Finding Peace During a Difficult Week

Before this week, I never thought about how bombs are made.  Now that I’ve heard too much about the pressure cooker bombs apparently used in the Boston Marathon attack, I can’t stop thinking about the perversity of using a cooking pot to inflict brutality and violence.

Food brings people together.  It is integral to large holiday celebrations, family get-togethers, and intimate conversations.  Even when tragedy strikes or there is a death in a family, food is not just sustenance, it is comfort.  Is there a culture that doesn't have its equivalent of a host offering an overflowing platter or a small plate, urging guests to "eat, eat"?

For those of us who cook, the process is often as much of a joy as the end result. Stirring a pot of soup can be soothing and kneading dough can be cathartic.  We chop away our cares, simmer our troubles into disappearing steam, and turn an awful day into a pleasing batch of muffins.  When we are done, we feel better and eagerly await the smiles and satisfied sounds of others sipping, chewing, crunching, and munching. 

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Shrimp 101 and a Taste Test

Phil, of Stone Soup fame, has been looking for healthy and quick alternatives to chicken.  He asked me to show him how to cook with shrimp, so we did a quick lesson yesterday.  Here are the highlights:

Shrimp are Nutritious 

With the caveat that shrimp are relatively high in cholesterol, they are also:

• High in Omega-3 fatty acids (which have been found to have protective effects against heart disease, stroke and diabetes.)
• High in protein – 18 grams in only 3 ounces of shrimp.
• Low in fat and sodium with no carbohydrates (if cooked in water with no fat.)

How are shrimp sold?

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Not-Quite-Homemade Chicken Mole

Chicken with chocolate sounds weird, no?  But if the chocolate is spicy and not sweet, in a sauce that envelopes shredded chicken and the dish is served (in an enchilada or on its own) with rice and a salad of oranges and red onions, the result is delicious.  

Maybe you’ve had mole in a Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurant and didn’t even realize there was chocolate in the sauce. This quick-and-easy version uses prepared mole in a jar, but it’s still good enough to serve company.

I do plan to make mole from scratch someday, using Pati Jinich’s recipe for mole poblano, but that requires many ingredients and lots of patience.  By contrast, this chicken mole has only 4-5 ingredients (salt is optional) if you don’t count water.  I checked the ingredients in the 2 brands of mole in a jar that I have recently used (Goya and Dona Maria); both brands contains many of the ingredients in Pati’s recipe and no preservatives or other additives. 

Chicken Mole

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