Wild mushrooms are found in abundance in the states of Puebla, Tlaxcala and Estado de Mexico during and after the rainy season, and used in soups, quesadillas and vegetable dishes. Although the comadre used escobetas (coral mushrooms) the following recipe may be successfully prepared using fresh cultivated mushrooms.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds fresh mushrooms (if using button mushrooms, remove the stems)
• 6 large cloves garlic, peeled and cut in half lengthwise
• 1 cup mild olive oil (not extra virgin)
• 1 large white onion, sliced into thin crescents
• 2 inch stick cinnamon
• 3 cloves
• 8 whole allspice
• 4 sprigs of thyme (or use dried thyme, but not powdered)
• ½ tablespoon dried oregano (not powdered)
• 4 bay leaves
• ½ cup mild vinegar, or to taste

Place the mushrooms in a pot with salted water to cover and boil until just tender. Do not overcook.

Drain and place mushrooms in a large skillet with the hot oil and sauté. Add all the remaining ingredients and stir to combine completely. Remove from heat.

Allow mushrooms to cool, place in an airtight container and allow to marinate in the refrigerator overnight. This dish may be served cold or reheated. In either case, it is usually served with bolillos or French bread.

Serves 6.

Link to Source Article

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This is one version of the many recipes for pickled fish so popular in Mexico, especially during the warm spring months before the rainy season. It should be brought to room temperature before serving. Any good quality, firm-fleshed fish steaks can be used.

Ingredients:

• 4 1-inch thick fish steaks
• juice of 1 fresh lime
• 8 cloves garlic, roasted on a comal or griddle until lightly charred, then peeled
• ¼ teaspoon each peppercorns, coriander seeds and cumin seeds
• 2 whole cloves
• 2 whole allspice
• 1 cup water
• ¼ teaspoon oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ cup olive oil
• ½ cup white vinegar
• pinch sugar salt to taste
• oil for frying

Preparation:

Marinate the fish steaks in the lime juice for 15 minute or so while the escabeche is being made. Longer marinating will “cook” the fish and toughen it.

Place the roasted garlic, peppercorns, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cloves and allspice in a mortar or electric grinder and grind to a paste.

Place the garlic and spice paste, water, oregano, bay leaf, oil, vinegar, salt and sugar in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and set aside.

Heat the oil for frying in a skillet and fry the fish steaks, about 4-5 minutes on each side, until just barely cooked through. They will “cook” more in the hot marinade.

Place the fish steaks on a serving dish and pour the hot marinade over them. Bring to room temperature before serving. Decorate with pickled red onions (see panuchos recipe) and pickled chiles if desired. This is good with crusty bolillos or French bread and cold beer or mineral water with sliced lime. Serves 4.

Link to Source Article

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Mexican Kitchen

In the enormously diversified world of chiles, the poblano has long been considered one of the tastiest, most attractive and widely used of the capsicum family. A staple of Mexican home and restaurant cooking, the poblano has, in recent years, been fondly adopted into the family of favorite vegetables north of the border.

Although poblano chiles are now available throughout the year, they are truly in season during the summer, when they flood Mexican and foreign markets. Beginning this month, and reaching a peak in August and September, the rainy season harvest yields an abundance of these mild-to-hot, and amazingly versatile, chiles.

Characterized by the thick skin which makes them ideal for stuffing, poblanos were being used in the cuisine of the area around Puebla, for which they are named, when the Spaniards arrived in the sixteenth century. The nuns of the Colonial era were responsible for incorporating poblanos and other chiles into the diet of New Spain. The famous chiles en nogada , generally considered to be Mexico’s national dish, is a classic example of Creole cooking, combining the New World native poblano chile with European filling ingredients. Created in a Puebla convent to honor a visiting archbishop, this central Mexican specialty is indispensible in celebrating Independence Day in September and was, for many years, the traditional comida for the feast of San Agustín in August.

Long before the Spaniards arrived, however, capsicum annuum, the grandaddy of most of the chiles used in Mexican cooking today, thrived in the Tehuacan valley of what is now the state of Puebla. Evidence of its presence there dates from as early as 7200 B.C.

Used to flavor everything from tamales to the corn gruel beverage atole, chiles varied from one part of the Aztec empire to the next. The larger, sweeter texochilli, known today as poblanos, were also smoked and dried, just as they are today, in which case they are known as anchos rather than the Nahuatl pochilli.

Although poblanos have long been cultivated commercially, many people grow them in home gardens. They are particularly rewarding for beginning gardeners, growing quickly and being resistant to many garden pests. Although there are many on-line and mail order sources for chile seeds, they may also be removed from pods at home and left to dry at room temperature for two weeks before being started in small containers. For excellent advice on starting, transplanting, caring for and harvesting chile plants, consult the chile cultivation sources listed at the end of this article.

Whether you grow your own or buy them at your local farmers’ market or produce department, keep in mind that the ideal poblanos are smooth-skinned, triangular, and free of stem punctures and dents. Color is usually dark green, although many people prefer to leave the chiles on the plant until they turn red.

Smoothness of skin is particularly important in recipes calling for roasting and peeling the chiles. In preparing chiles rellenos, the poblanos are roasted over a gas or other open flame until charred on the outside, then left to “sweat” for a few minutes in a plastic bag, making them easy to peel by rubbing away the charred skin or rinsing it off under running water. My book Take This Chile and Stuff It (Golden West Publishers, 1998) provides detailed instructions for peeling and stuffing chiles with a variety of ingredients from cheese to shrimp, with or without batter, prepared in several different ways – from cold, marinated poblanos to oven-baked anchos.

The degree of heat in chiles can be adjusted somewhat when preparing them at home. Soaking in salt water or in a solution of vinegar and water, followed by thorough rinsing, cuts down on the capsaicin, a substance produced in the placenta and found in the seeds and veins, which makes chiles hot.

Although poblanos only rate between 1,000 and 1,500 Scoville units on the chile heat scale (which ranges from zero units for bell peppers to 16, 000 units for pure capsaicin) care should be taken in handling them. Washing hands thoroughly with soap and water, followed by a fresh lemon rub, will rid the skin of most capsaicin residue, as will rubbing hands with sugar before washing. Always remember to clean the knife and cutting board, and to refrain from rubbing your eyes!

Stuffing poblano chiles was a learning experience, a hobby, and finally a commercial venture for me, but there are many other ways of preparing and using them in other dishes. They go particularly well in a variety of cream sauces for meat, chicken and pasta, recipes for which follow. Those wishing to really start from scratch may want to order seeds and/or consult cultivation resources at the following web sites:

For Chile Seeds:

• Jimmy’s Chiles: https://www.jimmyschiles.co
• New Mexico Chiles. https://www.nmcchile.com

Poblano Recipes:

• Chicken in poblano cream Sauce: Pollo poblano
• Beef with poblano chile strips: Res con rajas de chile poblano
• Mexican spaghetti with poblano chile and squash blossom sauce: Espageti al poblano
  

The post The chiles of summer: Pick a peck of poblanos appeared first on MexConnect.

As its name implies, this dish is traditionally served at weddings. The addition of chocolate makes it reminiscent of mole poblano, but the depth of flavor is achieved with far fewer ingredients. One reason for this is the use of whole spices, lightly toasted and ground, rather than powdered spices, which lose flavor quickly.

Ingredients:

• Zacatecas: Culinary Gateway

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Mexican Kitchen

Perhaps no other single ingredient has had such a dramatic upsurge in mainstream culinary use over the last decade as has chile (chee-lay). Once considered an exotic component of Latin, Indian and Asian cuisines, the chile, in its many fresh and dried forms, has become a modern kitchen staple, added to everything from salad dressings to pasta dishes.

The omnipresent ingredient in the diet of the ancient Mesoamericans has finally become part of our own culinary landscape.

Chile is the name generally given to all fruit of capsicum plants, New World natives of Mexico, Central and South America and the West Indies. A wild variety of capsicum has been found in anthropological sites in the Tehuacan valley, in south central Mexico, dating from 7200 to 5200 B.C. Capsicum annuum, the variety found in these sites, is the species that provides nearly all of the chiles known and cultivated today, a group which encompasses an impressive array of colors, shapes, sizes and degrees of “heat.”

This “heat” is caused by capsaicin, a substance produced by glands in the seed-bearing part of the chile. The Scoville test, invented in 1912 and based on a tasting consensus, attempted to measure the pungency of chiles, and modern high-pressure liquid chromatography has attempted the same thing, but any good Mexican home cook knows that there are only a few ways to control the heat in chiles. Removing the seed sac and seeds is the most logical, and soaking in a vinegar or salt water solution is another.

These preventative measures are often required to avoid the irritating effects on the mouth, tongue, eyes and hands that capsicum can produce. The ancient inhabitants of Mexico knew about these effects and cleverly used chiles as an early means of chemical warfare, discipline and fumigation.

However, not all chiles are hot, as noted in the two-part guide presented here, which covers over thirty different kinds of Mexican chiles, fresh and dried, hot and mild. Although the chile spread to all parts of the world, gaining particular favor in Asia, the guide contains chiles found specifically in Mexico and used in Mexican cooking. This month is devoted to fresh chiles and recipes using them. Look for Part II, Dried Chiles, next month.

Fresh Chiles:

Chilaca:

a long (approximately 5″) mild to medium-hot, deep green chile, used most frequently in Western Mexico, especially in the state of Jalisco, for fresh salsas and rajas- marinated or sautéed chile strips- and known in its dried state as pasilla.

Chile de agua:

4″-5″ long, hot, bright yellow-green chile, found in Southern Mexico, most often in Oaxaca, and used there for making a very piquant version of chiles rellenos.

Chile largo:

a yellow-green variety of jalapeno, approximately 3″ long, medium-hot, frequently pickled- en escabeche- and used as a condiment.

Cuaresmeño:

a large (3″-4″), mild jalapeño, often used for stuffing with cheese, tuna and other meatless fillings, and thus named after Lent, Cuaresma.

Güero:

a hot, triangular-shaped, 2″-3″ long chile, used as a condiment, its name means “blonde” because of its yellow color.

Habanero:

said to be the hottest chile in Mexico, this small (about 2″ long and 1″ wide) yellow-orange to bright orange chile is a characteristic ingredient of the cuisine of the Yucatan, where it is used to make table salsas.

Huachinango:

a 3″-4″ long thick-skinned, hot variety of jalapeño, it may be pickled, stuffed, or both, and frequently served as a botana – cocktail snack or hors d’ouevre.

Jalapeño:

one of the most famous and widely-used chiles, both in and outside of Mexico, this deep green chile averages approximately 3″ long and is used both fresh and pickled in a wide variety of dishes ranging from salsas to stuffed jalapeños. Fresh jalapeños are frequently canned in a pickling solution called escabeche.

Manzano:

so named because it is shaped just like a small (about 2″ sphere) apple, bright reddish-orange and hot, it is most frequently found in its dried form, known as a cascabel.

Poblano:

most famous as a stuffing chile, this large (about 5″ long) mild, dark green variety, originally cultivated in the state of Puebla, is also used to make chile strips, cream sauces, vegetables, chicken, fish and pasta dishes; dried, it is called an ancho.

Poblano rojo:

known as a “ripe” poblano, this late-summer chile develops a deep red color and hotter flavor than the mild green poblano, and is highly prized in the Puebla region for making the seasonal chiles en nogada.

Serrano:

a very small (only about 1½”- 2″ long and ¼”-1/2″ wide) bright-green chile, commonly found in even the most basic markets throughout Mexico, it is used in fresh and cooked salsas, as well as several mushroom and egg dishes.

Some Culinary Uses of Fresh Chiles

” Table Salsas: “

Fresh chiles are required in most uncooked salsas, known as salsas frescas or salsas crudas. The most commonly used for these are jalapeños and serranos, finely chopped or ground with other uncooked ingredients such as tomatoes, onions and fresh herbs.

” Rajas:”

Another common use for fresh chiles is in the making of rajas- thin strips of fresh chile, sometimes roasted and peeled, other times with the skin left on. The rajas may be sautéed with other ingredients such as strips of onion, tomatoes or nopales. Or they may be combined with cream or melted cheese to make a side dish or a sauce for pasta or vegetables. The most common chile for rajas is the poblano, although in Oaxaca, the more piquant chile de agua is frequently used.

“Escabeche:”

Fresh chiles are wonderful pickled, either alone or in combination with other vegetables. The classic combination of pickled jalapeños, onions, carrots and spices is so common that even the smallest village store carries it in cans, though the homemade versions are usually far superior. Chile largo is often pickled and served as a condiment, as are güero and habanero.

“Chiles rellenos:“

Poblanos, jalapeños, cuaresmeños, huachinangos and chiles de agua are all suitable for stuffing with a wide variety of meat, cheese, mushroom, chicken, seafood and bean fillings. They may be fried, cooked in sauce, baked or marinated.

Some Recipes . . .

• Rajas con Crema: Fresh Chile Strips in Cream Sauce
• Chiles en Escabeche: Pickled Fresh Chiles with Vegetables

Part II, Dried Chiles

The post Warm Reading For Cool Nights: A Guide To Mexican Chiles appeared first on MexConnect.

Mexican Kitchen

Part 1 presented information on fresh chiles, capsicum anuum, New World natives that have become essential components in many of the world’s cuisines. One of their most intriguing aspects is the success with which they may be preserved by drying, nearly always changing the flavor of the original fresh chile.

This change in flavor can range from a subtle to a distinct difference, often depending upon the method by which they are dried. Mexican regional cooking reflects not only a variance in the types of chiles used, but also in local drying techniques.

Thus, a pasilla mexicana is a chilaca chile, grown in Central Mexico, which has usually been dried either in the sun or by a commercial dehydrating method, whereas a pasilla oaxaqueña has been smoked over open wood fires in the Sierra Mixe mountains. The latter is a small-scale, artisanal approach to drying chiles, the result of which is a unique flavor that cannot be duplicated outside the microclimate that produces both the chiles and the trees for firewood in that particular region.

Sun drying, oven drying and smoking are the most common small-scale methods of drying chiles. Commercially, the process of controlled artificial drying first dehydrates the chiles almost completely, then partially rehydrates them to optimum storage consistency. This method, however, does not work with thick-skinned varieties such as the jalapeño, which must be smoked in order to be preserved (at which point it is called a chipotle.)

Whichever drying method has been used, all dried chiles require some preparation before being used in a recipe, even if it is just washing, especially after having been dried outdoors. They should be wiped clean and dried well, in order to remove any dust that may have clung to the wrinkles in the skin.

Dried chiles are often dry-roasted on a comal or skillet to intensify their flavor. They should be turned once, just to the point of releasing their fragrance; if burned, they become bitter and should be discarded. Smooth-skinned varieties, such as cascabel and guajillo, tend to burn more easily than the thicker-skinned, wrinkled ones.

Softening dried chiles by soaking in hot water is another technique used in preparing them for recipes, especially sauces. Weighing them down with a plate will prevent them from floating to the surface of the water and thus speed up the soaking time.

In both the above instances, the chiles are usually seeded and deveined, although Mexican home cooks usually save the seeds, since they can be roasted and ground with the other ingredients if a sauce seems too bland. If the chiles are to be made into conserves, they are often used whole and not seeded and deveined. If being made into powder, they are dry ground.

Following is a list of Mexican dried chiles, and suggestions for their use in cooking. The combination of dried chiles with other ingredients provides a wonderful depth of flavor that is layered upon the taste imparted by curing or smoking. They lend themselves well to conserves and homemade chile powders, perfect kitchen projects for winter weekends.

Dried Chiles:

Ancho:

a mild, dried poblano chile, dark reddish-black, the backbone of many cooked sauces and stews, it is also soaked and used for making a version of chiles rellenos

Cascabel:

the dried form of fresh chile manzano, it has a deep reddish-brown color and nut-like flavor that makes it a good choice for Northern Mexican-style enchilada sauces

Chilcostle :

a small, hot, reddish-yellow chile, this is a common ingredient in the Oaxacan kitchen, used in its famous moles and manchamanteles

Chile de arbol:

a small, hot chile, used most frequently in table salsas and also crushed or ground and used as a spice, especially with fruit

Chile onza amarillo:

a small yellow chile from the southern Sierra de Juarez, it has a hot, musty flavor and is used to make mole amarillo- yellow mole

Chilhuacle amarillo:

another yellow mole ingredient, this small, tapered chile varies in color from yellow to orange-red and has a sharp, hot taste

Chilhuacle negro:

round and blue-black, from the La Cañada region of Oaxaca, this small, hot, thin-skinned chile is indispensable in making mole negro and chichilo, an unusual mole which uses the blackened seeds of the chile as one of its ingredients

Chilhuacle rojo:

small, dark red and tapering to a point, with a robust, fiery flavor, this chile is used to make mole colorado

Chimayo:

a mild, red chile, thinner but similar in taste to an ancho, this is frequently found in the cooking of Northern Mexico

Chipotle:

a mildly hot, smoke-dried jalapeño, it is a common ingredient in cooked salsas and often found in Central Mexico preserved in a brown sugar and vinegar marinade and called chipocludo; canned in seasoned sauce, it is chipotle adobado

Chipotle meco: a dried, grayish-brown seedless jalapeño, this is sometimes called chile navideño because, reconstituted and stuffed, it is a traditional Christmas dish

Chipotle tamarindo:

the largest of the chipotles, it is named for its resemblance to a tamarind pod and, because of its size, it is among the dried chiles most prized for stuffing

Costeño amarillo:

as its name implies, it is from the coast – in this case the southern Oaxacan coast; small, hot and yellow, it is a classic mole amarillo ingredient

Costeño rojo:

hot, reddish colored and thin-skinned, this chile comes from the Jimaltepec area and flavors the fiery southern coastal dishes Guajillo: one of the most commonly used throughout the country, this long, slim, dark reddish-brown chile has a mild, rich flavor and is often used with some of its seeds to add a piquant “boost” to cooked sauces and stews

Morita:

a small, hot, smoky chile used in table sauces, it is usually toasted and ground with other toasted ingredients to produce a flavorful salsa

Mulatto:

a nearly black variety of ancho, and often used interchangeably with it, this is one of the requisites for a classic mole poblano

Pasilla:

a hot, dried chilaca, this chile is most often used in meat stews and is also required for mole poblano

Piquín:

very small and very hot, this is a fiery addition to table salsas throughout the country.

Serrano seco:

the serrano is dried at its reddest and ripest and its heat becomes more concentrated, making it a suitable substitute for either chile de arbol or piquín

Some Culinary Uses of Dried Chiles

Table Salsas:

Dried chiles are used in roasted table salsas, which require each ingredient to be roasted/toasted on the comal and then coarsely ground in the molcajete or by briefly pulsing in a blender or food processor. Using the seeds from the chiles will intensify the “heat” of the sauce. Fragrant, deep red roasted salsas compliment grilled and roasted meat; adding a spoonful does wonders for a bowl of chicken, beef or vegetable soup

Cooked Sauces:

Many guisados-stews- as well as moles and several enchilada sauces use dried chiles. In these dishes, the chiles are usually first toasted just to the point of fragrance, then soaked to soften before being combined with other sauce ingredients

Chiles en Conserva:

The “smoky” flavored dried chiles, such as chipotles and moritas, lend themselves to sweet-and-hot chile conserves. Fruit vinegar, such as pineapple or apple cider vinegar, and piloncillo, the very dark brown Mexican sugar, form the base to which herbs, spices and the chiles are added.

Chiles Rellenos:

Yes, dried chiles can be stuffed, too. They need to be soaked first to soften them, but then can be handled as any other chiles rellenos, and are especially good baked in sauces. Ancho, chipotle meco and tamarindo are all excellent for preparing this way.

Some Recipes . . .

• Chipocludos: Smoked Chile Conserves
• Anchos Con Salsa de Cilantro y Crema: Stuffed Anchos in Cilantro Cream Sauce

(From Part I)

• Rajas con Crema: Fresh Chile Strips in Cream Sauce
• Chiles en Escabeche: Pickled Fresh Chiles with Vegetables

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Both white and purple pickled onions are served as condiments in the Yucatan. The purple variety is generally served with cochinita pibil, and both Yucatan style pickled onions make great additions to sandwiches. Blanching them for a few seconds first takes some of the sharpness out of the onions, making them good for people who like raw onions but find them difficult to digest. In the Yucatan, either spices or habanero chiles are added to the onions. The habaneros are extremely hot, and I prefer the spiced version, but try adding a thinly sliced habanero if you like a very hot condiment.

Ingredients

• 2 large white or purple onions, peeled and thinly sliced
• ½ teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• ½ teaspoon whole allspice
• ½ tablespoon dried oregano leaves
• 2-3 sprigs thyme
• 1 cup fruit vinegar
• ½ cup bitter orange juice (or use half sweet orange juice and half fresh lime juice)
• salt to taste

Immerse the onions in boiling water for a few seconds to blanche them. Rinse immediately in cold water. Drain and place the onions in a nonreactive bowl or glass jar.

Add all remaining ingredients, cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, and preferably overnight, before serving. Makes about 1 quart.

Link to source articles

• Mexican onions: Red, white and green
• Preserving the Fall harvest: Mexican pickles and vinaigrettes

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Did You Know…?

Did you know that the vanilla bean is from an aromatic orchid that originally came from Mexico?

The Academy of Sciences and Gastronomic Arts in Paris were so taken with the fruit of this orchid, that in 1921 they paid homage to the anonymous Mexican Indians who discovered it and put it to various uses.

Originally found in the Huasteca region of Mexico, it was known to the Olmecs and their descendants, the Totonacas who called it xanat. These people used the bean to add flavor and aroma to their cocoa and corn drinks and mixed it with their copal incense and tobacco to create sweet-smelling blends.

Vanilla flavored tobacco is a very, very old mixture. When the Aztecs dominated this area of Mexico just before the arrival of the Spaniards, they called vanilla ” tlilxochil” or ” flor negra” (the black flower).

When the Spaniards learned of the plant and its delicious-smelling fruit from the Indians, they called it ” vainilla“, because the word in Spanish for ‘pod’ (the shape of the bean) is ” vaina“. The Spanish exported it to the rest of the world and by the 1700’s vanilla was cultivated in areas of Asia and Africa, which was a great blow to Mexico’s vanilla industry.

Later when scientists learned to make it chemically, the industry shriveled as imitation vanilla became available throughout the world.

Today, the world’s largest crop, however, still comes from Papantla in Veracruz.

Did You Know? Index

This Did you Know provided by Teresa Kendrick.
Published or Updated on: January 1, 2006 by Teresa Kendrick © 2008

The post Did You Know? – Vanilla appeared first on MexConnect.

Yucatecan style quail, typical of the Mexican state of Yucatan, uses a recado, one of the spice pastes that distinguish the region’s cuisine. This recipe can also be used with chicken or turkey, increasing proportions according to the weight of the bird.

Ingredients

For the recado:

• 3 peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon allspice berries
• 2 whole cloves
• ½ teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1/8 teaspoon cumin seeds
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano leaves
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 8 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• vinegar, as necessary

Grind the spices to a powder in a spice grinder or molcajete, mix with the crushed garlic and enough vinegar to bind it all together into a paste. Set aside.

For the quail:

• 8 cleaned quail, 6-8 ounces each
• ½ head garlic, roasted and peeled
• 1 onion, peeled and quartered
• 2 habanero chiles, seeded for less heat (habaneros are quite hot)
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 whole cloves
• 2 allspice berries
• salt to taste
• ½ cup bitter orange juice, or use half regular orange juice and half rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

Place the quail, garlic, onion, chile, spices, water to cover and salt to taste in a stockpot, bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer, covered, until the quail is just barely cooked through.

Remove the quail and place in a roasting pan. Strain and reserve the broth. Mix the recado (above) with the bitter orange juice and olive oil, and brush this mixture over the quail. Bake at 350º for 15 minutes or until the quail is golden brown. (In the Yucatan, where the weather is warm all year, some people grill the quail instead of placing it in the oven.)

While the quail is in the oven, reduce the broth by about one third. Serve the quail in shallow bowls with the broth poured over.

Serves 4.

Link to source articles

• Mexican wines: Perfect pairings with holiday dishes
• Mexican wild game: Duck and quail

The post Yucatecan style quail: Codorniz a la yucateca appeared first on MexConnect.

Mexican Kitchen

If you live in or visit Oaxaca, by all means buy some pasilla de oaxaca chiles, sometimes called chile mixe. These have a much different taste from regular pasilla chiles. Although in the Mixe, this chile paste is eaten as-is, spread on large, crispy tortillas, it is a good seasoning paste. Make a batch of it to use as a soup or sauce base, adding other ground ingredients as you wish. Pepitas, or shelled, roasted pumpkin seeds, could turn it into a base for a simple mole, or ground cumin could be added for another layer of flavor.

The Mixe women would grind the chintestle paste by hand on a metate, but a blender does nicely. Diana Kennedy, in Oaxaca al Gusto, includes a version with cumin, peppercorns, cloves and onions, and Susana Trilling, in Seasons of My Heart suggests adding honey, olive oil and orange juice to make a loose paste to spread on chicken before roasting.

Ingredients

• ½ pound chile pasilla oaxaqueño (Oaxacan smoked pasilla chiles)
• 1 small head garlic, separated into cloves and peeled
• Salt to taste
• Cumin to taste (optional)

Toast the chiles on a dry griddle or comal, turning to prevent burning, just until the point of fragrance. Place toasted chiles in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Let stand until cooled and softened.

Place the chiles, garlic, salt, and cumin if using, in a blender with just enough water to move the blades. Too much water will ruin the “paste” consistency desired. Blend until smooth.

Store the chintestle paste in the refrigerator. Depending on your recipes and the number of people you are feeding, you should have enough seasoning paste to use for at least four recipes.

The post Oaxaca chile and garlic seasoning paste: Chintestle appeared first on MexConnect.