Rainy Day Posole Verde Remedy

Spring this year has been strange. Cool and very very wet in California. And while we understand that April showers bring May flowers, we are still waiting for the April showers to stop and for the cold nights to go to sleep in wake of our "normal" Bay weather pattern.

Thusly, I still find myself in soup/stew mode. I have been eating alot of Posole Verde this year while frequenting Aunt Mary's in the Temescal district of Oakland, these cold Sunday mornings, and finally decided to make it myself. Jack's version at the Cafe is deeply warming and served with a hearty Chevre Corn Cake in the middle. Since we watch carbs in our house, because Troy is diabetic, I decided for my home version, I would leave this out and instead source really good whole dried posole from Steve Sando's wildly successful company Rancho Gordo. Troy, walking by the kitchen looked in the bowl of lightly salted water and posole said, "what are those corn nuts?"

Well yes, kind of. Funny that I have not thought about corn nuts in a long time. Anyhow, good dried posole corn does look alot like corn nuts. It has been pre-slaked,"to render slack", so that you only have to soak it overnight and then cook it another couple of hours for the corn to absorb the bright, roasted, smokey, green chile flavor of the stew. Alternatively, you can use the canned hominy, available in Mexican markets, but I find that kind of hominy, is slightly rubbery, and not at all what I envisioned for my version of this stew.

I also sourced and used really tasty and organically farmed Becker Lane Pork butt for my stew. I don't know where Aunt Mary's gets their pork, but Becker Lane is really good and readily available at nearby Berkeley Bowl West. They run a certified organic and animal welfare approved farm in Iowa, I know, not local, but I decided to go that way this time. Everything else that went into my stew was either made by me or sourced locally.

This recipe takes some time to put together, but is easily worked into whatever you plan for the rest of your weekend. I cut up the pork and seasoned it, put it into my oven in my lovely Bram ceramic pot with some homemade chicken stock for a couple of hours on Saturday, and set my posole corn to soak. Then I went about my day, going off the to Farmer's Market with Lucia. When we returned with our bounty, I simply took the pork out of the oven to cool. And that was that for Saturday prep.

On Sunday, I roasted off the poblano peppers, the onion, and the tomatillos on the gas burner on my stove top. If you are working with an electric stove, then simply roast the vegetables in a 400 degree oven until they are nicely charred and soft. I never remove the charred skins, as I love the black flecks and the smokey flavor that it adds, but you can remove them if you like. If you prefer your stew less smokey and more spicy, leave in most of the chili seeds too. I left in a few, but since I wanted Lucia to love this stew as much as I do, I composted most of them.

If you plan your prep you will reap the benefits of having this lovely warming stew to enjoy at the end of a busy weekend. Top with some creamy tart sour cream or chevre, some freshly shredded napa cabbage and cilantro and a good squeeze of lime. I also topped ours with a little chopped radish, as I love the bite that it lends, but you can do without if you wish.

M'Lisa's Pork Posole Verde

1 cup and 1/2 dried posole or 1 can hominy
2 cup tomatillos, husked and cleaned
4 poblano chiles
4 medium onions, divided
7 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons allepo pepper, divided
2 tablespoons ancho chile powder, divided
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons dried oregano (preferably Mexican), divided
sea salt to taste
1 3-pound boneless pork butt or loin
5 cups (or more) low-salt chicken broth
5 large garlic cloves, minced
4 teaspoons ground cumin
4 limes, each cut into wedges
Chopped fresh cilantro
shredded napa cabbage
shredded carrot
thinly sliced radishes
cotijo or chevre cheese or a drizzle of sour cream

The day before, soak dried hominy in lightly salted water overnight, drain.

Over a low flame on the stovetop, blacken the poblanos and the scrubbed tomatillos until blacked, cracked and soft. There will be alot of popping while these are roasting, so stand back a bit. Turn with tongs to blacken all sides. You can peel these if you like, but I like to use the charred skins to add more smokey flavor. Put the roasted veg into a brown paper bag, close tight and set aside to steam.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Thinly slice 2 onions. Heat 4 tablespoons oil in heavy large ovenproof pot over medium-high heat. Add sliced onions to pot and sauté until onions begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon allepo, chile powder and 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon oregano; stir to coat. Sprinkle pork with salt and add to pot. Add 5 cups broth. Bring to boil. Cover and transfer to oven.

Braise pork until tender enough to shred easily, about 2 hours. Using slotted spoon, transfer pork to large bowl. Pour juices into another large bowl. Refrigerate separately uncovered until cool, then cover and keep chilled overnight.

Discard fat from top of chilled juices; reserve juices. Chop pork into 1/2-inch cubes, discarding excess fat.

Thinly slice remaining 2 onions. Heat remaining 3 tablespoons oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions; sauté until soft, stirring often, about 7 minutes. Add remaining 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons allepo and chile powder, remaining 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon oregano, diced chiles, garlic, and cumin; stir 30 seconds. Blend vegetables with an immersion blender. Add pork, reserved juices, and hominy. Bring to boil; reduce heat to low.

Cover with lid slightly ajar and simmer 30 minutes to allow flavors to blend, adding more broth to thin, if desired.

DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly. Chill uncovered until cool. Cover and keep chilled.
Re-warm before continuing.

Ladle posole into bowls. Garnish with lime wedges, a mixture of napa cabbage and shredded carrots and thinly sliced watermelon radishes. Top with Cotoja or chevre cheese or a drizzle of sour cream.

Fresh Black Mole Enchiladas

My Husband Troy says that he is an Irishman by heritage, but a Latin lover in his heart. He LOVES Mexican food. Typically taco trucks are his weakness, not "chi chi" California style fresh Mexican food. I am constantly working to develop recipes that embrace both. Mexican depth of flavor and California healthy style.

Recently, I went to a "pop up" store in Oakland, organized by my friend Samin Nosrat, http://ciaosamin.blogspot.com who by the way was the catalyst and organizer for the wildly successful Bakesale for Haiti, and Chris Lee of the recently closed Eccolo and purchased some black mole sauce.

After watching Mexican food aficionado and Top Chef Masters winner, Rick Bayless go into eye-rolling ecstasy describing his first taste of black mole and his life-long quest to re-create it, I jumped at the chance to bring some home and source a great way to use it.

Inspired recently by a recipe that I saw in the San Francisco Chronicle, I tweaked this M'Lisa style and came up with a real winner that I tried out tonight for dinner. It was as beautiful to look at as it tasted, and even my taco truck loving, Portuguese Irishman Husband declared it a run away winner. Below is the M'Lisa-ized recipe. For those who are interested about what I changed, I have included at link to the original article as well.

The recipe includes a version of the afor-mentioned black mole, but for this recipe, I used the mole that I purchased from Samin and that was made by personal chef Melissa Fernandez www.figandmiel.com.

Enchiladas Under a Salad

Serves 6 with leftover sauce and picadillo.

You will have sauce and filling leftover for more enchiladas or to freeze. You can make the sauce a day before making the enchiladas.

• Sweet Mole Sauce:
• 
  
• 5 dried ancho chiles
• 6 dried guajillo chiles
• 2 dried California chiles
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt + more later to taste
• 3 garlic cloves - 2 peeled, 1 with husk
• 2 tablespoons white sesame seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seed
• 1 small tomato
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 4 whole cloves, crushed
• 1 2-inch piece canela (cinnamon bark), broken up
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 small Knorr chicken bouillon cubes or 1 tablespoon Superior Touch "Better than Bouillon" (optional)
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar or one 3-inch piece piloncillo
• 1 1/2 ounces Mexican chocolate (Abuelita brand or Oaxacan), chopped
• 
  
• Family Picadillo:
• 
  
• 6 peeled carrots, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 tomato, seeded and diced
• 1 pound Prather Ranch ground beef
• 1/2 cup minced onion
• 2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon olive oil, as needed
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
• -- Black pepper to taste
• 12 corn tortillas
• 
  
• The Salad:
• 
  
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• -- Pinch of kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• -- About 3 cups crisp romaine lettuce cut into 1/2-inch thick ribbons
• 4 watermelon radishes, washed, and thinly sliced
• 1 avocado, sliced
• 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese

For the Sweet Mole Sauce: Put on a teakettle of water to boil and then use scissors to cut stems off dried chiles and cut chiles in half. Shake out seeds. If I see large white veins (the hottest part of chiles), I cut them out with the scissors. Do this operation over a spread out newspaper or your kitchen will be covered with seeds. Place chiles in a large heat-proof bowl and pour boiling water over them. If the chiles are cut up they tend to float less, but keep pushing the chiles into the water. Add the 2 teaspoons salt and the peeled garlic and soak for 1 hour.

While the chiles are soaking, heat a 10-inch skillet and toast the sesame seeds on medium heat until deeply golden, stirring constantly; remove from pan and set aside. While the pan is still hot, quickly toast the cumin seeds until dark brown and aromatic (be careful - they can burn quickly), then add to the the sesame seeds.

Increase heat to medium high; add the small tomato and remaining garlic clove (with husk). Cook the tomato until charred around the edges along with the garlic, turning the tomatoes over to char the other side. Add the oregano; stir to toast, about 30 seconds. Put aside to cool.

After 45 minutes to 1 hour, the chiles should be rehydrated. Pour off the soaking liquid, which can be bitter. Use a blender to puree the chiles (in batches as needed), adding just enough water to help puree. Pour puree through a wire strainer placed over a large bowl. Discard the skins (they are great in compost). After straining the last batch of chiles, pour the liquid back into the blender jar. Add the charred tomato, toasted garlic, sesame seeds, cumin, oregano, cloves and canela; puree.

Heat the olive oil in a deep, heavy pot and blend in flour until well mixed and smooth. Cook until slightly toasted or golden. Slowly whisk in the chile-spice puree and 3 cups water. Lupe always adds the bouillon because it is traditional. Add the sugar or piloncillo and the Mexican chocolate. Simmer the sweet sauce for 20 minutes over the lowest heat because it can splatter. Stir often to make sure the chocolate and sugar are well-dissolved. Add salt to taste, if needed. This sauce can be made a day in advance and refrigerated. Makes about 1 quart, enough for the enchiladas plus leftovers.

For the Family Picadillo: Sautee the onions and carrots in a spot of olive oil, until caramelized. Add the ground beef, use a potato masher to break up the meat and distribute the vegetables throughout. Pour off the excess fat. Season with oregano, salt and pepper. Add the cooked black beans and diced tomato. Warm though. Set aside, cover and keep warm. Makes about 5 cups, enough for the enchiladas plus leftovers.

To assemble: Preheat the oven to 375°. Oil a 9- by 13-inch baking pan or 3-quart baking dish. Pour enough sauce into the prepared pan (just large enough to hold a tortilla) to fill the pan about 3/4-inch deep - about 2 cups. Heat until warm, if necessary. If the sauce has been refrigerated and has thickened, blend in a bit of water or chicken broth to thin it out.

Meanwhile, heat a griddle to warm tortillas on. Warm two at a time then lay them out on a flat plate. Place 1/4 cup of picadillo along one edge and roll up tightly. Place each rolled enchilada into the baking dish, seam side down. Place baking dish in the oven, and heat through, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the salad. Whisk together lime juice, salt and oil. Add lettuce and radishes, toss together.

To serve: Remove enchiladas from the oven, and place 2 on each plate. Pile a heaping 1/2 cup salad over each serving, top with 2-3 avocado slices and sprinkle with goat cheese. Or, serve family-style on a platter.

Per serving: 484 calories, 18 g protein, 49 g carbohydrate, 25 g fat (7 g saturated), 46 mg cholesterol, 896 mg sodium, 7 g fiber.

Wine pairing: The mole is not overly hot, and it finishes with a sweet edge. A beer, a soft white or lighter-bodied red like Beaujolais will all work.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/02/21/FDHU1BTH1C.DTL