Sopes with Shrimp and Cactus

Nopales (cactus) boiled with cloves of garlic and strained

So much of what the indigenous people of Mexico eat is finger food, picked up gingerly and eaten with the hands, while it is hot, freshly made, and handed to those gathered around the hot comal. Freshly nixtamalized corn is shaped into small tortillas, gorditas, tlacoyos, huaraches, or sopes...all vessels that will carry the vegetables, the beans, or the meats to those hungry mouths. You simply can't eat some of these things with a fork. They won't even taste the same. The base of all 'wrappings' in Mexican food is, of course, this corn dough, sometimes thickly patted by hand, sometimes flattened thinly in a tortilla press...small, large, oval, round, fried, cooked on a comal, or steamed, but it's all corn dough.

Sopes fit into the category of small, edible 'plates' of corn with diverse toppings, usually offered ahead of a meal. You make your masa (dough) using commercial corn dough like Maseca if you're not lucky enough to live in Mexico where you can always find freshly ground corn dough. For your dough, use slightly more water than the recipe calls for so that your dough doesn't crack on the edges. Here's a recipe for sopes made in an oval shape. These are not fried the way you often find them sometimes and the topping is an amazing mixture of nopal (cactus, or prickly pear) with dried shrimp which is rehydrated with warm water. I've mixed a red chile ancho sauce.

We don't yet have all the evidence to call cactus a superfood, but we know it's part of a healthy diet:  it's high in fiber and antioxidants.

My aunt, Tía Leila, helped me make these in San Miguel de Allende last time we were there. Tía Leila, who is in her 80's, explained to me they were often eaten during Lent in our family when she was a child and later when she was raising her family.

Dried shrimp after rehydration

Sope topped with shrimp, cactus, and chile guajillo salsa

Sopes with Shrimp and Cactus

Recipe Type: Appetiser

Cuisine: Mexican

Author: Gilda Valdez Carbonaro

Prep time: 1 hour

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 1 hour 30 mins

Serves: 4

Dried shrimp is an ingredient that is usually found in Latino stores, but you can substitute boiled fresh shrimp, of course. I've seen the cactus paddles very often now in regular grocery stores. I recommend you prepare a chile guajillo sauce ahead of time: http://culinarianexpeditions.blogspot.com/2012/04/la-madrina-salsa-recipes.html

Ingredients:

• 3 cups chopped cactus
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 cups small dried shrimp (or fresh tiny boiled shrimp)
• 4 cups commercial corn dough (following the recipe on the package)
• red chile guajillo salsa, see http://culinarianexpeditions.blogspot.com/2012/04/la-madrina-salsa-recipes.html
• chopped cilantro, optional

Instructions:

1. Place the dried shrimp in a bowl of hot water to soak for about 30 minutes.


2. Boil the cactus for about 10 minutes with the peeled cloves of garlic, then strain and set aside.


3. Drain the shrimp, peel it and chop it.


4. Place the shrimp and the drained, cooked cactus in a bowl.


5. Stir in enough chile guajillo salsa to your preference, see recipe http://culinarianexpeditions.blogspot.com/2012/04/la-madrina-salsa-recipes.html


6. Make the corn masa according to the instructions on the package, adding a few extra tablespoons of water to make it more pliable.


7. Shape balls of dough about ping pong sized into cylinders.


8. Flatten them between your hands until you have oval shapes about 1/8 inch thick. (Keep your hands slightly damp)


9. Place the oval shapes (sopes) on a medium comal (iron griddle) and cook them on both sides until you see spots on the dough.


10. Remove the sopes from the comal and pinch the sides so they all have ridges on the edges.


11. Spoon your shrimp/cactus mixture onto the sopes and place them on the comal again for a few minutes before placing them on a tray.


12. If you like, top the sopes with chopped cilantro.

3.2.1263

Chilacayote Empanadas

Yesterday, Memorial Day 2013, I wrote in my journal:

On a day like today my son was buried, at the very front of neat, diagonal rows of tombstones. The empty, verdant field in front of his grave where his mother and father gasped in anguish at the sight of his casket on that day, is now a fully populated landscape, filled with the lost dreams of young lives ripped away from this earth so early, so incomprehensibly. The rows grew from Alex's grave in all directions, of those young who still lived, breathed, and dreamed they would survive, when Alex was lowered into the ground. So much was lost and buried forever, never to be found again.

I could not bear to write about celebratory food. I longed to write about memories of times past, memories that didn't tread anywhere near the symbols of this day. Would you humor me with my recipe for empanadas which I learned from my aunt in Mexico? Because...after that moment in our lives seven years ago, we ever so slowly learned to live again, and food once again became the expression of love that it had always been. These chilacayote empanadas are truly special, divine little folded pockets of love, flaky on the outside with a golden, angel-hair surprise spilling out of every bite. My elderly aunt, Leyla, prepared the filling in the little town of Marfil, Guanajuato, recently, and then packed the jars filled with the angel hair chilacayote in her suitcase for her bus ride to San Miguel de Allende where she visited us. It all reminded me of those days so long ago in Laredo when the aunts arrived with bags full of delicacies from Monterrey, Puebla, or Villaldama.

Chilacayote is a squash that favors a mountain micro climate, very common in the area around San Miguel de Allende; its mottled sage green color is a delight to the eyes, and, as it turns out, you can prepare a million different things from chilacayote, just take a look online.

One of my favorites is candied chilacayote and another is agua de chilacayote. Anyway, Tía Leyla arrived with the cooked, amber colored angel hair chilacayote filling and it was a perfect beginning for a tray of empanadas. We put our aprons on the next morning and got to work, cranking out dozens of empanadas ready to offer friends arriving at our house from out of town later that day. I lost myself that day in the good moments shared with a beloved aunt and the conviviality of those days that followed with friends that came and went, exclaiming over our seemingly endless supply of
empanadas.

Chilacayote Empanadas

Recipe Type: dessert

Cuisine: Mexican

Author: Gilda Valdez Carbonaro

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 1 hour 45 mins

Total time: 1 hour 50 mins

Serves: 15

This recipe is on the difficult side but well worth it if you can find chilacayotes where you live.

Ingredients:

• a 5 lb chilacayote (more or less)
• brown sugar or piloncillo (you will measure half the weight of your baked squash)
• 2 cloves
• 1 stick cinnamon
• grated peel of one orange

Instructions:

1. Cut the chilacayote in half and bake covered for one hour in a 350 degree oven.


2. Remove from the oven and scoop out the flesh.


3. You don't have to remove the seeds, they're good for you!


4. Weigh it and place in a large pot covered with water, half the weight in sugar, the cloves, the stick of cinnamon and the grated peel of the orange.


5. Cook at medium heat for about 45 minutes until it all caramelizes and the water evaporates.


6. Take care to stir often so it doesn't stick.

Notes

The recipe for the pastry is here: http://culinarianexpeditions.blogspot.com/2011/11/floria-pumpkin-empanadas.html

A Hot Meal On the Go: Sincronizadas Gringas

This summer I will take my middle school students to San Miguel de Allende and already the menu of what they'll eat dances in my head. It should be authentic but not too exotic, healthy, but appealing to even the least adventurous 13-year-old. Some things are just going to look mysterious to them, but they will not leave Mexico without tasting mole in the Oaxacan style. The experience at the table is another facet of the culture,  another dimension of the country and its people. Hence, missing out on the gastronomic opportunities is a total loss, no matter how many hours of Spanish you offer students.

Aguachile to Celebrate Summer

No hay fecha que no se cumpla, plazo que no se venza, ni deuda que no se pague.

This is an old Spanish saying which roughly translates as: time marches on, and the day we thought far on the horizon appears suddenly and irrevocably.

I've thought about this saying at different points in my life when eagerly awaited moments finally arrived. Yesterday was one of those moments and, if truth be told, it repeats itself punctually every year.  School ends and another fresh crop of students graduates and heads off into the world. My colleagues and I celebrate with mixed feelings as we watch our former students embark on new journeys.  They are wayward leaves thrown into the turbulent and haphazard river of life, hopefully well-prepared to bear the triumphs as well as the disappointments that will surely come their way. We teachers have done our job, given them the tools, taught them to, as my teacher friend from Maine always says, "begin with the end in mind."

My colleagues and I, needless to say, are now in a different mode. We still have meetings to attend but we are giddy (as we are every year) with the expectations of our summer leisure time. We laugh easily, we tell jokes, we are relaxed and at ease.  The stress is gone and we all talk of summer travel, of books we'll read.  I, for one, will be back to San Miguel de Allende, first with students and then on my own with my husband. What makes a summer in San Miguel so attractive is the temperate climate and laid-back character of the community, especially coming from the competitive atmosphere of Washington DC.

As I eagerly await my San Miguel summer, I make one of the dishes I regularly order at La Sirena Gorda in the center of town on calle Barranca. It's a type of ceviche common on the Pacific coast that is a much spicier version of regular ceviche. This is a perfect example of dishes you will only find in Mexico, exquisite in taste and low in calories.

So, the fecha (date) is here for you to try something new. The fecha at hand is the glorious beginning of the summer with all of its delights.

Aguachile for the beginning of summer

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Recipe Type: Appetiser

Author: Gilda Valdez Carbonaro

Prep time: 15 mins

Total time: 15 mins

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 lb small shrimp, deveined or small scallops


• 2 serrano chilies or 4 jalapeños, chopped roughly with stem removed


• 1/2 cup cilantro


• 1 teaspoon sea salt


• juice from 6 limes, approximately


• 1 cucumber, for garnish


• 1/2 small red onion, sliced thinly for garnish


• 1 sliced avocado for garnish

Instructions

1. Blend the chilies, cilantro, lime juice, and salt.


2. Pour onto the deveined shrimp and place in a bowl in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes.


3. Peel and cut the cucumber into 4 strips and slice thinly.


4. Arrange the shrimp and the aguachile sauce on a place and garnish with the cucumbers, sliced red onion, and sliced avocado.


5. Add more salt if necessary.


6. Serve on good quality corn chips or tostadas.

Notes

Smaller shrimp work better in this recipe and if they are butterflied it results in a better texture because the lime works more quickly on the raw shrimp. This is a recipe that separates the men from the mice! Have a cold beer ready to put the fire out. Fire eaters, you will love this. The rest of you, and you know who you are, just remove some of the serranos from the recipe if you prefer.

Shrimp in Jícama Wraps

In case you haven't noticed, Mexican food is becoming more "haute cuisine."  It's come a long way from the tacos, burritos, totopos, and refried beans often found in typical Tex-Mex restaurants.  In fact, the complexity of authentic Mexican food, as it differs from region to region in Mexico, has always been an adventure to explore and vastly different from much of what passes as Mexican food in the United States.

A crop of young, dynamic Mexican chefs is taking Mexican cuisine to new heights, developing recipes that are on par with dishes found in the best restaurants in Spain, France, or Italy.  Take, for example, shrimp in jícama wraps, a menu item I recently came across in San Miguel de Allende. It's a perfect appetizer: light, elegant and perfect when paired with a good beer or white wine. You'll find the contrast of the crunchy, juicy, jícama to the cooked flavor of the shrimp and the tartness of the lime absolutely divine. For the pico de gallo, required here, you will need to access my recipe in La Madrina's Salsas. Some of the chopping can be done ahead of time, but not too far ahead, (only a day at the most) because the freshness of the ingredients is key.

I tried these wraps tonight on a certain guinea pig I know who crowed that this version of Mexican food is a little frou frou in his humble opinion. But he made short work of it all and I was hard pressed to make them at a good tempo to keep up. Anyway, as I reminded him they're just appetizers! 

Shrimp in Jícama wraps

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Recipe Type: Appetiser

Author: Gilda Valdez Carbonaro

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 20 medium sized shrimp, deveined with skins and tail removed


• juice of 3 or 4 limes


• pico de gallo (see this blog for pico de gallo sauce)


• extra cilantro for garnish


• jícama sliced paper thin for wraps


• sea salt


• toothpicks


• 1/2 cup flour to dust the shrimp


• 1/2 cup oil

Instructions

1. Rinse and dry the shrimp, devein and remove skin and tail.


2. Dry the shrimp with paper towels.


3. Dredge the shrimp lightly in the flour until it is all covered and sprinkle with salt.


4. Peel the jícama and slice in paper thin slices.


5. Prepare a pico de gallo as found in this blog and set aside.


6. Cook the shrimp in the heated oil in a heavy skillet, (the hot oil should not cover the shrimp.)


7. Turn it until it is cooked on all sides, about 15 minutes.


8. Place the shrimp on each slice of jicama, spoon onto it the pico de gallo, garnish with more cilantro, squeeze the lime on it, and add more salt if needed.


9. Roll the jícama and fasten with the toothpick.


10. Guests can make their own if you provide the ingredients on the side for them to wrap their own.

Notes

Another version of these is julienned or cubed mango and grated ginger, minced serrano pepper, lime juice and cilantro in place of the pico de gallo, wrapped with the shrimp in the jícama wraps.

Membrillo on My Mind

When I was little, membrillo was one of the many gifts our Mexican relatives brought when they visited. I took it for granted. So many years later and so many miles away, I remember this delectable dessert and the loving hands that brought it to my family in Laredo. I remember in particular, Tía Lupita, an elderly, widowed aunt on my father's side who traveled  hundreds of miles by bus at least once every three months all the way from her home in Puebla to visit us. I remember her deeply-lined, smiling face, her wrinkled hands, her warm embraces...and the bags bearing boxes of sweet potato candies wrapped in wax paper, bricks of membrillo, obleas, cinnamon sticks, piloncillo, and beautiful gold religious medallas for all of us.

I was intrigued by the fruit itself from which membrillo is made. Quince or cydonia oblonga was held in high regard by the ancients. For the Greeks quince was a ritual offering to a bride, quince was Paris' gift to Aphrodite, and ancient Roman cookbooks are filled with recipes using quince.

Nowadays, anything can be found at a specialty foods store, even membrillo, but nothing beats the taste of your own. If life hands you a quince tree and you don't know what to do with the stone-hard fruit, make membrillo! But making it is not for the faint-hearted. You'll need some time to spare. Transforming the boiled cream-colored meat of the quince into a fragrant sliced, amber paste shaped into a little brick and arranged with slices of manchego will make your day.

Chopped quince 

Quince paste

Membrillo

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Recipe Type: appetiser, dessert

Author: Gilda Valdez Carbonaro

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 1 hour 40 mins

Total time: 1 hour 55 mins

Serves: 15

Ingredients

• 4 quince (about 3 lbs)


• sugar (about 3 cups, roughly the equivalent of the boiled quince)


• stick cinnamon


• 1 lemon cut in half


• 1 bean vanilla

Instructions

1. Peel the quince and cut in half to boil it with the cinnamon, the vanilla, and ½ of the lemon.


2. After about an hour, when it is soft, drain the water, discard the lemon, the vanilla, and the cinnamon and cut out the cores of the quince.


3. Cut into smaller pieces and either smash it with a bean smasher or, to be more efficient, throw it in a blender or food processor.


4. Measure it and put it in a large pot with an equal amount (or a little less, if you prefer) of sugar. Into this mixture add the zest of the leftover, uncooked lemon half.


5. Cook it for about 40 minutes, at a medium heat, stirring constantly until it turns a pinkish, amber color.


6. After it has thickened into an almost solid mass, pour it into a container and let it dry on its own. After a few hours it will have set into a shape that is easy to slice.


7. Slice it thin and serve it with equally thin slices of manchego cheese.

Notes

Ripe quince is yellow.
Serve as an appetizer or as an after-dinner dessert with a nice Prosecco.

Tacos de Huitlacoche

This past Columbus Day (also known as Día de la Raza in Latin America and Indigeneous People's Day in the United States) weekend I was back in San Miguel de Allende visiting friends and taking advantage of the long weekend. The weather was delicious with nightly rains quenching the hillsides and leaving the cobblestones glistening in the morning sun. The rains are also responsible for the abundance of huitlacoche, a corn fungus that Mexicans consider a delicacy.

In Mexico, huitlacoche enjoys the same culinary standing as truffles do in Europe, though it doesn't grow underground and isn't as costly.  The high regard for huitlacohe is an ancient sentiment.  The Aztecs revered all forms of maize, especially huitlacoche, a Nahuatl word some linguists decipher as meaning "ravens' excrement."  It is true that huitlacoche is not exactly pretty; the deformed, irridescent, and spongy kernels are powdered with black spores and look a little like, well, bird droppings.

Fresh huitlacoche is not hard to find in Mexico.  I saw a young woman selling it right on the cobb but often I buy it from Josefina, my elderly friend from the sierra, who removes it from the cobb and sells it packaged in baggies.

Huitlacoche's taste is difficult to describe; the flavor is not quite like porcini or truffles, but there is some similarity.  Fresh is better though difficult to find in the United States.  Canned huitlacoche is more readily available, which requires a longer cook time to dry out the liquid.

Doña Beatriz

This recipe belongs to Doña Beatriz, a legendary cook from Casa Carmen in San Miguel de Allende.  She doesn't put cheese in her tacos but to add cheese, cut thin slices of a soft cheese like queso de Oaxaca or Monterrey Jack and warm it on a corn tortilla, topping the quesadilla with cooked huitlacoche.

Photos of tacos courtesy of Kelly Castellanos-Evans

Doña Beatriz's Tacos de Huitlacoche

Recipe Type: Appetiser

Author: Gilda Valdez Carbonaro

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 5 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 2 to 4

Ingredients

• Ingredients:


• 2 1/2 cups of huitlacoche


• 2 roma tomatoes


• 1 small onion


• 1 clove chopped garlic


• 1/2 cup canola oil (approximately)


• Fresh cilantro


• Salt to taste


• Corn tortillas

Instructions

1. Clean the huitlacoche by removing the tiny stems or feet (la patita) from where it is attached to the cobb (these have a slightly bitter taste).


2. Cook the onion first until it is soft, then add the roma tomato; cook until it dissolves, then add the huitlacoche.


3. Cook this mixture for about 10 minutes, until it is all softened, add salt to taste.


4. Warm your corn tortillas on both sides on a comal.


5. Place a spoonful of the mixture, garnish with a slice of fresh tomato or a slice of avocado and chopped cilantro and serve with your favorite salsa.

Corundas

For the ancient inhabitants of Mexico and, in fact, all of the Americas, corn was king.   Maize was deified, and the variety of meals based on corn were nearly infinite. The modern-day Mexican eats corn in some shape or form every day, probably mostly in the form of tortillas. But each region of Mexico has a different way of consuming corn, in the form of gorditas, garnachas, tamales, atoles, guaraches, etc.

North of the border, little is known or understood about the regional foods of Mexico. This past June, when I took my students to Mexico for a summer Spanish immersion course, I introduced them to corundas, a kind of tamal originating in Michoacan (shown here:)

The tamal is wrapped in the green outer leaf of the corn, shaped, more or less into a triangle. You can add filling to the masa or simply pour cream and green (tomatillo) or red salsa on top. Whenever it can be found, tequesquite, a mineral salt, is used as a leavening agent when cooking the masa, a practice that dates back to the Aztecs. A good substitute for tequesquite is baking soda.

Corundas

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Recipe Type: Appetizer

Author: Gilda Valdez Carbonaro

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 1 hour

Total time: 1 hour 30 mins

Serves: 4 to 6

Ingredients

• 2 ½ lbs corn masa prepared according to the instructions on the bag


• 3 teaspoons baking powder


• 1 cup shortening


• cup milk


• Husks of 10 tomatillos


• Green corn husks


• Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Boil the tomatillo husks in about 1 ½ cups water with the baking powder.


2. Strain the water, disposing of the husks, and mix the broth with the milk.


3. Beat the shortening until it is fluffy.


4. Very graduallly, add to this shortening the milk-tomato-water mixture and continue to beat it.


5. When it is well mixed, very gradually add the corn dough (masa) mixture, beating more.


6. Add salt to taste.


7. Make a cone shape with the corn husks and scoop dough into the cones.


8. Wrap the husks into a triangle shape and tie with a thin piece of corn husk or cooking twine.


9. Place the corundas in a steamer and steam for approximately one hour.


10. Serve with crema mexicana and a green or red salsa.

Notes

Corn masa can be found in most grocery stores in the U.S. One well-known brand is Maseca.

A Quesadilla Commentary

I can't figure out why restaurants offer quesadillas on their menus so different from those found closer to the border and in Mexico proper.  I am not opposed to new twists on traditional foods or even so-called fusion foods (unlike La Madrina, who is much more of a traditionalist than I am), but why mess with a good thing?

Dear American Restauranteurs, a quesadilla is not baked in an oven like a pizza.  It is not cheddar and monterrey jack and mozzarella cheeses layered between two flour tortillas and grilled like a panini.  It is not even a prodigious serving of cheese, chicken and onions stuffed in a flour tortilla.  And it is most definitely not goopy, make-believe cheese (read: nacho cheese sauce) in a cripsy flour tortilla and deep-fried.

Quesadillas are quintessentially uncomplicated, which is why it seems almost absurd to include a recipe here.  Of course, in Mexico some variations are found, perhaps the addition of huitlacoche, a corn fungus and delicacy, for example.  The essence of the quesadilla remains the same, however: simple and savory.

As a parent, quesadillas, are my go-to food.  They are easy to prepare and children really do love them.  But I usually make them with corn, not flour, tortillas and just a sliver—not mounds—of cheese, either Mexican asadero or queso fresco when I can find it. This is the way my mother and grandmother made them, always with a spill of salsa or a heap of aguacate (avocado) on the side.  For my kids, I skip lo picante (the spice) but serve with avocado or fruit instead.

Mexican Quesadillas

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Recipe Type: Appetizer, Snack

Author: Gilda Claudine

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 5 mins

Total time: 10 mins

Serves: 1 - 2

Ingredients

• Corn tortillas


• 3 slices of cheese, preferably Mexican asadero or queso fresco.

Instructions

1. Heat the tortillas on a comal or in heavy skillet over a medium flame.


2. Place a slice of cheese on one half of the tortilla.


3. When the cheese begins to melt, fold the tortilla over.


4. Flip the tortilla to the other side.


5. The quesadilla is done when the cheese is melted.

Notes

There is no need to use oil in this recipe.

Tacho's Ceviche

The summer of 1969 my best friend, Susan, and I decided to take a vacation to what was at that time a remote part of Mexico: Isla Mujeres, off the Yucatan peninsula. We had already experienced life away from home that year as college students in Houston. Working as waitresses to help defray our college expenses, we had heard about the island from other students who worked with us. So, on a shoestring budget, we embarked on our trip. Starting out in our hometown, Laredo, we set off on trains and buses, stopping in Monterrey, Mexico City and Merida.  We finally made it to Puerto Juarez where we took a ferry to Isla Mujeres. We were two 19-year-olds, mesmerized as we arrived by the sight of white, powdery sand, crystalline water and the smell of the sea. We played like children along the water's edge with a kaleidoscope of fish that surrounded us.

Walking along the beach one day, an old fisherman approached us.  I still remember his name: Tacho.  For a modest fee, Tacho offered to take us snorkeling. We accepted and found ourselves trying to dive for conch without much success because we couldn't hold our breath long enough. But the object of our desire lay tantalizingly clear below us, as we could see all the way to the bottom. For Tacho, age was not an obstacle.  He effortlessly dived and came up with conch. Then, he took us to another side of the island where he prepared a conch ceviche with the tomatoes, red onions, lime, serrano pepper and cilantro that he had brought along. Now, this was the first time either Susan or I had eaten real ceviche and it was nothing like the ceviche back in Laredo.  The ceviche back home consisted of tired, microscopic shrimp in a cocktail glass, doused with a little ketchup and lime juice. Nothing like the real thing I discovered on the beach that day...Funny how a song can resurrect such long-ago memories. Songs like Harry Nilsson's Everybody's Talkin' at Me remind me of the innocence of those years, of my youth and of that trip.

Nowadays, I wonder about that clear water, about the living coral. I wonder about the turtles and the fish that swam at our side.  I wonder whatever became of Tacho.

Anyway, this is how I've made ceviche for friends ever since then, although I always use tilapia or shrimp since conch is not widely available on the East Coast.

Tacho's Ceviche

Recipe Type: Appetizer

Author: Gilda Valdez Carbonaro

Ingredients

• 2 or 3 filets of tilapia


• 1 quart of cherry tomatoes cut in half or 1 large, ripe tomato, chopped


• 1 medium sized red onion, chopped


• 1 serrano pepper


• Sea salt


• 10 limes


• About 1 cup (or more) or cilantro, washed, dried, and chopped roughly

Instructions

1. Chop the tilapia into little pieces and put into a bowl where you will squeeze all the limes and add salt to taste.


2. Let it sit for ½ hour.


3. Add the chopped tomato, onion, finely minced pepper, and cilantro


4. Toss and serve in small bowls.


5. Taste for salt.

Food is Bond

Food binds us to each other on an intimate level.  This is undeniable.  So-called “comfort foods” remind us of our childhoods when we felt safe, perhaps enveloped in a grandparent’s affection.  Sometimes the dishes we prepare remind us of loved ones we’ve lost, their once palpable enthusiasm for a homemade meal now relegated to a bittersweet memory.

When we spend the day kneading dough together or drawing a new family member closer by sharing an old family recipe.  When we puzzle over a recipe and wonder how the art of cooking came so easily to those who came before us.  Well, these are the ways in which we deepen our relationships to one another and uphold our traditions.  Food lies at the heart of it all, as something we need for both physical and spiritual survival.

Case in point.  I’ve spent the entire day making empanadas.  The recipe is simple but the assembly arduous.  Gilda (la Madrina) and I made the first few together while we sipped wine and contemplated the chemistry of pastry.  But this recipe belongs to an auntie I acquired, along with several other lovable and adoring family members (most of whom hail from Argentina), when I married The Saint.  My Tía Raquel and her sister (my mother-in-law) recently treated me to a talk about their childhood memories of Argentina:

Like the gift that keeps on giving, a discussion about food resulted in my Tía Raquel sharing her recipe for empanadas, a “comfort food” staple in many Latin American countries and Spain.  Now, forever a food that will remind me of her and of this moment.  The gesture of remembering together, sharing a recipe, cooking and talking — these are profound ways we strengthen our ties to one another, almost without even noticing we're doing it. Beautiful, isn't it?

Raquel's Beef Empanadas

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Recipe Type: Appetizer

Ingredients

• Filling


• 1 pound ground beef


• 1 cup chopped onions


• 1 cup chopped tomatoes


• 1 cup chopped green peppers


• 1 clove finely minced garlic


• 1½ teaspoons corn starch


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 1 teaspoon sugar


• 1 teaspoon black pepper


• A “touch” of red pepper


• 1 cup of water


• 2 hard boiled eggs (optional)


• 1 egg yolk, beaten (optional)


• Dough


• 3 cups of flour (I used whole wheat flour here)


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Instructions

Filling

1. Brown the beef over medium heat.


2. Add the onion, green pepper, tomato and garlic.


3. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally and until the onions are transparent. Stir in the corn starch, salt, sugar, and pepper.


4. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Here, I also added two chopped, hardboiled eggs, something I really like in empanadas.

Pastry dough

1. Stir together the unsifted flour (I used whole wheat flour, different from my aunt's recipe.), salt and baking powder.


2. Combine ¾ cup of olive oil and ½ cup of water and add to flour mixture.


3. Stir until dough is soft and cleans the side of bowl. (Note: I used a food processor to mix the dough.)


4. Roll the pastry and use a cookie cutter to cut out circles more or less the size of your palm.


5. Place about 1 tablespoon of the beef mixture in the center of each circle (more if circles are larger) and fold the dough over, gently pressing the dough at the seam.


6. Seal the edges (In a pinch, use the tines of a fork, as I did here.).


7. Place the empanadas on an ungreased cookie sheet and brush each with a beaten egg yolk.


8. Also, don't forget to poke a few small holes or make small slits in the dough to allow the moisture inside to vent.


9. Bake at 425 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

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1.2.4

If and when you embark on the mission of making homemade empanadas — well, let’s just say there’s ample time for bonding.

Postscript:

After my Tía Raquel read this post, she sent me these additional tips:

I should have mentioned you can add almost anything you like to the filling.  In Argentina it is common to add eggs (as you did) as well as olives and raisins.  It’s just a matter of taste.

I always roll the pastry between sheets of waxed paper instead of on a floured surface.  You will find that by not adding additional flour the crust is crispier and flakier.  The olive oil in the dough mixture is not absorbed with additional flour which makes the empanadas “fry” in the oven.

If you like a juicier filling, don’t cut slits to vent; enough vapor escapes from the edges to prevent them from splitting. You do need venting slits if you make a pie instead of individual empanadas.

Our mother used to make a beautiful braided edge to seal. I can flute the edges but I haven’t been able to master the braid. When I was little, I used to eat the crust only. I wasn’t interested in the filling and to this date the crust is my favorite part.

A Jícama Happy Hour

What would you do if all of the Doritos and Fritos and various brands of potato chips suddenly disappeared from the planet?  Would you season some cardboard and call it a day? You could make your own totopos, of course.  Or you could throw together a tasty jícama treat for your next happy hour.

Jícama, from the Nahuatl word "xicamatl," is a vine cultivated in Mexico and other Latin American countries, the root of which is edible.  The tuber's texture and crunch make it a pleasantly cool addition to many dishes, including salads and salsas.

Taking Tacos to a New Level

The idea of a taco, even a shrimp taco may not conjure up Mexican haute cuisine, but recently, at the Hacienda de Guadalupe in San Miguel de Allende, my husband and I were treated to a regal plate of shrimp tacos.

Tostadas de Camarón

The evening had started out a bit disappointingly. We had expected to meet a friend at the busy, noisy and well-known hang-out next door to the Hacienda de Guadalupe. Getting an earful of the clamor within, we instinctively ran for the door, away from the noise. But we were hungry and didn't want to walk far to look for a quiet place to eat.

Just one doorway away, at the Hacienda de Guadalupe, we found ourselves lured into this combination boutique hotel/restaurant, an eclectic but somehow congruent mix of twenty-fifth century modern and seventeenth century colonial design. The ambiance, in fact, is very peaceful and inviting. On the menu, we ordered the shrimp tacos. But...if you are thinking of pedestrian tacos, plain old tacos de la calle, forget it. What came was something that was arranged on the plate with an artistry that brought Asian fusion cuisine to mind. Chef Montserrat had turned plain old street food into an art form.

The way I've made them at home is without folding the tortilla when I fry it and I've made it with blue tortillas, but, naturally, it can be made with regular tortillas as well. So, my version, should be called:

Tostadas de Camarón

Ingredients:
15 raw medium-sized shrimp, peeled and deveined
4 tablespoons flour, approximately
salt to taste
½ cup canola or grapeseed oil for frying tortillas
½ cup canola or grapeseed oil for cooking the powdered shrimp
freshly ground red pepper (I use Drogheria Alimentari that you grind from the bottle)
1 package good quality corn tortillas
6 -7 limes cut in half

For the pico de gallo sauce:
2 large tomatos, chopped finely
1 large yellow onion, chopped finely
1 serrano pepper, minced finely
1 cup cilantro chopped roughly
1 teaspoon salt, preferably rock salt

Preparation:

Combine the ingredients of the pico de gallo ahead of time and set aside in the refrigerator, but not more than a few hours ahead of time.

Fry the tortillas in a pan with the hot oil. Turn them on both sides until they are crispy. Set aside on paper towels.

Place the flour on a plate and dust the shrimp on all sides. It should not look like a heavy breading. Add salt and a few grindings of red pepper.

Cook the shrimp on a pan with low sides on medium heat. When the shrimp is cooked, looking a golden color on all sides (about five minutes), place on paper toweling.

Just before serving, arrange the cooked shrimp on the tostada and top with the pico de gallo. The lime should be squeezed over the tostada just before the first bite.

Note: Shrimp come in different sizes, and the large ones are delectable, but if you use them, you should chop them before breading and cooking them, just so they can be eaten easily on your tostada.

Answer: Totopos

From time to time, too-far-away cousins email me questionnaires that solicit information about my favorite things, likes and dislikes and other random trifles. What socks are you wearing right now?  Great Dane or Chihuahua?  When was the last time you cried?  I take these inquiries very seriously, knowing that my relatives are trying to bridge the distance between us. None.  Great Dane. When I chopped onions this morning.

Then there are the questions about my favorite book, movie or food. These stump me. I agonize over the answers.  These questions are like asking me to choose between my children or to decide what I want to be when I grow up.  It’s much easier to articulate answers about the books I have no interest in reading, the movies that put me to sleep in the first twenty minutes or the few foods that motivate my gag reflex (e.g. liver).  There is, however, one exception.

My answer to the food question would be chips and salsa, but not the kind you find in the grocery store.  I’m talking about homemade fried or baked tortillas, called totopos in Mexico and a fresh salsa verde.

In The Art of Mexican Cooking, Diana Kennedy offers several variations for making totopos: fried, salted, baked, whole. raspadas or thin pieces.  I made last night (It's so easy!) and served them with some salsa verde.  Here’s what I did:  (Diana Kennedy’s directions are a bit more detailed than mine, but you may also want to consult her cookbook.): I cut 15 blue and white corn tortillas into triangles and heated about a cup of canola oil in a medium-sized frying pan.

I dropped the triangles into the oil (Test the oil by putting only one triangle in the pan; if the oil bubbles around the edges of the tortilla, it is hot enough.) and let them fry on each side for about a minute and a half.  I then scooped them out with a slotted spatula and placed them on three or four paper towels to drain the excess oil.

Next, I tossed them with some coarse salt and served with GVC's salsa verde.

Here also is my extremely simple guacamole recipe; this will make a nice dip for totopos

Guacamole

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Recipe Type: Appetizer

Author: Gilda Claudine

Prep time: 15 mins

Total time: 15 mins

Serves: 4 to 6

Ingredients:

• 3 to 4 ripe avocados


• 1 small tomato, diced


• 1 small clove of garlic, mashed and minced (optional)


• 1 or 2 Serrano or jalapeño peppers, cut in thin slices or minced (optional)


• A pinch of coarse salt


• The juice of 1/2 fresh lime

Instructions:

1. Mash the avocados with a fork into a chunky pulp.


2. Add the tomato and the garlic (and chiles), the salt and lime.


3. Top with cilantro and a couple of the totopos.

What socks are you wearing right now? Great Dane or Chihuahua? Your favorite totopo accompaniment?