tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39965612011-06-05T18:28:23.735-07:00Mexican Food Owner's ManualEverything I know about Mexican food.Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16026014644204662135noreply@blogger.comBlogger11100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3996561.post-854771632002-12-04T03:47:00.000-08:002002-12-04T03:47:59.016-08:00First of all, I want to thank Space Lass for turning me on to Blog*Spot. I would also like to thank Blog*Spot for sponsoring this laughable waste of bandwidth.<P><P>
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<br />The inspiration for this site comes from my friend, Chef Alex. Further inspiration is courtesy of Big Al, my best friend, and "Buffalo Gal" Alyssa, who is, quite possibly, the most adorable woman on earth (other than my mom and my niece).<P><P>
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<br />Please bear in mind that I wrote this stuff specifically for Chef Alex. He and I used to work together, and have had our adventures together, so there are lots of inside jokes and personal references. <i><b>There is also a lot of foul language</b></i>, so please depart now if that sort of thing offends you.<P><P>
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<br />Mexican Food Owner’s Manual
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<br />“The pleasures of the table are for every man, of every land, and no matter of what place in history or society; they can be a part of all his other pleasures, and they last the longest to console him when he has outlived the rest.
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<br />“The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a star.
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<br />“He who plays host without giving his personal care to the repast is unworthy of having friends to invite to it.
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<br />“To invite people to dine with us is to make ourselves responsible for their well-being for as long as they are under our roofs.”
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<br />--from the <i>Physiology of Taste</i>, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
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<br />Most of this info applies to stuff from Chihuahua, which is the northernmost Mexican state, bordering Texas and New Mexico. Bits of it come quite close to Arizona, but the Sea of Cortez interferes, and Mexico, geographically, sort of craps out until you reach Kalifornia. This is where San Diego collides with Tijuana, in an area known as the Baja Peninsula. It is a mysterious land, about which no one knows anything at all. Or at least I don’t, which is close enough.
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<br />Other than Chihuahua, the names to know are Oaxaca and Veracruz; they’re the major players on the Mexican culinary scene.
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<br />Chihuahua, Oaxaca, and Veracruz (along with Jalisco, Nayarít, Yucatán, Michoacan, Tamaulipas, etc.) are states, just like Vermont and Texas are states. The full and official name of the country, in fact, is the United States of Mexico. Not too many people know that, but understanding the differences between Chihuahua and Yucatán is just as important as understanding the differences between Texas and Vermont.
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<br />Menus, ingredients, names, and whatnot vary hugely from area to area. For instance, I talk about pinto beans, because that’s what they use in Chihuahua—even though the rest of Mexico sticks with black beans. In Veracruz, they do everything—everything!—with seafood. There, you can get shrimp tamales. In Chihuahua, tamales are pretty much limited to chicken with green chile or pork with red chile (there is also an anomaly known as the “sweet tamale,” which is sort of the Mexican version of fruitcake: it turns up mainly around the holidays, and nobody really likes it).
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<br />Stocks & soups. 14
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<br />Chicken or turkey stock. 14
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<br />Veg stocks. 14
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<br />Veg stock. 14
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<br />Garlic stock. 15
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<br />Corncob stock. 15
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<br />Tortilla soup. 15
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<br />Yucatecan lime soup. 16
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<br />Chicken and potato soup with lime. 17
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<br />Sopa de ajo. 17
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<br />Sopa tlalpeño. 18
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<br />Quick chicken soup with tomato, mint, chile, and avocado. 19
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<br />Fava bean soup Veracruzana. 19
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<br />Pinto bean soup with tomato and cumin. 20
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<br />Lentil soup with chipotles and optional plantain garnish. 21
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<br />Camarones chilpachol 22
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<br />Sopa de elotes. 23
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<br />Stock. 23
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<br />Soup. 24
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<br />Salsa garnish. 24
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<br />Corn, tomato, and Hatch green chile soup. 24
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<br />Corn and chile soup. 25
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<br />Yet another corn soup. 25
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<br />Roasted yellow tomato soup. 26
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<br />Late summer veg soup. 26
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<br />Mexican gazpacho. 27
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<br />Soup base. 27
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<br />Garnish. 28
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<br />Casolete. 28
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<br />Sauces, etc. 30
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<br />Salsa fresca. 30
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<br />Tomato, avocado, and corn salsa. 30
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<br />Salsa ranchera. 31
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<br />Salsa de tomates y frijoles. 31
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<br />Roasted tomato and guajillo salsa. 32
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<br />Salsa verde cruda. 32
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<br />Salsa verde (cooked) 32
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<br />Salsa de chipotle con tomatillos. 32
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<br />Tomatillo mole. 33
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<br />Aaron’s mole. 33
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<br />Mango salsa. 35
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<br />Adobo paste. 35
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<br />Adobo sauce. 35
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<br />Adobo sauce on-the-fly. 36
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<br />Chipotle salsa. 36
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<br />Mayonesa de chipotle. 37
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<br />Pickled chiles. 37
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<br />Pickled chipotles. 37
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<br />Homemade chile powder 38
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<br />Beverages. 39
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<br />¡Aguas frescas! 39
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<br />Horchata. 39
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<br />Sparkly limeade. 39
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<br />Jamaica. 40
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<br />Licuados. 41
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<br />Fresa y plátano. 41
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<br />Mango. 41
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<br />Durazno. 41
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<br />Piña y hierba buena. 41
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<br />Vanilla strawberry drink. 41
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<br />Tequila 101. 42
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<br />Sangrita. 44
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<br />Margaritas. 44
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<br />Mexican sangria. 44
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<br />Café de olla. 45
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<br />Tortillas, bread, and similar stuff 46
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<br />Corn tortillas, from masa harina. 46
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<br />Bolillos. 47
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<br />Starter 47
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<br />Bread. 47
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<br />Cemitas. 48
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<br />Pambazos. 48
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<br />Starter 48
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<br />Dough. 49
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<br />Pambazos llenos. 50
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<br />Molletes. 50
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<br />Cornbread. 50
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<br />Cornmeal pancakes. 51
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<br />Antojitos. 53
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<br />Toasted fava beans. 53
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<br />Jícama with lime juice and chile. 53
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<br />Jícama with pico de gallo. 53
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<br />Shrimp with chipotle mayo. 54
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<br />Crudités with chipotle mayo. 54
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<br />Tomatillo guacamole. 54
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<br />Shrimp and lime tostadas. 54
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<br />Crabmeat tostadas. 55
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<br />Bean and cheese tostadas. 55
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<br />Advance prep. 56
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<br />Filled masa thingamajigs. 56
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<br />Dough. 56
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<br />Topping. 56
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<br />Little cornmeal pancakes with tomato-corn salsa. 57
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<br />Little cornmeal pancakes with green tomatillo mole. 58
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<br />Mussels on the half-shell with salsa fresca. 58
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<br />Mussels. 58
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<br />Salsa. 58
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<br />Mussels on the half-shell with cilantro-pumpkin seed pesto. 59
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<br />Stuffed jalapeños. 59
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<br />Stuffed chipotles. 61
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<br />Salads. 63
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<br />Mesclun with sweet potatoes and cheese. 63
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<br />Nasturtium and watercress salad. 63
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<br />Green bean salad. 63
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<br />Cactus, avocado, and tomato salad. 63
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<br />Vinegary oyster mushrooms with onions, carrots, and chile. 64
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<br />Pickled vegetables. 64
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<br />Pico de gallo. 65
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<br />Ensalada de elotes y papas con tomatillos. 66
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<br />Dressing. 66
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<br />Salad. 66
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<br />Espinaca con seviche. 67
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<br />Elotes de mi hermana. 67
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<br />Camarones en escabeche. 68
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<br />Pinto bean salad. 69
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<br />Beans. 69
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<br />Vinaigrette and finishing the salad. 69
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<br />Roasted Hatch and rice salad with cumin vinaigrette. 70
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<br />Salad. 70
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<br />Dressing. 70
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<br />Plating. 70
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<br />Rice and beans. 72
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<br />Pinto beans with epazote. 73
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<br />Frijoles refritos. 74
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<br />Chuckwagon beans. 74
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<br />Aunt Ruthie’s potato salad. 75
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<br />Arroz y frijoles veracruzana. 75
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<br />Red rice with peas and carrots. 76
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<br />Arroz verde. 76
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<br />White rice with herbs. 77
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<br />Tortilla-based stuff 78
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<br />Home-made tortillas. 78
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<br />Tacos. 78
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<br />Tostadas. 79
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<br />Enchiladas. 79
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<br />Oaxacan enchiladas with orange mole. 80
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<br />Quesadillas. 80
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<br />Chilaquiles. 80
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<br />Green chilaquiles. 81
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<br />Chilaquiles on-the-fly. 82
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<br />Eggs. 82
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<br />Migas. 82
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<br />Basic migas. 82
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<br />Red migas with zucchini 82
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<br />Huevos rancheros. 82
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<br />Huevos a la mexicana. 83
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<br />Huevos tirados. 83
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<br />Huevos motuleños. 83
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<br />Fish. 84
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<br />Seviche. 84
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<br />Sopa de mariscos. 84
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<br />Crab soup veracruzana. 85
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<br />Arroz a la tumbada. 86
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<br />Pescado veracruzana. 88
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<br />Grilled tuna with tomato and corn salsa. 90
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<br />Tuna steaks with adobo sauce. 90
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<br />Green tomatillo mole with salmon or shrimp. 91
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<br />With salmon. 91
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<br />Coctel de camarones. 92
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<br />Pescado con salsa oaxaqueña. 93
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<br />Shark fillets in adobo, cooked in corn husks. 94
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<br />Mahi-mahi salpicón veracruzana. 96
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<br />Empanadas. 96
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<br />Crab claws adobado. 97
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<br />Shrimp in garlic sauce. 98
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<br />Shrimp in green garlic sauce. 98
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<br />Tequila oysters. 99
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<br />Chicken. 101
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<br />Pollo deshebrado. 102
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<br />Chicken with salsa. 102
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<br />Chicken picadillo. 102
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<br />Stewed chicken with chipotles and prunes. 103
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<br />Veracruz chicken stew.. 104
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<br />Poblanos rellenos. 105
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<br />Tomato sauce. 105
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<br />Chiles. 106
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<br />Pozole con pollo. 107
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<br />Chicken and stock. 107
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<br />Pozole. 108
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<br />Garnishes. 108
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<br />Red pozole with chicken. 109
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<br />Pozole. 109
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<br />Chiles and tomatoes. 109
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<br />Garnishes. 109
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<br />UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE. 111
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<br />Appetizers. 111
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<br />Lucy’s specialties. 111
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<br />Traditional Mexican plates. 112
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<br />Tacos. 113
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<br />“Just a little more”. 113
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<br />Burritos. 113
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<br />F & stews. 113
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<br />South of the border breakfast specials. 114
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<br />Vegetarian stuff 116
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<br />Xonequi 116
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<br />Pozole verde. 118
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<br />Soup. 118
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<br />Garnishes. 118
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<br />Pozole rojo con frijoles. 119
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<br />Soup. 120
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<br />Garnishes. 120
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<br />Oaxacan mole verde. 120
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<br />Rajas. 122
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<br />Papas al bandera. 122
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<br />Papas con rajas. 123
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<br />Corn pudding with toasted garlic. 124
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<br />Corn off the cob. 125
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<br />Grilled corn with chipotles. 126
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<br />Nopalitos with tomatoes and chiles. 126
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<br />Sweet potatoes with lime. 128
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<br />Sweet potato and chayote stew.. 128
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<br />Plátanos machucos. 130
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<br />Tostones. 131
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<br />Cazuela de ongos. 131
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<br />Ongos con guajillos y epazote. 132
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<br />Calabaza con cebolla y salsa. 132
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<br />Calabaza con tomates, cebolla, y ajo. 133
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<br />Calabasitas rellenos con frijoles. 134
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<br />Cazuela. 135
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<br />Desserts. 137
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<br />Strawberries in mango. 137
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<br />Blueberries in papaya. 138
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<br />Hangover pineapple. 138
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<br />Fruit melody with lime and honey. 138
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<br />Watermelon with mint and Cointreau. 139
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<br />Constant Sorrow compote. 140
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<br />Grapefruit granita. 142
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<br />Mango granita. 143
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<br />Lime granita. 143
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<br />Mexican chocolate granita. 144
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<br />Coffee-cinnamon granita with Kahlúa. 145
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<br />Jalapeños rellenos. 146
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<br />Queso fundido. 147
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<br />Salads, etc. 148
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<br />Cesar salad. 148
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<br />Croutons. 148
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<br />Salad. 149
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<br />Rice & beans. 150
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<br />Tortilla-based stuff 150
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<br />Chicken. 150
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<br />Pollo deshebrado. 150
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<br />Pollo picadillo. 150
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<br />Stewed chicken with chipotles. 150
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<br />Pozole verde. 151
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<br />Pozole rojo con frijoles. 151
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<br />Vegetables. 152
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<br />Papas con rajas. 152
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<br />Corn off-the-cob with Mexican herbs. 152
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<br />Nopalitos con tomates y chiles. 152
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<br />Sweet potato and chayote stew.. 153
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<br />Cazuela de ongos. 153
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<br />Ongos con chiles y epazote. 153
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<br />Calabaza con cebolla y salsa. 153
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<br />Calabasitas llenos con frijoles. 153
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<br />Desserts. 153
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<br />Galletas almendras. 154
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<br />Besitos. 154
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<br />Wedding cookies. 154
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<br />Arroz con leche. 154
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<br />Specific recipes. 155
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<br />Limeade. 155
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<br />Jamaica. 155
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<br />Toasted fava beans. 156
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<br />Chile salt 156
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<br />Jícama con limon y chile. 156
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<br />Chipotles rellenos. 156
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<br />Ensalada a la bandera. 157
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<br />Ongos con cebolla y chile. 158
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<br />Arroz verde. 158
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<br />Arroz blanco con hierbas. 159
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<br />Tacos o tostadas con pollo y salsa de tomatillo. 159
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<br />Tacos o tostadas con pollo, elotes, y aguacate. 160
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<br />Tostadas de chileajo. 160
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<br />Topping. 161
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<br />Sauce. 161
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<br />Picadillo. 162
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<br />Enchiladas, etc. 163
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<br />Enmoladas de espinaca y elotes. 163
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<br />Enfrijoladas. 164
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<br />Chef Jim (the “Bristol Bomber”) Logan’s Oaxacan enchiladas with orange mole. 165
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<br />Quesadillas. 166
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<br />Quesadillas con papas y verduras. 166
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<br />Quesadillas de pollo y tomatillo. 167
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<br />Quesadillas con queso de cabra, chiles, y frijoles. 167
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<br />Quesadillas de huevos tirados y chiles verdes. 168
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<br />Quesadillas de piel de papas. 168
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<br />Tamales. 169
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<br />Blue corn and shrimp tamales. 169
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<br />Gorditas. 170
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<br />Pinto crostini with broccoli rabe. 171
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<br />Pinto purée. 171
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<br />Broccoli rabe mix. 171
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<br />Crostini 171
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<br />Arugula, roasted pepper, and serrano ham torta. 172
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<br />serrano ham stuffed with red chard. 172
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<br />Relleno croquettes. 172
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<br />Croquettes. 172
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<br />Breading. 173
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<br />Cooking and finishing the croquettes. 173
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<br />Hush puppies. 173
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<br />Blue corn muffins. 174
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<br />Mexican spinach pie. 175
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<br />Huevos tirados con chile y chorizo. 176
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<br />Pinto, pesto, and neep soup. 176
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<br />Soup. 177
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<br />Pesto garnish. 177
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<br />Kale-tattie soup with chorizo. 177
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<br />Sweet tater cazuela. 178
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<br />Punkin-tattie soup. 178
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<br />Pinto bean soup. 179
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<br />Chili 179
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<br />Venison and pinto bean chili 181
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<br />Butter lettuce with mango, avocado, and jalapeño-lime dressing. 181
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<br />Salad. 181
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<br />Dressing. 182
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<br />Avocado jícama salsa with yuca chips. 182
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<br />Salsa. 182
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<br />Yuca chips. 182
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<br />Skirt steak fajitas with lime and black pepper 183
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<br />Mexican turkey sausage. 184
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<br />Chorizo. 185
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<br />Veal milanesa. 186
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<br />Roast leg of lamb with jalapeño. 186
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<br />Grilled squab with Hatch butter 187
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<br />White wine marinade. 187
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<br />Achiote venison and smoked corn pudding. 188
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<br />Achiote paste. 188
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<br />Smoked corn pudding. 189
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<br />Venison red wine jus. 190
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<br />Cooking and finishing the venison. 190
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<br />Black sea bass with Hatch butter and leeks. 190
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<br />Grilled sea bass with Anasazi bean stew and nopal salsa. 191
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<br />Anasazi bean jus. 191
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<br />Anasazi bean stew.. 191
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<br />Nopal salsa. 192
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<br />Cooking and finishing the bass. 192
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<br />Grilled lobster with Hatch chiles, chipotle pasta, and chipotle beurre blanc. 192
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<br />Chipotle pasta. 193
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<br />Chipotle beurre blanc. 193
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<br />Cooking and finishing the lobster 194
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<br />Snapper burgers with mango ketchup. 194
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<br />Mango ketchup. 194
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<br />Cooking and finishing the snapper 195
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<br />Chipotle and avo grilled cheese. 195
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<br />Cristo Rey sandwich. 196
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<br />Croque señor 196
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<br />Croque señora. 197
<br />
<br />Chicken burrito. 197
<br />
<br />Traditional flan. 198
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<br />Toffee-caramel flan. 199
<br />
<br />Mint-milk flan with orange water 200
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<br />Honey wheat tuiles. 201
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<br />Crêpes. 202
<br />
<br />Tropical fruit and passion fruit purée. 203
<br />
<br />Pineapple papaya salsa. 204
<br />
<br />Honey-lime dressing. 204
<br />
<br />Arroz con leche. 204
<br />
<br />Mexican chocolate granita. 205
<br />
<br />Coffee granita with Sambuca cream and chocolate shavings. 206
<br />
<br />Pastel de tres leches con coco. 206
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<br />Milk syrup. 207
<br />
<br />Cake. 207
<br />
<br />Garnishes. 208
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<br />Hatch compound butter 208
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<br />Hatch coulis. 208
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<br />Mexican citrus beurre blanc. 209
<br />
<br />Appendix. 212
<br />
<br />Useful stuff that you should have in your kitchen. 212
<br />
<br />Blender 212
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<br />China cap or medium strainer 212
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<br />Latex gloves. 212
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<br />Spice mill 212
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<br />Mortar and pestle. 212
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<br />Citrus press. 212
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<br />Comal 212
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<br />Metal spat 212
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<br />Tongs. 212
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<br />Sheet pans and baking pans. 212
<br />
<br />Tortilla press. 213
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<br />Heavy-duty Ziploc bags. 213
<br />
<br />Bean masher 213
<br />
<br />Ingredients. 213
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<br />Bitter orange. 213
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<br />Vinegar 213
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<br />Chayote. 213
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<br />Tortillas. 213
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<br />Masa. 214
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<br />Masa harina. 214
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<br />Chiles. 214
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<br />Limes. 216
<br />
<br />Hoja santa. 216
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<br />Onions. 216
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<br />Squash blossoms. 216
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<br />Pumpkin seeds. 216
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<br />Avocados. 216
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<br />Cactus paddles. 216
<br />
<br />Cheese. 216
<br />
<br />Pozole. 217
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<br />Mexican chocolate. 217
<br />
<br />Jícama. 217
<br />
<br />Cinnamon. 217
<br />
<br />Stuff to bring back with you from a trip to Mexico (partial list) 217
<br />
<br />Dried chiles. 217
<br />
<br />Dried beans. 217
<br />
<br />Coffee honey. 217
<br />
<br />Mexican chocolate. 217
<br />
<br />Pumpkin seeds. 217
<br />
<br />Dried corn husks. 218
<br />
<br />Mexican vanilla. 218
<br />
<br />Vanilla beans. 218
<br />
<br />Garlic. 218
<br />
<br />Oregano. 218
<br />
<br />Mexican cinnamon. 218
<br />
<br />Piloncillo. 218
<br />
<br />Achiote. 218
<br />
<br />Dried mushrooms. 218
<br />
<br />Jamaica. 218
<br />
<br />Masa harina. 218
<br />
<br />Tortilla press. 218
<br />
<br />Tortilla warmers. 219
<br />
<br />Comal 219
<br />
<br />Lime press. 219
<br />
<br />Molcajete. 219
<br />
<br />Various herbs, spices, and whatnot 219
<br />
<br />Plastic shopping bags. 219
<br />
<br />Mexican candy. 219
<br />
<br />Drink mixes. 219
<br />
<br />How to say these strange words. 219
<br />
<br />Achiote. 219
<br />
<br />Añejo. 219
<br />
<br />Calabasita. 220
<br />
<br />Cazuela. 220
<br />
<br />Chilaquiles. 220
<br />
<br />Chipotle. 220
<br />
<br />Comal 220
<br />
<br />Cotija. 220
<br />
<br />Cuitlacoche. 220
<br />
<br />Enaguacateada. 220
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<br />Escabeche. 220
<br />
<br />Frijoles. 220
<br />
<br />Güero. 220
<br />
<br />Horchata. 220
<br />
<br />Jamaica. 221
<br />
<br />Jícama. 221
<br />
<br />Jitomates. 221
<br />
<br />Molcajete. 221
<br />
<br />Mole. 221
<br />
<br />Nopales. 221
<br />
<br />Oaxaca. 221
<br />
<br />Olla. 221
<br />
<br />Papaloquelite. 221
<br />
<br />Pasilla. 221
<br />
<br />Piloncillo. 221
<br />
<br />Piquín. 221
<br />
<br />Pozole. 221
<br />
<br />Quesillo. 221
<br />
<br />Rajas. 221
<br />
<br />Relleno. 222
<br />
<br />Tlalpeño. 222
<br />
<br />
<br />Stocks & soups
<br />
<br />
<br />Mexicans love soup. Restaurants often offer comidas corridas—multi-course meals—that begin with soup, usually either a standard caldo, or Yucatán-style, which is flavored with lime. You might see sopa de ajo, too, which is a garlic soup. They’re all simple, and fairly light.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />The best part, and the part that makes them look obviously Mexican, is the garnish—might be a splash of lime juice, a rain of cilantro, some diced avocado, maybe some rings of sliced chipotle. And, they like to use herbs in ways that can be, to the yankee palate, kind of surprising, like a sudden blast of mint or epazote.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Chicken or turkey stock
<br />There are a lot of Mexican soups that rely on excellent chicken stock. Quite a few of those also use poached chicken, so you can kill two chickens with one piedra and use the poaching water for the stock.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Lots of Mexican restaurants have chicken enchiladas, chicken quesadillas, etc., on the menu, but guess what—ain’t no chicken in them! They use turkey, which is a lot cheaper, and with all of the cheese and sauce and whatnot, the average person can’t tell the difference.
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<br />
<br />
<br />Fresh carcass and scraps from 1 chicken or turkey, or the carcass of a cooked chicken or turkey, or 1 chicken, skinned and cut up
<br />
<br />Mirepoix plus a leek, white and green parts
<br />
<br />5 or 6 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed a little
<br />
<br />bouquet garni
<br />
<br />about 3 qt water—enough to cover everything by an inch or so
<br />
<br />black peppercorns
<br />
<br />s TT
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Pretty much the same as your standard French stock, really.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Veg stocks
<br />Easy, and any of them is pretty much suitable for any soup, if you don’t happen to have chicken stock lying around. Garlic stock is probably the best replacement for chicken stock. The corncob stock is sweet, and it smells great, but it’s probably better suited to corn and summer veg soups. Anyway, you can’t go wrong.
<br />
<br />Veg stock
<br />½ gal water
<br />
<br />2 onions, quartered
<br />
<br />5 or 6 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
<br />
<br />2 carrots, sliced
<br />
<br />2 leeks, sliced, with some of the green part
<br />
<br />2 AP tatties, quartered
<br />
<br />1 tsp black peppercorns
<br />
<br />bouquet garni
<br />
<br />s TT
<br />
<br />Garlic stock
<br />2 heads of garlic, with the cloves separated and peeled
<br />
<br />½ gal water
<br />
<br />a little olive oil, if you want
<br />
<br />1 bay leaf
<br />
<br />2 thyme sprigs
<br />
<br />4 parsley sprigs
<br />
<br />a pinch of dried sage
<br />
<br />s TT
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Veg stock and garlic stock should simmer for an hour or two.
<br />
<br />Corncob stock
<br />6 uncooked corncobs, with the kernels off, broken into halves
<br />
<br />1 onion, rough chopped
<br />
<br />8 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed a little
<br />
<br />½ gal water
<br />
<br />s TT
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Takes about an hour. When you strain it, squeeze the cobs, to get all the juice out of them.
<br />
<br />Tortilla soup
<br />
<br />
<br />It’s pretty good with garlic stock, but much better and more authentic with chicken stock. Good stuff!
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />1 Tbsp oil
<br />
<br />½ white onion, minced
<br />
<br />2 clove garlic, minced
<br />
<br />about a lb of tomatoes, peeled and rough chopped
<br />
<br />1 ½ qt stock
<br />
<br />1 or 2 pasilla or guajillo chiles, toasted (guajillos are hotter)
<br />
<br />3 Tbsp cilantro, chopped, and some sprigs for garnish, if you want
<br />
<br />salt TT
<br />
<br />2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
<br />
<br />8 julienned corn tortillas, fried
<br />
<br />¼ c queso añejo, but Gruyère or Parm will do in a pinch
<br />
<br />2 wedged limes, for garnish
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Sweat the onion and garlic and then purée with the tomatoes, and put that through a china cap or something. Cook down the puree for eight or ten minutes (reducing and sometimes caramelizing veg sauces and salsas is a totally classic Mexican technique!). Add the stock and then let it barely simmer for half an hour. Or whatever.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Five minutes before you open, stir in the chiles (you can use any kind, really—all the chef has to do is moderate the heat factor). Let that rock for a few minutes, and then add the cilantro. Taste for seasoning, add the lime juice. For service, put some fried corn tortilla strips into a bowl, cover with soup, and garnish with cheese and lime wedges.
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<br />
<br />
<br />Other nice garnishes: sour cream, cilantro sprigs, jalapeño slices, whatever.
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<br />
<br />
<br />If you would like a richer soup, temper a couple of beaten eggs into the simmering stock.
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<br />
<br />
<br />Yucatecan lime soup
<br />The limes that they use on the Yucatán peninsula are Key limes—the flavor is somewhere between a Persian lime and a bitter orange (by the way, Mexican food, ideally, uses bitter Seville oranges). Some people say that Key limes are sweeter than Persian seedless, but I’m not convinced of that. You can use Persian limes if you like, or whatever; it’ll be good no matter what kind of lime you use. Actually, in the Yucatán, they let the slices of lime simmer, but I find that that makes for an unpleasantly bitter soup—I’d rather use the sliced limes as a garnish. As long as you have the ingredients on hand, of course, you can slap this soup together in nothing flat, and it’s damn good (this coming from a guy who hates limes!).
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />½ s/b chicken breast
<br />
<br />a couple of garlic cloves, minced
<br />
<br />1 ½ qt water, give or take
<br />
<br />a bit of Mexican oregano
<br />
<br />s & p TT
<br />
<br />oil
<br />
<br />about half a white onion
<br />
<br />1 very small mild chile, chopped
<br />
<br />½ lb or so of tomatoes, concassée
<br />
<br />juice from 1 lime (2 if they’re Key limes)
<br />
<br />¼ c cilantro, chopped
<br />
<br />8 julienned and fried corn tortillas
<br />
<br />thin sliced lime for garnish
<br />
<br />thin sliced jalapeño or serrano for garnish
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Bring the chicken and the garlic and the water to a simmer. Skim off the crap. Add the oregano, semi-cover it, and let it simmer for fifteen minutes or so—until the chicken is cooked thru. Pull the chicken out, let it cool, and shred it. Liven up the remaining broth with some s & p.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Sweat the onion with the chile. Add the tomato and a little salt. Reduce that a little and then glomp it into the broth. Taste it and tweak it and add it to the broth, which should be just barely simmering. Add the chicken and the lime juice, and let it go for a couple of minutes.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />For service, stir in the cilantro. Use the tortilla strips and the garnishes.
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<br />
<br />
<br />Chicken and potato soup with lime
<br />Sounds like a weird combination, doesn’t it? Well, if you’re interested in Mexican soups, you might as well get used to the flavor of limes.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />1 ½ qt stock (chicken, turkey, or veg)
<br />
<br />2 garlic cloves, minced
<br />
<br />4 waxy tatties, sliced
<br />
<br />1 c cooked & shredded chicken
<br />
<br />1 # fresh fava beans (these are optonal, but very nice)
<br />
<br />s & p TT
<br />
<br />¼ c fresh lime juice (again, Key or Persian lime)
<br />
<br />¼ c chopped cilantro
<br />
<br />4 corn tortillas, wedged and fried
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Simmer the stock, garlic, and tatties for about fifteen or twenty minutes (until the tatties are tender). Meanwhile, pop the fava beans out of their pods and drop them into boiling water for a minute. Shock them, and then shell them.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Add the chicken and the fava beans, just to heat them through, and then some s & p. Stir in the lime juice and cilantro.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Put the fried tortilla wedges in soup bowls, ladle the soup over them, and—presto!—you’re good to go.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />If you make it ahead of time, don’t add the chicken, fava beans, lime, and cilantro until service.
<br />
<br />Sopa de ajo
<br />Garlic soup with chile and tomatoes
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />2 guajillo chiles, toasted (toasting is pretty easy—pop the stems off and then cut and spread the chiles open. Press them with a spat onto a good-and-hot skillet, on both sides, until they’re blistery, which is just a matter of seconds)
<br />
<br />6 slices of bolillo
<br />
<br />7 big garlic cloves—cut one in half the long way, and smash and mince the rest
<br />
<br />1 qt plus 1 pt (= 48 oz = 6 c) chicken stock, although you can use veg stock or water if you must
<br />
<br />s & p TT
<br />
<br />1 sprig of rosemary
<br />
<br />2 eggs, beaten somewhat
<br />
<br />2 Tbsp chopped cilantro
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Crumble the chiles and set them somewhere out of your way. Incidentally, you certainly don’t have to use guajillos if you don’t want to. Pasillas are nice, and, of course, you can’t beat Hatch long greens.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Make crostini: toast the bread a bit, and then rub it with the halved garlic. Set the crostini aside, too.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Bring the stock to a boil, and add the smashed garlic, rosemary, and s & p. Let it simmer for fifteen minutes or so.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Temper the beaten eggs into the soup, and stir in the cilantro. Take it off the heat and tweak the seasoning as you see fit.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Ladle the soup over the crostini in each bowl, and garnish with a bit of chile.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />You can prepare the crostini and the chile well ahead of time, of course, and it won’t hurt the soup to let the garlic simmer in it for a while. But don’t add the egg until you’re ready to serve it up.
<br />
<br />Sopa tlalpeño
<br />Chicken and veg soup with lime and chiles I’ve seen a bazillion versions of this soup; this one is relatively light. If you can say the word “aTLAntic,” you can say the word “TLAlpeño,” so stop whining and get on with it. What are you—new?
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />1 b/s chicken breast
<br />
<br />2 qt water
<br />
<br />2 onions, one cut in quarters and the other diced
<br />
<br />4 cloves garlic, two crushed a little and the other two smashed and minced
<br />
<br />½ tsp Mexican oregano
<br />
<br />½ tsp thyme
<br />
<br />3 sprigs cilantro
<br />
<br />1 bay leaf
<br />
<br />2 c cooked chickpeas (canned is fine)
<br />
<br />1 carrot, diced
<br />
<br />1 zucchini or summer squash, diced (about a cup)
<br />
<br />2 Tbsp epazote
<br />
<br />s & p TT
<br />
<br />2 or 3 canned chipotles, julienned
<br />
<br />1 avocado, diced
<br />
<br />2 limes, wedged
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Bring the chicken, water, quartered onion, and lightly crushed garlic (not the minced garlic) to a simmer; skim off whatever crud accumulates on the surface. Add the herbs, and let that simmer until the chicken is cooked through. Take the chicken out and let it cool, and then bone it and shred it (if you cook the chicken a day ahead, salt it a little before you refrigerate it).
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Strain the broth and skim off whatever fat you can get at (at which you can get?). Add enough water to bring it up to ½ gallon.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Add the chickpeas, onion, minced garlic, carrot, squash, and epazote to the broth, and bring it to a simmer (by the way, you can use cilantro instead of epazote, if you must—the flavor won’t be quite as good. If you do use cilantro in place of epazote, don’t add it yet). Hit it with some s & p, and let it simmer for half an hour or so; until the veg are tender.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />For service, stir in the chipotles, chicken, and cilantro. Put some of the diced avo into each bowl, and ladle the soup over it; garnish with the lime. If you plan on having this soup as leftovers, I recommend not adding the chipotles until service. If they sit in the soup overnight, they’ll make it too hot.
<br />
<br />Quick chicken soup with tomato, mint, chile, and avocado
<br />Like a lot of soups, this one totally relies on the quality of the stock you begin with, so make sure that you’re not a slouch in that department. After that, it’s easier than pushing a cart downhill.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />½ gal chicken or garlic stock
<br />
<br />2 fresh mint sprigs
<br />
<br />1 white onion, chopped fine
<br />
<br />1 jalapeño, chopped fine, and—if you want less bite—seeded
<br />
<br />4 tomatoes, concassée
<br />
<br />½ c chopped cilantro
<br />
<br />1 avo, chopped fine
<br />
<br />2 limes, wedged, for garnish (totally optional, of course)
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Boil the stock, mint, onion, and chile for about five minutes. Add the tomatoes and cilantro. Turn the heat down, and let it simmer for another five minutes. Yoink it off the heat, and add some salt, if you think it needs it.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Spoon a little avo into each soup bowl, ladle the soup over that, and garnish it, if you want, with the lime wedges.
<br />
<br />Fava bean soup veracruzana
<br />“Veracruzana” just means “in the style of Veracruz.” Veracruz is one of Mexico’s states. Mostly they’re known for seafood (look at a map—Mexico has a huge amount of coastline, except along Chihuahua, which is my neck of the woods), but they have some non-seafood stuff which is good too, like this soup. In Mexico, you can get dried, skinless fava beans, but here in the Estados Unidos (US), you have to skin them yourself. Small price to pay, really.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />1 # dried fava beans, washed and picked through, soaked overnight in water to cover
<br />
<br />1 onion, chopped
<br />
<br />4 cloves garlic, minced
<br />
<br />2 tomatoes, concassée
<br />
<br />1 bunch mint, tied together
<br />
<br />½ gal chicken or garlic stock
<br />
<br />s TT
<br />
<br />2 guajillo chiles
<br />
<br />2 Tbsp oil
<br />
<br />mint chiffonade for garnish
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Blanch the beans in boiling water for about a minute. Shock them, and then slip the brown skins off (tedious as hell, but you have to do it). Drain the beans, and then simmer them with the onion, half of the garlic, the tomato, mint, and stock for about an hour.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Add the rest of the garlic and some salt, and let it simmer for another hour. The beans, by then, should be starting to fall apart. Use a big spoon or something to mash some of the beans—you want a semi-purée, with most of the beans busted up, but some of them still in one piece. Pluck out the tied-up mint, along with whatever stray leaves might have jumped ship. Have a taste, and then season it however you see fit.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Cut the tops off of the guajillos, shake the seeds out, and cut the chiles into thin rings. Fry the rings in half of the oil just until they’re crips; don’t let them burn. Should take not more than a minute. Let them drain on a rack.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Stir the rest of the oil into the soup, and serve it with a few rings of fried guajillo and mint chiffonade on top.
<br />
<br />Pinto bean soup with tomato and cumin
<br />The original version of this soup comes from the hills of Veracruz, around the little town of Xico. They make it with black beans, but I hate black beans, so I make it with pintos. You can see the Spanish influence by the presence of garlic croutons, which is not a common thing in Mexican soups.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />1 c pinto beans, washed, picked, and soaked overnight
<br />
<br />1 qt plus 1 pt (48 oz = 6 c) water
<br />
<br />1 onion, chopped
<br />
<br />4 cloves garlic
<br />
<br />s TT
<br />
<br />½ # tomatoes, peeled
<br />
<br />1 ½ tsp ground cumin, more or less, according to your taste
<br />
<br />1 Tbsp oil
<br />
<br />½ c sour cream (garnish)
<br />
<br />12 bolillo crostini, rubbed with garlic
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Drain the beans, and put them in the water with half of the onion. Boil that, skimming off any crud that appears, and then add two garlic cloves. Turn the heat down and let it simmer for about an hour. Add a little salt, and let it simmer until the beans are tender—anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour, depending on things which science has yet to explain.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Zap, in a blender or Robot-Coup or whatever, the tomato, the rest of the onion, the cumin, and the rest of the garlic.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Put the oil into a hot pan. Spoon in a wee drizzle of the zapped mix. If it sizzles (you might get lucky and hear that whistling laser beam sound), go ahead and glomp it all in. If it doesn’t, wait for it to get hotter. Cook it until it’s nice and thick; it should be starting to stick to the bottom of the pan. Stir in about a cup of the liquid from the beans, turn the heat down, and the let it simmer for about fifteen. It should be pleasantly thick, and it should smell good. If it doesn’t, you’ve done something wrong. Don’t blame me.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Stir in the beans.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Blend the beans (you’ll probably have to do it in batches) somehow—blender, Robot-Coup, Evinrude, softball bat, whatever. Don’t totally purée it; it should stay a little bit coarse. Put it back in the pot, heat it through, and taste it for seasoning—add more salt and/or cumin, if you like (beware of cumin as you beware of salt: a little too much is way too much, and there’s no easy way of undoing what you have overdone).
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Ladle it into bowls with a dollop of sour cream and the crostini (or croutons; whatever term you prefer).
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />That’s how they do it in Xico (with the aforesaid switch-a-roo of beans). Personally, I like it with a little jalapeño and bacon, too.
<br />
<br />Lentil soup with chipotles and optional plantain garnish
<br />I love lentils! Somehow, they benefit from the addition of smoked meat—ever wonder why they’re so often paired up with smoked sausage? Well, that’s why. Instead of smoked meat here, we’re using smoked jalapeños, i.e., chipotles, which are, themselves, nicely meaty. The plantains are a distinctly tropical touch, and Chihuahua is definitely not tropical—but people like to see shit like that on a menu. Use them or don’t; it’s up to you. PS—I do admit that I am seeing plantains for sale in more and more grocery stores around here (they sell them at WalMart, for God’s sake!), so maybe it’s safe to go ahead and add them and still claim loyalty to Chihuahua. I don’t know what chihuahuenses (residents of Chihuahua) do with them, exactly, but I’m very curious. One of these days, I’m going to stand by the plantain bin at WalMart with a clipboard, quizzing Mexicans about their produce intentions. Anyway:
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />1 c dry brown lentils (lentejas), washed and picked
<br />
<br />1 smallish onion (cebolla), chopped
<br />
<br />2 cloves garlic (ajo), minced
<br />
<br />1 bay leaf (laurel)
<br />
<br />1 tsp ground cumin (comino)
<br />
<br />1 qt plus 1 pt (= 48 oz = 6 c) water (agua, of course)
<br />
<br />s (s) TT (okay, sal)
<br />
<br />1 quite ripe plantain (I don’t know what they call plantains in Mexico, although I do know that they call bananas “plátanos”—a source of great confusion, I’m sure, for border-jumping novice cooks)—optional
<br />
<br />juice of ½ a Persian lime, or of a Key lime (limes are “limones”—more confusion, although lemons are practically unknown in Mexico)
<br />
<br />1 Tbsp oil (aceite)
<br />
<br />2 canned chipotles en adobo, sliced—you will probably want to rinse and seed them first
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Boil together the lentejas, cebolla, ajo, laurel, comino, y agua. Turn the heat down, and let it all simmer for about forty minutes. Add the sal, and let all that stuff simmer for another fifteen minutes (quince minutos), more or less (mas ó menos).
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Meanwhile, make up your mind about whether you want to use the plantain. Like I said, it is not a traditional Chihuahua ingredient, but, on the other hand, no one can fault you for being curious and wanting to try it. Either way, make a decision, stick to your guns, and forge ahead.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />If you do decide to try the plantain, proceed as follows: peel it and slice it, about one third of an inch thick. By the way, if, after peeling, you have some pinkish plantain flesh staring back up at you, peel that off, too. Put the slices, as they are sliced, into a bowl of water acidulated with the jugo de limones (lime juice). Heat the aceite up in a largish skillet. Drain and pat the plantain slices, and then fry them for two or three minutes on each side. Drain them on a rack, and then keep them warm somewhere.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Evinrude or blend or Robot-Coup half of the soup (just a coarse purée), and then turn it back into the pot with the rest of the soup. Give it a good stir, and then add the chipotles. Let it all heat through before you taste and tweak.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Ladle the soup into bowls, and garnish it with the fried plantains, if you have decided to go that route.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />If you plan on making this soup ahead of time, leave out the chipotles. Don’t add them until service.
<br />
<br />Camarones chilpachol
<br />Shrimp soup. This is more of a Veracruz dish than a Chihuahua dish (remember: Veracruz = seafood, Chihuahua = desert), but it’s still popular up in the northern desert. You can make a non-shellfish version by using potatoes, corn, squash, and chickpeas instead. Either way, this is a pretty fascinating soup.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />2 # roasted Roma tomatoes
<br />
<br />1 onion, halved and roasted
<br />
<br />4 cloves garlic, roasted
<br />
<br />1 jalapeño, roasted/toasted
<br />
<br />3 or 4 chipotles, roasted/toasted
<br />
<br />1 Mexican cinnamon stick (or ½ tsp ground), toasted (if you’re using stick, grind it after you toast it)
<br />
<br />6 black peppercorns, toasted
<br />
<br />¼ c masa
<br />
<br />2 Tbsp oil
<br />
<br />½ gal plus 1 pt (= 80 oz = 10 c) water
<br />
<br />s & p TT
<br />
<br />1 sprig epazote, chopped (or, in a pinch, ¼ c chopped cilantro)
<br />
<br />1 # p & d shrimp
<br />
<br />tostadas and lime wedges for garnish
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Zap the roasted/toasted veg in your blender or food processor, along with the cinnamon and peppercorns. Zap it until it’s nice and smooth, and then strain it into a bowl. Transfer it to a hot rondeau or something, and stir it around until it’s nappé. Reducing salsa this way is very, very common.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Add a cup of water to the masa, and stir it around to dissolve it. Add the rest of the water to the salsa in the rondeau, stir it up nicely, and then stir in the masa/water mix. Add a little salt, and then let it simmer for fifteen minutes or so.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />For service, bring it back up to a boil, and add the epazote (if you’re using cilantro instead, don’t add it yet) and the shrimp. Let that simmer for ten minutes. If you’re using cilantro, stir it in now. Done!
<br />
<br />Sopa de maiz
<br />Corn soup. This is one of many versions. Some are creamy, chowder-like, some have tomatoes and chiles added, etc. This one is fairly thin, but extremely rich with a nice sweet corn flavor and fragnance. Do make your own stock here—you really want its sweet, fresh flavor.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Stock
<br /> 1 onion, quartered
<br />
<br /> 3 leeks, just the white part, sliced
<br />
<br /> 3 carrots, sliced
<br />
<br /> 2 cloves garlic, crushed a little
<br />
<br />2 ears of corn, whacked into bits about 2” long (or you can just use the cobs left over from the soup, which I guess makes more sense)
<br />
<br />½ gal water
<br />
<br />s & p TT
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Soup
<br /> 1 Tbsp oil
<br />
<br /> 1 sweet, mild onion, chopped
<br />
<br /> kernels from five ears of corn
<br />
<br /> s & p TT
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Salsa garnish
<br /> 2 tomatoes, concassée
<br />
<br /> 1 jalapeño, chopped
<br />
<br /> 2 or 3 Tbsp chopped cilantro
<br />
<br /> kernels from ½ ear of corn, steamed tender
<br />
<br /> s & p TT
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Let the stock simmer for a couple of hours and then strain it.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Sweat the onion in the oil, and then add the corn with a little salt. Let it cook for just a couple of minutes, stirring, and then add the stock. Let that simmer for half an hour.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />While that’s working, stir together all the stuff for the salsa.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Zap the soup in a blender or with your Evinrude, and then strain it. Get as much pulp as you can, but leave the corn skins behind. Ladle it into bowls, and swirl a little salsa over the top.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />This soup does not hold well—a couple of hours, tops.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />If you ask me, corn should be the National Plant of Mexico.
<br />
<br />Corn, tomato, and Hatch green chile soup
<br />How New World can you get?! You need a good, punchy stock here. Given all the corn kernels that you need, it makes perfect sense to use corncob stock. The original of this recipe calls for poblano chile, but I would much rather use Hatch greens any day.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />1 Tbsp oil
<br />
<br />1 onion,chopped
<br />
<br />4 cloves garlic, minced
<br />
<br />all of the kernels from 6 ears of corn
<br />
<br />2 tomatoes, concassée
<br />
<br />s & p TT
<br />
<br />6 c (= 48 oz = 1 qt plus 1 pt) corncob stock, although chicken, veg, or garlic stock will do
<br />
<br />½ tsp dried Mexican oregano
<br />
<br />3 Hatch green chiles, roasted, peeled, and diced
<br />
<br />¼ c chopped cilantro
<br />
<br />2 limes, wedged (optional garnish)
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Sweat the onion, and then the garlic. Add the corn and tomatoes and about ½ tsp salt.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Cook it, stirring, for about five minutes; the corn should be slightly tender, and the soup should be smelling good. Stir in the stock and the oregano, and bring it back up to a simmer. Cover it, and let it go for another ten minutes. Stir in the chile, taste it, and adjust it as you see fit. Stir in the cilantro, and serve it up right away, passing the lime wedges around on the side.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />This soup holds nicely at room temp for several hours, but don’t add the chile or the cilantro until the last minute. Adding them too early screws up the balance.
<br />
<br />Corn and chile soup
<br />Once again, the original recipe calls for poblanos, and, once again, I say “Fuck that!”
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />1 Tbsp oil
<br />
<br />1 white onion, chopped
<br />
<br />2 cloves garlic, minced
<br />
<br />kernels from 6 ears, for the soup, and the kernels from 1 ear, for garnish
<br />
<br />s TT
<br />
<br />1 qt stock (chicken, veg, corncob, or garlic)
<br />
<br />2 Hatch greens, raosted and peeled, rough chopped
<br />
<br />¼ c chopped cilantro
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Sweat the onion, and then the garlic along with the onion, and then add the corn for the soup, along with about a half teaspoon of salt. Cook that, stirring occasionally, for about five minutes; the corn should be beginning to get tender. Add the stock and let it all simmer for fifteen minutes.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Steam the kernels for garnish until they’re tender—anywhere from five to eight minutes, depending on how old they are.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Add the chiles to the soup, and purée it all. Put it back on the heat, and taste it for seasoning. Heat it through, and serve it topped with a tablespoon or two of kernels and a sprig of cilantro.
<br />
<br />Yet another corn soup
<br />A great example of New World ingredients coming together.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />½ c lard
<br />
<br />1 c diced white onion
<br />
<br />½ c mild red pepper, diced
<br />
<br />½ c diced long green
<br />
<br />1 Tbsp minced garlic
<br />
<br />6 or 8 ears sweet corn, shucked and kernels stripped off (or, God forbid, about 4 c IQF)
<br />
<br />½ gal water
<br />
<br />1 # fingerling potatoes, peeled and medium diced (or you can use Yukon Gold)
<br />
<br />1 # calabaza squash, peeled and diced (or butternut or pumpkin)
<br />
<br />3 Tbsp tomato paste
<br />
<br />s & p TT
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Sweat he onion, chiles, and garlic in the lard. Add the corn for about ten minutes, and then the water, taters, and squash. Whisk in the tomato paste, and liven things up with a little s & p. Turn the heat down, and let simmer until the taters are done.
<br />
<br />Roasted yellow tomato soup
<br />Sensational! It all depends, obviously, on the quality of your tomatoes in the first place; don’t bother trying to make it unless you have good ones at your disposal. Best of all, it’s easy as can be.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />4 # roasted yellow tomatoes
<br />
<br />oil
<br />
<br />2 garlic cloves, minced
<br />
<br />s & p TT
<br />
<br />¼ tsp sugar
<br />
<br />splash of vodka
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Purée the tomatoes, and strain them. Rinse your blender with a little water, and strain that into the tomatoes. Sweat the garlic (a tiny amount of color is okay), and then add to that everything else, including the tomatoes. Let it simmer for about twenty minutes. It’ll darken a bit, and turn kind of orange. Don’t be alarmed by that. Add more salt, if you want (it takes a fair amount), and/or garlic.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Doesn’t really need a garnish, but if you feel like dolling it up, try diced tomatoes of a different color, cilantro, a swirl of salsa, and/or cheese.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />This soup is good cold, too.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />A nice variation: use red tomatoes, and garnish it with pumpkin seed-cilantro pesto (page 46).
<br />
<br />Late summer veg soup
<br />If you’ve ever done any vegetable gardening, you know that, toward the end of summer, there are certain crops you can’t even give away. This is when your neighbors leave bushel baskets of zucchini at your doorstep at five in the morning, ring the bell, and run away—or, they might just leave them in your car. So, you might as well make soup. Freeze it, and then pull it out in the dead of winter, when the dog-days of summer are a distant memory. People will love you, even your zucchini-abandoning neighbors. Bastards!
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />1 Tbsp oil
<br />
<br />1 white onion, chopped
<br />
<br />4 cloves garlic, minced
<br />
<br />kernels from 2 ears corn (white or yellow, or both)
<br />
<br />1 # new tatties, medium dice
<br />
<br />1 # zucchini, medium dice
<br />
<br />1 # yellow squash, medium dice
<br />
<br />1 # tomatoes, peeled and medium dice
<br />
<br />2 sprigs epazote (parsley is okay, I guess, if you don’t have epazote)
<br />
<br />6 c (= 48 oz = 1 qt plus 1 pt) chicken or veg stock
<br />
<br />s & p TT
<br />
<br />2 Hatch green chiles, roasted, peeled, and diced
<br />
<br />½ c queso fresco, crumbled (rinsed feta will come close), for garnish
<br />
<br />12 squash blossoms for garnish, if you can find them (in Mexico, they use pumpkin squash blossoms, but zucchini squash blossoms are just as nice—after all, it’s only a garnish
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Here we go again: sweat the onion, and then the garlic (every Mexican recipe seems to start this way). Add the kernels and let it cook for a few minutes. Add the tatties, squash, tomatoes, epazote, stock, and s & p, and simmer it all for about half an hour. By then, the veg ought to smell good and to be tender.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Stir in the diced Hatch, and simmer for another five minutes.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Taste for seasoning, and then ladle the soup into bowls and garnish them with a sprinkling of crumbled cheese and/or a squash blossom or two (depending on their size).
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />This one keeps nicely for half-a-week or so, but, as always, don’t add the chiles until shortly before service.
<br />
<br />Mexican gazpacho
<br />Spanish people sometimes get their silly spangled dancing tights into a twist on the subject of gazpacho, and which part of Spain makes the one-and-only authentic version (much like the French with bouillabaise). Funny thing is, they would never have had gazpacho at all, were it not for the humble American tomato (delivered to their doorsteps by an Italian gentleman named Columbus). Do they really think that they thought of making tomato soup before the Mexicans did? Ha! Guess again, Pablo. This soup is particularly beautiful if you can make with yellow tomatoes. In any case, it’s very easy—the hardest part is deciding on a color palette.
<br />
<br />Soup base
<br />4 thick slices of stale bolillo, with the crusts removed
<br />
<br />2 # ripe yellow or red tomatoes, peeled and quartered
<br />
<br />4 garlic cloves (or TT), peeled
<br />
<br />2 jalapeños (seeded for the cowardly)
<br />
<br />2 Tbsp red wine vinegar, or more TT
<br />
<br />2 c icy cold water
<br />
<br />¼ c chopped white or red onion, rinsed
<br />
<br />1 tsp crushed cumin seeds
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Garnish
<br />1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded, and minced
<br />
<br />1 red, yellow, orange, or green pepper, or a combination, brunois (the color depends on the color of tomato you are using—just make it pretty)
<br />
<br />2 or 3 green and/or red jalapeños, or TT
<br />
<br />¾ # tomatoes, diced
<br />
<br />¼ c chopped cilantro
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Soak the bread in water to cover until it’s soft—five or ten minutes. Squeeze the water out. Why not use soft bread to begin with? I don’t know. This is the way I was taught to make it, and I don’t argue or ask too many questions. I just take a lot of notes.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Blend the bread together with the rest of the soup ingredients until it’s all smooth. Check the seasoning, and then chill it for several hours.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Toss all of garnish stuff together (except for the cilantro). Ladle the soup into bowls, dash a little garnish mix over the soup, and then decorate it with the cilantro.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />It’ll keep about a day in the refrigerator.
<br />
<br />Casolete
<br />Elsewhere in this admirable document, I heave verbal brick-bats at purveryors and/or inventors of “Tex-Mex” food, which is neither Tex nor Mex. Some zit-faced doink at a Taco Bell in Phoenix got bored and dropped a burrito into the deep fryer, just to see what waould happen, and thus was born the “chimichanga,” which is the all-time bastard-child of “Mexican” food. There’s no such thing as “Phoeni-Mex,” so they went with the closest marketable thing: “Tex-Mex.” Bah!
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />“Chimichangas” don’t exist in Mexico, and, as far as I know, neither does anything known as “casolete,” which is a dish of my own invention (no, I never worked for Taco Bell in Phoenix). I have been eating casolete by the gallon lately, and patting myself on the back.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />If you happen to have cooked rice and cooked beans and cooked sausage and duck already ready, all you have to do is heat it through in some butter and then add stock. If you don’t happen to have that stuff ready to go, then you, my friend, have your work cut out for you.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />It isn’t hard, at all—in fact, it’s kind of like making chili. It has so many ingredients that you can safely leave one out (or use it to finish off something otherwise left over—veg trimmings and whatnot) and no one will be the wiser. That’s why I go ahead and soak the beans ahead of time: not an authentic Mexican procedure, but the dish is sufficiently complex that I guarantee no one will know the difference.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Anyway, I’ll shut up now and let the recipe speak for itself.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />1 # pintos
<br />
<br />½ g white stock
<br />
<br />8 oz smoked ham, large dice
<br />
<br />1 # AP tatties, large dice and steamed al dente
<br />
<br />bouquet garni
<br />
<br />½ c rice
<br />
<br />3 Hatch long greens, roasted, peeled, and diced
<br />
<br />1 # rabbit sausage
<br />
<br />6 oz diced onion
<br />
<br />½ oz chopped garlic
<br />
<br />1 ½ # pork butt, large dice
<br />
<br />s & p TT
<br />
<br />oil
<br />
<br />½ # mirepoix
<br />
<br />6 oz white wine
<br />
<br />1 # tomato concassée
<br />
<br />1 pt demi
<br />
<br />1 c brown stock
<br />
<br />1 medium sachet
<br />
<br />8 duck legs confit
<br />
<br />mayonesa de chipotle (page 36) and chopped fresh herbs for garnish
<br />
<br />Rabbit sausage
<br />Oil
<br />
<br />3 oz onion, chopped fine
<br />
<br />1 tsp minced garlic
<br />
<br />1 tsp chopped jalapeño
<br />
<br />½ # rabbit meat
<br />
<br />2 oz veal
<br />
<br />½ oz white wine vinegar
<br />
<br />¼ c water
<br />
<br />1/8 c chopped cilantro (stems are okay)
<br />
<br />¼ tsp white pepper
<br />
<br />¼ tsp chile powder (use good New Mexico powder, without additives)
<br />
<br />pinch ground cumin
<br />
<br />a wee splash of Liquid Smoke
<br />
<br />s & p TT
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Sweat the onion, garlic, and jalapeño, and then chill them really well.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Grind the rabbit and the veal in a cold meat grinder, first through the large die and then through the medium die. Put a metal bowl in an ice bath, and, in that, combine the meat, vinegar, water, and seasoning. Then add the sweated veg. Blend it all together, and then take a little bit of it and cook it. Check it for texture and flavor. For this recipe, stuff it into casings. Otherwise, you can shape it into patties and broil it or steam it and/or grill it.
<br />
<br />Duck legs confit
<br />8 duck legs
<br />
<br />4 Tbsp salt
<br />
<br />2 tsp cracked black pepper
<br />
<br />8 bay leaves
<br />
<br />12 sprigs thyme
<br />
<br />12 cloves garlic, crushed
<br />
<br />4 # melted goose or duck fat
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Rub the salt all over your legs. Put them skin-side down in a roasting pan (ideally, the pan should be just big enough to hold them all). Sprinkle your legs with the seasonings, and then refrigerate it all overnight.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Next day, bake your legs in a medium oven (325ºF-ish) for fifteen or twenty minutes, and then add enough melted fat to cover your legs.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Turn the heat down a little bit, cover the pan, and cook the legs until they’re quite tender—another two hours, give or take.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Take the legs out of the fat and put them into a 400 or 600 pan. Ladle the cooking fat over them, enough to cover. Try not to add any of the cooking juices—just the fat. Cover the pan and refrigerate it for a couple of days.
<br />
<br />Finishing the casolete
<br />Soak the beans overnight, and then cook them with the white stock, ham, and bouquet garni. Simmer it for about half an hour, and then add the sausage, onions, and garlic. Cook it until the beans are tender—add the rice and the Hatch greens during the last twenty minutes. Fish out the sausage.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Drain the beans, but save the liquid. Reduce the liquid by half, and add it back to the beans.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Hit the pork with some s & p and then braise it in a little oil. Take it out of the pan and put it somewhere out of your way. Put the mirepoix into the same pan and sweat it. Deglaze with the wine, concassée, demi, brown stock, and sachet. Put the pork back in, cover the pan, and let it all simmer until the pork is tender.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Take the meat out again, and throw out the sachet. Reduce the sauce until it’s thick, and then put the meat back in, along with the tatties.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />For service, deep-fry the duck legs until the skin is very crispy. Put some of the beans in a pasta bowl, and put a duck leg on top. Ladle some of the meat stew around the duck leg, and then slice the sausage and add it. Garnish the bowl with a squiggle or swirl of chipotle mayo and a rain of chopped herbs. If you’re feeling really carnivorous, you can add some cooked and crumbled chorizo, too.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Other nice garnishes include cilantro sprigs and/or crispy-fried, paper-thin potato slices (or even gaufrettes, I guess), and it is definitely good with garlic-buttered bolillo crostini, for sopping and mopping up all the left-behind juice. Also good with red wine, as long as it isn’t too tannic. Serve it with a simple salad, finish up with a grapefruit or coffee granita, some little almond cookies and a thimble of bone-dry Taylor-Fladgate Sherry, and you have just made your mark on the culinary world.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />George Washington is known for having had wooden teeth, Ben Franklin for audaciously flying a kite in a thunderstorm, Thomas Jefferson for having smuggled the recipe for vanilla ice cream in from France. If anything ever puts me on the map, it’ll be casolete. Actually, when I finally meet the gal I’m gonna marry, I’ll cook casolete for her, and she will find me irresistible.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Rabbit sausage flavored with jalapeño and cilantro, now that I think of it, smells just like barbecue sauce, which makes me think that this dish would be even better with a garnish of a few onion rings (made with Texas 1015 onions) Spear them on the boney end of the duck leg, and run a cilantro sprig down through that. Hot damn!
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Not authentically Mexican, but too good to ignore. Some day, my casolete will be on menus from coast to coast, maybe even worldwide, and you, my good friend, are lucky enough to be the first to hear about it.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />PS—I have determined, recently, that potatoes are an excellent addition. I hereby decree that tatties are a necessary component to True Real Casolete, and I am in a position to say so, because I invented it. So there.
<br />
<br />Pinto, pesto, and neep soup
<br />“Neep” is Scottish for “turnip.” But don’t let that mislead you; this is a good Mexican dish, even if it isn’t all that common or popular. Pintos and turnip greens go together like bop-sha-bop and ramma-lamma-ding-dong.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Soup
<br />2 c cooked pintos
<br />
<br />olive oil
<br />
<br />1 ½ c mirepoix
<br />
<br />1 bunch turnip greens
<br />
<br />2 cloves garlic, minced
<br />
<br />s & p TT
<br />
<br />2 roma tomatoes concassée
<br />
<br />1 qt chicken stock
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Pesto garnish
<br /> 6 Tbsp basil, rough chopped
<br />
<br /> 2 Tbsp cilantro
<br />
<br /> 2 tsp salt
<br />
<br /> 2 Tbsp queso añejo (pretty much interchangeable with Parm)
<br />
<br /> 1 Tbsp toasted pumpkinseeds
<br />
<br /> 1 garlic clove
<br />
<br /> 5 Tbsp fruity olive oil
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Sweat the mirepoix. While that’s working, pick and wash the greens. Get rid of whatever tough stems are in there, and then chiffonade. Add the greens, the garlic, and a bit of salt to the mirepoix, and cook all that until the greens are nice and tender. Take it off the heat.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Add the beans, tomatoes, and stock, and let that simmer long enough to get happy—25 minutes should do it. Tweak the seasoning.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Make the pesto: zap everything together.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Swirl or drizzle a bit of pesto over each serving.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />It’s fine just like that, but I admit: it’s no fun to look at. You might want to make it prettier, with a dribble of sour cream (thinned with heavy cream), a red pepper brunoise, a cilantro sprig, julienned and fried corn tortillas, etc.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Kale-tattie soup with chorizo
<br />Damn good, and drop-dead easy. I love this soup.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />1 # kale
<br />
<br />1 white onion, fine dice
<br />
<br />olive oil
<br />
<br />2 garlic cloves, minced
<br />
<br />1 # yellow or red tatties (Yukon Gold are ideal, but any tattie will do, as long as it isn’t too starchy)
<br />
<br />s & p TT
<br />
<br />1 ½ qt chicken stock
<br />
<br />½ # chorizo
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Wash the bejeebies out of the kale, and pick off the tough stems. Sweat the onion, and then the garlic. Add the kale, tatties, stock, and a little salt. Let that simmer until the kale is tender and the tatties are commencing to disintegrate. Kale takes a while, so go walk the dog for an hour.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Fry the chorizo, drain it, and add it to the soup. Let that simmer for ten or fifteen minutes, hit it with some s & p, and you’re done.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Sweet tater cazuela
<br />Very tasty, easy to make, and cheap. Who could ask for more?
<br />
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<br />4 slices bacon (“tocino”), chopped
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<br />½ c white onion, chopped
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<br />½ c Hatch long green, roasted, peeled, and en rajas
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<br />2 cloves garlic, minced
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<br />3 c chicken stock
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<br />1 can (15 oz) diced sweet potatoes, drained
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<br />1 large baker, peeled and diced
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<br />1 can (14 ½ oz) stewed tomatoes
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<br />2 c milk
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<br />1 tsp spice mix (black pepper, cinnamon, clove, coriander, and cumin)
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<br />¼ tsp black pepper
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<br />Render the bacon. Sweat the onion, chile, and garlic. Add the stock. Purée the sweet potatoes, and whisk them into the soup. Stir in the baker and the canned tomatoes. Cover it, and let it simmer for about 45 minutes, until the taters are nice and tender. Whisk in the milk, the spice mix, and the black pepper. Make sure it’s all heated through, but don’t let it boil.
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<br />Punkin-tattie soup
<br />Notice, if you haven’t already, the heavy preponderance of New World ingredients in these!
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<br />2 Tbsp oil, and also 1 Tbsp oil, separate
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<br />1 white onion, chopped
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<br />2 cloves garlic, minced
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<br />2 medium-sized tatties, peeled and diced
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<br />½ tsp good pure chile powder
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<br />½ tsp ground cumin
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<br />1 qt plus 1 pt (= 48 oz = 6 c) chicken stock, or veg stock if you’re feeding vegetarians
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<br />¼ c chopped cilantro
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<br />1 jalapeño, minced
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<br />1 c solid-packed canned punkin
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<br />¼ c half-and-half, heated
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<br />cilantro sprigs for garnish
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<br />Sweat the onion and then the garlic in the two tablespoons of oil. Add the tatties, chile powder, and cumin, and let that sauté for about five minutes. Add the stock, and let it all cook until the tatties are done—about fifteen minutes. Zap that in your zapper (or with your Evinrude), along with the jalapeño and the cilantro. Separately, mix together the punkin, half-and-half, and the remaining tablespoon of oil. Mix it up well. Ladle the tattie soup into bowls, and swirl the punkin mix into it.
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<br />Pinto bean soup
<br />As it is, this recipe makes for a vegan soup, but you are more than welcome to add bacon or chorizo to it. If you do, you wind up with something an awful lot like “rancho beans,” which are just soupy pintos as a side dish. If you splash a little beer into it, you have “borracho beans” (“drunken beans”). All three are very, very good. And good for you!
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<br />1 # pintos, soaked overnight
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<br />5 qt veg stock or water
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<br />a sachet of 2 bay leaves (“laurel”), ½ tsp dried thyme, and ten cracked peppercorns
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<br />oil
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<br />½ c diced white onion
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<br />2 minced garlic cloves
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<br />1 oz diced roasted & peeled Hatch long green
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<br />1 Tbsp minced jalapeño
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<br />1 tsp ground cumin
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<br />1 tsp ground coriander
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<br />1 tsp dried Mexican oregano
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<br />s & p TT
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<br />key lime wedges and cilantro sprigs (or chopped cilantro) for garnish
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<br />Bring the beans to a simmer in the stock (or water). Toss in the sachet. Lightly sauté the onion, garlic, and chiles, and add them to the stock. Stir in the spices. Let it simmer, without a cover, for two or three hours. The beans should be very soft, and just beginning to fall apart. Add more stock/water if and when you need to. Purée about half of it, and then add it back. S & p TT. Garnish the soup bowls with the lime wedges and the cilantro.
<br />On the subject of cats
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<br />It’s usually pretty easy to define folks as either “cat people” or “dog people.” I’m happy to say that I can swing either way, so to speak—I love dogs, but I get along with cats, too. As an apartment dweller, cats are more my speed. I’ve had the same lovable goofball tomcat brawler for seventeen years.
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<br />One of the less satisfactory points about owning a cat is their insatiable and sadistic knack for acting all predatory. Any cat worth its salt will catch, kill, and tear to pieces a roster of victims which makes Charles Manson look like Shirley Temple. For the owner of one of these engines of destruction, finding the hindquarters of a mouse on the kitchen counter (on the cutting board, no less), a little more by the bathroom door, and the rest in the living room, is a pretty bum way to start the day. It’s enough to make you take up ferrets. Fortunately, with cats, as with a lot of other things, age seems to change things.
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<br />In the middle of the night (okay, ten in the morning), I’m awakened to the unmistakable sound of my cat having caught a mouse: a long, piercing meeeee-orwl-ow-ow-ow. It has an odd, guttural or muffled tone, like you trying to yodel with a mouth full of hot peas. Then there is a scurrying and a patter of paw-falls, followed by the same mee-orwl-ow-ow-ow: the near approach of one mouse’s ugly demise.
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<br />And yet the morning has nothing to show but peace and calm. There’s my cat, asleep in my chair. There’s the mouse—last night’s prey—very much alive, watching from underneath the stove. When I step into the kitchen, he disappears, shimmying along the crack between the stove and the cabinets, fit as a fiddle and ready for love.
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<br />What’s going on here? Catch-and-release mousing, that’s what—sort of a feline dry-fly refinement, in which all the joy is in the style and finesse of pursuit. It’s a mature and humane sport, reflective and bloodless. This cat is seventeen years old, after all. In his slashing, hissing, alleycat days, that wee rodent would be a goner—now, however, he is a philosopher.
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<br />Everything here is copyright John H Russell 2002. So there.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3996561-85477163?l=micocina.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16026014644204662135noreply@blogger.com