aprender a cocinar de comida mexicana como la puta madre

S and I had a bunch of folks over last night for no reason at all. She prepared a couple of desserts and I made the main meal … you guessed it … Mexican food. I figure it’s a good chance to practice and no Dane is going to question the authenticity of my flavors :). The tortillas came out great, even though I couldn’t find shortening and refused to use lard so I had to use margarine. The rice turned out excellent and was very easy. The beans took a lot longer to soften up than what I’m used to, but I started them early enough that it was no problem. My salsa was pretty weak because I couldn’t find jalapenos and had some very mild chile in there instead, but I supplimented it by adding some hot sauce off the shelf and it was fine. I got lots and lots of compliments on the meal, and it was easy enough and cheap enough that I’m looking forward to doing it again!

I went out today for a free Mexican food buffet. They say you get what you pay for.

The beans were baked beans.
The rice was, well, rice, but nothing Mexican about it.
The salsa was poured straight out of a jar.
Tortillas didn’t exist.
Jalapenos didn’t exist.
Basically the only thing recognizable as “Mexican food” was the Corona beer.

Time soon to hit the kitchen and do it myself.

I planted lots of jalapeno peppers, that’s a start when living so far from Mexico. They’ve got a ways to grow, but in the meantime I found a little package of jalapeno look-alike chilies in the grocery store yesterday. A taste test today will tell all. Maybe I can get Rigo to show me how he makes salsa; he comes from a famous salsa family.

While at Finca Limon I made tortillas and frijoles and mexican rice a couple of times. It turned out alright, but using cayenne pepper to spice things up didn’t quite do it for me.

I’m jealous every time I go to V and R’s place and see their bottle of Tapatio in the kitchen. There’s mojo here in the Canaries, and that’ll wake your tongue up a bit, but it’s nothing like what I was spoiled on living in So Cal. I asked M to include a small bottle Tapatio in my care package. That’ll mean more weight and more money to send it through the mail, but it would mean so much to my tongue. I might just open the bottle and drink it when it arrives.

Today I’m at V and R’s place and the plan is to give tamalies a try. They’ve got all the makings for it here, waiting for someone interested in an adventure. I’m not feeling so strong about this endeavor, but I’m willing to give it a shot.

• update: *
  The tamales turned out fantastic! V said she could close her eyes an imagine she wasn’t in the Canary Islands but back in California. R said they definitely counted as de puta madre. I just smiled from ear to ear as I pigged out.

Certainly I have not achieved “como la puta madre” status, though I’ve learned a bit. Backburnered.

I asked L to help me make salsa for a party I was throwing together; as it turned out she did most of the work and I just watched. Here’s what I learned:

• Green salsa needs garlic, tomatillos, jalapenos, and celantro. Red salsa is the same but tomatos instead of tomatillos.

• Choose the darkest jalapenos you can find.

• Boil the jalapenos for 10 minutes or so, then add the tomatos to the boiling water just until their skin starts to peel. Drain the veggies, peel the tomatos, take the stems off the jalapenos.

• Throw it all in the blender with three cloves of garlic.

• Add cilantro afterwards.

• Let it cool outside the fridge with the cover off otherwise it will become bitter.

I made carrot salsa w/ S the other day. We didn’t have peppers to spice it up with, though, so we just poured in some Tapatio. A nice flavor, thought I would prefer the kick that jalapeños would give it.

I made a pot of beans tonight, but they weren’t the usual Mexican pintos. They were Anasazi beans, apparently one of the foods of the ancient Indians, but cooking them was a similar process.

I haven’t done anything with this goal in a while. Mostly because for whatever reason my BOYfriend refuses to eat what I make (really, even if I’m not cooking totally authentic stuff, what I make still turns out pretty good; he’s not earning himself any points lately!) and I’m trying to eat healthier which, unfortunately, somewhat conflicts with this type of cooking.

But this weekend I’ll be in Mexico for a bike ride with Viejo, so I’m hoping that the experience there will reignite my interest in this goal.

I saw Brian’s grandmother recently and asked her about coming over for a tortillas y frijoles lesson. She was very welcoming; she said anytime would be fine.

I made a small pot of beans this evening. I’ll bring ‘em for lunch tomorrow. I didn’t have any garlic, so I couldn’t prepare them the way I’ve been taught to. So we’ll see how they turn out …..