Pepian

So, what did we cook?

The request (again, this dinner party was not my idea), was for pepian, the traditional Guatemalan stew made with chicken and vegetables. I think of it as the Guatemalan equivalent of mole: a thick sauce with many ingredients -- sometimes with chocolate. We served this with salad (including avocado), a basil salad dressing, seasoned rice (with diced onions, carrots, tomatoes, and cilantro), and tortillas. The plating was beautiful, per Paulina's experience at the luxury hotel.

Pepian (or, Guatemalan chicken soup):

Amounts not exact

For the soup:

• 1 chicken
• several potatoes
• several carrots
• 1 chayote or small squash

For the sauce:

• 1/4 head of garlic
• 1 dried ancho chili
• 1 dried red chili
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds
• 1 cup pepitas (shelled squash seeds)
• 1 tomatillo
• 5 plum tomatoes

In a large pot, get a chicken soup going: cover the chicken with water, add salt, and boil. Peel and chop the potatoes, carrots, and chayote into large pieces.

In a pan that you don't mind burning (like a cast iron), begin browning the tomatoes on all sides. Blacken the skin -- you will discard it later -- and cook the tomatoes through. In another frying pan, begin browning the seeds. Slice each chili pepper lengthwise to flatten -- discard the seeds if you don't want a spicy sauce; keep them if you do. When the seeds are toasted, replace them with the garlic, then the chili peppers, then the tomatillo, as you have space. You will toast all of the sauce ingredients separately before blending them together. When they are cooked through and cool, slip the skins off the tomatoes. In a food processor with some water, blend the sauce ingredients together.

When the chicken is cooked and the soup has flavor (see tips for basic chicken soup here), remove the chicken to prepare for serving (take the meat off the bones and shred it with your fingers). Add the veggies and your pureed sauce to the stock and boil until the veggies are cooked through. Add the chicken back in to serve. Season to taste.

Serve with cilantro, lime, and avocado, if you like. This dish can be made veg by adding the sauce to a vegetable broth.

Paulina toasting sesame seeds and tomatoes

Plated dinners for 20