Pico de Gallo (The Rooster's Beak)

One of Mexico's favorite salsa, and a popular standard at any parillada (barbecue) is salsa fresca or salsa cruda, a raw salsa, known most commonly to us as pico de gallo. Literally, pico de gallo means the beak of the rooster, but that name is more of a sexual entendre than a description of the salsa. The others names, salsa fresca or cruda, are much more helpful...and appropriate for children.

Traditionally (or at least in my personal traditional experiences), pico de gallo is very finely chopped tomatoes, onions, jalapeños and cilantro with a squirt of lemon and a sprinkle of salt. I also find that pico de gallo is not an everyday table salsa, but is definitely served steak-side at every barbecue that I've ever been to. (That is why I chose this recipe for today, the official start of BBQ season. Happy Memorial Day, my fellow gringos!)

Ingredients
8 roma tomatoes
3 medium sized white onions
4 jalapeños
1 large bunch of cilantro
the juice of 3 limes
1 1/2 Tbsp. salt

Directions

1 - Slice open the tomatoes and remove the seeds. Chop into tiny square pieces.

2 - Chop the onions into tiny square pieces.

3 - Chop the jalapeños (seeded or unseeded - your choice) also into tiny square pieces.

4 - Chop the cilantro (no stems) into - surprise, surprise - tiny pieces.

5 - Toss all the ingredients thoroughly.

6 - Add the lime juice and salt. Toss well again.

7 - Serve steak-side with warm tortillas and grill cheese (that's queso asadero, not a grilled cheese sandwich).

**Important Note - Pico de gallo is not an exact recipes. The general guideline is that there should be equal amounts of chopped onion and tomato, but everything else is to taste.**

Taquitos

When I was in college and working at Barnes and Noble, I arrived home after midnight with one thing in mind - taquitos! Five nights a week for four years, I came home from work to 4 frozen taquitos (and usually a slice of buttered bread, but that's irrelevant). And nothing could have been better for dinner than those frozen taquitos from Costco (El Monterrey is the best) - the true staple of my college life. Like most American interpretations, this delicious take involves the unauthentic taquito filling of chicken and Monterrey Jack cheese.

What we see as taquitos are really a cross between Mexican taquitos and flautas, but here in Mexico there is a difference. Real taquitos, or taquitos dorados, are corn tortillas tightly wrapped around a chicharron or mashed potato filling and simply served with a salsa borracha (tomato sauce, cilantro, jalapeño, onion). Flautas, on the other hand, are fatter, have a variety of fillings and are served as an actual dish with the typical Mexican garnishes - lettuce, crema and queso fresco. But flautas will be for another day because I have tortillas and leftover mashed potatoes in the fridge.

These are delicious and easy and versatile. If I had known how cheap and easy, I would have tried making these a long time ago. So many wasted meals.

Ingredients
25 fresh corn tortillas
2 cups prepared mashed potatoes
vegetable oil, for frying

Directions

1 - Find a shallow, square dish that fits into your freezer. (Very important!)

2 - Put a small spoonful of mashed potatoes on a warm, fresh tortilla (should be flexible) near the edge. Shape it into a thick line, about 1 cm thick and 2 inches long.

3 - Roll the tortilla tightly around the line of mashed potatoes, and place it firmly seam side down in the square dish.

4 - Repeat until there are no more tortillas or mashed potatoes. Pack the taquitos tightly in the dish so that they cannot open.

5 - Put the dish of taquitos in the freezer, uncovered, for about an hour.

6 - Fill a deep pan with about 2 inches of oil. Heat over a high flame.

7 - When oil is hot, place taquitos into the oil one at a time, seam side down. Hold each one still for about 20 seconds, so that the seam sets, and your taquito does not burst open. Repeat until there are no more taquitos.

8 - Allow taquitos to drain thoroughly.

9 - Enjoy plain or dipped into some salsa borracha (to be posted in the future, or I guess you can look it up somewhere else....no, wait, do not look somewhere else).

Tacos, the Mexican Treat

Sorry! It's been a while (for those of you who follow - Katie), but I had been experiencing, trying and failing to make one of my Mexican City street favorites - gorditas de chicharon - at home to share with you. After each failed attempt, I went to the corner instead to indulge myself in some professionally made street food.

Of course, the standard and most well-known street food is the taco. And, apart from that one Taco Bell in Monterrey, tacos in Mexico are not what the average gringo thinks they are. First, there is no hard or soft option - tacos are built on soft corn tortillas. Period. I have never seen shredded chicken or ground beef as the meat topping; a shaved pork (al pastor), tripe or pig head are much more common - and extremely popular. As for toppings? Raw onion and cilantro come on the taco, liquid salsas and limes on the side - that's it.

Unfortunately, because I suffer from coda-ness (being cheap), I rarely enjoy the overpriced tacos of Mexico City and instead opt for a torta or the aforementioned gorditas (bang for buck options), when I'm craving street eats. However, when I go to the casi-pueblo of Martinez de la Torre, tacos with cheese are always my first night meal...and my last night meal. And since I'm usually only there on the weekend, it's technically what I eat for dinner every night, a taco-filled vacation. But it has to be that way - I have to fill up while I can. (Martinez de la Torre - 8 tacos al pastor con queso and onion for 35 pesos; Mexico City - just 1 taco al pastor con queso and onion for 20 pesos. No, that doesn't even come close.)

American Enchiladas

A couple of weeks ago (before I totally slacked off for my pretty lame spring break), I wrote about my reluctance to try authentic Mexican enchiladas - and these delicious American impostors were the reason. Not only are they quick, simple and delicious, but they're also a taste of nostalgia for me. Enchiladas are one of the five meals in my house that didn't come out of the freezer or a nearby restaurant. They're my go-to comfort food for girls' night in. This is the first meal that I cooked for my authentic Mexican boyfriend (and he loved them, by the way - traitor).

This meal is also an homage to some of the best supermarket ingredients out there - without which, these enchiladas would not be possible. The most important element is Old El Paso Hot Enchilada Sauce....ok, maybe Medium or Mild, if you really can't handle it. My favorite (and only) filling is chicken, but my family frequently fills them with refried beans or occasionally Steak'ums. Fill them as you please; it's not really the filling that matters anyway - it's all about the sauce and the cheese!

Ingredients
6 fajita-size flour tortillas (Mission)
1 1/2 cups shredded chicken (from a $5 Costco rotisserie chicken)
2 cans Old El Paso Hot Enchilada sauce
4 cups shredded cheese (Kirkland Fancy Shredded Mexican 4 Cheese Blend)

Directions

1 - Preheat the oven to 375*.

2 - In a glass enchilada dish (as we call them in my family, but it's just a 9"x13" glass tray), empty one can of salsa and cover the bottom completely.

3 - Put 1/4 cup of chicken onto each flour tortilla. Roll them up and place them into the salsa-lined dish, seam down.

4 - Cover the enchiladas evenly with the rest of the sauce.

5 - Sprinkle the cheese on top until the enchiladas are smothered.

6 - Bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until the cheese is melted, bubbly and a little crunchy around the edges.

7 - Serve with white rice or Chi-Chi's corn cake and chow down. If any are left, they make great leftovers (that's a big if!)

Authentic Enchiladas

Enmoladas, enchiladas, enfrijoladas, en-anything-adas. This is a common word structure in Mexican cuisine, and simply means a lightly fried corn tortilla, dipped or covered in whatever the root word is (mole, chile and frijoles, respectively). Authentic Mexican enchiladas can be as simple as the name (and the above picture) suggests, but the true genius of the enchilada comes out as you build the plate up with raw onions, cheese, shredded chicken, lettuce and crema.

I resisted going authentic on the enchilada subject for a long time. One of my favorite meals, in flavor, ease and good time memories, is American style enchiladas from a recipe off of the Kraft Mexican blend cheese bag. I absolutely love those flour tortillas wrapped around supermarket rotisserie chicken, topped with canned salsa and baked with melty yellow and white cheeses. Eventually, I was won over and tried the real thing...and was happy that I did. While I'm still unsure if they reach the same high opinion of American enchiladas in my mind, they are still delicious, just a little different.

Ingerdients
16 corn tortillas
vegetable oil, for frying
2 cups salsa roja
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
2 cups shredded chicken
2 cups shredded lettuce
1 cup mexican crema (or sour cream)
1 cup queso fresco (or another crumbly white cheese)

Directions

1 - Heat 1/2 inch of oil in a medium saute pan over low heat. Lightly fry the tortillas, less than 30 seconds on each side (NOT crispy!)

2 - After removing each tortilla from oil, immediately dip the tortillas into warm salsa. Remove with a spatula and carefully roll up on a plate.

3 - With four enchiladas to a plate, top the enchiladas with an extra spoonful of leftover salsa.

4 - Add onion slices, shredded chicken, lettuce, crema and cheese (in that order).

5 - Dig in! (With a spoon, ideally - a fork will be messy.)

Great Fried Bananas

I don't know how to categorize these, and I'm not necessarily sure that they belong on my Mexican food blog. But, the more that I think about it, the more I am certain that these should be on every blog, whether it's based on food or on politics. I first (and only) sampled these crunchy, warm bananas for dessert at a Brazilian rodizio here in Mexico City. I've never had them in another churrascaria (and I've been to quite a few), so I don't think they're a Brazilian thing, and I've never had them anywhere else in Mexico, so I don't think it's a Mexican thing. Maybe it's a very specific and wonderful Brazilian-Mexican thing, like Giovani Dos Santos. It doesn't really matter, though; they're delicious.

OK, maybe I'm gushing a bit, but these were just such an unexpected delight for a self-proclaimed "fruit for dessert" hater. It's ultimately just a fried banana, but the crunchy cereal coating, the warm, ripe banana and the cool, creamy Lechera come together to offer a seriously pleasing dessert experience. (Future plans include a pumped up banana split sundae, but that idea is still untested.)

Ingredients
4 ripe bananas
1 cup Frosted Flakes (or Zucaritas, as they call them down here)
1 egg
vegetable oil, for frying
1 can sweetened, condensed milk (La Lechera)

Directions

1 - Peel the bananas and cut each one into three pieces (just a suggestion, you can leave them whole or cut them into several discs, or anything in between).

2 - Crush the frosted flakes in a food processor or by hand in a ziploc bag. Set aside.

3 - Beat the egg well to make an egg wash.

4 - Heat 1/2 inch of oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat.

5 - While the oil is heating, brush the egg wash onto the banana pieces, and roll them in the crushed Frosted Flakes until completely covered.

6 - Fry the coated banana pieces, about 2 minutes on each side. Remove from pan to drain briefly on a paper towel.

7 - Serve warm with a heavy drizzle of Lechera on top.

Happy Birthday Horchata

Today is my best friend's birthday, and, although I'm not shelling out the big bucks to send her a package (or even a card), I thought that there must be something I can do. Yes, next time I go home, I'm going to bring her some microwavable caramel popcorn and a Sponch, of course, but that won't be for several months. Today, acting on a query she made a few months ago, I will provide her with the best horchata recipe ever! (Or at least, the best recipe that I know.) This particular recipe is birthday horchata, which is just like regular horchata, but made with festive birthday spirit.

Horchata is a very popular rice-based drink (yes, rice) in Mexico and throughout Central America; it is another one of Mexico's most popular agua de sabores. Served cold, this is always a refreshing drink, but because of its milkiness, I like to drink it on its own or accompanying something sweet...or at least not something too spicy (they will sit weird together in your stomach).

Ingredients
1/2 cup rice
2 cups water
1/2 cup milk
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 cup sugar
6 cups water
1/4 cup lechera

Directions

1 - In a small pot over low heat, cook the rice in the milk and the 2 cups of water with the cinnamon stick. Cook for about 20 - 25 minutes - the rice should be underdone with a bite to it. The rice should not consume all of the liquid.

2 - Put 3 cups of water into a blender. Add the rice mixture with all of the leftover liquid and half of the cinnamon stick. Puree very well, at least 2 minutes.

3 - Place a cheese cloth (or something similar) on top of a pitcher, and pass the blended mixture through to get out any chunks of rice.

4 - Add 3 more cups of water, the sugar and the lechera. Stir well.

5 - Chill well in the refrigerator or serve over ice. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday to my rice-loving best friend!!