Monterey House Mexcian Restaurant

[elyse]

I was ready to rename the recipe leche quebasura.

Okay, what does this mean?

[Jaymes]

I was ready to rename the recipe leche quebasura.

Okay, what does this mean?

Well, as you probably know, "leche" means milk. And we've been talking about "leche quemada" which means "milk burned" or "burnt milk."

Claire substitued the word "basura" which means trash.

So, instead of it being "leche quemada," it was more like "leche quebasura." Milk a la garbage can.

[elyse]

Thanks!

[fifi]

I have just about completed the condensed milk recipe. I called my sister and she looked some stuff up and we came up with a bit more refinement of the method. Slowly bring up to 240F, yes it takes about 4 hours and seems to toast the milk solids admirably. Smells good in here. Now when it cools to 110F I am supposed to beat the hell out of it and turn into a buttered pan. We will see how that goes. Stay tuned.

[fifi]

Success! The temperatures from my sister's instructions were right on. It didn't take long for the mass to cool to about 110. I could still womp it up in the pot with my silicone "spoonula" and then I turned it out into a buttered 9x9 square pan. The cooled leavings in the pot tells me that I have the same caramely creaminess and a little crystallized sugar crunchiness that I remember.

I am quite proud of myself since I have no idea what I am doing. In this case, science prevailed. Yeah... that's the ticket. ('Cause I sure didn't know what I was doing from the art department. )

[claire797]

I'll bet it tastes great, Fifi! Too bad we can't have a side-by-side taste test.

[fifi]

After my sister read off a few things we found and understanding the reduction of whatever milk is present, removing the water and then toasting the milk solids, I will bet that there is not a whole lot of difference. At least that is the conclusion that I have come to after all of this.

I guess that one of us (both of us?) should enter a recipe in RecipeGullet. What do you think? I could take your ingredient list and add the method that I developed (with my sister's help). You could add your version, which sounds just as valid. We could call them "Mexican Burnt Milk Candy I" and "II". What do you think? If you take your version as "I" and mine as "II" I don't see any copyright issues with "II". What about "I"?

[elyse]

Now I wish you and claire would send eachother a piece or two to compare!

[fifi]

Now, there is an idea. Hmmmm... Claire, what do you think?

[claire797]

Too late!

[woodford]

So there is a Pancho's about two blocks off of the interstate in Albuquerque

Wow! So Pancho's is still around! Some of my favorite childhood memories are of eating at Panchos with my huge (20 cousins) family. Do they still have the little flags on the table that you raise when you want more food? And those sopapillas!

You folks down in Texas don't know how good you have it. Y'all can turn up your nose at Panchos and go to any number of better Mexican restaurants, but I'm a Texan living in Canada now, and Panchos is much better than the Mexican I've tried up here.

Sorry to veer off the candy topic. Just had to wax nostalgic.

[bleachboy]

... some really disgusting jello salad with cool whip and fruit cocktail and nuts and celery and mayo and chipped beef ...

I'm relieved to hear that my mother didn't invent this dish! It's her specialty and is indeed mind-numbing in its insanity.

One year she made one that was cherry Jell-o and green olives or something, and the top was slathered in about an inch-thick layer of Cool Whip - so of course I just spooned the Cool Whip onto my salad plate and.. lo! It's not Cool Whip, it's Miracle Whip! *retch*

[Jay Francis]

I will try to find the name of the company but, the closest I have found is a candy from a little company in Kingsville, Texas. Much creamier and not as dark as the old Monterey House candy. I discovered it at the cashier at La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant, 9739 Katy I-10 at Bunker Hill.

My own assessment is that the Monterey House candy had very little milk in it, was mostly brown sugar and water and was extruded (remember those ridges that it had?). It had a real brown sugar taste as I remember.

[Jay Francis]

This note is for Woodford.

Not to worry. Robb Walsh's next cookbook is The Tex-Mex Cookbook and you will be able to cook all the classic Tex-Mex dishes from it. I was the recipe tester on the project, and am really proud of it. There is already a picture of the cover of the book at amazon.com, if you type in Robb Walsh and click on the Tex-Mex Cookbook link. June, 2004 is the release date I think.

[fifi]

This recipe for leche quemada is pretty darn close to the Monterrey house candy. I have had other versions that are lighter or darker. The note on how long you "toast" the milk solids is what determines the color. I have made this several times in the last few weeks to finally get the technique down. I think just about any milk/sugar mixture would prabably work but you have to have the milk to get that flavor behind the straight caramel flavor. The milk solids toast as the water boils off. When the water is gone, the temperature starts to come up. It is the temperature and stirring technique that gives you the texture, starting out sugary but then melting on the tongue. I am sure that what they did to get the little logs was to extrude the warm mass through something like a pastry tip.