EatMx: Real Mexican food, at home and on the road

Green Chicken Chili, an Easy Winner

This Green Chicken Chili is a real crowd pleaser, and so easy to make.

It's from the book "Keeping It Simple" by Yasmin Fahr. And it was a big hit when Fahr appeared for a lunch, book signing and recipe demo at Melissa's Produce in Los Angeles.

The theme of the book is easy one-pot dishes to make weeknight cooking hassle-free. The recipes may be easy, but they are full of flavor and freshness. 

The chili gets its greenness from jalapeño, poblano and New Mexican Hatch chiles, also tomatillos and cilantro. Amazingly, you can make it in only half an hour, plus a few minutes of prep time. 

This is Fahr's first book, an outgrowth of a column she wrote for Serious Eats. It's a winner, if you're looking for recipes that are lively and fun, don't require a lot of skill and give you plenty of leeway to substitute ingredients.

For example, you can make the chili with bell peppers instead of poblanos and canned tomatillos instead of fresh, or even green tomatoes. If you insist on chili with beans you can add those too. 

Here is the recipe: 

30-MINUTE GREEN CHICKEN CHILI
From "Keeping It Simple" by Yasmin Fahr

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 jalapeño chiles, one seeded and diced, 1 sliced for sprinkling
2 poblano or green (bell) peppers, seeded and diced
1 can tomatillos, drained, or 6 fresh tomatillos, husked, or 6 fresh green tomatoes, roughly chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, grated or minced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs
2 cups low-salt chicken stock (broth)
1 (4-ounce) can mild or hot chopped green chiles, preferably Hatch
2 limes, juice of 1, 1 sliced into wedges for serving
1/2 cup cilantro, fine stems and leaves roughly chopped
1 Hass avocado, halved, pitted, peeled and sliced for serving (optional)

Heat the oil in a large flameproof casserole (Dutch oven) over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onion, jalapeño and poblano peppers, the tomatillos, salt and pepper, stirring frequently until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin and oregano and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper, then add to the casserole. Pour in the chicken stock and raise the heat to maintain a gentle simmer (avoid bringing to a boil). Cook until the chicken is cooked through, 10 minutes or longer. If the chicken pieces are not completely submerged, then turn them over halfway. 

Remove the chicken and place on a plate or in a shallow bowl. Use a fork and knife to shred the chicken, then add it back to the casserole along with any liquid and the chopped green chiles. Cook until the chicken is warmed through, about 2 minutes, squeeze in the lime and adjust seasoning as needed.

If desired, you can add cooked or canned white beans with the chicken and mash them against the side of the pan. 

Ladle into bowls and top with cilantro, avocado if using and the sliced jalapeño. Serve with lime wedges.

Makes 2 large servings, or 4 for sharing. 

A Really Unusual Shrimp Mole

You've never tasted a mole like this one, made with shrimp. It's original and creative but based on classic mole ingredients, with a few tweaks.

The recipe is in "Pescan: A Feel Good Cookbook" by Abbie Cornish (at right) and Jacqueline King Schiller. 

Cornish and Schiller are best friends who cook together. Cornish is an actress. Schiller, a model, has the blog The Feel Good Kitchen. She's the chef, and Cornish is the artist, stylist and recipe tester. Together they've produced a beautiful book with fresh, delicious, easy-to-make food. 

Schiller's grandfather came from Oaxaca, so she's rooted in Mexican tradition, and the mole is her recipe.

The surprise ingredient is tahini. You've eaten mole sprinkled with sesame seeds, so this makes sense, because tahini is sesame seed paste. It's "an easy way to add a lot of sesame flavor," Schiller said.

Chocolate is often in mole too. Schiller's variation is to add cacao powder and cacao nibs. Instead of dried chiles, she puts in chili powder, a jalapeño and a dash of cayenne. 

Mole sauces are complex, with long lists of ingredients. "I tried to come up with something that was equally complex and flavorful, but a little more practical," she said. Here is how the mole appears in the book.  

Most often, chicken comes with mole sauce, but this book shuns meat, poultry, dairy and refined sugar. If a recipe isn't gluten-free, ways to make it so are suggested. Fish and shrimp are included because they provide important nutrients. 

Cornish and Schiller adopted this sort of diet to improve their own health, and they've added comments about feel good ingredients and nutritional pointers to the recipes. 

What to serve with the mole? Schiller's Fiesta Black Beans, from her Mexican-American family.

And Fiesta Veggie Rice, which contains cumin and Mexican oregano.

Both were in the lunch lineup when the authors presented their book at Melissa's Produce. 

This is how the shrimp, beans and rice would look on a plate for dinner. With them is a quinoa salad with kale sprouts, radicchio, watermelon radish and dried cranberries, another recipe from the book. 

The mole is versatile. The same sauce can go with baked tofu, roasted carrots or fried eggs, the authors suggest in the book, so vegetarians can enjoy it too.

SHRIMP WITH MOLE SAUCE
From "Pescan: A Feel Good Cookbook"

For the mole:
1/2 cup raisins
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 jalapeño chile, trimmed, halved, and seeded
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 cup vegetable broth
3 tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and roughly chopped
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
3 tablespoons cacao nibs
2 tablespoons cacao powder
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon smoked salt
1 teaspoon kosher sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground anise seed (can substitute fennel seed)
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup warm filtered water
Sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds for garnish

Shrimp
1/2 lime
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
Kosher sea salt and black pepper
1 1/4 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 tablespoons olive oil or melted refined coconut oil
1/4 cup cilantro leaves and tender stems for garnish

To make the mole, in a small bowl cover the raisins with warm water and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium-low heat. Add the onion, jalapeño and garlic and stir to coat with the oil. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 to 20 minutes, until softened and browned. If they begin to blacken, lower the heat to low. It's OK if there is a bit of charring.

Meanwhile, in a blender, combine the tomatoes, broth, tomatillos, tahini, pumpkin seeds, cacao nibs, cacao powder, chili powder, smoked salt, kosher sea salt, black pepper, cinnamon, anise seed, cumin, oregano and cayenne. 

Drain the raisins and add them to the blender. Then add the softened onion, garlic, jalapeño and the water. Blend, starting on low and bringing up to high speed, until smooth. You may need to scrape down the sides once or twice as you blend.

If you are not using a high-speed blender, you may need to add a splash more broth. Pour the mole into the sauté pan and warm over low heat, stirring occasionally, while you prepare the shrimp, up to 20 minutes.

To prepare the shrimp, in a small bowl, squeeze the juice from the lime over the onion. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper and toss. Set aside.

Heat a grill or grill pan to medium-high heat. In a large bowl, toss the shrimp with the oil and season with salt an pepper. Add 1/2 cup of the mole sauce and toss. Grill the shrimp until light grill marks appear and the shrimp is just opaque all the way through, 1 to 2 minutes per side.

To serve, pour 1/3 cup of the mole sauce onto the middle of each serving plate. Spread the mole into a circle with the bottom of the measuring cup. Divide the shrimp among the plates. Lightly sprinkle with sesame and pumpkin seeds, about 1/2 teaspoon each per plate. Top with the sliced onion and a scattering of cilantro. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings as an entree or 6 as an appetizer

Show Off with This Green Chile Stew

Just one simple recipe will snag you a reputation as a real pro at cooking Mexican food.

It's the green chile stew that's in the book "101 Epic Dishes" by celebrity chef Jet Tila and his wife Ali Tila.

When the Tilas presented their book and a spread of their dishes at Melissa's Produce, the green chile stew (at the top) was a huge hit. It's Ali Tila's recipe, one she got from a friend years ago and then adapted. 

She calls it New Mexico green chile stew because she uses New Mexico's Hatch chiles when they're in season--August and September. She also puts in Hatch green chile powder (above), which is available all year.

If you can't get these, substitute whatever is in your markets. Canned chiles will work too, according to a chef tip that accompanies the recipe.

The book is subtitled "recipes that teach you how to make the classics even more delicious," not to mention easy. Jet Tila is an accomplished chef--you've probably seen him on TV, and he's a great guide in the home kitchen too.

Ali Tila's specialty is pastry. Together, they've made "101 Epic Dishes" a how-to book that guarantees success.

The recipes are mostly American, with a fair share of Latino dishes and a hint of Asian, because Jet Tila is Thai. You may already have his first book, "101 Asian Dishes You Need to Cook Before You Die."

Alton Brown wrote the forward to that book. The forward to "Epic Dishes" is by Bobby Flay. Both Tilas were in New York recently to appear on the show "Beat Bobby Flay."

There's more that's Mexican and delicious in their book, like Mexican street corn with cotija cheese and crema (above). And Coca Cola carnitas, fried fish tacos with chipotle crema and a spinach and three-cheese quesadilla.

Still more are a cheesy chicken tortilla soup, breakfast chilaquiles with roasted chile sauce, guacamole and pico de gallo.  

For dessert, what could be nicer than freshly fried churros rolled in cinnamon sugar and served with a Mexican chocolate dipping sauce?

For more of Jet Tila's recipes, check his website, chef jet.com. For more about Ali Tila, go to her facebook page and look for her gorgeous pastries on Instagram. 

NEW MEXICO GREEN CHILE STEW
From "101 Epic Dishes"

2 pounds boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups peeled and diced plum tomatoes
2 cups New Mexico green chiles, roasted, peeled and chopped
1 jalapeño chile, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon New Mexico green chile powder, or more to taste
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 cups beef broth
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 cups medium-diced waxy potatoes
Warm tortillas or crusty bread, for serving

Heat a large Dutch oven over high heat for about 1 minute. Pat the pork cubes dry with a paper towel. Coat the bottom of the Dutch oven with the olive oil and add the pork to the pot. Sear on all sides until golden brown, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the onion and garlic and cook until translucent, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for an additional minute, until all the pork is coated evenly. Stir in the tomatoes, roasted chiles, jalapeño, cumin, New Mexico chile powder and sugar and cook for about 2 minutes, until combined. 

Pour in the broth and add the salt and pepper. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring every 20 minutes and making sure to scrape the bottom.

Stir in the potatoes and cook for about 30 minutes, or until fork tender. The pork will be tender and the stew will be nice and thick. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking Serve with warm tortillas or crusty bread.

Makes 6 to 8 servings. 

An Easy Beef Dish from Veracruz

Mexican cooking can be so simple, like this shredded beef dish from a home cook in the city of Veracruz.

Only five ingredients are required, plus salt and pepper.  What makes it so good is the care taken in preparation. The meat is boiled and washed to remove any scum, then boiled again in fresh water until tender.  After shredding, it is added along with green chiles to a cooked mixture of onion, garlic and tomatoes.

I used New Mexico's Hatch chiles (above). Their season is ending, but I have them in the freezer, already roasted. If you missed out, you can substitute Anaheim chiles.

The original recipe is in my book, "Mexican Cookery." That version calls for green bell peppers, the way it was done in Veracruz. I revised it to use green chiles instead.  

Here are the steps in preparing the chiles for this dish.  First, roast them until blistered. I do this under the broiler, because I have an electric stove. 

When they are cool, peel the chiles and cut them into thin strips.

Then add them along with the cooked meat to sautéed onion, garlic and tomatoes. Add broth and simmer until heated through. Then you have a hearty, homey dish to serve with rice or use as taco filling or in tortas, the Mexican sandwich.  

CARNE DESHEBRADA
Shredded Beef

1 pound beef stew meat
Water
1/2 pound Hatch chiles or Anaheim chiles, hot or mild
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound tomatoes, peeled and chopped
Salt, pepper

Place the meat in a large saucepan and cover generously with water. Bring to a boil. Skim off and discard the scum that rises to the top. Drain the meat and wash it well

Return the meat to the saucepan. Add 2 1/2 cups water and bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover and simmer until very tender, up to 2 hours. Let cool in the broth, then drain, reserving the broth. You will need at least 1/2 cup.

When the meat is cool enough to be handled, tear it into shreds with your hands or two forks. 

Meanwhile, roast the chiles until blistered. Let cool slightly, then remove the stems and skins. Scrape off the seeds but do not rinse. Cut in thin slices and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and garlic and cook until tender but not browned. Add the tomatoes and simmer 10 minutes, until thoroughly cooked.

Add the chiles, the meat, the reserved 1/2 cup broth and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer gently until heated through.

Serve with rice or use as taco filling or in tortas (sandwiches).

Makes 4 servings.  

Achiote Paste--The Next Big Thing?

It's the next big thing. So says Pati Jinich, cookbook author and star of the PBS-TV series "Pati's Mexican Kitchen."

What is it? Achiote paste from Yucatán. Can it nudge out recent big things such as Sriracha sauce and gochujang? Maybe, at least for cooks intrigued by Mexican flavors. And travelers to Yucatán who have discovered that area's famous achiote-seasoned cochinita pibil (pork) and pollo pibil (chicken).

"The taste is so unique," says Jinich, who uses it in the recipe for Fast-Track Chicken Pibil in her new cookbook "Mexican Today" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30). "And it's my favorite color in the universe [brick red}."

For the best quality, the paste must be from Yucatán, Jinich insists.  Except if you live in Los Angeles, where you can buy excellent achiote paste from the Yucatecan restaurant Chichén Itzá in the Mercado La Paloma downtown (at right). The restaurant also sells ground annatto seeds to which you can add your own spices.

Known as recado rojo in Yucatán, achiote paste is seasoned with vinegar, garlic, oregano, allspice, cumin and black pepper, says Gilberto Cetina Jr. of Chichén Itzá. If buying commercial achiote paste, read the label. Avoid any brands that contain fillers such as cornmeal or flour.

During a whirlwind book tour, Jinich spoke and signed books at Melissa's Produce. Dishes from the book set out for sampling included two made with achiote paste:  Fast-Track Chicken Pibil and Tacos al Pastor (above). The pork filling for the tacos is seasoned with an achiote-adobo sauce that is in the book.

In Yucatán, chicken or pork pibil is always served with marinated red onions. Jinich's variation on that is red onions with cabbage and jalapeños in a marinade of citrus juices, rice vinegar and jalapeños (above).

Her chicken pibil (above) is fast track because it's made with pre-cooked chicken and simmered on top of the stove rather than cooked underground. And she leaves out the banana leaves that would line the pan and cover the chicken in Yucatán.

There, the paste is blended with sour orange juice. Jinich simulates the flavor with a blend of citrus juices and white vinegar. Here is her recipe:

FAST-TRACK CHICKEN PIBIL
From "Mexican Today" by Pati Jinich

1/2 pound ripe tomatoes
1/4 red onion
3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt or to taste
2 cups chicken broth, homemade or store-bought
2 tablespoons canola or safflower oil
1/4 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, preferably Mexican
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped achiote paste
6 cups shredded cooked chicken or rotisserie chicken

Preheat the broiler. Line a small baking sheet or roasting pan with foil. Place the tomatoes, onion and garlic cloves on the foil, set under the broiler, 3 to 4 inches from the heat, and broil for 4 to 5 minutes, until charred on one side. Flip over and broil for another 4 to 5 minutes, until the skin is blistered and completely charred; the tomatoes should be very soft with the juices beginning to emerge. Remove from the heat.

Once they are cool enough to handle, quarter the tomatoes and place in a blender, along with any juices in the pan. Peel the garlic cloves and add to the blender. Add the onion, salt and 1 cup of the broth and puree until completely smooth.

In a casserole or soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Pour in the puree, cover partially, as the sauce will sizzle and jump, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 7 to 8 minutes, until the sauce thickens and darkens considerably.

Meanwhile, combine the grapefruit juice, orange juice, lime juice, vinegar, oregano, allspice, cumin, pepper to taste, achiote paste, and the remaining 1 cup broth in the blender and puree until completely smooth.

Stir the juice mixture into the tomato sauce, bring to a simmer, and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the chicken, stir together well and cook, uncovered, until the meat has absorbed most of the sauce, about 5 minutes. The dish should be very moist but not soupy.

Serve with pickled onions and cabbage.

Makes 4 to 5 servings.

Sabores Yucatecos from Chichén Itzá

This is the best ceviche I have eaten in a long time. It's from Chichén Itzá, the Yucatecan restaurant in the Mercado La Paloma.  The flavor is full, fresh and so remarkable that it could stand out amid tough competition.

The event was a book launch party, and all the dishes that were served came from the restaurant's cookbook "Sabores Yucatecos," which has just been released in a Spanish-language edition.

The English-language version of the book, published in 2012, was the first by a working chef from Yucatán, Gilberto Cetina.  Read about both books in my article for LA Weekly's Squid Ink.

If you don't have them, hurry down to the Mercado to get one, in either language. They're on sale at the restaurant. And be sure to order the ceviche. The one in the photo is mixed seafood, the one on the menu is fish. Either way, it's very good.  

Chichen Itza restaurant, 3655 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90007 (inside the Mercado La Paloma). Tel: (213) 741-1075.

Eating Well at Rancho La Puerta

Spa food is skinny, skimpy and loaded with good-for-you things that you don't think are good at all, right? 

Well, not if the spa where you're eating is Rancho La Puerta at Tecate in Baja California. During a tour of the grounds, I sneaked into the dining room and looked at the day's menus, posted on blackboards on the wall. The food sounded great, and just looking at the handsome dining room (at the top) made me hungry. 

A spicy shrimp quesadilla with avocado and tomatillo salsa sounded good to me. I would also have liked the lima bean and roasted cauliflower salad with asparagus. Well, take a look at the menu yourself (above).

Dinner sounded sensational. It started with golden mango gazpacho, then moved on to a carrot pineapple salad with toasted coconut and sesame ginger vinaigrette.

The main dish was white seabass with eggplant caviar, seasonal vegetables and romesco sauce (vegetarians and vegans would have been given another main dish). Dessert was a spiced red wine-poached pear with citrus cream and an amaranth cookie.

Not bad, after a heavy day of yoga, exercise classes, swimming, volleyball, tennis, hiking, walks, dance, meditation and spa treatments. 

Then I collared the executive chef, Gonzalo Mendoza (above), who has been at Rancho La Puerta for 20 years. He'd just brought in a bunch of lemon verbena, one of many herbs that make the grounds fragrant as you walk around. This would go into tea and salsa, he said.

For really skinny eaters there is a special "pure and simple" corner, he said. Food there is gluten free and contains no oil, nuts, sugar or shellfish.

For the rest, the proteins are fish, shrimp or soy products, combined with legumes, grains, vegetables and fruits. All of the food is low fat, low salt and low in sugar.

That doesn't mean guests can't have gooey desserts such as tiramisu, cheese cake and carrot cake, but these are modified to reduce the fat and sugar. Wine and beer are available too.

The food has been so popular that Rancho La Puerta has put the recipes into several cookbooks.  One of these is "Favorites from the Ranch Kitchen" with recipes from Chef Gonzalo and others on the culinary team.

Here's one that's perfect for now, when fresh corn is abundant. Rancho La Puerta provided the photo. 

ROASTED CORN SOUP
WITH ANCHO CHILE SAUCE

From "Favorites from the Ranch Kitchen"

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium white onions, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
6 ears roasted corn on the cob or 3 cups frozen corn
1 small potato, peeled and diced
4 cups vegetable broth
2 bunches cilantro, chopped
Salt, pepper

To make the soup, heat the oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Saute the onions, garlic and oriander seeds until the onions are translucent and golden brown.

Add the corn kernels, potato and the broth. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and continue cooking for another 5 minutes. Add the cilantro. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 20 to 25 minutes. 

Puree the soup in batches in a food processor, then strain it through a fine strainer. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Reheat if necessary. Add 2 teaspoons Ancho Chile Sauce to each serving.

Makes 6 (1-cup) servings. 

ANCHO CHILE SAUCE

1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic
1 dried ancho chile, seeds and stem removed
1 cup chopped fresh tomato
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons agave syrup
2 cups water
Salt

Heat the olive oil in a small pot and saute the onion and garlic until translucent and golden brown. Add the ancho chile and stir for another minute.

Add the tomato, oregano, cayenne and agave syrup and cook, covered, for 5 minutes. Add the water and bring to a boil.

Allow the sauce to cool, then puree it in a food processor until smooth.  Add salt to taste. Add 2 teaspoons sauce to each serving of soup, then refrigerate the rest up to 1 week for use in other dishes. 

 

The Hatches are Here--Don't Miss Out

If you want to try Hatch chiles, you'd better move fast. These big, meaty green chiles (above) are only here for a short time. In New Mexico where they come from, people buy huge quantities during the season, then roast and store them in the freezer.

I just finished roasting 5 pounds, a nice stash to have on hand for chile verde, rajas and many other dishes.

Roasting improves the flavor. It also softens and shrinks the chiles so that I could stuff almost the entire five pounds into a single large plastic storage bag.

But I didn't freeze all of the chiles. Instead, I used a few in a chicken dish from "Melissa's Hatch Chile Cookbook," new this year from Melissa's/World Variety Produce. You can read more about the book in the story I wrote for LA Weekly's Squid Ink. Want a copy? Melissa's site tells how to get it. It's also on Amazon. 

The book is full of great ideas, and not just Mexican dishes.You can learn to make this griled corn and baby heirloom tomato salad.

Or these corn muffins, which contain Cheddar cheese.

Or grilled shrimp.

Even sandwiches.

One of my favorites is Hatch chile ice cubes. They're fun to drop into lemonade, which gets progressively hotter as the ice melts.  

The recipe I tried (above) is a handy one dish meal, combining chicken with Yukon gold potatoes, chiles, tomatoes, fresh herbs and Parmesan.

The recipe below is the way it appears in the book.  You can vary it as I did, using less chicken and more potatoes, browning the chicken separately and then placing it in a baking dish with the other ingredients. 

BAKED CHICKEN AND YUKON POTATOES
From Melissa's Hatch Chile Cookbook

1 (3-pound) fryer chicken, cut into 8 pieces
Herbed sea salt
Freshly ground rainbow peppercorns
7 tablespoons canola oil
6 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and quartered
4 Hatch chiles, roasted, peeled, stemmed and seeded
1 cup roma tomatoes, crushed
2 tablespoons Italian parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon chopped basil leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Rinse the chicken pieces under cold running water and pat them dry with paper towels. Season the chicken pieces all over with the herb salt and pepper.

Set a large roasting pan on the stove over medium-high heat. Add 4 tablespoons of the canola oil and heat the pan until the oil shimmers. Carefully add the chicken pieces to the pan and sear on all sides until golden brown.

Add the potatoes and cut-up chiles to the pan, placing them in between the chicken pieces. Add the tomatoes, parsley, basil and garlic. Season with additional herb salt and pepper. Sprinkle on the cheese and drizzle the remaining 3 tablespoons of canola oil over the chicken and vegetables.

Cover and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 170 degrees.

Makes 6 servings.

Rice Pudding and a Family's Downfall

A Spanish language class in Oaxaca introduced me to the gritty, compelling short stories of the Mexican journalist Cristina Pacheco. 

The most mesmerizing that I have read is “Vainilla y Canela” (Vanilla and Cinnamon).  In less than four riveting pages, Pacheco links the spicy aromas emanating from a simmering pot of arroz con leche (rice pudding) to the dissolution of a family

The story appears in an anthology of food-related writing, “Relatos a La Carta: Historias y Recetas de Cocina,” published in Spain by Editorial Páginas de Espuma.

Pacheco’s story was so enthralling that I devoured it standing in the aisle of the shop where I bought the book.

Like the other contributions to the anthology, it is accompanied by a recipe—the very arroz con leche that perfumes the poignant narrative.  

The recipe isn’t tragic, but quite wonderful. Pacheco even suggests glamorizing it by adding a crisp, caramelized crust, as if it were crême brulée. An interesting possibility, but I find the simple version more in keeping with her spare, focused style.  

Part of the enjoyment is in cooking the pudding slowly and enjoying the fragrance of lime and cinnamon that drifts up from the pan.

ARROZ CON LECHE 
Rice Pudding
From "Vainilla y Canela" by Cristina Pacheco 

4 cups water
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup long grain rice
1 quart milk
Peel of 1 Mexican lime, in long strips
1 cinnamon stick
¾ cup sugar
1½ teaspoons vanilla
Ground cinnamon

Place the water and salt in a 3-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add the rice and boil, stirring, for 3 minutes. Drain, rinse and set aside.

Add the milk, lime peel and cinnamon stick to the saucepan and bring slowly to a boil. Add the rice, reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring often, for 20 minutes.

Add the sugar and continue to cook, stirring constantly to prevent sticking and to keep the mixture from boiling too rapidly, for 25 minutes, until the rice is tender and the mixture is thick.

Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Turn into a heatproof dish.  Carefully spoon through the pudding to find and remove pieces of lime peel and the cinnamon stick.

Serve warm or at room temperature, sprinkled with cinnamon. Refrigerate any leftovers. Reheat gently before serving.

Makes 8 servings.

Cookbook Finds at La Feria del Libro

I can't believe the hard-to-find Mexican cookbooks that I picked up last weekend.

Like a collection of Afromestizo recipes from Veracruz, another on the indigenous cooking of southern Veracruz, recipes from communities around San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas, and a book of indigenous recipes from Baja California.

Part of Conaculta's extensive series of books on indigenous and popular cooking, they turned up at LéaLA 2012, the second Feria del Libro en Español in Los Angeles. This display of books in Spanish brought crowds to the L.A. Convention Center, where they not only browsed but bought.

It was a rare opportunity to look through hundreds of books on a wide range of topics from such publishers as Planeta, Porrúa, Larousse, Conaculta, Artes de Mexico and Girón Spanish Book Distributors.

If food was your interest, you could find books on tacos, chiles rellenos, a book of Chinese recipes published in the state of Sinaloa, a small paperback of Yucatecan recipes, a Diana Kennedy book in Spanish, and glossy Artes de Mexico publications on mezcal, tequila and chocolate.  

There were exhibits from the states of Jalisco, Nuevo León and Mexico, from the Mundo Maya Foundation and from universities in Puebla and Guadalajara. The guest of honor was Guadalajara, known for its annual book fair, which is the largest in the Spanish-speaking world.

On Sunday, Susanna Palazuelos (above), author of "Mexico the Beautiful Cookbook," signed copies of "Mexico, una herencia de sabores," which was named cookbook of the year in Mexico in 2011. 

I bought "Nueva Gran Cocina Mexicana," compiled  by artist/author Martha Chapa, because it included recipes that I had been hunting for but not found elsewhere. And another that contains original recipes from the 17th century literary figure Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. 

Mariachis played, young mothers pushed babies in carriages, and you could play a spin-the-wheel game sponsored by Guerrero tortillas--I won a 35-cents-off coupon, but not the potholder I wanted.

Whoever said that book publishing is dead should have seen how many people spent Sunday afternoon deep in literature--I saw a woman buy a thick biography of Gabriel García Márquez for more than $40. 

The three-day feria included lectures, discussions and a reading area for children. It grew from 84 booths last year to 200 this year, a healthy sign that readership is growing, at least in the Spanish-speaking world.