Why hello there, and welcome back to Kitchen Catastrophe, hopefully at a more reasonable time than last week. I’m your temporally troubled author, Jon O’Guin, and today’s recipe is a follow-up to last week’s post, a precursor for a theoretical Thursday post, and hopefully a lead-in to a month or so of cool content. That’s a lot of expectations to put on a post that may also be the most legally questionable post I’ve done in a while, but I think it can stand it. For those just looking to get some eats, here’s a link. For everyone else, let’s dig in.

Dropping Molly Together

So, today’s post is meant to introduce a new theme month, with perhaps the weirdest theme yet: It’s Molly May!

No, Rod. Rod. Cut the Music. I said MOLLY May, Rod. MOLLY.

I rambled briefly about this a couple weeks ago, but in case you missed it: back in February/March, I churned out like, SEVEN recipes from the same cookbook, because I wasn’t planning posts, I was just trying to force myself to cook SOMETHING. All of those recipes came from Molly Baz’s “Cook This Book”, which you may remember from the K-Bas and Cabbage soup recipe. Since then, I was turning over in my head how best to handle this. And I specifically called out that I’d probably do a theme month. But it also felt weird to do a theme month dedicated to one person. At least, since I’ve never done it before, it felt weird. It might actually provide some desperately needed structure to the blog if like, every month we did a micro “Julie and Julia” or…”Andrew and Alinea”? Allen. Allen and Alinea. But that’s a thought for a later date. Anywho, I decided I needed a way to minimize the weirdness, saw Molly Yeh’s cookbook, and said “oh, cool. If we do a COUPLE Mollys (heh), that breaks it up a little.” Which immediately led to me spending $5 a month to get this recipe, for maximum overlap.

I’ll take eight!

After all, it is the first week of May, and thus Cinco de Mayo will be this Thursday, which felt like a perfect opportunity to talk about the holiday, since it would BE the holiday. But to do that, I wanted today’s recipe to be connected with Mexico. And in Cook This Book, there’s not a lot in the way of Mexican food. But on Molly’s WEBSITE, where you can pay $5 a month to get a new recipe every week (which, and I will pointedly shake the Patreon link a little here, is a lot more than I ASK FOR…but then again, she’s also a professional chef, and I’m just a semi-professional funny man and food fact dude.), she had this recipe. And while the tacos themselves may or may not be “authentic”, Salsa Macha is definitely a legitimate Mexican salsa, so I thought it’d be a perfect lead-in for the Cinco De Mayo discussion. So let’s break it down!

Makin’ Macha Outta Nada

Maybe I’m being pessimistic because it’s a little late, but I wrote that title, thought “that’s the smartest joke we’re gonna make this post”, and now I just want to stop before it all goes downhill. But I will be brave, and push on. Salsa Macha is an interesting dish, because its name is a pretty weird word. If you know Spanish, you know that most words have a gender, and that adjectives are supposed to agree with the noun they’re applied to. The Spanish word for “tall” is “alt-“, with say, “el vaso alto” meaning “the tall glass” (“glass” being masculine) and “la taza alta” meaning “the tall cup”. (“Cup” is feminine) There’s a whole big thing on how this interacts with non-binary people and whether or not you could theoretically create a new de-gendered version of the language This is where you may here/see “latinx”, a term developed by some Spanish speakers for use online back in the 90s, but that is broadly disliked by most others, since Spanish is a vastly more phonetic language than English, and there just isn’t a precedent for pronouncing an X in that space, or, a newer form that’s less obstrusive, but still not widely accepted, of “latine” (-e endings being…not really a thing for nouns or adjectives, but making much more phonotactic sense.) Others hold that it doesn’t really matter, because the whole “what words are what gender” thing is pretty arbitrary: Dresses are masculine, while both light and darkness are feminine.

All of that is to say that “macha” is the feminine form of a pretty deeply masculine word: macho.

No, Homer, I…you know what? Sure. Go for it.

Machismo is a very complicated and somewhat fascinating topic to explore, but I just think it’s funny that Salsa Macha literally translates to “Macho Sauce”, but because salsa is feminine, “macho” has to be as well. I’ve heard from some Spanish speakers that in this usage, the word means something like “brave”.

Anywho, Salsa macha is a very interesting topic, because it’s also relatively comparable to other dishes we’ve discussed, just nowhere near Mexico. See, Salsa Macha is, basically, Mexican Chili Crisp/Mexican Chili OIl

Remember this spicy little boy?

To be clearer: Salsa macha comes from Veracruz, and it consists of a couple universal components: you need oil, dried chiles, garlic, and then some kind of nut/seed, and acid. My first encounters with the dish are a version that uses chile de arbol, which I understand typically uses sesame seeds as the nut component, and is one of those classic “this is the dangerously hot one” at Mexican restaurants. You probably recognize it: the one where there’s a layer of red oil over a thick paste of pulverized chiles.

Technically, you can swap out acids, nuts, and chiles however you please: You can make it with walnuts,  and New Mexico chlies. You can do it with Cayenne and Cashews. This version uses peanuts, chile negro (also called Pasilla), and some lime juice. Other recipes use vinegar for the acid, but the basics are all roughly the same.

For this version, tear up your dried peppers. If you’re playing with spicy ones, make sure to use protection. Pasillas are pretty mild, so I raw-dogged it.

I hated writing that, so let me quickly go punch my hands into some hot oil to atone.

Then, fry some garlic and peanuts in a cup of neutral oil.  Once the garlic is starting to brown, toss in  your torn up chiles, toss to coat, and remove from the heat. Let the chiles steep in the hot oil, imbuing it with their spice and smoke.

Once that’s ready, pour the whole she-bang into a food processor,  and pulse until it’s mostly broken down. You want little nuggets of nuts for texture, but nothing so big it’ll be distracting. Season with lime juice and salt, and boom, you’ve got Salsa Macha.

Compare this to the earlier pic, and I think you can really see the “Mexican chili crisp” idea.

Like I said, this is basically just Chili Crisp: it’s smoky, crunchy, and really brings that depth of flavor, that ‘OMMPH” of something special, to tacos.

Speaking of, let’s make those too.    

Slap My Grease and Call me Frico

What a…drastic change in title quality. Anyway, the recipe for the tacos themselves are pretty straight forward, if somewhat spectacular: these are vegetarian (though definitely not vegan) tacos, with a filling of roasted shiitakes: you cut up around a pound and a quarter, pound and a half of shiitakes. Should be more than a pound once stemmed. Toss them with oil, and some spices (salt, pepper. Smoked paprika, oregano), and roast them until they’re kind of…carnitas style, if that makes sense: you want some crisp edges, but not charred and fully dried out.

Seen here raw because, as ever, I write my text without double-checking my pictures.

Then, you can make a garlic crema, which I’m not going to replicate here. I thought it was quite good, I just feel weird about fully reproducing a recipe from what amounts to a paid service. Which is a weird mental line to draw: I’m fine replicating stuff from cookbooks all the time, but I try not to directly copy from other blogs, since those are monetized through traffic. And while I am directly paying Molly for access to her site, and therefore, I guess, have legally paid for the recipe and can do with it what I like, it feels closer to the blog space than the book one.  I WILL say that it’s also pretty simple, consisting of sour cream, garlic, an herb, and a seasoning, so if you want to try and build your own, go buck wild.

Lastly, it’s time for the tacos themselves, and this is where Title Jon’s aggressive phrasing becomes useful. Molly’s system for getting some texture on these tacos is to, in essence, make Monterey Jack frico linings for each taco. If it’s been a while, to remind you: frico is the term for a sheet of fried or baked cheese, formed into a single unit. You know those little strands of cheese  that hang out when you’re making a grilled cheese or tortilla, and they go all brown and crispy? Imagine that, but a two-inch circle.

For visual reference: a disc of fried cheese. It looks like: a disc of fried cheese.

This DEMANDS a good non-stick pan, since you’re just dry-frying cheese, slapping a tortilla on top, and flipping it when you think the cheese is toasted enough. I stayed cautious on mine, with none of mine really getting “crunchy”, but just adding a nice toasted sheet of cheese to the inside of the tortillas.

On top of the cheese, ladle some mushroom, a dab of crema, and a spoon of salsa macha, and you’ve got some damn good tacos.

GAZE UPON MY WORKS YE MIGHTY.

The fried-cheese taco sheets are a bit of a pain to handle (you gotta let them cool for a couple minutes, or they will burn your fingers), but the mixture is great: the mushrooms are just barely ‘spicy’ (‘spiced’ might be a better word), and the salsa macha is delightful for that savory, smoky depth. The ONE thing I would warn about is that, if you’re on the higher end of mushrooms, make sure you’re also on the higher end of tortillas: each tortilla is supposed to hold around 2-3 ounces of mushrooms. Also, this is another recipe, just like last week, where some prep time or assistance really helps out: You will make FAR more salsa macha than you will use in this recipe. (I think you’ll use maybe a quarter to a third.), and it should keep for around a month in the fridge, so you can make this or similar recipes around 4 times off that one mix. Getting the salsa macha out of the way and toasting the tortillas while the mushrooms roast makes this pretty easy, and definitely worth it.

LATER THIS WEEK: WE TALK ABOUT THE INFAMOUS CINCO DE DRINKO.

NEXT WEEK: THE BLOG GETS STARCHED, AS WE EITHER TALK POTATOES OR LENTILS.

Recipe

Mushroom Tacos and Salsa Macha

Makes 8 tacos, and one jar of salsa

Ingredients

                Salsa Macha

6 cloves of garlic

2 oz dried chiles, torn into 2” pieces

½ cup roasted peanuts

2 limes

1 ½ tsp kosher salt

                Tacos

1 ¼ - 1 1/2 lbs shiitake mushrooms

¼ cup olive oil

¾ tsp smoked paprika

¾ tsp dried oregano

¾ tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp kosher salt

8 small corn tortillas (“Street taco” size)

2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Cilantro and avocados for service

Sour Cream (or Garlic Crema) for service

Preparation

1. Make the Salsa Macha: In a medium sauce pan, pour the oil over the peanuts and garlic cloves. Place the saucepan over medium heat, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-7 minutes, until the garlic is just starting to brown in spots/on the edges.

2. Remove the pan from the heat, add in the chiles, tossing to ensure the chiles are covered in oil, and let steep for 15 minutes. Once steeped, pour into a food processor, and pulse until peanuts and chiles are broken down. You want like, almost pesto-sized little chunks, but a little bigger. Add the juice of 2 limes and the salt, stir to combine. Season to taste, and serve or store.

3. Make the tacos: Preheat your oven to 375. Stem the mushrooms, brush or wash clean, and cut into ½” thick slices, and toss on a rimmed baking sheet with the oil, oregano, paprika, salt and pepper. Roast for 20-25 minutes, until deeply browned and crispy in spots.

4.  Make the tortillas: working with 1 tortilla and ¼ cup cheese at a time, sprinkle the cheese in a circular even layer in a nonstick pan, over medium heat. Allow it to melt for 30-45 seconds, until starting to brown on the edges. Place the tortilla on top of the cheese, covering most, but not all of the cheese. Cook another 30-45 seconds, until cheese is browned, and flip, toasting tortilla for 20 seconds. Then move to a plate, and repeat with remaining tortillas and cheese.

5. Add ¼ cup mushrooms to each tortilla, adding salsa macha, sour cream, slices of avocado and cilantro, as desired.