Today is September 15th, and although Independence Day is officially the 16th, the celebratory festivities start tonight with the Grito de Independencia (the Shout for Independence, where everyone "viva"s all of the revolutionary heroes, and then fireworks!) Unfortunately, I'm not expecting the spectacle I witnessed last year for my 1st Mexican Independence Day, but, of course, the 201st birthday of the nation cannot overshadow its bicentennial.
One thing that has not changed though is the food. Pozole is particularly popular on this day (every supermarket has pig heads for half off!), but pozole is popular for big celebrations throughout the year. Chiles en nogada, however, are Independence Day specific, and were created as an accompaniment to patriotic spirit by sharing the colors of the Mexican flag - green chile poblanos, white cream sauce and red pomegranate seeds (which are added just because they're red, not for flavor). Chiles en nogada means, more or less, "walnut-ized chiles" in Spanish, called such for both the walnuts in the cream sauce and in the relleno, which also includes shredded chicken, apples and pears.
There will be no accompanying recipe for this today because chiles en nogada are not generally nor prepared at home due to the walnuts, apples and pears (which are all relatively expensive down here) and the difficulty in finding pomegranate seeds. Instead, every restaurant in the DF area will have signs up all throughout the month of September boasting their chile en nogada specials. (And if I had had any money, I would have bought some.)
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