webmztriss

Spicy, tangy, and satisfying, this is a great do-ahead (almost) one pot meal. You can make the sauce a few days in advance and add the chicken on the day of service, or even do the whole thing ahead. Use any cut of chicken on the bone. I prefer skinless thighs.

Serve with steamed rice and a green salad.

Ingredients:

2 T vegetable oil or schmaltz
1 medium onion, sliced into half moons, about 1 cup
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes, with juice
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoon true Ceylon cinnamon, or 1/2 teaspoon U.S. cinnamon
1/4 to 1/3 teaspoon ground cloves
1 to 2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1 to 2 teaspoons ground black pepper, or to taste
1 teaspoon toasted ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano, crumbled
1/2 cup dried apricots, sliced
3/4 cup pitted dried prunes, whole
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 can (20 ounces) unsweetened pineapple chunks, with juice
1/2 cup dry sherry or red wine
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 or 2 chipotle chiles, chopped

6 pounds of chicken on the bone, (thighs, split breasts etc.)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400°
2. Lay out chicken parts on sheet pans and season with salt and pepper.
3. Roast until brown.
4. When  chicken is done, reduce oven to 350º
5. While chicken cooks, heat the oil in a large heavy dutch oven or rondo over medium high heat.
6. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until golden and translucent, 3 to 4 minutes.
7. Add the tomatoes, breaking them up with your hand.
8. Add the bay leaves, ½ teaspoon of the black pepper, 1 teaspoon of the salt, the cloves, cinnamon, cumin and oregano.
9. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, 10 to 12 minutes. Puree the sauce with an immersion blender or pureé in a blender/food processor. Return to pot.
10. Bring the pureéd sauce to a boil over high heat, add the dried fruits, pineapple with its juices, sherry or red wine and vinegar.
11. Let simmer a minute, then add the chipotles.
12. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer the sauce, uncovered, about 20 minutes.
13. Add the cooked chicken to the sauce and finish in oven, 35 – 40 minutes or until chicken is cooked through

adapted from Zarela Martinez’s Food from My Heart

This cocktail is an adaptation of a recipe I found online called Baja Panties. Not only is is an awful name but the cocktail needed a bit of an adjustment too. We are bringing ingredients for this cocktail to Daniel’s for MLK weekend 2010.

here are the nominations for names:

• spiced manzana cocktail
• mexican apple pie
• ginger – apple margarita
• the charo (says melinda)

What do you think?

Ingredients

3 oz. Apple Cider
1 ½ oz. White Tequila
1 ½ oz. Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur
½ oz. Cinnamon Schnapps
juice of ½ Lime
pinch Cinnamon
pinch Salt

Method

Add ingredients to a cocktail shaker shaker half-filled with ice cubes. Shake well. Strain into cocktail glass, and serve.

healthy and happy cuzza lard

yield: makes about 10 large or 20 small tamales

This masa dough is the moistest, airiest I’ve ever tasted. The secret is the creaming of the fats and the addition of fresh corn. I used to use all butter, substituting for the lard traditional recipes call for. But lately, I’ve been using half lard/half butter. Recently there’s been a lard resurgence, due to some good press and lower price compared to butter. It turns out that lard is lower in saturated fat (the bad stuff) than butter (roughly 40 percent vs. approximately 60 percent) and contains more monounsaturated fat (the good stuff) than butter (45 percent vs. 23 percent). If this makes you squeamish – go with all butter, or if you consider yourself amongst the converted, (pro-lard as Sim says) – by all means – use all lard!

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