By Sidonie Maroon, The Food Co-op Culinary Educator, abluedotkitchen.com

Recipes included: Pumpkin Seed Mole with Pork Shoulder and Roasted Veggies, Corn Tortillas for Beginners, Instant Pot Black Bean Enchilada Sauce and Refried Beans Oaxacan Style

Chipotle—perfect with beans and spring greens

I joined a cookbook of the month club in 1987 and remember the excitement when my first order arrived. Two of the cookbooks influenced my entire career, Greens by Deborah Madison and Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless.

Despite its wavy pages, sauce stains and fingermarks. Authentic Mexican still has its cochineal red cover with a painting of Woman with Fish by Francisco Zuniga. It’s a classic and set my standards

Cook From The Heart — that means cook for everyone the way you love your family.

Stay Curious and Brave — seek new ingredients, learn new techniques, and study regional food cultures.

Don’t be Flavor Lazy — cook it right and never shirk your responsibility to create the best food you are capable of. Convenience should never sacrifice taste.

If you want to become a better cook — I challenge you to own this book, or his later book Mexico One Plate at a Time, and cook nothing but Mexican for an entire month. You think I’m crazy? Perhaps, but if you follow my advice, your cooking world will shift. After a while you won’t need to follow the recipes; ingredients and techniques will live in your bones, and you can cook from what you have and what’s in season. Incorporating what you’ve learned into your everyday flow is where you’ll want to end up.

Greens and Beans

Yesterday, I harvested a bed of overwintered spinach, chickweed and dandelion greens. There are so many amazing greens coming in — overwintered kale, chard, collards, fresh nettles and the most amazing fresh spinach! I had black beans cooking in the Instant Pot and quinoa in the rice cooker.

Quinoa and Greens

To cook quinoa in a rice cooker: 1 cup quinoa to 2 cups water and a pinch of salt. Set on the white rice or regular cycle. When the cycle is halfway through, open the lid and toss in 3 cups of chopped greens. They steam and are perfect to fold into the quinoa.

How I make black beans

Put 1 ½ cups dry black beans in the Instant Pot with water to cover by two inches (no need to soak). Add 1 teaspoon of sea salt, a head of minced garlic, and two dried pasilla or ancho chilies. Set to high pressure for 45 minutes with a natural release. When the beans are done, puree the chilies, minus the stems, in a cup of bean water and add it back to the pot. Tasting is where the magic happens, add a tablespoon of vinegar and ½ teaspoon more salt.

Chipotle, Chipotle

I made chipotle salsa to go with the meal and used chipotle in adobo sauce. Amazingly, I had overwintered cilantro. I like to skillet blanch my white onions to remove their bite. I bring water to a boil in a large low skillet, add thinly sliced onions, bring them back to a boil for 1 minute. Then I strain and run them under cold water to stop the cooking.

Oh, and I made a homemade garlic chorizo that features chipotle. Did you know chipotle are smoked jalapenos? ¡Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Spicy Chorizo with Chipotle Salsa

The combo for beans and greens or breakfast eggs

Spicy Garlic Chorizo

Makes enough to season 1lb ground meat

Use it as a fresh sausage forming into meatballs or fry it in a skillet as you would for ground beef.

Ingredients

1 lb ground pork, or meat of choice

Seasoning Mix

Dry

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon toasted cumin seed

½ teaspoon chipotle powder, preferably ground from dried chili

1 tablespoon ancho chili powder, preferably ground from dried chili

2 teaspoons sweet paprika

½ teaspoon red chili powder or flakes

Wet

2 tablespoons fresh oregano, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon sherry or tequila

Directions

1. Gather ingredients

2. Toast the cumin seed until fragrant. If using whole dried chilies, please do the flavor is amazing, then pull off their tops and discard the seeds. I often use the seeds for other dishes. Using a spice grinder or coffee mill, grind the dry ingredients together into a powder.

3. Using a small food processor, puree the wet and dry ingredients together. Fold in the oregano after processing.

4. Evenly mix the seasoning into the meat. If time allows, let it marinate, refrigerated, for several hours.

5. To cook, either form into small tablespoon sized balls and bake at 425 f for 12 to 15 minutes or fry loose in a skillet. It’s wonderful mixed into an egg scramble.

Chipotle Salsa

Makes 1 quart

Easy

Ingredients

1 white onion, thinly chopped and blanched

28 ounces diced tomatoes, I used canned

½ cup packed fresh cilantro, about ½ of a bunch

2 chipotle in adobo sauce

2 tablespoons lime juice and zest of lime

1 ½ teaspoons sea salt

½ teaspoon toasted cumin, ground

½ teaspoon toasted anise seed, ground

1 teaspoon sugar

Directions

1. Gather ingredients

2. In a low skillet, bring water to a boil, add the chopped white onion, bring back to a boil for 1 minute. Strain and run under cold water.

3. In a small cast iron pan, toast the cumin and anise seeds until fragrant. Using a spice or coffee grinder, grind into a rough powder. Once you get used to it, this process comes naturally. I have a baby cast iron pan just for toasting spices.

4. In a food processor, pulse all the ingredients together into a chunky sauce. The sauce improves as it sits. Taste and add more lime if needed.

Pumpkin seed mole with pork shoulder and roasted veggies

Serves 4-6

1 hour

Let the Instant Pot create succulent pull apart pork, while you roast mole ingredients in the oven. The mole, a vibrant green, is creamy delicious and definitely company worthy. Serve it with roasted, in season, veggies and pork. The recipe’s not complicated, and everything comes together at the same time.

Ingredients

For Mole Roasting

1 large white onion, chopped

6 medium tomatillos, papery skins removed, chopped

6 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed

2 Anaheim or poblano chilies, tops and seeds removed, chopped

1 tablespoon avocado oil

For Instant Pot

2-3 lbs pork shoulder

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup water

For finishing mole

1 cup green pumpkin seeds, toasted

1 cup cilantro chopped

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried thyme

½ teaspoon anise seed

1 teaspoon sea salt

If needed: tabasco sauce and lime juice

For roasted in season veggies. I used:

2 medium zucchini, cut into a large dice

2 Yukon gold potatoes, cut into chunks

Directions

Preparation

Completely read through the recipe and assemble all the equipment and ingredients.

Preheat the oven to 450F Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. (400F for a convection oven)

Roasting

Prep both the roasted mole and roasted veggie ingredients on two separate baking sheets. Lay each on their baking sheets and massage with oil. Roast the mole tray for 25 minutes. When the mole tray comes out, then put in the other tray with seasonal veggies in and roast for 20 to 25 minutes at the same temperature.

Instant Pot

Add the pork, salt and water to the Instant Pot. Set to high pressure for 45 minutes and allow a natural release. When done, let the pork cool and shred the meat, removing some of the fat if desired. Strain the broth and reserve for the sauce.

Finishing Mole

Over a medium heat, in a heavy-bottomed skillet, toast the pumpkin seeds for 5 minutes or until they smell toasty and start to pop. Let them cool.

Add the roasted mole ingredients, and finishing mole ingredients to a high-powered blender (I used a Vitamix), with all the strained pork broth. Blend until smooth. Taste, and if needed add tabasco sauce and/ or lime, small amounts at a time. The amounts will depend on how hot the peppers are, and how sour the tomatillos. They can vary a great deal.

To Serve

Serve the sauce with the pulled pork and roasted veggies.

Notes: You can also make this recipe with leftover chicken and broth from another meal. Skip the Instant Pot ingredients and directions. To make it vegetarian, use vegetable broth, skip the meat and serve with roasted veggies.

Instant Pot Black Bean Enchilada Sauce and Refried Beans

Makes 5 cups beans and 2 cups sauce

1 ½ hours including cooking time

You get the flavorful sauce and refried beans all in one. Use this recipe to make black bean enchiladas, by dipping soft corn tortillas in the sauce, layering cheese inside and folding into fourths. Serve the refried beans on the side with a spicy salsa.

Instant Pot Ingredients

2 cups dried black beans, rinsed and picked through

6 cups water

1 white onion sliced

6 cloves garlic, peeled

1 dried pasilla chili

1 dried ancho chili

½ teaspoon anise seed

2 bay leaves

2 teaspoons sea salt

1 tablespoon avocado oil

Finishing ingredients for bean sauce

1 cup water

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Finishing ingredients for the beans

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons avocado oil

2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar

Directions

Instant Pot

Add the rinsed and picked over dried beans to the pot with the other ingredients, stir to combine. Check the seal, put on the lid and set to high pressure for 25 minutes with a natural release.

Finishing the Sauce

Strain the cooked beans and flavor ingredients and reserve the bean liquor, adding it back to the Instant Pot. Take the chilies out of the strained beans, remove their tops, and rinse the seeds away, a few seeds are ok. Add the chilies to a high-speed blender, with 1 cup of water and 1 cup cooked beans. Puree until smooth. Add the puree to the bean liquor. Set the Instant Pot to medium saute and simmer the sauce down for 15 minutes, reducing the heat, if necessary, and stirring occasionally so that the sauce doesn’t burn. It should thicken but still pourable. Taste and add the salt and vinegar.

Finishing the beans

Add beans and flavor additions to a high-powered blender with 2 tablespoons avocado oil and 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar.

Notes: You can freeze the extra refried black beans and sauce in small containers for quick meals. This is an excellent recipe for making a quick batch of meals for later.

Corn Tortillas for beginners

Makes 12 (6-inch) tortillas

30 minutes

This is a versatile way to make corn tortillas. You can also use the recipe to make flatbreads out of buckwheat, toasted millet or teff flours, or a combination instead of using corn.

Ingredients for corn tortillas

1 cup (125g) masa harina

2/3 cup (100g) sorghum flour

1/3 cup (50g) potato starch

2 tablespoons (10g) flax meal

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 1/4 cups boiling water

Directions

Mix the dry ingredients together and add the boiling water. Stir until a soft dough forms.

Knead the dough together and pinch it into 12 even sized balls.

Griddle Directions

Preheat a griddle on high for 15 minutes. Using a tortilla press, press each dough ball between two sheets of parchment paper. They’ll be about 6 inches in diameter.

Cook the tortillas until brown spots appear on their bottoms, about three minutes.

Flip the tortilla and cook the other side for another two minutes.

Serve immediately. You can also reheat them.