Central Street Cookery School in Old Street, London EC1

It has been a long time since I wrote anything because I got the best job in the world!

I am the manager of Central Street Cookery School, a new and unique cooking venue with the community in mind.

We are part of  St Luke’s Trust a charity that looks after the local community.

And the idea is to have a place where people learn, teach, cook and eat.

We will be offering affordable courses for those who can pay and the money goes to good causes:   YOUR MONEY GOES TOWARDS FUNDING COMMUNITY BASED CLASSES FOR THOSE WHO ARE LESS FORTUNATE.

Let me explain, the area where we are, which is in Old Street in London, although it is peppered with trendy businesses, and is next to expensive areas like the City of London, Clerkenwell and Islington, contains pockets of deep poverty where families live on a combined income of £12 000 per year!  This translates to people having to look for ‘cheap’ food that in many cases is not very healthy.  At Central Street, we want to contribute to reverse that trend by doing classes that focus on healthy eating within a budget, these classes will be offered at an extremely low cost and they will be funded by paying customers.

We are running projects for mothers and toddlers to cook healthy food together, we are teaching older people how to cook for one and we are doing lots of festival and events.  Come and see the kitchen in action at the Finsbury Arts Festival  on 21st April, we are here

I will be running Mexican classes from here.

Any foodie, chef, teacher, anybody who wants to rent our kitchen can do so for £150 + VAT from now until mid June!  The price includes use of the kitchen for half a day.  We have a fully fitted cookery space where 20 people can cook and then eat.  Perfect for people who run their own classes or those who want to do supper clubs.   For more info get in touch with sofiaatcentralstreetdotorg

Our schedule of classes is available from our website www.centralstreet.org

This is the kitchen:

enchiladas de mole

 This dish has some yummy elements that I am sure if we look at the chemical composition of the flavour molecules of certain ingredients, they must look alike or lock well together; whatever it is, Mole Enchiladas do taste delicious, and I think that this is to do with the combination of ingredients.  Simple ingredients like corn tortillas, a well poached juicy chicken, mole, raw onions and sesame seeds and of course a little crumbled cheese.  These ingredients combine so well that a good dish of enchiladas de mole is memorable.

To start your very own memorable experience of making enchiladas de mole -like with ALL cooking you will need to have good ingredients, so I would suggest a good bird, yes an expensive one that has had a good life, one that has been able to see the sun, to walk about and that has been properly fed, a good organic chicken that is going to produce superb stock and most important juicy meat for the enchiladas.  Poach the chicken in plenty of water with half an onion, a couple of peeled cloves of garlic, some bay leaves and a little salt.  To poach a chicken perfectly, it is important that you never allow your liquid to come to the boil, otherwise horrible scum will form.  If you keep your bird in its water just below boiling point, the stock will be clear as water and keep its flavour.  Pass the stock through a colander or sieve and reserve to make the mole sauce later on.

I think the best parts of the chicken for enchiladas are the legs, just for the reason that they are more juicy.  Once the chicken is poached, cool down and then shred it with your fingers, reserve, always submerged in some of the chicken stock, this is so that the chicken does not dry.

Make your mole sauce… I am not suggesting here that you go and grind 40 ingredients on your knees on your metate as you would make a cup of coffee; the whole process is quite complicated.  These days you can get good brands of mole: Dona Maria and Xiqueno are good brands, the former being a commercial brand available in many parts of the world and the latter one, an obscure brand from Veracruz that is just delicious.  Make your mole sauce by sauteing the mole paste in a little sesame oil and then add a little chicken stock, whisking and stirring all the time to avoid lumps.  Add a little stock and stir constantly, add a little more and so on, until you have a good thick sauce, with a similar consistency to that of creme anglaise, custard, double cream or heavy cream.

Proceed with your tortillas.  You can make your own, or you can buy them… always corn ones -flour tortillas work for other things, but not for enchiladas de mole.  Sautee the tortillas in a little hot oil for a couple of seconds, literally pass them on hot oil and then dip them in the mole sauce, put on a plate and put some of the shredded chicken on one half, fold the tortilla in half; this is one enchilada.  Repeat the process so that you have three enchiladas on one plate.  Pour some mole sauce over the enchiladas, sprinkle some crumbled cheese like fetta, decorate with chopped onion or some onion rings and scatter plenty of sesame seeds on top.  Some people pour some soured cream on top as well.

Put a napkin on and never wear white -mole sauce stains clothes forever! and sit down and enjoy every mouthful of Enchiladas de Mole!!!

Thank you for the comments on my blog, thank you February for being here, promising more light and better weather and thank you customers and people that employ me, I shall not get so discouraged, work always comes to me and January lasts for 31 days and I will try to keep this blog more up to date more often!

… some thoughts on Mole

My blogger chum Chad asked me recently to write something on Mole.  At the time I was a bit busy and I think this was also a subconscious excuse not to write on the subject… The reason is that for a Mexican to write on Mole is getting into sticky ground; every Mexican has his/her views on the matter and they are the best, full stop!

In the UK people relate the word to little creatures that live underground, to The Wind in the Willows, to that ‘Mexican chocolate sauce’, or worse still to eating little animals that live underground covered with a chocolate sauce!  Nothing could be further from the truth; to write about Mole is to write about our identity as Mexicans, to write about our history, to touch on many aspects of our folcklore, it is to write about flavour combinations and even to write about food science, it is to challenge families and to create rivalries through recipes…. it can become a telenovela… yes we Mexicans are a complicated lot.

In fact I did think to write my dissertation on Mole… but since this is just a blog, I am going to say just a few simple things.  For instance, did you know that it is believed the word ‘mole’ is derived from an indigenous word, possibly nahuatl: ‘molli’ or ‘mulli’ which means sauce? I have also heard it is derived from the Spanish verb ‘moler’ which is to grind… see? it is not that easy with this sauce.

The origins of mole are also unclear, some say that it existed well before the arrival of the Spaniards and yes many of the ingredients are original to Mexico and the american continent.  There are tales of Spanish and creole nuns, like Sor Andrea de la Asuncion, who was famed for her ability to create perfect food -a kind of 17th century Heston Blumenthal, who concocted this divine dish for the viceroy in turn and other celebrities of the time.  This story might well be true; it could also be related to an appropriation of the indigenous by the colonials… The story that I like best, because is full of folklore, it touches on the kitsch and again it is similar to a telenovela (soap opera) involves a nun, a saint, a draw full of spices and a bit of magic of course… The nun might well have been Sor Andrea de la Asuncion, and how she was completely burnt out from so much cooking and therefore felt uninspired; the guests were coming to eat her latest delicacy and she just did not know what to cook that day.  As it was the norm, she asked San Pascualito-the patron saint of cooks and of the kitchen to help her. Then she turned, stumbled against a draw that was full of spices that went on the pot and hey presto: Mole anyone?  I wonder what do they do on a stressful day at The Fat Duck? maybe we should tell them about San Pascualito.

Whatever story you go for, the truth is that Mole is a kind of national dish to Mexico, the state of Puebla is famed for its Mole and the state of Oaxaca is called the land of 7 moles.  If you go to any Mexican market you will find mole sold by the kilo and of course families pride themselves in making their own family recipe which is usually a secret.

A good Mole can have up to 40 different ingredients, but the basic ones are: chillies, usually ancho, pasilla and mulato, garlic, onion, sesame oil, sesame seeds, oregano, marjoram, some day old tortillas, bananas, raisins, almonds, possibly a little stale bread and many more.  Traditionally all these ingredients are ground on a metate, by hand and then fried with lard.  The final ingredient is a little bit of bitter chocolate, which is essential to add flavour and a velvety texture.  This will resemble a heavy paste and to make the sauce, we add stock from a poached bird; turkey being the traditonal one to use -although these days more eclectic birds like duck and even other kinds of game are used.  The poached bird is covered with this sauce and served decorated with sesame seeds; this is a far cry to some people’s ideas of eating a chicken mixed with hot fudge sauce!

Being someone that really goes more for the sensation that food has on my tastebuds rather than for the looks of the restaurant or who is sitting at the next table; I’ll have to say that poached turkey topped with a heavy Mole sauce scattered with some sesame seeds in some busy convent like restaurant is not my favourite way of eating this… to me Mole can be one of those memorable food moments that I would take to a desert island…in fact Mole is included in my funeral!   At least to me the best way is to eat it is in the shape of Enchiladas de Mole.

In my next post I will write on Enchiladas de Mole and why I like them.  This might not be the aristocratic or trendy way of eating mole… but it is so very good!

Flavours of Yucatan at Marylebone!

The food from the Yucatán area of Mexico is a cuisine in itself. Drawing from Mayan styles of cooking, combined with Caribbean ingredients and Spanish techniques, the result is food packed with flavours that explode in the mouth. For this class Sofia brings you traditional favourites that have made this cuisine famous for its delicate and exotic flavours. You’ll learn how to prepare Chicken & Lime Soup, Slow Cooked Pork with Pibil spices, Panuchos or hand-made Tortillas filled with Beans and topped with Chicken, served with Soured Orange Salad and Habanero Relish, Yucatán style Fried Plantains and Eggs Motul style (the Yucatán version of Huevos Rancheros). The flavours you’ll discover will brighten up even the darkest winter day!

Where: Divertimenti Cookery School, Marylebone High Street

When: Saturday 19th November 2011

Time:  11 am – 14.30 pm

Price £105 for a cookery demo followed by a hands-on class.

To book click here

Rosca de Reyes / Galette des Rois / Epiphany Bread

… On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love left his shoe by the door and waited for the three wise men to leave a present.

Yes this is what happens on Epiphany night in many countries.  In Mexico many people celebrate this night almost as much as Christmas eve, because this night is also loaded with symbolism, it is the night when the three wise men finally arrived to give gifts to the baby Jesus; and as such it is expected that the men will arrive and deliver a present to children… you just need to leave your shoe by the windowsill or by your bed or by the Christmas tree and the morning after there will be something there for you.

Of course this follows the previous night of families gathering to drink hot chocolate and cut the ‘rosca’. This is a bread/cake that is made on this night and it has the shape of a large ring, inside of which there is a token like a bean, a coin or even a plastic baby or person.  When you cut the bread, if you get the token, that means that you have to host a party on the 2nd of February that usually features tamales.

These breads used to contain one or two tokens or babies, as the world keeps turning, it seems that these have reproduced and now at least in Mexico City  roscas’ you can find as many as ten or more.  Personally I prefer the cakes that contain one or two tokens because then, the one who gets it, becomes ‘special’ a king for a day I guess.

This is not an exclusive Mexican tradition, it is an adaptation from other countries like Spain and France where they eat Roscon de Reyes and Galette des Rois, respectively.

Below is a simple recipe for a Mexican Rosca, this is followed by one for Galette des Rois.

This is another excuse for getting together, gather on the last night of this period, drink hot chocolate and have a slice of this bread, if you get the token, then make tamales at your place and invite more people.

Mexican Rosca

For the Bread

500 g strong white flour

100 g caster sugar

10 g salt

100 g softened butter

3 medium sized eggs

2 sachets or 14 g easy blend yeast

200 ml water

zest of 1 lime

zest of 1 lemon

zest of 1 orange

2 plastic babies for the rosca, or substitute with a dried bean

100 g acitron [this is a candied cactus] if you can’t find this, substitute with candied fruits

Cover:

100 g soft butter

100 g icing sugar

150 g flour

2 Tbsp caster sugar

In the bowl of  an electric mixer, add all the powdered ingredients for the bread mix, then add the softened butter and cream, add the eggs, water and the zest of the citrus fruits, mix using the bread hook for three minutes at a slow speed, increase to a medium speed and mix for six minutes or until the dough is very elastic, you need to develop a lot of gluten here, leave to rest for 30 mins or 1 hour is your kitchen is cold.

Take out of the bowl and roll into two balls that you are going to shape into two long saugages that you are going to link into a ring, don’t forget to insert the tokens.

Place on baking trays that are covered with greaseproof paper.

Mix the ingredients for the cover by beating them in a bowl to fully incorporate.  Decorate the roscas by alternating the candied fruits and placing strips of the bread cover.

Leave to prove for another hour and place on greased in a medium hot oven 160 C fan, 180 C conventional Gas Mark 4 for 35 minutes.  The roscas are ready if they sound hollow when their bottoms are gently tapped.

Galette des Rois

Make about 250 g puff pastry [or rather buy...] and roll it out into two round shapes about 2 cm thick.  Place these on a baking tray that is covered with greaseproof paper.  Push a bean into the dough. Sandwich them together with frangipane cream before baking.  Trace a pattern on the top of the dough with the pint of a knife and brush it with egg.  Bake in a very hot oven at 250 C conventional oven, 230 fan oven, Gas Mark 9, until the top is golden brown.

Below is a simple recipe for frangipane:

125 g butter

125 g sugar

2 eggs

200 g ground almonds

½ tsp vanilla essence (optional)

Cream butter and sugar until white and fluffy

Add eggs one at a time add vanilla essence and fold in almonds

With thanks to Ingrid Vargas-Cessa for giving me her version of this recipe for Rosca de Reyes that I have adapted.

Galette des Rois Taken from Larousse Gastronomique

Recipe for Mexican Ponche de Navidad

The evocative power of food, its flavours and aromas can be used to take us back to long and forgotten corners of our mind.  Periods like Christmas are of course charged with a variety of memories, so each one of us have our personal catalogue of food experiences that relate to certain moments of our lives.

It is no surprise that for some, the aroma or roasted chestnuts on a cold corner is equivalent to Christmas and for others, the flavour of ginger biscuits or of Bacalao is the marker of this time.

For some of us, the smell of tropical fruits slowly poaching in a syrup are instant reminders of this period.  In Mexico ponche de Navidad is a delicious and warming drink that takes me back to posada parties.

What is a posada? The word literally translates as inn, and this is a representation of the journey that the Virgin Mary and St Joseph did at the time of the birth of baby Jesus, that culminated in barn and manger.

Like most things, these parties have changed with time, but the format remains the same: a street procession that stops and chants a litany which culminates at the house of the hosts of the posada –or the place where the party is going to take place.  The joyous entry to the house by those outside and the subsequent pinata breaking, food sharing and ponche drinking!

It is the combination of fruits and the sweet aroma of a lightly spiced syrup, simmering somewhere that gives this drink a particularly strong power for memory of cold nights in Mexico.  The smell of sweet sugar-cane and guavas, tejocotes and cinnamon, always take me right back to my childhood and I can again see and hear things that lie otherwise dormant in my mind: my younger parents, the unique feeling of attempting to break a pinata, the sounds of children laughing.  Sometimes it is worth forgetting about food miles for once and make some proper ponche just for the memories.

Here is a simple recipe, if you live away from the tropics, it might be difficult to find some fruits, I give alternatives in the recipe below.  Try doing this at this cold time of year, repeat doing this and you will see how with time, this evocative drink will take you back to good memories.

Cultivate your future memories by having good times now!

Recipe for ponche de Navidad

Makes about 3 litres

20 tejocotes –these are quite particular to Mexico, if you can’t find substitute with 10 quartered apricots and 4 green apples in chunks

7 guavas, cut in wedges

3 Tbsp raisins

10 prunes

about half a kilo of sugar-cane chunks –found in caribbean shops

4 Tbsp dried apples

2 sticks of cinnamon

3 litres of water

muscovado sugar

Begin by making the syrup, dissolve sugar in water –I have deliberately omitted quantities here, add enough so that it tastes nice and sweet to you.

Add the fruits and bring to below boiling point, simmer gently until the fruits soften and poach, the syrup should be slightly thicker at this point.

Before serving add some piquete a dash or rum or brandy to give it extra warming properties.

Serve in cups with a few fruits.

** If you have a memory of ponche that you want to share here, please add a comment.  My memory now is of a posada at secondary school aged 13, with my friend Marcelita, on a very cold day and how my father threw himself to get some goodies at the pinata with the kids!

How to make Mexican pan dulce

One aspect of Mexican cuisine that seems to be a little overlooked is that of bread-making.  Although Mexico is not a country that has strong associations to bread as it is the case in many other places around the world, and although we are mostly associated to tortillas; there is actually quite a strong tradition of bread making that we inherited through European colonialism and which became firmly established during the years of Empire in the nineteenth century.

It is particularly during the short period in which Mexico became subject to the puppet emperor Maximilian, where traditions of European influence became adopted by the elites.  This included the introduction of bread-making, particularly that of making sweet confections that included pastry, elaborate biscuits and a variety of other items made out of sweetened dough.

As it tends to happen in Mexico, these items were adapted to locality and they took their own shapes and names; so it can be an amusing and strange experience for a foreign person to go and buy ears, gendarmes (or policemen), banderillas (or a hurting device that gets stuck on the back of a bull during a bull fight), shells, bows, rhombs and of course the once yearly Bread of the Dead.

It is not difficult to recreate these confections and recently I made a batch of conchas or shells that we consumed with gusto whilst accompanied with my Mexican parents.  They the big judges actually loved them.

The recipe is taken from Diana Kennedy’s El Arte de la Cocina Mexicana. I have done very small adaptations.  Be aware, this recipe takes a long time to make, but if you have time and with a little preparation you can have a fun weekend of making bread with delicious results at the end of the day.  Since the recipe is so long you might want to make a large batch and then freeze the bread.  To enjoy from frozen, simply place in a warm oven to defrost and warm through and enjoy with a cup of steaming coffee or hot chocolate.

Makes about 16 conchas

Begin by making a first ferment or siembra for the bread, many Mexican breads begin by making a first ferment that is used for the confection of the various types of sweet bread including bread of the dead:

250 g strong bread flour

one sachet [8g] of dried yeast

2 Tbsp warm water

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Put the flour in a bowl.  In a small bowl, crumble the yeast and mix with the warm water, beat well to obtain a paste, add this paste to the flour and eggs, beat well using the dough hook attachment of a food mixer for a couple of minutes, the dough has to be soft and sticky.  Add a tiny bit more flour so that the dough comes off the bowl, take out and place on a lightly floured surface, using your hands, fold it so that it looks like a round cushion and put on a baking tray that has been covered with some greaseproof paper, make three diagonal cuts across and leave to rise in a warm place for a couple of hours, until it doubles its size.

Use half of this ferment and freeze the rest, if you want you can use all the ferment, in which case it will be necessary to double up the quantities below.

Now you are ready to make the main dough:

Cut the ferment into large chunks, place in the mixing bowl and add the following:

500 g strong flour

180 g sugar

½ tsp salt

45 g soft butter

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

60 ml warm water

Beat the ferment and the ingredients using a dough hook for 8 minutes at a medium-high speed, the dough needs to be soft, sticky with a shiny gloss and it should stick together.  Add a little flour so that the dough comes off the mixing bowl.  Again place on a lightly floured surface and fold to make a round cushion shape.  Butter a large bowl and place the dough in it.  Sprinkle with a little flour and cover with cling film and a tea-towel, leave in a warm place for 2 hours or until it has doubled in size.  After this period, place in the least cold part of the fridge and leave it to ferment for 8 hours or overnight.

Before finishing with this process, make the butter and sugar cover for the breads, for this you will need:

125 g plain flour

125 g icing sugar

60 g butter at room temperature

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Sieve the flour and icing sugar and add the butter, mix well using your fingers or whiz using the food processor, you are aiming to have a soft dough.  Divide in two portions, add the cocoa to one and the cinnamon to the other one, incorporate well.  Cover and set aside.

After the long fermentation period, put the dough on a lightly floured surface and turn it into a cushion without pushing too hard, you don’t want to lose the bubbles formed during the fermentation period, divide the dough in four and then in four again in order to obtain 16 pieces, it is wise to weigh the pieces, they should be about 60 g each:

Place some greaseproof paper on three baking trays.  Make a dough ball rolling the pieces of dough and place on the trays, leaving a space of about 8 cm in between each piece.                                                                                                                                                     Divide the chocolate and cinnamon sugar mixtures in eight small pieces each and roll into rounds that you will flatten using the palms of your hands, press until you have a sheet that is slightly larger than the bread ball:

Place this over the bread ball and press firmly over the dough ball, flattening it a little and repeat with all the bread pieces. Once you have done this, proceed to make the cuts; using a sharp knife, cut into the sugar paste making diagonal incissions:


Leave to rest in a warm place for –yes you guessed another two hours, or until the bread rises once more from this:

To this:

Heat up the oven to 190C.  Place the trays in the oven and bake for twelve minutes or until they puff up and turn golden brown:

Now they are ready to be eaten!

Although this process seems interminable, it actually works perfecty for a weekend at home, start on Saturday morning, carry on with your life and do the fermentations during the day, leave the dough in the fridge overnight and continue on Sunday am, you should have bread ready to dunk into hot chocolate sometime around brunch time!

Pan de Muerto / Bread of the Dead

Pan de muerto / Bread of the dead

It is that ime of the year again, the one where evenings get longer and when spooky ghosts will knock on our doors.  In the area where we live, it seems that the number of ghosts grow exponentially each year, we started with 10 and now there seem to be hundreds of kids knocking for tricks or treats.  This is a nice thing and I like to see our road full of little witches, ghosts and vampires, I like to see carved lanterns and it is all quite picturesque.

What I also like is to put a small altar with flowers to my ‘abuela’ Enriqueta, to my second  mother Alisi and to my ’muertitos’ to our dead ones, to remember them with a small and colourful offering which will include pan de muerto, this bread is typical of Mexico and it has lots of symbolism, it made in a round shape to signify the world, it has small pieces of dough attached and these signify bones, and it is always made only at this time of year.  It is very nice served with Mexican Hot Chocolate or Cafe de Olla here is a recipe:

Pan de Muerto  (Bread of the Dead)

Makes 1 large bread

1 x 7g sachet ‘fast action’ dried yeast

100 ml warm milk

500 g flour

150 g plus 2 Tbsp caster sugar

4 eggs, beaten

the juice and zest of 1 small orange, about 35 ml juice

1 tsp vanilla essence

50 g soft butter

½ tsp crushed caraway seeds (optional)

Put the oven to 180 C conventional /  160 C fan / Gas Mark 4

Activate the yeast by dissolving it in the warm milk and add 2 teaspoons of the sugar.

Sieve the flour into the bowl of an electric mixer such as a Kitchen Aid or Kenwood, add the sugar and salt plus the optional caraway seeds and the orange zest.  Add the yeast mixture and mix well.  Add the liquid ingredients except for the butter and using the flat paddle or the attachment for bread, mix at a medium speed for 5 minutes. Add the softened butter and continue mixing for 10 more minutes.  The dough should look very elastic and translucent.  Cover the bowl with cling film or a moist tea towel and leave to rise for a couple of hours in a draught free place or overnight in the fridge.  Punch the dough and put on a floured surface.

Cut ¼ of the dough and with the rest form a ball and flatten on the edge.

Separately make ‘bone’ shapes, you will need 4 long bones plus one ball that represents a skull.

Put the bread on a non-stick, floured baking tray or on some baking parchment.

Leave the bread and bones to rise for another ½ hr and when ready, decorate with the bones making a cross pattern and putting the ball on top.  Brush the whole of the bread with beaten egg and sprinkle with 2 Tbsp of caster sugar.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes at the indicated temperature, then lower the temperature by 20 C and leave for 20 minutes, then lower the temperature again by 20 C and leave for a further 20 minutes.

To see if the bread is cooked, it should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom, and should look golden brown and it should have risen quite a bit too!

Note.  This recipe makes a rustic version of bread of the dead which is more dense than commercial varieties.

It is a funny thing that whilst outside the street is a vampire party with everyone dressed mainly in black, inside the house the place is full of vibrant colours with a more solemn atmosphere, a funny contrast which seems go to well in our diverse society.

Courgette flower and wild mushroom quesadillas

If you are growing courgettes you will find fallen male courgette flowers by your plant most days.  Don’t put them in the compost, instead clean and place in a bag and put the bag in the freezer.  Once you have a decent supply, take out and wait for the flowers to defrost.

Saute one medium sliced onion in some oil for 5 minutes, add a finely chopped clove of garlic and continue sauteeing for 1 minute, stirring constantly, add a handful of roughly sliced wild mushrooms or any other mushroom, season with salt, pepper and a little dried thyme.  Leave to cook for 5 minutes and add the torn courgette flowers, petals and all, cook until the flowers wilt.

On a dried griddle, heat up a soft corn tortilla (for sale from Cool Chile Co), scoop a little of this mixture and a little grated gouda cheese on one half of the tortilla, fold in two and heat up on both sides until the cheese has melted.

Plate and add some salsa inside if you want and enjoy!

*This can be made with flour tortillas as well.