Mini Chocoflanes

These chocolate flan desserts are also called "pastelitos imposibles" because the cake portion magically rises to the top of the dish as it cooks (due to expansion making it lighter than the flan above). In fact, it's relatively easy to make. This is an intensely chocolate-y version from Cooks Country February/March 2023. They claim that you must use Cajete instead of the easier-to-find Dulce de Leche due to the latter's density, but that doesn't make sense due to the layering, and is empirically untrue. The hardest part is combining the ingredients for the cake as it's quite dense; the flan is trivial in a blender.

Dulce de Leche on top, then flan, and cake on bottom

This makes six 8-ounce ramekins, or four 12-ounce oven-safe ceramic bowls that are large enough to split between two people; eight 6-ounce ramekins would be a fine size for a single person.

 90 ml          6 Tbs     Cajeta or Dulce de Leche

Cake:

  70 g          6 Tbs     Sugar

  45 g          5 Tbs     AP Flour

 0.6 g        1/8 tsp     Baking Soda

 0.8 g        1/8 tsp     Table Salt

  57 g        1/3 C       Bittersweet Chocolate Chips

  60 ml       1/4 C       Whole Milk

  22 g        1/4 C       Dutch-processed cocoa powder

  37 ml     2 1/2 Tbs     Vegetable Oil

   1 large      1 large   Egg

1.25 ml       1/4 tsp     Vanilla Extract

Flan:

 235 ml         1 C       Evaporated Milk

 235 ml         1 C       Sweetened Condensed Milk

  85 g          3 ounce   Cream Cheese

   2 large      2 large   Eggs

  10 ml         2 tsp     Vanilla Extract

   1 g        1/8 tsp     Table Salt

Heat oven to 160C/325F (convection is fine, too).

Spray ramekins with oil or paint with butter.

Find a lasagna pan or similar, big enough to hold your ramekins in a water bath.

If necessary, heat Cajeta or Dulce de Leche gently in a microwave until spoonable, then add a Tablespoon to each of the ramekins.

Cake:

Whisk Sugar, Flour, Baking Soda, and Salt.

Heat Chocolate, Milk, and Cocoa in a small sauce pan over low heat until melted and smooth, 3-5 minutes; let cool slightly, about 5 minutes.

Whisk Oil, Egg, and Vanilla into chocolate mixture until smooth.

Whisk in sugar mixture and combine thoroughly; this is pretty stiff but it will come together.

Divide the thick batter between the ramekins, trying not to mix into the Cajeta/Dulce too much.

Flan:

Bring 1 quart/liter of Water to boil for the bain marie.

Process all ingredients in a blender until smooth.

Divide flan mixture between the ramekins; this loose liquid probably won't disturb the thick cake batter much.

Add the ramekins to the lasagne pan then fill this pan with boiling water to make a bain marie.

Spray oil or smear butter over a piece of foil and cover the bain marie.

Bake 50 minutes for small ramekins, or 70 minutes for larger ones; you want enough time for the egg to set the flan.

Test that a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Remove ramekins from water and let cool, at least an hour.

Invert the ramekins onto serving plates, and top with remaining sauce from the ramekins.

You can eat these barely cool, and they'll be pretty soft, but they're quite good after being chilled in a fridge where they will firm up a bit.

Quesabirria Tacos: rich and crunchy

We first had Birria tacos at Fusion Street Eatery, in Dunedin, Florida: they were slow-cooked beef shank, wrapped in a crunchy fried tortilla. A week later, I stumbled across this YouTube video which was clear and direct: soak chilis, blend, fry in oil, cook meat in the sauce; to assemble, paint the corn tortillas with oil from the sauce, fry then fill and fold, fry until crisp. The "quesa" in the name is from letting the cheese melt on the tortilla while it's frying.

I cut down his recipe by half: 6 tacos were enough for the two of us for dinner, and we had lots of the cooked meat, sauce, and oil to make more anytime we want -- enough for two more dinners. My first stab at this took more than the 30 minutes prep that the chef claims, but now that I understand the process, I expect that's a reasonable time; the meat cooks in the sauce for 3 hours, so plan ahead. The recipe's slightly adapted from the print version on Vice.com.

For sauce and meat:

2 oz    60 g   guajillo chilies (about 8), stemmed
4              morita/chipotle chilies, stemmed
1              ancho chilies, stemmed
1              small plum tomato
2              garlic cloves, peeled
1 tsp          oregano
1 tsp          ground cumin
1/2 tsp        black peppercorns
1 whole        clove
1              bay leaf

1/4            white onion, peeled 
1/8 C   60 g   kosher salt
2.5 Tbs 40 ml  white vinegar

2.5 Lb   1 Kg  beef shoulder (or shank, etc)
3/4 C  200 ml  vegetable oil

For the tacos and serving:

Shredded cheese: Monterey Jack,Cheddar, Mozzarella, or Mexican cheese
Corn tortillas
Cilantro, minced
White onion, finely chopped (we used pickled red onion)
Lime wedges

Cover chilis and tomato with 4 C / 1 L water, bring to boil, remove from heat, cover, and let soften 10 minutes. Strain, retaining the liquid.

Put 2 C / 500 ml liquid into a blender, and blend the chilis and tomato, and all the other sauce ingredients (excluding the meat and oil).  Add the oil to a sauce pan over medium heat and fry the sauce for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

While that's cooking, cut the meat into roughly  2 inch / 5 cm cubes, and season generously with salt and pepper. 

When the sauce is finished cooking, add the meat, and the remaining 2 C / 500 ml chili liquid to the pot. Cook until meat is tender, about three hours. 

Strain everything through a coarse sieve to hold back seeds and other bitter bits. Shred the meat by hand, forks, or a large knife.

Skim off the fat from the top of the sauce into a separate small bowl. I had about a cup / 250 ml of oil and 2 cups / 500 ml of sauce.

Sauce, meat, oil

Add some of the sauce to the meat to keep it moist.

To assemble, dip one side of the tortilla in oil, or paint it with a pastry brush. Place on hot skillet until pliable, top with cheese, meat, cilantro, onions, etc. Fold over the tortilla before it becomes too firm, and continue to fry until crispy; flip and crisp the other side. 

To serve, add some sauce to a small bowl, and add cilantro and onion. You can stuff other condiments in the taco as you like. Dip the taco in the sauce and "shove it in your mouth". It's a bit messy, but so good.

Hot Dog Tamales for Cinco de Mayo

The world did not need this, but it seemed fun, worked well and they tasted pretty good! We had to scale up the recipe from Serious Eats due to my misreading of masa dough for masa flour, but the amount of dough was just right for a package of hot dogs from Costco (in a taste test, we preferred the snap and flavor of Costco's to the name brand). They're typically made with lard, but we also had some flavorful veal fat so we used a mixture.

450 g    3 3/4 C      Masa Harina flour

600 ml   2 1/2 C      Veal Stock or other stock for hydration

280 g   10     oz wt  Lard and Veal Fat

 12 g    2 1/2 tsp    Baking Powder

 15 g    1     Tbs    Kosher Salt

300 ml   1 1/4 C      Stock 

Mix the Masa Harina flour in the large quantity of Stock; let rest 15 minuts to hydrate.

Whip Lard, Salt and Baking powder for a minute until fluffy; if your fat is soft, as our Veal fat was, it won't fluff as much as harder Pork Lard.

Beat in 1/4 of the hydrated Masa at a time, until it's all used.

Add the final Stock and whip: it should be the texture of hummus, cover and rest 1 hour.

Hydrate at least twice as many corn husks as you have hot dogs.

Spread a portion of dough on each husk, put a halved dog on and wrap; fold up the bottom and tie to seal.

Steam about an hour.

Serve with condiments like avocado, cortido, and salsa.