Chicken Tamales & Roast Garlic Penne

The Food Nanny
December 22 & 23, 2008
Meal 1: Chicken Molé Tamales, Black Eyed Pea Succotash, & Winter Salad with Citrus
· To heat the tamales, either microwave them or place in a steamer basket in a sauce pot and steam for about 15 minutes. If you do not have a steamer basket simply place a small bowl in the bottom of a sauce pot. Add about a 1/2” of water. Place a plate atop the bowl inside the pot so it is above the water. Place the tamales upon the plate and proceed to steam them with the pot lid on.
· Heat the succotash in a sauté pan with a pat of butter.
· Remove the salad to a serving bowl and place the citrus segments upon it. Use the juice in bottom of the container to make a dressing by adding some salt, pepper, olive oil and perhaps a splash of good vinegar .

Meal 2: Roasted Garlic Penne with Blue Moon Spinach and Chevre, Roasted Carrots, and Ciabatta Rolls
· Warm the pasta gently in the oven at 325° for 15 or more minutes until warm, but not too hot. You do not want to over-cook the spinach.
· Heat the carrots as above or in a sauté pan with some butter.
· Warm the rolls and enjoy.

Home For the Holidays

We took some liberties this week since those not out of town are all omnivorous. We prepared a chicken rather than bean mole for the tamales. This is done ( by me at least) by poaching a chicken and using the stock to make a mole in which the shredded chicken meat is then stewed. The mole itself is composed of onions, garlic, dried chiles,spices and pumpkin or sunflower or sesame seeds. These are added, in the order given, to a sauce pan and roasted in oil until delicious in fragrance and appearance, whereupon they are flooded with the rich stock to a height 3-4 times their volume alone. This is simmered until it reduced by half and then ground in a lava stone mortar and pestle under a full moon wearing a macaw feather mask.
Kidding on that last part.
Grind the mole ( mole means 'ground' or 'crushed') in a blender or even a cuise. The resulting sauce should be thick, but certainly liquid. It keeps surprising well and is readily frozen.
And what about the sweet corn! How's that seasonal ?
Well, it's seasonal if you obtain it in season and put it up for winter eating. We purchased at the market, and froze, about 2-3 bushels of corn this summer. Aside from the work involved, it couldn't be easier. Just buy fresh corn, cut it off the cob that day and freeze the kernels in gallon ziplock bags packed to lay flay. We have learned to not underestimate the ammount of this product you may consume in the winter nor to underestimate its power to enhance a winter meal. Our method is easy and unendorsed by the powers that like to cook the life out of foods, but it delivers a product to me that easily surpasses in flavor and economy anything I could purchase. So, try it yourself this summer. If you can, go out to Pontius Farm in White Heath and pick the corn yourself and eat some raw, from the cob, standing in the dewy corn jungle, and empathizing with raccoons. An Iowan taught me that.