Ever have one of those days where the only thing that gets you through is knowing you are going to have a good meal later on?  I have no idea where I read about this dish, but one day, trying to unwind after a long, frustrating and tiring day of putting out the fires that are usually started by teenage drama (I moonlight as a school counselor, in case you forgot), a mental picture of this dish formed in my head and I immediately went to the store to try and make it.  This dish is definitely not for the nut-hater.   But, maybe it could be?  As a girl who used to eat peanut butter on a spoon every day for breakfast (I’ve now matured to peanut butter spread on multigrain toast), this dish made me very, very happy.

It’s not surprising that Pollo en Salsa de Cacahuate  is a traditional dish from Puebla, Mexico.  Puebla is often thought of as the gastronomic mecca of Central Mexico and happens to be the birthplace of mole, that beautiful, dark, chocolatey sauce made of over thirty ingredients including nuts and seeds, and pipians, another sweet yet savory sauce using ground nuts and seeds.  Peanuts have been part of Mexican cooking since long before Spain invaded in the 15th century and are often used as a thickening agent.  Poblano cuisine, specifically,  is typically made of indigenous and local ingredients and, let me tell you, Pueblo is on my “must go” lists of places to travel to (and eat, eat, eat in).

Traditionally, this dish should be made with dried chiles.  We used dried chiles in ours and I really just wanted to kick it up, so I added some chipotles in adobo.  For me, it added extra spice and the adobo added more flavor than the dried chiles did. In fact, I think you could leave out the dried chiles if you don’t have any on hand and just add some chipotles in adobo. It’s rare I’ll move away from the traditional but, in this case, flavor-wise I think it would be ok.  I also did not make this in a mortar and pestle and, again, although not traditional, a blender worked just fine.

Her (George is short for Georgina if you were confused) top five of: Home made mayo mixed with either garlic, lemon or harrisa, Sambal Olek, Chilli jam (home made), Balsamic vinegar, and Extra Virgin Tuscan olive oil, was by some distance randomized to the head of the list in front of such other notable luminaries as Cebca and Lo. Congratulations George! A bottle of said sauce is on its way to you now, which given your obvious proclivities for spicy condiments, we feel confident you’ll enjoy!

And speaking of a taste for capsaicin, it seems George is not alone. The vast majority of you showed your appreciation for all things spicy. From tabasco to Frank’s hot, Encona to Crystal hot, to Cholula, hot sauce was one of the few things almost everyone agreed on. That said, it seems like some of you have rather exotic tastes when it comes to spicy condiments, suggesting some which were new to us: sambal olek (spicy south-east asian condiment), sinamak (chile-infused vinegar), and sriracha (Thai hot sauce), to name a few.

We also learned about what you guys think of as condiments: olive oil, jam, guacamole, vinegar, and butter. None of which we would have thought of, but are, when you really get down to it, in fact condiments.

Above all, we learned that condiments, domestic and humble, common, or exotic, remain wildly popular, in spite of contemporary fears about “industrial foods.” Your favorite condiments, it seems, are here to stay.

Now, I know it’s been two weeks plus since Christmas, but I wanted to share our final two recipes with you. I know you all think I was slightly crazy to attempt all this food, and you are all right, I am! BUT, with that said, every single thing we made you can make too. Although we made homemade pasta (thanks to our amazing Kitchen Aid pasta attachment!), you can totally substitute dried and it will be equally delish. The secret is in the spicy sauce – we like it really spicy and extra garlic-y. You can adjust our recipe, but remember, it’s not fra’diavolo without the spice! I always use Lidia Bastianich’s recipe for pasta. It’s absolutely bang-on every time. Also, this recipe will work well with any type of seafood – calamari, scallops, shrimp-only, crab-only, lobster, clams or all of the above – use your imagination!

FETTUCCINE FRA’DIAVOLO WITH CRAB AND SHRIMP (Fettuccine w/Spicy Tomato Sauce) – serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 to 2 lbs. of fresh or dried long pasta
• 3 1/2 cups of Amy’s Tomato Sauce
• 1/2 to 1 tablespoon peperoncino (hot pepper flakes)
• 1 8oz. package of fresh crab meat (NOT IMITATION – REAL ONLY)
• 2-3 fresh crabs (we used Blue-Claw) – cleaned and split in half
• 1 lb. medium to large shrimp – shells removed
• 1/2 cup white wine
• minced parsley for garnish

What to do:

1. Before you make the sauce, give your crabs some color if they have not been cooked yet by heating up your olive oil and adding the crabs for a few moments till they turn a bit red. This may be completely unnecessary, but I did it anyway.
2. Remove the crabs and reserve on the side. Begin to make your tomato sauce. When you get to the third step of the recipe (at the same time you add your crushed tomatoes), add the wine as well as the crabs back to the pot. Allow this to simmer together for an hour. It will reduce a bit and the flavors will get much stronger.
3. About 15 minutes before you are ready to serve, add the loose, fresh crabmeat to the sauce and stir.
4. 5 minutes before you serve, add the shrimp to the sauce.
5. Toss some of your sauce with your cooked pasta and plate adding some extra shrimp on top if necessary. Top with a half of crab, some parsley and a bit of extra virgin olive oil.

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Our end of Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn (one of the two main thorough-fares in the neighborhood Architectural Digest recently named the best in America, Park Slope), is festooned with restaurants of all kinds. In fact, there are more restaurants, I would say, than there are any other kind of stores on the street. An average of perhaps two and a half eateries per block. Many of these have sprung up in the last few years and are of a certain type – dim-lighting, dark wood interiors and “fusion” menus – catering to the newly-arrived, brownstone-purchasing, high income-earning folks that used to only inhabit the upper west and upper east sides of Manhattan . Since the advent of these restaurants, many of the neighborhoods’ original retailers have left – in fact, just this past weekend, we noticed that the shady-looking storefront selling Articulos Religiosos had gone, probably to be replaced with some joint with a menu trying to emulate Tyler Florence. Anyway, in the midst of all this change and gentrification sits Los Pollitos II, a small, noisy Mexican restaurant specializing in rotisserie chicken, a few northern Mexican staples (fajitas, burritos, etc.) and some more Caribbean-coast inspired dishes, that has remained a constant in the culinary landscape of our changing neighborhood.

Last night, my wife and I were feeling a bit under the weather and decided we wanted Pollitos’ chicken soup, some rotisserie chicken, rice and beans and a salad. A very basic, wholesome meal without too many flavors. A large soup (more than a pint), half a roast chicken, a small rice and beans, an order of tostones (starchy, fried, smashed plantains) with garlic sauce, and a large house salad was ordered. We were told we might have to wait 45 minutes to an hour for our order, but we were undeterred — Pollitos has become a go-to restaurant for us (one month this year, when we were crazy busy organizing our wedding, we went there nearly twice a week) and when you want Pollitos, you can’t have anything else. So we settled in to bear our hunger pains until the food arrived. Not only did it arrive in less than half an hour, but the bill was $19.23 for enough food for two meals for two people, or maybe more because we eat too much. $19.23!! Worringly, it’s almost cheaper than buying ingredients and cooking it ourselves, but this isn’t unhealthy food. It’s not low-calorie and it’s certainly not fat-free, but rice, beans and chicken with a side salad is what most of the world would call a good meal and would eat more often if only they could afford it.

Their chicken soup is frankly, a triumph. Never before have I had chicken soup with more flavor and less fat. It arrives with carrots, potatoes, chicken (half a breast and a whole wing, in this case), onion and cilantro, and is, or might be, a meal in itself. Perhaps because they have so many bones from all the rotisserie chickens, their stock is just that bit richer than elsewhere, or perhaps it’s the cilantro, I’m not sure, but I would strongly recommend you try it whether you’re feeling a bit rough or in perfect health. I could rave on at length about how tasty their rice and beans is (something that a lot of people underestimate how hard it is to make tasty), how delicious their tostones and garlic sauce are (really amazing) and how much crisp, fresh salad they give you, but instead I’m going to devote my final words to their rotisserie chicken. It is succelent and juicy – even the white meat, the skin is crisp, salty and almost sweet, and the bones are chewable because of the slow-cooking. It may be the the finest rotisserie chicken in the city and you can get a whole one for under $8. I rest my case.

Indeed, we are not the only ones who have discovered Los Pollitos II, however, I think we may have the distinction of being two of its most regular customers. In the past year, we must have eaten there twenty times, and call me a pikey if you like, but I took my wife there for her birthday too! (They gave us a free dessert, a weird, sweet shot of something, and five of the waiters took an old warped guitar off the wall and serenaded her with “feliz cumpleanos a ti”. How’s that for customer service?)

CHECK OUT OUR OTHER RESTAURANT REVIEWS, FOOD COMMENTARY AND RECIPES.

My wife and I share the cooking duties in our house, but of late, she’s been doing the bulk of the cooking because I’ve been getting home too late from work and its been annoying me that I’ve not been able to cook. However, she is the one that normally makes this dish, as with many Italian dishes (I tend to do better with traditional British recipes – a heritage issue, I guess), but because I managed to get home in reasonable time tonight, I decided to do the honors and let her relax with the cat.

For a first-timer, without a recipe and only having watched it being prepared before, this one worked out rather well and, gratifyingly, received my wife’s seal of approval. The key seems to be the garlic and white wine, and giving the pasta time to cook into the sauce.

Here’s how to do it:

Ingredients

• 6 cloves garlic, finely sliced
• 1/2 large spanish onion, finely sliced
• 1 cayenne pepper (1/2 habanero), finely minced, or 2-3 good pinches dried red pepper flakes
• 1/2 head kale roughly chopped, stems on (just remove the last,woody inch of stems)
• 1lb sweet Italian pork sausage (with fennel, sage, or as we did tonight, cheese, rosemary and tomato)
• 3-4 ripe, medium tomatoes, cubed with seeds
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 4tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2lb orecchiette (ear-shaped) pasta
• 4tbsp grated parmesan or romano cheese
• salt and black pepper to taste

Recipe

• Heat saute pan to medium high and add a splash of olive oil just before adding sausage. Brown sausage on both sides, approx. 4 mins per side, and remove to a plate. Be sure to leave fat in pan!
• Reduce heat to medium and add onions to pan and allow to soften in the fat. Just as they begin to brown add garlic and hot pepper. When garlic takes on a bit of color hit pan with the wine.
• Add pasta to boiling, well-salted water. Bring back to a boil, cover and set timer for 8 minutes.
• Turn heat back up to medium-high and add kale. Toss mixture together and after two minutes, reduce heat to medium again before adding tomatoes.
• When tomatoes look like they’re collapsing into the sauce, add the sausage, and turn to medium low.
• Check pasta is a little less cooked than al dente. Kill heat under pasta and turn heat to high under saucepan. Using a spider or a slotted spoon, add pasta to saucepan DO NOT POUR PASTA WATER AWAY.
• Mix pasta and sauce together and add enough pasta water to lubricate the bottom of the pan. Cook for another minute or so on high, or until pasta is al dente and sauce looks silky.
• Kill fire and add cheese. Spoon pasta into bowls and finish with a glug of really good olive oil and an extra sprinkle of cheese.

CHECK OUT SOME OF THESE OTHER GREAT PASTA RECIPES:

• WATERCRESS & RICOTTA RAVIOLI WITH A RADICCHIO BUTTER SAUCE
• GNOCCHI DI PATATE WITH A BROWN BUTTER, SAGE, BREADCRUMB SAUCE
• FETTUCCINE FRA’DIAVOLO WITH CRAB AND SHRIMP
• CREAMY LEMON PASTA
• PASTA (PERCIATELLI/BUCATINI OR SPAGHETTI) AL’AMATRICIANA (ROMAN CLASSIC PASTA DISH)
• PASTA WITH LEEKS, ASPARAGUS, MUSHROOMS AND GRUYERE, TOPPED WITH A FRIED EGG
• PASTA (BUCATINI) WITH PISTACHIO SAUCE
• PASTA WITH TUNA (Pasta Con Tonno)