| Did a friend forward this to you? Sign up here. Tidbits, No. 6 Good day, all. Today’s recipe for Molletes is from former Washington Post staffer and current food writer and recipe tester extraordinaire Kara Elder. If you’ve never had a piece of bread spread with rich beans and melted cheese, buckle up. It’s a fast ride to a meal of layered flavors. It’s Tuesday, so I’m sharing a few related musings. 1. This recipe originally accompanied a wonderful essay Kara wrote titled “Mom didn’t teach me to cook. She taught me confidence, in and out of the kitchen.” It begins: “We didn’t have many things when I was growing up in rural eastern Washington state in the 1990s (the literal largest thing missing from my early years was a television), but we did have a big vegetable garden.” That garden, along with Kara’s mother’s Mexican heritage, informed the family’s meals. “In the summer of 1995, my mom spent two months studying Mexican anthropology in Guadalajara, Mexico,” Kara wrote, noting that her father, who wasn’t a cook, jokingly feared they might not survive. “When Mom returned, we hadn’t starved, and she had learned how easy it is to make molletes (pronounced moh-YEH-tehs), a traditional Mexican open-face sandwich of refried beans spread over halved bolillos, a type of Mexican roll, then topped with cheese and broiled until warm.” Often served as a snack, breakfast or light lunch, they can also be part of a more filling meal, alongside a vegetable side dish, salad or soup. “Molletes perfectly encapsulate the foods I most associate with my mom: simple, nutritious without being obnoxious and totally adaptable to whatever ingredients you like or have on hand.” This recipe calls for canned refried beans, but when I have time, I love simmering dried beans until they get soft and creamy and mashing them with seasonings, aromatics and maybe a little bit of pork fat. 2. Molletes reflect the influence the Spanish had on Mexican cuisine. In Spain, especially Andalusia, a mollete is a type of sandwich bread roll that is often split and spread with olive oil and garlic or lard. 3. I recently learned that there is another type of mollete in Mexico, and it’s sweet: Molletes poblanos are a sweet bread similar to a concha in texture but stuffed with custard-like coconut cream. I’d love to try making them one day. | 
