Making Mexican at home

[C. sapidus]

. . . Do you cook your Mexican specialties for your Aussie friends? What do they think? That you're quite mad?

Or that you're quite wonderful.

Excellent questions, Jaymes!

RRO, as I said on the Dinner thread, I am very glad that the chilorio appealed to you - "deeply savory" is an apt description.

Family has been digging protein "a la Mexicana", so I'll keep making it. Both recipes loosely adapted from Mexico the Beautiful Cookbook.

Pescados y mariscos a la Mexicana - sauteed bay scallops and chunks of fish in a sauce of tomatoes, onion, garlic, thyme, bay leaves, pickled serranos, and the pickling juice.

Arroz verde con rajas - jasmine rice steamed with pureed spinach, parsley, onion, and garlic, and then topped with fried white onion and chile Poblano.

Watermelon, tomato, red onion, and basil salad - courtesy of Mrs. C. Not Mexican to my knowledge, but quite delicious.

[rarerollingobject]

I must say, I admire your persistence! I know it can't be easy to source Mexican ingredients Down Under.

And thanks for the compliment about the carnitas. Do you cook your Mexican specialties for your Aussie friends? What do they think? That you're quite mad?

Or that you're quite wonderful.

Oh, they think I'm pretty mad! Especially because I'm always dragging them all over Sydney looking for one improbably ingredient or another, or trying to convince them to split the shipping charges on, say, six different types of dried chiles and a huge bag of jamaica flowers..but they happily eat the spoils, in fact two of them are now making YOUR carnitas themselves, so how's that for the power of the internet?! Hehe.

[rarerollingobject]

Pescados y mariscos a la Mexicana - sauteed bay scallops and chunks of fish in a sauce of tomatoes, onion, garlic, thyme, bay leaves, pickled serranos, and the pickling juice.

Arroz verde con rajas - jasmine rice steamed with pureed spinach, parsley, onion, and garlic, and then topped with fried white onion and chile Poblano.

Watermelon, tomato, red onion, and basil salad - courtesy of Mrs. C. Not Mexican to my knowledge, but quite delicious.

Grrrr, Bruce, I'm trapped in a food-less environment with no chance of a decent meal for HOURS and I have to look at THAT..everything you post makes me ravenous. RAVENOUS. Or moreso, anyway.

[EatNopales]

Snippet from friar Bernardino de Sahagun's 1529 description of the Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) market taken from Sophie Coe's "America's First Cuisines"

"He sells tortillas with turkey eggs, tortillas made with honey, pressed ones, glove-shaped tortillas, plain tortillas, assorted ones, braised ones, sweet tortillas, amaranth seed tortillas, squash tortillas, green maize tortillas, brick-shaped tortillas, tuna cactus tortillas; broken, crumbled, old tortillas; cold tortillas, toasted ones, dried tortillas, stinking tortillas."

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodmaya.html

Papadzules (last night's dinner) - Tortilla bathe in Pumpkin Seed-Epazote sauce, stuffed with hardboiled eggs with a side of roasted squash & Chiltomate sauce... is a very pre-hispanic dish.. perhaps the technique has changed a bit for modernity... but it is clear from friar Bernardino de Sahugun's 1529 description of the grand market in Tenochtitlan that all the components where there.. "braised tortillas", pumpkin seed sauces, chiltomate, squash tortillas etc.,

I didn't use a recipe it is really simple... roast Pumpkin Seeds in a single layer, cookie sheet at 400F check every 5 minutes, when the seeds plump up a few have browned they are ready... put them in a blender in give it a blend adding water that was brewed with Epazote leaves (10 leaves to every cup of water) & salt to keep the blades from sticking. The end result should be about as thick as Tahini.

To get the smoothest sauce possible... simmer it for an hour or so... it will get ugly & broken up... don't worry... blend it again adding masa or masa harina to emulsify the sauce (no need to cook it afterwords like you would with wheat based flour)... or you can strain the sauce... return the grainy part to the blender... adding the smooth part a little at a time.

Chiltomate... boil scored tomatoes until they begin to release their skin, let them cool a bit at room temp, & peel them under cook running water if needed.... mash them with salt & a chile (habanero or manzano) that has been macerated in a solution of half water, half lime juice & salt.

[rancho_gordo]

But the eggs would have been turkey or duck, wouldn't they? Do iguana's lay eggs?

(Sorry to be nitpick. That looks so good and I am so hungry I might be irritable!)

[heidih]

But the eggs would have been turkey or duck, wouldn't they? Do iguana's lay eggs?

(Sorry to be nitpick. That looks so good and I am so hungry I might be irritable!)

RG - those silly reptiles actually do lay eggs - think sea turtles etc.

Images link

http://www.google.com/search?q=Iguana+eggs&hl=en&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=aYRETuGJFq3XiAK_j4TOAQ&ved=0CCoQsAQ&biw=1249&bih=629

[EatNopales]

Of course Esteban... that is why I linked to Sahagun's description about tortillas been served with Turkey Eggs etc., at the Tenochtitlan market. One of the Spanish soldiers has an even better quote but I can't find it... it went something like "and they filled their tortillas with eggs & seeds and their juice and other very nutritive things"... the translations from 16th Century Spanish dialects seem quite awkward but I think that one phrase was a dead ringer for Papadzules in some form.

[EatNopales]

One more point... and I think I have mentioned it on this forum below... it really irkes when people repeat the whole folk tale about how Chilaquiles means shredded old sombreros & where invented in colonial times.. when there is ample evidence that Pre-Hispanic markets sold broken, crumbled old tortillas... and that the word is phonetically so close to the Chontal word Chilakil (Chile & Egg).. and you also have Spanish description of caseroles with eggs, chile sauce & tortillas etc.,

/crabby rant

[dmg]

...

Arroz verde con rajas - jasmine rice steamed with pureed spinach, parsley, onion, and garlic, and then topped with fried white onion and chile Poblano.

...

Next time try preparing it with cilantro instead of parsley (at least that is the "authentic" way in which I frequently ate it

growing up in Mexico City.

--dmg

[rancho_gordo]

Sophie Coe's book was a huge influence on me and really made me think about my business, even though beans are a little neglected except Scarlet Runners. Is there a definitive Sahagun book in English?

I'm currently reading The Mexican Dream or The Interrupted Thought of Amerindian Civilizations by J.M.G. Le Clezio (that's a mouthful!) and he ponders where Mesoamerican culture would have gone had it not been for the conquest, which killed the culture in a generation, leaving behind some of the worst gifts of Europe. He quotes Diaz and The True Story of the Mexican Conquest a lot and to show how advanced they were, they always go to the descriptions of the markets.

Do we know if they ate iguana eggs? I know they eat turtle eggs in Chiapas and elsewhere, much to the dismay of many.

[EatNopales]

Sophie Coe's book was a huge influence on me and really made me think about my business, even though beans are a little neglected except Scarlet Runners. Is there a definitive Sahagun book in English?

I'm currently reading The Mexican Dream or The Interrupted Thought of Amerindian Civilizations by J.M.G. Le Clezio (that's a mouthful!) and he ponders where Mesoamerican culture would have gone had it not been for the conquest, which killed the culture in a generation, leaving behind some of the worst gifts of Europe. He quotes Diaz and The True Story of the Mexican Conquest a lot and to show how advanced they were, they always go to the descriptions of the markets.

Do we know if they ate iguana eggs? I know they eat turtle eggs in Chiapas and elsewhere, much to the dismay of many.

With regards to Sahagun... the definitive in English, I believe, is the Arthur J.O. Andersen series... unfortunately its 13 seperate books each going for about $50 at Amazon.com and they don't even have all 13... rich libraries (Los Angeles County, UC, Cal State etc.,) have all the volumes.

[EatNopales]

Sophie Coe's book was a huge influence on me and really made me think about my business, even though beans are a little neglected except Scarlet Runners. Is there a definitive Sahagun book in English?

I'm currently reading The Mexican Dream or The Interrupted Thought of Amerindian Civilizations by J.M.G. Le Clezio (that's a mouthful!) and he ponders where Mesoamerican culture would have gone had it not been for the conquest, which killed the culture in a generation, leaving behind some of the worst gifts of Europe. He quotes Diaz and The True Story of the Mexican Conquest a lot and to show how advanced they were, they always go to the descriptions of the markets.

Do we know if they ate iguana eggs? I know they eat turtle eggs in Chiapas and elsewhere, much to the dismay of many.

The Le Clezio book sounds very interesting... taking into account the fact that first agriculture in Mesoamerica lagged Turkey by several thousand years I have no doubt that the Aztecs were just coming into an era of exponential technological growth... within a century the Aztecs would have been trading extensively with the Inca & that would have spurred the same type of technological growth we see in Eurasia after the establishment of the Spice Route.

[C. sapidus]

...

Arroz verde con rajas - jasmine rice steamed with pureed spinach, parsley, onion, and garlic, and then topped with fried white onion and chile Poblano.

...

Next time try preparing it with cilantro instead of parsley (at least that is the "authentic" way in which I frequently ate it

growing up in Mexico City.

--dmg

Thanks for the tip! How we make the rice depends on what green herbs we have on hand - sometimes cilantro, sometimes parsley, other times Mexican oregano. Tonight we made a dirtier version with cilantro and frijoles negros.

[EatNopales]

...

Arroz verde con rajas - jasmine rice steamed with pureed spinach, parsley, onion, and garlic, and then topped with fried white onion and chile Poblano.

...

Next time try preparing it with cilantro instead of parsley (at least that is the "authentic" way in which I frequently ate it

growing up in Mexico City.

--dmg

Thanks for the tip! How we make the rice depends on what green herbs we have on hand - sometimes cilantro, sometimes parsley, other times Mexican oregano. Tonight we made a dirtier version with cilantro and frijoles negros.

FYI... in Oaxaca parsley is more common than cilantro in most applications including Arroz Verde. In Veracruz, its Hoja Santa & Mint that are the stars, In Jalisco it is fresh thyme, marjoram & oregano, In Puebla it is papaloquelite etc., etc., I wouldn't worry to much about it... no one in Mexico agrees on what is the exact, right combination of herbs.

[Emily_R]

Love Arroz Verde -- in any of its herby incarnations!

Last night I made cochinita pibil for the first time... And didn't love it. Kind of sad, as I was expecting to, but somehow the flavors just felt muddled to me. We used it as a soft taco filling, and I didn't think it held a candle to carnitas...

[kalypso]

Last night I made cochinita pibil for the first time... And didn't love it. Kind of sad, as I was expecting to, but somehow the flavors just felt muddled to me. We used it as a soft taco filling, and I didn't think it held a candle to carnitas...

It can be an acquired taste. It didn't wow me the first time I tried it either, but like it a lot now.

How did you make it/what recipe did you use?

[Darienne]

Last night I made cochinita pibil for the first time... And didn't love it. Kind of sad, as I was expecting to, but somehow the flavors just felt muddled to me. We used it as a soft taco filling, and I didn't think it held a candle to carnitas...

It can be an acquired taste. It didn't wow me the first time I tried it either, but like it a lot now.

How did you make it/what recipe did you use?

That's interesting. I liked it straight from the get go, but DH didn't really like it at all. Second time he did and now we eat it regularly. I use the recipe by

and I have no idea why. (Even tried to watch the movie, "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" but gave up pretty early into the film.)

ps. One of the main characters in the movie, played by Johnny Depp, insists that his dining companions taste his favorite dish, Puerco Pibil. It must have been the Johnny Depp connection. Wasn't enough.

Edited August 14, 2011 by Darienne (log)

[Emily_R]

I used this recipe from Simply Recipes: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/cochinita_pibil/

But my hunch is that I just don't love the achiote paste... When I tasted it after cooking, it tasted unbalanced and too acidic. I added a little sugar, and a little smoked paprika, which helped, but not enough for my taste...

[Dakki]

My recipe > that recipe. Just sayin'. >_>

In all seriousness that recipe needs some spices. Achiote by itself isn't particularly tasty.

[kalypso]

I used this recipe from Simply Recipes: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/cochinita_pibil/

But my hunch is that I just don't love the achiote paste... When I tasted it after cooking, it tasted unbalanced and too acidic. I added a little sugar, and a little smoked paprika, which helped, but not enough for my taste...

Oh my goodness, I have to agree with Dakki, that Simply Recipes recipe is certainly lacking. Cochinita Pibil is more than just achiote paste and orange juice. I use a recipe that I welded together from a Diana Kennedy recipe and a Rick Bayless recipe that seems to work out pretty well. It's fairly similar to the one Dakki linked to except I don't use as much allspice, nor the tequila (which I think I'll try next time) and no cinnamon. But other than that, it's very similar.

Edited August 15, 2011 by kalypso (log)

[Emily_R]

Hi all --

The achiote paste I used already had spices in it -- I don't have the box in front of me, but I know cumin and garlic were both in there, and I believe several others. Based on one of her comments in the recipe, I believe the paste Elise from Simply Recipes did too...

[rancho_gordo]

I was surprised to have it in the Yucatan after years of having it elsewhere and it was much more subtle and nuanced. The leaves were as important to the flavor as the achiote recado.

[Jaymes]

I was surprised to have it in the Yucatan after years of having it elsewhere and it was much more subtle and nuanced. The leaves were as important to the flavor as the achiote recado.

And that would be my question. Did you wrap it in banana leaves?

[EatNopales]

I was surprised to have it in the Yucatan after years of having it elsewhere and it was much more subtle and nuanced. The leaves were as important to the flavor as the achiote recado.

And that would be my question. Did you wrap it in banana leaves?

Then there are questions about the paste.... has it been on a shelf for 10 years? Fresh Achiote actually does have a very nice floral & earthy aroma.. of course it is nearly impossible to score some any where outside of the Yucatan, Oaxaca & Chiapas.

The other thing is the Orange Juice perception... you are much better off going with Key Lime or even a mild tropical vinager than with Orange juice... you need the acid.

Also key (if you are using lean supermarket pig) is to add some lard to the meat.

Finally the garnishes are absolutely essential.. you have to have the sour orange / key lime macerated red onion & the thin habanero sauce... all the notes need to be present for the harmony to exist.

[Darienne]

Interesting, as always, the differences between recipes. The Rodriguez recipe calls for 5 tablespoons of ground annato...as in make your own achiote paste. No cinnamon here either, but lots of lemon, bitter orange. It calls for vinegar...I use lime. And the Tequila. And banana leaves. It's definitely not for the mild and meek.

Interesting about changes in taste. I was talking this topic over with the DH last night and he gave me the sequence of his change of heart and taste. First time, he added sweet commercial B-B-Q sauce to his portion...didn't like the non-sweet sauce. Second time, he went half and half with the sweet stuff. Third time, the straight goods and when we have pulled plain pork on a bun, we both use the Pibil sauce instead of any sweet/commercial sauce.

(I could write a 'change in taste' sequence for his feelings about dark chocolate and also salad greens. But he did it!)