Tag Archives: recipes

enchiladas de mole

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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 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!

Caldo de Camaron

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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I am a guest chef at Cool Chile Co.  My contribution is my late father’s signature dish “Caldo de Camaron”, a heartwarming soup eaten at Mexican cantinas.

Try this on a cold day, it will warm your soul up.

For really good quality Mexican ingredients click here

For the recipe click here

Enjoy and have a wonderful warm Christmas.

East End Paradise my own review

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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After eating a wonderful brunch of omelette with herbs and rocket salad from the garden plus the very first minty broad beans, some rhubarb and strawberries and mint tea I feel extremely smug!

There are a few reasons for this feeling, first of all, it is very satisfying to continue having that dialogue with your patch of earth, and after many months of care, we now begin to receive something back and the allotment is so generous that from what we invest, it gives back with extreme generosity.

At this point in time, the hungry gap is over, now we begin to receive daily gifts in form of produce and this shapes the way we eat and also the way we live.  There is more to growing your own food than just putting seeds in a pot and eating what comes from the earth… give it a go, do that and then find out what happens next.

To grow your own food automatically puts you in touch with your local patch of earth and your surroundings, it makes you think seasonally, it inspires you to cook and live in a simpler way and it makes you part of the community and your surroundings… when things go right then you have the right to feel smug.

To grow your own food does not mean having to renounce living in modernity, it doesn’t involve retreating to some idyllic cottage in the middle of nowhere and it does not mean having to be rich and idle to afford the luxury of time and of not earning a living.  What it requires is the will of doing it, and to take what comes with the commitment.

I write this in the middle of May; at that magical time when evenings are long and balmy, when the natural world that most of the time we fail to see, calls upon our senses, this is a time of year we cannot ignore.  At this particular time, I think a lot about this, first because it is right in front of me, because I am lucky enough to have an allotment, and because of my research on urban agriculture.

It is at this precise moment when a beautiful book caught my attention: East End Paradise by Jojo Tulloh.  This book falls within the ‘cookery’ section and yes it contains many recipes and it is about eating food, but to me it is more than that… whatever more it has, it certainly fits my bill!

East End Paradise is a book about growing food and eating it, but it is also about other things too, it is a book that advocates for a simpler lifestyle that can be fitted within the permanent busy schedule of postmodernity, it is evocative and it is reminiscent of older styles of cookery writing that reminds us of Jane Grigson, Elizabeth David and Richard Olney; those dear writers on food who celebrated food for its simplicity and beauty, and whose lives revolved around the gorgeousness of creating something nice from what surrounds us.  Although Jojo’s book fits well within this pattern, it also fits within contemporary styles of having to juggle a number of factors like having a family with children, working and living in the city.  This book is not precious, it is generous instead, because it does not put the author on a pedestal from which she is going to instruct us on ‘how’ to grow food and ‘how’ to cook it.  In fact the recipes although they can be followed step by step, to me they are just hints, similar to the hints I always get in my head when I pick my own food or when it sits in front of me; what is precious is the fact that this book inspires to generate ideas and is not prescriptive.

As a novice food grower, this book is also illuminating in the fact that it shows –from the perspective of a normal human being; on issues of growing and processing food and also it shares beautiful and useful ideas like how to obtain seeds from your produce, as well as hints on using herbs and ‘weeds’ to make free tisanes.  It also inspires the reader to use alternative materials for gardening, like local wooden sticks as poles, coffee sacks as fleece and seashells for paths.

I have decided not to read this book in one go, I read it with the seasons, just a little bit ahead, so that I understand what needs to be done, that together with being on site at the allotment, means that I am learning lots and rescuing something precious I felt I had lost: the art of simple living.  In many ways this book has reminded me of the early days when we shared a house with John Craxton –himself an old friend of Richard Olney; when food was a cause for simple celebration and an excuse for socialising in a bohemian way.

This is a book that I don’t know where to place, maybe on the self of my future shed so that it can whisper tips on what to do with my patch of earth; it should probaly sit on the shelf reserved for Grigson, David, Olney, Stein, Slater and Barehan.  At the moment it is by my bedside table and I love reading it when I wake up with the light at 6.

I am very glad that there is a book like this around, something very refreshing for balmy evenings!

Salad of Baby Artichokes and Parmesan

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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Artichoke Plants are very visual and in late spring they provide with wonderful edible flowers, if you get a crop of baby ones,  -that is well before they turn to flowers, do try making this salad, it is inspired by Annie Bell’s wonderful Vegetable Book.  Here it is simplicity at its best

Serves 4

Ingredients

10 baby artichokes – the size of an egg according to Annie Bell

Juice of 1 lemon

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 Tbsp parmesan cheese, finely grated or in shavings

4 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

A sprig of finely chopped flat leaf parsley

Slice off the base of the artichokes and cut the tough outer leaves at the sides and slice off the base.  Finely slice the rest of the artichoke and toss in lemon juice – the lemon will prevent any discolouration.  This can be done up to one hour in advance.

Place on a platter and season with salt and pepper, dress with the olive oil and sprinkle with the grated or shaved parmesan.

Delicious with a glass of dry white wine and some sourdough bread

Tarta Pascualina / Easter Pie

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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As Easter approaches fast, I would like to share a seasonal recipe for a delicious pie that is eaten in Italy as well as in South America: Tarta Pascualina.  I first came across this dish in Mexico City, at an Uruguayan home, the one that belongs to the family of my very good friend Ana.

One day she offered us a spinach pie with eggs that was very different to anything I had eaten before ‘La Tarta Pascualina’ they called it.  Later on I found out that this dish originates in Genoa, port from which many migrants sailed off to find a future in the new world.  To distant lands these intrepid travellers went, and so to Argentina and Uruguay they arrived.   These migrants took with them the nostalgic flavours of home, particularly those which are linked to celebrations like Easter and they therefore took with them Tarta Pascualina.

This dish contains the word spring all over; it is made with the first young tender spring greens and it contains a high symbolic value because it is served at Easter time, hence the word ‘pascualina’: Pascua = Easter.  Since it is an easter/spring dish, it contains eggs which are folkloric symbols of resurection.

I first had this pie, not at Easter but as part of a South American buffet that my friend’s family hosted.  Julio her father was known for making this dish his speciality and delicious it was.  I remember eating this warm pie with a little tomato salad and it was very good.

My friendship with Ana has survived many years in spite of us being separated by thousands of miles and the memory of this pie stayed in my mind always.

Below is a recipe that is similar to the one Julio makes, however I have changed the pastry and here I use hot watercrust pastry, which is one of the easiest types of pastry and one that produces spectacular results.  I make a raised Pascualina pie by putting it inside a springform cake tin, filling with a spinach and pepper mixture and by placing some eggs inside, then the whole thing is baked, left to cool down and eaten with some garlicky tomato salad with basil, when you eat this, you will be transported perhaps to Genoa, but certainly to Montevideo.

An Easter egg from Rococo Chocolate

An Easter egg from Rococo Chocolate

Tarta Pascualina

For a deep cake tin about 20 – 23 cm in diameter:

450 g flour

1 tsp salt

100 g lard

100 g butter (you can use 200 g butter only)

225 ml milk and water mixed in equal proportions

Warm a mixing bowl and sift in the flour and salt, make a well in the centre

Heat the lard/butter or only butter in the milk and water until just boiling

Pour this mix into the well in the flour and stir quickly with a wooden spoon until thick

Continue working by hand to a smooth dough.

Cut in two, wrap in cling film and chill for about 30 minutes

Roll the pastry in two sheets of greaseproof paper until it is about 5 mm in height and the pastry fits the size of your tin, one is for the mould itself and the other one for the lid.

For the filling:

1 kg leaf spinach

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 medium onions, finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 red peppers, char-grilled and skinned, finely chopped

6 eggs

100 g grated Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese

Salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste

Wash the spinach and place in a pan, heat up without adding any water, cook stirring until it completely collapses.

Sauté the onions with some olive oil until soft, add the garlic and continue cooking until soft.

Add the spinach, salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Cook and season accordingly

Take off the heat and add the grated cheese, 2 beaten eggs and the peppers.  Mix very well.

Put this mixture on the baking tin filled with pastry; make 3 spaces in the filling.  Break an egg and put its contents in this space, repeat with the other 2 spaces.  Put the pastry lid on the pie seal.  Using a fork prick the pie avoiding the eggs.  Brush with a beaten egg.

Put in the oven and bake for about 40 – 50 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. To un-mould, loosen up the sides using a knife and open the hinge (or spring). Brush with egg all over the sides and put in the oven for another 10 minutes so that the pie goes golden brown all over.

Sprouting Broccoli

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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After many months of waiting for the ‘triffid’ plants also known as sprouting broccoli, here they are finally ready to be harvested.  If you grow broccoli, you will have been waiting almost as much as waiting for a child to be born!  Now is the time to be rewarded with the shoots of broccoli.

Here is a simple recipe that uses both green and purple sprouts, you don’t need to use both, they can be interchanged, also instead of boiling, you can pan fry them until they are golden or roast on a tray with a little olive oil, salt and pepper until soft outside and crunchy inside.

Warm Broccoli Salad

Serves 6

1 head of Broccoli, separated into florets

200 g sprouted purple broccoli

50 g crumbled fetta cheese

70 ml extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp dried oregano

1 Tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped

The juice of half a large lemon or 1 small one

Salt and pepper to taste

1 Tbsp pine-nuts, toasted

black olives

 

Boil both types of broccoli in separate saucepans of lightly salted water until soft but still firm, about 4 minutes [you can pan fry the florets or even roast them instead].  Drain very well and combine in a warmed salad bowl.  Sprinkle the fetta cheese on top.  Mix oil, oregano, parsley and lemon juice together, heat the dressing up in a microwave or gently warm up in a saucepan.  Add to the broccoli –be extra careful because this might sizzle.  Lift and turn the pieces to mix properly.

Sprinkle the toasted pine-nuts and black olives.  Serve immediately.

Leeks, glorious leeks!

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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Leeks are in season right now and if you grow your own, I need not to tell you that they are just like asparagus, best when they are young and do little to them, braise them in wine for instance or pan-fry them with a little olive oil.

Larger leeks are slightly tougher and they need more time to soften, braising again is a good method of preparation.   Below is a nice recipe from Jane Grigson’s great Vegetable Book, for a very simple Leek Pie.

Flemish Leek Pie

Ingredients:

125 g butter

1 medium onion

375 g leeks, sliced

125 g double cream

1 tsp plain flour

salt and pepper to taste

500 g puff pastry

1 egg, beaten

In half the butter, cook the onion slowly to soften, add the rest of the butter and put in the leeks.  Cover the pan and leave the vegetables to cook for 5 minutes.  If there is much liquid left, raise the heat to evaporate, making sure the vegetables do not brown or burn!

Beat the cream into the flour to make a smooth paste and stir it into the leeks.  Cook for one minute, then remove from the heat, season and cool down.

Roll out the pastry and cut two large circles, one slightly bigger than the other.  Put the smallr of the two on a moistened baking sheet.  Spread the leek filling in the middle, leaving a 2 cm rim.  Brush the rim with egg.  Place the larger circle over the top.  Press the edges firmly together and twist to seal.  Make a hole in the centre of the lid and score the pastry lightly with the tip of a knife.  Brush with the beaten egg and bake for 15 minutes at 220 C / Gas Mark 7, then lower to 180 C / Gas mark 4 and continue baking for 20 minutes.

If you have a wet filling or if you are unsure about baking a flat pie, you can always fit in a cake or flan tin 22-23 cm in diameter.

Something delicious to do with Cavolo Nero

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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Here is another good recipe for cabbage cooking, today it is the turn of delicious Cavolo Nero, which is not only abundant, but especially tasty, because this nice brassica, improves its flavour with a good frost!

Celery is in season as well in January/February, so it is good to try these two vegetables in this dish.

Braised celery, red onions and Cavolo Nero

Serves 4

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 large red onion

½ head celery

500 g curly kale or cavolo nero or any other beautiful seasonal cabbage or spring greens

50 ml olive oil

50 ml water

a good measure of vermouth about 50 ml.

the zest of a lemon

salt and pepper to taste

1 Tbsp parmesan (optional)

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180 C

Cut the onion into wedges

Trim the celery and slice in a diagonal, 1 inch slices are nice

Trim and wash the kale, reserve

In a large pan, heat up 1 Tbsp of olive oil and sauté the onion for one minute; add some of the greens and sauté for another minute.  Transfer to a baking tray and mix well with the celery and the rest of the greens.

Mix the oil and water with the vermouth and pour this mix onto the vegetables, mix to coat well, season with salt and pepper and cover tightly with foil.  Put in the oven and leave to braise until the vegetables are soft.  This can take about 30 minutes.  If you want to make this dish in advance, cook until the vegetables start to look cooked but they still feel al dente, later on you can put back in the oven and continue cooking until they are soft; this last process can last about 8 minutes. Once ready, mix with the lemon zest.

Serve on a dish and decorate with some shaved or grated parmesan and eat immediately.

Caldo Verde or something delicious to do with a Savoy Cabbage

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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Wintertime is cabbage time and here is a recipe that is says simplicity all over: Caldo Verde.  This is a very simple Portuguese soup that uses Savoy cabbage which is abundant at this time of year, you can also use spring greens, Cavolo Nero, and plain or curly kale for this.

This is a meatless version, if you want to add meat, try some pan fried pancetta, chorizo or some sausage.  Delicious winter warmer, cheer me up type food!

Serves 4 – 6

Medium sized Savoy cabbage about 400 g

1 kg potatoes

3 garlic cloves, peeled and made into a puree

2 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and finely chopped

1.5 litres of vegetable stock

½ tsp pimenton –maybe more according to taste

salt and pepper to taste

Garnish with finely chopped parsley that is pounded with olive oil and pimenton –if you want you can add a little garlic to this mix.

Prepare the cabbage by removing the outer leaves and cut into quarters, then core and slice very finely.   Peel and dice the potatoes and put in a pan with the garlic, tomato, pimenton and stock.  Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes and break the potatoes to a rough puree.  Season with salt and pepper and add more pimenton if you want.

Just before serving, add the sliced cabbage, bring to a simmer and cook for about 5 minues or until the cabbage has cooked.

Make a garnish by putting some finely chopped parsley, pimenton a clove of garlic and some olive oil, pound and mix until it resembles a puree.

Serve in bowls and put a teaspoon of the garnish.

Seville Orange Marmalade / Mermelada de Naranjas de Sevilla

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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For those who happen to live on northern latitudes, January can be seen as a bleak month, when after all the jolly of Christmas, we are left over with extra pounds of belly fat, with short days that seem to take an eternity to become longer and with a desire for something exciting and new to happen.

The appearance of Seville or bitter oranges (citrus auriantium) at fruit stalls and markets certainly is no cure for winter nostalgia, but it can be seen as some kind of first aid: their bits of green/yellow and orange colour, provided by these fruits can be added to our seasonal cooking palette.  These fruits become like the first rays of sunshine, coming to our rescue from those winter blues.

And rescue they do.  Seville oranges are only available for roughly a period of six weeks from early to mid January and they are used mainly for making marmalade because they have a high pectin content and also because they are very sour and bitter as a fruit.

Gorgeous it is to see these oranges at the shops and glorious is the smell they produce when they are turned into conserve.   To make a large batch of marmalade every January not only gives you enough stock to spread on your toast for the rest of the year, it also gives you a sense of seasonality.

It is fun to turn the kitchen into a production line, invite friends and family and make large batches of marmalade, you can achieve a lot by sharing jobs and have a great time during the process.

So when you see Seville oranges at the shops buy loads, don’t eat them as a fruit, instead turn them into marmalade.  This in time will become something that will make you appreciate January.

Recipe for Seville Orange Marmalade

This recipe comes from Stephanie Alexander’s cooking bible: The cook’s companion

Makes 1.5 – 1.8 litres

1 kg Seville oranges

3 large lemons

2 litres water

2 kg sugar

old jam jars and lids

labels

Begin by peeling the rind of the oranges and lemons using a potato peeler, then cut into long strips or julienne.  Juice the fruits and reserve the pith and seeds –this is important, the seeds are full of pectin that you will need later on.  Place these inside a muslin bag or cloth and tie well.  Put the juice, muslin bag, water and zest into a non-reactive saucepan [stainless steel] and bring to the boil;  as soon as this happens, reduce to a very gentle simmer, partially cover the pan with a lid and cook for one hour, stirring from time to time.  You want to reduce the liquid to about half of its original volume.  Take off the heat and leave covered overnight.

The day after, begin by squeezing the muslin bag very well of any liquid/pectin, remember any pectin is valuable, so you want to really squeeze as much liquid as possible from the bag.

Add the sugar to the citrus mix and stir well, heat up gently, stirring all the time, up to boiling point.   Once it begins to boil, stop stirring and leave to bubble for about 7 minutes or until it comes to setting point.  Test for setting using a thermometer, it should reach 104 C, if you don’t have a thermometer, just place a blob of marmalade on a cold plate and leave for a couple of minutes, push your finger into the marmalade, it should separate in two halves; this is setting point.  If this does not happen, continue boiling for a bit longer and test until you are able to do so.

Sterilise your glass jars: Wash jars and lids in hot soapy water and rinse well in hot water.  Submerge  into a large pan full of boiling water for 10 minutes, carefully take out of the bath and place upside-down over a clean tea-towel to drain.  Dry well by putting them inside an oven at 150 C.  Take out of the oven and avoid touching the insides of the jars and lids.  While these are still hot, fill them with hot marmalade and then screw on the  lids.  Do this with care.

Leave them to cool down, a vacuum should be created, you can tell this by feeling the concave shape of the lids when they are cold.  Label and date the jars… when you open a jar in July and see the date, you will remember the day you made this!