Cuernavaca cooking school

[cantdog]

It was hot whenever we left the city, but in Cuernavaca, we once again had days in the seventies and nights in the sixties. One cannot usually see things which are in the distance in the downtown of Cuernavaca, because of the walls. Mediterranean architecture walls in each building, enclosing inner courtyards, instead of leaving back yards or front yards. One needs a vantage point above the walls' height to see the hills beyond the city, and one sees beautiful old walls everywhere as one travels through the older parts of town.

As the day of the wedding approached, we made a couple of days' sorties. Not just to Xochicalco, but to Taxco, the silver city. It had been a silver mining area before the Spanish, and it still has silver production today. Great place to shop.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y90/sysladobsis/Mexico/IMG_0215.jpg
It's a very vertical place, being built on the steep hillside of the mountain.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y90/sysladobsis/Mexico/IMG_0216.jpg

Silver workers from all over the world have moved to Taxco. Remarkable pieces are everywhere in the shops and in the outlets run by the silversmiths' groups.

 

[rgraham666]

It was hot whenever we left the city, but in Cuernavaca, we once again had days in the seventies and nights in the sixties. One cannot usually see things which are in the distance in the downtown of Cuernavaca, because of the walls. Mediterranean architecture walls in each building, enclosing inner courtyards, instead of leaving back yards or front yards. One needs a vantage point above the walls' height to see the hills beyond the city, and one sees beautiful old walls everywhere as one travels through the older parts of town.

That's very cool. I think I've just found where I'll retire to.

 

[cantdog]

Taxco is in Guerrero State. We landed in the Distrito Federal, spent most of our time in Morelos State, and popped across the Guerrero State border to go to Taxco.

One of the fellows who was showing us the place told me, looking pointedly at my panama, that I was in Guerrero State, where they make the hats. In México, he said, when a man wants a hat, he looks to Guerrero State.

I bought a hat. Nine bucks. The guy put it on his knee and reefed on it with both hands to size it for my large head.

 

[cantdog]

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y90/sysladobsis/Mexico/adobewall.jpg

Everywhere there were arrangements of light and color which I couldn't help taking a pic of.

 

[cantdog]

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y90/sysladobsis/Mexico/tlayacapan01.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y90/sysladobsis/Mexico/tlayacapan08.jpg

These were taken in Tlayacapan, back in Morelos, and that is a pottery center. The second photo is of the former wax factory (everyone used to need loads of candles). It is a pop-culture monument, now, because this is the building in "Bolivia" where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid made their last stand, in the final scenes of the film.

 

[cantdog]

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y90/sysladobsis/Mexico/tepoztlan11.jpg

A store in Tepoztlan. Nahuatl was what stood out, for me, in México. I was accustomed to street signs in Spanish, from Belize and from the Dominican Republic, but México has a powerful lot of Aztec signs.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y90/sysladobsis/Mexico/tepoztlan08.jpg

 

[cantdog]

Okay. Howzabout a recipe?

One night, we had a tasting of some two dozen and more tequilas and mezcals.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y90/sysladobsis/Mexico/tequila.jpg

And to accompany the tequilas, we had sangrita. In restaurants in Cuernavaca, margaritas are made for the tourists, but if you order Don Julio or Herredura or something, they bring it with a little cordial glass of sangrita. A chaser, if you will. The stuff is reputed to be a hangover-helper, as well.

Sangrita

1 liter of tomato juice

juice of 1 orange

juice of 5 limes

1/2 (one half) onion

1 chile chipotle (canned)

1/2 teaspoon of pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Mix all ingredients and allow them to intermingle a minimum of one hour in the refrigerator. For best results let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.


Copyright Ana Isabel García Moreno, used by permission

 

[cantdog]

That's very cool. I think I've just found where I'll retire to.

The chatty cab driver recommended just that. He had been a truck driver, he said. He had driven and stayed all over the country. He came originally from Vera Cruz, but he never found any place as wonderful as Cuernavaca. The city of eternal Spring! And there are a lot of middle class in Cuernavaca, which made the streets safe in lots of the town, and the stores better. But the politicians! The government of the city is muy corrupto... it was a scandal, but it was the only drawback to the place.

He talked the whole way to the bus station, nonstop. But he said nothing that many another person had not also told us.

 

[cantdog]

A Basic Salsa

Salsa de Molcajete

ingredients:

1 clove of garlic, roasted

1 teaspoon salt

1 pinch of cumin seeds, toasted slightly

1 pinch of black peppercorns

1 to 4 chiles serranos or jalapeños roasted (to your level of picante)

1/4 (one quarter) smallish onion, roasted

2 tomatoes, roasted

1/4 cup (125 ml or so) beer

1 teaspoon (a teaspoon is 5 ml, isn't it?) of apple cider vinegar

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y90/sysladobsis/Mexico/molcajete.jpg

recipe:

(You start out with a very hot pan or a comal over the burners, and roast all the veggies and cumin-- cantdog)

After roasting the garlic, chilies (sic), onions and tomatoes in a very hot pan crush the ingredients one by one in the molcajete, starting with all of the spices and the garlic. Then add the rest of the ingredients one by one and crush. Finally, add the beer and cider.

(As you finish mashing each one you put the mush thus produced in a bowl, and it is to this bowl that you add the liquid.)

With the invention of the food processor and blender, salsas have been modernized, but not necessarily improved. A chunky salsa of toasted jalapeños, tomatoes, and garlic comes out much clearer in flavor, more beautifully textured, and tastier in a molcajete than a salsa pulverized in the processor. This is because the flavors are squeezed out, expressed, in the molcajete, allowing the flavors to mix freely while still preserving the chunky nature of a good salsa.

With salsa involving dried chiles, it can be very difficult to use the molcajete and a processor would be preferred. Dried chile skins are hard to grind, but the blades of a processor cut them. The standard now is that dried-chile salsas are made smooth, processed to a puree, while if a molcajete is available, other salsa should be done in it.

 

[cantdog]

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y90/sysladobsis/Mexico/reposado.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y90/sysladobsis/Mexico/IMG_0143.jpg

 

[Tom Collins]

Wow, cant! Thanks for sharing the pix/commentary!

I wish my ass was half as yummy as those mannequins' though. *sigh*

Jesus fuck...I thought I was the only one. I now fully appreciate why guys pop a bone over them.

Fanfuckingtastic pics, cant. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Guest]

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y90/sysladobsis/Mexico/IMG_0143.jpg

This is amazing.

Wonderful thread, cant - thank you.

 

[Grushenka]

With the invention of the food processor and blender, salsas have been modernized, but not necessarily improved. A chunky salsa of toasted jalapeños, tomatoes, and garlic comes out much clearer in flavor, more beautifully textured, and tastier in a molcajete than a salsa pulverized in the processor. This is because the flavors are squeezed out, expressed, in the molcajete, allowing the flavors to mix freely while still preserving the chunky nature of a good salsa.

Cantdog: I'm serious here. You have a special skill at communicating the 'foreign', *plus* you teach in a very convivial and alluring style. I was going to say you might also think of writing a cook book, then I thought, Wait! A Mexico guidebook cum recipes and foodie type info.

I said I'd been to Mexico and loved the place (and people, culture, etc.), but I never made it to Cuernavaca - now you've got me daydreaming. I'm 'having Mexican' tonight. Keep posting! Gru

 

[cantdog]

You are too kind. That's the end of the thread, by the way. I can answer questions if you like.

 

[Guest]

You are too kind. That's the end of the thread, by the way. I can answer questions if you like.

When will you cook for us?

 

[rgraham666]

When will you cook for us?

My reaction here.

 

[cantdog]

We did one of our first cooking schools in Santa Fe. They did chiles rellenos in that one, too, as Ana did in Cuernavaca. The peppers (chiles poblanos, in both cases) were boiled until soft in New Mexico, but roasted in Cuernavaca. The stuffing was very similar, and can be taken to be identical. The breading, mostly flour and stiffly-beaten egg whites, was essentially identical, and so was the technique of turning the peppers to cook it.

The New Mexico stuffed peppers, though, were covered in melted cheese (under a broiler), while a red, dried-chile pureed sauce finished the actual Mexican version. This topping was the biggest difference, the one that made the most impact.

Ana sniffed at the cheese idea, calling it "Tex-Mex."

But if you think of Tex-Mex as a cuisine in its own right, both are legitimate. I enjoyed both, and thought of them, frankly, as two different dishes. Of the two, I suppose, in the end, I preferred the cheesy version. But roasting the poblanos is a better idea than boiling them.

I have people over to feed them frequently. You should move within striking distance.

 

[Tom Collins]

My reaction here.

Crap on a cracker, Rob...that sounded disgusting!

PMSL