Pipian Verde de Pollo (Chicken and Green Pumpkin Seed Sauce)

So I've worshiped Rick Bayless ever since I had his food for the first time when I visited Chicago in April. It was going to be a long time before I finally start reading Authentic Mexican, but lo and behold, I discover he's released an iPad app and those take much less commitment to absorb.
Anyway, here is my first go at his cuisine. Even though it has none of what I probably loved so dearly in Illinois: smoke.

from the Rick Bayless iPad app

• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram [Immediately I know that I haven't bought marjoram yet out of the forty something other things I own already]
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 3 bay leaves
• Salt (divided use)
• 6 (about 3 3/4 pounds total) bone-in chicken breast halves
• 1 1/4 cup (about 6 ounces) hulled untoasted pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 small white onion, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
• 8 ounces (5 to 6 medium) tomatillos, husked rinsed and roughly chopped
• 2 large romaine lettuce leaves, torn into large pieces
• Fresh hot green chiles to taste (roughly 2 serranos or 1 jalapeno), stemmed, seeded [You pussy] if you wish and roughly chopped
• Leaves from a small sprig of fresh epazote, plus an additional sprig for garnish [Can anyone tell me where to find fresh epazote in Boston?]
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, plus a few sprigs for garnish
• 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
• 12 ounces (about 2 medium chayotes, peeled if you wish, pitted and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 10 ounces (about 2 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  

Mise en place.


Raw pepitas.


The directions led me to believe that the seeds would all pop like popcorn and turn round in shape. I stopped when they totally looked toasted.


Marjoram, thyme, gray salt (thanks Michael Chiarello), and bay leaves. All and all the essence used to poach:


The bone-in, skin-on chicken breast for 10 minutes. They should also rest in the broth off-heat for ten more minutes... Or however long it takes me to get the endless amount of prep done.


Poached chicken.


Vegetables and sauce mised.


A 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro is no light task. I used half of a bunch of this herb.


Before. A truly rather complex sauce


After.


Cook sauce until darkened and then add 2 cups of broth.
One cup had already been used in the blender since blenders don't work without some liquid.


I steamed both the chayote and zucchini squashes.


Everything goes back in the sauce to reheat for 5 minutes.


The finished dish was quite good, but it didn't send me to heaven like the presumably chipotle-infused dishes at the Frontera Grill and the airport.
I plan on cooking through all the dishes appropriate to my situation (all main courses and can kick around the fridge for a little while) until I get sick of Mexican food or more likely just wind up cooking all five of them. There'll be an entry on Slow-Cooked Achiote Pork shortly.

Today's Menu So Far

Woke up earlier than I suspect I ever have on a day off (somewhere between 8 and 9) and thought why the hell shouldn't I make myself breakfast? I toasted a couple thin slices of a Rosemary Batard I bought at Harvest yesterday and fried a couple strips of Trader Joe's Applewood-Smoked Bacon. Then I proceeded to attempt something new: "The Best Scrambled Eggs" from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (henceforth known as HCE) . This is a recipe that should take 40 minutes to prepare and only requires occasional stirring. I turn my back to do a few minutes worth of dishes and apparently it's already done. Next time, I'll know to try it with the tiniest flame possible.
Ran a few errands (buying the camera that's allowed me to launch this blog) and picking up a few more things at Trader Joe's; eventually I came over and had some leftovers from the Sicilian Sweet and Sour Chicken I made last night. The recipe again hails from one of Mark Bittman's cookbooks; this time, The Best Recipes in the World (BRW).
As will be common practice in this blog I will list the ingredients, their amounts, and prep involved in terms of mise-en-place. If you ask me nicely I will type up recipes on a case-by-case basis and then add them to the original entry. However I encourage readers to buy at least the cookbooks I mention (if not back issues of magazines) because I do read each one cover-to-cover and I'm pretty picky as to which I buy. Though at 5 1/2 unread physical tomes (rather than ebooks I can read on-the-run), I really need to put a freeze on it.

Sweet and Sour Rabbit or Chicken

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 rabbit, cut into 8 pieces, or 1 chicken, 3 to 4 pounds, or 2 1/2 to 3 pounds chicken parts, trimmed of excess fat [I used nearly 5 lbs of bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs that worked fine. Somehow I failed to read the trimmed of excess fat part; still fine!]]
• flour for dredging
• salt and black pepper to taste [Freshly ground black pepper, ahem, because everything else is substandard. Too poor to consistently use Tellicherry black peppercorns however even though they are superior to the stuff I buy. I've been using grey salt ever since reading Michael Chiarello's Bottega. That guy has also got using a full tablespoon of salt for every quart of pasta-boiling water. Uh, I use kosher salt for applications like those]
• 1 onion, sliced
• 4 celery stalks, chopped
• 3 tablespoons drained capers
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1/4 currants or raisins [Went with currants. They were at Stop and Shop and comparable in price to the raisins. Therefore, why not?]
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup chicken stock, preferably homemade [Yeah right, I'll just used the boxed stuff as usual.]
• 1 cup red wine
• Chopped basil leaves for garnish [I'm notorious for not bothering with herb garnishes. Perhaps when I got some thriving plants going on.]

On the side, I had the Batard I previously mentioned and some packed Mesclun Mix with bottle Italian salad dressing. I realize it's a pretty big foodie rule to not used bottled dressing and make ones own, but I'm giving myself a free pass on this one.

Tonight, I will make Risotto Alla Milanese. This is something I've done at least a couple times before, and I intend on not making the same mistake of using double or triple the butter and cheese recommended like I did last time. Less risotto than a hot, way too rich and cheesy mess. Also the first time I'll be using actual homemade vegetable stock (made earlier in the month for Argentinean Acorn Squash Soup from Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian [HCEV]) instead of merely simmering a carrot, an onion, a celery stalk, and a garlic clove for 20 minutes. Bittman strongly urges people to at least do that if there's no homemade stock available. (Fun Fact: there is hardly any decent commercial beef stock available so avoid it unless you keep current with America's Test Kitchen (ATK) rankings and there is absolutely no decent commercial vegetable stock. You may as well use water.) However, the vegetable stock was just taking up valuable real estate in the freezer that I needed to free up for my Arnold Palmer cake dreamt up by Momofuku Milk Bar (MMB) genius Christina Tosi. More on this in a later post, but here's a photo as a teaser:


















Also meet my pantry, cookbooks, and extensive collection of spices:

At least 90% of the second row from the top is mine as is much of the top shelf. Clearly I will be bumping up against capacity soon, but a handful of items are already occupying the bottom shelf.

Yep, I've hardly used most of the 30 odd herbs/spices/seeds that I catalog in my red Moleskine planner along with the expiration dates, but REAL FOODIES do not buy spice blends. They make them from scratch. Plus, the range of cuisines I'm interested in cooking in are far from narrow.
For the record there are a handful of spices that made it through the extensive pruning process I performed before moving all my spices in. Hey, I'm fine with using ground cumin I didn't personally buy.

All the cookbooks from the orange-bound book to the right end of the top shelf and all the ones at the bottom are my personal collection. I have yet to read any on the bottom shelf nor the green one on the upper shelf. Can you see why I think I have a problem? There are a couple well-rated books on Indian cooking, but other than that I don't really own anything but Top Chef, ATK, and Mark Bittman cookbooks.

My precioussss... The KitchenAid stand mixer my parents bought me for Christmas and I've been using several times a week since moving to Forest Hills a little over a month ago. I haven't even broken out the food processor once! I know my parents have been in love with the MMB cookies I've made so far along with everyone else who has tried them. The Blueberry and Cream cookies I made are close enough to the real thing for me taking into account that I'm a true baking novice, but the Cornflake-Marshmallow-Cookies were far off the mark. And yet everyone still loved them.

Entries about my cooking background thus far and what prompted me to create this blog as well as more info and photos about that Arnold Palmer Cake (First cake ever, and yes, I broke all the layers.)