抖阴ap

Directions

In a bowl, combine crab, onion, celery, bell pepper, cilantro, lemon juice, and salt. Place mixture in a colander or sieve set inside a bowl. Set a small plate on the crab, weight with a soup can, cover, and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours to drain.

Transfer to a bowl and stir in mayonnaise, eggs, and chipotles. Add 3/4 cup of the bread crumbs and toss to combine. The mixture should look moist (not gummy) and should stick together without crumbling. You may need to add more bread crumbs, little by little, to achieve the desired texture.

Spread a generous layer of panko on a plate. Scoop out balls of the crab mixture, using 1/4 cup for appetizers or 1 1/2 tablespoons for cocktail servings. Drop the balls into the panko. Roll around to coat and press gently into thick patties. Shake off excess crumbs. (The crab cakes may be made to this point and refrigerated).

Heat a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add enough oil to generously cover the bottom of the pan 1/8 inch deep (about 1/4 cup). Cook the crab cakes until crisp and golden brown on both sides and firm. Drain and keep warm. Serve with a dollop of tamarind sauce and a sprinkle of diced avocado.

Tamarind Sauce

Tamarind paste may be purchased at Asian and Latin markets. Makes 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients

Directions

Break tamarind paste into pieces in a small heatproof bowl. Pour on boiling water, stir to combine, and soak for 30 minutes. Rub the paste through a coarse sieve to remove the seeds and fibrous strands. You should have about 1/4 cup of tamarind puree.

In a small saucepan, combine tamarind puree, cold water, brown sugar, lime juice, and salt. Warm over gentle heat; do not boil. Whisk in the butter and keep the sauce warm until needed.

Pollo al Asador

On the main street of Ensenada, the smell of grilling chicken starts wafting on the breeze just before the sun reaches its zenith, a siren scent that draws you halfway across town to where a busy asadero grills butterflied chickens on his huge wood-fired grill.

Nearby, the smell of wood smoke also permeates a restaurant, where plump golden brown chickens spin over blazing oak fires on makeshift rotisseries. A cook rolls out flour tortillas, flings them onto a huge comal to cook, and clips the cooked tortillas into a cloth-lined basket to be delivered to your table along with the roast chicken, a dish of charro beans, and lemon quarters. The chicken is juicy, smoky, and lightly charred. With a squirt of lemon, it might be the best chicken ever.

The process described below produces deliciously smoky, juicy chicken, without the fuss of a rotisserie. You can use any kind of chicken, but I like to use little Cornish hens – one per person. Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the wood chips in water for 1 hour. Drain and spread out in a disposable pie tin. Prepare a medium fire in a barbecue or gas grill and set the pan of chips on the fire. Close the lid until the chips begin to smoke about 5 minutes. Turn down the heat on half of the grill to medium-low.

Rinse hens and pat dry. With kitchen shears, cut out the backbone. Turn each hen breast up, grab both legs and bend the knees toward the center, popping leg joins and flattening the hen. Take hold of the wings from behind, set your thumbs on the breastbone, and press down firmly. Tuck the wings joints behind. Coat with oil and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper on all sides. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Lay the hens breast side down on the cool side of the grill. Close the lid tightly to keep in heat and smoke and cook for 15 minutes. Turn and cook breast side up for 15 minutes. Continue to cook, checking every 5 minutes, until an instant-read thermometer reads 170 degrees in the thickest part of the thigh.

Remove the hens to a warm platter and cover loosely with foil while you heat the tortillas. Serve with the natural juices from the platter poured over each serving and with the tortillas, beans, and lemon wedges.

Note: You can also do a whole chicken this way. Cut out the back and flatten the chicken. It will take about 45 minutes to cook, turning every 15 minutes.

Obleas (butter cookies with dulce de leche)

Variations: Filled cookies may be dipped in melted bittersweet chocolate. Or drizzled with melted chocolate. Dust the cookies with a little confectioners’ sugar or cocoa powder. Add a pinch of cinnamon or ground anise (not fennel) seed to the dough.

To make these cookies the traditional way, with cajeta, substitute half canned goat’s milk in the Dulce de Leche recipe. Canned goat’s milk is available in many supermarkets and Latin markets.

In this adaptation, the cookies sandwich a filling of gooey dulce de leche. Make the cookies any size from dainty (1 inch across) to overkill (3 inches). The dough is rich with butter and can be tricky to handle if it gets warm, so pop it in and out of the refrigerator as you work.

Ingredients

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, beat the butter until light and very fluffy. Stir in vanilla.

Sift together flour, sugar, and salt. Slowly beat into the butter; dough should be silky soft, but not sticky. If it sticks, work in a little more flour. Divide the dough into 4 parts and shape into flattened disks. Chill for 1 hour.

Place a piece of dough between two sheets of waxed paper or parchment paper and roll out to less than 1/8 inch thick – as thin as you can make it and still be able to handle the dough.

Peel off the top layer of paper and turn the dough upside down onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. With a sharp metal cutter, cut out 2-inch circles, leaving ½ inch between the cookies. Peel away excess dough, form it into a disk, and chill. Chill the cookies on the sheet for 10 minutes, then bake until lightly browned around the edges, 12 to 14 minutes, depending on size. Cool on a rack.

Roll and bake the remaining dough, including all scraps. When cool, sandwich two cookies together with a layer of dulce de leche.

Dulce de Leche

Make no mistake. If you make dulce de leche once, you will make it forever.

Basically, both dulce de leche and cajeta are sweetened milk boiled until it carmelizes into a thick, light brown paste. Cajeta is made wholly or partially with goat’s milk, which gives a gamey tang to the overwhelming sweetness.

The easiest way to make dulce de leche is to simmer canned sweetened condensed milk for hours, still in the can. The longer you cook it, the darker and firmer and more delicious it becomes. Once cooled, it has many uses: as a filling for prebaked tartlets or to sandwich small shortbread cookies together, as a sauce or base for ice cream, or as a filling for crepes. Dulce de leche may be thinned with more milk for use as a sauce, warmed and poured over ice cream. Then there’s the possibility of finding yourself standing in front the refrigerator with a spoon.

Makes 1 ½ cups

Set the unopened can in a deep, narrow 2-quart saucepan with a heavy bottom. Add enough water to cover the can and simmer the can for 4 hours turning it occasionally and replenishing the water as needed. Never leave the pan unattended. Allow can to cool completely at room temperature before opening. Use a flexible rubber spatula to scrape the dulce de leche into an airtight storage container. Store in the refrigerator.