Pollo Pulquero is a dish best served in the dark

Look at those beans!  They're sitting there because Pollo Pulquero is ugliest tasty dish you've ever seen.  Rick doesn't even put a picture of it in the book!  It's sort of symptomatic of being cooked in a slow cooker for six hours, so what can you do.

The prep on this one is silly easy.  You put things in a slow cooker, and then you come back.  So I'll be economical with my words.  Write a to do list, get some groceries and make the jump.

Pickled Chicken Comes Full Circle

800 million years ago when we started this blog, we posted about cajeta and the dessert we made with it.  As a footnote we mentioned that we made "Pickled Chicken" with little more than a blurry photo.  Now that the blog has fallen into a routine of witty comments and slightly better photography, it's time to revisit that dish.

It still lives on page 204 in Fiesta at Ricks, and that page is amazingly still attached to the rest of the book.  I also banged out some roasted tomato salsa, home made black turtle beans, and fresh corn tortillas.  Attach the drool guard to your keyboard and make the jump!

Mexican Submarines: hecho en Canadá

Apparently Mexican submarine sandwiches are called 'Tortas'.  I'm not sure this would be considered traditional fare, as the 'submarine' is an American invention of a largely Italian influence, so I gather.  I guess that begs the question of what you consider Mexican cuisine to be: traditional Mexican faire, or a Mexican take on someone else's dish.  In this case, it's a Canadian's take on an American's take, on the Mexican take on an Italian-American sandwich, made in Canada.  Do the math on that.

Let's have a look at Rick Bayless' Crusty Black Bean and Chorizo Subs after the jump!

When life hands you limes, make Cochinita Pibil

I wouldn't have thought of this as being roasted suckling pig, as per the translation of cochinita pibil.  Rick says that this is only an approximation anyway.  We didn't roast anything, it was slow cooked; it wasn't a whole pig, just a shoulder; and it wasn't between 2 and 6 weeks old, I didn't check its birth certificate but I know that it spent 6 weeks at least in the freezer.

The complicated recipe is here while the easy recipe can be found in Mexican Everyday.  Break out your favourite citrus juicer and don't get any pulp in your eye.

Enchiladas - No assembly required

For some reason I felt like enchiladas this week.  Since we've been making our own tortillas, everything that we've eaten has been a vertical build on a horizontal substrate. Sometimes it's just easier to eat something if it's in a nice little parcel.  It also means that our guests don't have to go through the trouble of assembling their own dinner.

And so we dive headlong into Enchiladas Verdes!

Almost "Almost Oaxacan"

Look at all that fresh produce! It sure looks better in the shopping cart than a bunch of neon packaged whats-it that claims to be food.  I'll skip the self-righteous editorializing and recommend that you read Michael Pollan's In Defence of Food.  It's pretty much required reading for anyone who eats.

This week's recipe is another out of Fiesta at Rick's, "Almost Oaxacan" Grilled Tostadas with Chorizo, Tangy Guacamole, and Fresh Cheese.  In addition we also made Chunky Fresh Tomato Salsa (p. 144), Smoky Chipotle Salsa with Pan-Roasted Tomatillos (p. 149) and Pineapple (or Other Fruit) Skillet Upside-Down Cake (p. 301) from Mexican Everyday.

Mole Amarillo Explosion!

Enough stupid substitutions! It was time to make something properly for once, even if it meant trekking all the way across town to get one ingredient.  And there you have them: Guajillo Chiles.  Because we were looking for dried ones, there was some hope that they would be found in the international aisle of our local grocery store.  The only thing we found were more varieties of Herdez salsa.  Although one particular specialty store has Guajillos advertised on their website, they had none.  However, a tiny store right across the street has a virtually unlimited supply.  May we present: Good Price Grocery Store!

Friday Night Mexican, Slowly

This week it's a mash up between two of our favourites: Mexican and slow cookers.  One year, instead of spending my grandmother's Christmas gift on the usual rent and food I finally put it to good use and bought myself a bona fide Crock-Pot.  I realized that with minimal effort and no attention, these magical devices would do all of the cooking for you.  Since then, a wealth of soups, stews and pulled pork have spilled forth from its ceramic vessel at the blistering speed of 0.125 meal/hr.

Minty Meat Marbles

This week we took a little break from Fiesta at Rick's; we were finding that some of the recipes in there require a major time commitment.  Luckily, Senor Bayless figured that out and wrote Mexican Everyday which covers Mexican cooking for those of us who don't have the luxury of being Mexican cooks.  We pulled a recipe from the book based on how tasty the picture looked and ended up with Chipotle Meatballs.  Along side we cooked up Classic Mexican Red Rice, and Fried Beans.