After all the intense summer heat of the past week, now that it’s finally cooler I have been craving Mexican comfort food. I wanted enfrijoladas, those rich, creamy bean and cheese bits of yummy that melt in your mouth. An enfriolada is something like an enchilada only a bean sauce is used instead of the red or green chile sauce. They can be made with either corn or flour tortillas, but I use flour because they make the dish extra soft and velvety. Enfrijoladas are not only great comfort food, they are very economical. Typically served with enfrijoladas are what we call Chiles Toreados which could mean either toasted chiles or bullfighter style chiles depending on who you’re talking to. Jorge Carbajosa over at Spanish Lesson has a good post on the word here. I use chiles jalapeños and thick slices of onion in mine.  Some people use Salsa Maggi for flavoring but I like Knorr Suissa.   The chiles are sliced into four pieces, toasted in oil along with the onions and then served over the enfrijoladas. My kids would kill me if I dared to take out the seeds since they like it hot and the whole point of toasting the chiles in such a manner is to make them hotter or mas bravos (like a bullfighter) but if you want them milder, go ahead and devein and seed them. The toasted chile flavor will still be fantastic and you’ll still get a bit of spice.

I had a pot of frijoles de la olla all ready, so I set about making my enfrijoladas and showed my roommate David how it was done. The local market was out of panela cheese which is what I typically use, so I ended up using a mixture of Monterey Jack and Queso Fresco. The dish is nothing if not versatile.

We sat down to watch Iron Chef America and have our dinner with the dog doing his typical sad-eyed gaze at us. He knows better than to beg and always gets a treat so what he did next shocked us all. Ozzy leapt and snatched, literally snatched a jalapeno off of David’s plate, gulped it down and ran.

Chiles toreados

It happened so fast we were stunned. Really? Did he just eat a chile? Then he came back and his little tongue was just rapidly licking his lip and I felt so sorry for him, I grabbed some cold queso fresco and fed it to him hoping it would calm the burn. This is where it gets really wacky. The little monster ran away from me and David, who was now pouring him milk and attacked Phillip’s plate stealing three more chile slices in the process. We put away our dinner dishes, kept the jalapenos high and away from him but he was still whining and trying to jump up on countertops after them!

El perro enchilado

My dog is a schnauzer mix and who knows what the heck the other part of him is but we’re certain it’s something Mexican and crazy. We kept trying to feed him milk but Ozzy was almost high from the chili rush and I literally had to hold him down and pour it into him. He was going nuts. I Googled hoping it wasn’t toxic and there wouldn’t be a vet visit in our near future. I kept feeding him cheese till he seemed to calm down, then I put him in bed. He slept quietly all night and woke up just fine but he scared the heck out of us. From now on, Chiles Toreados will be renamed in this house – Perro Enchilados (hot dogs) in his honor. Still shaking our heads over this loco dog who was sniffing at jalapenos this morning but didn’t have a chance to get to them.

Enfrijoladas

1 dozen flour tortillas

Cooked Beans

Milk

Oil for frying

Queso Panela (or Monterey Jack)

One onion, diced

Queso fresco

This recipe doesn’t really call for measurements, but I’ll try and estimate it out. In a large skillet, add about 1 tablespoon of oil and heat. Add in about 4 cups of frijoles de la olla and about a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of milk. Using a potato masher, mash the beans until smooth. Don’t use the masher until the beans are really hot or it won’t be so easy.

Remove from the heat and let cool.

Add to a blender once it’s cool enough and blend until perfectly smooth. Pour back into the skillet and re-heat.

Grate about a pound of cheese, either panela or Monterey Jack and dice the onion finely. Mix the grated cheese and onion together and put into a plate or bowl.

In another skillet heat up enough vegetable or canola oil to dip tortillas in. Using a set of tongs, quickly dip each flour tortilla (or corn if you prefer) into the oil, flipping over to get both sides. You don’t want them to fry to much. Literally about 30 seconds on each.

Once your tortillas are fried, using the tongs quickly dip them in the bean sauce. Try to do this quickly so your tortillas don’t fall apart. Corn tortillas hold up better, but flour ones are my favorite.

One tortilla at a time, place in baking dish, fill with the cheese mixture and roll. I use the tongs because they are usually too hot and delicate for me to adequately do with my hands.

Once all the tortillas are filled and rolled, spoon more bean mixture on top and pop into a hot 350 degree oven for about ten minutes. Just long enough for the cheese to fully melt.

To serve, sprinkle with crumbled queso fresco and top with chiles toreados. We usually have ours with Mexican rice or a salad but they are a filling and delicious meal all on their own.

Chiles Toreados

About 6-10 fresh jalapenos

Oil for frying

Tablespoon Knorr Suissa or Salsa Maggi

1 onion, halved and thickly sliced (optional)

Wash the jalapenos and cut off the ends. Slice down the middle and then again to get four long strips. In a cast iron or other heavy skillet, add just enough oil to coat the pan and heat on medium flame.

Once the oil is hot, add the chiles and onion slices. The oil will pop so be careful. Fry the chiles on both sides until just toasted, not letting them get too dark, then remove the chiles, lower the flame and continue to let the onions cook until well caramelized.

Throw the chiles back in and stir in the Knorr Suissa. Remove from heat and serve over the enfrijoladas.

Try not to have a crazy, jalapeno eating dog around.

Some things are just meant to be simple, delicious and evocative.  My earliest memories of food and cooking always have the gorgeous aroma of beans simmering on my grandmother’s stove.  She made a fresh pot almost every day and the smell is woven into all my memories of her, the house with the creaky wooden floors and the smells of her flowers.

Every time I make a pot, it is like she is right back front and center, larger than life with her gentle little hands, showing me how to pat a tortilla, measure something out for baking, how to chop finely, how to pinch up the sides of a sope and a million other life lessons.  I miss her as keenly over 20 years since she’s been gone from this world as the day I lost her, but the scent of beans cooking in the pot always makes me feel her presence and it comforts me.
Beans seem like simple fare, maybe even bothersome or peasant food to some but to me they are necessary.  They go with just about any meal, are loaded with nutrients, are economical, versatile and filling and I couldn’t imagine life without them.  My favorite though is just out of the pot topped with chopped onion, tomato and cilantro.  It’s like a soup, absolutely delicious and with a freshly made tortilla dipped in, pure ecstasy.

To my mind, nothing is better than that first bowl of beans fresh out of a clay pot before they get re-fried or used for other things like tostadas, burritos, etc.  I still love them however they are cooked, but that first bowl of soupy pinto beans with the bright Mexican flag colors is just special.

I often get asked, “how do your beans come out so good?” or “what did you do to make them so good?” and it always surprises me, because to me beans are beans and no work at all.  I do remember my mother couldn’t make a pot to save her life.  We’d come home from school to the smell of burnt beans permeating the house and think, “Jeez, mom forgot to put water in the beans again.”  That never happened at Grandma’s house.  When I go over the steps in my head to my Grandma Lupe’s perfect pot of beans, its almost zen-like to me.  Maybe other Mexican cooks have different ways of preparing them but I only know hers and they’re always, always perfect so I thought I’d share the steps.

My grandmother never used just pinto beans.  She had this beautiful, big acrylic container my Uncle Adam had made for her that was filled with a mixture of large white beans, kidney beans, pintos, small lima beans, navy beans and pink beans.  The varying colors and sizes were beautiful and to me as a child, like little gems in a treasure box.  I loved sticking my hands into that clear container and picking up handfuls and letting them stream back in.

First step to a pot of good beans is cleaning them.  This is where the zen comes in.  My grandmother would pile in front of me little hills of beans and my job was to carefully inspect each one.  Broken ones, little dirt rocks and ones with the skins peeling were swiftly scooted off into a discard pile.  Good ones went into the keep pile.  I always found it very soothing to sort the beans and still do.

Once you’re done sorting the beans, put the good ones into a colander and wash them throughoughly in warm water then set aside.

In a large pot* fill just about an inch below the rim with cool water and bring to a boil.

Once you have the water at a rolling boil, add salt (no measurements here – depends on taste and how much you are making), two cloves of garlic and one golden onion, peeled and quartered.

Next add the beans and lower the flame/heat to very low.  Cover with a tight fitting lid and let simmer (no peeking) for three hours.  You do need to keep adding boiling water every so often to keep the water level an inch from the rim.  Don’t forget to put water in the beans!!  My grandma always kept a small pot simmering on the back burner so she could add in water and keep the temp the same.

One thing I notice is if you want nice, pink beans you limit the lid lifting.  One of my friends is a compulsive lid-lifter and her beans, while they are delicious come out very dark.  Some weird chemical reaction (oxidation?) happens when you lift the lid.  I’ve also found that people who soak their beans before cooking them also get the dark thing going on.  I am not a fan of soaking them.  Why bother when you can put a pot on in the morning and have delicious beans in the afternoon?

Ok – so everyone is gonna ask but, but, but Gina you didn’t give us measurements and we don’t know how many beans to put in so I’ll attempt to gauge the amount I put in this morning. I’m using a large soup pot (stainless steel because my olla broke and I have to go back to Mexico and buy another one because I’m so not buying an olla from here but you can that’s just me) and it holds 18 cups of water just an inch below the rim, to those 18 cups I put in about 4 cups of beans.  Salt is to taste so no measurement there.  I start with about hmm three tablespoons and go from there.

So that’s it my grandmother’s secret for a perfect pot of beans.  Love, care and some patience.

*When I was growing up, beans were cooked in a clay olla or pot.  Nowadays, there is a concern with the lead content in Mexican ollas so I won’t tell you to use one even though I do.  I love the flavor my olla imparts to the beans.  If you want to use a traditional clay olla, please find one that is lead-free.

Chicken Enchiladas with Peas, Almonds and Raisins
My grandmother Lupe was famous for her cooking in our neighborhood.  Even within our family of excellent cooks, she stood out and everyone loved her cooking.  Today at the hospital, I saw two of my mother’s cousins 2nd cousins, Angie and Louise whom I hadn’t seen in years and they were talking about the enchiladas she made with chicken, almonds, raisins and peas.  I has almost forgotten about those.
The enchiladas are made with shredded chicken, jack cheese, slivered almonds, raisins and fresh peas.  The chile is red, smokey and the perfect compliment to the mild flavors of the filling.  I know it sounds odd, but they were delicious enchiladas and ones that everyone talked about for days after eating them for how unusual and good they were.  She would do some with corn tortillas and some with flour tortillas.  I liked the ones done with flour tortillas especially because they simply melted in my mouth.
Grandma Lupe’s Enchiladas with Almonds, Peas and Raisins
2 pounds of shredded chickentortillas (corn or flour or both if you like)oilred chile sauce (see recipe below)1 cup of slivered almonds1 cup of raisins2 cups of fresh shelled peas 1 onion diced1 pound of jack cheese
Fry the tortillas in hot oil until softened on both sides, and set aside.
Dredge a tortilla in the red chile sauce, fill it with chicken, cheese, a sprinkle of almonds, peas, raisins and diced onion then roll it and place into a baking dish.
Repeat until all your chicken or tortillas are used up, top the enchiladas with more of the cheese and sauce, bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.
Serve.
Red Chile Sauce for Enchiladas
1 packet powdered chile California1 bay leafflourchicken broth

Brown about two tablespoons of flour in a cast iron skillet, add the packet of powdered chile California and the bay leaf, slowly add in the chicken broth whisking the mixture constantly so it doesn’t clump up.  It’s almost like making gravy.  You don’t want it too thick, just a velvety sauce so if it appears too thick, add in more broth.

In my family, we all have our favorite things my Grandma Lupe cooked.  I was just visiting my Aunt Jessie in the hospital and we were of course talking about food.  I asked her what her favorite thing was that my grandma cooked and she immediately smiled and said, “the mole with nopales and carne de puerco.”  Immediately, my mouth started to water in memory.  I haven’t had those in years and we chatted for a bit, talking about the ingredients and how to make it.

The mole was different than most, very piquant and delicious with a tangy, smokey flavor that haunts my memory.  I’ve never tasted mole like hers for nopales (cactus) and carne de puerco (pork) anywhere else.  The nopales are de-thorned, washed and sliced into 1-inch sections, then boiled with quartered onion for about ten minutes, then drained and set aside.  You can make them ahead of time and refrigerate them to save time.

Carne de puerco con nopales y mole

For the mole:

Chiles California’s (dried california chiles) 8-10 of them

1 small onion

water

salt to taste

Boil the chiles in water with one quartered onion until they are soft about 20 minutes.  Scoop out the chiles and onion with a slotted spoon and scoop them out  and cool them off.  Taking a sharp paring knife, cut into the chiles and remove the stems, veins and seeds then place them into a blender.  Blend until smooth.

For the pork:

2 pounds cubed pork (pork shoulder or pork chops with the fat untrimmed)
salt and pepper
1 small onion, diced
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
1 bay leaf

Fry the pork until it is browned and crispy.  Start off on a high flame then lower it and stir occasionally, to keep from sticking.  The pork needs to be very, very crispy, almost cooked through  into hard little nuggets.

Scoop the pork out and drain.  Set aside.

Drain off some of the drippings from the pan, leaving about two tablespoons in.  Add the onions and sautee them, scraping the from the bottom of the pan.  When the onions are nicely browned, add the cooked pork, a clove of garlic and the bay leaf.  Cook on low heat for about ten minutes stirring occasionally.  Add in the sauce and the reserved nopales and let simmer for another 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove the bay leaf and the garlic cloves and discard.

Serve with rice, beans and fresh tortillas.

I am longing for sunshine and springtime which has got me thinking about verdolagas.  Verdolagas (purslane, pigweed, hogweed) are to me all about spring.  They grow wild on roadsides, all through Griffith Park and used to be, near the road where they put the Metro in Highland Park.  i know the hills in Lincoln Heights used to get covered with them in the Spring but I’m not sure now.  I’ve not been out looking for wild greens in a while.  In L.A. they are now more easily found in the markets like Superior that cater to a Mexican/Latino clientele.

When I was a kid, verdolagas grew rampant right on the grass at my grandparents house and in cracks on the sidewalk.  My job was to yank them up, but we didn’t throw away our weeds.  No que no, I brought them in in a little basket to my grandmother who carefully cleaned them and cooked them in a variety of ways.  I loved to much on the cleaned raw greens for the tangy flavor.

Chanfles has a pictorial on how to clean and cook verdolagas here, but the way Grandma Lupe used them in food was different.  There are tons of recipes for verdolagas and everyone has their favorite.  My personal favorite was verdolagas con carne de puerco y chile.
The pork is cubed, fried till it’s crispy then cooked in a sauce made of cooked verdolagas, caramelized tomatoes and onions, chopped serrano chiles and cilantro.  Served with rice, beans and tortillas its an amazing start to Spring.

Verdolagas con carne de puerco y chile

1 bunch of well cleaned verdolagas, ends trimmed then chopped into about 1-inch sections
1 pound boneless pork chops, cubed (get pork with the fat NOT trimmed off)
1 small onion, sliced into rings
1 clover of garlic, minced
2 large tomatoes, diced
3-4 fresh serrano chiles, seeded, de-veined and sliced into thin strips
salt and pepper to taste
chopped cilantro, about 1/4 cup

Boil the verdolagas for about ten minutes.  Drain and set aside.

Fry the pork until very crispy and browned.  Scoop out and set aside.

In the frying pan, you fried the pork in add the onion and fry until caramelized.  Add the tomatoes, chiles and garlic and cook down until you have a soupy sauce.  Add salt and pepper to taste and chopped cilantro, then add the pork.

Simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve with rice, beans and warm tortillas.

Fiestas Patrias is a big deal for me.  I usually go all out and have a big party, invite tons of people, make mountains of red, white and green food, have papel picado and paper flowers decorating the house, my Aztec dancer group dances, the big Mexican flag is out, there’s music (sometimes mariachis) and we all go out the door at midnight and scream at the top of our lungs, “Viva Mexico!  Viva Zapata! Viva la Patria!”

Yeah, we’re those crazy, noisy, party-loving Mexicans down on your block.

Last year, I didn’t host the party.  I was ill and battling something for months that made me incredibly tired, a slacker blogger and have serious lack of stamina to stand in a kitchen for hours cooking.  This year, I had thought I could do it.  I’m feeling great actually so I was geared up to throw a huge one and make up for  last year.  Then I got the call from my daughter telling me she was HIV+.  I suppose this has no place on a cooking blog, but it’s my blog and my life so there you go.  Welcome to my world.  She’s my only daughter.  I’ve three sons and one daughter.  After finding out, I went to bed for a little over a month and barely left it.  Not like me at all.  I’m usually the optimist and the “let’s fix it” person.  Not this time.  This knocked me down hard and it took a long time getting back up.  I’m up.  I’m fighting because that’s me.  I’m learning all I can and I’m being strong for my girl.

As far as Fiestas Patrias goes, I decided not to do it at all.  Not in a party mood, although I did go to Olvera Street for a little while to get my fill of it on Sunday afternoon.  Check out my photos of the event there, si quieren. 

I was sitting here at my desk working when I looked at the little Mexican flag in my pencil cup and thought to myself, “I should at least do a tiny Fiestas Patrias for Jasmine & Aiden.  They need to experience their culture”.  Bueno.  I got up, ran to the store and picked up a few things.  This is what I made:

Ground Beef Hard-Shelled Tacos (my daughter’s favorite)

What my grandmother would call salsa patria – a mixture of chopped tomatoes, cilantro and onion sprinkled with salt.  We use it to serve over tacos or as a side dish.

A chile salsa I only make de vez y cuando (once in a while).  It doesn’t have a name and I can’t remember which aunt taught me to make it, but it’s very delicious.  Made with chiles gueritos, cilantro, onion, garlic, salt, white pepper, tomatoes and vinegar.  Recipe below.

White rice

Boiled chayotes served with lemon, salt and chile powder.

Tunas (prickly pears) ice cold and sliced.

Fried chiles

That’s it!  Very simple, very homey but still with the red, white and green theme.  Still traditional and very much enjoyed by all.

Recipe for the tacos:

Extra lean ground beef
1/4 of an onion, chopped fine
dash cumin
dash white pepper
dash ground bay leaf
salt to taste
oil
corn tortillas

Cook the ground beef with the onion and spices on medium heat, making sure it’s finely crumbled.  Set aside when completely browned and the onions carmelized.

Heat the oil in a deep frying pan on medium heat.  I like to pour the oil about half way to the top.  Use any oil you like, this time I used extra virgin first cold-pressed olive oil.  Whatever works for you is fine.

When the oil is hot, slide in a tortilla and quickly flip it to the other side, then fold carefully.  Tongs will help.  I use two forks – I don’t know why, it’s just easy for me to hold the taco shell open with one and hold down the other end of it with the other one.  If you let the taco shell close, it will harden shut and you won’t be able to fill it.  Keeping it open while frying is key.  Fry till golden brown and crackly hard.  If you don’t fry it long enough, it will be chewy and get soggy from the filling quickly.

Set each taco shell aside on either brown paper or paper towels on a plate or pan so that the oil gets absorbed.  Bad enough we’re frying them, so make sure to get all the excess oil off.

Stuff the tacos with the beef and any other fillings you like.  For these, I just stuffed them with the meat, the salsa patria and chile salsa.  You can add lettuce, tomatoes, rice, beans, cheese, whatever.  It’s completely up to you and tacos are very flexible.  I make some from mashed potatoes that are to die for.  I’ll put that recipe in another time.

Salsa de chiles gueritos con vinagre (Chili salsa with vinegar)

Yellow chiles – chiles gueritos (how many depends on how hot you want it, for this one I used three in the sauce, but fried more to serve on the plate)
Cilantro, chopped or torn
1 tomato, diced
¼ of an onion, sliced and fried with the chiles
3 cloves of garlic, whole and fried with the chiles
salt to taste
white pepper, a dash
½ c. vinegar (any kind you like – this time I used white balsamic)

Wash the chiles and pat them dry, them fry them in a little oil.  Since I had just finished cooking the ground beef for the tacos, I fried them in that with a little more oil.  The meat drippings add flavor to the salsa.

Add the sliced onions to the chiles and fry those as well as the cloves of garlic.

Chop or tear your cilantro (about a handful) and set aside
Chop tomatoes and set aside

When the chiles are well-browned, take them out of the pan and wrap them in a clean, damp cloth and let them sit a few minutes.  This steams the skins off.

After the chiles are cool enough to handle, peel them and remove the stems.  Leave in the seeds if you want it hot or take them out for mild.  I didn’t bother de-seeding or de-veining in this instance.  Add the prepared chiles to a food processor.

Add the onions, vinegar and garlic to the food processor with the chiles with a dash of salt.  Puree, but not too smooth.  You want a little texture.

Add the chile puree to a bowl with the fresh chopped tomatoes and cilantro.

Add salt and white pepper to taste and stir.

That’s it.  You’ll find this salsa spicy, tangy and delicious on tacos or other dishes.

Buen provecho y feliz fiestas patrias.

So there was this chocolate sauce just sitting in my fridge, left over from the eclairs.  The chocolate glaze was in there too.  Seriously, they were calling me, begging not to be left in there on their own.  Several times, i walked over and thought maybe I should make more eclairs.  Maybe creampuffs.  No, it’s too hot. Then today it got to be too much.  I finished the chapter in the book I was reading and headed for the kitchen .  I sat at the table with the recipe and my cup of coffee and decided to go for it.

The chocolate glaze had hardened so I set it in simmering water.  I decided to do the same lavender-orange pastry cream since it turned out so delicious and decided at the last moment to pour a little lavender into the chocolate glaze.  I love lavender chocolate.

The pâte à choux was easier to do work with this time.  I’m not sure why but it was.  In fact, the whole thing was so simple, I am worried for my hips.  I could easily make these all the time.

I piped big fat circles onto parchment paper covered baking sheets and set them to bake.  I know!  Baking again in August.  Crazy I tell you.  Estoy pero bien loca.  That means I’m pretty crazy in Spanish.

The circles puffed beautifully, everything went like clockwork.  I decided to scoop the remaining chocolate sauce on the bottom of each cream puff, then load it with the cream and top with glaze.  They were delicious, rich and sinfully decadent.

I think I’m going to live to regret having these in my repertoire…you see my dilemna.

Arroz con pollo

delicioso!

Today, Marissa and the kids came by and I decided to give it a shot.  I pulled out rice, onions, garlic, red peppers, the Bijol (a Mexican spice blend), saffron and oregano.  I didn’t have peas but Marissa doesn’t like them anyway, so I figured we were good to go.

I handed Marissa the camera and got to work chopping onion into nice thick squares, slivers of garlic, rounds of red pepper.  Jasmine and Aiden started to get excited and Aiden helped pour out the oregano.  I only know my grandmother’s recipe, which is no recipe – it’s a handful of this, a bit of that, un poquito aqui, un manito aya.  I hope my readers can figure it out from the pictures and the story because this time, this time it was like my memories of a fluffy mound of golden delicately flavored rice that melted on the tongue and the tenderest, chicken falling off the bone and flavored with the soul of the crocus.  It was magical.

Arroz con pollo/Chicken with rice

One cut up chicken
Enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a large frying pan
1 onion
five cloves of garlice, sliced thinly
chopped red peppers (not the hot kind)
dos manotes de arroz (two big handfuls of rice)
a manito (little handful of oregano) I think this ended up being about a tablespoon
un poquito de saffron (a little bit of saffron) like a pinch
un poquito de Bijol (about a ¼ tsp)
salt and pepper to taste
peas (optional)
chopped tomatoes (we were out of fresh so I used a 16 oz can of stewed)
water

Coat the frying pan with olive oil and let it heat on the stove.  Not too high a flame, you don’t want smoking oil.  Just get it nice and hot.

Wash the chicken pieces and pat them dry.  Season with salt and cracked pepper.

Add the chicken to hot oil and let fry till crispy brown on one side, then turn and do the same with the other side.  It takes as long as it takes.  Use a lid or it will pop all over.

Once the chicken is browned completely, scoop it out and set it aside on a platter.

Drain the oil from that pan and pour it into another large skillet (one that has a tight fitting lid).

Add the oregano, garlic, saffron, and peppers to the same pan and deglaze it with about a cup of water.  Set that aside.

Heat up the oil in the second skillet.  Add in the onions and about two cups of long grain rice and let brown completely, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.

When it’s all browned, add the water and spices from the deglazed pan to the rice. Add salt to taste, I’d say about a teaspoon.

Add the chicken pieces one by one, skin side up around the pan.  Add just enough water to be about a half inch from the top of the pan.  Cover, lower flame to the lowest it will go and then simmer for about 40 minutes.  The rice should be fluffy and golden and the chicken so tender it falls apart at the touch of a fork.  All the water should have been absorbed by the rice.

Serve and enjoy!

Buen provecho.

]]> http://donalupeskitchen.com/2008/08/arroz-con-pollo/feed/ 5 http://donalupeskitchen.com/2008/05/enchiladas-de-jocoque-white-enchiladas/ http://donalupeskitchen.com/2008/05/enchiladas-de-jocoque-white-enchiladas/#comments Wed, 21 May 2008 20:26:00 +0000 Gina Ruiz http://donalupeskitchen.com/2008/05/enchiladas-de-jocoque-white-enchiladas/

One of my favorite recipes that my grandmother Lupe made was her enchiladas de jocoque. She rarely made them, probably because of the unavailability of jocoque in Los Angeles in the 1960’s and ‘70’s when she was teaching me to cook. When she did find jocoque, it was because someone brought it to her from their farm. I remember once my Tio Maximo brought her some and with it she made these delicious enchiladas that I never forgot. Later, she taught me how to make them using buttermilk in place of the jocoque. Now, luckily jocoque is readily available in most Los Angeles grocery stores. If you’re in a location that doesn’t have jocoque, use buttermilk instead. If you can’t find crema, use sour cream. It won’t be as smooth or delicate but they’ll be really delicious. My grandmother never measured so you’ll have to judge by the photos. It’s an involved process, but well worth it.

Grandma Lupe’s Enchiladas de Jocoque

About twenty corn tortillas (it depends on just how many you want to make)
Olive oil for frying
Queso fresco (available in most Mexican markets, use Monterey Jack if you can’t find it)
Crema
Jocoque
1 onion, quartered
5 cloves of garlic
Spanish olives without the pit or pimento, I usually buy the ones with pimento and then pick them out
Tomatillos milperos or regular tomatillos (for this recipe, I used both)
Salt to taste
White pepper to taste
Roasted poblano chiles, seeded, de-veined and sliced into strips
cilantro

Roast the poblano chiles on a comal or in the oven till they are tender and the skins are evenly roasted. Wrap them in a wet cloth to let the skins steam off and put to the side.

Once the poblanos are cool, quickly skin them and then split them with a knife to remove the seeds and veins. Cut into thin strips.

Husk and wash the tomatillos. Add to a saucepan of boiling water along with the onion and garlic. Let boil till the tomatillos change color and the onion is translucent. Let cool.

Using a slotted spoon, scoop the tomatillos, onion and garlic into a blender or food processor and puree. Add salt to taste. Add in a handful of cilantro and puree again. If you can’t find cilantro, Knorr makes a delightful cilantro bouillon cube which really comes in handy if you’re mid recipe and realize you forgot the cilantro. You get the same taste but miss out on the nice dark flecks of dark green. Turn of the blender when the sauce is smooth and pour it into a bowl. Set aside. If you have lots of this left, you can add chopped green Serrano chiles and it make a great salsa for chips.

Take the olives and remove the pimentos or leave them if you like. Put them in a bowl, drained of their liquid and set them aside as well.

In another bowl, pour the bottle of jocoque and the container of crema and whisk it together. Add a dash of salt and the white pepper. Whisk again. Set aside.

Crumble the queso fresco into small bits. If you are using Monterey Jack cheese, then grate it and set it to the side.

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet. I pour in just enough to fully cover a tortilla, say half way up to the top. Heat the oil on medium heat and start frying your tortillas once its heated enough. Barely fry the tortillas on each side, enough to slightly stiffen them but not hard like a tostada. If they’re undercooked, they will fall apart. Place the fried tortillas on a cookie sheet or a flat plate and let cool.

Now you’re ready to assemble.

Take a tortilla and dip it into the jocoque mixture till its fully coated. Set it on a working surface, I like to use a cookie sheet. Place a few strips of the poblano chiles onto the tortilla, then a bit of the crumbled cheese, then two olives. Dribble a little of the green tomatillo sauce over it and roll it. Gently place it into a baking dish. Do this for each tortilla until you’ve filled the baking dish. You can do more than one if you like. Depends on how many you want.

Pour a little of the jocoque over the top of the enchiladas in the baking dish. Sprinkle crumbled cheese over it and dribble on some green sauce. Garnish with a few olives and bake at 350 for about twenty minutes.

Serve hot out of the oven with rice and beans or a simple salad. We usually have them and nothing else. They don’t last long.

When I was a little girl, I was fascinated all the things my grandparents could do with and knew about plants. That fascination deepened as I grew older and even now, the sight of hollyhocks or lamb’s quarters growing on the side of the road always makes me want to stop and forage.

My grandmother’s knowledge of the healing properties of plants was formidable and I wished I had thought to write everything she showed me down into notebooks when I was little and even a teenager. With the arrogance of youth, I’d thought she’d always be around and she’s not so I have my memory to rely on. I also rely on books about herbs and wild plants as well as the internet. Nothing beats my grandmother’s stories though. She knew the name of every plant and flower and she always knew a story for it, a legend or a myth. She’d tell me when the best time to gather them, which way to cook or prepare them to maximize their healing properties. I loved walking outside with my grandmother and a basket. We’d stop and gather, clip and she’d tell me the story behind each plant we picked. Those were magical times.

My grandfather, another formidable source of gardening lore, was a little different, He knew how to plant, when to plant, ingenious ways to irrigate like his amazing maze of glass coffee jars that poured water and re-directed it into the different furrows of his garden. What he knew, he used in different ways. He was a healer – you would say masseuse here but that’s not quite accurate. He was a sobador or a huesero. In other words, he healed by massage. That was magical too. People came by the house all the time, and he’d clap his strong hands together and get out his special olive oil and fix em right up. He never took money for it, although people tried and tried to give it to him. He’d say, “no cobramos por ayuda” We don’t charge when someone needs help. I remember a man who brought his daughter often. The daughter had one leg shorter than the other and she limped. It took a few years but my Papa (that’s what I called him) healed her. The last time I saw her she walked without a limp. He would use certain herbs to steep in olive oil for different effects. Thanks to both my grandparents, I’ll never starve if left to fend for myself in the woods or someplace like that.

One of the wild plants my grandmother loved to make was quelites or lambs-quarters. It was a weed that just grew everywhere along with verdolargas (sorrel) in the springtime here in L.A. She made them lots of different ways and I always loved them. To me, the taste was of springtime and summer. I love verdolargas too and their tangy spring taste always makes me smile. The other day at the Farmer’s Market here in town, I came across a man selling quelites and immediately started thinking of cooking them. It had been years since I’ve had them and my mouth was already watering. I bought several bunches to make in different ways and headed home gleefully clutching my bounty. Quelites are very versatile and their taste is somewhat like spinach, only more delicate.

I made chicken soup for the grandkids one day and threw in a couple of bunches of quelites. I know now that lambs-quarters are a powerhouse of nutrition (check out the nutrition table ), so I was excited to feed them to the little ones who were just getting over a cold.

Today I went to a Dodger game and came home hot and hungry. It’s only April but it feels like August. As I type this at 8:30 p.m., my thermometer says its 80 degrees. I wanted something cold and crunchy, something healthy and good and I remembered the quelites. I also remembered that I had tofu in the fridge. Yum! I knew I was going to make faux ceviche, using the tofu as my seafood. If you don’t have quelites in your neighborhood, use fresh spinach or any green leafy. It will be wonderful. I am trying to cut down on my intake of tortilla so instead of a tostada shell, I served the ceviche inside an avocado half. Either way, it’s a fast, yummy, healthy and tasty treat.

Tofu and Quelites Ceviche

I pound extra firm or firm Tofu, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
1 bunch of chopped quelites or green of your choice – for this I used both spinach and quelites
4 sticks of celery, sliced thinly
1 bunch of chopped cilantro (substitute parsley if you can’t find cilantro)
1 bunch of green onions sliced thinly
Salt and pepper to taste
Lemon juice to taste

Chop everything and place in a bowl, gently toss so the Tofu doesn’t break down and serve in a halved avocado or on top of a tostada shell. Add Tapatio or other hot sauce if desired.

Buen provecho!