Mexico Cooks!

Desayuno de Campeones, Breakfast of Champions: What Breakfast in Mexico is All About

A classic quick breakfast in the USA, circa 1950s: cold unsweetened cereal--probably corn flakes--with a banana, milk, and sugar.

Several times a month, Mexico Cooks! receives vacation-time queries from folks in the United States about mealtimes and what's eaten at breakfast, lunch, and dinner when one is in Mexico.  It can be challenging to plan a trip to any country, including Mexico, where mealtimes are different from what you might think of as 'normal'.  This week and for the next two weeks here at Mexico Cooks!, you'll learn more about meals and mealtimes.  

In Mexico, a huge variety of pan dulce (sweet bread) is available for breakfast.  These are conchas (shells), so-called because of the shell-like design impressed into their sugared tops. Have your pan dulce with either hot chocolate, coffee, or a steaming cup of atole (a corn-based hot beverage).

It can be even more challenging for anyone raised in one frame of reference to understand that breakfast isn't always about what you have  thought of as your first meal of the day, since you were a child.  Many years ago, when I was first living in Mexico, the light bulb came on for me: breakfast food is whatever you happen to eat for breakfast, not necessarily cold or hot cereal or bacon and eggs.  You know how leftover pizza straight from the refrigerator is a guilty breakfast for a lot of people in the States?  A slice is really a perfectly adequate breakfast.  Lots of Mexican breakfasts are just like that: whatever food is available at the moment.

The corunda is a regional tamal from Michoacán.  This corunda, filled with cream cheese and topped with Mexican table cream and a sauce made of chile perón (a deliciously spicy yellow chile), makes a great desayuno when accompanied by a cup of hot atole made with a seasonal fresh fruit.

People in Mexico frequently eat two morning meals. The first is desayuno, which comes from the root word ayunar, to fast.  Desayuno literally means "I un-fast" and is ordinarily eaten first thing in the morning, maybe before work while you are standing in the pre-dawn kitchen thinking about the coming day on the job or gobbled while you are hurrying the kids into their school uniforms.  This breakfast consists of something quick and simple or a smear of yesterday's frijolitos refritos on a leftover tortilla, washed down with a glass of fresh orange juice; a pan dulce still hot from the corner bakery, accompanied by a glass of chocomil (Mexico's ubiquitous instant chocolate milk powder).  It's just enough to help your brain kick into gear.

This Mexico Cooks! desayuno includes home-made calabaza en tacha bathed in hot milk plus a slice of pan relleno con chilacayote (bread filled with sweetened chilacayote squash paste), served with fresh juice or coffee.

At home, Mexico Cooks! occasionally prepares molletes, an old-time family favorite.  I grill a bolillo (a dense-textured and crusty white bread roll), add a thick smear of chile-spiced refried beans, and top them with huevos volteados (over-easy fried eggs).  Add salsa al gusto--to your taste.  With a fresh fruit accompaniment, this almuerzo is really stick-to-your-ribs.

Around 10:30 or eleven o'clock in the morning, when the stomach starts to require something more substantial to keep the body going, many people take a break for almuerzo.  There really is no adequate word in English for this meal.  It's not breakfast and it's not a snack.  Almuerzo is typically a larger meal than desayuno.  Workers on a construction job, for example, often stop work, build a little fire, and heat up yesterday's leftovers that they've brought along in a 'tuper'--the generic word for a covered plastic container.  Warmed-up leftovers, a stack of tortillas, and a fresh-made pot of coffee keep the girders going up. 

Another really hearty almuerzo: a plateful of enchiladas verdes con pollo deshebrado (enchiladas with shredded chicken in green sauce) topped with finely grated white cheese and minced onion, accompanied by a guarnición (side) of refried beans.

Here's another typical almuerzo in Mexico: chilaquiles verdes (fried tortilla strips simmered in green sauce), topped with grated white cheese and thinly sliced white onions, then crowned with huevos a gusto (eggs however you like them).  Add a side of frijolitos refritos, a plate of ripe papaya, a warm-from-the-oven bolillo, either salsa or butter for the bread, and a great cappuchino, all served on a sunny terrace.  Heaven...

Next week, next meal!  We'll save your place at the table. 

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

Doña Yola's Albóndigas de Pollo (Chicken Meatballs) en Salsa Verde. Love At First Bite...

Several years ago, Mexico Cooks! was thrilled to meet doña Yolanda Rodríguez Orozco.  At the time, she was cooking at a now-defunct buffet restaurant in Morelia, Michoacán.  In Mexico, 'doña' is an honorific indicating true respect for a woman (it's don for a man).  Affectionately known to one and all as doña Yola, she cooked with tremendous love as the primary seasoning for whatever she put on the table.

One of the most delicious items on the menu at that restaurant was Albóndigas de Pollo en Salsa Verde (chicken meatballs in green sauce).  Because I promised that I would share the recipe with all of you, doña Yola graciously shared her amazingly easy recipe with me.  Simple to prepare and marvelous to taste, these meatballs instantly made it to star status on Mexico Cooks! dining table.  These albóndigas are entirely different from the ones Mexico Cooks! wrote about two weeks ago.

A chicken vendor grinds fresh boneless, skinless chicken breast to order for me at the weekly tianguis (street market) in my neighborhood. You can ask the butcher at your supermarket to grind the breasts for you.  Bring the skin and bones home to freeze for another day--for chicken broth.

Gorgeous dark green vitamin-rich spinach, ready to chop for the albóndigas.

Fresh mint grown in a pot on my terrace or available at any market, along with beautiful local red-shelled eggs.

Albóndigas de Pollo en Salsa Verde Estilo doña Yola
Chicken Meatballs in Green Salsa, doña Yola's Way

Ingredients for the meatballs
1 kilo (2.2 lbs) freshly ground boneless, skinless chicken breast
100 grams (1/4 lb) raw fresh spinach (stems removed), finely chopped
1 small white onion, finely minced
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1 Tbsp fresh mint, finely minced
1 chile serrano, finely minced
1/2 cup cooked white rice
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Sea salt to taste
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 tsp cornstarch or as needed

Ground chicken, spinach, onion, garlic, mint, and chile serrano, ready to mix with cooked rice.

Procedure
Lightly mix the first seven ingredients together.  Beat the eggs and Worcestershire sauce together and mix by hand into the mixture.  Add sea salt and ground black pepper to taste.  Add cornstarch until the mixture holds together well when you form a small amount into a ball.  Form the mixture into balls approximately 2" in diameter.  Makes 20 albóndigas.  Plate the meatballs in a single layer (Mexico Cooks! likes to re-use washed Styrofoam meat trays from the supermarket for holding the albóndigas), then cover and refrigerate until ready to cook.

Tomates verdes (tomatillos) and chiles serranos for preparing salsa verde.  Remove the tomatillos'  papery husks and wash the sticky tomatillos thoroughly.

Ingredients for Salsa Verde
10-12 tomatillos (known in Mexico as tomate verde), husks removed
3 or 4 whole chiles serranos
1 bunch fresh cilantro, largest stems removed
Sea salt to taste

Procedure
In a large pot of water, bring the tomatillos and chiles to a full rolling boil.  Boil just until the tomatillos begin to crack; watch them closely or they will disintegrate in the water.  

Using a slotted spoon, scoop the cooked tomatillos and chiles into your blender jar.  Allow to cool slightly  There's no need to add liquid.  Cover, hold the blender cap on, and blend until smooth.  Be careful not to burn yourself, if you try to blend this mixture before it cools, it tends to react like lava in the blender.  Don't ask me how I know this.

While the blender is running, remove the center of its cap and, little by little, push the cilantro into the whizzing sauce.  Blend just until smooth; you should still see big flecks of dark green cilantro in the lighter green sauce.  Add sea salt to taste and stir.

Pour the salsa into a 2-quart pot.  Add the meatballs and bring to a simmer.  Cover and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes.  Mexico Cooks! prepared six meatballs for comida (main meal of the day) for two, but two meatballs apiece were plenty for us.  We ate the leftovers (and another two meatballs) the following day.  We froze twelve raw meatballs without salsa for subsequent meals.

Albóndigas de pollo en salsa verde, plated with white rice cooked with carrots, Mexican style.

Mexico Cooks! is so grateful to doña Yola for sharing her recipe with us.  These albóndigas de pollo are not only easy to prepare and very healthy (with high vitamin K and beta carotene content and no added fat), but they are also absolutely delicious.

Provecho!

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

Lenten Delicacies from Mexico :: Meatless Meals Are Traditional Treasures During Cuaresma (Lent)

Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the penitential season of Lent, will be February 14, 2018.  The following article has been very popular as a meatless meal reference since it was first published on Mexico Cooks! in 2009.  So many people want to know what we eat in Mexico when we're not eating meat!  Enjoy...and buen provecho!

Tortitas de papa (potato croquettes, left) and frijoles negros (black beans, right) from the south of Mexico are ideal for a Lenten meal.

Many Mexican Catholics mark la Cuaresma (Lent), the 40-day (excluding Sundays) penitential season that precedes Easter, with special prayers, vigils, and with extraordinary meatless meals cooked only on Ash Wednesday and on the Fridays of Lent.  Many Mexican dishes--seafood, vegetable, and egg--are normally prepared without meat, but some other meatless dishes are particular to Lent. Known as comida cuaresmeña, many of these delicious Lenten foods are little-known outside Mexico and some other parts of Latin America.

Many observant Catholics believe that the personal reflection and meditation demanded by Lenten practices are more fruitful if the individual refrains from heavy food indulgence and makes a promise to abstain from other common habits such as eating candy, smoking cigarettes, and drinking alcohol. 

Atole de grano, a Michoacán specialty made of tender corn and licorice-scented wild anisillo, is a perfect cena (supper) for Lenten Fridays.

Miércoles de Ceniza (Ash Wednesday), February 14, marks the beginning of Lent in 2018.  Shortly before Ash Wednesday, certain food specialties began to appear in local markets. Vendors are currently offering large dried shrimp for caldos (broths) and tortitas (croquettes), perfect heads of cauliflower for tortitas de coliflor (cauliflower croquettes), seasonal romeritos, and thick, dried slices of bolillo (small loaves of dense white bread) for capirotada (a kind of bread pudding).

This common Lenten preparation is romeritos en mole.  Romeritos, a mildly acidic green vegetable, is in season at this time of year.  Although it looks quite a bit like rosemary, its taste is more like verdolagas (purslane).

You'll usually see tortitas de camarón (dried shrimp croquettes) paired for a Friday comida (midday meal) with romeritos en mole, although they are sometimes bathed in a caldillo de jitomate (tomato broth) and served with sliced nopalitos (cactus paddles).

During Lent, the price of fish and seafood in Mexico goes sky-high due to the huge seasonal demand for meatless meals.  These beautiful huachinango (red snapper) come from Mexico's Pacific coast.


Tortita de calabacita (little squash fritter) from the sorely missed Restaurante Los Comensales in Morelia, Michoacán.  Mexico Cooks! featured the restaurant (the name means 'The Diners') in October 2009.  Less than a year after our interview with her, the elderly Señora Catalina Aguirre Camacho, the owner of Los Comensales since 1980, became increasingly incapacitated to continue to operate her wonderful restaurant.  This dish is wonderful for a Lenten supper.

Chef Martín Rafael Mendizabal of La Trucha Alegre in Zitácuaro, Michoacán, prepared trucha deshuesada con agridulce de guayaba (boned trout with guava sweet and sour sauce) for the V Encuentro de Cocina Tradicional de Michoacán held in Morelia in December 2008.  The dish would be ideal for an elegant Lenten dinner.

Capirotada (Lenten bread pudding) is almost unknown outside Mexico.  Simple to prepare and absolutely delicious, it's hard to eat it sparingly if you're trying to keep a Lenten abstinence! 

Every family makes a slightly different version of capirotada: a pinch more of this, leave out that, add such-and-such.  Mexico Cooks! prefers to leave out the apricots and add dried pineapple instead.  Make it once and then tweak the recipe to your preference--but please do stick with traditional ingredients.

CAPIROTADA

Ingredients

*4 bollilos, in 1" thick slices (small loaves of dense white bread)
5 stale tortillas
150 grams pecans
50 grams prunes
100 grams raisins
200 grams peanuts
100 grams dried apricots (or dried pineapple)
1 large apple, peeled and sliced thin
100 grams grated Cotija cheese
Peel of one orange, two uses
**3 large cones piloncillo (Mexican raw brown sugar)
Four 3" pieces of Mexican stick cinnamon
2 cloves
Butter
Salt

*If you don't have bolillo, substitute slices of very dense French bread. 
**If you don't have piloncillo, substitute 1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar.

A large metal or clay baking dish.


Piloncillo--cones in two sizes of Mexican raw brown sugar.  The recipe calls for three of the larger cones.

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 300°F.

Toast the bread and spread with butter.  Slightly overlap the tortillas in the bottom and along the sides of the baking dish to make a base for the capirotada.  Prepare a thin syrup by boiling the piloncillo in 2 1/2 cups of water with a few shreds of cinnamon sticks, 2/3 of the orange peel, the cloves, and a pinch of salt.  Boil until the liquid mixture is very slightly thickened.

Place the layers of bread rounds in the baking dish so as to allow for their expansion as the capirotada cooks.  Lay down a layer of bread, then a layer of nuts, prunes, raisins, peanuts and apricots or pineapple.  Continue until all the bread is layered with the rest.  For the final layer, sprinkle the capirotada with the grated Cotija cheese and the remaining third of the orange peel (grated).  Add the syrup, moistening all the layers little by little.  Reserve a portion of the syrup to add to the capirotada in case it becomes dry during baking.

Bake uncovered until the capirotada is golden brown and the syrup is absorbed.  The bread will expand as it absorbs the syrup.  Remember to add the rest of the syrup if the top of the capirotada looks dry.

Cool the capirotada at room temperature.  Do not cover until it is cool; even then, leave the top ajar.

Try very hard not to eat the entire pan of capirotada at one sitting!

A positive thought for the beginning of Lent: give up discouragement, be an optimist.

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

Super-Delicious Soupy Meatballs :: Albóndigas de Jalisco, Diana Kennedy's Way

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 downright chilly both day and night here in Mexico City for the couple of months since the end of November.  Winter, with lows around 30ºF don't sound too bad compared to what winter is like in northern climes, but at our altitude of nearly 8000 feet above sea level and with no central heating, it's time to think about staying warm.  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 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 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 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
8 cups rich meat or chicken broth, homemade if possible
Salt to taste

For serving
2 or 3 carrots, cut into cubes or sticks
2 good-size white potatoes, peeled and 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.  

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 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 another ladle full of sauce; we prefer to eat these meatballs 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.