Mexico Cooks!

Comida Is Served! 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. Whole deep fried frogs are a specialty of Queréndaro, Michoacán.  It's quite a graphic presentation, but you only eat the legs--unless you care to nibble on other parts.


Truly wonderful aporreadillo from Apatzingán, Michoacán's Tierra Caliente (hot lowlands), as prepared by doña Victoria González at La Tradición, the family restaurant in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.  Aporreadillo is a preparation of dried beef, cooked in highly spiced tomato-y broth with scrambled egg.  In this case, doña Vicky prepared a plate of aporreadillo for me with a base of morisqueta (steamed white rice) and frijoles de la olla (freshly cooked whole beans and their liquor).  The small dish in the background is a bowl of doña Vicky's delicious salsa, made in a molcajete (volcanic stone mortar).  Just looking at the picture makes my mouth water!

A Sunday afternoon on the trajineras (boats) in Xochimilco requires a refueling stop at a 'restaurant' trajinera.  These boats with small kitchens pull up along side the trajinera that you're riding in to offer whatever's cooking.  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!

Here's pan de romero (rosemary bread) from Rosetta, chef Elena Reygadas' lovely and well-respected Italian restaurant at Calle Colima 166, Col. Roma Sur, Mexico City.  This bread is so delicious that sometimes I wish I could go to Rosetta and just order bread and olive oil!

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.  An Italian-American friend in New Jersey keeps me inspired to try his recipes.  They're almost inevitably delicious.

Once every couple of months, Azul/Condesa or Azul/Histórico call out to us.  It's difficult for me to resist the wonderful crema de flor de calabaza--squash flower soup, each bowl made with 18 squash blossoms plus strips of chile poblano, kernels of tender elotes (early corn), and tiny cubes of queso fresco (fresh white cheese).


Home-made sopa de albóndigas (Mexican meatball soup). I prepared this in February 2017 for dear friends in San Diego, California.


Perfectly grilled steak, prepared in February by chef Claudia Sandoval, for an amazing meal at the San Diego home of friend Kalisa Wells.  It was an honor and a pleasure to share dinner with chef Claudia, who is the 2016 winner of MasterChef/Gordon Ramsey.  Kalisa is always the hostess with the mostess, and the evening was made complete by friends Holli and Jim DeLauro.  

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 (Mexican raw brown sugar)--were on the menu at a fonda  (small family food booth or restaurant) the last time I was in Morelia, Michoacán.  Could you resist?  I couldn't.

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Super Pollo don Emilio, Pátzcuaro, Michoacán: Enchiladas Placeras, A Banquet on the Street

Over the course of more than 30 years, Mexico Cooks! has visited Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, one of the most beautiful small colonial cities of Mexico, more times than we can count.  Every visit is memorable for 16th and 17th Century architecture, fantastic decorative arts, and food.  Food!  The regional Michoacán kitchen is incomparably rich and delicious, and Pátzcuaro's local specialties are truly magnificent.

Súper Pollo Emilio has been famous for enchiladas placeras for more than 40 years: plaza-style enchiladas, the only item on the menu.  The cooks prepare approximately 400 orders of these incredible enchiladas every night.  Don Emilio himself (the word don is an honorific title of respect and admiration) himself is supervising meal preparation at the giant brazier.

Great quantities of enormous pechugas (chicken breast halves, each large enough to satisfy two people) and piernas (leg/thigh quarters) are simmered early in the day until they're perfectly done, still juicy and tender.  A bit later, preparation continues with vats of tender potatoes and fresh carrots.


The cook fans four tortillas at a time between his fingers and dips them into this enormous pot of house-made salsa para enchiladas (enchilada sauce).  The recipe?  Mexico Cooks! has wheedled and whined, but Súper Pollo Emilio won't give it up.

The cook spreads the salsa-doused tortillas evenly into the sizzling grease in the industrial-strength comal (griddle), flipping them rapidly from one side to the other.  The tortillas need to be cooked till they are hot and soft, but not crisp.

He gives each tortilla a dollop of freshly mashed potato.  The tortillas are then folded in half: voilà, enchiladas ready for your platter.  Each order contains eight of these enchiladas as well as--well, we'll see in a minute.

While you wait for your supper, you'll most likely be treated, as we were, to a serenata (serenade) sung by strolling local musicians.  We were quite taken with the multi-colored strings of this big bass fiddle.  If you enjoy the music, be sure to give a small tip to the group.


At don Emilio's with friends  (clockwise from left) Bob, Tim, Diane, and John.  The platter of enchiladas and chicken on the table is the large size!  We couldn't begin to eat it all, but we gave it our best shot.  

Our order.  The platter, which looks fairly small in the photo, measures approximately 16 inches from side to side.  The two forks are ordinary-size table forks.  Each platter contains:

• eight potato-filled enchiladas
• freshly sautéed potatoes and carrots, enough for two or more people
• the amount and kind of chicken you prefer--we normally order a breast portion, which was more than enough for the two of us
• a sprinkle of thinly sliced onion
• large shreds of queso Oaxaca (Oaxaca cheese)
• shredded fresh cabbage
• crumbled queso fresco (fresh farmer-style cheese)
• fresh salsa roja (spicy red sauce, different from the sauce on the enchiladas)
• a base of fresh lettuce
• chile perón en escabeche (local pickled yellow chile: HOT), as much as you want

Mexico Cooks! has never seen one person finish an entire platter of enchiladas placeras as prepared by Súper Pollo Emilio.  We were hard pressed to do it, but in the interest of pure research we managed to eat most of this order.  We accompanied the order with a glass of agua fresca de jamaica and a bottle of LIFT, an apple soda.  If you'd like a beer or two with your meal, one of the waiters will go get it for you from another stand.

Súper Pollo Emilio is a night operation; the stand sets up at around 7:00PM every evening except Tuesdays, just around dusk on Pátzcuaro's Plaza Gertrudis Bocanegra (the plaza chica).  It's the booth closest to the portal (covered walkway) on the market side of the square.  The booth is open till the food runs out.

If you're still hungry after your platter of enchiladas is gone, there are buñuelos for dessert.  A buñuelo is a huge flour pastry similar to a flour tortilla; it's fried until crisp. You can order a buñuelo broken and softened in a bowl of syrup or still-crispy and dusted with sugar.

Our waiter Jesús and his sweet daughter Paola, who was helping take soft drink orders.  Jesús has been a fixture at Súper Pollo Emilio since long before his daughter was born.  

When you're visiting Pátzcuaro, don't miss the enchiladas placeras at Súper Pollo Emilio.  If nothing else about this marvelous city brings you back again and again, you'll be pulled in by these addictive enchiladas, eaten on a chilly night under the stars, just by the market-side portales.

In early June I took a client to tour Pátzcuaro.  When we arrived at Súper Pollo Emilio in the evening, don Emilio's son rushed out to greet me with a huge hug. "Señora, bienvenida y qué gusto verla de nuevo.  Te comparto la triste noticia de que mi papá falleció hace ocho días." (Welcome, it's good to see you again.  I have sad news: my father passed away a week ago.") We both dissolved into tears for a few moments, thinking about the rich memories that don Emilio gave us all.  Súper Pollo Emilio will continue into the next generation, of course; don Emilio's son is at the helm. I dedicate this article to don Emilio's memory.  If you're in Pátzcuaro, don't miss eating these fantastic enchiladas. 

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What's in Season in July at Mexico City's Markets?

At the Mercado de Sonora, this gigantic freshly cut squash looks more like a huge flower. The squash, an extremely hard-shelled variety known as calabaza de Castilla (Castilian squash), was approximately two feet in diameter! Behind it are plátanos machos (plaintains). The squash, carefully cut in half to show its beautiful flesh and seeds, is resting on taro root rhizomes.

Those of you who live somewhere outside Mexico and are enjoying seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables right now might be surprised to learn that even in Mexico, where the growing season can be year-round, there are times when it's the season for (insert name of item here) and we all rush to buy what's new in our markets. Whether Mexico Cooks! shops at a tianguis (street market), at an enclosed municipal market, or at a modern supermarket, seasonal fruits and vegetables are must-haves--otherwise, they won't be back in the markets till next year.


The most recent seasonal fruit for summer 2017 is the tuna (prickly pear cactus fruit).  Available by the ton from late June until sometime in September, the tuna is considered to be Mexico's national fruit.  It even appears on Mexican flag!  You can see how it grows: that's a nopal cactus paddle, with tunas growing around the outside edge. More are piled up in the boxes. The spiny, thick green peel encloses a marvelous fruit.  


Here's a tuna that I just peeled.  Peel-and-eat, seeds and all.  Cut the ends from the tuna, make a lengthwise slit down one side of the skin, and with your fingers, simply pull the skin away from the flesh.  Chilled, the sweet, crisp tuna flesh is as refreshing as watermelon--and similarly textured.


Can you even believe it?  The cool, refreshing rainy season in central Mexico means wild mushrooms!  The season is just beginning.  I bought these glorious fresh morels at a municipal market where I often take touring foodies. Women from small towns in mountainous areas around Mexico City forage for these and other mushrooms (chanterelles and lobster mushrooms, anyone?) and sell them at local markets.  These morels were so inexpensive that I bought a kilo (2.2 pounds) and gave half to my neighbor.


What you may know as lobster mushrooms (Hypomyces lactifluorum) are called trompa de puerco (pig snout) here in central Mexico. Contrary to its mushroom name, this is actually a fungus that attacks a kind of wild white mushroom, deforming it into the delicacy you see in the picture. These do sometimes appear at farmers' markets in the USA, but prepare to pay through the snout for them: upwards of $30.00USD per pound.  Here, they're a tenth that price.


These enormous just-cut flores de calabaza (squash blossoms) appear in Mexico's markets as the plants are setting their fruit.  The Purépecha indigenous woman in the photo has brought her flowers to sell on the street in Paracho, Michoacán.  Tidbit of information: only the male blossoms are cut; the female flowers, notable by the spherical beginning of a squash at the base of each flower, are left on the vine to bear fruit.


Mangos!  It's still mango season in Mexico, and the varieties are many.  These are Paraíso: about five inches long and plump as can be, the flesh is tender, sweet, and incredibly popular as a snack.  Mangos are the most cultivated fruit in the world!


Here's a ready-to-eat mango-on-a-stick, offered by a street vendor in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.  Spritzed with a little jugo de limón (juice of the Key lime), sprinkled with a big pinch of salt, and dusted with crushed, dried, red chile--absolutely marvelous.  People in Mexico look forward all year long to the several months of mango season!


July is also papaya season.  This variety, the usual one that we see in Mexico, is the Carica papaya--otherwise known as the Maradol.  Ranging in size from about eight inches long to a jumbo-size foot and a half, the Maradol papaya has very thin orange skin, meaty, deep orange flesh and usually a zillion firm black seeds, each smaller than a pea.  Eat this fruit any time: diced for breakfast, in a smoothie, or accompany your comida (main meal at midday) with a refreshing agua fresca de papaya--a papaya fruit water.


Limón criollo: Mexico's small spherical 'native' limones are known in the United States as Key limes.  These limones aren't really native to Mexico; they originated in Asia and were brought here by the Spanish nearly 500 years ago. Available all year and used ubiquitously for everything from squeezing onto fresh fruit to squeezing into your bowl of caldo de pollo (chicken soup) to spritzing onto your hands for slicking down unruly hair, these green to greenish-yellow limones are available all year long.  July is their peak season, though.  Their flavor is completely different from either the lime OR the lemon; oddly enough, neither Persian limes (the large oval green ones) nor Eureka lemons (the large oval yellow ones) are grown for the fresh fruit market in Mexico.


Last, the sandía (watermelon).  Available all over Mexico and in season right this minute, the sweetness of the fruit is as refreshing as a cool shower.  Native to somewhere in Africa--there's lots of controversy about where--and over 5000 years old, Mexico's watermelon is grown primarily in this country's western and eastern coastal states.


Fresh mango, papaya, and watermelon, ready to be seasoned just the way you like them.

Here in Mexico, many tropical fruits are eaten sprinkled with salt, crushed, dried red chile pepper, and a squirt or two of limón.  If you've never tried it this way, you'll be surprised at how this multi-level flavor combination changes a standard sweet fruit experience to a rush of OH MY GOODNESS! in your mouth.  Many years ago, when my elderly mother visited me in Mexico, I presented her with an already-seasoned breakfast plate of fresh ripe-picked pineapple from Veracruz, ripe-picked strawberries from Michoacán, ripe-picked papaya from Chiapas, and field-ripened cantaloupe from Mexico's west coast.  Always an adventurous eater, she gobbled it right down and sighed in contentment.  She said, "Cristina, I've never really understood tropical fruit before.  It needs all those seasonings to make it just perfect."  My mother was right.

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Rosalba Morales Bartolo :: Cocinera Tradicional (Traditional Cook) and Proud Daughter of San Jerónimo Purenchécuaro, Michoacán

Rosalba Morales Bartolo, born and raised in San Jerónimo Purenchécuaro, Michoacán, grew up cooking alongside her mother in their indigenous Purépecha kitchen. Purépecha women are well known for their regional cuisine and extraordinary cooking abilities. Rosalba, who learned recipes and techniques beginning in her early childhood, has become one of the most exemplary cooks living in Mexico. In the photo, Rosalba oversees a restaurant dining room during a 2015 homage dinner she prepared for Diana Kennedy and many attendees.  All photos copyright Mexico Cooks! unless otherwise noted.


San Jerónimo Purenchécuaro--Purenchécuaro translates to 'place of visitors'--nestles at the shore of the Lago de Pátzcuaro, in central Michoacán.  Eighty per cent of the town's approximately 2,000 inhabitants are indigenous Purépecha and a large number continue to speak their native language and teach it to their children.  The town continues its millennia-old social customs, some of which are incorporated now into Roman Catholic religious practices.  Mexico Cooks! took the photo from a scenic overlook in San Jerónimo; you can see the town, including the parish church tower, one tiny portion of Lake Pátzcuaro, and the tiers of Michoacán's mountains stretching out beyond the other shore. 


Lake Pátzcuaro fishermen, in an old postcard.  Today, the butterfly nets typical of the lake region have been largely replaced by other styles of hand-woven nets. Fishing continues to generate income as well as family sustenance for the towns around and close to the lake. Photo courtesy Mexico en Fotos.


Charales, freshly caught and cleaned.  Rosalba's father was a fisherman, working on Lake Pátzcuaro.  From him, she learned how to fish with a net. She learned how to prepare tiny charales (genus Chirostoma) her grandmother's old-fashioned way.  Once the fish are caught, she scales them (yes, these tiny fish, one by one), then eviscerates and washes them.  The heads are typically left on the charales.  Next, Rosalba spreads them out in the sun to dry on petates (mats made of palm fronds).  Once the fish are dried, she uses them for a variety of different dishes: fried for a filling in tacos or gorditas, simmered in a richly flavored broth, crushed into a salsa, or cooked in a guisado (a type of main dish that can also be used as a taco filling).


Petate (mats made of palm fronds), rolled up to be transported on a bicycle.  The petate, of pre-Hispanic origin, has multiple uses, including use as bedding, as a drying floor, and as a shroud. Image courtesy Pinterest.


At home in her kitchen, Rosalba shows off a plateful of her famous charales.  Restaurants and individuals in cities and towns all over Mexico order kilos of charales to be shipped to them.  I confess that I always thought I hated them: strongly fishy, thickly breaded, greasy, and often overly picante (spicy), charales were for years last on my list of things I wanted to eat.  One day a few years ago, Rosalba stood in front of me with a lightly fried, delicately golden brown charal held out between her fingers.  "You haven't tried mine, Cristina," she insisted. There was no way to say no. What a surprise, it was delicious!  Now I crave them--but only Rosalba's.


Your family's food preparation probably begins with a trip to a well-stocked supermarket.  Once your ingredients are at home, you simply turn on a modern stove, either electric or gas. Rosalba's food preparation begins with a trip into the woods near her home, where she gathers branches to be used as fuel in her wood stove.  In addition, she grows much of her food in her large back garden: she tends and harvests tomatoes, chiles, squash, cilantro, and various fruits, among other delicious items that end up on her table.

Recently, Rosalba has been featured on several Mexican television programs, including this one called "Cocineros Mexicanos" (Mexican Cooks). Take a few minutes to watch how she cleans the charales, prepares a simple soup and salsa, and delights Nico (the program's host) with her simplicity, directness, honesty, and skill as a cocinera.

Rosy's route to her present renown hasn't been fast and it hasn't been easy.  Her life has had numerous ups and downs, its path twisting from her birthplace to a risky life as an undocumented person in the United States and back again.  In 1984, she graduated from primary school in San Jerónimo and left the next day to work as a cook in a private home in Guadalajara.  Her employer asked her to prepare food that was completely unfamiliar to her--fish cooked in white wine!  She remembers, "That day marked my life and was incredibly special, because it confirmed and reconfirmed the love, my deep feeling for cooking, as I experimented with different flavors."


In 2013, Rosalba won honorable mention in Raíces, Platillos que Cuentan Una Historia (Roots, Dishes Which Tell a Story) at the annual Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Michoacán (Meeting of Michoacán's Traditional Cooks).  Her first entry, in 2010, won her a first prize.

Twice Rosalba entered the United States as an undocumented worker, each time laboring in Mexican restaurants and sending money back to her native San Jerónimo Purenchécuaro.  Over the course of 25 years, she was able to construct her own home, where she lives today and has made her "Cocina Tradicional Rosy" well known to Mexicans and foreigners who are intent on dining well in Michoacán. 


Everybody's favorite chile in much of Michoacán: chile manzano, known in Michoacán as chile perón. Approximately 1.5"-2" in diameter, the perón is only chile in the world with black seeds.  It ranks between 30,000 and 50,000 'heat' units on the Scoville scale--about the same heat level as the chile de árbol.   "While I was living in the United States, I really missed caldo de trucha (trout soup) with chile perón," Rosalba reminisced.


Rosalba at Morelia en Boca 2015, with chef Aquiles Chávez of La Fishería Restaurant in Houston and Restaurante Sotero in Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico.  Morelia en Boca, an annual international high-end food and wine festival, featured a conference given by cocinera tradicional Rosalba together with chef Aquiles, demonstrating the preparation of Rosy's tiny charales and chef Aquiles' enormous pejelagarto (freshwater gar), native to the waters in chef Aquiles' home state, Tabasco. Their conference was so knowledgeable, so well-presented, and so funny that the huge and enthusiastic audience gave them a standing, cheering ovation at its end.


Chef Aquiles roasted the pejelagarto over a charcoal fire; this photo shows only the head and a small portion of the giant fish's body.  To roast the fish, chef Aquiles inserted a broomstick into the gaping tooth-filled mouth; the broomstick stopped at the fish's tail.  With the end of the broomstick that protruded from the mouth, chef Aquiles was able to turn the fish as it roasted.


Rosalba's caldo de pata de pollo.  She prepared this rich chicken broth using just chicken feet as the base.  She added fresh vegetables just prior to serving.


Rosy's delicious guisado (a casserole or stewed dish) made with nopales (cactus paddles) and calabacitas (a squash similar to zucchini).


One of Rosalba's many talents is the ability to create utterly wonderful food from whatever is seasonably available.  Salsa de zarzamora (blackberry sauce) is a molcajete-ground spicy, sweet, and savory concoction of roasted chile perón, roasted ripe tomatoes, and native Michoacán blackberries.  A pinch of salt, a moment's grinding in the volcanic stone mortar, and it's ready for the table.  I would cheerfully have eaten it with a spoon, it was so heavenly.


Rosalba serves a taco de charales to chef Joaquín Bonilla, director of the Colegio Culinario de Morelia (Morelia's Culinary School).  Not only has Rosy prepared and served her extraordinary dishes all over Mexico, but she has traveled to a number of foreign destinations as well.  In 2016 alone, she thrilled Chicago, Illinois, for several weeks with her food. Later that year she participated in the Slow Food International Terra Madre event in Turin, Italy.  The current year has brought more much-deserved recognition throughout Mexico.


Please contact me if you'd like to visit Rosalba and enjoy a meal in her kitchen.  I'd be delighted to take you to meet my dear friend and talk with you about the food and its preparation.

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

Kitchen Sayings, Part Two :: Mexico's Dichos de la Cocina

A beautiful pink and golden Mexican chicken, ready for the soup pot.

Last week's article about Mexico's dichos de la cocina (kitchen sayings) was just the tip of the iceberg.  I love them so much that I thought you might like to learn more of them!

 
Chile relleno con frijoles negros de la olla (stuffed poblano chile served with freshly cooked black beans).  Photo courtesy Conde Pétatl.

Mexico's dichos de la cocina (kitchen sayings) number in the hundreds, if not the thousands.  Just like sayings and proverbs in any language, Mexican dichos usually have a double meaning: what the words of the saying are, and then how they are interpreted.  In English, the phrase "the early bird catches the worm" make sense just as you read it, but it has a secondary import: if you start your endeavor sooner rather than later, you have a much better chance of success.  So it is with all of these!


Pig heads at a Mexico City market, ready to buy and take home to make pozole.

Here are some of Mexico Cooks!' personal favorite kitchen sayings:

--Vale más pan con amor, que gallina con dolor.  Bread eaten with love is worth more than chicken eaten with pain.
--Se cambia mas fácilmente de religión que de café.  It's easier to change your religion than to change your coffee.
--Quien hambre tiene, en pan piensa.  The hungry person thinks of bread. 

Café con leche (coffee with milk) served with a basket of pan dulce (sweet Mexican breads).

--El que parte y comparte, se queda con la mejor parte.  The one who portions and shares, gets the best part.
--Al hablar, como al guisar, su granito de sal.  In speaking and cooking, a grain of salt.
--Frutos y amores, los primeros son los mejores.  Fruits and loves--the first are the best.

A street vendor's fresh fruit in Paracho, Michoacán.  He sells seasonal fruits, including papaya, sandía (watermelon), and mango.  Enlarge any photo for better detail--in this photo, you'll see the bees.

--Guajolote que se sale del corral, termina en mole.  The turkey that gets out of the yard ends up in mole.
--La vida es como una cebolla, uno la pela llorando.  Life is like an onion, you cry while you peel it.
--Mata el pollo y pon la mesa.  Kill the chicken and set the table.

Frijol peruano ('Peruvian' beans), ready to cook in a clay pot filled with water.

--Mentir y comer pescado quieren cuidado.   Be careful when lying and eating fish.
--Nunca falta un negrito en el arroz.  There is always a black speck in the rice.
--Al hambre de siete días, no hay pan duro.  If you've been hungry for a week, there is no such thing as hard bread.


Champurrado (chocolate atole) at Restaurant Flor de Lis, Mexico City. 

--De golosos y tragones, están llenos los panteones.  Cemeteries are filled with gluttons and big eaters.
--En la forma de agarrar el taco, se conoce al que es tragón.  They can tell if you're a big eater by the way you hold your taco.
--La mujer y las tortillas, calientes han de ser.  Women and tortillas have to be hot.


Taco de carnitas at a Mexico City tianguis (street market).

There are literally hundreds more Mexican kitchen sayings.  Sometime soon Mexico Cooks! will be back with more.   

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