Saturday with Friends

Last night we had visitors from Michigan, school mate of Jim’s. I decided to do Mexican assuming that all would be tired of Thanksgiving type goodies. For appetizers I recreated two from Thanksgiving, the cheese with honey and nuts and the crab artichoke dip. I also served nuts and olives and was supposed to serve Guacamole, but it is still in the refrigerator; should have made a list. Our main dish was wonderful, however I will warn you that it takes every pot in the house plus some you had to wash out and reuse. This can be a vegetarian dish, but I added leftover turkey.
Pumpkin Enchilada Casserole with Red Chile Sauce and Poblano-Pepita Salsa, from Fine Cooking Magazine
Serves 6-8
For the Sauce:
3 oz. dried California chiles (who knows, but I found ones called Anaheim, what could be more CA than the home of Disneyland.)
¾ oz. dried ancho chiles
6 large garlic cloves, peeled
2 t. dried oregano
1T EVOO
1T all-purpose flour
1T light brown sugar
Kosher salt
For the Filling
2T EVOO
1 large yellow onion, cut into small dice
4 large garlic, finely chopped
1T ground cumin
3 C ½ “diced peeled, seeded pumpkin (be sure to use pie pumpkin, not a jack-o-lantern)
½ C chicken or vegetable broth
2 C diced leftover roasted turkey or chicken (optional)
Kosher Salt
For Assembly:
EVOO
10 6” corn tortillas
3 C packed grated Monterey Jack cheese
1 recipe Poblano-Pepita Salsa
Crema Mexicana or Sour Cream for serving
Make the Sauce:
1. Stem, seed, and rinse the chilies. Put the chilies, garlic, oregano, and 3 cups water in a 3 QT. saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to low. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the chilies and the garlic are very tender, about 30 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover and let stand for 30 minutes, Puree in a blender. (Peeling and seeding the chiles should be a man’s job. My hands were a mess. Anything from this sauce that does not make it in the blender turns whatever it hits red. Put blender jar in the sink and pour in the sauce. Make sure it is very cool as if this blows the blender lid, your kitchen is history.)
2. Heat the EVOO in a 4 qt. saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and stir until it begins to color, 2-3 minutes. Carefully stir in the chile mixture-it will spatter-and bring to a boil. Stir in the sugar and 2 t. salt. Keep warm. (I put it will sputter in italics as this is a gross understatement. I had red spats from the ceiling to the floor. I was close to loosing it at this point, when Jim offered to clean up.
Make the Filling:
1. Heat the EVOO in a 12” skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring until nicely browned, about 11 minutes. Add the garlic and cook stirring for 2 minutes. Add the cumin and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the pumpkin and stir to coat. Lower the heat to medium, add the broth, cover, and simmer until the pumpkin is just tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the turkey and season to taste with salt.
2. I had cut the pumpkin in half and roasted it skin side up for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Eliminates the very difficult peeling process. Mine were not perfect cubes of pumpkin, but no one seemed to notice. I did add the broth; I used turkey broth, and kept it on warm.
Assemble:
1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Brush a 9x13 pan with EVOO. Spread ¾ C of sauce over the bottom of the dish.
2. Heat a griddle or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat and brush lightly with oil. One at a time, heat 5 tortillas until softened and pliable, about 1 minute per side. Arrange the griddled tortillas over the sauce in the pan.
3. Spread1/2 C sauce over the tortillas. Spoon the filling evenly over the sauce and top with 1 C cheese. Drizzle ½ C sauce over the cheese.
4. Heat the remaining tortillas on the griddle. Arrange the tortillas evenly over the sauce, filling, and cheese.
5. Spread the remaining sauce over the tortillas and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
6. Bake until the cheese bubbles and the casserole is heated through, 30-35 minutes. Let sit for at least 10 minutes before serving with the salsa and sour cream.
I assembled by 3:00 and just topped with wax paper until I was ready to cook. I started about 10:00 AM and was done by 3:00. That did not include Jim helping with clean up along the way. Also you are not done yet. In the middle while waiting for steps to finish I made the
Poblano-Pepita Salsa
Yields about 2 ½ Cups
2 medium poblano chiles
1# tomatillos, husked and rinsed
½ C unsalted, roasted, hulled pepitas (I roast my nuts by putting them in a skillet and keep stirring. When half look light brown I turn off the heat and keep stirring. Never leave the stove for a minute while doing this)
¼ C packed chopped fresh cilantro
Kosher Salt
1. Char the chiles over a gas burner or under a broiler until blackened on all sides, 6-8 minutes. I do mine stove top and stick a long fork in them to keep turning. Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic, and cool. Peel, stem, seed, and finely chop the chiles.
2. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the tomatillos, turning occasionally, until dark brown in spots, 8-10 minutes. Transfer to a plate to cool.
3. Coarsely chop the pepitas in a food processor; transfer to a medium bowl. Without washing the processor, add the tomatillos and process to the consistency of a chunky sauce. Transfer to the bowl with the pepitas, Stir in the chiles, cilantro and salt to taste.
I just put the cilantro and peppers in at the same time as the tomatillos and let the processor do the work.
This meal was excellent. Worth the work and mess, and I do mean work and mess. Serve with the Sour Cream and Salsa.
Next dessert, this was a winner Just double or triple the recipe to save you the time of making it over and over again. It said 6 servings, but I only got 4.
Maple-Pecan Sundaes with Candied Bacon, Bon Appetite, October 2010.
4 bacon slices
2T pure maple sugar, divided
¾ C pure maple syrup-preferably Grade B
2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
1 T fresh lemon juice
1 T finely chopped crystallized ginger
½ C pecan halves, toasted
Vanilla ice cream
1. Preheat oven to 44 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Place rack in the center of the foil. Lay bacon slices on rack. Sprinkle 1 T maple sugar evenly over bacon. Bake until sugar is melted about 8 minutes. Sprinkle remaining 1T sugar over same side of bacon. Bake until bacon is deep brown and glazed, 12-14 minutes longer. Remove from oven.
2. Preheat broiler. Broil bacon until sugar on top bubbles thickly, watching closely to prevent burning, 1-2 minutes. Cool bacon completely on rack. Cut into ¼” dice. (I just broke mine in small pieces with a knife. Don’t use thick bacon but not too thin either as the sugar will not have time to melt before you burn the bacon.)
3. Combine maple syrup and cinnamon sticks in deep medium saucepan and bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-high and simmer until sauce is thickened and reduced to ½-3/4 C, about 5 minutes. Remove cinnamon sticks.
4. Mix lemon juice and ginger into sauce.
5. Stir pecans and bacon into the maple sauce.
6. Scoop ice cream into dessert dishes. Spoon sauce over and serve.
I’ve never tasted a better sauce for ice cream ever.