The Mexican Slow Cooker: Recipes for Mole, Enchiladas, Carnitas, Chile Verde Pork, and More Favorites (5 page)

This sumptuous pale-green pozole is thickened with a classic and thoroughly authentic salsa of green tomatillos and ground pumpkin seeds, spicy with green chiles and bursting with the fresh flavor of cilantro. Frying the salsa before adding it to the soup brings out its remarkable flavor. Garnishes of crunchy
chicharrón
(fried pork skin) and creamy avocado make this chicken pozole truly festive.

In a 6-quart slow cooker, combine the chicken, garlic, onion, salt, cumin seeds, hominy, broth, and water. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours, until the chicken is tender and cooked through but not falling apart. Remove the chicken and let cool. Discard the chicken bones and skin and break the meat into large pieces. Refrigerate the meat until needed. Add the epazote and continue cooking the soup on low (without the chicken) for 2 hours more.

While the soup is cooking, make the salsa. Heat a 10-inch sauté pan over medium heat. Toast the pepitas in the dry pan, stirring often, until crunchy and olive-green. Let cool completely.

Place the tomatillos in a small pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat and simmer for 5 minutes, or just until tender. Drain and place in a blender along with the cooled pepitas, onion, garlic, serranos, and cilantro. Add ½ cup broth from the slow cooker and puree, scraping down the sides several times, until very smooth, about 2 minutes. (For a smoother texture, you can press the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve, if you like.)

Heat the sauté pan over medium heat. Add the lard, then pour in the contents of the blender. Cook, stirring often, until the sauce is thickened and pale green, 5 to 7 minutes. If the sauce splatters, reduce the heat.

To finish the soup, discard the onion, garlic, and epazote. Stir the salsa into the hot soup. Add the chicken to the soup and cook on low for 30 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve in large bowls, with the garnishes alongside.

Several times each week, mobile street markets called
tianguis
bring beautiful seasonal vegetables (and just about everything else) to Mexican neighborhoods. Inspired by those markets, this simple soup is easy to put together using any vegetables you have on hand—or you can choose whatever catches your fancy at the farmers’ market. Bring out all the flavor with a final garnish of fried corn tortillas, crumbled guajillo chiles, and cotija cheese.

Combine all the soup ingredients in a 5-quart slow cooker, cover, and cook on low for 7 hours, checking occasionally and adding more water if needed. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

While the soup cooks, make the garnishes. Heat a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chiles and toast on both sides, turning occasionally and pressing down with a spatula, until dry and quite dark, but not burned. Remove from the pan. When the chiles are cool enough to handle, crumble into small pieces.

In the same skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Cut the tortillas into ½-inch squares and fry until crisp. Drain on a paper towel.

Serve the soup very hot, garnished with some of the fried tortilla squares, a sprinkle of crumbled chiles, and some cotija cheese, if desired.

Sopa de albondigas
is simple to make, especially if you have a batch of beef broth simmering away in your slow cooker. Here, the meatballs are seasoned with cilantro, oregano, and a bit of spicy green serrano chile. Squeeze a wedge of lime over the soup at the table to wake up all the flavors.

Combine the pork, beef, and eggs in a bowl using your hands. In a food processor, combine the bread crumbs, garlic, oregano, 2 teaspoons of the salt, the pepper, and cilantro and pulse until finely ground. Transfer to the bowl with the meat mixture. Add the onion and serranos to the food processor and pulse until finely minced. Add to the meat mixture and combine thoroughly. With damp hands, divide the meat mixture into 12 or 24 equal portions. Roll into balls and chill for at least 1 hour, or up to overnight.

Place the meatballs in a 5-quart slow cooker. Add the broth and the remaining 1 teaspoon salt. Cover and cook on low until the meatballs are firm and cooked through, about 4 hours.

Serve hot in large bowls, garnished with the parsley and diced tomatoes. Pass the cooked rice on the side and serve with small bowls of lime,
chicharrón
, and diced avocado, on the table.

This mole is not a thick sauce but a classic Mexican soup, aromatic with dried chiles and epazote and loaded with chunks of meat and vegetables. A proper
mole de olla
always includes pieces of fresh corn and
ejotes
(green beans). This version also includes delicious little masa dumplings called
bolitas
.

Heat a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chiles and toast on both sides, turning occasionally and pressing down with a spatula, until they soften and blister. Remove from the pan. When the chiles are cool enough to handle, tear them into small pieces and place in a heatproof bowl. Add the hot water and soak the chiles, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.

While the chiles are soaking, place the tomatillos in a small saucepan, cover with water, and simmer for 5 minutes, or just until tender. Drain.

In a blender, combine the chiles and their soaking liquid, tomatillos, onion, and garlic and puree until very smooth. (For a smoother texture, you can press the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve, if you like.)

Heat the oil in a 10-inch skillet. Add the puree and cook, stirring, until the sauce is thickened and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a 5-quart slow cooker along with the beef, water, salt, cumin, green beans, zucchini, and corn. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.

When the soup is almost ready, make the
bolitas
. About 15 minutes before you’re ready to serve the soup, add the epazote and
bolitas,
cover, and cook until the
bolitas
float to the surface, about 15 minutes. Serve hot with wedges of avocado and warm tortillas.

In a bowl, combine the milk and butter. Stir in the egg and salt until thoroughly combined. With a fork, stir in the masa harina to form a dough that is soft but not sticky. With damp hands, form small teaspoonfuls of the masa into balls. Flatten each ball slightly, and indent lightly on both sides with your thumb and forefinger. Drop into the simmering soup. When they float, they are done.