Sorry. I think I can do better about the title but the chiles have taken hold and I am a little giddy. After two trips to Oaxaca, a total of five weeks there so far and the prospect of another sixty days, starting today, I am more then a little giddy. Pasillas, guajillo, costeno, pulla, arbol, dance around my head as I lay in bed, like little fever dreams, hot and daring me, challenging me. Really it’s that intense.
Category: Food
Mia Chiles
So today in this new journal I will record from some favorite sources the chiles I love and seek to love.
Acerola
Because we have eaten fruit our whole life, and more importantly have grown up in a city where commercially grown fruit predominated the selections available, we settle back in the illusion we know everything there is to know about fruit. Yes this could be said about food in general but something like fruit….
Recipe Dreams
If…someone dared to throw a bottle of black chocolate stout at me, could I deftly catch it, snap it open and blend it into the frioles borrachas of my dreams?
Green Sauce
Just as I have run across dozens of mole recipes (and heard of hundreds more) I seemed to stumbled into a whole world of green salsas, all made from tomatillos or sometimes in the market called tomates. The sauces are all intended to be table sauces, although a few cooks have hinted at cooked versions…
Cafe Frio
In the town of San Andreas Huyapaum, where the lovely El Refugio is situated, there is a coffee merchant, really a coffee family. We sat with them and discussed their wonderful product and Bonnie promised to bring them her wonderful Ice Coffee and the method and we could sit one afternoon and talk beans and…
Salad con Camarones de Anochecher
As the sun set last night, we came home with fresh camorones from the market…
The Road To Chochoyotes
Today we spent most of the morning with our cook and companion Lourdes at her favorite market in Colonia Reforma. She showed us the places where on our previous visits to Oaxaca she had brought home the most marvelous quesos and the most flavorful pollo and camerones. She walked through the indoor market, held everyday…
Pasilla de Oaxaca
Maybe the price was too high but I belive I really did buy high quality Chile Pasilla de Oaxaca in the Comsatti outdoor market. Our young yawning merchant had a friendly manner and did not seem to be a thief. And I have read in more then a few places that passilla de Oaxaca is…
The Price Of Pollo
We spent the morning about 20 miles south of Oaxaca in a town called Zaachila. Thursday is market day there.
Salsa de Tomitillo con Pasilla de Oaxaca
Taking the chile paste we made the other day, now it’s time to make a salsa.
Food as Work
There is a heritage of labor that many great cusines share. It is completely possible to appreciate and aspire to great effort when great result are to be achieved. I once had a coisant stuffed with chocalate on the Isle St. Loius that sent my mind spinning. It all at once possesed the qualities of…
Mutant Poblanos
Nowhere have I ever read or heard that poblano chiles get spicier and hotter after you cook them. But on two occasions now, both involving chile rejanos (one classical and the other detailed later involving a chayote and chicken stuffing) we have had the occasion to be starstle by the aggresive heat of the cooked…
Pozole Rojo
The Etla mercado was a real treat. It snaked through the hilly streets and would it’s way to the Zocallo and the indoor mercado and the absoulutely wonderful church round back.
Verdolagas
There is an Italian spirit stalking this land. I mean it. The freshness, the tv, the string cheese, it’s not Spanish, it’s Italian. Okay maybe it’s Mexican but I am reminded again and again of Italy and of things I experienced with my Italian-American parents and grandparents. In the Etla market, Lourdes, our guide and…
Pulque
In the Etla Wednesday market, just round back of the zocalo, we stumble across 3 women vending agua miel and pulque.
Frijoles Negros
Lourdes took one look at the beans and even before she saw the critters she said, “Vejaya y feo!!!”, which means old and ugly. We had old and ugly beans.
Enfrijoladas
It turns out there is a system. Enchilades, enfrijoles, enmolades, entomates, are you getting en to it?
Mango Sorbet
Lovely Manila Mangos 1) The Syrup 2/3 cups of superfine sugar 1 cup of water Stir the sugar into the water over low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat and bring to a boil. Boil for one minute. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely 2) The Fruit Puree 2 pounds…
A Kilo of Anchos
Okay, even though I don’t speak Spanish, a guy in a hat “talked” me into buying a kilo of ancho chiles. Willing victim, I slightly misunderstood the amount I was buying but then I thought what I could do with a world of chiles. Well it all starts now!
Huachinango At Juarez
At the southest corner of the Mercado Benito Juarez, are the fish stalls. Fish in Oaxaca is largely driven or flown in from the Pacific coast. On my very first trip to the Juarez market we were struck by a particular family cutting up the day’s stock. “Resturant Quality” turned out to be the only…
No Soap Nopales
Okay it’s okra all over again. Or maybe another remake of the Blob. It any case we were both eaten alive by the clean bright green defanged cactus paddles, that everyone encouraged us to try.
Chocolate vs. Chocolate
It with total satisfication I contemplate the fact that both vanila and chocolate come from Mexico. But when children leave the nest, they become, well different.
Queseria “Arce”
Tlacolula has very nice queso. Etla has great queso. But we found we liked the queso from a particular shop in Colonia Reformia Lourdes had steered us to. The quesillo is ultra bueno but they have a queso con chille that is perfecto!!! We want to buy some cheese!!!!!!