{"id":12,"date":"2006-05-09T11:08:58","date_gmt":"2006-05-09T16:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sixtydays.org\/oaxaca\/?p=12"},"modified":"2021-03-06T15:59:45","modified_gmt":"2021-03-06T20:59:45","slug":"the-road-to-chochoyotes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sixtydays.org\/oaxaca\/2006\/05\/09\/the-road-to-chochoyotes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Road To Chochoyotes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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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 and identified the mysterious and the interesting. She introduce us to her quesso merchant first and then we meet the pollo butcher. In front of us she trimmed the breast off of a chicken and slice it into 5 fillets, which she passed back to her assistant ( maybe her daughter ) who pounded them scaloppini thin. The whole procedure took less then 5 minutes and cost 35 pesos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In our previous trips to Oaxaca, we had unfortunately intimate and continuous contact with the medical community, because of the condition of Bonnie’s mother. Her insurance had made it rather easy and inexpensive. But it was the level of attention, of concern and willingness to do the both small and large things (like housecalls) that had put us in mind of our childhood, growing up in the fifties, where this kind of attention was regular and normal from medicos. The Reforma Market pollo merchant put me exactly the same frame of mind. It made me remember Saturday morning shopping trips, where my mother would stick her head inside the butcher shop, call out her order ( which was regular and memorized by the butcher, but the communication, the quick repetition was really a way of saying hello, things are just fine ) and now she could return in 20 minutes and the chicken and steaks, stew meat, roast and chopped meat, would all be freshly prepared and ready as well as the gravy meat set aside separately for the sunday tomato sauce ( which was always called gravy by my grandmothers )<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The skill of the Reforma butcheress was amazing but it was really the attention to our needs, and some knowledge that when we returned in a week, she would remember those needs and offer again the quick but still warm satisfaction. That the chicken was fresh and flavorful and tender were all kinda of givens. We hadn’t yet bought a bad chicken ( although earlier last years Lourdes and Bonnie had both encounter a chicken which after being prepared caused Bonnie to utter the colorful criticism “This chicken had died twice”. We had bought half a chicken in the Comsatti Friday market, which was quite good but had cost us 32 pesos. Not a great price but again the skill and attention of the butcher made me want to by from this man again. It’s really a very basic requirement of a transaction in food. Not just getting your money’s worth but getting some attention, some sanctification of the items we are going to consume in the most fundamental of ways. So many things we buy can do without this but food needs a blessing and I felt blessed the whole morning being with Lourdes and Bonnie in the Reforma market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Amongst the queso and the pollo, we found spinach and eggplant and hoja de santa and red peppers and jiotilla and tomatillos and pasilla de Oaxaca and jelly beans and …. well we came back to Casa de El Refugio ready to try any number of things. Lourdes showed us how she made her chicken rolls stuffed with spinach and quesillo de Oaxaca. We made a fresca from the jiotilla fruit. We practiced wrapping things in banana leaves. She showed us her quick red tomato sauce which was merely some onion, some garlic, and 3 beautiful Roma tomatoes quartered, cooking for 15 minutes or so, thrown into a blender, pureed, and then sieved unto the chicken. The chicken rolls had been saut\u00e9ed with a generous sprig of rosemary and were so waiting for the sauce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the sauce heated and informed the chicken, Bonnie asked a question about packages of pre cooked pozole she had seen at queso merchants, which she had first though where little quesillo, ready for appetizer presentation. Lourdes in Spanish described a completely different thing to Bonnie and what I understood of what she was saying made it sound like dumplings to me. I eventually understood that the dumpling was chochoyotes and was prepared from masa harina while pozole are actually large whole corn kernels, cooked for 3 hours and then dropped into gruels, soaps and sauces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Lourdes, thinking I still didn’t understand, reached into the pantry and extracted some masa harina and proceeded to make a few simple chochoyotes. She added enough water to the masa to make a simple moist dough and then made a small ball out a piece of the dough and flattened it slight and put a dimple in the center. When made about six of these and dropped them in the chicken and tomato sauce and cooked them for about ten minutes. I began to flash on the correspondences between Italian and Mexican cooking, almost closer then Mexican and Spanish. Certainly I had chicken rollatine or saltum buuco equivalents stewing in a sauce my Italian American grandmother would have understood completely and now we were adding what for all the world looked and tasted like gnocchi. I was very very happy and dinner was looking just a little Venetian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before we let Lourdes leave, I implore her to show me how to make agua fresca de Jamaica. My efforts were completely satisfying to Bonnie and myself but were too tart for the Mexican palate. Loudes’ method was a complete revelation and an absolutely perfect beverage. While I had be steeping my hibiscus flowers for almost an hour, Loudes’ preparation was more on the order of 20 minutes. She used more sweetener then I liked ( in both case we were using honey, I used about 1\/3 cup for 2 quarts of water, she used about 3\/4 cup) The slam dunk, hole in one touch on her part was the additional of a 4 inch piece of canela and 3 cloves to the brew. Exceptionally satisfying and a simple and masterful touch. We kissed Lourdes goodbye and sat down for a very nice meal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recipes and Photos to Follow<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Lourdes\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Agua Fresca de Jamaica alla Lourdes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

2 quarts water
1 cup dried jamaica flowers
1\/2 cup honey
3 cloves
4 inch piece of canela<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combine all ingredients in a 4-quart pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Strain into pitcher. Serve well chilled and with ice cubes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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… <\/p>\n

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