#CincoDeMayo Recipes, Equipment, Drool-worth photos

Cinco de Mayo Main Course: Slow-Cooker Pork with Mole sauce

That would be pronounced mol-AY sauce. No relation to the small mammal. Mole is a Mexican chili-type sauce that frequently includes nuts and chocolate in its list of ingredients.

The actual prep time of this version is pretty minimal since the bulk of the cooking is done in a crockpot. I used a pork tenderloin for the meat (just one, because it's the right amount to feed my little family), but it would be quite tasty with a different pork roast. And there was way more sauce than I needed for my one lone strip of pork. I think you could easily go up to a 2 or 3 pound roast without doubling the sauce recipe.

You can serve this as a main dish or shred/chunk it and use for taco filling. Warning: the chipotle packs a punch. If you don't like your food picante you might want to cut back on that ingredient or substitute some mild chili powder instead.

Ingredients

• Pork roast (up to 3 pounds)
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons chipotle chilis in adobo sauce
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup whole almonds
• 2 ounces dark chocolate
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 slices sandwich bread

Directions

1. Heat oil over medium heat in a frying pan. Brown the pork on all sides then transfer to a slow cooker.
2. In a blender, combine the tomatoes, chipotle, garlic, onion, almonds, chocolate, cinnamon, and bread. Blend well. This will look like a thick chili sauce.
3. Pour sauce over the pork roast.
4. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.

Un postre para Cinco de Mayo: Flan

Flan is probably the most familiar traditional Mexican dessert. Fans of French food would call Flan creme caramel (assuming their tongue doesn't get twisted on that sentence) and is a vanilla custard that is baked with its own caramel sauce. And unless my math is way wrong, this is not a terribly high calorie dessert (see note at the end).

I adapted this recipe from an old cookbook to make 6 individual desserts instead of one larger one and it is pretty easy and goes together fast. Well, not counting mastering the can opener. Yes, I'm a blonde. I can manage baking with a water bath but opening a can without electricity is beyond me. Go figure.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 13-oz evaporated milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla**
• dash salt

Directions

1. Arrange 6 4-6oz custard cups (or ramekins if you're feeling extra-fancy) in a 9x13 baking pan and preheat the oven to 350. Set a teakettle to boil water. Or a medium-sized sauce pan when  you remember that you don't actually own a tea kettle (2 electric mixers, 3 sizes of muffin tins, about 20 cake pans, yes. Tea kettle, no. Logical explanation? No clue.).
2. In a small sauce pan, cook the 1/3 cup sugar over medium heat until it melts. It will look like powder for what seems like forever and then all of a sudden you look away (and, you know, try to open the evaporated milk) and it is magically transformed into caramel.
   
3. Distribute the caramel among the custard cups. it should just cover the bottoms of each.
4. In a mixing bowl, combine the eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, and salt with either a whisk or a mixer until well blended.
5. Ladle the custard over the caramel in each cup through a fine-mesh strainer. The strainer will catch the odd jiggly bits of the eggs and any stray bits of vanilla bean. You could skip this, but who wants jiggly bits in their flan anyway.
6. Place the 9x13 pan holding the custard cups on the center rack of the oven. Pour boiling water into the 9x13 pan but outside the cups (being really careful not to pour it INTO the custard cups...don't ask me why I mention that...I think I need to shop for a tea kettle).
7. Bake about 40 minutes or until the custard is about as firm as jello when shook. Remove them from the water bath and cool.
8. To serve, run a knife around the outside edge of each flan to loosen it. Invert on a plate allowing the caramel sauce to run over the top.

*Caloric math: By reading the nutrition facts on each of the ingredients, I get the following: evaporated milk (480) + 2 eggs (70 each) + 1/4 cup sugar (193) + 1/3 cup sugar (255) = 1068 for the whole batch. Divide by 6 and it's 178 calories per serving.

**My bottle looks suspiciously like Penzey's Mexican Vanilla, which I vastly prefer over anything from the supermarket (don't even talk to me about "imitation" vanilla), or even Penzey's own Madagascar vanilla (Yep, there's a difference. Go smell them). But I'll tell you a secret:  my vanilla is homemade. That, I suppose, is a post for another day.

All About Tequila...and How to make a Good Margarita

Tequila is an alcoholic beverage distilled from the Blue Agave cactus. It is brewed in Mexico, traditionally in the state of Jalisco and a few other, very limited, nearby regions. Much like Champagne in France, you can’t brew Agave liquor just anywhere and slap the name tequila on it.

Foodies might recognize Agave as a trendy new kind of sweetener. Yep, it’s the same Agave plant. Tequila is to Agave as rum is to sugar cane, except that it seems to have taken the world longer to recognize the potential of the un-fermented cactus syrup.

Como se hace (how it's made)
Tequila is made by first harvesting the large Agave plants by hand. The sharp leaves are chopped off, revealing the pinapple-shaped core (called a piña, which means, ironically enough, pineapple). The sugary syrup inside the Agave piñas are pressed out and fermented.

After the first round of fermentation, the alcohol is distilled into a clear tequila called Silver. Yep, if you’re drinking “Silver” it’s the entry-level stuff.

Tequila that is not sold as Silver goes through additional aging and distilling processes. The best, smoothest, most flavorful tequilas are both aged and distilled multiple times.

The grades of tequila vary from Blanco or Plata (white or silver), Joven or Oro (gold, one notch up from Silver, a mixture of white and Reposado), Reposado (aged between two months and one year), Añejo (aged between one and three years, and Extra Añejo (aged a minimum of three years).

What to look for in a good tequila
No worm. No, real tequila that has been properly distilled will not have a worm. Ever, If you see a creepy crawley in your liquor, it was added for effect (or you need to choose a more sanitary restaurant).

100% Agave. If you don’t see this on the label, what you are drinking is not pure tequila but a mix of agave and grain alcohol. With less expensive "silver" and “gold” tequilas, the grain alcohol may smooth out the natural flavors of the agave while keeping the price low. But, in my opinion, if you want to drink tequila, drink tequila, not a mixto.

Reposado or Añejo. Like any good aged alcohol worth drinking, Reposados and Añejos are expensive. And worth every penny. If you’re looking for quantity in your acohol consumption, by all means pickup up a bottle of the cheapest Blanco you can find. But if you’re sipping it straight or want to make your own “top-shelf” margaritas, don’t skimp. You will notice the difference.

Good Margaritas
Ingredients

• 1 part tequila (roughly 1 shot/drink)
• 3 parts Margarita mix
• up to 1 shot Grand Marnier or Triple Sec per drink
• 1/4 to 1/2 of an orange per drink (or limes if you prefer)
• An orange or lime wedge and sugar or salt for rimming the glass
• ice, either crushed or cubes

Directions

1. Tell your husband you want a margarita. Watch him sprint for the basement.
2. What?
3. Ok, if you insist.
4. Cut a small slice in the top of one wedge of orange or lime and rub around the rim of each margarita glass. Pour sugar or salt onto a shallow bowl or plate. Dip the wet glasses in the sugar/salt to make a nice crusty rim.
5. Combine tequila, margarita mix, Grand Mariner/Triple Sec, and fruit in a blender. Mix well.
6. If citrus pulp bothers you, strain it now.
7. Serve on the rocks, or add more ice to the blender.

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Dust off your sombreros and serapes, because all this week will be dedicated to one of spring's best holidays...Cinco de Mayo.