my rss feeder broke.  and i didn’t realize it for 3 months.  mostly because i (still) don’t even understand what exactly an rss feeder is, or what it does – talk about being oh so techno savvy… but my stat’s were dropping off and well, try as i might to just ignore the cold hard numbers, i started to take it personally.  was it something i said?  something i cooked?  where did so many of my bleaders go and why would they leave me after all we have meant to each other? 

but before i called my therapist, i called mark from simpler computing! and he quickly came to my rescue – again.  thank you mark.  you solved the mystery and now once again you are so totally my blero. 

so listen up – all you techno losers out there that just like to cook and write and take a little photo here and there, but do not want to bother your pretty little heads with html and templates and embedding and wordpress editors that suck and the like, call mark.  today.  he can tweak your blog into submission.  AND he likes to cook… (btw – ceF is still under construction as i type so please bear with…)

speaking of liking to cook… here’s the deal.  i cook a lot.  but sometimes it’s just dinner.  and sometimes it’s not my idea of a blog worthy post.  and usually it’s just that i’m too lazy to write.  but it’s totally me, not you.  you, i adore.  you make my life better, adding an entirely new fangled dimension that did not exist just 16 months ago. but still, i am often unmotivated, or perhaps even more often than that, i’m just reading OPB’s…

so what happens is that some of these dishes fall by the blogosphere’s wayside.  but i thought since we were dealing with feeds and feeding, i’d show you what gets fed around here to my immediate world.  so i’m going to hit you with a fair few of what i’ve not bothered to bother you with until now, along with some pictures. take a deep breath – here goes…

look familiar?  this one was made with the half and half, as per ripert’s recipe.  was it better?  yes.  did i LOVE it?  not so much.  it’s ok.  kinda brunchy, not desserty.  i like custard.  life is good.  and eric, you’re totally cool and sexy and hot and all those things.  but my tony still has you beat, big time. i hope you can understand…

ok so i realize i am blogger #4721 to make jim lahey’s no knead bread.  but i did it.  quietly.  and it was a good and crusty loaf of bread that if nothing else looked very, very impressive. 

i baked it in my romertopf that i dug out and dusted off.  although it stays unused and because it looks so beautiful – i keep it.  i’m sure you understand such things.  so, i soaked the terracotta in water and then baked the bread as per the direction for a dutch oven.  i felt my dutch oven was too big and i didn’t want a 2" high bread.  somehow, this worked out quite nicely.  so take a chance, dear readers – bake no knead bread.  oh, and have i made this again since?  nope.  will i?  maybe, probably not.

this was made quite awhile ago.  it was panko encrusted chicken livers served over what i think was swiss chard and finely sliced ‘delightful tiny purple potatoes’ and shallots sautéed with pimm’s and port.  what?  you think they may not have been tiny and delightful?  you are sooooo wrong….

i present to you… delightful. tiny. purple. potatoes.  i only wish i could have been in the room when the marketing team thought of that.  can you imagine what the discussion would have sounded like?  i only know they were republicans with bad haircuts.  after that, i know nothing.

so now you ask, what the hell is that?  that, my dear readers is a watermelon salad with mint leaves, chili oil and feta – topped with a very anti-locavore piece of barramundi from costco via australia.  in a previous life i lived down under (husband #1) and ate this fish regularly.  perhaps i didn’t need to sit the barramundi on top of the watermelon, but it seemed like a good idea at the time… and it was our dinner that night and we were happy enough.  so stop smirking.  thank you.

i made this last weekend and it was good and rich and saucy and chicken thighey – all that with trofie pasta thrown in for very good measure.  it’s what patricia wells eats when she’s at home in provence, a recipe that i picked up from feeding groom.  oh and it’s got sherry vinegar and garlic cloves and dijon mustard and lots of tarragon and minced sundried tomatoes… it’s more wintry than it is septembery in nashville, but i had 4 chicken thighs in the freezer and suddenly this just happened…

ok are you ready to hear what this was supposed to be?  what it almost was… what i wished it might have been and what it could be if i ever decide to take it on again?  salted butterscotch pudding with chocolate covered bacon.  thank you and goodnight.  the end.  by claudia. 

except it never really thickened properly.  and benton’s bacon is crazy salty.  so salty that i forgot just how salty it was therefore making it an out and out wrong bacon choice.  because it seems that is actually possible.  to make a wrong bacon choice.  you’d think not, but what this dessert needed was a thin cut good bacon that crisps up in a curly, artsy strip, and only then could it be dipped into lindt chocolate and put into a pudding recipe that WORKS.  because this recipe did not.  and another blogger tried it and it didn’t work for her either.  so. oh well,  we all drank our pudding and chucked the wayyy too salty pork.  seemed sinful but we got over it.  we lived and learned, moving onwards and upwards – with the comforting knowledge that bacon rarely ever lets you down…

so not even a little pretty.  AND the wrong color bowl.  but it was just a simple dinner of fresh crowder peas with bacon.  the bacon did just as it should, redeeming itself from the previous mishap.  there was something else served with this but really, i have no idea… i think it was grilled tilapia.  unexciting, quick and easy and not exactly memorable – but hey, not every night can be foie gras…

OK – EVERYBODY STAND UP AND STRETCH.  NO REALLY.  BECAUSE I AM NOT DONE.  BATHROOM BREAK?  GO ON.  I’LL WAIT….

oh, hi, you’re back.  wonderful, because i was worried… ok, just a few more…

this was lazzaroli’s sweet potato and ricotta ravioli.  i dressed it up with a side of kale, done in a sauce of olive oil, cream, honey and sage, and then dusted the pasta with nutmeg and parmegiano.  again – super fast and easy.  (tommy noodles, you are a nashville godsend… thank you for giving me an option that is first rate and still allows me to get creative.)

yes, i too jumped on the bandwagon thanks to michelle from thursday night smackdown and all the rest of you that grilled the hell outa a bunch of pizzas…  except michelle was the one who took my call on a saturday night so i could get very specific information about the whole pizza grilling process.  this particular pizza was taken from her post and it was damn fine.  i cooked down some swiss chard in a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and used copious amounts of minced garlic and ricotta.  i also sliced up a big ripe yellow tomato with red stripes running through it (we will miss you beautiful heirloom tomatoes),

awesomeness, no?  well yes – but… from here on in i’ll stick to the pizza stone with my oven set to broil and 550f… because grilled pizza is too damn white on top.  and flipping it before the toppings go on doesn’t allow the cheese and sauce to bake into the dough and well, my grill runs hot (it’s infrared) so even on the lowest setting it never got the top brown and i kept having to turn the flame on and off so as not to scorch the bottom and was nervously moving it to the top rack and well, i like my pizza stone in my oven.  so if i had a real charcoal grill which i don’t and do not plan on getting because it’s too much work and i am not willing (go on – think of me what you will but there are extenuating circumstances… like a boyfriend who is also happy with oven baked pizza’s), maybe that would be better.  but as it stands, and i repeat – i am a pizza in the oven kinda gal – set to broil on super high heat with the stone on the very bottom rack.  but i made the obligatory grilled pizza.  yes i did.

i present to you… voodoo mac and cheese

do you read gild the (voodoo)lily?  if not, you need to read gild the (voodoo)lily…  heather is very smart and very funny and this bitch can cook.  and i mean that in a good way.  heather is another one of those foodcentric people that seriously knows how to put ingredients together.  like if you turned your pantry over to her, she’d blow your mind.  and you’d be thinking all, why didn’t i think of that?… and the answer is because she KNOWS MORE THAN YOU DO.  plus she’s a botanist.  a freakin’ botanist... so she’s always growing and foraging and well, it’s a little bit intimidating.  heather could totally kick your ass and never even touch you…

anyway, back in july she made something called garden mac.  for her it was merely a ‘clean your fridge out’ kinda dinner, and i’m thinking – mac and cheese with roasted tomatoes in a bechamel base?  sign me the hell up. 

the ingredients i used were as follows; mostaccioli pasta, the 4 cheeses were – asiago, parmigiano reggiano, st jerome and fontal.  and for the garden part – fresh thyme and heirloom tomatoes, kale, onion, squash and zucchini.  i drove all the ingredients about an hour south, down to my friend shannon’s house and we spent the day cooking and drinking wine and talking and laughing and then we sat out on the porch overlooking her farm and had a late lunch…

and for the grand finale i give to you an extremely abbreviated version of my veal stock mission…

bones arrive from snook’s.  i tried for weeks to find a local source.  nada.

20 lbs.

because i am awesome…

i made brown and white stock.  i followed the ruhlman way.  it is the only way. (great version here)

otherwise when you die, you go to culinary hell where you are forced to live on nothing but shoney’s buffets. (please click on the shoney’s link.  there are no words…)

and hey, thanks so much for reading.  i realize this post was a commitment. 

you can go now…

dear readers, i’m past the point of caring who chooses to defend this statement – but overall, the mexican food in nashville is Not. Good. it is the subject of many a local conversation and frankly, i am OVER the topic and am currently inconvincible of anything otherwise. for the most part, i’ve just given up. unless of course i decide to go it on my own – which i did – but not really. because hey, i have new foodie friends. and they not only love to cook, but they’re extraordinarily agreeable and easy to get on with which totally helps this fledgling relationship because the older i get the more ADD i become which can often make hanging out with me a bit of a chore.

so brad is the ‘true cook’ of the couple, but that joanna… she is very well versed in the art of the knife. and any woman that can happily slice and dice while making interesting conversation in my kitchen?  total keeper. there are those that cook in solitude, and i do this most often. no tv, no music. the time goes by quickly and i am more than content. but if you were to offer to help? i’d put a knife into your hands before you could ask ‘what’s for dinner?’ i love to "direct" in the kitchen. and when i win the lottery i’m not hiring a personal chef, i’m hiring a personal sous chef.

we decided to do a saturday night dinner thing, and i had fish tacos on my mind because i just happened to be in the room when martha’s show was on and emeril had just signed his life away, jumping onboard the ‘martha-god’ mothership. so the BAM-man was nervously smiling and kissing martha’s golden ass – while subserviantly making a poblano and avocado salsa to put over his halibut tacos with a grilled corn salad on the side… and well, despite the whole media love-fest freak show happening before my eyes – i was carefully paying attention. because i love me some fish tacos. truly, deeply and with feeling.

grilled fish tacos with roasted chile and avocado salsa
very adapted from emeril via martha (because i can)

2 poblano peppers
1/2 haas avocado
2 T olive oil
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
juice of 1 lime
1/2 t salt
1 t cayenne powder – or to taste
1 halibut fillet (about 1 lb)
white pepper and salt
olive oil for your cooking surface of choice
8 corn tortillas
chopped onion
cilantro and avocado as toppings

blacken the skin of the peppers directly on your stove top or grill personally, i use a butane torch which works surprisingly well cool, remove skin and the seeds (i let them sweat in a covered bowl and use a tea towel to rub off the skin) add to blender peppers, avocado, oil, water, onion, cilantro, lime juice, salt and cayenne blend till smooth season the fish and grill however works best for you heat the tortillas then you put it all together and you turn yourself around cause that’s what it’s all about…

grilled corn salad
adapted from emeril via martha

we opted to omit the tomatoes and if i had it to do over i would leave them out again as i think they would detract from the dish.

4 ears of corn, in their husks
2 jalapeno chiles
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 T very finely chopped garlic
1/4 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
2 T mint, roughly chopped
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

submerge the corn under water while in their husks and soak for an hour, then grill the corn over a low to medium heat for about 25 minutes until the husks are blackened. do the same with the jalepenos for about 6 minutes or so. remove husks and silk from corn, remove kernels from cob and place in a large bowl. stem, seed, and finely chop the jalapenos and add to bowl with corn along with the onion, garlic, cilantro, mint, lime juice, olive oil, and salt. stir to combine and serve

brad suggested a side of beans to round it all out and after days of (i am so very sure) relentless hand wringing and agonizing over how he might seriously impress me with a killer dish – he decided upon a red mole which i then strongly insisted be paired with not just any bean, but with my vaquero ‘rancho gordo’ beans and brad happily obliged – not that he had much of a choice after my 10 minute non-stop dissertation on the many and varied attributes of those beautiful heirloom beans of which i have become so fond. i soaked, cooked and lightly salted the beans and brad arrived with a bowl of the mole from rick bayless’s book, ‘mexican kitchen‘ – and quite honestly the dish was phenomenol if not the best thing we ate all night. today, when i glanced at the recipe in the book i saw precisely why that was – as well as why i instinctively winced. it’s a total major production – if not reminiscent of my all too recent and never to be repeated mole making experience. joanna remarked how the mole would be even better the next day and i told her it was too bad that she would never know, and then refused to let them bring any of the leftover beans home – because i am like that. i’ll tell you about the exploding dessert when i am able, recovered and ready to talk about it.

which is like so not now…

it’s a long story. but it all began about 2 weeks ago when i decided to cook lunch for the better part of the editorial staff of the nashville scene, our local free press. because i love them over there. because they are smart and funny and cool. and because they have a food blog called "bites" to which i am quite attached, as well as being an all too frequent commenter.

but i didn’t offer to cook just any old lunch. i mean, i could have easily brought them beef wellington or moussaka, a peking duck or a wedding cake – or any random recipe out of the ‘french laundry cookbook‘. but no. i decided to make them an authentic oaxacan black mole. something i knew nothing about. zero. zippo. nada. and i must admit that whenever i’d eaten it before, and it hadn’t been lately – the tequilla must have kicked in early on because i haven’t any recollection of the many flavor layers and subtle nuances of this highly esteemed mexican dish – the mole negro.

i was a mole making virgin. and yes, blood was shed… 29 ingredients, eleventy million steps and 7 hours later – after one flesh wound, 4 burns and almost crying (but only once), i pulled myself together, channeling my inner mexican grandmother from a past life – and i somehow had me some majorly kick ass mole. i kid you not. the results are in. i rock. the eastern european jew from nyc who was only in mexico for 3 days on the carnival cruise fun ship from hell - i give myself a solid A-. yes indeed. i lost points for what i believe was not toasting my chili’s long enough for fear of burning them, therefore losing a degree of depth of flavor AND i couldn’t get my chili seeds to ignite with a match after i’d blackened them (i mean wtf?). but besides that i was golden. a kitchen blow torch would’ve come in very handy… but alas with the 147 kitchen appliances and various implements of the culinary kind, i am somehow sans torch.

claudia, (the press asks) where did you get the recipe and how ever did you decide which one to use? well, (clearing my throat) first of all, thank you so much for asking and for recognizing the greatness of my efforts and allow me to tell you all about it, because a lot of thought and consideration went into the process of finding this award winning recipe. firstly, somehow i lost my rick bayliss cookbook in my divorce to a man who rarely cooks. so after dwelling in the moderate amount of anger that this brought up, i popped a xanax and turned to google. after looking at about 15 versions, i narrowed it down to 2 recipes that seemed to have the right vibe of authenticity (aka complication). one was plucked from a very cool 2005 post that waxed poeticly about the history of mole and included a romantic sounding recipe featuring the mole negro ‘from "Seasons of My Heart: A Culinary Journey through Oaxaca, Mexico" by Susana Trilling’…

while the other was a recipe from emeril. the BAM man.

(new york times)

and you just gotta know that emeril’s tv personna is so very grating to me – and that i therefore put him in the same category as rachel ray, and the rest of the food network yokels. (yes, yes, there are exceptions…) but then tony, you know… my tony, well he set me straight, after he apologized for bad mouthing emeril as he had done in his book ‘kitchen confidential’ – now saying that the guy really was a good guy – and a true chef. but still. BAM? i don’t do BAM. i do NPT. and so i went with Susana. my new BFF. and then today, just because, i decided to google "Seasons of My Heart", having no clue what any of that was all about and discovered that it was featured in a FOOD NETWORK special broadcast from a series called ‘Tasting Mexico’. and then i died. BAM. the end.

Mole Negro Oaxaqueno
from Seasons of My Heart: A Culinary Journey through Oaxaca, Mexico by Susana Trilling

4 large onions, chopped, plus 1 medium onion, quartered
8 ribs celery, chopped
8 carrots, chopped
2 (3 pound) chickens, cut into 12 pieces, skinned
5 chilhuacles negros, seeded and deveined; seeds reserved (*i used mulato chili’s as chilhuacles are very hard to procure)
5 guajillos, seeded and deveined; seeds reserved
4 pasillas Mexicanos, seeded and deveined; seeds reserved
4 anchos negros, seeded and deveined; seeds reserved
2 chipotles mecos, seeded and deveined; seeds reserved
1/2 head garlic, cloves separated
2 tablespoons whole almonds 2 tablespoons shelled and skinned raw peanuts
1 (1-inch) piece Mexican cinnamon
3 black peppercorns
3 whole cloves
3 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 1/2 tablespoons raisins
1 slice egg-dough bread
1 small ripe plantain, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1/2-cup sesame seeds
2 pecan halves
1/2 pound chopped tomatoes
1/4 pound chopped tomatillos
1 sprig thyme, or 1/2 tsp. dried
1 sprig Oaxacan oregano, or 1/2 tsp. dried
2 tablespoons lard
4 1/2 ounces Mexican chocolate
1 avocado leaf
Salt, to taste

In a 2 gallon stockpot, heat 5 quarts water and onions, celery, and carrots to a boil. Add chicken pieces and poach, covered, over low heat for about 35 to 45 minutes, until cooked through and juices run clear when pierced with a fork. Remove the meat from the stock. Strain and reserve the stock.

Heat 2 quarts of water in a kettle. On a 10-inch dry comal, griddle, or in a cast-iron frying pan, toast the chiles over medium heat until blackened, but not burnt, about 10 minutes. Place the chiles in a large bowl, cover with hot water, and soak for 1/2 hour. Remove the chiles from the soaking water with tongs, placing small batches in a blender with 1/4 cup of the chile soaking water to blend smooth. Put the chile puree through a strainer to remove the skins.

In the same dry comal, griddle, or frying pan, grill the onion and garlic over medium heat for 10 minutes. Set aside. Toast the almonds, peanuts, cinnamon stick, peppercorns, and cloves in a dry comal, griddle or cast-iron frying pan for about 5 minutes. Remove them from the pan.

Over the same heat, toast the chile seeds, taking care to blacken but not burn them, about 20 minutes. Try to do this outside or in a well-ventilated place because the seeds will give off very strong fumes. When the seeds are completely black, light them with a match and let them burn themselves out. Remove from the heat and place in a bowl. Soak the blackened seeds in 1 cup of cold water for 10 minutes. Drain the seeds and grind them in a blender for about 2 minutes. Add the blended chile seeds to the blended chile mixture.

Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in an 8-inch cast-iron frying pan over medium heat until smoking. Add the raisins and fry them until they are plump, approximately 1 minute. Remove from the pan. Fry the bread slice in the same oil until browned, about 5 minutes, over medium heat. Remove from pan. Fry the plantain in the same oil until it is well browned, approximately 10 minutes, over medium heat. Set aside.

Fry the sesame seeds, stirring constantly over low heat, adding more oil if needed. When the sesame seeds start to brown, about 5 minutes, add the pecans and brown for 2 minutes more. Remove all from the pan, let cool, and grind finely in a spice grinder. It takes a bit of time, but this is the only way to grind the seeds and nuts finely enough.

Wipe out the frying pan and fry the tomatoes, tomatillos, thyme, and oregano over medium to high heat, allowing the juices to almost evaporate, about 15 minutes. Blend well, using 1/2 cup of reserved stock if needed to blend and set aside. Place the nuts, bread, plantains, raisins, onion, garlic and spices in the blender in small batches, and blend well, adding about 1 cup of stock to make it smooth.

In a heavy 4-quart stockpot, heat 2 tablespoons of lard or oil until smoking and fry the chile paste over medium to low heat, stirring constantly so it will not burn, approximately 20 minutes. When it is dry, add the tomato puree and fry until the liquid has evaporated, about 10 minutes. Add the ground ingredients, including the sesame seed paste, to the pot. Stir constantly with a wooden soon until well-incorporated, about 10 minutes. Add 1 cup chicken stock to the mole, stir well, and allow to cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Break up the chocolate and add to the pot, stirring until it is melted and incorporated into the mixture. Toast the avocado leaf briefly over the flame if you have a gas range or in a dry frying pan and then add it to the pot. Slowly add more stock to the mole, as it will keep thickening as it cooks. Add enough salt to bring out the flavor. Let simmer another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally so it does not stick, adding stock as needed. The mole should not be thick; just thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Place the cooked chicken pieces in the leftover stock in a saucepan and heat through. To serve, place a piece of chicken in a shallow bowl and ladle 3/4 of a cup of mole sauce over to cover it completely. Serve immediately with lots of hot corn tortillas. (ceF note – as a final step, i strained the mole when i was completely finished in order to remove any final grit)

ok – so a couple of things: 1. i am NEVER EVER making this again, even though it was great and 2. therefore i have decided to hold the first ceF contest in the long and distinguished history of this blog. to enter, you just need to leave a comment and then this random number generator will pick 2 winners and you will both receive the following 14 ingredients in quantities enough to make one recipe of the aforementioned mole negro oaxaqueno: guajillo, pasilla, ancho and chipotle chili peppers raw peanuts mexican cinnamon cloves and peppercorns raisins sesame seeds pecan halves mexican oregano mexican chocolate avocado leaves

this should give you quite the head start to making a muy bueno mole negro that will impress the masses and make you famous in influential circles across the universe. guaranteed or your money back. deadline for comment entries is midnight on monday march 10. so go ahead and click on ‘comment’ and you too could be slaving in your kitchen for an entire day preparing the much revered mexican mole negro – soon to be worshiped by your friends and family.

a little worship is a beautiful thing…