SSC's Cinco de Most Awesome: Mexican Fusion Edition!

Boston has a lot to offer: it's a great sports town, you can walk almost anywhere, and I always get a warm fuzzy feeling when a townie calls me "feckin retaded," but one thing our fair city is seriously missing is good Mexican food. That's where we come in! The West Coast ladies of SSC decided to take a stand and fight back by celebrating Cinco de Mayo week (yes, the 5th of May lasts a week for us) with Mexican inspired cuisine. Since we already had a Tex-Mex night, we decided we needed to kick things up a notch and infuse Mexican dishes with some of our other international favorites. The results are not only spectacularly weird, but just plain spectacular!


Mole Pad Thai
Feeds a lot!

3 boneless chicken breasts
Mole sauce*
2 14 oz boxes of rice noodles
2 tablespoons oil
Unsalted roasted peanuts, chopped finely
1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 limes, cut into 6 wedges each

Bring large pot of water with a large pinch of salt to a boil. Lower water to medium heat and poach chicken breasts until they are fully cooked, about 20 minutes.

When breast are cooled shred and chop into shall pieces bring large water to boil. Turn heat off and submerge noodles into the water until noodles are soft, about 11 minutes.

Heat oil in large frying pan. Fry noodles with chicken and mole sauce, you want to use enough mole sauce to lightly coat noodles and meat, but no more than that.

Serve with peanuts, cilantro and lime on side

*I made my own mole a while ago so I used what I had in the freezer but I highly
recommend just buying it as it is extremely time consuming… One jar of Dona
Maria brand Mexican Mole sauce should be plenty. That being said, if you would
like my mole recipe just email us and I will gladly send it to you.



Italian Nachos

The secret to nachos is baking it in layers. Unfortunately, we figured this out after the chips got soggy so we had something more like chilaquiles but hey, even soggy they were delicious,
so who cares?



Thick corn tortilla chips
Bolognese sauce
Shredded mozzarella
Ricotta
Peppercini

Preheat oven to 350˚

Lay one layer of chips on baking pan. Spoon Bolognese sauce on chips and put mozzarella cheese on chips. Bake for 5 minutes and then do the same with another layer on top, repeat one more time for third layer. Spoon ricotta and peppercini liberally on nachos.


Bolognese Sauce

2 lbs lean ground beef
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon basil
salt and pepper to taste
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
28 oz can diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons oregano
2 tablespoons basil
2 cups red wine
salt and pepper to taste

Heat large frying pan. Cook meat with spices until fully cooked. Strain to get rid of fat and the set aside.

Heat oil in large pot. Cook onion and garlic until onion is golden brown. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, herbs and wine. Bring to a boil then reduce to simmer, cook for 35 minutes.

Blend tomato sauce in blender or with handheld immersion blender. Add meat and bring back
to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.



Scandinavian Quesadillas with Chipotle Dipping Sauce

For Quesadillas:
12 taco size flour tortillas
3 packages lox smoked salmon
1 package goat cheese
Monterey Jack Cheese
Chives
Chipolte Dipping Sauce




Lay out 6 of the tortillas and top with all ingredients making sure cheese layers
are both on top and bottom. Top with remaining tortillas.

Place frying pan on stovetop over medium heat and coat with cooking spray before
each quesadilla is placed on pan. Grill quesadilla on both sides for 3-4 minutes or until cheese has melted and tortillas are lightly browned. Garnish with chipotle dipping sauce.

For Chipolte Dipping Sauce:
1 12oz container plain greek yogurt
2-4 tbsp chipotle salsa (Chipotle salsa can be found in a can or jar and is found in the
international section of most grocery stores.)

Thoroughly mix yogurt with chipolte salsa to preferred spicy level.



All-American Choco-tacos!
Remember those crazy Choco-tacos you used to buy in
your school cafeteria? These are like 8 zillion times more awesome.

For crepe taco shells:
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 to 3 teaspoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
Magic Shell
vanilla ice cream
peanuts

For crepe shells: (Any crepe recipe should work here.)
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar. Gradually add in the milk, vanilla, and melted butter, stirring to combine. Add the flour and salt. Beat until smooth.

Heat a lightly oiled, small griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. (The
smallest pan you can find the better) Pour about 1/5 cup of the batter onto the
pan for each "shell," tilting to make sure the liquid coats the surface evenly.

Cook the crepe on each side until light brown (about 1-2 minutes).
Shape the crepe around the bookbinding so it forms a taco shell mold. Freeze the crepe over
the book for ten minutes. Continue until all batter is used. (Makes about 8-10 crepe tacos.)

After shells are frozen remove each to coat with Magic Shell on inside of shell and return to freezer. If they need help keeping their shape you can use toothpicks to hold them together (while keeping ends apart). Keep in freezer for at least a full minute to harden Magic Shell.

Remove Magic Shell lined shells from freezer one at a time and fill with vanilla ice cream.
Top with magic shell and peanuts and return to freezer until ready to serve.



Booze Pairings!

Cocktails

Jamie's Sangria Smoothie

1 bottle red wine
2 cups Bacardi's coconut rum
1 can pineapple chunks in juice, including juice
2 apples (peeled)
1 lemon
1 cup frozen, unsweetened peaches
1 cup frozen, unsweetened raspberries
3/4 cup frozen, unsweetened blueberries
3/4 cup strawberries


Blend the shit out of everything. Then add liquids. Stir!


A Fancier Way to Drop your Panties
An authentic panty dropper cocktail is made with beer, so we kicked it up a notch
and made it with with sparkling wine…

½ part tequila
½ part pink lemonade
1 part sparkling wine

Pour, in order, into champagne glass.


Beer: Negra Modelo

Mexican beer lovers beware, this is nothing like the light style Corona and
Pacifico. This beer is robust, rich, and complex. This wine’s nutty and caramel
notes are a perfect compliment to the rich flavors in the mole sauce. It is a
little too rich for the lox quesadillas, though, so stick with the cocktails
when you drink those.


Wine: White Trimbach Gewurztraminer $17

This wine is the perfect compliment to spicy food. Don’t let the lychee and
apricot on the nose fool you, this is not a sweet cloying wine. This
Gewurztraminer is spicy, exotic on the palate, and surprisingly, fairly dry. It
is perfect with this menu because it cools spicy food, stands up to Bolognese,
and yet does not overpower smoked salmon. Plus, it is freakin delicious.


Wine: Red Bodegas y Vinedos Luna Beberide Mencia Bierzo $15

This bright red wine screams red berries, licorice and pepper. This drinkable
wine has great structure but no tannins so it will not interfere with spicy
food. It is the perfect companion to any spicy Latin food, fusion or no!
















Cheers!
Christa, Rachel & Phoebe





About Rachel
Rachel is the "professional drinker" of the group. She is from California but currently resides in Somerville. She graduated from Boston University's Culinary Arts program in the Fall but her true love is booze, which is why she is drinking her way through the Elizabeth Bishop and Master Sommelier programs. She has traveled the world drinking wine but her favorite spot is among her ladies...