Message in a Molcajete

Hijo,

I want to tell you a story. It's been part of the lore of our family. It's about a molcajete. This is a story I would have told you, along with many others about our family but, child, we simply ran out of time.

So many years ago, your grandfather, Rogelio, returning safely to Laredo from the Second World War, proposed to your grandmother, Floria, or Lita, as you used to call her when you were learning to speak. A wedding was planned in a poor neighborhood just a few blocks south of the bridge in Nuevo Laredo. The bride's family was humble and, therefore, the wedding party was not large. As the story goes, or as Lita used to say, there was a little girl in the neighborhood who wanted badly to attend the wedding. This little girl, who must have been around eight years of age, according to Lita, appeared at the backyard wedding reception with her best dress and a wedding gift wrapped in newspaper.

The gift was a molcajete that Lita came to treasure probably more than any of the more costly gifts she received. The identity of the little girl is lost in time and hopefully no calamity befell the household in Nuevo Laredo that discovered its molcajete suddenly missing.

This pumice stone mortar and pestle has sat quietly resting on its three legs, when not in use, like a witness to the years we lived in your grandparents' house. I began to use it when I was just a child myself when I helped Lita cook. And when I left home, Lita let me have it. Its black porous surface has an almost smooth texture from so much grinding and I can attest to contributing to its smooth edges these past ten years. If it could talk, what stories it could tell.

Hijo, I'm writing you a recipe for Salsa Molcajete, a sauce Lito, your grandfather, made very often quite early in the morning. Lito was an early riser and he would inadvertently annoy his three sleeping daughters by getting up at 6 a.m. On a Saturday morning, he would roast serrano peppers for his breakfast sauce until they started smoking. Unfortunately, the smoke from the chilis would get us all coughing. Poor Lito...he just wanted to make a sauce quickly, not taking the time to slowly roast the chilis. I'm laughing at the memory of the commotion and yelling that would break out of the bedrooms as my sisters and I would wake up coughing to the smell of smoking chilis slowly wafting into our bedrooms. Throughout the house you could hear the three of us yelling "Papá!!!" Then Lita would join the fray, "Rogelio!!!"

Needless to say, the molcajete has been around for a lot of our family stories. It would have been around for yours too.

Salsa de Molcajete

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Author: Gilda Valdez Carbonaro

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 5 mins

Total time: 20 mins

Serves: 4

Grinding roasted tomatoes, peppers, garlic, and onion in a mortar, gives them a complexity of flavor you wouldn't otherwise get.

Ingredients

• 2 cloves peeled garlic


• 1/2 white onion


• 1 extra large tomato


• 1/4 teaspoon seasalt


• 1/4 cup cilantro


• juice from one lime


• 1 serrano pepper (or you can subsitute a jalapeño)

Instructions

1. Dry roast the garlic, onion, serrano pepper, and tomato on a comal for about 5 minutes until they are slightly charred.


2. Peel the tomato.


3. In the molcajete grind the garlic, serrano pepper, onion (chopped fine) and cilantro with the sea salt.


4. Empty the contents of the molcajete into another bowl to make room to grind the tomato.


5. Mix everthing together again in the molcajete, squeeze the lime juice and fix for salt.

Notes

This makes a chunky sauce with intense flavors. You can add or diminish any of the ingredients according to your taste.

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2.2.1

Salsa Pico de Gallo

Molcajetes are a type of mortar (molcajete) and pestle (tejolote) made from basalt.  Use of the molcajete in Mesoamerica dates back 6,000 years and remains ubiquitous in Mexican cooking today. Molcajetes are versatile tools;  they can be used to grind chiles, herbs, and spices, thereby releasing essential oils and flavors.  Because they are made from volcanic rock, they may be heated and used to serve stews, meats and other foods that taste better at higher temperatures.  They also function as attractive serving pieces for guacamole and salsas.

Pico de gallo, for instance, is a quick salsa that can be found on nearly every Mexican table at mealtimes, whether breakfast, lunch or dinner.   (La Madrina recalls that preparing it was the first duty she was given as a child.)  It's simple, fresh and zesty and the perfect accompaniment to a variety of Mexican dishes.

Pico de Gallo

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Recipe Type: Salsa

Author: Gilda V. Carbonaro

Prep time: 10 mins

Total time: 10 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 3 firm, large tomatoes, chopped small, into cubes


• 1 regular-sized white onion, minced


• 1 serrano pepper, minced


• 5 or 6 sprigs of cilantro, roughly chopped


• salt to taste
• 
  

Instructions:

1. Grind the minced serrano pepper into the molcajete.


2. Add the chopped ingredients: tomato, onion, and cilantro to the molcajete, add salt to taste and stir.

Notes

Add or diminish the amount of serrano pepper, as you prefer. Or use another type of pepper, like jalapeño if you can't find serrano.

A Salsa Challenge

In the U.S., most restaurants serve a variation of salsa ranchera and sometimes salsa verde, but there are many other exquisite and nuanced salsas to explore.  Diana Kennedy's The Essential Cuisines of Mexico contains recipes for over twenty different salsas, including a fiery salsa de chile habanero.  She writes

It would be unthinkable to sit down to an authentic Mexican meal and not find a dish of sauce or some pickled jalapeños on the table; they are as common as salt and pepper.  I suppose it is not surprising given the great variety of chiles that are cultivated--and some grow wild--throughout Mexico.  There is a great difference, too, in the heat level, color, taste in chiles both fresh and dried.  The ways in which chiles are prepared, and the ingredients with which they are combined, are highly regional...I doubt that any other cuisine has such a variety of "condiments."

I enjoy making homemade salsas.  I find that the taste tends to vary slightly with each batch, the outcome dependent upon the ripeness of the tomatoes, the types and amounts of chiles I use and whether the vegetables are roasted or blended raw.

Homemade salsas, whether green or red, raw or roasted are utterly fresh.  Which is why it's hard to understand the seemingly huge demand for bottled salsas sold in stores.  (Some even claim that salsa outsells ketchup as America's favorite condiment!)  It takes very little time to blend the vegetables raw or roast them first and throw them into a blender.

Readers are hereby challenged to reach for the fresh tomatoes, tomatillos and chiles in lieu of who-knows-how-long-they've-been-on-the shelf bottled salsas!  Here are a few recipes to get you started:

Salsa Three Ways

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Recipe Type: Salsa

Author: Gilda Claudine

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 4 to 6

Ingredients

• 5 Ripe Tomatoes


• 5 tomatillos


• 2 avocados


• 1 habanero


• 2 Jalapeños or chiles serranos


• Cilantro


• 1 small onions


• 1 clove garlic


• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. On a comal or cast iron pan without oil, roast the tomatoes and chiles.


2. Once the vegetables charred, cool and remove some of the burnt skin.

Salsa de Habanero

1. Place 1/2 of a habanero (de-seed for less heat), 1/2 clove of garlic, 1/4 raw onion and 3 large tomatoes in a blender or food processor.


2. Blend until the ingredients are smooth.


3. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Salsa Roja

1. Place 2 jalapeños, 1/2 clove of garlic, two large tomatoes, a bunch of cilantro in a blender or food processor.


2. Blend until the ingredients are smooth.


3. Add salt and pepper to taste

Salsa Verde with Aguacate

1. Place roasted tomatillos, roasted serrano peppers, 1/2 clove of garlic, a bunch of cilantro, 1/4 onion (optional) and 2 ripe avocados in blender or food processor.


2. Blend until smooth.


3. Add salt and pepper to taste

Notes

A few things to keep in mind:
The jalapeños and serranos can be used interchangeably.
Adjust the spice level accordingly by using more or less chiles in each recipe.
The salsas may be stored in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days.

The Luscious Taste of Verde

My mother always commented on the "greenness" of a taste when she added her serrano pepper to something or tasted the 'greenness' of a tomatillo sauce.  Es el sabor a verde que me gusta en esta salsa, she would say. (It's the green taste that I like in this sauce).

Here is a sauce that celebrates that fresh, green taste. I recently tried it at La Posadita in San Miguel de Allende where they first roast the tomatillo, giving it a smoky flavor. It's a perfect sauce for eggs (huevos rancheros), can be added to guacamole, slathered on meat after grilling or simply eaten with totopos (chips).   When the "greenness" hits your mouth, your tastebuds tremble with pleasure as the sauce mixes with the other tastes in your mouth.

Green Tomatillo Sauce

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. tomatillos (about 4 green 'tomatoes' in their husks)
1 Serrano pepper (or more if you prefer)
1/2 to 1 clove of garlic
Bunch of cilantro leaves (about 1/2 cup)
1/4 of a mid-sized onion

Preparation:
Brown the tomatillos on a 'comal', a stove top griddle, for about 10 minutes until you see black patches on all sides. Then remove most of the black peel.
Throw the tomatillo and the rest of the ingredients, which are raw, into the blender and liquify.  Garnish with a sprig of cilantro.