Mexico Cooks!

Mexico Cooks! Best Flan Ever: Flan de Naranja y Coco (Coconut and Orange Flan)

The major ingredients for Mexico Cooks!' best flan ever--clockwise from the bottom: fresh oranges, cream of coconut, whole milk, real Mexican vanilla, fresh eggs, and sal del mar (sea salt, in the little red hen salt cellar).  You'll also need some sugar.

This is a Mexican flanera (flan pan).  It's made of aluminum; the lid fastens down with a hinged clamp.  If you have one, use it.  If you don't, you can use any kind of oven-proof pan that holds about two liters.  It need not have a lid.  That's San Pascual Baylón, the patron saint of the kitchen, in the background.  He can be especially helpful at the moment you turn the chilled flan onto the serving platter.

Start by caramelizing the sugar in a heavy pan.  This is an 8" enameled cast iron omelet pan; it's been in the pantry for nearly 20 years and, for this purpose, works better than any other pan in the kitchen.  Just dump the sugar into your pan over very low heat; when you see that the sugar begins to melt a bit around the edges, move the pan a little to redistribute the sugar so that it caramelizes as evenly as possible. 

When the sugar is fully caramelized, it will look like this photo.  Caveat: this process seems to take forever, but you can't hurry it.  And no matter how tempted you are, do not stir the sugar!  Just move the pan little by little, tipping the uncaramelized sugar into the melted mass.

As soon as all the sugar is caramelized--while it is still boiling hot--pour it into the flanera or whatever pan you are using.  Tip and turn the flanera so that the sugar evenly coats the bottom and sides.  Be very careful not to burn yourself.  Set the flanera aside and complete the recipe.

Mexico Cooks! Flan de Coco y Naranja a la Antigua (Old-Style Coconut and Orange Flan)
8 servings

Make the flan one day ahead of the time you want to serve it.  Once baked, it needs to chill for about 18 hours.

Move the oven rack to its lowest position.  Pre-heat the oven to 165-170°C or 325°F. 

Ingredients
Caramelized Sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
4 Tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice

Flan
3 cups whole milk
1 cup cream of coconut
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 Tbsp freshly grated orange peel
4 eggs
6 additional egg yolks
pinch sea salt

Garnish as shown in photo
3 perfect strawberries with their leaves
4 1/4" slices carambola (star fruit)
2 to 4 Tbsp grated fresh coconut, toasted

Preparation

Caramelized Sugar
Over a low fire, pour one cup of granulated sugar into a small, heavy skillet.  Do not stir the sugar.  When the sugar begins to melt, move the skillet a little, tipping and turning it so that all of the sugar caramelizes evenly.  Allow the sugar to boil until it is a deep caramel color.  Add the orange juice and tip gently until the juice is fully incorporated into the sugar.  Immediately pour the boiling caramelized sugar/juice mixture into the flanera or other pan, tipping the flanera until the sugar fully coats the bottom and sides.

Flan
In a 2-quart pot, combine the milk, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, the cream of coconut, vanilla, grated orange rind, and salt.  With a wooden spoon, stir the ingredients over a medium fire until they are well-heated.  Raise the fire to high and allow the mixture to boil, but don't let it boil over.  Continue to boil the mixture until it has reduced by nearly one cup.  Set aside and allow to cool slightly.

The milk mixture needs to boil until it has reduced by about one cup.  Be sure to set it aside to cool when the reduction is finished. 

To easily separate six of the eggs so that you can use just their yolks, crack each egg into your open hand and allow the white to run through your fingers into a container.

With an electric hand beater, beat the eggs together with the additional yolks until they are light and foamy.  Add the cooled mixture of milks.  Pour the entire mixture into the flanera or prepared pan.  If it is a flanera, cover it and fasten the latch.  If it is another type pan, do not cover.  Whichever you are using, put the recipient into a baño maría (bainmarie) and then into the pre-heated oven.

The milk mixture in the flanera; the caramelized sugar is at the bottom.


The flanera in the baño maría, just going into the oven.  The baño maría can be any kind of pan; use enough water to come about one and a half to two inches up the side of the flanera or other pan.

Bake the flan for approximately two hours.  At the end of two hours, take the top off the flanera and test the flan by inserting a thin knife or metal skewer into the middle; if it comes out completely clean, the flan is done.  If some of the egg mixture clings to the knife or skewer, bake the flan about fifteen minutes longer, being careful not to over-cook it.

Once the flan is cooked, take it AND the baño maría out of the oven.  On a cooling rack, let the flan rest in the baño maría about fifteen minutes more.  Then remove the flanera (still covered) or other pan from the baño maría and allow the flan to cool at room temperature until the pan is cool to the touch.

Once the flan is cool, put the flanera (still covered) or other pan in the refrigerator and allow to chill until the following day.

To remove the flan from its mold, uncover and run a thin table knife around the entire outer edge.  To ensure ease of release from the pan, dip the bottom of the flanera or other pan into very hot water so that the caramelized sugar liquifies a little.  VERY CAREFULLY turn the flan out onto a platter.  Mexico Cooks! puts the platter (one with a lip) on top of the open flan mold, calls on San Pascual Baylón, and quickly turns the platter and the mold so that the flan slips out easily.  The caramelized sugar will run onto the top of the flan and make a pool in the bottom of the platter.

Approximate preparation time: 30 minutes
Approximate baking time: 2 hours

The finished product, ready to be taken to the dinner table.

Just prior to serving, decorate the flan however you like.  In the photo, you see that I put one large strawberry in the center of the flan.  I carefully made a border of toasted coconut and then cut the two remaining strawberries in half, leaving the leaves attached to each half, and placed one half at north, south, east, and west on top of the coconut.  I then placed four slices of carambola between the strawberry halves.  You could also use fresh red raspberries, thinly sliced twists of orange, and fresh mint leaves for a garnish, or any other seasonal fruit, or use no garnish at all.

Provecho!

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Viva la Vida: Mexico Cooks! Looks Back at 2010

Fruit stand with mango and papaya, Paracho, Michoacán.  A large cup of fruit, served with fresh-squeezed limón, salt, and chile if you like, costs 10 pesos (about 80 cents US at today's exchange rate).  The bees are always free.

Artisans from Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán, prepared papel picado (cut paper) banners for a Semana Santa (Holy Week) exhibition of antique religious art in Morelia.

Menta (in this case, apple mint--menta sauveolens) growing against old bricks at the Colegio Culinario de Morelia.  It was planted several years ago by Guillermo Lara Góngora, the English-language teacher at the CCM.

Devil dance mask, Tocuaro, Michoacán.

Caldo de pollo (Mexican-style chicken soup), on the hoof.  The butcher will use his machete to cut off all the claws for you; the well-washed feet add color and flavor to your chicken broth.

Flowers float in a Morelia fountain at twilight.

Detail of hand-embroidered rebozo (long rectangular shawl) from Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán.

Creating a basket from huinumo (pine needles), Opopeo, Michoacán.

Two colors of masa (corn dough), one metate (grinding stone).  Uruapan, Michoacán.

Two beautiful young women from Paracho, Michoacán show off the hand-cross stitched guanengos (blouses) they  created for a wedding.

Michoacán, for the joy of life.

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VII Encuentro de Cocina Tradicional de Michoacán: Michoacán's Seventh Annual Festival of Traditional Cuisine

 
In Uruapan, Michoacán, on December 3, 2010, multicolored papel picado (cut paper streamers) billowed in the evening breeze to announce our tremendous pride in the VII Encuentro de Cocina Tradicional de Michoacán (Seventh Annual Michoacán Traditional Food Festival).

A sumptuous and traditional mole con pollo (mole with chicken) as prepared by Antonina González Leandro of Tarerio, Michoacán.  Sra. González participated in the concurso de la Zona Lacustre (Lake Pátzcuaro region competition) that took place this year in Pátzcuaro.  In addition to this mole, she prepared pozole de elote con conejo (fresh-corn stew with rabbit), several other savory dishes, and a wonderful sweet dried-corn snack called ponteduro.

In Pátzcuaro on December 4, 2010, Sra. Antonina González paused at her booth to pose with Cynthia Martínez, in charge of Morelia's Restaurante San Miguelito.

Each of the last several years, Mexico Cooks! has been privileged to be included on the teams of speakers, judges, and hosts for Michoacán's annual traditional cuisine spectacular.  This year, our joyous cup of participation in the festival was filled to overflowing by the two-week-prior notice that Mexico's cuisine, and especially the cuisine of Michoacán, had been designated as a UNESCO Intangible Heritage of Humanity--the first cuisine in the world to be so honored.  Three cities in central Michoacán (Morelia, Uruapan, and Pátzcuaro) were named to host this year's food festival, and all three went completely overboard in welcoming every participant: host committees, notable chefs and food writers from all parts of Mexico and other countries, hundreds of proud and happy local and regional eaters, and the people without whom there would be no reason to have the party: the stupendous traditional cooks from the Purhépecha communities throughout this part of the state.

In Morelia on December 5, 2010, Dra. Gloria López Morales, president of the Conservatorio de la Cultura Gastronómica Mexicana, shares her views on topics related to Mexico's November triumph at UNESCO.

In Pátzcuaro, Mexico Cooks! talks about Michoacán cuisine with (left) Christian Plotzcyk and (right) David Suárez of the New York restaurant group Rosa Mexicano.

A number of internationally known chefs and food writers attended the festival this year.  Among them were Patricia Quintana, Alicia Gironella d'Angeli, Rubén Hernández, Roberto González Guzmán, Sol Rubín de Borbolla, Cristina Palacio, and Gabriel Gutiérrez García, all from Mexico City; Cynthia Martínez, Alma Cervantes, and Joaquín Bonilla of Morelia; and Susana Trilling of Oaxaca.  In addition, David Suárez and Christian Plotzcyk of the Rosa Mexicano restaurant group based in New York City and Iliana de la Vega of the Culinary Institute of America, San Antonio, Texas represented the interest of the United States.  The festival also counted on the participation of internationally renowned Michoacán chefs Rubí Silva Figueroa (Restaurante Los Mirasoles, Morelia), Lucero Soto Arriaga (Restaurante LU, Morelia), and Blanca Estela Vidales (Restaurante La Mesa de Blanca, Ziracuaretiro, Michoacán), who, along with teams of cooks and assistants, prepared several banquets for specially invited festival participants and guests.

In Uruapan, we tasted delicious jahuacatas (corundas created using layers of frijoles molidos (beans ground on the traditional metate) and fresh masa (corn dough), as prepared by Sra. Juanita Bravo Lázaro from Angahuan, Michoacán.  Sra. Bravo served these marvelous jahuacatas with an atápakua de calabaza (thick squash sauce).  This preparation won the prize for the best traditional dish.  Click on the photograph to enlarge the picture for a better view of the layers.

None of the judges had previously heard of--much less tasted--these incredibly delicious yurucurindas.  Once we tasted them in Uruapan, we couldn't stop recommending them to everyone in earshot.  "Hurry, get one before they're gone!" we mumbled with our mouths full.  Similar in size to but a bit thicker than a standard corn tortilla, the yurucurindas are made from blue corn masa, piloncillo (Mexican raw sugar cones), and canela molida (ground cinnamon), and then baked on a traditional comal de barro (clay griddle).  Even this long after the festival, the photo still makes my mouth water at the memory!

Señora Benedicta Alejo Vargas of San Lorenzo, Michoacán is one of the greatest traditional cooks in the Uruapan area.  The internationally known Sra. Alejo won the prize for best rescued dish with churipo de carne seca (dried beef soup in the Purhépecha style).  Rescued dishes include traditional preparations that are not usually prepared today and are on the verge of extinction. Photo courtesy Gabriel Gutiérrez García.

Mexico Cooks! noticed this basket of fresh green leaves on the table at Sra. Alejo's booth and asked what purpose they served.  Sra. Alejo smiled and said, "When I was a little girl, my grandmother always put a basket of leaves on the table to use as napkins.  It's part of my family's tradition."  In addition to her prize-winning traditional churipo, Sra. Alejo prepared mole de conejo (rabbit mole), mole de queso (cheese mole), and tzirita, a botana (appetizer) made of finely ground chile seeds and other savory ingredients.

For the first time, acclaimed chef (she's the owner of Mexico City's restaurant Izote) and author Patricia Quintana attended the Encuentro de Cocina Tradicional.  She happily served as a judge.

Absolutely gorgeous: hot-off-the-comal tortillas, made with two colors of corn masa.

Thick and delicious atole de chaqueta is a corn-based hot drink flavored, in this instance, with the toasted and ground outer shells of the cacao (chocolate) bean.  Nothing is wasted here in Michoacán's kitchens: imagine that such delicious things are made from what you might discard: chile seeds and the hulls of cocoa beans!

In addition to the wonderful food competition, the festival organization treated the Uruapan public to a marvelous evening of traditional music and dance.

At the December 5, 2010 Morelia closure of the VII Encuentro de Cocina Tradicional de Michoacán, the prize-winning cocineras (cooks) and other dignitaries posed with (left foreground) Sra. Alicia Gironella d'Angeli, First Lady of Mexico's food world and chef/owner at Restaurante El Tajín in Mexico City and Dr. Genovevo Figueroa, secretary of tourism for the state of Michoacán.  Both Sra. Gironella and Dr. Figueroa are long-time supporters of this annual Michoacán festival.  Photo courtesy Rubén Hernández.

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Los Reyes Magos to La Candelaria: Three Kings, Rosca de Reyes and Tamales!

Most Mexicans eat traditional rosca de reyes (Three Kings' Bread) on January 6.  Its usual accompaniment is chocolate caliente (hot chocolate).

The Día de los Reyes Magos (the Feast of the Three Kings) falls on January 6 each year.  You might know the Christian feast day as Epiphany or as Little Christmas.  The festivities celebrate the arrival of the Three Kings at Bethlehem to visit the newborn Baby Jesus.  In some cultures, children receive gifts not on Christmas, but on the Feast of the Three Kings--and the Kings are the gift-givers, commemorating the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh that they presented to the Baby Jesus. Many, many children in Mexico still receive special gifts of toys from the Reyes (Kings) on January 6

Typically, Mexican families celebrate the festival with a rosca de reyes (Three Kings' Bread).  The size of the family's rosca varies according to the size of the family, but everybody gets a slice, from the littlest toddler to great-grandpa.  Accompanied by a cup of chocolate caliente (hot chocolate), it's a great winter treat. 

Chef Arturo Camacho Domínguez of Tampico, Tamaulipas.

My friend Chef Arturo Camacho Domínguez, who lives and works in Tampico, Tamaulipas, recently wrote a bit about the significance of the rosca.  He wrote, "The rosca de reyes represents a crown; the colorful fruits simulate the jewels which covered the crowns of the Holy Kings.  The Kings themselves signify peace, love, and happiness.  The Niño Dios hidden in the rosca reminds us of the moment when Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary hid the Baby Jesus in order to save him from King Herod, who wanted to kill him.  The three gifts that the Kings gave to the Niño Dios represent the Kings (gold), God (frankincense), and man (myrrh).

"In Mexico, we consider that an oval or ring shape represents the movement of the sun and that the Niño Dios represents the Child Jesus in his apparition as the Sun God.  Others mention that the circular or oval form of the Rosca de Reyes, which has no beginning and no end, is a representation of heaven--which of course is the home of the Niño Dios."

 

On January 6, 2009, Paty Mora de Vallejo, wife of Morelia's mayor Fausto Vallejo, served a slice of the enormous rosca de reyes monumental moreliana, prepared jointly by bakeries from everywhere in the city.

Here in Morelia, Michoacán, bakers prepare an annual monumental rosca for the whole city to share.  The rosca contains nearly 3000 pounds of flour, 1500 pounds of margerine, 10,500 eggs, 150 liters of milk, 35 pounds of yeast, 35 pounds of salt, 225 pounds of butter, 2000 pounds of dried fruits, and 90 pounds of orange peel.  The completed cake, if stretched out straight, measures two kilometers in length!  Baked in sections, the gigantic rosca is the collaborative effort of ten bakeries in the city.  The city government as well as grocery wholesalers join together to see to it that the tradition of the rosca continues to be a vibrant custom.

The plastic niño (baby) baked into our rosca measured less than 2" tall.  The figures used to be made of porcelain, but now they are generally made of plastic.  See the tooth mark on the head?  Mexico Cooks! is the culprit.  Every rosca de reyes baked in Mexico contains at least one niño; larger roscas can hold two, three, or more.  Morelia's giant rosca normally contains 10,000 of these tiny figures.

Tradition demands that the person who finds the niño in his or her slice of rosca is required to give a party on February 2, el Día de La Candelaria (Candlemas Day).  The party for La Candelaria calls for tamales, more tamales, and their traditional companion, a rich atole flavored with vanilla, cinnamon, or chocolate.  Several years ago, an old friend, in the throes of a family economic emergency, was a guest at his relatives' Three Kings party.  He bit into the niño buried in his slice of rosca.  Embarrassed that he couldn't shoulder the expense of the following month's Candelaria party, he gulped--literally--and swallowed the niño.

El Día de La Candelaria celebrates the presentation of Jesus in the Jewish temple, forty days after his birth.  The traditions of La Candelaria encompass religious rituals of ancient Jews, of pre-hispanic rites indigenous to Mexico, of the Christian evangelization brought to Mexico by the Spanish, and of modern-day Catholicism. 

In Mexico, you'll find a Niño Dios of any size for your home nacimiento (Nativity scene).  Traditionally, the Niño Dios is passed down, along with his wardrobe of special clothing, from generation to generation in a single family.

The presentation of the child Jesus to the church is enormously important in Mexican Catholic life. February 2 marks the official end of the Christmas season, the day to put away the last of the holiday decorations.  On February 2, the figure of Jesus is gently lifted from the home nacimiento (manger scene, or creche), dressed in new clothing, carried to the church, where he receives blessings and prayers.  He  is then carried home and rocked to sleep with tender lullabies, and carefully put away until the following year. 

Each family dresses its Niño Dios according to its personal beliefs and traditions.  Some figures are dressed in clothing representing a Catholic saint particularly venerated in a family; others are dressed in the clothing typically worn by the patron saints of different Mexican states.  Some favorites are the Santo Niño de Atocha, venerated especially in Zacatecas; the Niño de Salud (Michoacán), the Santo Niño Doctor (Puebla), and, in Xochimilco (suburban Mexico City), the Niñopa (alternately spelled Niñopan or Niño-Pa).

This Xochimilco arch and the highly decorated street welcome the much-loved Niñopan figure.

The veneration of Xochimilco's beloved Niñopan follows centuries-old traditions.  The figure has a different mayordomo every year; the mayordomo is the person in whose house the baby sleeps every night.  Although the Niñopan (his name is a contraction of the words Niño Padre or Niño Patrón) travels from house to house, visiting his chosen hosts, he always returns to the mayordomo's house to spend the night.  One resident put it this way: "When the day is beautiful and it's really hot, we take him out on the canals.  In his special chalupita (little boat), he floats around all the chinampas (floating islands), wearing his little straw hat so that the heat won't bother him.  Then we take him back to his mayordomo, who dresses our Niñopan in his little pajamas, sings him a lullaby, and puts him to sleep, saying, 'Get in your little bed, it's sleepy time!"  Even though the Niñopan is always put properly to bed, folks in Xochimilco believe that he sneaks out of bed to play with his toys in the wee hours of the night.  

Trajineras (decorated boats) ready to receive tourists line the canals in Xochimilco.

Although he is venerated in many Xochimilco houses during the course of every year, the Niñopan's major feast day is January 6.  The annual celebration takes place in Xochimilco's church of St. Bernard of Sienna.  On the feast of the Candelaria, fireworks, music, and dancers accompany the Niñopan as he processes through the streets of Xochimilco on his way to his presentation in the church.

Gloria in Xochimilco with Niñopa, April 2008.  Photo courtesy Colibrí.

Blue papel picado (cut paper decoration) floating in the deep-blue Xochimilco sky wishes the Niñopan welcome and wishes all of us Feliz Navidad.

El Día de La Candelaria means a joyful party with lots of tamales, coupled with devotion to the Niño Dios.  For more about a tamalada (tamales-making party), look at this 2007 Mexico Cooks! article.

From the rosca de reyes on January 6 to the tamales on February 2, the old traditions continue in Mexico's 21st Century.

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