Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker - Lynn Alley [11]
The combination of these ingredients in the hands of Mexican cooks has produced some of the most exciting and complex dishes on the face of the planet.
According to legend, for instance, mole poblano, Mexico’s national festive dish, was created in the sixteenth century by nuns at the Convent of Santa Rosa in Puebla de los Angeles. The story goes that the archbishop was planning a visit and the nuns had nothing suitably grand to serve him, so guided by divine inspiration, they began chopping and mixing pantry ingredients they had on hand: chiles, chocolate, nuts, day-old bread, and a host of other ingredients.
Whether the legend is true or not, its theme of loving hands combining the ingredients of two very different cultures and peoples into one magnificent creation is accurate.
Many dishes in Mexico—both ancient and modern—were baked in an oven in earthenware cazuelas for long periods of time, making dishes of both Mexico and the Southwestern United States (so influenced by Mexico) perfect candidates for adaptation to slow cookers.
WINES WITH MEXICAN FOOD
Matching wines with often complex Mexican flavors can be just about as intimidating as matching wines to complex, often fiery Indian cuisine. Not surprisingly, many of the types of wines that work well with Indian food also work well with Mexican foods.
Dry or off-dry aromatic whites such as Gewürztraminer, Riesling, Pinot Blanc and Gris, Müller-Thurgau, Albariño, and Chenin Blanc can cool the heat of dishes with lots of chiles and spices. As with Indian food, Prosecco, cava, champagne, and other sparkling wines can make refreshing pairings.
In general, I would avoid pairing tannic wines with foods rich in chiles and spices, but you never know. The sweetness of a mole poblano, for instance, might render it a good pairing with the right Cab, Nebbiolo, or Garnacha.
Wines from Spain and California might be especially good choices for your Mexican and Southwestern dishes, but you can also draw upon some of the increasingly wonderful wines being made in the Southwestern United States. One of my favorite sparkling wines, for instance, is made by the Gruet family (of Champagne fame) in southwestern New Mexico. It is very good and very reasonably priced. There are also growing fine wine industries in both Arizona (centered around Sonoita) and New Mexico.
Although winemaking in Mexico was suppressed for all but the clergy for two or three hundred years, a modern-day boutique wine industry has blossomed in the Valle de Guadalupe, just an hour and a half south of San Diego in Baja California. If you have an opportunity to taste some of the wines of this region, by all means, take it. A growing number are very good. You can occasionally find Mexican wines in American specialty wine shops, too, especially if you live in the Southwest—or you might just want to take a road trip through Mexican wine country.
MY FAVORITE CHILI
Serves 6 to 8
Chili, a quintessential slow cooker meal, is not a traditional Mexican dish. Rather, it seems to be Southwestern in its inception. It is sort of a combination of the dried beans and chiles so readily available in the Southwest with the wonderful spices brought by Europeans to Mexico. This particular version is generously seasoned with spices and chili powder and has been pieced together by me over the course of a few years. The following recipe makes a big mess o’ chili and is best done in a 6-or 7-quart slow cooker.
2 cups dried kidney, pinto, pinquito, or pink beans
6 cups water
6 allspice berries
1 stick cinnamon
½ teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
¼ teaspoon aniseed
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
½ onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, finely minced