Lucito
This recipe was the quickest one to prepare and used some of the leftover hard boiled yolks of the eggs used for the Vampire’s Eyes.
Ingredients
8 ounce tube of pork liver paté
2 hard boiled egg yolks
Drops of red, yellow, green, and blue food coloring
Preparation
1. Mix all the ingredients together.
This was one of the fun recipes to prepare. It was relaxing to form them and paint the veins on the eyeballs.
Ingredients
6 hard boiled eggs
4 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
12 stuffed olives
Red food coloring
Preparation
1. Shell the hard boiled eggs.
2. Cut in half and remove the yolks.
3. Fill the hole left by the yolk with the softened cream cheese.
4. Stick an olive in the cream cheese and smooth the cheese around it.
5. Using a tooth pick dipped in red food coloring draw veins in the cream cheese
Lucito
The easiest of the recipes of the evening and one that had the most success, as they disappeared entirely in only a few minutes.
Ingredients
1 small package of cream cheese at room temperature
1 container of oven-baked potato sticks (straight pretzels can also be used)
2 tbs chopped salted peanuts
8 drops green food coloring
4 drops yellow food coloring
4 drops red food coloring
Preparation
1. Mix the softened cream cheese, the peanuts, and the green food coloring.
2. Add the yellow and red food coloring and mix leaving streaks.
3. Form into small balls and stick a potato stick in them.
4. Place on a wax paper sheet on a plate and refrigerate to firm up.
Lucito
Here is another simple recipe for Halloween. A simple baked sandwich decorated like a huge caterpillar. It is essentially a short baguette cut almost through in slices with some cheese and cold cuts stuck in it with a mayonnaise sauce. They are extremely tasty and look kind of great on the platter.
Dressing
Ingredients
3 tbs mayonnaise
1 tbs ketchup
1/2 tsp dried mustard
1/2 tsp dried chives
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp onion salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
4 drops blue food coloring
Preparation
1. Mix all the ingredients together.
Caterpillar
Ingredients
1 short baguette
6 slices yellow American cheese
6 slices cold cuts
2 thin celery sticks
2 olives
3 thin baby carrots
Preparation
1. Make 12 cuts in the bread almost all the way through.
2. In each alternate cuts place a tsp of the dressing and a slice of cold cut in a folded slice of cheese.
3. Wrap the baguette in aluminum foil and heat in a 375F oven for 10 minutes until the cheese melts and the bread is nice and crisp.
4. Unwrap the baguette and spread the remaining dressing on top of the baguette.
5. Punch 2 holes in the front and insert the celery sticks to act as antennas.
6. Place the two olives on toothpicks and place in front of the antennas.
7. Make 3 small holes in the back and place the small carrots in them.
8. Serve by cutting the bread in the slices where there is not stuffing.
Lucito
One of the Witches’ Hands well cooked.
The Padrino wrote to me tonight that I should put the recipes for the silly Halloween food I prepared for the party last Saturday, as there was still time to do so before Halloween. So here it goes. The first recipe is simply made with some flattened chicken breast cut in the shapes of hands with a pair of scissors, then breaded and deep fried. They are simple to make and looks very realistic. The pus sauce is simply some mayonnaise mixed with ketchup and a few drops of yellow food coloring. If you mix it unevenly leaving some streaks of red and yellow the effect is pretty realistic
A flattened ‘bistec’ of chicken breast. Each breast half yields 2 ‘bistecs’
The ‘bistec’ cut into a hand shape.
Dredging the chicken in flour.
Ready to do the breading.
Cooking one of the hands.
Witches’ Hands
Ingredients
4 ‘bistecs’ of chicken breast
4 heaping tbs flour
1 heaping tsp onion powder
1 heaping tsp dried herbes de Provence, finely ground
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
2 eggs
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs heavy cream
1 1/2 cups finely crushed Corn Flakes cereal
Enough vegetable oil to pan fry the ‘bistecs’
Preparation
1. Prepare 3 bowls wide enough to be able to dip the ‘bistecs’ in them.
2. In the first bowl place flour, onion powder, herbes de Provence, garlic powder, salt and peppers, and mix with spoon until well combined.
3. In the second bowl break the 2 eggs, the tbs of olive oil, and the tbs of heavy cream.
4. With a fork whisk the eggs gently until you have a smooth homogeneous mixture.
5. In the third bowl place the crushed Corn Flakes.
6. Take the ‘bistecs’ and cut them with a pair of scissors to look like hands.
7. Take a ‘bistec’ and place in the flour bowl until well coated on both sides.
8. Pass the ‘bistec’ through the egg mixture until well coated on both sides, then let drip the excess.
9. Place the egg-coated ‘bistec’ in the crushed Corn Flakes until both sides are coated well.
10. Place on a wire rack to dry.
11. Rinse your fingers and repeat with the other ‘bistecs’.
12. Place the wire rack in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes for the breading to dry.
13. In a large frying pan, place about 1/4" of extra virgin olive oil and heat up on a medium fire.
14. Place the breaded ‘bistecs’ in the oil and cook about 3-4 minutes per side, until well browned.
15. Put on a plate lined with paper towels to drain, and then keep warm in a low oven until all the ‘bistecs’ are cooked.
Pus Sauce
Ingredients
3 tbs mayonnaise
2 tbs ketchup
3 drops yellow food coloring
Preparation
1. Mix ingredient together unevenly leaving red and yellow streaks in the mayonnaise.
2. Use as a dipping sauce for the hands…
Lucito
As mentioned previously we had a great Halloween party last Saturday night and I prepared all sort of silly stuff, some of it inspired by things I saw on the Internet. I plan to post a recipe tomorrow for the Witche’s Hands with Pus Sauce, and if you want recipes for some of the other stuff I prepared please let me know in comments or via mail. Pictures of the party are at the Sassquatch’s Lair
Here is a nice baked giant caterpillar ready to be munched by all the creepy critters invited to the party.
Here are some Vampire’s Eyes. This one did not go to well as we had four vampires at the party and they did not like the idea of some of their friends being harvested for a meal…
The Witche’s Hand did not fare too well either as there were 2 Witches and a Wizard present.
The Rat Roadkill Paté was much better appreciated, except for our pet rat who had lost his cousing in the accident that yielded the paté.
Nobody at all complained about the Crab Snot on a Stick!
Here is a closup of those deliciously rich little morsels of snot!
The pumpkin pie was not too scary except for the poison that the Wicked Witch Normita added to it. Our guess will enjoy the effect at the next full moon!
My favorite… Dragon Piss Jelly with Spiders and Vulture’s Eyes. It is a great delicacy where I come from…
Lucito
It is usual for Normita and I to return to childhood at this time of the year. We both like to decorate the house for DÃa de los Muertos and for Halloween. The holiday that is most celebrated here is the former, and the later is only a recent commercial import from the North. The sad thing is that the rich and colorful traditions of DÃa de los Muertos are slowly getting replaced by Halloween in a lot of families with young kids.
As usual we decorated the house with a hybrid of both holidays and we have our altar with offers to the deads, as well as all kid of silly Halloween decorations. Today I will carve my small pumpkin, which is about the only farm product that is very expensive here as they are all imported from the North. Only 3 years ago I could not find a proper Halloween pumpkin and I had to carve the standard ‘Calabasa de Castilla’ that most people cook with at this time of the year. In recent years small Halloween pumpkins have appeared in supermarkets, but at a ridiculous price compared to what I am used to in Canada. We used to buy fairly large pumpkins for less than $1.00 over there but here they are close to $1.00 a pound… Luckily most of the ones you find are fairly small, so you get off reasonably well.
Last year we hosted my uncle Pierre and friends who were visiting from Canada at this time of the year, and this year we decided to make a real Halloween party for the kids, meaning the both of us. Tonight we are hosting Normita’s sister with her two girls, and a friend of the family with her young son. Everybody gets disguised, and there will be prizes for the best costume, as well as lots of games for all, and a silly Halloween menu that I will prepare using some recipes that I found on the Internet. I probably heavily modify the recipes as I prepare them today, and I will keep a photographic log as I go along that I will post later in the week. Here is the menu in Spanish, and its approximate translation to English:
Halloween Menu
– Palomitas de Sangre – Bloody Popcorn
РPat̩ de Rata Atropellada РRat Roadkill Pat̩
– Mocos de Cangrejo – Crab Snot
– Ojos de Vampiro – Vampire’s Eyes
– Ponche de Mano Sangrienta – Bloody Hand Punch
– Manos de Bruja con Salsa de Pus – Witches’ Hands with Pus Sauce
– Bolsas de Granos con Salsa de Acne – Pimple Bags with Acne Sauce
– Orugas al Horno – Baked Caterpillars
– Gelatina de Pipi de Dragon con Araña y Ojos de Buitre – Dragon Piss Jelly with Spiders, and Vulture’s Eyes
– Pay de Calabasa de la Muerte – Pumpkin Pie of Death
As you might have noticed by now, both Normita and I are slowly regressing to childhood, but we enjoy the process tremendously. Hopefully next year by this time we will have moved to a larger house and we will be able to really go crazy with decorations. In the meantime we will truly enjoy our party tonight, and take pleasure in the joys of childhood as best as we can.
Lucito
Normita makes large pots of vegetable soup regularly and then brings some to work with her lunches. It is a nice complement to whatever we are eating and gives us a healthy dose of vegetables and fiber. Recently, when I was chatting with my dad on the phone from Canada, he asked me to post a good soup recipe for fall that is easy to make. This recipe from Normita is both easy to make and great tasting. It makes a large portion of soup that will last the week. We normally make it on Sunday and when cooled put it in smaller plastic containers and we have soup for 4-5 days.
Ingredients
2 16 ounce cans of diced tomatoes
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
4 quarts of chicken stock (can be home made, canned, or made with powder or cubes)
1 entire bunch of celery, chopped
1 pound of fresh string beans cut into 1" pieces
1 pound carrots, chopped
2 sweet green peppers, chopped
1 1/2 cup of small soup pasta
Salt and pepper to taste
(optionally 1 jalapeño pepper cooked with the vegetable to enhance the flavor)
Preparation
1. Place the vegetables with the chicken stock in a large stock pot and simmer over low heat until the vegetables are cooked but still crunchy. About 30 minutes.
2. Add the pasta and simmer a few minutes, then cut the heat to let them absorb the stock.
3. Serve immediately or separate in plastic containers to have soup for the week.
Lucito
For all of those visitor that come daily to this recipe we have posted a lighter and quicker to prepare version of this traditional Jalisco dish HERE. This other recipe is one that we normally eat at home at least once or twice a month. Enjoy both recipes.
The served pozole de Jalisco before topping it with goodies
Last Mexican Independence Day we prepared some pozole for the entire family as part of the traditional celebration for the day. There are many styles of this dish and we prepare the version from Jalisco, which is a red pozole that is colored by the addition of dried chiles. Other regions like the Pozole Verde de Guerrero use green tomatillos, and there are also white versions without chiles. The red pozole from Jalisco is the traditional one in Normita’s family as her grandmother was from Guadalajara in the hearth of Jalisco.
The pozole corn soaking
The pork we used for the recipe
The chicken we used in the recipe
The pig’s ears used in the recipe
Pozole is essentially a rich corn soup made with a special variety of corn with very large kernels called ‘cacahuacintle’. The corn kernels are puffed by a special treatment with a light solution of lime, the stuff you make mortar with, not the fruit. It is a process that yields results a bit like when you make popcorn, but with juicy moist kernels of corn. I will not go through the process of preparing the corn, as we normally buy the corn at the market already prepared and we only have to soak it overnight and then cook it for 3 to 4 hours. If somebody wants the instruction to prepare the corn from scratch, please let me know and I will post them.
The meat dredged in flour
Browning the meat
The browned meat
To this nice rich soup normally some pork or chicken meat is added. We decided to prepare both types of meats as well as some pig’s ears. You can also add bits and pieces of pig’s head if you wish.
The cooking stock
The stock is ready
Adding the cooked corn to the stock
The meat is cooked in one large pot and the stock will become the base for the soup. The corn is cooked in its own separate pot, and is added to the stock prior to seasoning. Once cooked all of the meat is shredded using your fingers and the method of serving is to put the type of meat you prefer in an empty bowl, then ladle the corn soup over it.
The dried chiles
The soaking chiles
Traditionally the soup is topped at the table with finely shredded lettuce (we used romaine), finely chopped red onions, crushed dried oregano, finely chopped radish, and lime juice. It is served, at least in our family, with some nice ‘tostadas de crema’, essentially tostadas (flat fried corn tortillas) topped with a thick layer of thick clotted cream, salt, and grated ‘queso fresco’. Of course both the pozole and the tostadas can be spiced up with the addition of your favorite spicy sauce, and we had a variety on had for the occasion.
The shredded chicked waiting to be served
The basic pozole itself is not very spicy as the chiles used (anchos and guajillos) give a lot of flavor, but not much heat. This is a great dish to prepare for a group as it tastes much better if prepare in large quantities. It is ideal for the type of celebrations like we had, and is traditionally served on Mexican Independence Day’s eve (September 15).
The table is ready
Ingredients
Corn Base
3-4 pounds of prepared pozole or hominy type corn
1 medium peeled onion
1 large peeled clove of elephant garlic or 5 regular ones
7 quarts water
Meat Base
2 pounds of whole chicken breast with bone
2 pounds of pork meat with bones, a mixture of ribs and leg is great
1/2 pound pig’s ears
1 large peeled carrot
1 medium peeled onion
1 large branch of celery
1 large peeled clove of elephant garlic or 5 regular ones
Flour to dredge the meat
Coarse sea salt to taste
4 tbs of olive oil
5 chiles ancho, seeded and with ribs and stems removed
5 chiles guajillo, seeded and with ribs and stems removed
7 quarts strong chicken or pork stock
Garnish
4 Ounces finely chopped red onion
4 Ounces finely chopped radish
4 Ounces finely chopped romaine lettuce
12 limes halved
Dry oregano
Your favorite chile salsa
Preparation
1. Soak the corn for 24 hours and change the water at least 4 times.
2. In a large stock pot put the prepared corn in enough water to cover deeply.
3. Add the onion and garlic to the pot.
4. Simmer for 3 to 4 hours until the corn is tender and doubles in size opening like popcorn.
5. Reserve the cooked corn.
6. Once the corn starts cooking cut the meat in medium sized chunks.
7. Dredge the meat in flour.
8. In another large stock pot heat up the oil and brown the meat in batches to seal it.
9. Once the meat is all browned return it to the stock pot and add the stock.
10. Add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and salt to taste to the pot.
11. Simmer the meat for 2-3 hours until tender and skim the surface to remove foam and fat regularly.
12. While the corn and meat are cooking prepare the chiles and soak them in some warm chicken stock.
13. Remove the meat from the stock and let cool.
14. Once the meat is cooled shred it with your fingers.
15. Pass the stock where the meat cooked through a fine sieve and return it to the stock pot.
16. Add the cooked corn to the stock.
17. Puré the chiles with the stock they were soaked in and add to the stock pot.
18. Mix well and gently simmer for 15 minutes then add salt if needed.
19. Place meat or chicken at the bottom of a large soup bowl and ladle the pozole over it.
20. At the table each tops their pozole with lettuce, onions, radishes, oregano, lime juice, and their favorite salsa.
Lucito
Some months ago I read an article somewhere that supposedly posted the definite list of items that you need to start a kitchen, and another one for cooks who are experts to upgrade their equipment. The list missed a lot of the basic essentials that I think most people should have at home, even those who do not do much cooking. A lot of the items on the basic list I had read were also superfluous, at least for most people who are starting up. Of course it all depends on personal choice, what type of cooking you prefer doing, and how much you are into cooking.
I personally tend to move from one extreme to another in what I use in the kitchen, from using a few basic tools for everything, to using specific tools for specific tasks. It all depends on my mood of the moment, and probably the phase of the moon too. These days I have been paying more attention to what I use daily in the kitchen, and I noticed that the basic tools that I employ the most are not very numerous. Everybody has their preferences, so what I say here should be taken with a grain of salt, as I am sure a lot of people out there could not life without their preferred gadgets or kitchen tools. The following list highlights the basic essentials that everybody interested in cooking should have in their kitchen, and it is based on my own experience. In subsequent posts I will list other items that I think should form the basis of a good kitchen. At a later date I will expand on each item on the various lists to explain my personal preferences.
Basic Essentials (Gadgets)
1. A solid smooth-bladed 8" chef’s knife
2. A 3" smooth-bladed paring knife
3. A sharpening stone (or sharpening gadget that actually works)
4. A sharpening steel
5. A serrated blade bread knife
6. A vegetable peeler
7. A box grater
8. A manual can and bottle opener
9. 3 large kitchen spoons
10. A soup ladle
11. A slotted spoon
12. A potato masher
13. A metal spatula
14. A bamboo spatula
15. A plastic spatula
16. 3 X silicone rubber spatulas of various sizes
17. 2 X 2 cup measuring cups
18. A 4 cup or larger measuring cup
19. A set of small measuring cups
20. A set of measuring spoons
21. A corkscrew
22. A wire whisk
Lucito