From Truly
Mexican, Roberto Santibañez, John Wiley & Sons, 2011.
I had recently used part of a can of
tomatillos and wanted to use up the remainder so decided to make these Mexican
noodles. It looked like an interesting dish with four different kinds of dried
chillies.
The first stage was to make the sauce. I
turned on the oven grill and placed two arbol chillies in to roast while I
prepared the tomatoes and tomatillos (interesting plurals there: tomatoes adds
‘es’ while tomatillos makes do with just ‘s’). The chillies needed watching as
they can burn quickly. When they had changed colour and added a few bits of
burn tp them they were taken out. The tomatoes were now added. They had been cored and given a small cross on the base. They went under the grill top-side up.
The tomatillos went in as they were. When the tomatillos had browned somewhat
they were taken out. The tomatoes were left until they had blackened and the
skins had split.
While the tomatoes were roasting 4 guajillo
chillies and 2 ancho chillies were split open, seeded and placed in a bowl of
water to soak.
It was now time to blend all of the
ingredients to make the sauce. The roasted arbols, the soaked guajillos and
anchos went into the blender with the tomatoes and tomatillos. With them went 5
garlic cloves, a chopped white onion, a small piece of cinnamon stick, a little
over a teaspoon of cumin seeds, a teaspoon dried Mexican oregano, 2 teaspoons
salt and ½ teaspoon sugar. A cup of stock was added and the mixture was churned
until smooth. It then went through a sieve to remove any small pieces. The
sauce was ready.
 |
| Noodles after they have been shallow fried. |
For the noodles I had purchased spaghettini.
A large saucepan was placed on the heat with about ¼ cup vegetable oil. Two
pasillla chillies were added and sautéed until they had puffed up and become
crisp. They were removed. The spaghettini was broken into halves and added a
small amount at a time to the heated oil. It was cooked until it changed
colour. Once done it went into a large bowl with kitchen paper to drain excess
oil.
Now I made a tomatillo salsa to go with the
noodles. In a blender I placed 5 tomatillos, 2 chopped red chillies, about 2
tablespoons of chopped white onion, a goodly amount of chopped coriander, a
garlic clove and some salt. These were all churned until reasonably smooth. The
salsa was made. I had a taste and it was great.
 |
| Fried noodles, fresh herb bouquet garni, tomatillo salsa, crisped pasillo chillies, and sauce ready for the final stage. |
It was now time to cook the noodles. In the
saucepan in which the noodles were cooked there was a few tablespoons of oil left
so the sauce was poured into this and cooked for a few minutes more. This
helped alleviate the rather harsh taste of the raw garlic. Now 4 cups stock
were added together with the noodles. They were stirred to fully mix and then
brought to the boil and turned to a simmer to cook. A bouquet garni was made
of 4 stems coriander, 2 stems fresh mint and 2 stems parsley. This was added
to the mixture. It took about 10 minutes for the noodles to be cooked. The
bouquet garni was removed and the noodles were served in bowls.
The noodles were now dressed with crumbled
feta cheese, some crème fraîche softened with a little water so that is was a
pouring consistency, slices of avocado, the tomatillo salsa, some of the
crisped pasillo chillies crumbled and chopped coriander.
Though a bit of work to put this all together
it was worth the effort. There was a wonderful depth of flavour to the sauce
and a warmth that was totally satisfying—not hot but a cheery warming heat. And
then there were all the additional tastes from the dressings: creamy cheese,
smoky dried chilly, the bite of the salsa.
Taste: ✔✔✔✔✔
Ease of
cooking: ✔✔
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