder would also be good

SPECIAL TOOLS

Oven - for roasting (this isn't completely necessary, but it concentrates the flavors)

Big pot - for making the soup - I used a dutch oven

Bean masher or immersion blender, or both, or just a regular blender - to get the soup thick and smooth

Roasted parsnip and carrots

HOW YOU MAKE IT

1) Roast the squash, sweet potato, carrots, and parsnip in a 400°F oven for about an hour (rub oil on the veggies and season with salt and pepper before roasting). You want everything to be soft and easily mashable. You'll probably want to take the carrots and parsnip out earlier than an hour. I cut the squash in two, and roasted it cut-side up, but you could also dice it and roast it that way. I didn't bother peeling the carrots or parsnips, but I peeled the sweet potato. Would probably be easier if you didn't peel that...

2) Once the veggies are roasted, get some diced onions sizzling in your big pot with some oil

3) When the onions are nice and sautéed, add a bunch of minced garlic and cook for about a minute

Roasted squash (I shouldn't have made
those cuts- made it hard to get the flesh out)

4) Mash up the roasted veggies (not the squash skin or sweet potato peel) and add to the pot

5) Add your liquid (stock or water) to the big pot, stir

6) Simmer

7) If you want it to be nice and smooth, use a bean masher, an immersion blender, or a regular blender. Careful! Blending hot liquids can be dangerous! I first used a bean masher to get the veggie chunks to a workable size, then I busted out my immersion blender to get everything nice and smooth

I caught an immersion blender-
must be about a 25-incher

8) Once the mixture is super creamy smooth, season with whatever seasonings you want. I used ginger, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and cumin

9) Taste, adjust seasonings. If the mixture is too liquidy, let it simmer with the lid off for a while... But watch out for little explosions! Bubbles rising up from a thick liquid like this can be mini burning hot volcanos of scalding lava. I speak from experience.

10) Once you're happy with the consistency and flavor, turn off the heat and stir in some RAW diced apple. Yes, raw! The remaining heat in the soup will partially cook it, and it will keep some of that nice crunchy apple texture. If you want a completely smooth soup without bits of apple in it, either don't add the apple, or add it before you blend the soup

11) Ladle into a bowl, garnish with more raw diced apple on top

Adding the diced apple

WHAT ELSE COULD YOU DO?

- Cook some bacon, dice it up, put it back in the soup after you blend the veggies

- Next time I make this, I will most definitely add some puréed ancho or guajillo chile. Maybe even some fresh green chile too.

- Add a splash of coconut milk - the soup already has a hint of coconut even though there's none in it! This could be good

- Some similar recipes call for turmeric; although I don't think it adds too much flavor, it would make the soup a brighter orange color

- Add garam masala or curry powder - lots of squash soup recipes call for curry powder. I'm not sure exactly why, but it could work

- Add the onions after you blend the veggies, so you get more texture in the soup

- Some potato in the mix would probably be great; or turnips, rutabagas, any root vegetable would be a nice addition

- Some recipes call for the addition of a dairy product like yogurt, milk, cream, etc. I really don't think this is necessary; the soup is super creamy on it's own, and if you cook it with water or veggie stock and hold the pork, our vegan friends can enjoy it too.