Mexico Cooks!

Mexico Cooks! and the Joy of the Purépecha Language in Michoacán

A portion of the language-teaching wall in Santa Fe de la Laguna, Michoacán.

In early March, Mexico Cooks! and a friend spent a glorious day in Santa Fe de la Laguna, Michoacán.  We walked in the village, basking like lizards in the warm sun, slipping into one tiny shop and then another searching for the best rebozo (a type of shawl).  We stepped into the welcome shady patio of an artisan friend, a potter.  When we finished at the potter's home, we took our time ambling to the car.  Turning a corner, we found ourselves face to face with a vocabulary lesson!


In the Purépecha language, misitu means gato, or cat, if you speak English.

I am always surprised by the number of well-educated people, both native Spanish-speakers and people whose native language is English, who believe that Mexico's indigenous people speak dialects of Spanish.  Consider that the indigenous groups of what is now Mexico lived on this land for thousands of years before the arrival of the conquistadores (Spanish conquerers).  Until the 16th century, no one in what is now Mexico spoke Spanish. Each indigenous group spoke its own language and each group continues, to one degree or another, to use that language today.  Here's a link to a list of the indigenous languages spoken in today's Mexico: Mexico's indigenous languages.


Tindi is the mosca--the common house fly.

In the state of Michoacán, four indigenous languages are spoken.  The most common is Purépecha, with approximately 100,000 native speakers.  Next is Mazahua, with nearly 4,000 speakers, followed by 2700 coastal region speakers of Nahúatl.  Approximately 600 people in the easternmost part of the state speak Otomí.

Purépecha is considered to be an isolate language, with no connection to any other language spoken in the region, in the country, or in any other country. Linguists have found only remote ties to the Quechua language in Perú.


Xanchaki: the burro, or donkey.


Kuanasï is the rana--the frog.  Note the umlaut over the letter ï.  Because of the umlaut, the pronunciation of the preceding 's' becomes 'sh'.  Kuanashi!


Axuni, or venado--the deer.

Most Purépecha children learn their parents' native language as a first language, often learning Spanish only after they are more than halfway through primary school. Although Purépecha has been a written language since the 16th century, standard written Purépecha only began to come into existence in 1939. Even now there is no consensus as to how the language should be written.


Uakasï, the vaca--the cow.  Note that uakasï is pronounced with the 'sh' sound.


Utuksï, the caracol--snail!  Now you know how to pronounce that sï at the end of the word.

Like all of the languages native to what is now Mexico, Purépecha is in danger of becoming extinct.  Fortunately, both the state government as well as the native speakers are coming to understand the cultural and historic importance of keeping the language alive.  It's taught in primary schools for the first three years.  Once a child starts fourth grade, classes are bilingual Purépecha and Spanish.


K'útu is the tortuga--the turtle.


Puki is the jaguar--the big native cat.  Its scientific name is Panthera onca, and it is the only big cat native to the Americas.  In this painting, you see a person dressed in the jaguar dance costume, rather than the actual animal.

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The Purépecha of Michoacán in the 21st Century

This is Imelda, a charming Purépecha child already learning the traditional kitchen skills used by the ancestral generations of women on whose shoulders she stands. Morelia, Michoacán, 2012.

Today, more than 120,000 Purépecha live in 16 municipalities in the Zona Lacustre (Lake Zone) and the Meseta Purépecha (Purépecha tableland) of Michoacán.  Within those municipalites are numerous towns and villages.  Most Purépecha are bilingual.  Generally the language spoken by the family at home is Purépecha.  Children learn Spanish when they are part-way through primary school.  There are still approximately 10,000 Purépecha who speak only their native language.

Maíz criollo (native Mexican corn) in three colors, grown for personal use in a Purépecha family's garden.  

The present-day economy of the Purépecha is based, for the most part, in agriculture.  The Purépecha grow corn for their own use and grow wheat to sell.  In the Zona Lacustre, there are also a number of people who fish commercially. 

Making the fragrant base for a pine needle basket. Uruapan, 2010.

Another significant source of income is the creation of arts and crafts.  In the mid-16th century, Don Vasco de Quiroga taught the Purépecha not only Christianity but also the idea of self-sufficiency based on the refined production of items for daily use: pottery, textile weaving, copper smelting, and wood carving.  Approximately 40,000 families in Michoacán presently work at one form or another of artesaní­a.


Eleven-hundred-year-old petroglyphs from Tzintzuntzan have a new home (with the approval of INAH, the Instituo Nacional de Arquitectura e Historia) in a visible but untouchable space in a Morelia, Michoacán gallery.  It is believed that these and other Michoacán petroglyphs have spiritual and religious meaning that we cannot yet guess.

The ancient Purépecha  believed that the Universe was divided into three parts: the region of the heavens, the region of the Earth, and the region of the dead.  Each region had its own set of gods.  The most important gods were those of the first region--the heavens--and among those, the most important were Kuerajperi, the Lord of Light, and Xaratanga, the goddess of the moon.

Today, the Purépecha practice a Catholicism colored by their reinterpretation of the teachings of the early Franciscan and Dominican missionaries.  Many Purépecha believe that God, the Virgin Mary, Jesus, and the saints have special powers which interact among them.  The devil, in some of his manifestations, has an importance which goes beyond that of the saints.


Many Purépecha continue to live in small villages, in some respects isolated from cultures other than their own.  Their homes, called trojes, are made of heavy, hand-hewn thick pine boards.  Each room of a troje is separate from every other room.  The buildings are constructed without nails and can be dismantled and moved.  The kitchen, living quarters, sleeping and storage rooms are individual small buildings such as the one in the photo to the right.


A close Purépecha friend, Débora Cortés, who has passed away since I took this photo, washed dishes in an outdoor pila (combination water storage basin, sink, and scrub board). The pila is the only source of running water for the household. Her bathroom was an outdoor toilet.  She warmed water for bathing in buckets placed in the afternoon sun.  My friend was fortunate to have a township water source rather than face the daily necessity of hauling water from a well.  Note the roof of the troje at the upper left of the photo and the stalks of corn at right center.  The greenery closest to the foreground is a coffee tree.  Débora usually kept a pig in the garden, to raise for market and for meat. Mexico Cooks! photo, 2002.

Life for the Purépecha today is a battle for survival, both economic and cultural.  Physical survival depends on many factors, including money sent home by the sons and daughters of the pueblos who now work in Morelia (the Michoacán state capital), Guadalajara, Mexico City, and in the United States.

The design on this troje is made with old music CDs.  Pre-conquest Mexico, meet the 21st century.  Angahuan, Michoacán, 2013.

Cultural survival is constantly assaulted by the influences of television, print advertising, and innovations brought home by the sons and daughters who work 'away'. 

Cherán, an indigenous Purépecha community in the west-central part of Michoacán, is well known for its high level of political awareness and activity. The banner in the photo reads, "CHERÁN DEMANDS SECURITY AND JUSTICE" and is signed, "The indigenous community of Cherán". 

Political survival is crucial to the continuation of the Purhépecha nation. In Cherán, Michoacán (pictured above), the Purépecha community holds its own community elections and does not subscribe to state and national elections.  


Night of the Dead altar dedicated to a deceased relative, private home, Santa Fe de la Laguna, November 2013. The Purépecha tradition of spiritual and religious practices combines ancient rituals and customs with Roman Catholic beliefs.  The amalgam sustains and nourishes a community which is itself a combination of the ancient and the modern.

Spiritual survival depends on the handing down of the old ways, the old traditions, by a generation of elders that is fast disappearing.  The question of globalization in indigenous communities is not an idle one, but one which must be addressed if the Purépecha are to survive as more than a curiosity in the modern world.

Next week we'll make our final stop (for now!) in the Purépecha towns of Michoacán, in which a delightful visit to Santa Fe de La Laguna turns into a language lesson! Come with us!

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Don Vasco de Quiroga, First Bishop of Michoacán, and the Purépecha Legacy

Archeologists generally consider the yácatas (pyramids with round bases) in Tzintzuntzan to have been a ceremonial center and residence for early Purépecha priests. Originally, on each of the yácatas was a temple made of wood in which the most important rites of the Purépecha people and government took place, including burials, of which about sixty have been found. The burials that have been excavated contain rich grave goods and are probably of kings and high priests. Although reconstruction began in the 1930s, two of the yácatas remain in their found condition.  Photo courtesy Google Images.

The Purépecha make up the largest indigenous population of the state of Michoacán.  Their ancient kingdom, centered in the town of Tzintzuntzan on the shores of Lake Pátzcuaro, is purported to have been an advanced and prosperous civilization as early as 900 A.D.


Archeologists discovered this very early tripod-form Purépecha vessel inside ceremonial rooms of the yácatas. Photo courtesy Famsi.org.

Less is known anthropologically about the historical antecedents of the Purépecha than about any other important Mexican group (the Olmecs, the Toltecs, and the Mexica, for example).  The Purépecha had no written language and therefore kept no written record of their lives, culture, or activities.  All of their history is extrapolated from post-conquest documents written by the Spanish.  The Purépecha language was established long before the arrival of the Spanish and is in no way related to any other indigenous language of Mexico or any language anywhere.

In the early 1500s, the Lake Pátzcuaro basin had a population between 60,000 and 100,000 inhabitants spread among 91 separate settlements ranging over 25,000 square miles.  Purépecha government was necessarily strong, with effective social, economic, and administrative structure.  A strong religion with many gods and goddesses underlay and supported the society.


Tarascan (Purépecha) civilization.  Detail of mural, Diego Rivera, 1942. 

What happened to the Purépecha and their strong kingdom?

On February 23, 1521, the first Spanish soldier appeared on the borders of Michoacán.  Even before this, however, the effects of the first contact had begun to be felt among the Purépecha.  The previous year, a slave infected with smallpox had come ashore after crossing the Atlantic Ocean with the army of Spanish explorer Pánfilo de Naraváez and had triggered a widespread and disastrous smallpox epidemic among indigenous peoples, none of whom had previously been exposed to this sort of illness.

Tzuiangua, the Purhépecha calzonci (king) died in the smallpox epidemic of 1521.  Measles and other diseases came along with the earliest Spaniards and led to further reductions in population.  Partly as a result of these catastrophes, the young, newly-invested calzonci (king) Tzintzicha Tangaxoana chose to accept Spanish sovereignty when the first Spanish soldiers arrived, rather than suffer the fate of Tenochtitlán, the grand Aztec pyramid city located near present-day Mexico City.  As evidence of his submission, he accepted baptism and brought Franciscan missionaries into the region under his protection.

It is unclear whether Tangaxhuan II, the new young king, failed to fully understand the Spaniards' intentions and how their system worked, whether he thought he could pull the proverbial wool over their eyes, whether he was poorly advised, or some combination of the three.

Torture and death of the last Purépecha king.  Detail of mural titled "La Historia de Michoacán", painted in 1941-42 by Juan O'Gorman on the back wall of the Biblioteca Gertrudis Bocanegra, Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.

The Spanish had intended to allow Tangaxhuan II to keep some symbolic measure of autonomy for himself and his empire as a reward for his cooperation.  However, when the Spanish discovered that he was continuing to receive tribute from his subjects, they had him executed.  On February 14, 1530, the last native king of the Purépecha was put to death at the hands of the conquerers.

So begins the mystical creation history of the Purépecha people and Lake Pátzcuaro, the center of their spirituality.  Still numerous and active in the modern world, the Purépecha maintain much of their supernatural culture in spite of the intrusion of globalization and the present-day world.  The mid-20th Century Mexican-Irish muralist Juan O'Gorman painted the history of the Purépecha nation in the Pátzcuaro public library.  The mural, a detail of which is shown above, depicts O'Gorman's vision of pre- and post-Conquest Purépecha life.


Don Vasco de Quiroga and a Purépecha woman, carved in cantera (a volcanic stone) and crowned with flowers. Outside the huatápera in Santa Fe de la Laguna, where Tata Vasco, as he is lovingly called to this day, founded the first hospital (house for shelter and relief) in Michoacán.

In 1533, Don Vasco de Quiroga, a Spanish aristocrat, was installed as the first bishop of the province of Michoacán.  At that time, the province was much larger than the present-day state.  Don Vasco governed an area that encompassed over 27,000 square miles and 1.5 million people.  Don Vasco oversaw the construction of three Spanish-style pueblos (towns), each of which included a hospital, as well as the great cathedral of Santa Ana in Morelia, numerous churches and schools, and founded the Colegio de San Nicolás Obispo (College of St. Nicholas the Bishop), the first school in all of the Americas.  Quiroga is immensely important not only to the history of Michoacán but also specifically to the Purépecha nation.

In The Christianization of the Purépecha by Bernardino Verastique (pp. 92-109), the author states that the primary task assigned to Quiroga was to "rectify the disorder in which Nino de Guzmán had left the province after the assassination of the cazonci."  Unlike Guzmán, who was a viciously murderous and enslaving conqueror, Quiroga was largely benevolent.  He assumed a pastoral role of protector, spiritual father, judge, and confessional physician to the Purépecha.


Tata Vasco teaching the Purépecha the Utopian ideas he held dear.  Detail of Juan O'Gorman mural, "La Historia de Michoacán".


St. John the Baptist, fashioned as a Purépecha man.  He's wearing his woolen jorongo (like a poncho) and his huetameño (straw hat from Huetamo, Michoacán). This early statue, so tender and so beautiful, so tattered and beloved, is hiding in plain sight in a one-room chapel just off the plaza in Santa Fe de la Laguna.  His gentle demeanor melted my companion's heart and mine as well.

Tata Vasco organized the Purépecha villages into groups modeled on Thomas More's Utopia and thus extended his territorial jurisdiction.  His actions brought him into direct conflict with the Spanish encomenderos (land grant holders).  Quiroga recognized that Christianizing the Purépecha depended upon preserving their language and understanding their world view.  He promulgated a multicultural, visual, and multilingual access to Christianity.

Even the Purépecha nation's name is debatable.  Erroneously called Tarascans since the Spanish conquest, in the last 40-50 years the Purépecha have begun to reclaim their original name.  The term 'tarasco' means brother-in-law in the Purépecha language.  The newly arrived Spanish took Purépecha women, heard the Purépecha men use term 'tarasco' to ironically refer to themselves, and mistakenly believed that it was the name of the entire nation.

Descendants of the Purépecha remain in Michoacán, particularly in the Lake Pátzcuaro area.  The language is still spoken, and many children speak Purépecha as their first language.  During the last 50 years, a written Purépecha language has been devised and is used in a regional newspaper and in books.

Olive trees in what is now the atrium of the Templo de Sta. Ana, the oldest Catholic church in Michoacán. These trees were planted by the Spanish in the mid-1500s.

Olive trees planted by the Spanish conquerers nearly 500 years ago still thrive in the churchyard at Tzintzuntzan, the former capital of the Purépecha kingdom, on the shore of Lake Pátzcuaro.  Some of the trees measure nearly 15 feet in diameter. Nearby, Purépecha descendants still produce the crafts of the old days: wood carving, pottery making, and tule (a kind of lake reed) weaving.  The present-day town has a population of less than one-tenth of the Purépecha capital at the height of its power, and it continues to lose many of its young people as they migrate in search of jobs to other Mexican cities and to the United States.


Purépecha woman selling deliciously edible flor de calabaza (squash flowers), near Paracho, Michoacán. Photo copyright Mexico Cooks!.

Anthropologists are of two minds concerning contemporary Purépecha life.  One group, the 'Hispanists', argues that the Purépecha remnant has become primarily a Spanish-speaking Mexican peasant culture.  Though they have maintained their language and some of their basic Mesoamerican cultural elements (in particular their diet of beans, squash, chiles, and corn), they have become Hispanicized with regard to their religious lives, their economy, and their forms of traditional or 'folk' knowledge.  In contrast, the other group is more  persuaded by the consistencies they see between traditional Mesoamerican culture and the modern-day life of the remaining Purépecha.  They  note in particular the areas of relationship between language and culture, gender relations, socialization, and world view.

Next week: a look at Michoacán's Purépecha communities in the 21st century.  Come with us! 

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Máximo Bistrot, Mexico City: Food, Wine, and Service, LO MÁXIMO! (The *Best*)

Eduardo (Lalo) García, chief cook and innovator at Máximo Bistrot Local in Colonia Roma Norte, Mexico City. Unlike many of the Distrito Federal's successful restaurant owners/chefs, Lalo has no culinary school background. He's a self-made man with many reasons to be proud of himself, but he's completely without pretension.  Just about any time you dine at Máximo Bistrot, Lalo himself is in the kitchen.

Máximo Bistrot opened its doors in 2012 and almost immediately became a sensational success.  After nearly 20 years of work in other heavy-hitting restaurants (at Le Bernadin in Atlanta and New York City and at Pujol in Mexico City, among others), Lalo García and his wife, Gabriela López, had finally opened the doors to their own domain.


While diners are still pondering their food orders, each table receives a portion of extraordinarily delicious berenjena ahumada (smokey eggplant purée) and individual servings of hot, crusty bread.  It's just enough to whet your appetite and make you crave most of what's on the daily menu.

Just a few months after Máximo Bistrot had become the restaurant that every diner in Mexico City was buzzing about, the restaurant was suddenly in the news for another reason: you can read here how Lady PROFECO raised the roof with her father, head of a Mexican agency similar to the Better Business Bureau. Máximo Bistrot reopened to further social and gastronomical acclaim a mere few days after the incident. 


Mezcal with a little orange juice (the glass rimmed with sal de gusano (sea salt ground with chile de árbol and maguey worm) adds to the pleasure of reading the menu, which changes daily.

Neither Lalo García nor Gabriela López seeks the limelight.  Instead, the limelight has sought them and deservedly so.  The restaurant has a well-rounded menu featuring fresh, seasonal ingredients prepared in deliciously innovative dishes which both seduce and surprise the diner.


We chose several salads.  This fresh green pyramid is composed of artichokes and arugula, with a roasted garlic vinaigrette.


Here, a salad of burrata, heirloom tomatoes, greens, and balsamic vinaigrette.

A very different salad: roast porcini mushrooms with thyme and caramelized onions.


My personal pick: a salad of roasted beets, avocado, and crème fraiche, with some scattered pepitas, freshly grated cheese, and lovely edible flowers.  I could eat this fantastic salad every day without tiring of it.


Between the salads and our main dishes, we shared a plate of raviolis stuffed with requesón (a fresh cheese similar to ricotta) and served with nut butter.


We also shared this beautiful plate of atún toro (raw sushi-quality bluefin tuna) topped with a garlic vinaigrette, paper-thin radish slices, and individual slices of caramelized onion.


Four at table, we chose three different main dishes. Here, pierna de cordero (leg of lamb) with morel mushrooms and a squash purée.


Next: lechón confitado (suckling pig slow-braised in oil, the skin crisp and the flesh tender) with baked tomato sauce and mashed potato.


Two of us chose the flat iron steak with chanterelle mushrooms, puréed potatoes, and a veal reduction. Chanterelles grow wild in Oaxaca and Chiapas during Mexico's summer long rainy season.


With our meal, we drank this Montefiori Horizonte Cabernet Montepulciano, from Baja California.  Full-bodied, smooth, and full-flavored, it combined perfectly with the various main dishes we chose.

How could we resist the ever-so-tempting dessert menu? We couldn't!


Two at our table chose the mil hojas (mille-feuille, or puff pastry--the literal meaning is thousand-layers) with fig conserve and a dollop of whipped cream.


Would you believe pineapple upside down cake? It's served with chopped fresh pineapple, chopped strawberries, a blackberry or two, a blueberry or two, and some edible fuschia flowers as the crowning touch.  This dessert is absolutely rich and absolutely delicious.  Our companion who ordered it said it was without question the best he had ever tasted.


My choice was a honey-vanilla panna cotta with a layer of sliced fresh strawberries and a scoop of delicately sweet cucumber ice cream, topped with finely diced fresh cucumber.  The dessert was refreshing, multi-textured, and a perfect ending to the meal.

How many times in this report have I used the word 'perfect'?  From the seating to the ever-attentive but non-obtrusive service; from the hot crusty bread (which re-appeared magically every time our bread plates emptied) and chilled water; from the first taste of eggplant to the last scrape of spoon on dessert plate, there was nothing that could have been improved.  Every moment in the restaurant was professional, every portion of our meal was at its peak. The place was filled to capacity but never noisy; our table conversed easily. We kept a leisurely pace throughout our meal; no one rushed us to turn the table.  It's clear that Máximo Bistrot will be one of Mexico Cooks!' first choices for special occasions.

Gabriela López and Eduardo García, spouses and partners in the most most delicious of restaurants: Máximo Bistrot Local. Photo courtesy Adriana Zehbrauskas, New York Times.

Máximo Bistrot Local
Calle Tonalá 133
Corner Calle Zacatecas
Colonia Roma Norte
Mexico City, Mexico
Tel: 55-5264-4291
Reservations a must; call at least two weeks prior to the date you want to go.
Closed Sunday and Monday
Open Tuesday - Saturday 1PM - 5PM and 7PM - 11PM

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A Pre-Hispanic Treat in a Modern Kitchen: Mexico Cooks! Makes Alegrías

Mexico Cooks!' homemade alegrías, freshly turned from the parchment-lined baking sheet onto the cutting board and ready to cut into pieces. 

 
Lots of people are like Mexico Cooks! when it comes to cookbooks.  We own hundreds of them, but actually cook from very few.  For over a year, I've read and sighed with delight over the stories and recipes in Fany Gerson's My Sweet Mexico--and last week I finally prepared alegrías from her recipe.  Fany calls them 'amaranth happiness candy'.  Why?  Happiness or joy are the English meanings of the Spanish word alegría.

A couple of weeks ago, friends at the superb web page Cocina al Natural invited Mexico Cooks!' household to a wonderful comida casera (main meal of the day at their home).  For dessert, they proudly carried a big tray of alegrías to the table.  "They're home made!" they proclaimed.  "No way!" we remonstrated.  Well, yes, güey, it was the absolute truth.  The alegrías were beautiful, professional, delicious, and prepared from Fany Gerson's cookbook, which is actually in my kitchen library.  We joyfully crunched these delicacies down.

According to Ricardo Muñoz Zurita, legendary Mexico City chef and author of the Diccionario Enciclopédico de Gastronomía Mexicana (Encyclopedic Dictionary of Mexican Gastronomy), among other books, alegrías are the oldest candy in Mexico.  In pre-Hispanic times, before sugar cane had been introduced to New Spain (now Mexico), the amaranth candy was sweetened with maguey cactus syrup.  In that long-ago era, this candy had a highly religious meaning.  Shaped in the form of a cookie or cracker, it was utilized for communion in indigenous rituals and also  was made into huge sculptures of pre-Christian gods.  Because these god-figures appeared so horrible to the Spanish, they outlawed the use of this candy after the conquest.  But in the 16th century, a Spanish monk had the idea to mix amaranth with bee honey.  Rejoicing over the return of the right to eat this sweet treat, the ancient inhabitants of Mexico named it what they felt 'alegría'--joy.

 
The topping mixture for the alegrías--raisins and lightly toasted pecans, peanuts, and pepitas (pumpkin seeds), spread onto the parchment-paper lined baking sheet. 

The following week, Betty Fussell, our wonderful friend from New York, invited us once again to visit her in Tepoztlán, just south of Mexico City.  The light bulb went on: alegrías would make a great gift to take to Betty!

The recipe for alegrías is simplicity itself.  Here's the recipe, taken straight from My Sweet Mexico.

Alegrías (Happiness Candy)

Ingredients 
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
1/2 cup chopped toasted peanuts
1/2 cup toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1/2 cup dark raisins
8 ounces chopped Mexican piloncillo (coarse brown sugar) or standard dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice
4 ounces puffed amaranth seeds

Equipment
Large bowl
Large spoon
15" X 10" X 1/2" baking sheet
Parchment paper
Medium sauce pan
Cutting board
Sharp knife 

Preparation
Line the baking sheet with parchment paper.  Combine the pecans, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, and raisins in a bowl and then spread them on the prepared pan. 

 
Piloncillo, honey, and lemon juice in the pot.

Combine the piloncillo, honey, and lemon juice in a medium pot over medium heat and cook until the piloncillo has melted and the mixture has thickened slightly, about 5 to 10 minutes.  

Squeezing the jugo de limón (lemon juice) into the mixture is simplicity itself using a Mexican lime squeezers.  You can find one in metal or plastic at your local Latin market.

Remove the syrup from the heat and add the amaranth seeds, stirring quickly to mix everything well. 

 
Mixing the cooked and thickened piloncillo, honey, and lemon juice mixture with the amaranth seeds.

 
The amaranth mixture, patted firmly into the parchment-lined baking sheet.  Remember that the nuts and raisins are the topping--they're on the other side of the alegrías.  Once this rectangle is completely cool, it will be firm and you will easily be able turn it over onto a cutting board.

Pour the amaranth mixture into the baking pan with the nuts, seeds, and raisins, and carefully press down with slightly dampened hands (so you don't burn yourself) to compact the mixture.

Allow to cool completely, 30 to 40 minutes at least, then invert onto a cutting board.  Cut the mixture into the desired shapes with a sharp knife.  If your mixture seems to be sticking to the knife, simply dip the knife into hot water, dry, and continue cutting.

 
Freshly made alegrías, ready to travel!

Mexico Cooks!' alegrías turned out overly crispy and difficult to cut, so instead of battling with the knife, I simply broke them into reasonable-size pieces and packed them in a tightly sealed container to travel the next day.  

Were the alegrías a hit?  They definitely were!  Five of us ate almost all of them.  We left all but a couple of the remaining pieces with our hosts, but we had to bring a little bit home.  Minimal ingredients, minimal cooking, and maximal enjoyment: what more can you ask for from pre-conquest Mexico!  Your family will love them and you can send a big thank you to Fany Gerson at My Sweet Mexico--and to Mexico Cooks!.

If you don't have your copy of the book yet, look over on the left-hand sidebar and just click on the book cover.  That click will take you to My Sweet Mexico's Amazon.com page.  Grab the book today and make your family a sweet Mexican treat as soon as it's in your kitchen.

And by all means visit our friends at Cocina al Natural.  Their website and their videos are marvelous.  In the very near future, Mexico Cooks! will be partnering with them to post some of the videos with English-language subtitles.  We're all very excited about this new venture.

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