Love may be blind, but it has an amazing sense of smell. This is why it’s so easy to fall in love in a foreign country.
People are the same everywhere – we all just keep meeting the same bunch of jerks we got to know in high school. But new smells hit a part of the brain that goes deeper than anything else, including sight. I can’t tell you if someone is the exact same color as my washcloth, but I know right away if they smell like diesel fuel, or apricots.
It’s also exciting to travel because you yourself suddenly become exotic. Your boring American odor of clean sheets, slightly used cars, lawn clippings and polyurethane is suddenly fresh and mysterious. To the locals, you’re aromatherapy.
They say opposites attract, but love is really a brain stem-level instinct for complementarity. Take, for example, Arthur Guinness and Doña María. I don’t think they ever met, but if they did, it’s not hard to imagine the resulting enchilada. Especially since I decided to make one.
This romantic fantasy, like most, occurred to me while I was lying in bed. I was fantasizing about the half-jar of Doña María mole sauce that was left over in the fridge. This bit of concentrated Oaxaca is meant to be mixed with four parts of water, but I felt she deserved better. The export version of Guiness stout became her dream date.
There are better mole concentrates than the widely available Doña María version, but mingling it with the deeply roasted, malty and bittersweet Guinness took convenience cooking to a new level. It turned black beans and supermarket spiralized butternut squash into a memorable weeknight-possible meal.
It was almost spooky how well the Irish flavors complemented the Mexican ones, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. I’m a Jewish boy, and I’ve been married to an Irish girl for decades, with deeply memorable results. Did I mention that she smells like apricots?
Recipe: Butternut and Black Bean Enchiladas with Guinness Stout Mole
Doña María mole paste and Arthur Guinness's stout find each other in a dark, smoky enchilada.
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Pour boiling water over the dried chilis and let soak at least a half hour. Remove stems and, for less heat, seeds. Blend water and stemmed chilis until smooth. Combine pureed chilis, jarred sauce, stout, sugar and salt in a saucepan and bring to a simmer, whisking until smooth. Slice onion into half moons, combine with the squash and saute in oil for a few minutes until softened. Add the beans, chili and mole sauce and taste for seasoning. Stir in the crumbled cheese and set aside.
Have oven at 350 F. Spread a spoonful of the sauce on the bottom of a baking dish. Roll the filling up in the tortillas, tucking in the ends, and nestle against each other in the dish. Top with the remaining sauce, then the cheeses. If filling is still warm, bake for 30 - 40 minutes, or until bubbly. Alternatively, refrigerate then bake for about an hour. Serve with sour cream, red salsa, guacamole, fresh cilantro and hot sauce.
Substitute other stouts or porters or hotter chilis at will. You can assemble and refrigerate this dish, unbaked, for a day or two, or freeze for a few weeks. Defrost before baking.
Ingredients
Directions
Pour boiling water over the dried chilis and let soak at least a half hour. Remove stems and, for less heat, seeds. Blend water and stemmed chilis until smooth. Combine pureed chilis, jarred sauce, stout, sugar and salt in a saucepan and bring to a simmer, whisking until smooth. Slice onion into half moons, combine with the squash and saute in oil for a few minutes until softened. Add the beans, chili and mole sauce and taste for seasoning. Stir in the crumbled cheese and set aside.
Have oven at 350 F. Spread a spoonful of the sauce on the bottom of a baking dish. Roll the filling up in the tortillas, tucking in the ends, and nestle against each other in the dish. Top with the remaining sauce, then the cheeses. If filling is still warm, bake for 30 - 40 minutes, or until bubbly. Alternatively, refrigerate then bake for about an hour. Serve with sour cream, red salsa, guacamole, fresh cilantro and hot sauce.
Substitute other stouts or porters or hotter chilis at will. You can assemble and refrigerate this dish, unbaked, for a day or two, or freeze for a few weeks. Defrost before baking.