Prize Ingredient two ways: Brie & Até en Croute AND Country-style Pork Ribs w/ Chipotle-Peach Até BBQ Sauce

Brie and Até de Durazno en Croute

By far the most interesting "prize" ingredient from the Mija Chronicles giveaway was the block of Até de Durazno. Até is a dense fruit "paste" or a fruit "leather" or a fruit "candy," take your pick. It's hard to describe, really. It's even harder to photograph:

A slice from the block of Até de Durazno

How Até is Made

Fruit is mashed up, strained, cooked down with sugar, sometimes strained again, and cooked down some more until the natural pectin in the fruit "sets" the mash into a jelly-like solid. Most ripe fruit has pectin naturally in it, although the amount of pectin varies from fruit to fruit. Apples and quince, for example, are loaded with natural pectin, while other fruits (like peaches and tomatoes) have much less. When you're making apple butter or apple jelly, you don't really need to add pectic, but for tomato jam or peach preserves, you have to add commercial pectin because the fruit would otherwise turn to mush before it ever set into jam. However, any fruit that's cooked long enough will eventually set in a jelly-like mass.
[This babble continues...]


I know that "dense, jelly-like mass" doesn't sound very appetizing, but what this block of peach até lacked in glamor was more than made up for in addictive deliciousness. All the original delicacy of the peach flesh was gone, obviously, but it was replaced by an intensity of peach flavor that was truly incredible. As my daughter described it, "It's like fruit leather on crack!"

Brie & Até en Croute

In Mexico, até is usually eaten sliced with cheese and crackers as an appetizer or snack. Wrapping cheese and até in puff pastry dough seemed like the perfect way to moved this amazing appetizer to another level.

• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry dough, defrosted
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 mini-wheel (8 oz.) of brie cheese
• 1/2 cup of peach até, diced into small pieces
• 1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds

Some people love the rind on brie cheese, some people hate it. Because I was planning to take this appetizer to a friend's birthday party and had no idea what other people's preferences might be, I decided to trim off the cheese rind this time.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Open the puff pastry sheet on a clean surface and set the wheel of brie in the center. Top the brie with the diced até and toasted almonds. Brush the edges of the dough with beaten egg, and wrap the dough up around the brie, sealing the edges. Brush the outside surfaces of the dough with the remainder of the egg. Place the brie package in the center of a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes or until the puff pastry is baked through and nicely browned.

Not the most beautiful en croute I've ever made. My egg wash sealing job did not work completely, and part of the pastry package started to open during baking. Oh, well. Tasted great, though.

Allow the baked brie to cool a few minutes before cutting it open. Serve with crackers, as there will be more tasty, melt-y, cheesy goo than there will be pastry to go around.

Country-style Pork Ribs (and Salmon) with Chipotle-Peach Até BBQ Sauce

Até can be used like jam. It melts well in hot liquid, making it easy to add to a glaze or sauce. I decided to try to work some of the peach até into a barbecue sauce for country-style pork ribs and fish.

I began with the pork, braising it in the oven with an assortment of vegetables and herbs.

In the bottom of a large roasting pan, place:

• a bunch of celery
• a few carrots (I only had two that day, but you could use more)
• an onion, chunked up
• 6-8 cloves of garlic
• 2 inches of ginger root, chunked up
• 2 bay leaves
• a bunch of fresh thyme
• salt and pepper

Layer the country-style pork ribs on top. No need to brown them; we'll do that later, on the grill.

Cover the meat with beer and water. I used 2 bottles of dark imported beer and just enough water to almost cover the meat. (...Oh, and I also tossed in one last, lonely jalapeno from in my crisper bin, but that's optional.)

Cover with foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Allow the meat to cool in the braising liquid, then pull out the meat (set the ribs aside in the refrigerator) and strain the liquid into a large saucepan or dutch oven.

Boil the braising liquid over high heat until it is reduced by half. Add to the reduced braising liquid:

• chipotle peppers, plus most of the adobo sauce
• 2 cups of diced até
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

Continue to boil the sauce until it is reduced by another third. Finish with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons of water. This last addition will thicken the sauce.

Grilled salmon brushed with chipotle-peach até sauce. Mildly sweet and moderately spicy, the sauce was perfect with fish.

Country-style pork ribs with chipotle-peach até barbecue sauce. The sauce went well with the pork, too, I am told.

I hauled everything over to John's house and asked him to fire up his grill. The salmon went on first, skin side down, and stayed there. Whenever I cook salmon filet on the grill, I don't move it once it's on and never flip it, unless I'm working with a whole fish. This particular half-salmon took about 15 or 20 minutes to cook through, with the grill lid down (most of the time) and three well-spaced slatherings of chipotle-até sauce between sneak-peeks.

Next came the ribs, which I kept slathering with sauce and turning to keep the sugars in the sauce from burning completely.

We also had grilled olive-oil-and-garlic veggies, topped off afterwards with fresh percorino romano cheese and julienned basil and fresh thyme from John and Valentine's garden. The hot dogs were for the 6 canine friends in attendance at the party.

PLUS, I also made sweet potato mash with butter and sage. FORGET the cinnamon and sugar treatment! Sweet potatoes are not dessert, they're potatoes! Treat them with the dignity they deserve! Peel them, boil them, mashed them up with butter, roasted garlic, salt and pepper, and toss in a small handful of herbs (in this case, chopped fresh sage leaves). Voila! An easy side dish.

The first six humans to arrive at the party toasted John with a warming nip of John and Val's homemade not-very-blue blueberry brandy. The perfect aperitif!

Happy birthday, John! Eat well, love well, live well, my friend!