This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
12/01/2022 12:00 AMThere’s nothing I love better than to spend long hours in the bookstore or library, browsing the shelves, looking for some new treasure to add to my already overloaded bookshelves at home.
But, sometimes I just don’t have the time and that’s when I’m grateful to my local booksellers for their recommendations, or to my local librarians for their curated “new titles” display. On a recent trip to the library, I grabbed one such new title, a cookbook, Provecho, in large part due to the beautiful cover.
When I finally had time to browse through it I found the vegan Mexican cookbook crammed with recipes I can’t wait to try. There are soups, all sorts of options for tacos and empanadas, arepas, burritos, and quesadillas that felt familiar and yet, with a vegan twist, creatively different at the same time. For example, the empanada options include potatoes seasoned with onion, garlic, cilantro, cumin, paprika, sage, and white wine vinegar; another with lentils and cauliflower with turmeric and nutmeg; and a third with mushroom, spinach, and (vegan) cheese. They all looked delicious.
A section on desserts and sweets includes a no-bake cheesecake with a graham cracker crust, almond cookies called Galletas de Almendras loaded with cinnamon, a ginger cookie with cloves and cinnamon, two more empanadas (sweet potato with nutmeg, ginger, and cloves; apple with cinnamon and lemon), and a vegan condensed milk that looks like it would be amazing in hot coffee, iced coffee, or a traditional Mexican horchata, sweetened with dates and spiced up with cinnamon.
The author, Edgar Castrejón, is a chef and recipe developer who follows a plant-based diet but wanted to create recipes that would also honor the spirit of the meat-heavy classics he loved as a first-generation Mexican American growing up in Oakland. The cookbook has gained quite a deal of acclaim, with reviewers from several national publications dubbing it one of the best cookbooks of the year.
The first recipe I plan to try is this pozole rojo which looks delicious and like something I would love to share with family and friends on a cold winter’s day. “Provecho,“ says Castrejón, is a word that “imparts a sense of joy, an appreciation for community, and gratitude for all that we share,” and it’s an expression that sums up these recipes exactly.
Pozole Rojo
From Provecho
By Edgar Castrejón
Makes four to six servings
Ingredients
5 guajillo chiles
2 California chiles
3 tablespoons avocado oil
1 medium yellow or white onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 ½ pounds oyster mushrooms or lion’s mane mushrooms, roughly chopped
3 dried bay leaves
3 garlic cloves
8 cups vegetable broth
5 cans hominy, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon Himalayan pink salt
To serve with the soup: ½ medium cabbage shredded, 8 to 10 radishes, 4 limes cut into wedges, 2 cups chopped cilantro leaves and stems, corn tortilla chips or corn tortillas
Directions
Pop the stems off all the chiles and rip the chiles a bit until you can shake out and discard the seeds. Transfer the chiles to a small saucepan and add just enough water to make the chiles float. Bring to a boil over high heat and boil for 8 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, warm the avocado oil. Add the onion, mushrooms, bay leaves, and cook, stirring, for about eight minutes. Turn the heat low and make sure to retain some of the moisture released from the mushrooms, which will help flavor the broth.
Drain chiles and place in a high-powered blender with the garlic and 4 cups of the vegetable broth. Blend until mostly smooth, about 30 seconds.
Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve directly into the pot, discard the solids. Add hominy, salt, and remaining broth. Turn heat to medium high, cover the pot, and cook, undisturbed for about 45 minutes or until hominy is cooked through. Add additional water or broth if it evaporates too quickly. Remove and discard bay leaves.
Let pozole cool for about 10 minutes. Serve with cabbage, radishes, lime wedges, cilantro, and chips as desired.