EatNopales

Rick Bayless has written something to the effect that Soup is the most important course in a Mexican meal, and that in every kitchen in Mexico there is always a whole chicken boiling in a pot. Of course he is exaggerating to make a point but Mexicans adore soup and have it almost everyday at one meal or another... which brings me to a discussion point of "Authentic" Mexican restaurants in the U.S... what they serve, how they plate and their course progressions are generally not representative of what restaurants in Mexico do, they are not representative of what people in Mexico do in their homes, and not representative of what U.S. Mexicans cook at home. I will discuss these discrepancies more as the week progresses. U.S. Mexican restaurants tend to follow a pattern adopted in 1950's when El Torito & Taco Bell, two Southern California chains owned by non-Mexicans, popularized Mexican cuisine. Ignoring their ingredient missteps & inability to season & prepare the food authentically... in their effort to present Mexican food in the format of the "traditional proper American meal" (while keeping food costs down) they latched on to the concept of serving a large plate with a main dish occupying half the plate then two to three sides... so a template of Meatloaf flanked by Mashed Potatoes & Steamed Vegetables became Beef Chunks in Chile Colorado flanked by Rice, Beans (and then later the addition of Chips & Salsa, Pico de Gallo, Guacamole, Sour Cream, Lettuce etc.,)... as "Authentic" Mexican restaurants have became popular they have adopted this caloric dense format which crowds out any possibility of a substantial soup. In contrast one of the more common course progressions in Mexico (particularly among indigenous communities) is to start with a filling masa based Anotojito & follow that with a large, but low calorie, soup. A variation on that is to serve the Soup at the same time as the Antojito. And I should note that most Antojitos served with soup are of the sturdy / crunch griddled or fried variety not soft like Tamales for example... the duality of liquidy & crunchy is much respected if not codified in books. One of the most popular & prevalent soups in Mexico is the Sopa de Milpa (Cornfield Soup)... although other names like Sopa de Guias, Sopa de Quelite, Sopa de Elote, Sopa de Verduras is used.. but basically you take whatever is growing in the Milpa (Corn, Tomatoes + any combination of Zucchini, Squash / Pumpkins, Blossoms, Green Beans, Wild Greens & Herbs, Chiles & other aromatics)... if you have Chicken stock you can use that.. but it is also very delicious & common to make it vegan. Sopa de Milpa was basically a pantry item at our house, and my parents would riff by adding Brocoli, Bean Sprouts, Napa Cabbage or whatever else was cheap & tasty at our neighborhoods stores. My parents choice Antojito is Quesadillas stuffed with Cabbage Escabeche & Roasted Tomatillo-Arbol Chile sauce (I use Sambal Oelek as a substitution when I don't have time to make salsa) The two sided quesadilla is given the fancy name Sincronizada (Synchronized Ones) and they have a somewhat interesting story. My mom grew up making tortillas by hand everyday... soaking the dried corn over night, waking up to grind it with a hand cranked molino, patting the tortillas by hand & cooking over cast iron comal over mezquite fire. But, the reality is that few people in Mexico hand make tortilas on a regular basis. Now people go to the Tortillerias which generally make something fairly close to hand made (far superior to what we get at the supermarket here)... they are made & sold earlier in the day, with no preservatives so by afternoon they are too stale to fold for quesadillas without rupturing so entrepreneurs making the best of what they have invented the sincronizada. Directions for Sopa de Milpa 1) Score & briefly boil tomatoes, peel & puree 2) Simmer the Corn with Tomato Puree & Salted Water or Stock (the flavor of Corn Cobs is enough to make a fragrant & tasty stock) 3) After about 20 minutes of simmering start adding your other vegetables respecting their cooking time so you get an Al Dente texture. Add the Pumpkin Blossoms and particularly delicate Greens at the bowl so they barely wilt a bit.

As usual, EatNopales, I learn something new almost every time you post. I'm looking forward to seeing how you integate these traditions with your daily cooking, especially with kids. Thanks for blogging! Here is what I made for the girls' lunch today.. Poached Eggs over Trader Joe's cracked wheat sourdough toast all mixed up is one of their favorite meals & a great way to get protein & fiber into a picky kids. Ingredients for the Adult Lunch:

Directions: 1) Boil Cinnamon Sticks for 5 minutes - 2 sticks for every finished cup of hot beverage - this should reduce in half. 2) Add Dark Chocolate - I use 100 calories of 72% chocolate for every finished cup (which is 8 gms of fat and is the key for translating between different levels of purity) 3) Add your sugar of choice - I use 1 tablespoon for every finished cup 4) Bring it all to boil, whisking rapidly until the chocolate has melted into a silk 5) Add Fresh Ground Masa (by far the superior choice) or 1 Tbspoon Masa Harina per Finished Cup that has been diluted with 1/4 cold water per Finished cup, bring to a boil then let it simmer until it is thick enough to coat a wooden spoon 6) You can have it dark or remove it from the heat to add some Milk of your choice (including Corn Milk)

Ingredients for breakfast this overcast, crisp morning: I cannot overstate the importance of Atole (corn masa based drinkable gruel with infinite variety) in Mexican civilization. It is literally what the fuel behind the country's farming & enterprises for thousands of years. A stick to the bones, body warming, caloric meal that you can have on the move while you get that early jump on farming or modern day labors. Those that haven't traveled into the heart of Mexico very much probably think of it as either a hot arid desert or hot humid tropical beach. But most of the country, its population today, and its cumulative population throughout its history has lived on the central highland plateaus formed by two major mountain chains that run up & down its coasts.... even at tropical latitudes mornings tend to be chilly when you are 7,000 feet above sea level. And although Mexico is a much warmer place than it was 200 years ago (chronicles from the 19th century mention that the volcanoes ringing Mexico City were perpetually snow capped except for a few weeks in the spring... today its the opposite the snow cap has been reduced to very short season in the winter).... in the winter months if you leave a bucket of water out at night, you will have ice in the morning.

As other parents know, having young kids can put quite the damper on your culinary achievements.. right now we are in a very picky phase, and they have a small number of dishes & foods they will actually eat consistently. After taking them to the redwood forest for a hike and a little drive around the Sonoma Coast we got back home in time to prepare one of their easy favorites. Pan Fried (thin & fast cooking) Pork Chops; Rice Pilaf from a box (Near East brand nice short, all natural ingredient list); Steamed local Broccoli (although sometimes it takes more work to not buy local when you are so close to the Ag centers of California), homemade Escabeche of organic Carrots, shredded conventional cabbage & onions. Escabeche is very important to my cooking. Where my parents are from there is always some vegetables in Escabeche sitting in a clay pot... Cauliflower, Zucchini, Broccoli, Carrots, Jalapenos, Potatoes, Nopales, Green Beans.. whatever is in the garden can usually be prepared quite tastily as an Escabeche. Instructions... Sautee sliced onions & carrots with some good pinches of Salt, Oregano, Black Pepper, Coriander + Thyme, Marjoram & Allspice. Remove the onions when they are a bit translucent... keep sauteeing the carrots until they are Al Dente. Add the cabbage & garlic & sautee for 30 seconds or so. Finally deglaze the pan with a solution of (1/4 Vinegar 5% acidity, 3/4 Water + Salt)... then pour over your vegetables in a non-reactive, covered container & refrigerate. Within 4 hours they should be good to eat... they keep improving and peak after a couple of days. For dessert: Some Fage blended with Mexican Vanilla & Condensed Milk, organic local Strawberries & some of the homemade chocolate sauce. Those who have a Mexican Fruiteria near by probably already know that Strawberries & Cream or Jocoque is a food group when in season.. as well as the more baroque Escamochas & Bionicos. This is a combination of the two. Simple tasty, quick dessert based on fruit.

Your pancakes are beautiful, and your toppings compelling. Congrats on making them all your own

Thanks.... yeah my wife picked that out (she has a Master's in Nutritional Sciences and counsels people with Eating Disorders so it is a very meaningful statement for her). Rick Bayless has been a pioneer in promoting Mexican cuisine north of the border and one of its most successful advocates. I have to admit his personality is a little strange and his show is kind of hard to watch (besides I end up watching cooking shows straight from Mexico on Once TV & Canal 22 where I get a deep sense of what is actually going on there as the country rediscovers & redefines itself). On the other hand... Mexican Kitchen is a GREAT cookbook in my opinion. He really gets Mexican cuisine, something that I think most food personalities in the U.S. don't. In many ways Mexican is philosophically the polar opposite of French. France had a history of very simple cooking... the some messianic chefs like Escofier came around and dictated to people how they should cook, with very specific recipes & terminology... very much a top-down pyramid. Mexico on the other hand is a great cuisine built by many common cooks over 8,000 years there is no exact agreement on what anything should be. Cooking is taught by example and rarely with recipes.. when your grandma teaches you a dish and she puts in a handful of herbs and you ask which & how much of each... she gives you a look like you are a silly bunny and tells you to make it your own. In Mexican Kitchen he tells how to make some foundational pastes & sauces... and how you can turn that into a variety of dishes, and how you can riff upon that based on what you have. That is EXACTLY the spirit behind Mexican cooking. As a contrasting example, our tendency in the states is to define the definitive version of something.. the Martinez cocktail 1 part gin or 2 parts? Well why a definitive? The genius is the magical combination of 3 or 4 flavors.. and they can be combined in many interesting ways along a continuum... we are all slightly different tasters and our ingredients vary... so yes Bayless has done a lot of good by trying to transmit these concepts in his shows & book.

Looks beautiful! Regarding the Amaranth... I wonder if yours was pre-toasted, or par boiled in any way.. or a different varietal? So how would you describe their flavor?

Thanks! Well they are nutty, butter & have (what I describe as) popcorn like flavor. As I mentioned people in Mexico are just starting to rediscover Amaranth and trying to redevelop some recipes. I recently made Amaranth griddled cakes based on Spanish descriptions of Amaranth Tortillas & "sour, very sour tortillas" and researching how Amaranth is prepared in the mountain villages of Tlaxcala (a place that never abandoned Amaranth cultivation & prep)... all indications was to make a porridge, add some eggs & tequesquite (a mineral salt with rising properties extracted from Texcoco lagoon)... the amazing thing was the even after cooking the porridge (1 part amaranth, 2 to 2.5 x water, bring to a boil then simmer for 20 to 25 minutes) it quickly starts developing a yeasty film & starts to sour a bit... so back to "sour, very sour tortillas" I hypothesize that the Amaranth tortillas described by the Spanish were a lot like the Ethiopian injera. But back to your question.. the porridge tastes even more like buttered popcorn (with hints of green corn husk) than the finished cake. http://egullet.org/p1833995

Note... as to the use of Pecorino-Romano... it is not well known, nor obvious but Italian immigrants have been vital to contemporary Mexican cuisine. Those of you who are familiar with Cotija cheese will have heard it describe as the Parmesan of Mexico... actually it is the Montasio of Mexico... it is no coincidence that the town of Cotija in Michoacan is a very close to the town Nueva Italia, founded by Veneto immigrants who made a living selling their regional cheeses at the largest towns surrounding their community. Perhaps, Mexican cheesemakers have made Cotija their own.. but the thread tying Mexican cheeses to Italy I think justifies using Italian surrogates whenever quality (i.e., not Cacique or El Mexicano) Cotija is not readily available.

Our homegrown fried Green Tomatoes crusted with Huatli (Amaranth seed) & grated Pecorino Romano, served over warm Quinoa tossed in Ponzu, poached Cage Free egg, roasted Poblano-Oregano Indio-Fage salsa, cherry tomatoe's from a friend's garden. As you may know Amarant is one of Mexico's ancient grains, native the area around Mexico City it was a VERY important food for the Aztecs & other Mexica (Meh-she-kah) peoples. According to the Spanish chronicler Bernal Diaz del Castillo.. the Aztecs popped the Amaranth & combined with Red Prickly Pear syrup into a sort of ancient Rice Krispy treat fashioned into sculptures of Huitzilopotchli (the Mexica war god) on the religious days devoted to that deity. Amaranth was banned from Mexico and pursued during the Inquisition due to its religious connotations. Nonetheless, it survived and contemporary Mexicans are very much interested in rescuing & reconstructing foods based on Spanish descriptions. While I have never heard of Fried Green Tomatoes in Mexico... Mexicans use the technique of egg washing, breading, frying etc., on a huge range of vegetables. Of course everybody is familiar with the cliched Chile Rellenos but people in Mexico do the same technique with Round Zucchini, Cauliflower, Huazontle, Chard & many more. As to Quinoa... it recently has become a part of my diet, I will explain more on another post. And Ponzu is one of those things like Lime Juice & Escabeche juice that can improve almost any dish. And the Poached Egg... I kind of chuckle when Fried Quail Eggs or Poached Eggs get trendy and put on everything and then the food bourgeoisie raves about it like its some modern invention. As far as I can tell cultures all over the planet have been doing so for centuries. In Mexico.. adding a fried or poached (ahogado) egg on something is very common.. you will often so the word Montado(a) (mounted) added to the dish name... for example Milanesa Montada would be a paper thin, lean steak cooked Milanese style (eggwash, breadcrumbs, pan fry etc.,) topped with a poached or fried egg. Another phrase sometimes used is "a lo Pobre" (in the poor person's style) for example a Filete a lo Pobre is a kind of Mexican country fried steak (sometimes called Tortitas de Carne or Tortitas de Picadillo) topped with an egg. As to the Roasted Poblano-Fage sauce... if you clicked on the Jocoque link you will have noted images of chile based sauces thickened with Jocoque. Why use Fage instead of Jocoque? When Fage started showing up at stores in L.A., the only Jocoques I could find readily were the Cacique brand which I dislike because it has stabilizers in it.. so the first time I tried Fage (not really knowing what it was)... it was love at first sight, and our family has become brand loyal now even though I can get decent Jocoque at our local Mexican market (which I will report on later).

Beautiful story Heidi. I think for me it was more than just the effort foraging.. but with the intensely anti Mexican immigrant environment (the third generation Mexican-Americans who were then the majority in East L.A. were the worst of the Anti-Mexican bigots... part of the meme on Cheech Marin's Born in East L.A.) and the very real INS raids etc., something in my subconscious was well as subconscious as pimply faced junior high school kid at the first dance. BTW... you are right they are tomatoes, here is another hint:

Hint of Today's Lunch:

As I mentioned in the intro post, my parents grew up making Jocoque from their own fresh milk.. there several types of Jocoque from Fresco (Fresh) to Seco ("Dry") categorized according to their density it can be thin & soupy (particularly when its still warm), medium density is essential Fage... and then "Dry" is like the Labanese Lebneh. A quick Google Image Search gives you an idea of what Mexicans (and other Latinos) do with Jocoque (savory & sweet applications): http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1600&bih=799&q=jocoque&gbv=2&oq=jocoque&aq=f&aqi=g2&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=1880l3362l0l3599l7l7l0l2l2l0l147l552l2.3l5l0 My parents use it extensively.. as a stuffing for tacos, topping for pasta & chilaquiles, soup thickener, salsa thickener... and they blend with Almibar (thick fruit based syrups) to make homemade fruity Yogurt. In fact, my parents never bought flavored yogurt when I was growing up.... always plain. One of the reasons their Licuados business was so successful was their fresh fruit flavored "Cremas de" (a Mexican term that includes Mousse and any thick, creamy sweet dessert) based on a Fage density Jocoque & overripe fruits* Their stall was in a traditional mercado which had a gazillion fruit competitors & no refrigeration... after 2 PM all the mature fruit was put on clearance to make room for next day's shipment... and that is when my parents would shop to make their almibars of whatever was intoxicatingly sweet & cheap. Fast forward to my modern Sonoma County wine country suburbs lifestyle, Fage is basically a food group in our omnivore but veggie heavy household (I shoot to eat animal flesh only 1 meal every two days that is how I feel my best, and is consistent with how people in Mexico have eaten for the last 8,000 years... my wife who is of Northern European ancestry tends to feel better if she eats lean proteins a bit more frequently with less reliance on grains & legumes... so we negotiate a bit, although we both eat lots of dairy... and btw she does more of the cooking than I do. So Fage is a staple... and so is homemade Chocolate sauce As a result my 4 year old daughter & wife's favorite breakfast is Chocolate Fage Whearas my 2 year old prefers her Fage with Cajeta (Goat Milk Dulce de Leche that is famously made in Celaya, Guanajuato)... my parents region also made Cow milk Cajeta so it was something that was always in our pantry. Oh yeah.. some Chocolate flavored Mini Shredded Wheats thrown in for some crunch & fiber. Well I hate to disappoint but my typical weekday breakfast is cereal, coffee & a banana.. weekends are a different story but unless I post something different that is what I had for breakfast. As you can see from the picture we are regular Trader Joe's shoppers. Now I know most foodies like tearing Trader Joe's apart... but remember how my parents always shop for the least expensive among high quality items? Well that is TJ's to me, a place to purchase cereals, snacks, breads, flour, olive oil, organic milk, eggs & cheese etc. that is almost always made with all natural ingredients, often organic, at prices that are below the crappy super market packaged food prices. I do get the criticism, we tend to shop elsewhere for produce, meat, seafood etc., but we are proud to be regular Trader Joe's shoppers.

Anyone care to dispute his methods or results? Some major problems with his methodology.... 1) He should have a control group of people who are not Coke drinkers. People tend to prefer what is sensory familiar to them, albeit marketing, packaging & other factors can change this. What his experiment may have proven is that people used to HFCS Coke prefer that absent other cues. It also doesn't take to account how palettes grow over time. An American teenager might prefer an Oscar Meyer wiener over Parisian style chunky Pate... but perhaps in a decade of learning & growing that preference might flip around. A missing element of the study is to track the same people over time after being exposed to both types of coke. 2) As any pretentious wine drinker would assert... the drinking vessel makes a difference... the glass bottle may not just be a visual cue it might provide a different aroma hence flavor. 3) What bottler did the Mexican coke come from? There are notorious differences in carbonation & sweetness between the two major bottlers & the regional guys. One thing I have always prefered about coca cola bottled in coast Mexican states (for example Arca found in Veracruz) is that is intensely carbonated, and a bit less sweet than most coke. Whereas I am not a fan of coke bottled by FEMSA

Thanks everybody.... I hope I didn't over hype myself Let me start you with my working conditions (I must admit my overlords have been good to me) Our gardens (we recently went through a bumper crop of Zucchinis and some Persian Cukes, Lemon Cukes, Snap Peas, Kale, Red Leaf Lettuce, Delicata Squash and a few other things). A bit of advice to parents with young kids... train your kids that all food is poisonous unless adults pick them & perform a magical incantation... I say this because we never got to harvest any Snap Peas for a meal... my 4 1/2 year old would spot the little pods as soon as they were a few inches long, pick out the peas & then give the shell to the 2 year old to munch on. Similarly the 2 year old flocks to a ripe tomato like a little magnet... on a recent day she had upwards of 5 tomatoes... you think that is adorable? You be the one changing the diapers. And now my cookbooks & magazines

SobaAddict.... tough act to follow. Since I am not a particularly prolific Egullet poster, although I think the length of my posts might have some notoriety, I am going to start with an intro that should give you some perspective on my food background & style. My parents were born & raised in the municipality Union de San Antonio which lies in Los Altos de Jalisco (the Highland region of Jalisco state which is one of Mexico's foremost dairy capitals)... where they grew, raised, hunted, caught & prepared from scratch almost everything they ate from Corn Tortillas to Cheese, Jocoque (similar to Greek or Lebanese Yogurt), and freshly butchered proteins. Read more about the culinary traditions of my parents' hometowns at: As most probably know, Mexico was site of the first national scale adoption of "The Green Revolution" where subsidized petrochemical based farming created massive gluts of food & encouraged one of the world's great mass migrations from farms to big cities. In 1960 my dad's family became part of that exodus landing in Naucalpan, a sparsely populated rural farming area 15 miles north west of Mexico City's historic center. For 10 years, my dad (as the oldest male sibling in the family) built a dairy business that grew to 200 head of cattle & 2 trucks to distribute the milk that my dad, three brothers & Abuelo milked by hand everyday. By 1970 Naucalpan was a densely populated, caotic industrial suburb with running water, paved streets & electricity; my dad's family sold the dairy business and got into grocery retail. That same year my mom moved to Mexico City for allergy treatments where she lived near the Centro Historic with her grand uncle Jose & his wife Lola - a native of the Mexico City area who grew up speaking Nahautl (the language of the Aztecs) as her primary language... remember her she was instrumental in my growing culinary interest. A few years later my parents met in one of many get togethers of people from Union de San Antonio [most migrants to Mexico City formed very strong bonds with people from their hometowns with the same degree of "nationalism" & ethnic pride you might see among Russian, Sicilian or Polish immigrants in New York City etc., ]. A few years later they married, had me & opened up a Puesto de Licuados a market stall selling Licuados [Mex style Smoothies], Aguad Frescas, Fresh Cut Fruit, Eskimales (Milk Shakes) and in the cold months the Mexico City tradition of raw eggs with a Xerez shooter (Mexican Sherry Wine). Success in the Licuados business enabled them to purchase outright a unit in a high rise in the Azcapotzalco district where they shared the fourth floor with families from Monterrey, Sinaloa & Puebla. The houswives apparently got along well and would take turns cooking dinners at each others apartments.. this was the first time my mom was really exposed to gastronomic traditions of other States... she picked up a few dishes but largely stuck to the cuisine she learned growing up.. however, her stories of these "exotic" dishes are something I would treasure & learn from later on. After losing their lease to a redevelopment effort, and a few other investment missteps they decided to come to the United States where [other relatives claimed] money grows on trees. I was months from turning five when the BIG move from Mexico City to East L.A. occurred. My earliest memories of living in L.A were a bit troubling... I started all-English kindergarden knowing only a few words, my parents were perpetually anxious about INS raids and money was not quite abundant. But the worst of my earliest memories was they day we went to forage Cactus paddles in the hills around Dodger Stadium... I was pouting, bratty and wanted the earth to grumble & swallow me up. Life is funny that way... now I think there is nothing cooler than going around town foraging for "undesirable" foods. From a culinary perspective, the move to L.A. really didn't impact my parents all that much. I remember going with dad to shop at Grand Central Market, although small in scale, really could be any mercado in Mexico City. My parents, like most Mexicans (particularly those from rural areas) never cook from recipes.. they have a couple dozen main dishes they rotate amongst; every trip to a market resulted in an instant calculus, balancing price against freshness & quality.... they would buy the least expensive among the quality ingredients available (which was often whatever was in its peak season).. and adjusted their cooking techniques to the ingredients. Growing up in East L.A. it was very easy to develop a sort of ethnocentrism about food.. the best regarded Mexican eateries were within a 5 mile radius of our home.. Carnitas Uruapan which butchered their own pigs & cooked every part of the swine in copper kettles the right way, El Tepeyac (not the famous burrito place) served Jalisco style dishes that attracted people from all over the city, La Chapalita had the best carne asada tacos & tortas in the city, La Parrilla was THE place in town for parrilladas (assorted meats & vegetables served on tabletop grills with real mezquite charcoal, hand patted tortillas & all the fixings).. we also had fantastic Cochinita Pibil as well. In addition, my parents worked their rural connections to score ingredients unattainable to most Angelenos. We had a number of relatives working on dairy farms in Tulare... they would sometimes visit on Sundays arriving in the mid morning with aluminum canisters filled with freshly squeezed, unpasteurized, unhomogenized milk. My parents would drink it straight whilie moaning & groaning (I HATE warm milk), then they would make Queso Fresco, Panela (much more to my liking). One of my dad's cousins was a goat dealer.. able to deliver young kid for roasting over mezquite, or pastured mature goat for Birria. Another relative would score suckling pigs... there was a quail hunter etc., etc., Understandably I thought I knew everything about Mexican cuisine. Fast forward almost decade.. we got our green cards (thanks to the Reagan-Simpson-Rodino amnesty) and I made my first trip back to Mexico City as a curious, very hungy 13 year old. It took me exactly 3 meals to realize I didn't know jack about Mexican cusine... every single day of every trip back I learn something new. I estimate that I have consumed well over 1,000 homecooked or restaurant meals in Mexico City, Puebla, Veracruz, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Michoacan etc.. I have rarely eaten the same thing twice, and I feel like I am just starting to hit my stride understanding the cuisine. After two decades of living in the Mexican centric cocoon that is East L.A. and traveling back to Mexico every chance I had; I graduated college... moved to West L.A. experienced a bit of culture shock & integrated to mainstream American society. Shortly there after I discovered Sushi, Indian, Dim Sum, Thai, Italian, Provencal, German, Brazilian and other cuisines.. went through that period of exhileration & amazement. But the more I learn about other cusines, the more it helps appreciate some new facet of Mexican cuisine and with every year I fall more in love with it. My cooking approach is deeply rooted in the 8,000 year culinary history of Mexico yet at the same time modern & pragmatic. As is the whimsical nature of a life... we spend so many years wanting to be different than our parents but in the end we begrudgingly become them. Like them I forage for ingredients, grow some stuff and shop around for great deals flexibily adjusting my dishes to whatever is available... the only difference is that they stuck to 20 - 30 dishes they grew up with... no matter how in love I might be with Mexican cuisine.. I am not from Union de San Antonio.. I haven't plowed & seeded its land... I am something a bit different than my parents... I have cookbooks, cooking shows & recipes as a guide. I am a bit put off by food that is overly architected... I like food that is earthy and looks like food not modern sculpture. I stick to organic, local & seasonal food as much as possible.... I like meals that have a deep story.. but I also love to make crap up from leftovers, odds & ends. Enough meaningless drivel.. my throat is dry... it is time for some mezcal.

Yeah no kidding! As to the pics... the Acorn Squash was actually stuffed with Mushrooms, Chorizo & Pipian Rojo (Red Pumpkin Seed Mole) and it was one style of a group of dishes called Ayomole * The last picture was in Uxmal... I thought I was running in the ball court... a few minutes later I realized it was just a palatial courtyard of the building now dubbed the Nunnery (there is no real rhyme or reason to this name).... the ball court turned out to be quite small & in bad shape. Ayomole.. is the Nahua word for Pumpkin / Squash Mole common throughout the present day indigenous towns & villages of what was Mesoamerica... i.e., Guerrero, Oaxaca etc., The name is really loose.. sometimes it refers to a Baked Squash / Pumpkin filled with Pipian, or cubes of Squash / Pumpkin floating in the sauce, or "tortillas" made of Pumpkin / Squash flesh with Masa or Plantain flesh, sometimes it refers to a Mole that is thickend with Squash / Pumpkin flesh and chiles.

No problem if you take the Mexican approach to Ganache... Juice enough apples to get 1 cup of apple juice & pour into a sauce pan, add 1 cup of high quality / real chopped white chocolate bring to a boil stirring rapidly until the chocolate has melted... reduce to the lowest temp & continue simmering until you are almost at your desired density... taste for sweetness adding a bit of corn syrup, heavy syrup, honey or agave syrup to your liking. If you want more Apple flavor start with more juice & reduce that etc.,

Hey Lindsey best of luck with your endeavor. Incidentally... my wife is writing a historical novel set in 5th Century A.D. Pictland near present day Aberdeen... we have been researching the foods of Ancient Scotland and would love to be able to try some Oat Cakes, local beef soup using the endemic vegetables & other dishes that would be unique to that area. There is probably little chance a beach cafe could make it selling historic cuisine... but if there is any chance you could pull of such feat we would love to come eat at your place when we travel there next year. Otherwise.. any suggestions for where we might find such foods & historic ales?

I used to be on a half bottle of red wine per day regimen (with hard drinks on top of that a couple of times a week) until my liver sent me warning signals (via massive heartburn)... I feel much better now.

As Christina Potters explains in Mexico the Woodland Puffball (Lycoperdon Perlatum) is called Pedos de Burro (Donkey Farts)... what if we could get Nun & Donkey farts together in the same pastry.... well I am sure there has to be a Pepito joke that involves Nuns & Donkeys anyway... oh no to let... image emblazoned into my eyeballs is probably... must... exit... thread... to.... save... civilization.. http://mexicocooks.typepad.com/mexico_cooks/2008/09/la-feria-del-hongo-en-senguio-michoac%C3%A1n-the-mushroom-fair-in-senguio-michoac%C3%A1n.html

Hola Klary, I used 1 cup of Amaranth, 2 1/2 cups water & a big pinch of salt... put them together in a cold sauce pan, brought to a boil, turned down to low.. started checking them after 20 minutes.. it took about 24 minutes... I then spread it out on a baking sheet to cool down... the result was like a Cream of Wheat Once the porridge was cool, I mixed with two eggs & 2 tablespoons of Masa Harina. That seems to be the right alchemy for pan frying the little discs. 2 out of 3 people I know who have very good taste prefer the fried approach (I agree with them that it tastes better), but I also found the "crepe" approach to be tasty (the Amaranth has some underlying green & slightly bitter notes which might be off putting to most people... I am an 80% cacoa, black coffee, black ale drinking kind of guy though so the bitter is just fine to me). Next time when I try the crepe style I think I am going with 4 eggs.

Glad you liked them! Yeah the texture of the cooked amaranth was like cream of wheat. BTW, one of my favorite Indian dishes is a cream of wheat pancacke called Uttapam (sp?) which has slices of fresh tomato & onion baked into the pancake & served with Coconut Chutney... I think I am going to experiment with this approach soon. Oh yeah a friend gave this awesome, artisinal bean pot from Puebla that I have seasoned & ready to.. can't wait to cook some fantastic frijoles de la olla. Lastly... the Poblano-Fage-Oregano Indio sauce is fabulous... you don't lose much flavor depth replacing the Crema with Fage, and with the high protein density of Greek yogurt it really makes a fantastic vegetarian meal with a grain of your choice.