Mexico

Most people don't have to go far to find Mexican food in the U.S.. I've had it often enough myself, but the three days we spent cooking Mexican food in my Latin Cuisine class really opened up my eyes. There's a lot of pig fat involved and things are generally cooked very slowly. The Aztecs and Mayans made excellent use of native ingredients such as corn, chocolate, chiles, beans, and squash.

The dishes we made in class were so complex and flavorful, stuffed peppers with sweet and savory fillings, garlic and tomato soups, delicious hot chocolate, and of course: mole. Unfortunately, as I mentioned in previous post, I missed the mole day. But the dish takes at least two days to prepare, has a wonderfully complex flavor profile, and can be made several different ways (all of which create a completely different product).

Next is South America, I'm so excited!
Here are some photos from Mexico:

These are napoles (cactus paddles) in chipotle adobo sauce. I enjoyed these a lot and it was fun working with cactus for the first time. They're texture reminded me a lot of okra.

Snapper Veracruz: this dish is heavily influenced by the Mediterranean

Flan: This dish is a Mexican classic, it's a baked custard with a caramel sauce baked right a long with it. This particular flan was an orange flan, we also added almonds. 

Yucatan Turkey: The fact that turkey is native to Mexico really surprised me. This particular turkey had a rub of various ground spices and was steamed then shredded. The sides include: handmade tortillas, white rice, re-fried beans, pico de gallo, pickled onions, tomato sauce, and guacamole.

 Churros and Mexican Hot Chocolate: Our churros didn't hold their shape very well in the deep fryer (it's a thick pate a choux dough) they became very swollen and misshapen, but they were delicious and that's what counts. We used a Mexican hot chocolate tablet (I don't remember the brand) but we added about twice as much as the instructions suggested, we also added a vanilla bean and some cayenne pepper.

Sound Spirits

Today we took a field trip to Sound Spirits, which is a local distillery in Seattle. They only make vodka and gin in very small batches; one batch produces 90 bottles. They only use Washington barley for their alcohol, but the gin uses several ingredients for flavoring and is distilled twice to remove the oils produced by the herbs and flavoring ingredients. When the vodka is originally distilled it's over 96% alcohol, it's then diluted to 40% alcohol or 80 proof.

We were allowed to try both the vodka and the gin at the distillery. The vodka tasted very much like vanilla. The gin was really complex, juniper was the most apparent taste. Both of these alcohols were very smooth, and even though I normally dislike neat alcohol, I enjoyed these very much.

Afterward we went back to school to take the midterm. I have to say the alcohol really took the edge off!

Spain

     So I finished learning about Spanish cuisine last week, and I have to say that I love this cuisine. The food is very complex, but not fancy or super refined like French cuisine is. There's so many influences including Jewish, Muslim and Christian traditions. Spain is the largest country of the Iberian Peninsula, which has easy access to the Mediterranean, Morroco, France, and the Americas.The Moors from Morocco and the Roman's have probably influenced Spanish cooking more than anything else, and the Americas provided many ingredients which are now staples in Spain.

  In class we made Gazpacho, braised pork with dried fruit, rice pudding, monkfish with romesco sauce, castilian garlic soup, paella, and we created a tapas menu with a large variety of items. 

 Gazpacho

 Braised Pork with dried fruit and roasted potatoes with homemade pita bread

     Tapas menu: Stuffed green olives, herb-marinated manchego cheese, calamari with caramelized onions, Serrano ham fritters, bacalao hash, and garlic shrimp

    Paella with with chicken, rabbit, sausage, green and lima beans, tomatoes etc.

Samurai noodle

So one of my favorite places to warm up and take a break is Samurai Noodle in downtown Seattle. It's located right next to/behind the Uwajimaya in the international district.

This place is small, so small that you can see the whole kitchen from the dining area and it there's about 20 seats in the whole joint. The service is prompt and the ramen is excellent. My usual order is the shouyu (chicken broth) with chicken instead of pork and added bamboo shoots. The order also comes with two nori strips and scallions. The noodles are great, but the broth is amazing, it's dark but has great clarity.

If you're ever in the International District in Seattle on a cold rainy day (so anytime of year excluding August) Samurai Noodle is definitely a place to check out!

Margarita Mole Monday

So I missed a day of Latin Cuisine last week because my boyfriend  had to go to the doctor. I was so disappointed because that was the day that we were making mole from scratch!

I've now found out that over half the class missed that day due to various reasons, and only a couple people got to help out with the mole while everyone else made the rest of that day's menu. This makes me less disappointed, since last Thursday, I have been trying to think of ways that I could make up participation points for missing that day, and came up with the brilliant idea 'Margarita Mole Monday'. You see, Monday September 5th is Labor day, which means no school. With some clever maneuvering of my work schedule I think I can get some of my classmates together and we can make mole and margaritas and have a great time. The best part is that I may be able to talk the chef into giving us extra credit for it!

The most difficult part about attempting this at home is acquiring all the specialty ingredients and some equipment; so if anyone knows of a place which sells specialty Mexican ingredients, please let me know.

Happy Cooking -AH