Meringues with a kick

The pasilla chile softening on the comal is a traditional start to a Mexican meal. And next the next step, perhaps, would be grilling tomatoes, onions, and garlic to make the perfect base for a savoury sauce. Well not in this case. This was the start of dessert for last night's dinner. Part 1 of the pudding was to be chocolate-chile ice cream.

Next step is creating a chile and cream infusion as the base to the ice cream. Just steep the softened chile in the cream.  Then you waz it up in a blender, then strain out the bits of chile (which if  you've blended it well, there shouldn't be much of).

While that's all going on, there was chocolate being chopped. Using the good stuff makes a big difference. Then the chile infusion gets mixed together with this lovely chocolate and is well on its way to becoming the custard base for the ice cream.

Add the chile-chocolate-cream mixture to a bowl full of egg yolks and sugar. Now you're ready for cooking the custard.

The custard has to thicken over a double boiler so there's a bit of arm-building whisking action involved. Although it's a lot less arduous than say, making mayonnaise.  And because there's no shortage of steps in this ice cream making process, once it's all up to the right temperature and thickened up, then the custard has to be cooled. So stick it in an ice bath and whisk some more.

At this point, I was wondering if this whole process was ever going to end, but having an array of delicious ingredients, I cracked on with it. A little vanilla, some heavy cream, and a bit of chocolate liquer. Then into the ice cream maker it all goes.

Once this final step is complete, it can go into the freezer for a few hours or overnight to harden up and for the flavours to really marry together.

And since the ice cream only used the egg yolks, and I don't like to waste, I thought I'd try my hand at making some meringues. Last weekend I made a pavlova, which was very delicious but the meringue base was not quite right. So this time, I used the basic recipe for the Joy of Cooking. The trick to the nice stiff peaks: cream of tartar. Conveniently I had some in the pantry, so stiff ones all around.

My initial dessert plan had been to have the chocolate-chile ice cream with grilled pineapple, which I still made, but with the meringues (which I have to say came out pretty freaking perfectly), it was perhaps one of the best desserts I've ever put together. I gave myself quite a few pats on the back.

And, I'm also happy to report, J and our dinner guests enjoyed it. And that's reallly what all the time and effort is about, seeing the clean plates in front of everyone.

New York adventures

I was recently in New York for a legal technology conference and took the opportunity to visit for a day or so with my friend Chris, who is a man about town with the foodstuffs on offer in the Big Apple. He lives in Brooklyn and picked me up at the airport (making me feel like a movie star), because he is awesome. Soon after dropping off my gear at his place, we headed for the subway for a wild ride to our first stop on my New York food adventure: Bark Hot Dogs in Park Slope. Delicious dogs accompanied by disco fries and white birch beer (which I'm going to describe as a cross between wintergreen Life Savers and root beer - so not sure I'll ever order it again).

Very delicious, all natural etc. I had the classic NYC dog with sweet and sour onions and mustard. In the back is Chris' pickle dog. The food was great and I was particularly amused by the nine-year-old-going-on-25 little girl who sat beside me. She was interested in my opinions regarding the food and the beverages. Obviously I'm so very pretty and smart that everything I said to her needed to be repeated with great gravitas to her father. There is no doubt that I am a role model on the hot dog eating front, send your children.

 After hot dogs, we ambled around a bit to the Ample Hills Creamery for some of the best ice cream I've ever had. And I have had a lot of ice cream. I was tempted by the Mexican hot chocolate because I'm that way but in the end chose the salted crack caramel. Fantastic. The best part is that you get to make a very informed decision on what you're going to order because they let you try everything in the place, especially on a late January day when it's not exactly lineups around the corner in there. Not to mention, the store is crazy cute.

Now there are few things I enjoy more than street food and in Toronto, we do not have a good variety, so non-stationary food vendors were on the agenda as well. For dinner (before contra dancing!), Chris hunted down the Kimchi Taco Truck, which combined my love of food on the go with Mexican flair. Now in Manhattan, we grabbed our bags of deliciousness and walked up to Union Square to eat on a park bench on a very warm January night. I had a combo of the grilled Korean bbq short rib taco and the pulled chicken taco. Woah! Those short rib tacos were out of this world!!

The next day Chris invited me to join him and a group of friends for dim sum at a local Brooklyn restaurant (which I can't remember the name of) and it too was spectacular. We arrived early in order to get a table, which when we left through a horde of waiting and hungry diners, I understood. There were about eight of us, so we ordered many delicious things to share. It's a good number of people because it lets you try many things but you don't have to have a lot of anything. So a couple of dishes stood out, one was chicken feet, which was the only thing I was not brave enough to eat but was the choice of the birthday boy for whom we were gathered to celebrate. While the feet were not my favourite dish of the weekend, they did come out as the best photo.

I did however take a chance on the jellyfish dish as I'd never eaten it and all the rest of the food was pretty excellent so I figured this was as good a time as any. It was tasty although the texture was a bit more rubbery than I enjoy. There was also some octopus mixed in with the dish and it was all good.

So overall, probably my best-ever dim sum experience. And it was followed by a bit of Chinese new year celebrations on the street, which were enjoyable and left me with glittery bits in my hair until well into the following morning when I finally got to bed!

I left Chris on Sunday afternoon and headed to Midtown to check into the hotel and get into a work state of mind. That night I met a lawyer friend and some of her colleagues and ended up having a really fun time dancing the entire night away. Her flight was delayed and my plans for a swishy Mexican place in Chelsea didn't work out but my favourite Times Square-area standby Virgil's barbecue was called up to the plate and didn't disappoint. From the gang who had never eaten bbq before, there were smiles all around. That's the way they roll at Virgil's. Good, solid bbq that you just can't get in Toronto.

After dinner there was much dancing and carousing and when we finally got back to our hotel in the 3:30 a.m. range, my companions were hungry. So off to Ray's Pizza for some pie. Not the greatest but it hit the spot and allowed us the chance to have a meaningful conversation about health care policy with a lovely man from Seattle.

On the Monday night, I went out with one of my fellow editors and her sisters who had come down for a little r&r. We ended up at a tapas restaurant near 42nd and 8th. Nothing spectacular but a big selection of tapas and a very enjoyable variety of sangrias. A fun night out with new people, can't beat that! (bad pic taken with ye olde BlackBerry). The hit of the evening, I would hazard, were the dates wrapped in bacon. They just work.

Over the course of the next few days, ate quite a bit just around the hotel. The usual oatemeal for breakfast at the Astro Diner at 55th and 6th, which I always try to do when I'm at this conference. Had an excellent Chipotle burrito bowl (fast and convenient) and tried this odd French restaurant/sushi bar mashup Rue 57 again and had a fairly spectacular chicken pot pie.

Now all over Manhattan are these halal food carts that serve up gyros and chicken and the like. Apparently the one that is at the corner of 53rd and 6th is the most awesome. There is always a line up there, particularly late at night on the weekends after the bars close. It's quite a sight. So as I was wrapping up the trip, I decided to have my final lunch at the cart. It is a giant plate of happiness (with a Diet Coke) for $7. Underneath all that delicious white sauce there's a mouthwatering blend of lamb gyros, chicken, rice and salad. Enough food to keep you going for the whole day. Just bring breath mints because there's a big garlic punch.

So long and thanks for all the eats!

Sporty snacks

The World Cup is upon us and that, of course, calls for snacks. And why not mix our love of sport with the love of Mexican food. On Friday night, I made a roast turkey breast in this fantastic New Mexico chile/citrus marinade -- no pix so no blogging about it :(. There were leftovers, so what better use for them than some nachos that also used up the remaining corn tortillas and a bunch of queso fresco that were in the fridge.

One of the things I like to do when we buy whole bags of tortillas is to use them up by cutting them into 6 triangles and baking them in the oven. I just shake them up in a bag with some salt and chile powder or whatever then put them in a 400F oven on the pizza stone for 10 or so minutes. That gives us low fat but delightfully crispy tortilla chips.

Anywho with those in hand, J and each built our own pile of nachos. Mine included said chips, a couple of other chipotle tostadas broken up, some light cheddar, some queso fresco, chopped green onions, red pepper, green onions, and canned green chiles (one of J's faves that I'd never tried before), and of course some turkey. All baked in the oven for about 10 minutes then topped with some daubs of the creamy green homemade guacamole. Oh yeah!

J had a similar conconcotion but added black beans and some rice (more excellent leftover usage). That and a cold Diet Coke and you're made in the shade for some footie-watching fun. Although kudos must go out to our friends who hosted the England-USA game the day before and had soccer-themed cupcakes, lots of cheesy and dippy treats, and a great decorating spirit.

Nothing goes together better than chocolate & chili

I had been jonesing to make make a chili chocolate cake for some time and during Passover last month, I found this one online and decided to make it when we had guests from out of town. It was the dessert for a Mexican-themed seder-type meal (which was very delicious but did not have an hour of pre-amble from the Haggadah before we could partake of the repast, so to speak.) Anywho . . . more on that at another time! This cake doesn't have any flour or other leavining agents so it was perfect for Passover but that's not to hold me back from making it any time because it is SO delicious!

For my version, I used good quality Belgian chocolate and ground the dried chipotles myself in the mortar and pestle so the flavour was still strong and smokey. I definitely used more spices than the original recipe called for and also had goose eggs in the house so used those (1 goose egg = 4 regular eggs), which I think makes it richer. It comes out a lot like a brownie but with a bit of a kick. I could eat the whole thing myself, so it's a good thing there'll be others to share it!

Chipotle Flourless Chocolate Cake

• 285g of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
• 7 tablespoons (100g) of unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 5 large eggs (or 1 goose egg and one regular egg), room temperature
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons of chipotle chili powder
• Dash or more of cayenne pepper
• Pinch of salt
• Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of a 9 ½ inch springform pan with a circle of parchment paper. Grease the sides and the parchment with butter or non-stick cooking spray.

Melt the chocolate and butter together over a double boiler stirring occasionally until smooth.

Whisk together the eggs and the sugar in a large bowl, and then slowly, a bit at a time, whisk in the melted chocolate. Add the salt and spices and taste, adjusting the spices if needed.

Pour into the springform pan and bake for 25-32 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let it cool completely on a wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.

The best Mexican restaurant in town

Last Saturday J & I had some old friends and their kids over for dinner - we hadn't seem them in ages and I was excited to have some adventurous eaters over so I could cook with some gusto. So I'd planned the meal for ages and was excited to once again dive into the Rick Bayliss-inspired Mexican.

A few weeks ago I made some tamales that were okay but I used the wrong corn masa so despite not really wanting to have another bag of ground corn in the cupboard, I did bite the bullet and buy the right one for tamales - it has a coarser grain - which made all the difference. I made green chile chicken tamales. Now I don't want to toot my horn, but they were fantastic!! We ate the whole lot of them (save one tiny little one that made it as a lunch snack the next day).

The filling was really easy. I whipped up some tomatillo salsa (a can of tomatillos, one roasted jalepeno, few cloves of garlic, half a white onion, big handful of cilantro all wazzed up in the blender). Then put it all in a pot, added about a tablespoon of masa harina and thickened up the sauce a bit and then just mixed it with some shredded cooked chicken.

The corn husks were boiled for a few minutes and then left to sit soaking in the water for about an hour. I just followed the instructions on the tamale masa package for making the dough.

Now I don't have any type of steamer so I jerry-rigged this one last time that is essentially a big colander set in the top of our biggest pot and then filled with tamales, covered it up with leftover corn husks and the lid and steamed it all for about an hour and a half. Presto, delicioso. Time consuming, for sure, but I sure do like seeing all the little soldiers standing up ready to be counted in the steamer.

The other main dish I made was one of the first Mexican dishes I found: braised short ribs with poblano peppers, tomatoes, and herbs. Ordinarily this would take forever to braise in the oven but I used the fabulous and fast pressure cooker and the whole thing cooked in 15 minutes.

I can't say enough about the pressure cooker's efficiency. Let it cool for a few minutes and you have fall-off-the bone meat and saucy deliciousness ready to be wrapped in a tortilla!! The poblanos give it an extra taste dimension that's less spicy than chiles but also just a bit more fortified than bell peppers.

The meal was rounded out with a few salsas: quick tomato-chipotle that had quite a bit of bite, classic semi-pickled onions and cilantro, and a crunchy tomatillo avocado salsa that was just a slightly different take on the beautiful avocado than the regular guacamole. Refried beans and rice rounded out the offerings.

I would like to report that our guests said the tamales were some of the best they've ever had. The kids were gung ho and got stuck into everything and a great time was had by all.

G's Mexican Journey.

G has had a long standing love affair with Rick Bayless. This love affair began long before his stint on Top Chef Masters, but that show really only solidified our love of this great chef.

At long last, and much prodding, G bought one of his cookbooks. So enthralled by the amazing things lying within the pages, she decided to invite her brother and his family (her brother had recently been to Mexico) our upstairs neighbors who are our tasting guinea friends, and prepare a full-on Mexican feast.

First came the salsas...


She made a green tomatillo salsa and two tomato salsas with home roasted tomatoes. She also made a bunch of sauces for her three dishes.

First up was the "side" dish, a vegetable tortilla pie that was like a spicy lasagna...


This pie consisted of layers of vegetables mixed with a spicy poblano tomato sauce, with mexcian cheese and fresh corn tortillas. Amazing. You'll see a shot of the insides down the post, but this was an amazing dish and one that I hope we have again.

G served this with two different chicken dishes. The first was a green saucy spinach chicken dish. It doesn't look like much, but it was very mild and delicious spooned into corn tortillas...


Much to our surprise, our 8 year old nephew loved this dish and ate two or three big servings in flour tortillas (the kids just couldn't be convinced that the corn tortillas were better than flour)... but the real star of the show was the spicy chicken potato dish... and when I say star of the show, I mean hands down major winner don't look any further I could eat it again and again...


Wowie. This is amazing. The potatoes are shredded and fried with onion then mixed with chicken and sauce and then covered in queso fresco for serving in tortillas. We initially ate them as tacos, but they are so delicious, you can just eat them up all on their own with G's homemade salsa....


Yes, because G is an overachiever, we did have both green and red salsa! The red had a little kick but was not crazy hot and the green tomatillo had a really sweet flavour that came from the roasted tomatillos. This was an amazing dinner. G outdid herself on all the fixings, and I am sure she was exhausted after spending two and a half full days in the kitchen making all this food!!!

Here's the plate of deliciousness....


I also made a quick side of black beans to share, I absolutely love black beans.

(As a note, I have a new camera, a Nikon D60 that I have absolutely no idea how to use! I took my first photography class only yesterday, and as these were taken weeks ago, we will have to see if time and teaching will improve my limited skills. I am open to any Nikon tips out there!)

Mexican Fajitas...

There is nothing better than Mexican food. I mean, there are things just as good, Indian, Greek, Italian, hamburgers... but nothing, and I mean, absolutely nothing better than Mexican food.

And so, from time to time, we make Mexican food trying to live up to the ideal we have read in places such as Rick Bayless's stuff. So yeah. Fajitas. Not so much authentic, but oh so delicious.


We made a ton of veggies to have with it...


And we ate it all up and laughed with the joy of it all. Really really good.

You may notice that on that taco, here is a little bit of beautiful green tomatillo salsa that Gail made, as well as some of the queso fresco. We bought a big block of the queso fresco at the Mexican foods store in Kensington Market, along with the cheapest but most delicious corn tortillas. They are so lovely and delicious. Yeah for the fajitas.

G is up here at the top of this post with her nicely made fajita... Good times.

Rick Bayless Meet Mesa Grill.

The other day after rummaging through the freezer, we realized that we had some frozen short ribs that needed to be eaten. G loves Rick Bayless and has a favorite beef short rib recipe of his that she has made in the pressure cooker before. (G loves the pressure cooker!)

And we decided to take our first stab at recreating the Mesa Grill corn loveliness that so many of you have been writing to me about! I am glad to know that we were not alone in our deep love of this beautiful corn dish...

But here it is...


The meat was fast cooked but tasted slow cooked due to being made in the pressure cooker. It had a lot of flavour and am amazingly rich sauce.

The corn... it was a good effort... baked in the oven (next time we'll use a grill pan), with a lovely squeeze of lemon, and crumbled queso fresco cheese. Not quite Bobby Flay, but really a good effort.

G also made an amazing guac to have with it...


And some delicious roasted tomatillo salsa with tomatillo salsa from our CSA box...


Gail has so graciously offered the recipe:

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
Adapted from 15 recipes found on the internet but inspired by Rick Bayless

5-6 fresh tomatillos
1 jalepeno (or a similar amount of the fresh chile of you choice)
1 yellow onion
3 cloves of garlic - unpeeled
handful of cilantro
salt

Turn oven on to high broil and put rack so vegetables will be about 4 inches away

Clean the husks of the tomatillos and wash them. Peel onion and cut into four relatively thick slices

Place garlic, jalepeno, tomatillos (whole), and slices of onion on a baking sheet covered in foil.
Put under the broiler. Cook until tomatillos start turning olive green and get the black, charred spots (about 5-7 min).
Flip everything over and broil for another 5-10 minutes until tomatillos are charred and cooked (the skins will burst). Onions are good with a little bit of char as well.

Take everything out. Peel the garlic and remove the top and seeds from the jalepeno.

Put it all in a blender and waz it up. Eat and be merry.

This was so amazing. We ate tons if it!!!

We're going to keep trying the corn. We'll get there, don't you worry yourself. It will happen. IT WILL HAPPEN. BOBBY FLAY, YOUR ROASTED CORN RECIPE WILL BE MINE....