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Recipes from Mexico
Mexican cooking goes well beyond beef
tacos and refried beans. When the Spanish arrived in Mexico and Central America,
they found the Aztecs, Toltecs, Oaxacans and others with a developed
agricultural society, growing maize (corn), beans, tomatoes and cacao. Other
plants indigenous to the area were chilies, avocados, squash, pumpkins,
pineapples, potatoes and papayas. The Spanish brought with them to Mexico sugar
cane, dairy products, citrus fruits and pork. These ingredients were
incorporated, as were Spanish cooking methods, into the local cuisine. An
example of this is in the use of cacao. The Aztecs prepared a bitter-tasting
beverage with chilies and cocoa powder from the cacao. The Spanish omitted the
chilies and added sugar and today’s hot chocolate was born. Because Mexico is
such a large country with deserts, coastal areas and tropical rain forests,
there are also some regional variations based on the locally available food.
Throughout Mexico, for the families with lower incomes, tortillas made from corn
and various bean dishes are the staple foods. Today, most of Mexico’s farming
is done on small rural collectives known as ejidos, where corn, sorghum,
wheat, barley, rice, potatoes and beans are grown. Large corporate farming
interests promote growing tomatoes, melons, strawberries and other crops for
export to the U.S., taking away crop land that could be used to grow food for
the local people.
Mexican Hot Chocolate
(Mexico) serves 3 to 4
| 2
ounces unsweetened chocolate |
½
teaspoon cinnamon |
| 2
cups milk |
1
egg (you might want to use
a pasteurized egg substitute like Egg Beaters for safety, to avoid
salmonella risk) |
| 1
cup heavy cream |
|
| 6
tablespoons sugar |
1
teaspoon pure vanilla extract |
- Melt the chocolate in the top of a
double-boiler. In a separate pot, heat the milk and cream on low heat
until hot but not boiling. When the milk is hot, slowly add a little
bit of it to the chocolate until you have a thin paste.
- Stir this paste slowly into the milk
(removed from heat). Add the sugar and cinnamon.
- In a bowl, beat the egg (or egg
substitute) and the vanilla with a rotary beater. Add a very little of
the hot chocolate to the egg. (You don’t want to fry or cook the egg
in the hot liquid, so add just a little). Once you have warmed the egg
mixture, stir the egg mixture into the hot chocolate.
- Return the double boiler to low heat.
With a rotary beater, beat the chocolate for three minutes while
heating. This should make the chocolate frothy. Serve immediately.
This drink is very "chocolatey."
It goes well with a cookie such as the "Mexican wedding cakes"
that you often find in cookie cookbooks.
Recipe from Sundays at
Moosewood Restaurant by the Moosewood Collective, Simon &
Schuster, 1990, p.473. |
| Savory Beef with Almonds
(Mexico) serves 4 to 6
Picadillo
This filling can be used to stuff green bell peppers or to fill corn or
flour tortillas. Recipes for tortillas are easy to find, and someone in
your congregation might have a tortilla iron to cook them on, although a
griddle works just fine. In many communities, you can buy the special
corn meal known as masa harina to make corn tortillas.
| 1
pound ground beef or pork |
1
to 2 tablespoons tomato paste |
| 1
onion, finely chopped |
½
cup raisins |
| 1
clove garlic, peeled and thinly sliced |
½
cup black olives |
| 1
tables spoon oil |
½
cup ground almonds, lightly toasted |
| 1
medium can tomatoes, drained (keep liquid) |
salt
and pepper |
- Using a heavy pan, cook the onion and
garlic in the oil until soft. Now add the meat and brown it all
over.
- After this, put all the other
ingredients except the almonds and reserved tomato juice. Cover the
pan and cook gently for 20 minutes or so.
- Stir occasionally, and, if the
mixture looks too dry, add a little of the tomato juice.
- Put the mixture into a dish and
scatter the top with almonds. Use as a filling (see above) or alone
with cooked hot rice. Serve with a green salad, or make a fruit
salad with oranges, papaya and strawberries with a little yogurt and
honey drizzled on the top.
Recipe from The New
Internationalist Food Book, by Troth Wells, Second Story Press,
1995, pp. 104-105 |
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