A Touch of Class

Tacos of prawns with achiote, avocado, pico de gallo salsa.

Just a reminder for Sydney-siders, only a couple of weeks before our Essential Ingredient class on the 9th of April. Menu for the Tacos and Serious Salsas class on the day:

Carnitas
Crispy seasoned pork pieces, orange and cummin braise

Camarones en Achiote

Mayan-style Seared Prawns with annatto and lime

Tortillas a Mano

Handmade tortillas

Salsa Verde Quemada

Burnt green chilli sauce

Pico de Gallo

Rooster’s beak sauce

Salsa de Aguacate

Avocado sauce

Salsa de Arból

Fiery arbol chilli sauce

There will be accompanying wines and recipe booklet at the end of the day. Should be fun, hope to see some of you guys there. For more info and bookings, click here

Nieve de Leche Quemada

The following is frozen confection, a Oaxacan speciality that performs their usual trick of looking quite normal, but astounding with a complexity and depth of unexpected flavour. Literally "Icy treat of burnt milk", the leche quemada possesses a nutty caramel taste but is marked by the smokey notes of the burnt sugar. Many are delighted by the uniqueness of this frozen treat, and crave its morish flavour.


Note the smoke swelling out of the pot, the same permeating the dark caramel.

The trick I think, is to really embrace the smoke. I mean, it really does look -according to most everything you've learnt about cooking, and certainly what you know about desserts-quite the opposite of the desired result. But let it burn like a bonfire. Use good quality milk, good eggs and take your time.

Nieve de Leche Quemada

1 Litre whole cream milk (7-12% fat)
1 teaspoon good vanilla extract
1 2" stick cinnamon
1 cup and two tablespoons raw sugar
4 egg yolks

1. Warm the milk, cinnamon and vanilla together in a small non reactive saucepan. Just as it comes to the boil, remove it from the heat and leave to infuse for 20 mins.
2. Place a quarter (60g) of the sugar in a large heavy based pot and place on a medium heat. The sugar will liquefy and begin to darken in colour. Soon, patches of it will start to give off smoke, let this go for about 10 seconds, but make sure you are no higher than a moderate heat. Quickly add the milk to the burnt sugar. Be careful, as the mix will bubble vigorously for a few moments. Simmer the mixture until the caramel has completely dissolved. Remove from the heat, and remove the cinnamon.
3. Whisk the egg yolks together with the remaining sugar until pale. Pour the hot milk mixture in to the bowl slowly, stirring all the while.
4. Place the mixture in a clean saucepan and place back on a low heat. Stir and cook slowly until the mix is at 82 degrees Celsius (180 Fahrenheit), or until the mix is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and pour into a bowl. Place the bowl into a larger bowl filed with iced water to chill it rapidly and stop it from cooking further.
5. Freeze by manufacturers directions of your ice-cream machine. If you don't have an ice-cream machine, chill the mix in the fridge over night, then place in the freezer in the morning. As the mix starts to freeze, whisk it until all the ice shards have broken up. Keep your whisk cold in the fridge, and continue to whisk throughout the day until it is too firm to whisk any longer. Before serving, let it warm enough that you can move it around with a wooden spoon.
   

Good vanilla, organic milk and sugar, vividly coloured yolks.


Just after adding the milk, the mixture will boil vigorously.


After adding the egg and sugar mix, keep cooking gently until you reach 82-85ºC. This is the point at which egg yolk dispersed in milk and sugar is cooked. Incidentally, yolk cooks at 72º when the proteins are not disrupted by extra liquid.

Polvorones Ricas

Our guest contributor for this post is Karin Ferguson from Little Thing, an online seller of beautiful handmade clothing, including a lovely bunch of items from Oaxaca. In addition, she designs this very blog, takes the photos, and I might also mention she's my fiancée (and the baker of the house). These facts amongst a mountain of others, make me a very lucky fellow indeed.

This recipe is a mix of two, one from Diana Kennedy's The Essential Cuisines of Mexico, one from Fany Gerson's My Sweet Mexico. We found both of them great, but Fany's sweeter than those we were used to, and Diana's somewhat lardier. So after a few attempts and calibrations we have as we remember, the quintessential taste of a Mexico City Bakery.

A little about polvorones: basically a Mexican shortbread composed of nutty roasted flour, almonds and butter, heavily dusted with icing sugar. Variations include the addition of cinnamon, aniseed or orange, or using pine nuts in place of the almonds. Traditionally, they are singularly wrapped in tissue paper and sold in the style of a bonbon, the ends neatly shredded making them that much more exciting and festive.

I'm still not sure if they are called polvorones because they are so liberally doused in icing sugar (azucar en polvo), or because if they are treated gently they are subject to disintegrate to dust (polvo), as any delicate shortbread should. Ours crumbled over home grown vanilla-poached apricots, served with a lavender panna cotta. Thanks again to the wonderful Karin for the toil, the laughs, and of course all the rest too.



Polvorones | makes about 20

1/2 cup whole almonds, skin on
2 cups unbleached flour
a good pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
90g unsalted butter, at room temperature
30g vegetable shortening or lard, , at room temperature
Confectioner's sugar, for finishing

1. Spread the almonds and flour out on separate trays and bake in a preheated oven (180C or 350F) for around 15 minutes, or until the flour becomes nutty and off white, and the almonds are roasted through. Remove and let cool.
2. Sift the flour into a bowl with the baking powder and salt. Place the almonds in a blender with the sugar and pulverise as well as you can. Mix the dry ingredients together, then pour them out onto a clean bench.
3. Add the butter and lard, then work the mixture gently with your hands until it comes together into a crumbly texture. Gather the dough together into one firm piece, bind in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for two hours to rest.
4. Remove the dough from the fridge and preheat the oven to 180C (350F) once again. Roll the dough out to a thickness of 7mm (1/4 inch) and use a cookie cutter about 5cm wide to cut out as many as you can. Do this quickly before the dough warms up. Push the remaining dough back together then roll out to the same thickness and cut out the remaining portions.
5. Very, very carefully move the polvorones to a baking tray with a pallete knife or spatula. Bake for around 15 mins or until they are a golden colour.
6. Place a third of a cup of icing sugar in a fine sieve and shake over the warm biscuits until liberally coated. Let cool completely before removing to airtight containers for storage.

10 Things to Eat in Mexico (and Where)

In the spirit of helpfulness, I offer here a few pointers for good eating in Mexico. I know many writers have penned numerous invaluable tips of where to find the 'best burritos in town (huge portions!)', or who makes the best pizza in Cancún, but assuming for a moment you would like to eat typical regional food while you travel, look below. This is a guide for the uninitiated and doesn't go into chapulines (fried grasshoppers), impossible to find tamales made by someone's grandmother or anything else that is not straight forward. If you want to be more adventurous, try something else on the menu from the same eateries. Suggestions follow each listing.

So, in no particular order, here are some regional specialities not to be missed and places where you might find them. If possible, I have included a vegetarian dish and a fruit or other item specific to the region listed. And for those with language or custom difficulties, see the bottom of the page for a few hints on dealing with the ordering process.

1. Quesadilla con flor de calabaza
Blue corn tortillas stuffed with squash blossoms
MEXICO CITY
Any given taqueria, mercado or street corner or will have these almost year round. Expect an elongated tortilla of blue masa freshly made and stuffed with lightly cooked squash blossoms and onions. You will likely be asked, "¿con queso?" ("with cheese?") and the answered is certainly yes. Simple, wonderful and truly one of the delights of Mexican cuisine.
From the same stall: quesadillas of any given filling, all wonderful. Champiñones are a favourite.

2. Tacos al Pastor
Shepard's Taco
PUEBLA
This chile and spice marinated spit roast of pork has multicultural origins which you can read about here. It is certainly as delicious as it is ubiquitous, and that is saying something. Topped with roasted pineapple, diced onion and chopped coriander with salsas of your choice.
From the same stall: Alambres, chorizo, frijoles charros.



3. Jugo de Naranja
Orange juice
MEXICO CITY
Sounds stupid but seriously, go to a mercado juice stall and have the best huge orange juice of your life for a dollar. It will remind you why there is a huge demand for the horrible junk sold in supermarkets now.
From the same stall: Liquados with papaya, any drink with guanábana.

4. Tlayuda
Tlayuda
OAXACA
Basically a giant, slow-cooked tortilla topped with bean paste, Oaxaca cheese, tomato, avocado, and a feature ingredient (marinated pork, chorizo etc). Tlayudas are either open faced–a local girl used to joke that they are Mexican pizzas– or folded to serve. At 12" across they are a good size meal in themselves, but moreover they are delicious and at best extraordinary.
From the same stall: Tacos de cecina.

5. Frutas
Fruit
ANY AND EVERYWHERE
Vitamins have never been more attractive (a sentiment that will only be fortified by a few weeks of the meat and cheese diet of eating out in Mexico), tastier or fresher. Mangoes and bananas you will recognise, but also try granadillas (a hard-shelled relative of the passionfruit), chirimoya (custard apple) or tuna. Tuna is the fruit of the nopal catus, definitely not aquatic, and a popular flavour of nieve as are many of these fruit.
From the same stall: anything. Ask if the fruit is ripe ("madura") and be adventurous.



6. Tamal
Tamale
OAXACA
As the land of the seven moles you could fairly expect Oaxaca to have some very tasty mole-filled wonders, and they certainly do. The texture of Oaxacan tamales tends to be smoother than in other parts of the country. Try either mole negro or salsa verde tamales at the tamale stand at the Sánchez Pascuas market, located seven blocks north of the Zocálo between Porfirio Díaz and Tinoco y Palacios.
From the same stall: cambrays, which are sweet tamales with butter and raisins as the filling.

7. Panuchos
Panuchos
CAMPECHE
Fry tortilla dough, stuff it with black beans, top it with pulled pork, avocado, tomato and pickled onions then a little habanero sauce. Then, try and say no to it. I have trouble saying no to the fifth one.
From the same stall: Salbutes, which are similar but made with chicken.

8. Birria
Steamed Mutton Stew
GUADALAJARA
This old favourite is a preparation of lamb leg, marinated then steamed till falling apart. The resulting dish is the tender lamb in the broth saved from the cooking. Always pretty good, but never quite as good as at Birreria Las 9 Esquinas.
From the same stall: Barbacoa, pozole.

9. Pavo en Escabeche
Turkey in a piquant broth
MERIDA
This delicate broth is the result of slow cooking turkey with aromatic spices and a good dose of sage, then brightening the dish with a splash of apple vinegar. A clean and refreshing dish, without too much spice.
From the same stall: Relleno negro, pappadzules.

10. Caldo Tlalpeño
Vegetable soup, Tlalpan style
SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS/MEXICO CITY
Very loosely, this soup is vegetables cooked in broth and served with a little chile, avocado, coriander and lime. It is truly a remedy for body and soul. The best in San Cris and possibly anywhere else, is found at El Caldero.
From the same stall: Sopa Azteca, mondongo, el caldero.



11. Nieves, Paletas, Helados
Frozen sweets of all sorts
EVERYWHERE, ESPECIALLY CAMPECHE
How could I leave it at 10 things without these? Fresh fruits, chocolate, cajeta, mescal or even tres leches are all here, sweetened and frozen. Guanábana and coconut are just awesome (not as in 90's talk Awesome, but as in they fill you with awe) as is nuez, and pretty much the whole gauntlet. Paletas come both water and milk based (de agua or de leche respectively), and some of the Ice-cream stores have started making their helados with weird emulsifiers so try to stick to the little guys who do mostly hand-made.
From the same stall: Horchata, agua de jamaica, horchata de fresa.




A note on market and street stalls:
As the guide books do quite accurately state, busy ones have the cleanest and safest food. What is harder to figure out sometimes is how to order. You must move as close as you can to the people serving without pushing in and ask, "¿Que tienen ustedes?" (what have you guys got?). You will be provided a brief verbal menu, from which you might settle on say, a Tlayuda of grilled beef (tasajo). You would then say, "Me da una Tlayuda de tasajo por favor" (give me a grilled beef tlayuda please). They will prepare your food, serve it to you and only upon leaving will you need to pay. You might well say, "Provecho" (enjoy your meal) to the other diners as you leave, as is customary in Mexico.

How to Make Tortillas

There are few more potent symbols of Mexico than the corn tortilla. Both socially and gastronomically, it is no less than a cornerstone of indigenous and mestizo culture. It also serves as a class divider (known as the tortilla curtain) as the Spanish-descended upper class have historically consumed Europe's sometime emblem, bread. And like most peasant food, when tortillas are good, they are great.

Over 300 million tortillas are eaten each day in Mexico, and I suppose if you are reading this you may have contributed to that figure. You may also be one of the many who have tried to make your own, only to find the result to be more like an atheist's proof that indeed, God does not exist. Stodgy, raw, tasteless and rubbery are all apt words to describe failed attempts at tortilla production.

The following is by far my most requested recipe, though as you can guess there is not a whole lot to it. That said, there is not a lot to making them awful either, and I have included all the things to look for to ensure you are proud of your little corn cakes. It is one of life's wonderful mysteries how such a small margin in technique can produce such a huge difference in result, a question that has spawned much philosophising. I will spare you my own here, but do heed the following words and you might just see the meaning of life for yourself.

Tortillas | makes 20


Comal, tortilla press, Minsa, mixing bowl. All you need is a little water and a little patience.

The Making
1. Mix two and a half cups of Maseca* with two cups of warm water. Mix well by hand, and make sure you knock all the air out of the dough (it will be quite aerated and wet to begin, so just keep working it). This will take 2 minutes or so. If the masa sticks to your hands, add a little more Maseca and work until it forms a smooth dough.



2. If the dough cracks, it is too dry, add a little water and let sit. Press your thumb into the masa to check the moisture level. The thumb should leave cleanly, without cracking or effecting any untouched areas. Leave the masa sit for 1 hour. This will properly re-hydrate the corn flour so the tortillas wont crack as you cook them.


Too dry, then just right.

The Cooking
1. Make a golf ball sized portion and roll it in your hands until smooth. Place the ball between to sheets of plastic on the tortilla press and flatten gently (note: in Mexico, plastic shopping bags are exclusively used for this task. They are in fact the best thing, as they have a little give in them and wont create folds like silicon paper tends to do). Flip the tortilla over and press gently on the other side.



4. Remove the top plastic layer, place your right hand on the left side of the tortilla and pick it up. Remove the remaining plastic and with your palm facing upwards, lower the tortilla onto the comal. The hand motion required is to move your arm away from your body whilst swivelling your hand from palm up, to vertical, to knuckle up. Simply put, it looks like a backhand stroke in tai chi.


Laying it down and puffing it up: a clay comal is best, but here I am using a carbon steel pizza tray as it's much easier to come across. Carbon steel won't sick or warp, and has fairly even heat conduction. It also handles tomato and chilli roasting very well.

5. Cook the tortilla for 30 seconds on the first side then flip it over. Let cook for one and a half minutes on the second side, then flip again. All going to plan, you should see the tortilla puff up now, and this is the mark of a well made tortilla. Cook a further 30 seconds before removing to a cloth or towel. Keep the tortillas wrapped so as to not dry out. They may require reheating before serving.

*A quick note on the raw product, I don't think there is any huge difference between Minsa or Maseca -the two major brands of exported tortilla flour- but many people think Maseca to be a little tastier (nothing compares to fresh masa for taste or texture, but it is quite impossible to find outside Mexico). What I can say is that the instructions on both products are overly simple, misleading and disappointing. Just get a few tortillas right, get a feel for the heat of the comal or pan, and more importantly the feel of the masa.

Paletas de Coco

A summery treat for readers living south of the equator, where the mercury is rising and the sun taking longer to set. Of course, a ripe coconut is key so be careful when choosing. If you can get your hands on a peeled (meaning white and entirely edible, not just de-husked and looking like a chimp's cranium) coconut, you will know its fresh by checking if its dried out or slimy. If either of these symptoms can be diagnosed, move on. If you can only find the hairy monkey's head style coconut, be sure to shake it and see it has a lot of juice inside. This will show it is properly mature, sweet and tasty.

This simple recipe delves into some kitchen science that is quite interesting, dealing with proteins and and sugars. The protein aspect is the very real possibility of curdling the milk by introducing the coconut juice too early. Curdling occurs when proteins in the milk bind to each other, coagulating and squeezing out the water. Both a catalyst and heat are required to start this process, and the specific acids in coconut juice do the trick very well. So unless you want to make coconut flavoured cheese curd, don't add the juice until after you have boiled the mixture and let it cool.

The second part of the science here is as follows. Sugar inhibits freezing due to the nature of its cellular structure, hence why if you have ever frozen a sweetened drink the sweet syrup is the first to melt as you drink it, leaving behind a bland and perforated block of ice in the shape of the can or bottle you froze it in. I mention this because the recipe is quite sweet, and if you would like to reduce the amount called for go ahead by all means, but be aware you may achieve a rock hard result. In addition, our palettes do not perceive sweetness well from a low temperature range, which is why a sorbet or ice-cream mix can taste insanely sweet at room temperature yet only mild to sweet when served frozen. So, if you do reduce the sugar, make sure it is still a little sweeter tasting than you like it. Enjoy.



Paletas de Coco

1 whole coconut, peeled and at room temperature
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature*
110g raw sugar
1 inch cinnamon quill
1/2 teaspoon good vanilla

1. Cut the top from the coconut and drain the juice. Place the flat side down and carefully half the nut. Grate one half and cut the other half into eight even pieces.
2. Place the milk and coconut pieces into a blender jug and puree until smooth. This may take a minute or two, depending on how ripe the coconut.
3. Pour the mixture into a non-reactive saucepan with the grated coconut and remaining ingredients (barring the coconut juice), then heat gently. Simmer the mixture for around 15-20 minutes or until the grated coconut is quite tender. Remove from the heat and take out the cinnamon quill.
4. When cool, add the coconut juice and mix well. Pour into icy pop moulds and freeze for 6-8 hours before serving.

*Coconut has a lot of natural fats, which when cold are solid like butter and don't blend easily. The mix will blend quicker and smoother if at room temperature.

With a little bit of luck...

The Sonora Market, Mexico City.

I have always supposed soap to be quite a good thing, of large practical consequence but of little spiritual measure. As it turns out, this is simply not the case. The former assumption is patently clear, but the latter is more a question a symbol, and how it can inhabit a peculiar place in our daily lives. Take the rather heavily scented objects you see below. The blue bar promises to boost the trade of your business, the other offers no less than to triple your luck (the variety of said luck was promised to be general). In the daily life of a resident of Mexico City, these symbols can be worth collecting.


Scented and pressed palm oil blocks to wash the blues away.


Syrups and honeys that produce love, reduce hauntings, or even get that rich client to call.

These are the kind of items you will find at Mexico City's Mercado Sonora. Amongst caged birds, glazed pottery and cheap toys resides a huge outlet of commodified luck. Sachets of love powders, aerosols of atomised spells, luck soaps and success perfumes are just a peek into what goes on here at Sonora. Bunches of medicinal herbs and seeds occupy a large proportion of the market, as do statues of Santa Muerte and scented candles.

The function of most of these items is quite within the realms of reasonable demands: to help your grades at school, calm a jealous boyfriend or help you meet your debt payments. Though these are far from the biggest problems people face here. The current state of affairs in Mexico spell hard times, at least for those on the lower rungs of society. The economy has shrunk by 7% in the past year, and poverty rose for the first time since the mid nineties. Tourism crumbled after the H1N1 virus (which is now known to have originated north of the border) was renamed the Mexican swine flu, and the drug wars claimed yet more lives.


Supernatural powders to rid you of jealousy, begin a friendship or help you with your studies.

As such, it isn't too much to ask for a little help and many do. So nearing the eve of our return to Australia, we thought we would do the same. The preparation and use of the herbs are somewhat beyond both our needs and the facilities in our Mexico City B&B, so we opted for the soap as advised. In their little boxes adorned with promises of more secret herbs and spices than you can poke a Colonel at, they looked quite promising.

Unfortunately, we had to put them outside our room after taking the photos of the unwrapped specimens as they seemed to be inspiring some fairly serious headaches. Only minutes later as the pain started to leave and the clouds parted, I could barely believe it. I was getting luckier already.