Brownie cupcakes

I made these about a week ago. They were good, but almost more like cupcakes than brownies.

[NEXT TIME: For chewy brownies, try removing baking powder, not sifting the flour, and mixing the batter more roughly than muffin batter. Also try swirling in ordinary peanut butter or peanut butter chips and not adding the second 12 oz chocolate chips.]

• 16 oz unsalted butter
• 16 oz plus 12 oz semisweet chocolate chips, divided
• 6 ounces unsweetened cocoa powder
  
• 6 extra-large eggs
• 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
• 18 oz demerrara sugar
• 10 oz all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Maldon sea salt (more if excluding peanut butter?)
  
• 6 oz smooth peanut butter (used Berkeley natural hippy stuff that doesn't separate)
  

Melt together the butter, 16 oz of chocolate chips, the unsweetened chocolate and the peanut butter in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, vanilla, and sugar. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, the baking powder, and salt. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture.

Add the remaining 12 ounces of chocolate chips to the chocolate batter.

Put brownie mixture into mini-cupcake (1 oz, 24) pan.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 17-18 minutes. If you freeze them, they can be revived at 350 F for 8 minutes (starting from a cold toaster oven).

Red Chile Enchiladas

[NOTES: Rick Bayless uses ancho chiles, guajillo chiles, black peppercorns and poultry broth in his red chile sauce for enchiladas. He uses the poultry broth to thin out the sauce to the consistency of a light tomato sauce. He says that New Mexico chiles have a bland, red-chile flavor, and that ancho chiles taste reminiscent of milk chocolate and create a red/brown sauce. Next time, I'd like to use half New Mexico and half Ancho chiles + black pepper + a spicy little chile + possibly more water or white wine to thin out the sauce.]

Ever since I finished my Legal Aid externship in East Harlem, I've missed the El Paso Taqueria enchiladas with red chile sauce. Since then, I've had far too many red enchiladas with tomato-based sauce. I never thought to blame the tomatoes until I found this red chile enchiladas recipe in Saveur (June 2009), from a family in Las Cruces, near El Paso. The sauce is simple and exactly what I've been looking for.

We headed to Las Palma and Casa Lucas Market for fresh tortillas and lots of chile peppers.

Tonight, I just made 9 enchiladas, but after realizing what a pain it is to deal with the food processor for so little sauce, I've decided to scale up the recipe so I can freeze the sauce.

Sauce for 24 - 27 enchiladas (8 - 9 portions):
40 dried New Mexico and/or Ancho chiles
optional: add 1 - 2 small hot chiles with seeds
20 cloves garlic, roughly sliced
4 limes, juiced
2 tBsp ground cumin
4 tsp demerara sugar

Remove chile stems and deseed them. Roughly chop them. (Try pulsing them in the spice grinder next.)

Soak them in 4 cups of boiling hot water for 20+ minutes.

Saute garlic in dutch oven for 2 minutes in grapeseed oil.

Pour chiles and soaking water into a food processor. Add sauteed garlic, lime juice and cumin. Pulse until smooth.

Strain through spider sieve (not mesh sieve) to remove solids.

Put chile sauce in dutch oven. Heat sauce over medium heat for a few minutes, then turn off heat.


Building the enchiladas:
corn tortillas (3 per person)
optional: shredded, cooked chicken
grated mozzarella
grated sharp cheddar
1 chopped red onion (note that onions will taste raw if not precooked)
cotija cheese, crumbled
sour cream or crema

Fry each tortilla in grapeseed oil until crispy - about 15 to 20 seconds. Drain each one and stack them on a plate.

Preheat oven to 450F.

Place enchilada on a baking sheet.
Coat one side with sauce using a spoon.
Add onion, cheese and (optional) chicken.
Wrap up, folded side down.

Bake for 5 minutes.

Plate 3 per person. Top with crumbled cotija cheese and sour cream.
Serve immediately with raw cabbage salad and plaintain chips.

Pulled Braised Chicken

First night: serve with buttermilk biscuits and peas.
Otherwise, use as a basic item for the week.

Ingredients

Fresh:
boneless chicken thighs - 4 lbs
carrots - 2 large ones, in large pieces
yellow onion - 1 large, in large pieces
(meyer) lemon - juice from 1 lemon

garlic - 6 cloves, smashed
1 slice of bacon (browned before chicken)

Pantry:

olive oil
IPA beer - 1 cup or more
salt and pepper
2 whole dried red chili peppers, stems removed and ground

bay leaf - 2

peel from half a lemon

Cook
Brown chicken in french oven for 6 - 7 minutes on each side (in batches).
Salt and pepper while browning
Remove chicken.
Brown onions, chili peppers, bay leaf for 5 minutes.
Deglaze with beer.

Add carrots, onion, lemon juice, lemon peel, garlic, and hot water to barely cover.
Bring to a boil.

Simmer for 45 minutes.

Remove chicken, pull apart.
Remove everything else, store or serve separately.
Separate broth from oil.
Put chicken back into broth.
Add olive oil.

Chinese Pork Buns

For my 30th birthday party:
1. Steamed Buns
2. Braised Pork Shoulder with Chinese Spices
3. Pickles
4. Shitake mushrooms (for vegetarians)

1. Steamed Buns
[To be inserted - Alton Brown + Momofuku = 50 buns]

2. Braised Pork Shoulder with Chinese spices
Adapted from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food, p. 139.

Clean a 6 lb bone-in pork shoulder.

The night before roasting, rub pork shoulder with this mixture:

3/4 tBsp salt, ground

1/4 tsp black pepper, ground

grapeseed oil

Slice a head of garlic into slivers, poke holes into pork shoulder with a knife, and put slivers in the holes.

Cover and refrigerate the pork shoulder until 1 hour before cooking.

Brown the pork shoulder, and remove.

Place in Le Creuset french oven:

1 yellow onion (or the whites of a bunch of scallions), roughly sliced

1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 tsp demerara sugar

1/8 cup soy sauce
1 cup Chinese rice wine
hot water to cover
spices (see below)

In a cheese cloth bag:
4 star anise
1/2 cinnamon stick
1 ginger root, sliced
orange zest strips (from 1/2 an orange)
1 red chili pepper, broken in half

Preheat oven to 375F. Place meat on top of vegetables, and pour in hot water. Water should reach 1/3 way up the roast. Add spice bag.

Roast in oven, covered, for 75 minutes. Turn roast over and cook for another 30 minutes. Turn and cook for 30 minute increments until roast is tender. Total roasting time should be about 3 hours.

Remove roast, shred meat. Remove vegetables, and place meat back into sauce. Serve with steamed buns, scallions and pickles.

Quinoa salad

bed of salad greens (little gem, chickweed or spinach)

cooked quinoa

cooked lentils

chopped raw tomatoes

chopped raw shallots

olive oil

lemon juice

chopped avocado

ground pepper

sea salt

optional: grated parmesan, pumpkin seeds, roasted garlic