Category: Mexican Markets

Caldo de Res, Otherwise Known As Cocido

A big pot of cocido, simmering last week in the Mexico Cooks! kitchen.

Nearly 40 years ago, long before the website Mexico Cooks! was a possibility–when I was just beginning to learn Spanish and some simple things about the totally-new-to-me Mexican kitchen, I would occasionally hear the word cocido from friends in Tijuana. I looked it up in my dictionary. I learned that cocido was the past participle for the verb cocer, to cook, or to boil. The dictionary gave this example: "Estoy a dieta, solo puedo comer pollo cocido." (I'm on a diet, I can only eat cooked [boiled] chicken.) OK! That was easy. But no, cocido isn't chicken. Back to the drawing board. For literally years I thought that cocido was a mystery dish that I would never see, understand, or taste.

About 20 years ago, I was looking at a homestyle restaurant menu and the lightbulb finally went on in my brain. I asked the waiter for a bowl of caldo de res (beef and vegetable soup), and he nodded as he wrote the order–and said, "Cocido para usted, señora." Wait! What? He smiled and said, Sí, cocido. O como dijo usted, caldo de res." ('Yes, 'cocido', or as you said"–well, you get it.) Like many things in Spanish, this is an example of their being more than one word for the same thing. Part of cultural literacy is learning what is colloquially used as a name for something that also has a more formal name.

Now that I knew what cocido is, I found someone to teach me how to make it, and today–if you don't know how already–I'm going to teach you. It's the simplest thing in the world, very healthy, and truly a Mexican home staple. An all-but-boiling bowlful is just the ticket for a warming meal in the winter, or conversely, a cooling meal when the weather is hot.

Cocido (Caldo de Res) from Michoacán

Ingredients
Medium white onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 head of garlic (sliced horizontally across the head, skin and all)
1 medium bay leaf
2-3 Tbsp sea salt
4-5 liters cold water
1 kilo (2.2 pounds) meaty, bone-in chambarete (beef shank), cut across the bone
1 kilo chuck meat, in large cubes
.5 kilo (1 pound) bone-in costilla de res (meaty beef ribs), cut into 2" to 3" pieces

3 or 4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into rounds
250gr green beans, ends removed and each bean cut or broken in half
3 or 4 large potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks or thick slices
1 middle-size chayote, cut into eighths, seed and all
1 small chile serrano, slit from tip almost to the stem end (optional)
4 small calabacitas (or zucchini), cut into thick slices
A quarter kilo (half pound) white cabbage, coarsely cut into chunks
A good-size fistful of cilantro, stems and all
5 or 6 sprigs of fresh hierbabuena (mint, and optional but you will love the flavor it adds)
2 or 3 ears of fresh corn, each ear cut into thirds (optional)

Special equipment
A 12-to-14 liter lidded pot
Long wooden spoon

Bring 4 or 5 liters water, the onion, the half garlic head, the salt, and the bay leaf to a boil. Turn the heat down to a simmer. When the meat begins to produce foam on the surface of the water, scoop out and discard the foam. This will clarify your beef broth.

A portion of the beef and its trimmings, rinsed, patted dry, and ready to go in the pot.

One piece at a time, quickly add the beef to the boiling water. In just a minute or two, the beef will take on a deep brown color. After skimming away the foam, allow the beef to simmer for about two hours.

Remove the ends of the green beans and cut or break each one in half.

Carrots and calabacita (zucchini), ready to go in the pot.

When you're ready to chop the chayote, try to pierce the skin with your fingernail. If it pierces easily, there's no need to peel the chayote, just chop it skin and all. The seed is flat, round, white and soft. The whitest part of the already cut chayote in the photograph is the seed–your knife will slide right through it, no need to remove it and cut it separately. Now, let's chop the other half of this chayote!

Coarsely chop the white cabbage, or leave it in narrow wedges, as in the photograph above.

Peel and cut up the potatoes. These are the standard white potato in Mexico: the papa Alfa. I started with three and added another. You can use a different kind of potato: russet, Yukon Gold, Red Bliss, whatever potato you prefer will be delicious.

For the tomato seasoning for the broth: put the coarsely chopped tomato, the 1/4 onion, a clove of garlic, and the chile serrano (if you're using it) into your blender. Add the 2 cups water. Cover and blend until smooth. Pour this mixture into the boiling pot.

Add all of the vegetables, including the cilantro, to the pot. Allow the pot to return just to a boil, then lower the heat to simmer and cover, leaving the cover slightly ajar. After 15 minutes cooking, stir the pot–the vegetables will have softened enough to be completely under water. Simmer for approximately 45 minutes.

Correct the salt to taste.

Prior to serving, remove the cilantro and the mint from the pot.

Freshly patted tortillas, toasting on a clay comal (griddle). They're supposed to inflate as they toast!

An all-but-overflowing bowlful of cocido. The house smelled delicious as it cooked, and the cocido itself was wonderful. And there's plenty left for the next few tomorrows!

Serve with limón (Key limes) to squeeze into the broth, hot tortillas, with corn tostadas, or with toasted bolillos (white flour, super-dense Mexican rolls).

Serves 6 to 8 as a main dish.

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

19 de June de 2021
WE’RE BACK! It’s Time to Take a Tour with Mexico Cooks! :: Book NOW for the Dates You Want.

Tourism to Mexico is definitely back! After over a year of waiting for tourism to be possible again, Mexico Cooks! has recently booked and completed three tours and has more in the works. If you'd like to visit Mexico this summer or in early fall, contact me ASAP to save the dates you'd like to travel with me. We can tour in Michoacán–off the beaten path and fabulous–in Oaxaca, in Guadalajara, or in Mexico City: each of those cities and their surrounding towns has the GREEN LIGHT for visitors! Make plans now so I can reserve your tour dates. And PS–as of April 28, 2021, I am fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

A market tour in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán. I'm holding a mamey fruit. The mamey's scientific name is poutería sapote. I've never seen a mamey in the USA or in Canada, have you? Ask me about its dark-brown seed…

One of the great pleasures of my life is the number of tours Mexico Cooks! gives to lots of excited tourists. Small, specialized tours are a joy to organize: the participants generally have common interests, a thirst for knowledge, and a hunger for–well, for Mexico Cooks!' tour specialties: street and municipal markets, food and the preparation of food–and of course eating! Touring a food destination (a street market in Michoacán, an enclosed market in Guadalajara, a crawl through some Mexico City street stands, or meals in a series of upscale restaurants) is about far more than a brief look at a fruit, a vegetable, or a basket of freshly made tortillas.

A Pátzcuaro street vendor holds out a partially unwrapped tamal de trigo (wheat tamal). It's sweetened with piloncillo (Mexican raw sugar) and a few plump raisins, wrapped in corn husks, and steamed. Taste? It's all but identical to a bran muffin, and every tour participant enjoyed a pinch of it.

This is the single best dish I have eaten in 2021. Aguachile de ribeye (frizzled leeks, locally grown avocado, and mildly spicy aguachile atop a large, perfectly cooked ribeye, at my favorite restaurant in Morelia, Michoacán. Order it as an appetizer to share, or as your personal main dish. The owners say it won't be on the menu for long, so come the minute you can and we'll have our tour's opening dinner there. Honestly, you'll crave it when you get back home! (And no, those aren't beans on the plate–it's the knobby texture of the plate!)

A tour planned to your specifications can lead you to places you didn't know you wanted to go, but that you would not have missed for the world. Here, Donna talks with the man who makes these enormous adobe bricks. He let her try to pick up the laden wheelbarrow. She could barely get its legs off the ground! He laughed, raised the handles, and whizzed away with his load.

Several times in recent years, small groups wanted to tour traditional bakeries in Mexico City. The photo shows one tiny corner of the enormous Pastelería La Ideal in the Centro Histórico. Just looking at the photo brings the sweet fragrances back to mind. And never mind the taste of the delicious pastries!

Ramon and Annabelle wanted an introduction to how ordinary people live and shop in Guadalajara. We spent a highly entertaining morning at the Tianguis del Sol, a three-times-a-week outdoor market in Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara. Our first stop was for breakfast, then we shopped for unusual produce, fresh spices, and other goodies that they don't often see in their home town. Annabelle said she felt right at home because so much of the style and flavor of this market was similar to what she experienced in the markets near her home town in the Philippines.

We went for comida (main meal of the day, at around 3:00PM) to the original location of Guadalajara's Karne Garibaldi. The restaurant does one thing–carne en su jugo (meat in its juice)–and does it exceptionally well. The food is plentiful, delicious, and affordable. The place is always packed, and usually has a line to get in!

Ramon wanted to try tejuino, a regional drink specialty in the Guadalajara area. Mixed when you order it, the refreshing, barely fermented drink is thickened with a bit of masa de maíz (corn dough) and served with a pinch of salt and a small scoop of lemon ice.

Pillars of nopal cactus paddles, each pillar taller than a man, at Mercado de la Merced, Mexico City.   La Merced is the largest retail market in Mexico, if not in all of Latin America. It's the ultimate market experience and just a partial tour takes the better part of a morning. Comfortable walking shoes are a necessity–let's go!

A more intimate, up-close-and-personal Mexico City market tour takes us through the Mercado San Juan. The San Juan is renowned for its gourmet selection of meats, fish and shellfish, cheeses, and wild mushrooms–among a million other things you might not expect to find.

Pepitorias are a sweet specialty of Mexico's capital city. Crunchy and colorful obleas (wafers) enclose sticky syrup and squash seeds.  Mexico Cooks!' tour groups usually try these at the Bazar Sábado in San Ángel.

Lovely and fascinating people and events are around almost any Mexican corner. The annual Festival Internacional de Música de Morelia opens every year with several blocks of carpets made of flowers. Residents of Patamban, Michoacán work all night to create the carpets for the festival. This piano is made entirely of plant material. Enlarge any picture for a closer view.

Entire flowers, fuzzy pods, and flower petals are used to create the carpets' ephemeral beauty and design; these carpets last two days at most.

In November 2012, one of Mexico Cooks!' tours was dazzled by a special Morelia concert given by Tania Libertad. With Tania is Rosalba Morales Bartolo, a fabulous traditional cook from San Jerónimo Purenchécuaro, Michoacán, who presented the artist with various handcrafted items from the state–including the lovely coral necklace and rebozo (shawl) that Tania is wearing.

What in the world is THAT? A tour at a major Mexico City market offered this laugh to my clients: me swinging a cow tail! No matter where we start our tour and no matter what we plan together for your itinerary, a Mexico Cooks! tour always includes a terrific surprise or two, special memories to take home, and the thirst for more of Mexico.

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

12 de June de 2021
Adobo de Cerdo Huasteco :: Pork in Huasteca Adobo Sauce), from “Verde, Blanco, y Rojo” by Ricardo Muñoz Zurita

Roasting roma tomatoes and onion quarters on a comal (in this case, a cast iron griddle). That little tomato on the right looks downright happy to be toasting.

Several years ago, Mexico Cooks! was thrilled to receive a copy of Chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita’s newest recetario (cookbook), titled Verde, Blanco, y Rojo en la Cocina Mexicana. Due to the pressures of moving and settling into a somewhat more frenetic life in Mexico City, the very attractive book sat patiently in the kitchen bookshelf with its 150 or so brother and sister cookbooks, waiting to be chosen. ‘Choose me, choose me!‘ it whispered each time I passed by the shelf. And finally I listened.

Fairly large pieces of maciza de cerdo (lean, fresh pork leg) simmering with onion and garlic.

My friends and I are very fond of traditional Mexican cuisine. Like most people, we have our favorite dishes. And like most people, I have a hard time breaking habits and wading into a new cookbook: it means learning a new format, a new organization of ingredients, and a new dish that I have never prepared.

The first task was reading the recipe all the way through to the end to make sure that I had all of the ingredients and utensils on hand prior to starting to cook and that I understood the order of cooking. It’s really no fun at all to start the preparations and discover at the time of need that oops, there is no garlic in its basket and ouch, that one bowl I really wanted to use is full of last night’s stew. You’ll want to organize yourself and prepare your mise en place well before you turn on the stove.

Differentiating between dried chiles ancho and chiles mulato, which look similar on the outside, can be confusing. If you open a chile ancho and hold it up to the light, it looks from the inside like red stained glass. The mulato, on the other hand, looks brown when held to the light. It’s immediately apparent which this is.

Adobo de Cerdo Huasteco
Serves 12

Ingredients
2 kg (approximately 4.5 pounds) lean pork meat, cut into serving-size pieces
1 white onion, cut into quarters
1 head of garlic, split in half
4 liters water
4 tsp salt
8 chiles guajillo
5 large chiles ancho
3 large tomatoes, roasted
1/2 white onion, quartered and roasted
5 garlic cloves
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dry Mexican oregano, crumbled
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4 cloves
3 Tbsp pork lard (you can substitute oil if you can’t get real rendered lard)
1/2 cup white vinegar


Toasting the chiles ancho on the comal.

Utensils
Comal or griddle
Mesh strainer
Several small or medium-size mixing bowls
Mixing spoons
Heavy-bottom pot with lid
Blender

Toasting the chiles guajillo on the comal.

Procedure
Put the pork, onion, and split-open head of garlic in a large pot. Cover with water, add 4 tsp salt and bring to a boil. Lower the heat until the water is simmering and cook until the pork is tender, about an hour to an hour and a half. Remove the pork from the water, drain the liquid into a bowl, and reserve both the meat and the cooking liquid for later use.

Remove the stems, seeds, and veins from all of the chiles and discard them. Lightly toast the chiles on the comal, being careful not to burn them. If they burn, they will be bitter. Soak the toasted chiles in four cups of the reserved cooking liquid from the pork.

Blend the soaked chiles with enough of the cooking liquid to make a smooth, somewhat liquid paste.

Roast the tomatoes, onions, and remaining five cloves of garlic on the comal, then blend them until they make a very smooth sauce. If necessary for blending, add just a little of the reserved meat cooking liquid. Using the wire mesh strainer, strain and reserve.

Grind the cumin, the oregano, the pepper, and the cloves together until they are powdered. Set aside for later use.

Over a high flame, heat the lard or oil in a heavy-bottomed pot until it smokes slightly. Add the ground chiles (splatter alert!) and fry for about 15 minutes or until the mixture is reduced by about one-fourth. Add the blended tomato mixture, the spices, and salt to taste. When the mixture comes to a boil, lower the fire and allow to simmer until the sauce has reduced a little.

Add the meat, the vinegar, and three cups of the reserved meat cooking liquid. Correct the seasonings and cook with the lid ajar over low heat (or bake covered in a 350° oven) for about an hour. The finished sauce should be thick enough to cover the meat without sliding off the pieces. Correct the salt and serve.

The finished recipe also freezes very well.  Mexico Cooks! served half the recipe as comida for six and froze the rest for a later meal.

Both types of toasted chiles then soaked for a few minutes in some of the freshly cooked hot pork broth.

The mix of various seasonings (foreground), the blended and strained chiles (left rear) and the blended tomato/onion/garlic mixture (right rear).

The pork now needs to simmer in the adobo for an hour or more, either in the oven or over a very low fire. The fragrance will drive you crazy, it is so tantalizing.  Mexico Cooks! prepared this recipe on top of the stove using the cast iron comal as a heat diffuser.

Adobo de cerdo huasteco, ready to eat! Serve the dish with steamed white rice, the green vegetable of your choice, and plenty of hot-off-the-comal corn tortillas.

The wonderful Spanish-language Verde, Blanco, Rojo en La Cocina Mexicana, by my friend Chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita of the three Mexico City Restaurantes Azul.

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

5 de June de 2021
High on the Hog :: Mexico’s Longtime Love Affair with Pork

Cochinita pibil from the Yucatán (seasoned pork, slow-cooked and then shredded), a specialty of Ricardo Muñoz Zurita's Restaurante Azul/Condesa. Served in a banana leaf with a topping of pickled red onion, it's delicious.

Mexico is one of the largest producers and consumers of pork in the world, second only to China. In spite of the 'swine flu' crisis several years ago, Mexico continues to eat pork at a record-breaking pace and, every year, to export millions of tons of pork to other countries. (FIRA)

From the growers' farms to a rastro (slaughterhouse) is a speedy ride along one of Mexico's super-highways. A truck like this one, loaded with pigs, is an everyday sight throughout Mexico. Photo courtesy ROTOV.

Mexico is not nearly as squeamish as the United States in seeing where its carne de cerdo (pork meat) comes from. In fact, a stroll through just about any city market or tianguis (street market) will give ample evidence that meat–including pork meat–comes from an animal, not from a sterile, platic-wrapped styrofoam meat tray at a supermarket.

Every part of the pig is used in Mexico's kitchens. The head is ordinarily used to make pozole, a rich stew of pork meat, nixtamalized dried corn, spices, and condiments.

No pork existed in Mexico until after the Spanish conquest; in fact, no domestic animals other than the turkey (native to Mexico) and the xoloitzcuintle dog were used for food. (The ancient Maya used the xolo for warmth in bed at night, because of its high body temperature, and also for food.) The only sources of animal protein were fish, frogs, and other water creatures, wild Muscovy-type ducks, the javalí (wild boar), about 200 varieties of edible insects, and wild doves, all native to what is now Mexico.

Mexico has been cooking head-to-tail since long before that notion came into international vogue.  Pig tails are used here for roasting–look for recipes for rabo de cerdo asado (roast pig tail).|

No matter that just below these jolly mariachi pigs at Mexico City's Mercado de Jamaica, their once-live counterparts lie ready for the butcher's knife. These fellows play on!

Chicharrón (fried pig skin), just pulled from the cauldron where it was prepared, is made fresh every day by butchers whose specialty is pork. The darker brown squares are meat that has been left on the skin and scored. In my opinion, it's the best part of chicharrón. Nothing goes to waste.

Just about any Mexican butcher worth his stripes can custom-cut whatever portion of the pig you need for meal preparation. In case you're not 100% familiar with the names of Mexican cuts, here are two pork cut charts, first in English and then in Spanish for comparison.

Pork cuts chart in English. Click to enlarge the image for better viewing.

Pork cuts chart in Spanish (for Mexican users). Even in Spanish, many cuts have different names depending on which country names them. Again, click to enlarge the image for a better view.

These suckling pigs were butchered at 6 weeks to 3 months old. Known in Mexico as lechón, roast suckling pig is a delicacy by any name. Many restaurants specialize in its preparation.

One of the most common and popular (and really delicious) kinds of street tacos is tacos al pastor (shepherd style tacos). Marinate thinly sliced pork meat in a sauce made of chiles guajillo, vinegar, and tomato. Next, layer the slices on a vertical spit so that they form the shape of a spinning top. At the top of the meat, place a pineapple without skin. Light the fire in the grate behind the spit and allow a portion of the meat to cook until slightly caramelized on the edges and tender within. Slice into very thin pieces, using them to fill a tortilla warmed on the flattop. With your sharp knife, flick a small section of the pineapple into the taco. Add the salsa you prefer, some minced onion and cilantro, and ahhhhh…the taste of Mexico!

Manitas de cerdo: pickled pigs' feet. The well-scrubbed feet are cooked in salted water, then added to vegetables cooked in a pickling solution of vinegar, chile, vegetables, and herbs. In Mexico, manitas de cerdo can be eaten as either a botana (snack) or a main dish.

One of my personal favorite pork dishes: carnitas from Michoacán! These carnitas in particular are the best I've ever eaten: large hunks of pork are boiled in lard until crispy on the outside, succulent and juicy on the inside. Chopped roughly and served with various salsas, they're the best tacos I know. Find them at Carnitas Aeropuerto, in Zamora, Michoacán.

Adobo huasteco, another deliciously spicy pork dish. It's been a while since this last appeared on our table–and it's high time I prepared it again. I'll post the recipe for you next week (June 5, 2021).

Last but not least, here's a rosy bouquet of pig heads for sale at the Mercado de Jamaica in Mexico City.

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

29 de May de 2021
Mexico’s Markets :: Heads, Heads, and More Heads

If you've been reading Mexico Cooks! for long, you know that I photograph a lot of ripe and colorful fruits, vegetables, and other edibles in Mexico's markets. This gorgeous turkey, for example, was tethered with some others at the Thursday weekly market in Zaachila, Oaxaca. He didn't know it, of course, but he would soon be purchased and…well, you can imagine. This is a food market, after all.

In the interest of early and full disclosure, the rest of the photos in this article might just gross you out. It turns out that for reasons unknown even to myself, I have, in addition to taking lots of market photos of benign and lovely fruits and vegetables, made lots of head shots. Disembodied heads of animals, and mostly heads of pigs. Be warned.

This Mexico City butcher saw me approaching with the camera and obligingly sat the pig head up straight for a portrait. He's shaving the head, which was to be sold either whole or in parts for making Jalisco-style pozole. Better he should shave it than you should have to do it!

That's a goat head at the left of the photo. To the right is a container of chinicuiles (red maguey worms). The goat head is for preparing birria, the chinicuiles are for roasting and eating as a snack. It took me years to get up the gumption to try one, but I swear to you that they are delicious.

I think this is the first pig head picture I took, years ago at Guadalajara's Mercado Libertad. All the pigs' heads I've seen have had that same charming little smile.

See what I mean? This fellow looks downright happy to have given his all for your bowl of Guerrero-style pozole.

Doña Martha has taken a cooked pig head out of the broth to remove its bones and teeth. At this point, the pozole is almost-but-not-quite ready to serve.

Admit it, you would have taken this picture, too. How could I resist?

You might want to click on this photo to enlarge it, for a better view. It's barbacoa de res (beef barbecue, Mexican style), wrapped in penca de maguey (cactus leaves) and cooked for hours in a pit. You can still see the teeth in the jaw (center).

A raw beef head, hung upside down in the butcher shop.

Here's another beef head with the skin and fur removed from the top of the head. The butcher's gloved thumb is just about to pull the skin off the nose.

Anyone for bouillabaise? It's been a long time since I prepared this delicious French fish stew, but Mexican markets always have the ingredients. Like pozole, bouillabaise starts its broth with heads–in this case, fish heads.

Chicken heads. I don't have a recipe nor do I know of a recipe, but someone must: here is a bowlful for sale in the Mercado de San Juan, Morelia, Michoacán. If you do have a recipe, please let me know!

You'll be glad to know that this is the last pig head for this article. This one, thoroughly cleaned, shaven, and ready for the pot, is merely waiting for a customer. The ears, snout, and tongue are delicacies in Mexico. If that's how you like your pozole–with a little of everything–ask for your serving surtido–with an assortment of meats–as opposed to maciza, which includes only leg meat.

Has this photo essay driven any of you into the vegetarian camp? Here's a vegetarian head: cabbage, of course.

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

22 de May de 2021
Mezcal :: The Drink Brought to Us by the Goddess Mayahuel

Sign in front of a Mexican welding shop: "We weld everything except a broken heart. For that we have mezcal."

In case it hasn't hit your town quite yet, a tsunami is on its way from Mexico to you. Get ready: mezcal is on the roll! Here in Michoacán, in Oaxaca, and in many other areas of the country, recently ho-hum tequila is being replaced by this high-powered delight of the hundreds-of-years-old wave of the future. Many of you may already know mezcal as that bottle from Oaxaca with the worm in it, but Oaxaca is just one of the Mexican states where mezcal is produced. And just an aside: 99.999% of the time, that bottle with the worm in it is for tourists and other rank neophytes: it's usually rotgut.

An agave atrovirens cactus–the same photo Mexico Cooks! published last week–that is used to make pulque. The maguey cactus is also the base for mezcal.

Although there are upwards of 200 varieties of maguey, relatively few of those make up the majority of mezcales. Those few are: espadín (used for 90% of all mezcal production), tobala, tobasiche, tepeztate, arroqueño, and the maguey pictured above–the cupreata which grows in Michoacán and several other states.

Mezcal is produced for personal use and for sale in all of Mexico's 31 states, but only eight of those states have received the prized Denominación de Origen (abbreviated DO: certification of geographic origin). The largest mezcal production in the country is in the state of Oaxaca, which in 1994 was the first Mexican state to receive its Denominación de Origen. Today, seven other states have the certification. Most recently (in November 2012), the state of Michoacán received its DO status.

Cupreata maguey cactus in flower, near Etúcuaro, Michoacán. The flowering spike of the maguey is the quiote. A cupreata maguey plant needs eight to ten years to mature; like its cousin the common century plant, the entire plant begins to wither and die once the cupreata flowers. By day, birds pollinate the maguey. By night, bats do the same. Once the flower dies, the plant produces runners that grow into baby plants–and the life cycle of the maguey begins again.

[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbQBbqjUyvE&w=420&h=236]
Rocío Díaz of Morelia, Michoacán, creator of the acclaimed and prize-winning video Documezcal, has graciously given Mexico Cooks! permission to use her video as a learning tool in this article. In a way that words cannot, the video gives you direct insight into artisan production of mezcal.

Mexico Cooks! recently hopped on a guajolotero (what you might think of as a "chicken bus" is actually a turkey bus) to meet some new friends who promised to take me to meet an artisanal mezcal producer in Michoacán (west-central Mexico), where mezcal and its production are a way of life.

Every small town has at least one mezcal producer and frequently more than one; some small producers have been distilling the drink for private use for 70 or 80 years or more. Commercial production of mezcal is relatively recent; many connoisseurs consider commercial mezcales to be inferior. The good news? The best mezcal is the one you like, not the one someone–even if that someone is me–tells you to like.

Among people who drink mezcal and study its history, origins, and traditions, there is a good bit of controversy regarding its production and destinations. Until next week, I leave you with your homework: read the linked article so that you will know what the controversies are. Whether or not these matter to you is entirely up to you. Remember that the article is strictly about the mezcales of Oaxaca. Photo and article (click the link here) courtesy MezcalPhD.

Next week, we will talk about a particular mezcal from Michoacán.

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

8 de May de 2021
Pulque: Pre-Hispanic Drink, Gift of the Gods from the Maguey Cactus

The agave atrovirens cactus. This enormous gray-green plant, native to the ancient land which became Mexico, continues to provide us with pulque (POOL-keh), a naturally fermented alcoholic beverage. The maguey, with pencas (thick, succulent leaves) which can grow to a height of seven to eight feet, matures in ten to twelve years. At maturity, the plant can begin to produce liquor.

Pulque, native to Mexico, is suddenly all the rage in countries far from its origin. Folks who have never seen a maguey cactus 'on the hoof' argue the relative merits of natural versus flavored pulques, canned versus straight from the barrel, and so forth. Mayahuel, the goddess of the maguey, is laughing up her sleeve at this current rash of pulque aficionados: pulque has been well-loved in what is now Mexico for longer than humankind can remember.

Legend has it that a thousand years ago and more, Sr. Tlacuache (Mr. Opossum) scraped his sharp claws through the heart of the maguey and slurped down the world's first taste of pulque–and then another, and another, until he had a snoot full. His meandering drunken ramble allegedly traced the path of Mexico's rivers.

A drawing from the Codice Borbónico (1530s Spanish calendar and outline of life in the New World) shows Mayahuel, goddess of the maguey, with a mature cactus and a pot of fermented pulque. The first liquid that pours into the heart of the maguey is called aguamiel (literally, honey water); legend says that aguamiel is Mayahuel's blood.

Aguamiel actually comes from the pencas (leaves) of the cactus. In order to start the flow of liquid into the heart of the plant, the yema (yolk) of the plant is removed from the heart and the heart's walls, connected to the leaves, are scraped until only a cavity remains. Within a few days, the aguamiel begins to flow into the cavity in the heart of the plant. The flow of aguamiel can last anywhere from three to six months. Today, the men who work the maguey to produce pulque are still called tlaquicheros. The word is derived from the same Nahuatl origin as the name for the original tlaquichero: Sr. Tlacuache, Mr. Opossum.

An early tlaquichero removes aguamiel from the heart of the maguey by sucking it out with a long gourd. Today, workers use a steel scoop to remove up to six liters of aguamiel per day from a single plant. Aguamiel is not an alcoholic beverage. Rather, it is a soft drink, sweet, transparent, and refreshing. Once it ferments, however, it becomes the alcoholic drink pulque, also known as octli.

The fermentation of pulque can start in the plant itself. Aguamiel, left in the plant's heart to 'ripen' for a few days, begins to ferment. For the commercial production which began in the 19th century, tlaquicheros remove aguamiel from the maguey and transfer it to huge steel tanks, where it ferments.

The heart of the maguey, full of aguamiel. The tool balanced in the liquid is the same type gourd that is pictured in the early drawing seen above. Between extractions of aguamiel, the leaves of the maguey are folded over the cavity where the liquid collects to prevent insects and plant debris from falling into the heart.

Mexican photographic postcard dating to the 1940s or 1950s. The women and children pose in front of huge maguey plants.

By the end of the 19th century, pulque was enormously popular among Mexico's very rich and very poor. Weary travelers in the early 20th century could find stands selling pulque–just for a pickmeup–alongside rural byways. Travelers riding Mexico's railroads bought pulque at booths along the tracks. Pulquerías (bars specializing in pulque) were in every town, however small or large. In Puebla and Mexico City, legendary pulquerías abounded.

Italian expatriate Tina Modotti, a member of the Diego Rivera/Frida Kahlo artists' circle, photographed Mexico City's pulquería La Palanca in 1926.

This common image hung in pulquerías all over Mexico. Clients could order the amount of pulque they wanted according to the drawings–and be reminded of what they had ordered when the pulque had laid them low. Image courtesy of La Voz de Michoacán.

In the foreground are the actual pitchers and glasses used in Mexico's pulquerías. Compare them with the vessels in the drawing. Image courtesy of Museo del Arte Popular (DF).

Pulque lovers spent long evenings in their favorite pulquerías in an alcoholic haze of music, dancing, laughter and delight. Far less expensive than other hard liquors, pulque carries with it the romance of ancient legend, the tradition of a nation, and the approbation of the gods.

Edward Weston, American photographer, immortalized Mexico City's pulquería El Charrito, also in 1926.

Natural pulque is a pale white, semi-viscous, liquid with a slick, thick feel in the mouth; many people are put off by that feel, as well as by its slightly sour taste. Even for those who dislike natural pulque, another kind of pulque–called curado (in this instance, flavored)–is delicious. Natural pulque, combined with blended fresh fruit, vegetables, or ground nuts, becomes a completely different drink. Bananas, guavas, strawberries, and the tuna (fruit of the nopal cactus) are particular favorites.

Feria de Pulque (Pulque Fair) in the State of Mexico. Each of the jars holds pulque curado, each flavored with a different fresh fruit, vegetable, or type of nut.

Mexico Cooks! first tasted pulque about 30 years ago, in Huixquilucan, in the State of Mexico. Huixquilucan, known to its inhabitants as Huixqui (pronounced whiskey), used to be a small town, and Mexican friends took me to its small-town fair where home-made pulque was for sale in what seemed like every booth offering food and drink. "Try it, you'll like it a lot!" my friends giggled. "Just a little taste! C'mon!" I was nervous: I'd heard about pulque and its slippery slimy-ness and its inebriating qualities. Finally we stood in front of a booth offering pulque curado con fresas: pulque flavored with fresh strawberries. "Okay, okay, I can try this." And I liked it! The first small cupful was a delicious, refreshing, slightly bubbly surprise. The second small cupful went down even more easily than the first. And then–well, let it be said that I had to sit down on the sidewalk for a bit. I truly understood about pulque.

Try it, you'll like it a lot…c'mon, just a little taste!

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

1 de May de 2021
Orange-Coconut Flan a la Antigua :: It’s Time to Make This Fabulous Flan Again!

The major ingredients for Mexico Cooks!' best flan ever–clockwise from the bottom: fresh oranges, cream of coconut, whole milk, real Mexican vanilla, fresh eggs, and sal del mar (sea salt, in the little red hen salt cellar). You'll also need some sugar.

This is a Mexican flanera (flan pan). It's made of aluminum; the lid fastens down with a hinged clamp. If you have one, use it. If you don't, you can use any kind of oven-proof pan that holds about two liters. It need not have a lid. That's San Pascual Baylón, the patron saint of the kitchen, in the background. He can be especially helpful at the moment you turn the chilled flan onto the serving platter.

Start by caramelizing the sugar in a heavy pan. This is an 8" enameled cast iron omelet pan; it's been in the pots and pans pantry for nearly 20 years and, for this purpose, works better than any other pan in the kitchen. Just dump the sugar into your pan over very low heat; when you see that the sugar begins to melt a bit around the edges, move the pan a little to redistribute the sugar so that it caramelizes as evenly as possible.

When the sugar is fully caramelized, it will look like this photo. Caveat: this process seems to take forever, but you can't hurry it. And no matter how tempted you are, do not stir the sugar! Just move the pan little by little, tipping the uncaramelized sugar into the melted mass.

As soon as all the sugar is caramelized–while it is still boiling hot–pour it into the flanera or whatever pan you are using. Using a potholder, tip and turn the flanera so that the sugar evenly coats the bottom and sides. Be very careful not to burn yourself. Set the flanera aside and complete the recipe.

Mexico Cooks! Flan de Coco y Naranja a la Antigua (Old-Style Coconut and Orange Flan)
8 servings

Make the flan one day ahead of the time you want to serve it. Once baked, it needs to chill for about 18 hours.

Move the oven rack to its lowest position. Pre-heat the oven to 165-170°C or 325°F.

Ingredients
Caramelized Sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
4 Tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice

Flan
3 cups whole milk
1 cup cream of coconut
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 Tbsp freshly grated orange peel
4 eggs
6 additional egg yolks
pinch sea salt

Garnish as shown in photo
3 perfect strawberries with their leaves
4 1/4" slices carambola (star fruit)
2 to 4 Tbsp grated fresh coconut, toasted

Preparation

Caramelized Sugar
Over a low fire, pour one cup of granulated sugar into a small, heavy skillet. Do not stir the sugar. When the sugar begins to melt, move the skillet a little, tipping and turning it so that all of the sugar caramelizes evenly. Allow the sugar to boil until it is a deep caramel color. Add the orange juice and tip gently until the juice is fully incorporated into the sugar. Immediately pour the boiling caramelized sugar/juice mixture into the flanera or other pan, tipping the flanera until the sugar fully coats the bottom and sides.

Flan
In a 2-quart pot, combine the milk, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, the cream of coconut, vanilla, grated orange rind, and salt. With a wooden spoon, stir the ingredients over a medium fire until they are well-heated. Raise the fire to high and allow the mixture to boil, but don't let it boil over. Continue to boil the mixture until it has reduced by nearly one cup. Set aside and allow to cool slightly.

The milk mixture needs to boil until it has reduced by about one cup. Be sure to set it aside to cool when the reduction is finished.

To easily separate six of the eggs so that you can use just their yolks, crack each egg into your open hand and allow the white to run through your fingers into a container.

With an electric hand beater, beat the eggs together with the additional yolks until they are light and foamy. Add the cooled mixture of milks. Pour the entire mixture into the flanera or prepared pan. If it is a flanera, cover it and fasten the latch. If it is another type pan, do not cover. Whichever you are using, put the recipient into a baño maría (bainmarie) and then into the pre-heated oven.

The milk mixture in the flanera; the caramelized sugar is at the bottom.

The flanera in the baño maría, just going into the oven. The baño maría can be any kind of pan; use enough water to come about one and a half to two inches up the side of the flanera or other pan.

Bake the flan for approximately two hours. At the end of two hours, take the top off the flanera and test the flan by inserting a thin knife or metal skewer into the middle; if it comes out completely clean, the flan is done. If some of the egg mixture clings to the knife or skewer, bake the flan about fifteen minutes longer, being careful not to over-cook it.

Tip to the cook: if your cooked flan is filled with little air bubbles–you'll see them on the sides when you take it out of the flanera, and each wedge will also show air bubbles throughout–this means it's been in the oven too long. You want a smooth, firm flan with no bubbles.

Once the flan is cooked, take it (still in the baño maría) out of the oven. On a cooling rack, let the flan rest in the baño maría about fifteen minutes. Then remove the flanera (still covered) or other pan from the baño maría and allow the flan to cool at room temperature until the pan is cool to the touch.

Once the flan is cool, put the flanera (still covered) or other pan in the refrigerator and allow to chill until the following day. Eighteen hours, seriously.

To remove the flan from its mold, remove the cover and run a thin table knife around the entire edge, between the pan and the flan. To ensure ease of release from the pan, dip just the bottom of the flanera or other pan into very hot water so that the caramelized sugar liquifies a little. VERY CAREFULLY turn the flan out onto a platter. Mexico Cooks! puts the platter (one with a lip) on top of the open flan mold, calls on help from San Pascual Baylón, and quickly turns the platter and the mold so that the flan slips out easily. The caramelized sugar will run onto the top of the flan and make a pool in the bottom of the platter.

Approximate preparation time: 30 minutes
Approximate baking time: 2 hours
Chilling time: 18 hours. Truly, don't try to unmold this flan the same day you make it.

The finished product, ready to be taken to the dinner table.

Just prior to serving, decorate the flan however you like. In the photo, you see that I put one large strawberry in the center of the flan. I carefully made a border of toasted coconut and then cut the two remaining strawberries in half, leaving the leaves attached to each half, and placed one half at north, south, east, and west on top of the coconut. I then placed four slices of carambola between the strawberry halves. You could also use fresh red raspberries, thinly sliced twists of orange, and fresh mint leaves for a garnish, or any other seasonal fruit, or use no garnish at all.

Provecho!

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

24 de April de 2021
Picadillo :: Mexican Comfort Food, Just What We Need For Right Now

This delicious recipe for picadillo (pee-kah-DEE-yoh, a kind of Mexican hash) has been a staple in my Mexican home-cooking repertoire for nearly 50 years. A week or so ago, I was shocked to realize that I could not remember the last time I prepared it! What in the world had I been thinking? There is nothing that says 'comfort food' to me as loudly as this simple recipe. You and your family or guests will love it.

Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz (1915-2003), a proper British woman married to Mexican diplomat César Ortiz Tinoco, learned Mexican cuisine in Mexico City, her husband's home town. She published her wonderful The Complete Book of Mexican Cooking in 1967, which introduced the English-speaking world to some of the all but unknown regional cuisines of Mexico. I've cooked from this ever more raggedy, taped-together, yellowing, food-stained, still-magical paperback edition since the middle 1970s, starting several years before I moved to Mexico. The first truly Mexican recipe I ever prepared was picadillo, from Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz's book. It's Ortiz's version of Mexico's traditional home-style hash, and it made quite the hit with my guests, who had never heard of it prior to snarfing it down and asking for seconds at my table. If you've never heard of it, make it as soon as you can!

When I first started making this dish in the United States, some of the ingredients were hard to source. Today, nearly 45 years later, the ingredients for picadillo are easily available in almost any supermarket. Starting with the bowl of ground pork at about seven o'clock in the photograph and moving clockwise, you see the raw meat, Mexican cinnamon sticks, bright orange carrots all but hidden in the dish, chiles serrano, Roma tomatoes, white potatoes, a Red Delicious apple, raisins and dried cranberries, freshly dried hoja de laurel (bay leaves), a whole white onion, and, in the little dish in the right-center foreground, home-dried Mexican oregano. I dried the bay leaves and the oregano myself, but you can make substitutions: use ground cinnamon rather than the cinnamon sticks, store-bought bay leaves, and the oregano you normally use instead of the Mexican type; the rest of the ingredients are commonplace.

Minced chile serrano and diced white onion.

Hash of all kinds is one of the most comfortable of comfort foods, and the hash called picadillo (the word means 'a little something chopped-up') is simply Mexico's slightly more rambunctious cousin. This picadillo recipe is always forgiving, always flexible. Prepare it with ground beef, ground pork, or a combination of the two meats. Use more potatoes, fewer carrots, an extra tomato (or two, if the ones you have are quite small). Want more picante (spiciness)? Add more minced chile serrano. Don't care for olives? Leave them out. But by all means do try picadillo: it's a far cry from your mother's canned corned beef hash.

More ready-to-cook raw ingredients, left to right: diced tomatoes; peeled, peeled, diced apple; peeled, diced carrots. For size comparison's sake, the knife blade is 10.5" long.

Ingredients
1 kilo (2.2 lbs) ground pork, ground beef, or a combination of the two
3 large, ripe Roma tomatoes, diced
3 fresh chiles serrano, minced (Use less chile if your tolerance for picante (spiciness) is low, more if you want more spice.)
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 medium-large white onions, peeled and diced
4 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1 or 2 large Red Delicious apples OR 1 or 2 large, ripe Bartlett pears OR one of each, peeled and diced
4 medium white potatoes, peeled and diced
1 cup large green olives, with or without pimento, sliced
3/4 cup raisins, dried cranberries, or a combination of both
1 tsp dried oregano, Mexican if you have it
3 large bay leaves
2" piece of Mexican cinnamon stick OR big pinch of ground cinnamon
Freshly rendered pork lard OR vegetable oil, as needed. I'm a lard person, myself.
Sea salt to taste
Beef, chicken, or pork stock, tomato purée, or water, as needed

Sliced large green pimento-stuffed olives. Each of these olives measures a bit more than one inch long prior to slicing. Slice them in thirds or quarters.

Equipment
A large pot with a cover. For this quantity of picadillo, I use a shallow 4-quart enameled casserole.
Cutting board
Sharp knife
Large wooden spoon

Preparation
Heat 3 Tbsp lard or vegetable oil in your cooking pot until it shimmers. Add the onion and chile and sauté over medium fire until the onion is translucent. Add the ground meat and continue to sauté over medium fire until the meat is no longer pink. Break the meat into bite-size chunks as it sautés. Add the rest of the ingredients.

After sautéeing the onion, chile, and meat, add the rest of the solid ingredients to the pot and stir to incorporate them all. T
hen add stock, tomato purée, or water; the liquid should come to about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the pot. In this instance, I used a combination of tomato purée and water. Enlarge any photo for a bigger view; you'll be able to see that I used a combination of raisins and dried cranberries. I had about a quarter cup of dried cranberries on hand; a neighbor loaned me the raisins to make up the difference in measurement. The section at the bottom of the photo is blurred due to rising steam.

Cover the pot, leaving the cover just slightly ajar. Lower the heat to its lowest. Set your kitchen timer for 30 minutes and go read your email, walk the dog, or look at Facebook! When the timer rings, check the pot for liquid. If the picadillo has absorbed most of the original liquid, add the same amount again. With the cover ajar, continue to cook over a very low flame for another 30 minutes and correct for salt. Voilà! It's picadillo, ready to serve! I made a pot of picadillo this past Sunday, and it's as good as it always has been.

Picadillo, ready to serve after an hour's cooking. This amount of picadillo will serve 6 to 8 hungry people when served over steamed white rice or Mexican red rice. I like to prepare the picadillo recipe, serve it as a main meal, and save the rest to re-heat and serve the next day. If anything, it is even better after a night's rest–but then, aren't we all? After the second day, whatever picadillo is left freezes beautifully.

Delicious, just-right spicy picadillo, served over rice. You and your family will love this traditional Mexican meal. By all means let me know how it goes over at your house. A huge thank you to Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz, hasta donde tú estés (wherever you might be–the hope, of course, being Heaven).

Provecho! (Good eating!)

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

17 de April de 2021
What’s the Straight Story on Mexico’s Mealtimes? Cena (Supper) at the End of Day.

Back by popular demand! So many Mexico Cooks! fans ask questions about what we eat at mealtimes–and when exactly DO we eat? This is the third week in our three-part series that started on March 27; today, we'll take a close look at what's for supper on the Mexican table.

The man who operates this cart in Mexico City's Centro Histórico (Historic Center) wheels his baked plátanos y camotes (bananas and sweet potatoes) around during the day. In residential areas, when downtown businesses are closed, you are most likely to hear the steam whistle's raucously high-pitched TWEEEEEEEEEEET during mid-to-late evening hours. Each plateful is either a roasted banana or a sweet potato dripping with sweetened condensed milk. Enlarge the photo to get a better look at the front of the vehicle, where the bananas and sweet potatoes are kept warm over the cart's firebox.

Cena (supper) in Mexico is a mixed bag. For an ordinary cena at home, it's a tiny meal: a cup of hot chocolate or hot milk, a pan dulce (sweet bread), or a quick taco made with what's left over from comida (the main meal of the day). Comida being the large meal that it usually is, cena is meant only to tide you over from just before bedtime till early the next morning.

If you're out partying till the wee hours, a few tacos al pastor (shepherd-style marinated pork tacos) on the street might be just the ticket for your cena. Note the whole pineapple at the top of the trompo (vertical spit). The pineapple cooks along with the meat–see the gas grate behind the cone of meat?–and the taquero (taco cook) tosses a few small sweet slices into your grill-warmed tortilla. Top with red or green salsa, a pinch of sea salt, and a shower of minced onion and cilantro for a taste of heaven.

Buñuelos are another favorite food for cena, either eaten at a cenaduría (supper spot) or purchased from a street vendor. Some people still make them at home–the dough is very similar to that of a wheat flour tortilla, stretched over the round bottom of a clay pot till thin. Traditionally, the dough is stretched over the maker's knee to achieve each buñuelo's large size and round shape! They are usually served either whole and dusted with granulated sugar or broken into pieces in a bowl and drizzled with piloncillo (brown sugar) syrup.

Conchas (pan dulce), reposted from the breakfast article: food for cena is often the same food we eat for desayuno.

Just as an aside: in addition to cena, some people in Mexico still partake of merienda, a light snack that can come sometime between comida and cena. This 'light snack' can be as simple as a couple of cookies and a cup of té de manzanilla (chamomile tea) or it can be a more complex offering similar to an English tea. Mexico Cooks! will leave the question of how to find stomach room for merienda up to you.

Not all food eaten for cena is sweet. Case in point: this Pátzcuaro, Michoacán specialty is atole de grano, a savory corn soup that's colored and flavored with anise.

The 1826 Restaurant at the Rosewood Hotel in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, is an enticing spot for cena whether it's a romantic evening for you and your main squeeze or whether you are supping with a group of friends.

In February, Mexico Cooks! and a group of friends attended a gala Valentine's Day cena at Restaurante Los Danzantes in Coyoacán, Mexico City. The dinner was presented by Cynthia Martínez and a team from Morelia, Michoacán.

If you are invited to a cena baile (dinner dance) or a cena de gala (black tie dinner)at a restaurant, events center, or private home, your hosts will pull out all the stops. Champagne, beautiful entradas (appetizers), a superb multi-course meal, snazzy dessert, alcoholic beverages and music are de rigeur.

Mexico Cooks! researches possibilities for an elegant cena at Restaurante JASO, Colonia Polanco, Mexico City. As is often said, It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

For a hearty cena, this chamorro (pork shank, cooked for long hours and absolutely delicious) is served at Morelia's Restaurante La Conspiración de 1809. The portion, too large for me to finish at one sitting, served as wonderful tacos for the next night's cena. Not to be missed!

From street tacos to stilettos and tuxedos, cena in Mexico will keep you going till morning. Provecho!

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

10 de April de 2021