RECIPE: Tacos de Chilorio

Think carnitas, but spicy and luxurious. Chilorio is a braised pork from the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The garlic, chiles, and vinegar act as a preservative for the meat which is often served in open air markets, an alternative to refrigeration. The meat is slowly cooked until it falls from the bone and then fried in a chile adobo that packs a flavorful punch. If you make enough of it (in the tradition of preserving the meat) the chilorio accompanies scrambled eggs and fried potatoes the next morning.

Serves 6

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Tacos de chilorio

Ingredients:

• 2.5 pounds pork roast, cut into 2 inch pieces

• 3 tablespoons lard OR vegetable oil

• 3 ancho chiles

• 3 guajillos chiles

• 1/2 cup orange juice

• 4 garlic cloves

• 1 teaspoon Mexican oregano

• 1 teaspoon cumin

• 1 tablespoon vinegar

• salt to taste

• radish, sliced in allumettes

• cilantro

• fresh tortillas

Method:

1. Place the pork in a large heavy bottomed pot and cover with 4 cups of water and bring to a rolling boil. Lower the heat to a steady simmer and put the lard in the pot, allowing it to slip off the spoon. Allow the water to evaporate and the meat to caramelize slightly. Shred and break up the meat in bite size pieces.

2. While the meat cooks, heat a comal over medium heat and toast the chiles. Once fragrant and a darker shade, but not burnt, reconstitute the seeded and deveined chiles in water for 30 minutes.

3. In a blender combine the chiles, orange juice, garlic, oregano, cumin, vinegar and blend until smooth, with visual red chile skin pieces showing.

4. Raise the heat on the meat and pour the chile mixture over. Allow the sauce to season the meat for a few minutes. Season with salt to taste. Serve the meat on fresh tortillas and garnish with radish, cilantro, and salsa de chile de arbol.

RECIPE: Paloma Cocktail

TORONJA

GRAPEFRUIT

Pink. Salty. Sweet. This is the perfect cocktail and is as common as the Margarita in Mexico. This recipe will cleanse your guest's palates and grapefruits are in season - so get squeezing! This is a lover's drink.

Ingredients:

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• 5.5 ounces fresh grapefruit juice
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 2 ounces Bahnez mezcal
• 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• splash of sparkling soda

Method:

1. Prepare a highball glass by dipping the rim into 1/2 ounce grapefruit juice, and then dipping it into the salt. Fill the glass with crushed ice
2. Mix the remaining grapefruit juice, mezcal, lime juice, sugar in a shaker. Shake until combined.
3. Pour over the ice and pour a splash of sparkling soda. Garnish with a grapefruit or lime wedge.

RECIPE: Pozole

POZOLE

/po'sole/

Classical Nahuatl:

Noun

1. hominy, pozolli

Pozole is a dish served all over Mexico and has many variations. My family makes this nearly every Holiday season and the hearty stew is sure to bring warmth back to a cold winter day. My recipe takes the best parts from my aunt's version of pozole and has been refined using French cooking techniques. The double straining through a fine mesh strainer makes all the difference in the broth. You can use dried or canned hominy, but if you want more control over the texture of the corn, spend the extra effort in soaking the dried kernels over night.

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Pozole rojo

Serves 6

Ingredients:

FOR THE POZOLE

• 2 lbs pork shoulder, cut into 4 large pieces

• 2 bay leaves

• 1/2 white onion

• 5 garlic cloves

• 3 guajillo chiles

• 2 ancho chiles

• 3 puya chiles

• 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 cup dried hominy (presoaked overnight) OR 1 8oz can prepared

• salt to taste

FOR THE GARNISH:

• lime wedges

• shredded cabbage

• sliced radish

• cilantro

GARNISH!

radish / rabano

Method:

1. Place the pork, bay leaves, and 1/4 of the onion, and 3 cloves of garlic in a pot. Cover the meat with water (roughly 8 cups) and bring to a boil. Skim the impurities off the surface of the boiling water and reduce the heat to a steady simmer. Cook for 1 hour, 15 minutes or until the meat is able to pull apart.

2. While the meat cooks, toast the chiles on a comal for roughly 1 minute until fragrant and smoking, but not burnt. (The soup will be bitter if the chiles are burnt.) Soak the chiles in water, cover and allow the chiles to reconstitute for 15 minutes. Deseed and de-stem the chiles and place in blender with 1/4 onion, 2 garlic cloves, oregano, cumin, and 1 cup of water. Blend for three minutes and then pass through a mesh strainer. Heat the olive oil in a pot on low heat and cook the chile paste for roughly 15 minutes, stirring constantly, until the mixture is a dark shade of red.

3. Remove the meat from the stock and chop into bite size cubes. Strain the stock through a mesh strainer and then a second time through a fine mesh strainer. Add the stock to the chile mixture and stir to blend. Add the pork and hominy and heat on low until the oil seperates out. Salt to taste. Serve with garnishes and fresh tortillas.

RECIPE: Mezcal Margarita

This recipe is special and it is not mine - this is the recipe of Noah Small, the beverage director at Empellon, NYC. It is simple and it puts a whopping 2 ounces of mezcal forward in the recipe. The marriage of the agave nectar with the espadin is simply brilliant because the flavor bases are the same. When I think of traditional Margaritas, with triple sec or Curaçao, I think of hangovers and nights in a cheap Tex-Mex restaurant. Sweetness combined with smoke here is honest - a Margarita as it should be. I like to use the brand Fidencio Clasico in this cocktail, as it is my go-to mezcal for mixing and Mexican sea salt for the rim. The fishy flavor of the Mexican sea salt truly makes all the savory difference. You can find sal mexicana in the Mexican section of the grocery store in a small bag next to the dried chiles.

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Margarita de Mezcal

Ingredients:

• Mexican sea salt
• 1 ounce lime juice
• 2 ounces Fidencio Clasico Mezcal
• 3/4 ounce agave nectar

Method:

1. Squeeze enough lime juice onto a plate and sprinkle some Mexican sea salt onto another. Dip the glass rim into the lime juice and then immediately into the salt, spinning to coat the rim of the glass. Pour crushed ice into the glass.
2. Mix the lime juice, Fidencio Mezcal, and agave nectar in a shaker.
3. Pour over the ice and serve.

RECIPE: Mole Negro Oaxaqueño

MOLE

/mo·le/

Classical Nahuatl:

Noun

1. sauce, molli o mulli

When I think of sweet and savory, mole instantly comes to mind. The blend of aromatic spices, chiles and chocolate make for a rich melange of flavors that make your tongue dance through the centuries of Mexican cooking. Mole is hard to classify because depending on who you are speaking with, mole can be a sauce or a main entree. I often see mole poblano smothered over enchiladas at restaurants in NYC, but Chef Enrique Olvera's Pujol in Mexico City serves mole as the main course, accompanied only by tortillas. I see it somewhere in the middle, as a hearty, protein forward sauce that cannot be over powered by another dish on the table.

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Mole Negro Oaxaqueño

This mole will be difficult to make - I won't lie to you there. It requires patience and a culinary understanding that is not for the unseasoned cook. Most of the ingredients should be easy to source except for the chilhuacle negro chiles. On my last trip to Mexico City, I had to ask several market stalls in Mercado Medellin for these chiles. One woman even confused them for cascabel! Fine mesh strainers will be your best friends when making refined mole. You do not want your mole to be gritty, it should be thick, not gritty.

Mole is for celebrating. You simply cannot make a small batch of it and it is best to have a dinner party to serves it to your many guests. You can also save it in an airtight container and keep it in the freezer for 3 months.

Serves 12

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken breasts, bone in, skin intact

• 5 chilhuacle negro chiles, seeds removed and saved

• 5 guajillo chiles, seeds removed and saved

• 4 pasilla chiles, seeds removed and saved

• 5 ancho chiles, seeds removed and saved

• 2 chipotle mecos

• 1 medium white onion, sliced in rounds 1/2 inch thick

• 6 cloves garlic, skin intact

• 4 medium tomatillos, rinsed and skin removed

• 2 medium roma tomatoes, cored

• 2 tablespoons almonds, skin intact

• 2 tablespoons peanuts, unsalted 

• 1 inch piece canela (Mexican cinnamon)

• 4 black peppercorns

• 4 cloves

• 1/2 cup sesame seeds

• 1 tablespoon pecans

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

• 2 tablespoons raisins

• 1 slice bread (a kaiser roll works fine) 

• 1/2 plantain, sliced in 1 inch rounds

• 1 teaspoon thyme

• 1 teaspoon Mexican oregano

• 1 tablespoon lard OR vegetable oil

• 6 ounces chocolate, chopped

• salt to taste

• 15 fresh tortillas, cooked on a comal

• 1 small white onion, sliced

• 1 radish, sliced

Method:

1. Place chicken in pot and fill with 5 cups of cold water. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer until the chicken reads 150 degrees with a thermometer. Remove from liquid and allow to cool. Remove the skin and shred the meat from the bone. Store in the fridge or in a warm spot until ready for serving. Reserve the stock.

2. Heat a comal over medium-low heat and toast the chiles for roughly 10 minutes in a well ventilated kitchen (open a window). Depending on how dry the chiles are, 10 minutes may be too long. Once toasted soak the chiles in water for 30 minutes. Blend the chile mixture in the blender for 10 minutes with 1 cup of fresh water. Strain the chiles using a fine mesh strainer in a bowl. 

3. Raise the heat on the comal to medium and cook the onion, tomatillos, tomatoes until charred and soft to the touch. Reserve in a bowl.

4. In a dry skillet over medium heat toast the almonds, peanuts, canela, peppercorns, cloves, sesame seeds and pecans until fragrant and lightly browned. Reserve in the same bowl as the ingredients from step 3.

5. In the same dry skillet toast the chile seeds until black. Once fully blackened, light the seeds on fire and let the flames charr them until shiny. Put in cold water and soak for 10 minutes, strain and soak for another 5 minutes in fresh water.

6. In the same skillet heat the vegetable oil over medium heat. Fry the raisins for 1 minute and allow them to puff up. Strain and reserve in the same bowl as the other ingredients. Fry the bread until brown, strain and reserve in the same bowl. Fry the plantain for 5 minutes, strain and reserve.

7. Blend all the ingredients from steps 3-6, the thyme and oregano for 10 minutes with 1 cup of chicken stock from step 1. More stock may need to be added if the blender becomes stuck. Pass the paste through a fine mesh strainer.

8. Heat lard over a medium flame and pour the chile mixture into the pan. Stir constantly for two minutes. Add the spice and nut mixture from step 7 and allow the mixture to cook over low heat for 30 minutes. More stock may need to be added if the spluttering is too rapidly. The mole should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon but not gritty. Mole should splutter slightly and your stove will be messy. Relax - it's worth it.

9. Add the chopped chocolate and stir until melted. Salt to taste.

10. Assemble the warm chicken in fresh tortillas and arrange on a plate. Smother the enchiladas with the mole, garnishing with sliced onion and radish. Serve with white rice and fresh tortillas for mopping up the sauce.

RECIPE: Tacos de Pollo Adobado

An adobo in Mexico consists of a couple staples with variations: chiles, garlic, spices. It can be used as a cooking liquid for braising, a marinade or a sauce over enchiladas. Technically speaking, a marinade has vinegar which acts as (traditionally since the Renaissance) a flavor enhancer and preservative of the meat being marinated. This adobo has three chiles, vinegar, and spices and can be applied to any meat you'd like. Be creative with your adobos by adding different chiles, variations on spices, chocolate etc. I like to charr the meat over a grill or sear in a pan so as to bring out that smokey chile flavor.  

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 5 cascabel chiles
• 2 pasilla chiles
• 2 guajillo chiles
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 2 cloves
• 4 whole allspice berries
• 1 inch piece canela (Mexican cinnamon)
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 cup water
• salt to taste
• 2 chicken breasts ( or other meat if desired)
• 1/4 white onion, thinly sliced
• 1 fresh lime, sliced into wedges
• cilantro, chopped

Method:

1. Heat the comal to low-medium heat and toast the chiles until fragrant and a visually darker shade. Place in a bowl of cool water for 30 minutes.
2. Place chiles, garlic, vinegar, cloves, allspice, canela, cumin, water, salt in blender and blend until smooth, roughly 3 minutes.
3. Pour the adobo over the meat and allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
4. Heat the grill or pan to high heat and sear the meat until cooked (160 degrees for chicken) and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Chop into small pieces for tacos and salt accordingly. Arrange over fresh tortillas and garnish with thinly sliced white onion, fresh lime juice and cilantro. Serve with rice and beans.

Chiles:

Front: Cascabel

Right: Guajillo

Rear: Pasilla

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Tacos de Pollo Adobado