Mexico Cooks!

Mid-October in Michoacán :: Wildflowers and Fresh Produce at Pátzcuaro's Municipal Market

The area around Lake Pátzcuaro, in the state of Michoacán, bursts into wildflower bloom in late September, just as the rainy season is ending here.  The flowers are naturalized wild cosmos, known here as mirasoles ("look-at-the-sun").  Entire fields fill with swaths of these delicate flowers, turning our green countryside into a temporary sea of pink.  Behind the mirasoles is a milpa, a field of native Michoacán corn, beans, and squash.

These beautiful blossoms, selling now at the municipal market in Pátzcuaro, are called estrellas del campo (stars of the field).  From the tops of the flowers to the bottom of their thin, tender stems, they measure about two and a half feet long.  Each multi-petaled bloom measure about 1.5" in diameter.  I've lived in Michoacán for a long time, but this is the first year I've seen these for sale.  We took three large bunches as a gift to a friend--at 15 pesos the bunch.  The total for a big armful of beauty was the Mexican peso equivalent of about $2.25 USD.


Available throughout the year, the native Mexican nanche fruit is in full-blown season right now, piled high on stands around the perimeter of the Pátzcuaro municipal market and on numerous street corners all over the town.  Sold in clear plastic cups (as seen in the photo, courtesy of Healthline) or by the plastic bagful, the vendor will slather these 3/4" inch diameter fruits with jugo de limón (fresh-squeezed Key lime juice), a big sprinkle of salt, and as much highly spicy bottled salsa as your mouth can handle.  The biological name of the nanche is Byrsonima crassifolia.  The fruit is slightly sweet and mildly musty-flavored, a combination that most people love and that I regret to say is not a taste I enjoy at all.  Nanches are packed with nourishment, though--a half-cup of them will give you nearly 60% of your daily Vitamin C requirement, 41 calories, and only 9.5 grams of carbohydrates!  


These are jocotes (native Mexican plums), also in season now in central Mexico.  The fruit measures about two to three inches long; the flesh is either bright orange or deep red, and the flavor is marvelous.  Unfortunately the stone of this plum is almost as big as the entire fruit, and although you could eat it out of hand, the delicious jocote is most often made into an agua fresca (fresh fruit water) that is only available during the fruit's short season.  This little plum is replete with Vitamins A and C, phosphorous, iron, and calcium, and is said to work wonders with gum problems.


A bucket of freshly made agua fresca de jocote, with whole peeled plums floating on top.  It's my favorite agua fresca, and only available when these plums are in season: right now!


Who wants to take a guess at what each of the green herbs (and the vegetable) is?  The elotes (tender fresh Pátzcuaro red corn) at the bottom of the photo were part of a small daily harvest brought to sell on the outdoor periphery of Pátzcuaro's market.  Just to the left of the corn, at the bottom of the photo, are some mint branches that the same vendor brought for sale.  But above the mint?  Click on the photo to enlarge it and you'll be able to tell that these are home-grown spiny chayotes.  You are probably familiar with the paler green smooth-skinned chayotes (mirliton in Louisiana, pear squash in other English-speaking locations).  The chayote has an interesting growing habit: unlike most squash, which grows as a vine along the ground, the chayote is airborne--its vines grow on overhead trellises and remind me of grapevines; the small squash hangs down from the vines.  It's an extremely versatile vegetable, taking on the flavors of what you cook it with.  Be sure to eat the soft, tender, flat, white seed--it's considered to be the prize part and is as delicious as the chayote itself. 

To the right of the chayotes is a big bunch of wild anise, known in Pátzcuaro as anisillo.  Used to make the Pátzcuaro regional specialty atole de grano, this herb is tremendously flavorful.  In case you find some anisillo where you are, here's a recipe for atole de grano.  

Atole de Grano
(Fresh Anise-Flavored Corn Kernel Soup)

Ingredients
2 fresh ears of tender young corn
2 cups fresh corn, cut from the cob
1 bunch wild anisillo 
3 liters water
2 whole chiles perón (or substitute chiles poblano)
1/2 pound recently ground corn masa (dough)--ask at the tortillería near you
Salt to taste

Garnishes
1/2 medium white onion, minced
Chile serrano or chile perón, minced
Fresh Key limes, cut in half
Sea salt

Preparation
1.  Clean the ears of corn, remove the silk and cut off the ends.  Cut each ear into three pieces.

2.  Boil the corn on the cob AND the corn kernels in enough water, for an hour and a half or until the corn is tender.

3.  Cut the stem away from the chiles, take out the seeds and veins.  Cut the chiles into smallish pieces, ready to be whizzed in the blender.

4.  In the blender, liquify the chiles, the anisillo, and the masa with two cups of water.  Strain and add to the pot where the corn on the cob is cooking.

5.  Allow to boil gently for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the liquid is slightly thickened.

To serve
1.  Place sections of the cooked corn ears into bowls.

2.  Ladle soup and corn kernels into the bowls.

3.  Serve with the minced onion, minced chile to taste, sea salt, and Key lime halves to squeeze into the soup.  

Serves 2 people as a main dish, 3 as a first course.  This soup is both vegetarian and vegan, and gluten-free.


Atole de grano, made in a cazo (large copper kettle).


The vendor at this small booth at the Pátzcuaro market had an interesting variety of things for sale.  Bottom right are fresh guavas, just now coming into season.  To the left of the guavas are chiles perón (aka chiles manzano), arguably the most-used chile in this part of Michoacán.  Above the chiles perón are fresh, green chiles de árbol.  To the right are wild mushrooms known as patita de pájaro (little bird foot).  These mushrooms, growing wild in Michoacán's woods and foraged during the rainy season, make a wonderful mushroom soup.


These are home-grown loquats, known in Mexico as nísperos (NEE-speh-rohs).  Nísperos are local and are plentiful in markets right now.


Gelatin--this large cupful is called "mosaíco"--mosaic, because of its many colored cubes.  More gelatin is eaten in Mexico than in any other country of the world!  A cupful this size is usually an eat-while-you-walk snack food.  This one was made and sold from a tiny cart with no name, just to one side of the Pátzcuaro market.  The young woman selling the gelatins said her name was Yesi--I said her cart was now dubbed Gelatinas Yesi, and she laughed.


Just at the corner of the market, we bumped into don Rafael, who was selling--you guessed it--cotton candy.  Cotton candy HAS no season, it's always available here.  Get the blue, it will turn your lips and tongue blue as a blueberry, but just for a while.  

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Chiles en Nogada, Symbol of Mexico's Independence from Spain and in Season RIGHT NOW

 

It's that time of year again: time for chiles en nogada!  I was thrilled to eat the chile above at Restaurante La Conspiración de 1809 in Morelia, Michoacán--it was without question the best chile en nogada I've eaten, in my long history of eating as many as possible every season!

This year's freshly harvested and peeled nuez de castilla (walnuts), an essential for seasonal chiles en nogada.  The nut meats must be perfectly white, with no pieces of the papery brown peel left at all.  This step is the fiddley-est part of the recipe.  You can do it, it just takes patience.  If you have school-age children, get them to help you.

Mexico celebrates its independence the entire month of September with parades, parties, and traditional food and drink, served in restaurants and at home.  The traditional festive dish during the weeks just before and after the Independence Day holiday is chiles en nogada, a magnificent tribute to the seasonal availability of a certain kind of peach, a particular kind of pear (the pera lechera), the locally grown panochera apple, newly in-season granadas (pomegranates) and nuez de castilla (freshly harvested walnuts). From mid-July until early October, seasonal local fruits, fresh pomegranates, and newly harvested walnuts make chiles en nogada possible.  Mildly spicy chiles poblano, stuffed with a special kind of picadillo and topped with richly creamy walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds, flaunt the brilliant green, white and red of the Mexican flag. 


The panochera apple, grown in the Mexican state of Puebla, and pera lechera (milky pear), also grown in the area, are two must-have ingredients for making chiles en nogada in Mexico.  If you live outside central Mexico, a small crisp apple and a very crisp pear (Bosc or d'Anjou) would substitute.

This festive dish is traditionally served beginning in late July, right on through September 15 or 16 in honor of Mexico's Independence Day, and then as long as the seasonal ingredients hold out--usually ending in October. During August and September in the highlands of Mexico, particularly in Mexico City and Puebla, vendors wander through tianguis (street markets) and other markets, selling the clean, white meats of nuez de castilla (walnuts, grown in Mexico). It is important to use the freshest walnuts possible, as they produce such a creamy, rich sauce that it is worth the effort to buy them peeled or peel them oneself.  Yes, the recipe is time-consuming (not difficult, just takes time)...but you and your guests will jump up and shout "VIVA MÉXICO!" when they've licked the platters clean. 

Ingredients

For the meat:  

• 2 pounds beef brisket or other stew meat or 1 pound beef and 1 pound pork butt*
• 1 small white onion, quartered 
• 2 large cloves garlic 
• about 1 Tbsp sea salt
  *You can, if you are in a pinch for time, use equal quantities of coarsely ground beef and pork.  Brown them before adding other ingredients.

 For the picadillo (filling):  

• 4 Tbsp safflower or canola oil
• the shredded meat (or the ground meat)
• 1/3 cup chopped white onion
• 3 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• pinch pimienta gorda (allspice)
• 1 or 2 chiles serrano, finely minced
• 4 Tbsp chopped fresh walnuts 
• 4 Tbsp slivered blanched almonds
• 2 Tbsp finely diced crystalized pineapple (in place of acitrón, candied biznaga cactus).  See note below.
• 1 fresh pear, peeled and chopped.  I like to use very ripe, soft Bosc pears.
• 1 apple, peeled and chopped.  I prefer to use a sweet apple rather than a tart apple.
• 4 very ripe yellow peaches, peeled and diced
• 3 Tbsp Mexican pink pine nuts.  You can substitute white if you aren't able to find pink, but white pine nuts aren't sweet.
• 3 ripe Roma tomatoes, roasted, peeled and chopped
• sea salt to taste

Fully mature chiles poblano, picked fresh and sold on the street in Tehuacán, Puebla, very close to where the chiles are grown. 


Deep green chiles poblano are normally used for chiles en nogada.  These measure as much as seven inches long. If you click on the photo to make it larger, you can see that these chiles have deep, long grooves running down their sides. When I'm buying them, I choose chiles poblano that are as smooth and flat as possible on their broad flat sides.  The flat smoothness makes them easier to roast easily.  

For the chiles:

--6 fresh chiles poblanos, roasted, peeled, slit open, and seeds removed, leaving the stem intact   

 For the nogada (walnut sauce):  

• 1 cup freshly harvested nuez de castilla (walnuts), peeled of all brown membrane** 
• 6 ounces queso de cabra (goat cheese), queso doble crema or standard cream cheese (not fat free), at room temperature 
• 1-1/2 cups crema mexicana or 1-1/4 cups sour cream thinned with milk 
• about 1/2 tsp sea salt or to taste
• 1 Tbsp sugar   
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon 
• 1/4 cup dry sherry (optional)

**Please note that this recipe is correctly made with walnuts, not almonds and not pecans.  Using pecans will give your sauce a non-traditional flavor and a beige color, rather than pure white.

Remove the arils (seeds) from a pomegranate.  


We who live in Mexico are fortunate to find pomegranate seeds ready to use, sold in plastic cups.  Can you see them at the top of the photo, with the pink plastic spoons stuck into the cups?

For the garnish: 

--1 Tbsp coarse-chopped flat-leaf parsley
--1/2 cup fresh pomegranate seeds 

Preparation:

Cut the meat into large chunks, removing any excess fat. Place the meat into a large Dutch oven with the onion, garlic, and salt. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Skim off any foam that collects on the surface. Lower the heat and allow the water to simmer about 45 minutes, until the meat is just tender. Take the pot off the stove and let the meat cool in the broth. Remove the pieces of meat and finely shred them.  If you're using ground beef/pork, simply brown the ground meats in a big-enough pot, in a small amount of oil (see below).  


Candied biznaga (aka acitrón) cactus.  Because the biznaga cactus is on the endangered species list, it's recommended that we either leave this out of the chile en nogada filling entirely or that we substitute finely diced crystallized pineapple.  


Mexican pink pine nuts.  Their taste is sweeter than the standard white ones, and they leave no bitter aftertaste in your dish.  If you can't find these pink pine nuts, you can substitute the white ones.

Warm the oil in a large, heavy skillet and sauté the onion and garlic over medium heat until they turn a pale gold. Stir in the shredded or ground meats and cook, stirring, for five minutes. Add the cinnamon, pepper, and cloves, then, stir in the two tablespoons of chopped walnuts. Add the chopped pear, apple, pine nuts, and finely diced biznaga cactus, and mix well. Add the tomatoes and salt to taste, and continue cooking over medium-high heat until most of the moisture has evaporated. Stir often so that the mixture doesn't stick. Let cool, cover, and set aside. The picadillo may be made and refrigerated a day or two in advance of final preparations.

Roasted chiles poblano, ready to peel, seed, and stuff.  Photo courtesy Delicious Mexican Recipes.

Roast and peel the chiles and make a slit down the side of each chile, just long enough to remove the seeds and veins. Keep the stem end intact. Drain the chiles, cut side down, on paper towels until completely dry. Cover and set aside. The chiles may be prepared a day in advance. 

At least three hours in advance, put the walnuts in a small pan of water.  Bring the pot to a boil over high heat. Remove from the heat and let the nuts sit for five minutes. Drain the nuts and, when cool, rub off as much of the dark skin as possible.  Your goal is pure white nutmeats without peel.  Chop the nuts into small pieces. Place the nuts, cream cheese, crema, and salt in a blender and purée thoroughly. Stir in the sugar, cinnamon, and sherry until thoroughly combined. The sauce should be velvety smooth.  Chill for several hours. 

Preheat the oven to 250ºF. When ready to serve, reheat the meat filling and stuff the chiles until they are plump and just barely closed. Put the filled chiles, covered, to warm slightly in the oven.  When they are just barely warm, place the chiles (cut side down) on a serving platter or on individual plates, cover with the room temperature or chilled walnut sauce, and sprinkle with the chopped parsley and pomegranate seeds. 


Chile en nogada as served at Restaurante Azul Histórico, Mexico City.  It's the Mexican flag on your plate!  


Chile en nogada as served at Restaurante Las Quince Letras, Centro Histórico, Oaxaca.

This dish may be served at room temperature, or it may be served slightly chilled. It is rarely if ever served hot. 

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Dando la Vuelta en la Ciudad de México :: Roaming around in Mexico City, Part One

Mexico's summer always gives us an abundance of flor de calabaza (squash flowers) to be used in the kitchen. Prepared as sopa de guias (squash vine soup), quesadillas, or stuffed with cheese, these flowers are delicious and are readily available in many Mexican markets.  Did you know that only the male flowers are harvested?  The female flowers are left to develop squash.  

You might like to try this Mexico Cooks! recipe in your own kitchen.

Flor de Calabaza Estilo Cristina 
Squash Flowers, Cristina's Style

Ingredients

2 large bunches flor de calabaza, washed and patted dry
1 medium white onion
4 chiles poblano
1 chile serrano
2 large russet or other large white potatoes
Flour
Sea salt to taste
Vegetable oil, freshly rendered pork lard, or half vegetable oil, half bacon grease for frying.

Procedure

Peel and dice potatoes into 1/2" cubes.  Boil until just fork-tender.  Drain, allow to dry, and reserve.

Roast chiles according to your preferred method until the skin is blistered and they are well-blackened.  Sweat for 10 minutes in a closed plastic bag.  Remove skin.  Slice each chile lengthwise to remove seeds.  Dice peppers in 1/2” squares. 

Rough-chop flor de calabaza into 1 1/2" pieces.

Dice onion into 1/2" squares.

Mince chile serrano.

In a large sauté pan, heat the vegetable oil until it shimmers.  While the oil is heating, shake the reserved potatoes in flour and salt in a plastic bag. 

Sauté onions and chile serrano in oil or oil/bacon grease mixture.  Add the floured potatoes and sauté until crisp and pale golden, adding more fat if needed.  Add the diced chiles poblano and continue to sauté for about 1 minute.

Add the flor de calabaza and sauté just until tender. 

Add sea salt to taste.

Serves 2-3 as a side dish.


Late in the spring, we were invited to attend the opening of El Rebozo: Made in Mexico at Mexico City's extraordinary Museo Franz Mayer. The exhibition, which was originally mounted in London, featured both old and new rebozos (long rectangular shawls) as well as some other typical Mexican garments. One of the many rebozos in the exhibit was an exquisitely embroidered shawl from Oaxaca. This is a detail of that Oaxacan rebozo.


This photograph of Evita Perón, wife of Argentina's Juan Domingo Perón during his first term as president of that country, was part of an exhibit at Mexico City's Museum of Modern Art (MAM) during the spring and summer.  The photograph formed part of an exhibition of the works of Giselle Freund, a self-taught photographer who worked in Argentina and Mexico in the 1940s and 1950s.


This tiny ironwood mortar and pestle (the mortar is only about 2" high) comes from the state of Sonora, in northern Mexico.  It is made specifically for use at the table, for an individual diner to grind one or two chiles chiltepín, which are highly spicy and famously used to season certain dishes from the cuisine of that state.  The grinder is passed from person to person at the table, along with a dish of whole chile chiltepín.


Chile chiltepín from Sonora.  Each chile is tiny but extremely picante. Photo courtesy Hunter Angler Gardener Cook.

Beautiful ceremonial tortillas from the state of Guanajuato.  The tortillas are made in the usual way and are then stamped prior to baking with a wooden stamp dipped in vegetable dye.  Mexico Cooks! was privileged to see these twice in one summer, first at an event at the Escuela de Gastronomía Mexicana in Mexico City and again at the Primer Encuentro Nacional de Cocineras Tradicionales (First National Meeting of Traditional Cooks) in Morelia, Michoacán.


This is the tamarillo or tomate del árbol (tree tomato), a native of the South American Andes.  Each fruit is approximately 2.5" long.  The flesh is fairly firm and deeply flavorful, both sweet and earthy.  You never know what you'll see when you take a Mexico Cooks! tour--our group found these delicious fruits at a downtown Mexico City market.

Come back next week for more summertime wanderings with Mexico Cooks!. Our summer was far too interesting for just one article!

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Strawberry Season in Central Mexico :: When? All Year!

Piled high in every town's market, locally grown strawberries sell all year 'round in parts of Michoacán, Guanajuato, and Jalisco.  Mexico Cooks! photographed these at a daily outdoor market in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.

Right about now, fresh produce bounty from South of the Border is available on your supermarket shelves. Fresh red strawberries, grown from Zamora, Michoacán to Irapuato, Guanajuato, will give you the sweet taste of Mexico's sun and warmth. Fresh raspberries grow near the shores of Lake Chapala, while big-as-the-end-of-your-thumb, sweet, delicious blackberries grow locally in Mexico Cooks!' region of Michoacán.  Big beautiful and delicious blueberries are also grown prolifically in both Jalisco and Michoacán.

When you go to your local super market, take a closer look at those clear plastic containers (known in the trade as clamshells) full of red raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries. In the small print on the Driscoll label it says "Product of Mexico". When I still lived in the States, I read that label and imagined a gleaming white-tile packing factory. In my mind's eye, I saw employees in starched laboratory jackets, nurse-like white caps and latex gloves, packing strawberries as the jewel-red fruit came flying down an assembly line. It was a fantasy worthy of Lucy and Ethel at the chocolate factory, in that famous episode of I Love Lucy.

The first time I visited a nearby raspberry "packing factory", I had to laugh at my own earlier ideas. This packing operation was perfectly simple. Several clean-cut young men with bandannas wrapped around their heads roamed up and down the rows between lush raspberry canes. They hand-picked only the reddest, ripest raspberries and gently placed them into small plastic buckets, the kind five-year-olds use at the beach.

Two young women dressed in blue jeans and caps stood at a long folding table (the kind you'd find at a swap meet) and packed those perfectly ripe raspberries into flat after flat of Driscoll clamshells. They packed the plastic boxes into case after case for shipping and then rapidly started packing more.

Within 24 hours of picking, those berries are in the United States, either in Miami or Los Angeles. A day later, they are shipped out to stores across the United States. In addition, red raspberries from the shores of Lake Chapala are shipped not only to the United States but also to Canada, to England, to all parts of Europe, and to Japan.

The half pint boxes sell for about $4.99 the box in grocery stores north of the Mexican border.  Here in Mexico, you don't want to know what I pay.  Just remember that I live where all of these berries are grown and we can buy them without a middleman or transportation costs.

Remember that raspberries are the most delicate fruits in the vast berry family. Treat them with the softest touch, just like handling like a newborn baby. Rinse them gently (never allowing them to soak) just before you serve them.

In case any of you might have health concerns about Mexican-grown produce, here's what the Driscoll people themselves say about the safety of their raspberries and strawberries:

"Driscoll's farmers have been leaders in the practice of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) which relies on a balanced method of natural and inorganic means to reduce disease and control pests in the field. To insure that Driscoll's fruit is the safest possible, Driscoll's employs a company which conducts third-party independent residue testing of fruit in every Driscoll cooler and facility every week."

These fields in the state of Jalisco are Mexican owned and leased to Driscoll solely for growing raspberries and strawberries. The raspberry crop is rotated annually and the packing operation is moved each year to the fields most convenient to the highway.  The plastic protects the raspberries from too much sun, too much rain, and too much wind.

Far-flung fields of Driscoll's other delicious crop—strawberries--are grown from Zamora and Morelia, Michoacán, and as far east as Maravatio, Michoacán--several other towns in Michoacán.  Two out of every three strawberries grown in Mexico come from Michoacán, and that's a LOT--about 340 thousand tons per year!  Red jewels lie close to the ground, nestled in dark green leaves. The strawberries are ripe and luscious this time of year, ready to be hand picked, packed, chilled, and shipped to all parts of the world. You'll find them, packaged in clear plastic one-pound boxes so you can see exactly what you're choosing, in the produce section of your favorite hometown supermarket. North of the border, the boxes sell for about $2.50 US in season.  Here in Mexico, we're paying closer to the peso equivalent of $2.00 US per kilo (2.2 pounds).

Strawberry stands dot the roads leading into and out of Irapuato, Guanajuato.  The stands offer tall wicker baskets filled with sweet, delicious fresh berries as well as frozen strawberries with cream, just ready to dig in.

These are not those huge strawberries grown more for looks than for flavor. Is there anything more disappointing than biting into a beautiful berry and finding it white in the middle, dry, hard and tasteless? These berries are mid-size and grown for their sweet taste—the best possible flavor—as well as beauty. Ripened more fully prior to picking than those grown elsewhere, these local strawberries are simply perfect.


Wow, a tower of locally grown strawberries!  These are from the area around Irapuato.

Always refrigerate berries immediately—move them from your shopping bag directly to the refrigerator.  Refrigerator temperatures between 34 and 38 degrees F are best, but be sure not to freeze them! Fresh berries are very sensitive to freeze damage. Do remember this general rule: for every hour your berries are away from refrigeration, you'll lose a whole day's shelf life.

If you want to freeze red raspberries, spread them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet with sides and place the uncovered cookie sheet in the freezer. After the raspberries are well frozen, shake them gently into a zip-lock bag and immediately put them back in the freezer. Your raspberries, whole and beautiful, will be ready for immediate use when you need them.

Do not wash your berries until you are ready to prepare and eat them. Moisture will hasten decay of these fragile berries, so keep them dry as well as cold until the last moment.

Shelf life varies between berries; however, under ideal conditions, strawberries should keep for about two to five days in your refrigerator and raspberries should keep for between one and three days. For best results, consume your berries as soon after purchase as possible.

If you buy either raspberries or strawberries in plastic clamshells, use the berries and save a clamshell or two for times when you want to store the berries in your refrigerator. farm to protect the berries on the trip home. 

Here is an interesting statistic about strawberries: Canada imports all of its fresh strawberries from either the United States or from Mexico. The United States is the major importer of Mexican fresh strawberries. Under NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), duty is no longer charged on strawberry exports to either the USA or Canada.

Are you drooling yet? Let's look at two more wonderful recipes for raspberry and strawberry treats.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake
For the ultimate in red raspberry decadence, try this cheesecake.

18 vanilla wafer cookies
1 cup macadamia nuts, toasted
4 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted
4 ounces white chocolate, chopped
16 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 large eggs
3/4 cup fresh raspberries
8 ounces sour cream
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Finely grind cookies and macadamias in food processor. Add butter and blend until mixture forms very moist crumbs. Press crumbs firmly onto bottom and part of sides of an eight inch spring-form pan. Bake until golden (10 minutes).

Filling:
Melt white chocolate in microwave, (about 1 1/2 minutes), stopping every 30 seconds to stir and to make sure it doesn't burn. Set aside. In a large bowl, use your electric mixer to beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon juice until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition, just until combined. Beat in white chocolate.

Spoon half the batter into the crust. Top with berries. Top with remaining batter. Bake for about 45 minutes or until cake is set around the edges, but center jiggles slightly.

Let cool for about 20 minutes before adding the topping.

Topping:
In a medium bowl, whisk sour cream, sugar, and vanilla. Spoon over cake, spreading the topping to the edge of the pan. Bake five minutes. Allow cake to cool and then refrigerate overnight. Serve plain or garnish with more berries.

Try the following recipe when you want to serve an unusual fruit treat for a Sunday brunch with friends. You and your guests will love the refreshing berries in a very unusual dressing.  Let me know how you like it!

Ginger Strawberries Estilo Mexico Cooks!
This recipe is served cold, and with its hint of spicy ginger it always makes a hit.

2 pounds fresh ripe strawberries
1 orange
2 tablespoons pickled ginger, drained
1 cup unflavored yoghurt
2 tablespoons orange marmalade
2 tablespoons sugar or 2 packets artificial sweetener
1/4 teaspoon salt

Remove green caps from strawberries and wash gently. Pat dry in a large terry cloth towel. Cut the strawberries in half and place in a large mixing bowl.

With a vegetable peeler or zester, cut thin strips of orange peel (orange part only). Cut the orange peel strips into tiny matchstick-size strips, no longer than 1" and no wider than 1/16".

Cut the pickled ginger to the same size as the orange strips. Mix the ginger and the orange strips together.

Add the ginger and orange strips mixture, orange marmalade, sugar (or artificial sweetener) and salt to the yogurt. Stir until well-mixed.

Pour yoghurt mixture over strawberries and stir gently to coat all the strawberries.

Refrigerate until well chilled. Serves 6 - 8 as a side dish.

Remember the taste of a strawberry this red--red all the way through?  I was in a produce market and had already taken a bite of this one when I thought, take its picture!  The world wants to see a real strawberry, right now in 2022!

Buen provecho!    

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A Beautiful Food and Music Festival in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán

Seasonal chiles en nogada (stuffed chiles poblanos in walnut sauce) were the most popular item at the Pátzcuaro food show one September quite a few years ago.

Pátzcuaro has just celebrated its 474th anniversary as a certified municipio (similar to a US county seat).  Lots of events were scheduled during the weekend of September 19-21, including a parade, an artisans' fair, concerts, and two regional muestras de gastronomía (food exhibits and sales).

Joaquín Pantoja, Plaza Don Vasco de Quiroga, Pátzcuaro.

Mexico Cooks! was there, of course.  Would we miss a reason for a fiesta?  We spent a full and diverse day in Pátzcuaro, first listening to a concert by the incredibly talented guitarist Joaquín Pantoja, visiting friends at a nearby gallery opening, strolling around the beautiful Plaza de don Vasco de Quiroga, and eating--you guessed it--wonderful chiles en nogada at Sunday's Muestra de Gastronomía Regional on Plaza Don Vasco de Quiroga.

Imagine the taste of mildly spicy, fresh chiles poblanos stuffed with a rich meat and fruit picadillo (hash), bathed in creamy walnut sauce, and garnished with fresh pomegranate seeds and parsley.  Normally served in Mexico during July, August, September, and October (the time when both pomegranates and walnuts are harvested), this beautiful dish represents the colors of the Mexican flag. 


Just one of the Muestra de Gastronomía Regional tables in Pátzcuaro. From the beautifully presented platillos (main dishes) to the hand-embroidered tablecloth, the table was a feast for all the senses.

Pollo en Cuñete, a superb example of comida casera michoacana (Michoacán home cooking) that Mexico Cooks! has never seen on any restaurant menu.

Pollo en Cuñete

Ingredients
1 whole chicken, 4 to 5 pounds, skinned and cut into serving pieces
11 cloves of garlic, mashed
1  tablespoon sea salt
1  teaspoon whole black peppercorns
2  tablespoons corn or other vegetable oil
20 new potatoes, peeled
3/4 cup vinegar, either white or red wine
1/3 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
6 bay leaves
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 chiles serrano

Romaine lettuce
Pineapple slices
Orange slices
Avocado slices
Radishes

Procedure
Rub the chicken pieces with garlic, sea salt, and pepper and refrigerate for one to four hours.

In a large frying pan, heat the oil and sauté the chicken pieces, putting them in a large casserole dish as they brown.  In the same oil, lightly brown the potatoes.  Remove the potatoes from the oil and reserve.

Allow the oil to cool slightly.  Add the vinegar (carefully, it will splash) and heat until it begins to boil.  Remove the brown pieces that stick to the bottom of the pan.  Pour the vinegar through a strainer and over the chicken.  Add the olive oil, the salt, the bay leaves, the thyme, and the oregano to the chicken in the casserole dish.  Place the chicken over a high fire until it begins to boil.  Cover it tightly and lower the flame.  Every 10 minutes, turn the chicken.  After 30 to 40 minutes, test for taste and add the chiles and the potatoes.  Cover and cook over a slow fire for approximately 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are done. 

To Serve
Cover a large platter with romaine lettuce leaves.  Arrange the chicken pieces on the platter.  Garnish with decoratively cut radishes, peeled orange slices, thinly sliced pineapple, and sliced avocados. 

Serves 6 to 8 as a main course.

This gorgeous jewel-colored drink is actually ensalada del obispo (the bishop's water), a Morelia traditional speciality served only during Semana Santa (Holy Week).  It's prepared with beets, oranges, lettuce, other vegetables, and peanuts.  You eat it with a spoon and drink the liquid.

This little section of the muestra de dulces regionales (regional sweets exhibit) features gelatina de frutas con leche (milky gelatin with fruits), pastel de almendras (almond cake), rollo de chocolate (chocolate roll), and ate casero de membrillo (home-made quince paste).  We split a slice of almond cake and a little cocada casera (home-made coconut candy).

Pátzcuaro is famous everywhere in Mexico for its ice cream, especially the nieve de pasta (richly creamy ice cream flavored with ground almonds, cinnamon, and honey).  Mexico Cooks! didn't have room to eat even a small cup, but instead stopped a passer-by who waited patiently before taking a bite to have a photo taken of his treasure: nieve de pasta con mermelada de zarzamora (with fresh blackberry marmalade).

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Fresh Blackberries Grown in Michoacán :: Rica Zarzamora Producto de Michoacán

Here's another wonderful dessert for a Lenten Friday: American-style blackberry cobbler, made with super-delicious blackberries grown in Michoacán, Mexico.  When you're shopping, look at a 'clamshell' of blackberries.  Most blackberries that you buy today in the USA and Canada are exported from fields almost in Mexico Cooks!' back yard!

Blackberries are one of the staples of the Mexico Cooks! kitchen.  In season nearly year-round, Mexico's blackberries are primarily grown in the state of Michoacán.  This bowlful of delicious blackberries is being crushed with Splenda® and a pinch of salt to add to breakfast yoghurt. 

In 1994, the commercially cultivated blackberry first arrived in the area around Los Reyes, Michoacán.  High in the mountains, Los Reyes offered a perfect climate for the Brazos variety of erect blackberries.  The original commercial growers planted only three hectáreas (about 6 acres) of berries.  

Developed at Texas A&M University and introduced in 1959, 'Brazos' has been the Texas standard for years and is still a great variety. The berries are large and the plants produce heavily.  In Michoacán, this variety starts ripening early in May.  The berries are a little acid and are better for cooking and canning than fresh eating. This variety has more thorny plants and larger seeded fruit than many of the improved varieties.  In fact, the blackberries offered in Mexico's markets are huge, about an inch long by half an inch in diameter--as big as the ball of my thumb.


Brazos blackberries 'on the hoof'.

Since those 1994 beginnings, local growers have learned a tremendous amount about the cultivation of blackberries.  Today, the fruit fields cover more than 4,500 hectáreas in the area of Los Reyes, Tocumbo, and Peribán--almost all in the west-central highlands of Michoacán.  The 2009 production reached a weight of 30,000 tons of blackberries--tons!  Ninety percent of those were exported to the United States, the primary foreign market.  The rest went to Europe and Japan.  This quantity of blackberries represents 95% of those grown in Michoacán and 90% of those grown anywhere in Mexico.  This rinconcito (tiny corner) of Mexico produces more blackberries than anywhere else in the world.


Shortly before Christmas, Mexico Cooks! was unable to find unsweetened, unflavored yoghurt in our neighborhood shops--and there was a liter of blackberries in the refrigerator that needed to be eaten immediately.  They had been destined for breakfast, but one morning se me prendió el foco (the light bulb went on in my brain) and I thought: COBBLER!  In the bowl is the entire liter of berries, mixed with sugar, the juice and some grated zest of a limón (key lime), and a bit of cornstarch.

Blackberry cobbler, as you might have guessed, is not in the Mexican food repertoire.  However, when all of the ingredients are grown or made in Mexico, maybe it should be.  In the photo are salt, baking powder, an egg, two limones, standard-grade sugar, milk, and freshly rendered pork lard.  During Lent, I make the topping with butter.

Pre-heat the oven to 425ºF and butter a glass baking dish.

Scoop the blackberry mixture into the pan and gently even it out.

Measure the shortening (you can use solid vegetable shortening or butter if you prefer not to use lard).  I always use the displacement method to measure solid shortening: for this 1/4 cup of lard, I started with 1 3/4 cups of cold water in this clear measuring cup.  I added lard until the water rose to the two-cup level, then emptied out the water.  Bingo, 1/4 cup of lard and no mess.

The flour mixture that will become the dough for topping the cobbler.  You see the lard on top of the flour mixture, ready to be worked into it.

The flour mixture should look like this when you finish working the lard into it.

Break an egg into the milk and beat with a fork till blended.

The cobbler, topped with raw dough and ready for the oven.  Sprinkle the raw dough with sugar to give it a finished look after baking.  The cornstarch that I mixed with the raw blackberries and sugar thickens the juices as the cobbler bakes.

Bake the cobbler for about half an hour, or until the dough is light golden brown.  Your house will smell heavenly!

Here's the entire recipe:

Blackberry Cobbler
Ingredients
4-6 cups fresh blackberries
3/4 cup sugar, divided use
1 Tbsp lemon juice
zest of 1/2 lemon
1 Tbsp cornstarch

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 cup shortening--I usually use lard, but for Lent I use butter
4 Tbsp butter
1 whole egg
1/2 cup milk

Preparation
Preheat your oven to 425ºF.

Butter the glass baking dish.  Mix blackberries, 1/2 cup sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl.  Reserve.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder, and 1 or 2 Tbsp sugar.  Add the shortening and butter and work them into the flour with your fingers, until the mixture looks like coarse corn meal. 

Measure 1/2 cup milk into a large measuring cup; break the egg into the milk.  Beat with a fork until well blended.  Pour the milk/egg mixture into the flour/shortening mixture and stir until smooth.  The dough should not be sticky; if you need to add more flour, start with just an additional tablespoon.  When the dough is smooth but still quite damp, it's ready.

Pour the blackberry mixture into the glass baking dish and gently even out the berries with your fingers.  Put large spoonfuls of dough all over the berries, leaving some small spaces on top for the juice to bubble through.  Flatten the dough a little--use your fingers, and don't worry about how it looks.  Sprinkle the top of the dough with a tablespoon or two of sugar.

Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes.  A serving of your cobbler, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, will look like this--truly a thing of beauty.

The finished product: blackberry cobbler, hot out of the oven and topped with rich real-cream vanilla ice cream.  The red in the background is a countertop trastero (dish shelf), meant to be used for storing small kitchen items.  Mine is filled with miniature kitchen-related local artesanías (crafts).

What could be better on a chilly winter evening--a taste of Mexican blackberries, from a recipe straight out of your grandmother's kitchen! 

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Chile Poblano Strips with Onion, Corn Kernels, and Cream, A Classic of the Mexican Kitchen :: Rajas de Chile Poblano

Delicious and eaten at any time of the year, rajas de chile poblano con crema, cebolla, y elote (strips of poblano chile with cream, onion, and young tender corn) is the perfect dish for a Lenten Friday!

The mild-to-not-so-mild chile poblano is one of the most commonly used fresh chiles in Mexico's kitchen.  A very large, fleshy chile, it can measure as much as seven or eight inches long.  The stem end is much wider than the point, and the color ranges from dark green to almost black-green. Shopping tip: if you buy chiles poblano that are flat on all sides, they will roast more quickly than if they are deeply creased in spots.  The flat sides will evenly touch the roasting surface.

The chile poblano is commonly used for preparing main dishes such as chiles rellenos, including the seasonal and festive chiles en nogada.  It is also used for making rajas de chile poblano con crema (strips of chile poblano with cream), a marvelously flavorful vegetable side dish.  All photos by Mexico Cooks! unless otherwise noted.


Chiles poblano roasted with skin removed, showing the interior of the opened chile (left) and the exterior (right).  These are two of the four chiles I used to prepare this dish. To prepare chiles poblanos for use in any recipe, wash and roast them.  Don't try to use them with the peel on; the peels will be as tough as trying to chew through plastic.  Mexico Cooks! uses a cast iron comal (griddle) placed over a high flame to roast as many as four to six chiles at a time.  Other cooks prefer to roast these chiles one or two at a time over an open flame, or on a broiler pan in a slightly open oven. No matter which roasting method you use, the roasted chiles should look like the ones in the above photo.

Once the chiles are roasted, put them in a plastic bag, twist it shut, and allow the chiles to 'sweat' for 10 to 15 minutes.  You'll easily be able to remove the blackened peels.  It's best not to rinse them--or rinse them only a little--as rinsing removes a good bit of the delicious chile poblano flavor.  


The slit-open chiles with the seeds still inside.  At the foreground of the photo, you can see that I removed the stem with the bulk of the seeds.  Simply cut around the stem and pull it and the seeds out of the chile.


Two of the chiles still on the cutting board, with one of my 60+-year-old Sabatier carbon steel knives.  


All four chiles, seeded and cut into rajas (strips about 3" long and less than 1/2" wide).


Half of a large white onion, thinly sliced and ready to sauté. The ingredients include half a white onion, sliced very thin, and about half a cup of fresh (or canned) white or yellow corn kernels.


Sauté the onions in oil first, until they are soft and translucent.  Then add the rajas and continue to sauté until they are soft, but still have a bit of crispness.


Add the corn and continue to sauté briefly.


Add Mexican crema de mesa (table cream, not sour cream) if you can find it.  Crema Aguascalientes is the one I prefer to use.  If Mexican table cream isn't available, use sour cream instead. 


Salt to taste and let the cream and vegetables simmer briefly. The cream will become a thick sauce for the vegetables.  The chile poblano is generally quite mild and flavorful, but once in a while you will come across one that is surprisingly spicy.  There's no way to tell by looking at them whether they are mild or hot, and either way they're delicious and not overly 'hot'.

The recipe as you see it written here, using four large chiles, will serve 3 to 4 people as a side dish.  It's excellent served hot or at room temperature.  I've never met anyone who doesn't love rajas de chile poblano served this way!

Provecho! (Good eating!)

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Capirotada :: Traditional Dessert for Lent in Mexico

Pouring miel de piloncillo (spiced raw brown sugar syrup) over the second layer of capirotada.  The cazuela (clay dish) measures about 14" in diameter at the top.

Capirotada is the iconic Mexican dessert during Lent.  It has its origins as long ago as the fourth century, in Rome.  The history of the Roman dish is similar, but the dish itself is completely different from the capirotada we know in Mexico today.  The list of Roman ingredients included bread soaked in vinegar and water, layers of chicken livers, capers, cucumber, and cheese.  Only two of the ingredients that the Romans used 1600 years ago are the same as the ones we use today: slices of bread, and cheese--and even the cheese is optional today.  


The cofradía Siervo de la Nación (association members of the Nation's Servant) makes the silent, many blocks long pilgrimage over Morelia's main street on Viernes Santo (Good Friday).  The groups of the cofradías all walk in similar costume; each cloak may be a different color, but their sole purpose is to give anonymity to each individual in the group as they walk the length of this profoundly spiritual and humble procession.

Even the name capirotada has an unusual origin.  It's derived from the word "capirote", the tall pointed hat that is part of the cloak used by the cofradías (religious individuals who form a church-associated group with pious ends) as they walk the Procesión del Silencio on Good Friday evening.  The Procesión del Silencio takes place in cities and towns all over Mexico and in Spain.


The primary ingredients for capirotada.  Clockwise from nine o'clock: toasted peanuts, 2 large cones of piloncillo, Mexican stick cinnamon, raisins, fresh orange peel, whole allspice, anise seeds, cloves--and in the center, finely diced acitrón.


Here's the queso fresco I bought for the capirotada.  It's a milder flavor than the queso Cotija. This small cheese weighed about 120 grams and was just the right amount to crumble over the layers of bread.

The recipe came with the Spanish to Nueva España (what is today's Mexico) and has changed over the course of 500 years until it has become the dessert that we know today.  Since long ago, the recipe contains:
--densely textured white bread, thoroughly dried and hard.
--optional stale tortillas to line the bottom of the cazuela or other dish you use 
--freshly rendered pork lard
--vegetable oil
--cones of piloncillo (Mexican raw brown sugar)
--fresh orange peel
--fragrant cloves
--Mexican cinnamon stick
--allspice
--anise seeds
--shelled and skinned peanuts, toasted
--filleted almonds, toasted (optional)
--acitrón, a kind of crystallized cactus (optional)
--about a teaspoon of sea salt or table salt
--raisins
--queso Cotija or queso fresco (Cotija or fresh farmer's cheese (optional)

I purchased this already dried and buttered bread, ready for making capirotada, in a market in Michoacán, where I live.  Numerous vendors offer the slices by the kilo (2.2 pounds) or by the bag.  I bought a bag of about 10 very wide slices, which I sawed in half with a serrated knife so that I could fit them into a medium-size clay cazuela.  

The recipe is simplicity itself.  If you are using fresh bread, you'll need to slice it into 1/2" slices and let it dry for up to four nights, turning it every little while, until it is very hard on both sides.  Then you smear both sides of the dried slices with butter and fry the slices in a liberal amount of freshly rendered pork lard mixed with vegetable oil.  In many cities and towns of Mexico, one can buy pre-sliced, pre-buttered, pre-fried bread to use for capirotada.  I did, its photo is just above.


Canela (Mexican cinnamon) sticks can be as much as a yard long.  They're much softer and flakier and flavorful than the sort of short, hard, unbreakable cinnamon sticks sold packaged in most of the United States.  One can buy Mexican cinnamon sticks at a Latin grocery store; look for one near your home.  In the photo, you see raisins to the right of the cinnamon.


Here's a steamy shot of the miel de piloncillo as it simmers in a stainless steel pot.  You can see the orange peel, the raisins, and the cinnamon stick.


I used two of the large cones of piloncillo (on the left).  With this amount of piloncillo, the sweetness of the syrup was perfect.  Piloncillo is available in a Mexican market near your home--and you might even find it packaged in your favorite supermarket, in the Mexican canned and dried food aisle.

Once the bread is prepared, make the miel de piloncillo.  I used two large cones of piloncillo and a liter of water to start the process.    Put the piloncillo, the water, about 10-12 inches (broken into two pieces) of a Mexican cinnamon stick, 2 or 3 fragrant cloves, the fresh orange peel, about 1.5 teaspoons of anise seed, and 2 or 3 whole allspice into a medium-size pot.  Bring the pot to a boil and then lower the heat until the water is just simmering.  Allow it to simmer until the piloncillo is completely dissolved; this might take as much as 10 minutes.  You can allow the syrup to reduce just a little bit; you'll need the full amount of thin syrup to pour onto the layers of the capirotada.  Turn off the fire and set the pot aside.

Next, liberally grease your cazuela or baking dish with freshly rendered pork lard.  You can see in the photo that 'liberal' is what you want: don't stint.  Smear the lard, on the bottom of the dish and right up the sides!  Pork lard adds flavor to the capirotada that you can't get with any other fat.  TIP: the lard you want is available by weight at a Mexican market and maybe at your supermarket.  But DO NOT buy that cold brick of white hydrolyzed lard that's sold in your supermarket's meat or dairy case.  It has no flavor and excuse me, is basically disgusting.


Now you will put a single layer of bread into the cazuela and top it with the amount of peanuts, raisins, acitrón and crumbled cheese that you like.  I used about 50-60 grams of each per layer--maybe a few more peanuts.  Once the first layer was assembled, I poured about a cup of the miel de piloncillo over it, soaking it well.  The quantity of bread I bought made three layers; three fit very nicely into my cazuela.  On each layer of bread, I scattered approximately the same amount of the ingredients I'd put on the first layer, and poured about the same amount of miel de piloncillo over each successive layer.  The kitchen smelled fantastic!  


The finished product!  Once the capirotada was completely assembled, I put it into a pre-heated 180ºC (350ºF) oven for about 10-15 minutes.  The oven is optional; your capirotada will be just as delicious if you don't bake it at all.

Not only is capirotada a traditional Lenten dessert, it also has a strongly spiritual essence.  The Spanish are said to have used it as a teaching tool to give the indigenous population of Nueva España an understanding of the death and resurrection of Christ.  

--the bread alludes to the Body of Christ
--the miel de piloncillo represents His blood
--the cinnamon stick looks like the wood of the cross where He was crucified
--the clavos (cloves) have the same shape and the same Spanish-language name as the nails in His hands
--the white cheese reminds us of the sheet that remained in the tomb when He arose from the dead

Although capirotada is richly delicious, and its history is also rich, today's reality is that home-made capirotada is not prepared as often as it was in years gone by.  Yes, you can buy it already prepared in many towns in Mexico, and it's important to support the women who prepare it.  Nevertheless, little by little the tradition is being lost.  It's important that each of us do her/his part to make and eat something this significant and delicious--and with a five hundred year history on our Lenten tables.  When one prepares it, it brings back so many memories of our childhood, our families, and our friends.  It preserves the long tradition.  Truly, it's well worth the time to prepare this simple recipe.  During this Lenten season, let's commit ourselves to making capirotada and sharing it with those dearest to us.  

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Cuaresma (Lent) Has Begun! Help! I Need an Easy and Delicious Meatless Meal!

Cuaresma (Lent) started on Ash Wednesday, March 2, 2022.  Many people all over the world are searching for something delicious to serve on Lenten Fridays, when abstinence from meat is still required in some religious faiths.  The ingredients for home-style chilaquiles with egg are very simple.  This easy-to-prepare, traditionally Mexican dish makes a perfect breakfast, lunch, or supper for a Lenten Friday, or for any day.

Many years ago, long before the Internet burst onto the world scene and long before writing Mexico Cooks! was even a glimmer in my eye, a close friend from Michoacán taught me to prepare several platillos caseros mexicanos (home-style Mexican dishes).  I've written about my dear friend Sister Celia Gutiérrez Cortés before; more than 30 years ago, she introduced me to many of Mexico's joys that continue to reward me today. 

Sister Celia Gutiérrez Cortés in 1982

Chilaquiles are one of Mexico's most comforting of comfort foods.  A mere mention of the word in casual conversation with Mexican friends will bring forth memories, stories, and recipes for their favorite ways of preparing them.  They can be como mi mamá los hacía (like my Mom used to make them),  estilo el restaurante en donde almorzábamos en aquel entonces (the way the restaurant where we had brunch in the old days prepared them), or--like these--como me los enseñó mi querida amiga (like my dear friend taught me).  Enjoy!

Chilaquiles Caseros con Huevo
(Home-Style Chilaquiles with Egg)

Ingredients
10 to 12 eggs
1/4 cup milk
Sea salt to taste
Bottled red salsa to taste (the salsa in the photo is Chapala brand, but you can use salsa Cholula, Valentina, or something similar)   
2 fresh chiles serrano (use just one, if you prefer your food less picante (spicy)
1 medium white onion
16-20 stale tortillas, the staler the better.
Vegetable oil

Utensils
12" non-stick skillet
Mixing bowl
Wire whisk
Spatula

Procedure

Break eggs into your mixing bowl.  Add milk, sea salt, and bottled salsa.  (I give the bottle 6-8 thumps on the bottom.)  Whisk thoroughly until all ingredients are completely mixed together.

Finely mince the chiles.  Cut the onion into 1/2 inch dice. 

In your skillet, heat oil until it shimmers.  Add the diced onion and minced chiles and sauté until the onions are soft and translucent, but not browned.

While the vegetables are cooking, cut or rip the tortillas into 1.5" squares, into triangles, or into 2" X 3/4" rectangles.  The shape doesn't matter and each tortilla piece does not have to be exactly the same as the other.

Once the vegetables are soft, add the tortilla pieces to the skillet and sauté until they are browned and moderately crunchy.  The onions will caramelize during this step.

When the tortillas are moderately crunchy--and they don't need to be as hard as packaged chips, just nicely crisped--add the beaten egg mixture to the skillet. 

Cook over medium heat until the eggs are well-set but not hard.  You will notice that, as the eggs begin to cook, the surfaces of the tortillas will appear to be slick and shiny.  That's the egg mixture.  The tortillas will lose that shine; when it's gone, you'll know that they are done.

If you're preparing this recipe for a day other than a Lenten Friday and there is half a chicken breast left over from a previous meal, you can cut it into strips or shred it and toss it into the chilaquiles.

Divide the chilaquiles onto four plates.  Drizzle with Mexican crema para la mesa (table cream--not sour cream, it's more like crême fraiche), if you can find it.  Serve with refried beans, sliced ripe avocado, and a refreshing cold beverage.

Makes four generous servings.  Provecho!

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A Pre-Hispanic Treat in a Modern Kitchen :: Alegrías, A Sweet Joy from Mexico

 
Lots of people are like Mexico Cooks! when it comes to cookbooks.  We own hundreds of them, but actually cook from very few.  For well over a year, I 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.


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

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!

Now, alegrías often have ingredients that were brought to this country during the Spanish occupancy--grapes which became raisins, sugar cane, limónes, and others, which are of course cultivated here.  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 some of the remaining pieces with our hosts, but we had to bring a few pieces 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.