Mexico Cooks!

Everything But the Squeal: Chicharrón (aka Fried Pork Skin)

Hot-out-of-the-grease porky deliciousness: chicharrón (chee-chah-ROHN, fried pork skin), as made at the Morelia tianguis (street market) where Mexico Cooks! shops every Wednesday.  The piece of just-made chicharrón in the photo above is about 60cm high by 45cm wide (two feet by one and a half feet).  The cazo (cooking vessel) in the photo is about three feet in diameter at the top.

Mexico is a huge producer of pork, and not just any pork: the little piggy that goes to market here is usually finely grained, tender, and flavorful.  The meat has just enough fat-to-lean ratio for a wonderful feel in the mouth.  Every part of the pig is consumed, from the head (pozole) to the curlicue tail (cooked in a pot of beans).  Even the skin is eaten, in at least two forms: fried as chicharrón or sliced into thin strips and pickled as cueritos.

Fresh chicharrón, almost ready to eat, gets a final dowsing with boiling oil.

In the United States, pork rinds destined for the snack food aisle begin as hard, dry pellets made in a factory. Meat processing plants sell these pellets in bulk to snack food producers and individual pork rind vendors. The dehydrated pellets are placed in vats of hot cooking oil, maintained at a temperature around 400 degrees Fahrenheit (approximately 204 degrees Celsius). A consistent cooking temperature is crucial, since colder oil may not cause the pellets to puff out during the deep frying stage. The individual pork rind pellets are held down in the near-boiling oil with a metal screen to insure consistency; after about 60 seconds, they're ready for packaging.

Typical pork rind marketing from the United States.  Crunchy pre-packaged pork rinds and NASCAR go together like gin and tonic, bread and butter, or mashed potatoes and gravy.

In Mexico, very little processing takes place between the on-the-hoof pig and the cazo (huge metal pot used to make chicharrones).  The slaughterer skins the pig in as large a single piece as possible, soaks the skin briefly in brine, and sends it to market.  At the tianguis where I shop on Wednesdays, the chicharrón vendor's brother kills the pig at the rancho.  Another relative--the vendor next to the chicharrón purveyor--sells the rest of the freshly killed animal: ribs, tongue, liver, kidneys, legs, chops, tenderloin, etc.  Feet sell fresh or pickled, ears sell fresh or fried.

In Mexico, customers usually wait in line for fresh chicharrón to come out of the cazo.  Although packaged chicharrón is available in supermarkets, freshly-made is infinitely better.  Truly, there is no comparison.

Pork rinds, long a popular snack food in the southern United States, became popular country-wide with the advent of high-protein food plans such as the Atkins and South Beach diets. Unlike potato or corn chips, fried pork rinds have no carbohydrates at all. They are exceptionally high in protein, however, which makes them ideal for those who prefer snack foods that have no starch component.

Fresh chicharrón can be delgado (thin, above) or gordito (thick, below).  Chicharrón delgado is just the crispy, crunchy fried skin of the pig.  Ask the vendor to weigh out as much or as little as you need; in Mexico, chicharrón is sold by the kilo.  You can see the old-fashioned scale that my vendor uses in the photo above.  Other vendors at the tianguis use digital electronic scales.

Chicharrón gordito is fried with little squares of pork meat still attached to the skin.  The meat develops a creamy texture, which contrasts beautifully with the crunch of the crisp-fried skin.  The difference in color between this photo and the one above is due to the red lona (tarp) that hung above the first booth and the blue lona that hung over the second booth.

The main concern about pork rinds, however, is their high sodium content.  Pork rinds can have up to three times as much sodium as regular potato chips.  In spite of their sodium content, pork rinds are usually less greasy than other snacks.

In Mexico, guacamole is often served with chunks of chicharrón instead of totopos (tortilla chips).

In addition to eating chicharrón as a snack food, most Mexicans also enjoy it as a high-protein yet inexpensive meal.  Served everywhere in Mexico, chicharrones en salsa verde is enormously popular.

Chicharrones en Salsa Verde
Fried Pork Skins in Green Sauce

Sauce
1 lb fresh tomatillos, husked and washed
1 large bunch cilantro, washed well
4 to 6 chiles serranos, depending on your heat tolerance
Salt to taste

Mexico Cooks! already ground the tomatillos and chiles in the blender.  The cilantro is ready to add.

In a large, heavy saucepan, bring 4 quarts water to a boil.  Add the husked tomatillos and the chiles.  Allow to boil until the tomatillos begin to crack open.  As each one opens, remove it to your blender jar.  A few may not open; when the rest are done, just add the unopened tomatillos to the rest in the blender jar.  Add the chiles as well.  Blend until roughly chopped.  Using the hole in the center of your blender top, add the cilantro little by little , blending until the cilantro is finely chopped.  Add salt to taste.

Heat the salsa verde in the large, heavy saucepan until the sauce is simmering.  Add six or so ounces of freshly-made crunchy chicharrón delgado.*  Allow the chicharrón and salsa to simmer for several minutes.  The texture of the chicharrón will change; during the simmer time, it will become soft and slippery.

If you prefer, you can put a portion of chicharrón into a bowl and pour the heated sauce on top.  The chicharrón will stay crunchy. 

*Don't try to make this recipe with pre-packaged snack food pork rinds; they will fall apart in the sauce. 

Serve with hot tortillas, steamed rice, and a cold beer.

Serves two or three. 

Provecho!

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

On the Table: Mexico Cooks! Dines Out and Dines at Home

A whole frog, battered, deep fried and served with chiles toreados (chile serrano, rolled in oil and grilled or sautéed until soft), cebolla blanca (white onion, in this case caramelized), and limón to squeeze all over it.  Deep fried frogs are a specialty of Queréndaro, Michoacán.  It's a truly graphic presentation, but you only eat the legs--unless you care to nibble on other parts.

A Sunday afternoon on the trajineras (boats) in Xochimilco requires a refueling stop at a 'restaurant' trajinera.  In this case, our midday meal was juicy carne asada (grilled meat) and quesadillas cooked to order, guacamole and tortilla chips, rice, beans, and hot-off-the griddle tortillas.  Delicious!

Mexico Cooks! discovered Panadería Manduca at Av. Nuevo León #125-B during the November Col. Condesa bakery crawl and hasn't stopped buying their marvelous made-on-site pretzel bread.  The bread is dense, extremely flavorful, and just the way we like it.

Still on the bread theme, here's the pan de romero (rosemary bread) from Rosetta, a lovely Italian restaurant at Calle Colima 166, Col. Roma Sur, Mexico City.  Next time we eat there, I promise you a report on London-trained chef Elena Reygada's wonderful food.

Home cooking: Mexico Cooks! prepared the hot, fennel-y Italian sausage and then created sausage, peppers, and onion sandwiches for a recent meal at home. 

Another home-cooked meal: eggplant parmagiana.  Peter Francis Battaglia, an Italian-American friend in New Jersey, keeps me inspired to try his recipes.  Once you've read his web page and seen his photos, you'll be equally inspired.

Once every six weeks or so, Azul/Condesa or Azul/Histórico call out to us.  It's difficult for me to resist the pechuga de pollo en mole negro (chicken breast in black mole).  For me, Chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita's mole negro recipe continues to be the gold standard for this dish.

To end on a sweet note: these buñuelos--foot-in-diameter deep-fried flour pastry, finished with a dash of granulated sugar and cinnamon, broken onto a plate or into a bowl and bathed with syrup made of piloncillo--were on the fonda table (small family food booth or restaurant) next to me the last time I was in Morelia, Michoacán.  Could you resist?  I couldn't.

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Albóndigas de Jalisco, Estilo Diana Kennedy::Jalisco-Style Meatballs, Adapted from Diana Kennedy

These and just a few other ingredients for albóndigas de Jalisco (Jalisco-style meatballs) combine to become a simple but delicious meal.

It's been cool during the day here in Mexico City for the couple of months since the rainy season finally got itself underway.  Summer in Mexico's Central Highlands is my favorite time of year: cool-to-warm partly sunny days are nearly always followed by downright chilly rainy nights. 

For those of you who live in the USA or Canada, it's hard to realize that at more than 7500 feet above sea level, Mexico City has weather completely unlike what many think of as Mexico's desert or even beach temperatures.  In the last few days, the afternoon high temperatures have hovered just under 70° Fahrenheit.  In Mexico Cooks!' household, cool days always mean something warming and delicious for our comida (midday meal).  Subtly-flavored albóndigas--especially as prepared from this recipe, adapted from Diana Kennedy's book The Cuisines of Mexico--are the perfect comfort food.

You only need to blend eggs and a few herbs and spices to give a most wonderful Mexican touch to the meat mixture for these albóndigas (meatballs).

This is a dandy recipe for cooks of any level: if you're a beginner, you'll love the simplicity and authenticity of the traditional flavors of the end product.  If you're a more advanced cook, the people at your table will believe that you worked for hours to prepare this traditional Mexican meal. 

All the ingredients you need are undoubtedly easy for you to get even if you live outside Mexico.  Here's the list, both for the meatballs and their sauce:

Ingredients

Albóndigas
1.5 Tbsp long-grain white rice
Boiling water to cover
3/4 lb ground pork
3/4 lb ground beef
2 small zucchini squash (about 6 ounces)
2 eggs
1/4 scant teaspoon dried oregano
4 good-sized sprigs fresh mint (preferably) OR 1 tsp dried mint
1 chile serrano, roughly chopped
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 scant teaspoon cumin seeds OR ground cumin
1/3 medium white onion, roughly chopped

Add the liquified eggs, onions, chile, herbs, and spices to the ground meats and mix well with your hands.

Sauce
3 medium Roma tomatoes (about 1 lb)
1 chile serrano, roughly chopped (optional if you do not care for a mildly spicy sauce)
Boiling water to cover
3 Tbsp lard, vegetable oil, peanut oil, or safflower oil (I prefer lard, for its flavor)
1 medium white onion, roughly chopped
5 cups rich meat or chicken broth, homemade if possible
Salt to taste

For serving
2 or 3 carrots, cut into cubes or sticks
2 medium white potatoes, cut into cubes or sticks

 Utensils
A small bowl
A large bowl
A blender
A saucepan
A fork
A large flameproof pot with cover

Preparing the meatballs
Put the rice in a small bowl and cover with boiling water.  Allow to soak for about 45 minutes.  I use the glass custard cup that you see lying on its side in the initial photo--it's just the right size.

While the rice is soaking, put both kinds of meat into the large bowl.  Trim the ends from the zucchini and discard.  Chop the squash very finely and add to the meat mixture.

Put the eggs, onion, and all herbs and spices--in that order--in the blender jar.  Blend until all is liquified.  Add to the meat/squash mixture and, using your hands, mix well until the liquid is thoroughly incorporated.

Rinse out the blender jar for its next use in this recipe.

Drain the rice and add it to the meat mixture.  Form 24 meatballs, about 1.5" in diameter, and set aside.

Preparing the sauce


Bring about 2 cups of water to a full rolling boil.  Add the whole tomatoes and allow to cook for about five minutes, until the skins split.  Watch the pot, though: this procedure might take a bit less or a bit more time. 


When the tomato skins split, take the tomatoes one by one out of the water and peel them.  If you've never tried it, believe me: this is miraculously easy--the skins are not too hot to handle and they slip off the tomatoes like little gloves.  You can see that I have stuck a fork into the stem end of the tomato for ease of handling.

Skin the tomatoes and put them in the blender jar.  Add the roughly-chopped onion and chile serrano.  Blend until thoroughly puréed.

Freshly rendered manteca (lard) for frying the sauce.  If all you can get in your store is a hard brick of stark white, hydrogenated lard, don't bother.  It has no flavor and absolutely no redeeming value.  If you want to use lard, ask a butcher at a Latin market if he sells freshly rendered lard.  If none is available, use the oil of your choice.

In the flameproof cooking pot, heat the lard or oil and add the tomato purée.  Bring it to a boil and let it cook fast for about three minutes.  Splatter alert here!

Turn down the flame and add the broth to the tomato sauce.  Bring it to a simmer.  Add the meatballs, cover the pot, and let them simmer in the liquid for about an hour.


After the first hour of cooking, add the carrots and the potatoes to the tomato broth and meatballs.  Cover and cook for an additional half hour.  When I made the albóndigas this time, I cubed the vegetables.  I think the finished dish is more attractive with the vegetables cut into sticks.

The rich fragrance of the cooking albóndigas and their broth penetrates every corner of our home.  By the time they're ready to eat, we are more than eager!

Albóndigas de Jalisco served with steamed white rice (you might also like to try them with Mexican red rice), sliced avocado, and fresh, hot tortillas.  This flat soup plate filled with albóndigas and vegetables needs more sauce; we prefer to eat them when they're very soupy.  A serving of rice topped with three meatballs plus vegetables and sauce is plenty. 

Albóndigas freeze really well, so I often double the recipe; I use a flat styrofoam meat tray from the supermarket to freeze the uncooked meatballs individually, then prepare the sauce, thaw the meatballs, and cook them as described.

The single recipe serves eight.

Provecho!

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

Flaneur Redux: Mexico City Places to Go, People to See, Things to Eat and Drink...

Chocolate a la española (Spanish-style hot chocolate), Café El Popular, 5 de Mayo #40, Centro Histórico.

San Antonio de Padua (St. Anthony of Padua), José Guadalupe Posada.  Collection Carlos Monsiváis, Museo del Estanquillo, Isabel la Católica #26, Centro Histórico.

Pepitorias for sale at San Ángel's delightful Bazar Sábado.

Just a shell of its former self, a shadow of its former glory.  Remains of private home, Colonia Roma.

A bolero is not always a song.  Shoeshine stand, Centró Histórico, DF.

Santuario de San Charbel (Sanctuary of Saint Charbel), Calle Uruguay, Mexico City.

MetroBús stop, Glorieta Insurgentes.  Another kind of shadow.

MetroBús, Glorieta Insurgentes.

Gradas al Atardecer (Stairway at Dusk), Escuela de Gastronomía Mexicana, Col. Roma.


Cocktail hour sunglasses from the 1960s, modeled by the vendor.  La Lagunilla.

18th Century barroque Templo de la Profesa, Isabel la Católica esq. Francisco Madero, Centro Histórico.  From the rooftop, Museo del Estanquillo.

Champurrado (atole, a thick, hot corn-based drink, in this instance made with chocolate), Restaurante Flor de Lis, Col. Condesa.

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.