This was funny b/c I just felt like making Mexican food this week and then realized as I was making the menus the day of that it was Cinco de Mayo. My Burqueña Sense must have been tingling….
Everyone really like the way this menu came together. The puerco de verdolagas (which had dandelion greens and quelites in it instead of verdolagas b/c they’re not growing yet) was delicious, but adding the crema really took it to the next level–balancing out the spiciness and letting the herbal notes of the foraged greens come through. I’ve always liked a salsa morita but never knew how to make it, so that was a nice addition to my repertoire. I overcooked the beans twice for the Giant Chipotle Beans, but it still came out OK, so you know that’s a resilient recipe. And the fig “tostadas” were worth the work (the recipe appears to be gone, but you just poach some quartered dried figs till soft in port, sugar, and water with a vanilla bean, add cinnamon, puree half the mixture, add butter to the other half and cook down till syrupy, then spread the puree on little “tostadas” of blind-baked puff pastry or pie crust and top with the fig compote; serve with vanilla ice cream). The hot chocolate came out *way* too thick when it sat, more like Spanish dipping chocolate than Belgian drinking chocolate, so I’d use whole milk next time instead of half-and-half.
The Rookery 