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The crispy chicken with poblano cream sauce is one of the most requested dishes at Frida Bistro, with the Salt Lake City restaurant serving more than 200 of the elegant entrées each week.The recipe for this popular dish didn't come from a cookbook or a culinary school, says chef Raul Mendez. Rather, it's a dish that his mother cooked for him and his seven siblings growing up in Guanajuato, Mexico."I've changed the recipe a little bit," admits the 42-year-old Mendez. "My mom's version was a little bit spicier, but I still serve it with roasted potatoes, crisped on the grill, just like she did."While most of us will remember Mom this Sunday, May 8, with a bouquet of flowers, a bottle of perfume or a piece of jewelry, Mendez and other Utah chefs pay homage all year long by putting their mamas' recipes on the menu. These family favorites often are among the most popular offerings, making guests feel like part of the family.Learning young • Mendez said his mother's expert cooking skills have been an influence all his life.When he was 8 years old, María Hernandez opened a small taquería where she made steaming pots of frijoles (beans) and homemade tortillas and carnitas. Later, his mother went on to open a larger restaurant in Mexico City. "My mother showed me a lot of things about the business," he said, adding that by age 15 he was in charge of catering jobs.Later he took a job buying fruits and vegetables from farmers and delivering them to restaurants. Then he attended culinary school in Mexico City for several months.Mendez moved to Utah just before the 2002 Winter Olympics to work at the Grand America Hotel, before moving on a few years later to a job at Cucina Toscana.It wasn't until 2010, when he was hired at Frida Bistro, 545 W. 700 South, that he was able to put his own family recipes on the menu.Mendez and his co-chef at Frida Bistro, Chano Mendez (no relation), believe it's their responsibility to educate people about their native country's culinary offerings, which vary greatly from region to region. They hope to break the stereotype that everyone in Mexico eats beans, red rice and cheesy Tex-Mex offerings. "I want people to know about the real food of Mexico," Raul Mendez explained. And the best way to do that, he said, is to offer the foods he ate as a child in central Mexico: dishes like chicken in poblano cream sauce, and bistek, a thinly sliced hanger steak served with epazote, nopal cactus and onions.More family recipes • Lebanese family recipes are also a central fixture on the `` at Holladay's Layla Mediterranean Grill, 4751 S. Holladay Blvd.That's after seven years of coaxing by the Tadros children — Liz, Tony and Tania — who convinced their parents that the recipes they had grown up with would attract diners. "I knew if they started serving Middle Eastern foods, it would be a success," said Tony Tadros.But Raouf and Leila Tadros were hesitant to change Confetti, the Italian restaurant they had run for some 16 years. They worried about starting over in a downturned economy and feared a dismal retirement if the venture failed. "It was a scary time," Leila Tadros said.But the Tadros children were convincing. Confetti was remodeled and reopened as Layla last August. The menu now includes many of Leila Tadros' family recipes, including Lebanese moussaka, an eggplant dish with ground beef and tomato sauce, and mougrabieh, an aromatic dish of pearl couscous, chick peas, chicken and the family's secret blend of spices.Leila Tadros also makes most of the desserts at the family-owned restaurant that carries her name. There are pies and cheesecakes, but her specialty is the slightly sweet and buttery Middle Eastern cookies of her childhood. There are the wreath-shaped ghoraibeh, flavored with pistachios; and the finger-shaped mamoul, a soft date-filled cookie with a touch of rose water and a sprinkling of powdered sugar. When customers ask daughter Liz Tadros to name the best item on the menu, she has a difficult time singling out just one. "I grew up on this stuff," she said. "I love it all."kathys@sltrib.comsltrib.com/Blogs/bitebybitefacebook.com/tribremix —
María's steak with nopales (Bistek con nopales)
½ pound thinly sliced hanger steak
1 whole fresh nopal cactus paddle
½ cup orange juice
2 tablespoons chopped shallots
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ of one large white onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 whole jalapeño, thinly sliced
Salt
Pepper
¼ cup fresh epazote leaves*
Place steak in shallow dish or resealable plastic bag. Combine orange juice, shallots and olive oil. Pour marinade over steak and cover. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.
Lay the nopal paddle on a flat surface. With a sharp knife, trim around the base of the paddle and around the outside edge. With a knife, carefully remove the thorny needles. Rinse and slice into ½-inch-long strips, then cut strips into bite-size chunks.
Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic to the pan. Sauté 1 to 2 minutes. Add jalapeño and nopales, and season with salt and pepper. Cook 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle epazote leaves over the top.
Remove steak from marinade and place on top of the vegetables in the pan. Cover and cook 6 to 8 minutes. With a pair of tongs, flip steak and vegetables so the steak is on the bottom and vegetables are on top of the steak. Cover and cook another 6 to 8 minutes, or until steak is cooked through. Remove from heat and let the steak rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Note • Epazote is a pungent wild herb used regularly in Mexican cooking. It has flat pointed leaves and can be purchased fresh and dried in Latin American markets.
Servings • 2
Source: Raul Mendez, Frida Bistro —
Chicken with poblano cream sauce
Sauce:
1 whole poblano pepper
3 whole cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 whole onion, skins removed and cut in half
Kernels from 1 whole ear fresh corn (about 1 cup)
½ cup milk
½ cup Mexican crema or heavy cream
Salt
Pepper
Chicken:
2 whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts
¼ cup cream cheese
½ of one poblano pepper, cut into thin strips (seeds, stems and membranes removed)
Blue corn flour
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
Roast poblano pepper over a gas flame or under the broiler until the skin is blackened all around. Remove from heat and place in a sealed bag. When cool enough to handle, remove the skin, seeds and stem. Coarsely chop pepper.
Meanwhile, heat the broiler. Place garlic and onion halves, cut side up, on a sheet pan. Place under a broiler for 5-7 minutes to lightly blacken the skin. Remove from oven and let rest until cool enough to handle. Remove skins from garlic.
Place corn kernels under the broil and roast 2 to 3 minutes or until lightly blackened. Remove from heat and cool.
Place roasted poblano, garlic, onion and corn in a blender and process until smooth. Add milk and cream and blend until smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Keep warm.
Meanwhile, place chicken breasts between plastic wrap and pound until thin and even. Place 2 tablespoons cream cheese in a long, thin strip along the bottom edge of each chicken piece. Place a few poblano strips on top of cream cheese. Roll the chicken up and over the cream cheese and pepper strips, tucking in sides. (The chicken rolls can be used immediately or made up to one day ahead. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.)
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Heat oil in a large oven-proof skillet. Dredge rolled chicken breast in blue corn flour until lightly coated. Place chicken rolls in hot pan and cook until golden brown all over, 5 to 10 minutes. Place pan in oven and cook for 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Remove from oven and let rest 5 minutes.
To serve, diagonally slice each chicken roll into four even pieces. Place on a plate and top with warm poblano cream sauce.
Servings • 2
Source: Raul Mendez, Frida Bistro —
Lebanese moussaka
4 eggplants, baked until tender
½ pound lean ground beef
4 teaspoons pine nuts
2 medium onions
½ teaspoon Middle Eastern spices
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
2 large tomatoes, diced, reserve juice
1 can tomato sauce
Cooked Lebanese rice with vermicelli, as an accompaniment
Heat the oven broiler. Peel the cooked eggplant, cut lengthwise in quarters. Brush with vegetable oil and place on a baking pan. Place under the broiler until light brown. Remove from heat and turn oven to 375 degrees.
Heat a skillet to medium and cook ground beef, pine nuts, onions, salt, pepper and spices until medium.
Make a slit in each eggplant lengthwise. Place meat mixture into the opening and on top of each piece of eggplant. Pour tomatoes with their juice and the tomato sauce over the meat mixture. Cover with aluminum foil and bake about an hour. Serve over Lebanese rice.
Servings • 4
Source: Leila Tadros, Layla Mediterranean Grill and Mezze