Oaxacan Stew (Estofado de Oaxaca) originated in the predominantly indigenous state of Oaxaca, Mexico, the stew belongs to a unique cuisine that has received world-wide culinary appreciation. This spiced stew contains many ingredients typically found in this region of southern Mexico.

Oaxaca is a southern state in Mexico. The majority of the population in Oaxaca is indigenous with Mixtecs and Zapotecs (58% of the population) people being the most numerous. It is estimated that over half of all people who speak indigenous languages in Mexico live in the state of Oaxaca with nearly half the population not speaking Spanish fluently or at all. Because of this cultural heritage, while Oaxacan food does share ingredients with other parts of Mexico, some of their foods are quite unique. Oaxaca is famous for its huge variety of sauces known as mole prepared from a diverse number of ingredients but typically containing one or more types of hot peppers. The state is sometimes referred to as the "Land of Seven Moles" reflecting the seven basic types of sauces found there: negro (black), amarillo (yellow), coloradito (colored), mancha manteles (tablecloth stainer), chichilo (named after the main pepper), rojo (red) and verde (green). Often the mole is considered more important to a dish than the meat, pulses or vegetables that are smothered in the mole. One delicacy found in Oaxaca are chapulines or grasshoppers that are semi-domesticated and raised specifically for human consumption. Many different spices are used in Oaxacan cuisine besides numerous kinds of peppers, including cinnamon, oregano, anise, cloves, cumin, thyme, sesame seeds, marjoram and allspice. Favored ingredients also include plantains, tomatoes, onion, tomatillos, garlic, nuts (particularly almonds), limes and chocolate. The recipe below contains many of these ingredients.

This stew is a family recipe and is a reflection of the flavors and aromas developed by the great cooks from the state of Oaxaca. Estafado means stew; this particular estafado (stew) from Oaxaca blends nuts, spices, bananas and capers to create an intriguing aromatic dish perfect for a family or festive dinner.

To prepare this dish you will need a spice grinder (or mortar and pestle), a blender or food processor and a large skillet.

Ingredients:

• 6 large unripe tomatoes chopped into quarters (red, but with green color
  remaining,if possible)
• Green olives stuffed with pimentos (optional)
• 1 teaspoon capers
• ½ bunch Italian parsley
• 1 white onion
• 1 plantain (cooking banana)
• 2 ounces natural style sesame seeds style (Guapo brand are a good choice,
  they are darker in color than regular sesame seeds.
• 1 pound of chicken breasts, chicken tenders or dark meat chicken cut
  into large pieces
• 1 corn tortilla
• ½ stick of Mexican cinnamon ("canela") Mexican cinnamon is a must, because
  of its soft texture.)
• 10 allspice seeds
• 15 whole cloves
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 6 cloves garlic
• ¼ cup raisins
• ¼ cup peeled almonds
• 1 cup chicken broth (optional)
• Cilantro for garnish

Preparation:

1. Boil quartered tomatoes, three cloves of garlic and ½ chopped onion until soft. Use just enough water to cover the vegetables.
2. After ingredients are soft, let everything cool for 10 minutes.
3. In a blender or food processor, puree the cooled ingredients.
4. Bring water to boil in a pot and add the chicken, 3 garlic cloves, ½ white
   onion and 1 teaspoon salt.
5. Boil gently until the chicken is cooked through.
6. In a large frying pan fry quartered plantains in vegetable oil until
   slightly browned. Remove from pan and set aside.
7. Gently heat corn tortilla in same pan and set aside.
8. In same pan, brown the sesame seeds for a few minutes, turning them
   continuously to ensure they don't burn. Set aside to cool.
9. Grind in a spice grinder or a mortar and pestle all the spices (cooled
   sesame seeds, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and oregano into a smooth powder. You
   may have to do this in batches.
10. In blender or food processor blend the spice mixture, parsley, cooked banana, almonds, oregano, raisins and tortilla into a thick paste.
11. Mix in ½ -1 cup liquid-either water or the remaining water from cooking the tomatoes, or chicken broth.
12. In large frying pan gently sauté this mixture with 1-2 tablespoons
    vegetable oil, finally letting it simmer gently for ten minutes. Add
    additional liquid if necessary to prevent sticking.
13. Carefully add the blended tomato mixture to the liquid spice mixture in
    frying pan.
14. Simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes
15. Add to the simmering pan the cooked chicken, capers, olives salt to taste,
    and a pinch of sugar if desired.
16. Simmer for a few more minutes.

Serve over rice, garnish with cilantro and eat with warm corn tortillas.
Recipe submitted by Hilary Dufour from Veronica and Culture and Cusine.
Photo by Hilary Dufour

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Iranian Tah-Chin Morgh is from relatively simple ingredients, this rice and chicken timbale has a golden crispy crust and a great blend of ingredients that will delight your dinner guests.

Tah-Chin (Also: Tah chin, Tahchin, Persian: ته چین‎) is an Iranian rice cake (or timbale) made out of rice, meat (chicken is common), yogurt, eggs and plenty of saffron. The yogurt and egg yolks make a custard that makes the dish firm. Due it is deliciousness and beautiful shape, Tah-Chin is one of the best Iranian dishes for formal feast. Iranians love rice and love to layer it with different types of vegetables and meat. "Tah" is a Farsi word for bottom and "chin" is the root word for "chidan", which means putting things in order, arranging, and in this case, layering. I think that the tastiest part of this dish is the crispy bottom layer, which is called Tah Dig. In fact, it is typical in restaurants to be served just the Tah Dig, not the rice on top of it. There are different types of Tah-Chin including spinach, fish, and lamb, although chicken is the most popular. Either white meat or dark meat can be used. Tah-chin is often served with plain yogurt, salad Shirazi, or torshi. This dish uses long-grain basmati rice, which is now widely available. Tah-Chin is built in layers. It has relatively simple ingredients but requires a bit of time (well over an hour) for all the cooking stages. The final stages are cooked in a slope-sided round saucepan of approximately three quarts. After the Tah-Chin is cooked, it is inverted onto a serving plate revealing a crunchy golden top. To save some money, purchase the saffron at Trader Joe's, a Middle-eastern or Indian grocery.

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts or 1 pound of boneless chicken (dark meat).
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 2 cups thick full-fat yogurt
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
• 3 cups basmati rice
• 1/2 cup Zereshk (Dried Barberries)
• 1/2 cup shelled unsalted pistacios (optional)
• Cooking oil
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• salt & pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. Place chicken, chopped onion and a teaspoon of salt in a saucepan and fill with enough water to just cover the ingredients.
2. Bring saucepan to a boil, then lower to a simmer for 30 minutes until chicken is fully cooked.
3. Soak saffron threads in a half cup of very hot water.
4. In a large mixing bowl, beat the yogurt until it is smooth.
5. Add the egg yolks, cooked onion, saffron, salt, pepper to the yogurt and mix well.
6. After the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pot and set it aside to cool.
7. In a large pot, cook 3 cups of Basmati rice in 6 cups of water for about 10 minutes. The rice should not be fully cooked at this point. Many people soak Basmati for a half hour or longer before cooking. This makes the rice fluffier.
8. Add 2 cups of the partially cooked rice (you will use the remainder of the rice later) to the yogurt mixture and blend well.
9. When the chicken is cool enough, shred it, but not too finely.
10. Ladle 2/3 of the rice and yogurt mix into the sauce pan, flatten with a wooden spoon.
11. Layer chicken pieces evenly on top of the rice.
12. Cover this layer with a layer of rice. Smooth and flatten with a spoon.
13. Cover the rice with another layer of the yoghurt/rice mixture. Smooth and flatten with a spoon.
14. Repeat steps 11 through 13 until all the ingredients have been used.
15. Place the pot on medium-high heat.
16. When steam starts to emerge, set the heat to low, cover and cook for one hour. The goal is to get the lower part of the dish to a nice brown color and form a crust without burning it.
17. When fully cooked, let the Tar-chin cool for a few minutes so that it it easier to remove from the pan.
18. Place a large round serving platter on the top of the pan. Gently flip the pot over the plate to separate the Tah-chin from the pan.
19. Finally, decorate your Tah-chin with Zereshk (dried Barberries). Gently fry the Zereshk in a little oil with a teaspoon of sugar and pinch of saffron. Fry for about 1 minute but Zereshk burns very easily so be careful! Cooks also frequently decorate Tah-chin with shelled pistachios, which look nice and taste great with the barberries. You can purchase both Zereshk and pistachios at the Balboa International Market.

Befarma'id! بفرماييد (Bon Appetit in Farsi)

Recipe and photo by Tayebe Aghaei

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The Participant Observer Recipe of the Month is Turkish Menemen (accent on the 2nd syllable). If you have been reading Participant Observer for a while, you probably know we have a certain affection for street food. This dish has few ingredients, couldn't be easier to prepare, and tastes delightful!

Menemen is traditionally cooked and served in a tin-clad copper pan called a sahan. A large deep frying pan is an adequate substitute. With simple ingredients and the fact that everything is cooked in one pan, it is the epitome of high taste but low effort cooking! When served in restaurants, the edges of menemen are sizzling hot. When served in homes, it is served in a large pan set in the middle of the table from which all share. Menemen can be eaten as a snack, for breakfast, lunch or dinner. When eaten as a breakfast it can become an elaborate affair and can include cheese (beyaz peynir, similar to feta), cured olives, sweeten cucumber quarters, a variety of breads along with Turkish spreads and jams, walnuts, raisins, dried apricots, spicy sausage (sucuk) or cured beef (pastirma). Breakfast is washed down with fresh orange juice and Turkish tea brewed in a "double teapot" (similar to a percolator) know as a Çaydanlik. The basic recipe has few ingredients, but many cooks add whatever pleases them at the moment. Every version uses sweet green peppers but many cooks also add either hotter peppers or crushed pepper flakes (Allepo or Urfa dried chilies are two very popular varieties). Menemen is typically eaten with good crusty bread (that can be dipped into the delicious gravy). When fully cooked, the Menemen should still be on the wet or runny side. Some cooks like to blend the eggs into the dish, others prefer to cook the eggs on the top of the simmering tomatoes and peppers. The dish gets its name from Menemen in the North of Izmir.

Ingredients:

• 4 Tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 Large peeled and diced red tomatoes (or a 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes)
• 3 Bell Peppers, seeded and diced (note: green, red and yellow peppers can be used)
• 3 Medium onions, diced
• 3-4 Eggs
• 1/4 Cup of crumbled feta cheese (or beyaz peynir if you can find it!)
• 1 Tablespoon of chopped parsley
• 1 Teaspoon of dried oregano
• Dried chili flakes to taste (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. In a large straight-sided skillet (or sahan), saute, on medium-low flame, the onions and peppers in olive oil until the onions are translucent.
2. Add the diced tomatoes and peppers, and simmer until the peppers are soft (but not mushy).
3. .Blend in the oregano.

Version 1:

1. Lightly whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl.
2. Stir the eggs and parsley into the tomato/pepper mixture.
3. Continue cooking for another 1/2 minute at the most. Again, this dish should be moist, not dry, and the eggs should be under rather than over-cooked.

Version 2:

1. Crack open the eggs over the simmering dish.
2. Continue cooking until the egg whites are soft-cooked and the yokes are still mostly liquid.
3. Sprinkle chopped parsley over the dish.

Both Versions:

1. Remove pan from heat.
2. Sprinkle on top (or mix in) the crumbled feta cheese, chili flakes, salt and black pepper.
3. Serve with a good crusty bread suitable for dipping in the Menemen and one or more of the side ingredients mentioned above.

Afiyet olsun!

Recipe by T. Johnston-O'Neill
Photo by Jiaoting (Tina) Yao.

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Chongqing Hot Pot is a great party dish to share with friends. We give you the low down on all the variations and styles. It looks like a soup, but it is not eaten like one. Everything is dipped in a sour and savory sauce before consuming.

Chongqing is a major city in southwest China. Administratively, it is one of China's four direct-controlled municipalities (the other three are Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin), and is the only such municipality in inland China. The Yangtze and Jialing rivers flow through the city making it a busy trade entrepot. In days gone by, the city had many many ports and docks.

Chaotian Men (meaning "a door at the top of the sky") port was and is the busiest port in Chongqing. It is located where the Yangtze and Jialing rivers meet. Historically, there were many slaughterhouses operated by the Hui people, who lived there. The Hui people are one of the 56 officially recognized minorities in China. Hui don't generally eat organ meats or sweetbreads, so these parts were often simply discarded. Poorer boatmen and sailors, who couldn't afford fresh meat from the market, collected the discarded meats and cooked them in a big pot of water spiced with chilies making the first Chongqing hot pot. It is now a dish (and style of eating) that is enjoyed by people of all socio-economic levels and ethnic origins throughout China.

>There are at least 5 main varieties of hot pot in China.

Traditional Beijing hot pot known as Shuàn yáng ròu (instant-boiled lamb), a fragrant, mild broth is made in a large brass pot heated by burning charcoal set inside a central chimney. Nowadays it is more common to use a gas burner instead of charcoal.

Another variation is Chongqing má là (Chongqing numb and spicy) hot pot, to which Sichuan pepper (known here as prickly ash) is used. Combined with spicy ingredients like chili, it creates a sensation on the tongue that is both spicy hot and mouth numbing. In order to help diners find the meat and vegetables they want to eat next, a multi-sectioned frame is placed in the cooking pot and only one type of ingredient is cooked in each section. To say that the residents of Chongqing are fond of their hot pot would be an understatement. Every year, they host a hot pot festival in which tens of thousands of people participate. In addition to nearly one thousand regular hot pots in this festival, there is a giant hot pot that is 30 feet in diameter and three feet tall holding almost 3 tons of hot pot!

Normally, Chongqing hot pot seasoning is spicy, while in the Beijing variety, the soup is much milder. The dipping sauces differ as well. In the south, people prefer sesame oil and black vinegar whereas in the north, especially in Beijing, simple sesame paste is favored.

In Yunnan, in southwest China, spicy seasoning is popular but wild ingredients and vegetarian ingredients figure more prominently, particularly mushrooms. This type of hot pot is called Jùn gu (means fungi and mushrooms) hot pot or Jùn gu stew. In this kind of hot pot, people rarely use meat.

Manchurian hot pot uses plenty of Suan cai (Chinese sauerkraut) to make the pot's stew sour. Thinly sliced pork is a main ingredient in this variation.

Lastly, a Cantonese variation includes mixing a raw egg with the condiments which is thought to reduce the amount of 'heat' absorbed by the food, thereby reducing the likelihood of a sore throat according to Chinese herbalist theories. Yet another variant includes the use of rice congee (rice porridge) instead of stock. Cantonese hot pot also uses more sea food, such as fish balls and geoduck clams.

Besides these 5 main variations, many other emerging styles of hot pot can be found throughout mainland China, such as fish head hot pot, goose feet hot pot, and rabbit hot pot.

Hot pot tastes different from restaurant to restaurant because there is no established essentials for seasoning a hot pot or ingredients that are cooked or the sauces used. Each restaurant concocts their own hot pot seasoning and these are often considered to be "trade secrets."

Chinese hot pot is always cooked at the dinner table. There really is no other practical way to cook it. It is cooked either in a "steamboat" (with a central chimney like in Beijing style) or a very large pot. Actually the chimney style hot pots that are locally available are too small to use if you have more than a couple of diners, so pull out the large pot if you have a party! You can use an induction heater with an iron pot (safest by far), a portable electric or gas stove, or an electric pot.

Ingredients:

Please note: Giving exact amounts of individual ingredients for this dish is not very helpful because you must adjust the amounts to the number of diners and also according to what ingredients are available and what diner's prefer. Chinese often use organ meats when they cook hot pot

Ingredient suggestions

• Meat - thinly sliced pork, beef, lamb and or chicken
• Seafood - shrimp, squid, octopus
• Quail eggs (available in cans)
• Seafood balls (these come in quite a variety)
• Fried tofu
• Vegetables - leafy greens, mushrooms, squash, winter melon, bean sprouts etc.Root vegetables (all in quarter inch slices)
• potatoes, taro, shanyao (or
• Japanese nagaimo)
• Noodles (your choice)
• Chinese hot pot seasoning (Chongqing is the hottest, Sichuan is a bit milder. Little Sheep hot pot seasoning comes in mild and spicy versions.)

Dipping Sauce:

• garlic (to taste)
• Chinese black vinegar
• Chinese sesame oil (or substitute Japanese sesame oil)

Preparation:

Prepare Dipping Sauce:

1. Peel and crush several cloves of garlic (more or less to taste).
2. Put about 1/8 of a cup of black vinegar and the same amount of sesame oil in each diner's bowl.
3. Add crushed garlic to each bowl.

Prepare Hot Pot:

1. Slice meat and vegetables into thin slices, and set aside on individual plates.
2. Fill 2/3 of the hot pot with water and stir in seasoning mix.
3. Bring hot pot to a boil.
4. Add a portion of each hot pot ingredient to the pot (not everything at once!). Note: different ingredients require different cooking times. Test doneness! Also be careful not to overcook the shanyao as it will become mushy and break apart. Warning: The yolks of quail eggs remain liquid even after they are fully cooked. As such when you bite into one, the yolk might stick to the roof of your mouth and burn you. Please be careful, if necessary let the eggs cool for a few minutes in your bowl!
5. As each ingredient reaches doneness, each diner can take from the hot pot what they want. Lightly dip the cooked ingredients in the dipping sauce and enjoy!

Recipe by Xuedi (aka "Gina") Yuan
Photos by Kim Douwes

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