Tag Archives: Mexican

Sopa de Tortilla

  • 4 corn tortillas, cut in strips and crisped in hot oil
  • 3 cups chicken broth
  • 2 T tomato paste
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 4 chiles anchos, dried, whole
  • 1/2 t cumin
  • Cooked beans
  • Sliced avocado
  • Grated cheese
  • Chopped onion
  • Chopped fresh cilantro

Combine broth, tomato paste, garlic, bay, cumin and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove bay leaf. Place 1 chile ancho and some of the fried tortillas and beans in each of four soup bowls. Pour broth on top. Top with grated cheese.

Serve with avocado, onion, cilantro, and extra cheese and beans on the side.

Cat by Kati
Cat by Kati

Flan

A Mexican-style milk and egg custard with caramelized sugar similar to Creme Caramel.

  • 2-1/4 cups milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1/2 t vanilla
  • pinch of salt

Combine milk, 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla. Bring to boil and cool 20 minutes.

Place remaining sugar in small pan. Over low heat, leave without stirring until sugar browns, then stir with a wooden spoon until melted and caramel colored. Pour quickly into a 1-quart ceramic mold and swirl to cover bottom.

Beat together the eggs, yolks and salt; beat in milk. Strain to remove foam.

Pour into mold. Tie buttered waxed paper and foil on top. Cover with lid. Pour boiling water in a steamer pan to just below rack. Cover steamer. Cook 1-1/4 hours.

Cool completely. Invert to serve so caramel is on top.

Quesadillas

Quesadillas are traditional Mexican cornflour pockets or folded tortillas (corn or wheat) filled with many savory stuffings, from sauteed hot chiles and onions (rajas) to beans and from squash blossoms and huitlacoche (corn fungus) to seasoned ground beef. They usually, although not always, contain cheese. When using ready-made corn or flour tortillas, they can be pan-grilled with very little or no oil. When using fresh masa harina, they are deep fried in very hot grease.

  • 2 cups masa harina (tortilla flour)
  • 2 T wheat flour
  • 1/2 t baking powder
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 2 T melted butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup milk, approximately

Mix dry ingredients well; add butter, egg and enough milk to form a fairly stiff dough. Form into medium-thin tortillas rounds either using a tortilla press, rolling or patting between palms of hands. Stuff with any of the following stuffings, fold and seal the edges by pinching together, and fry in hot lard or oil. Drain and serve.

Stuffings: Cheese and epazote herb (known as Mexican Tea or wormseed). Mushrooms sauteed with onions and peppers. Squash bloosoms seauteed with onions. Spiced ground beef. Beans.


 

The common Spanish name, epazote (sometimes spelled and pronounced ipasote or ypasote), is derived from Nahuatl: epazōtl (pronounced [eˈpasoːt͡ɬ]) meaning skunk sweat.

Wikipedia contributors. “Dysphania ambrosioides.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Feb. 2016. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.


 

Polvorones

Polvorones are melt-in-your-mouth Mexican sugar cookies, extremely simple and popular.

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup icing sugar
  • 2-1/4 cups flour
  • 1/2 t cinnamon
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1-1/2 t vanilla

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in flour. Add rest of ingredients and mix until smooth. Shape into 1″ balls.

Place 1″ apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 F for 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

Polvorones, Mexican cookies
One of Angel’s mystical forests

Papatzul

A typical dish from the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, made with a wonderful creamy sauce of ground pumpkin seeds. Paptzules are similar to enchiladas in that they are filled and rolled tortillas smothered in a sauce that has chiles in it but is not necessarily very spicy.

Ingredients for Papatzul

  • 3 cups hulled pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
  • 6 serrano chiles
  • 1 sprig epazote (or 2 tsp dry)
  • 3 cups hot water
  • 24 corn tortillas
  • 12 hard cooked eggs

Pulverize the pepitas in a blender. Add seeded chiles and epazote and blend again. Place in a pan and add hot water gradually, stirring. Do not boil. Bring to a bare simmer and cook until sauce is like cream. Dip tortillas in sauce, fill with sliced or chopped eggs, roll, place in a baking dish and cover with remaining sauce. Place in oven until just heated through.

pumpkin seeds - Pepitas

Pork in Green Sauce with Zucchini

Puerco en Salsa Verde con calabacitas

  • 1 lb. pork loin, in chunks
  • 4 peppercorns
  • 1/2 bay leaf
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 onion, quartered
  • 2 cups salsa verde (Mexican green tomato sauce with chile)
  • 4 small zucchinis, cubed
  • 2 cups chopped spinach
  • 1 chicken bouillon cube
  • Salt to taste

Place pork in heavy pot with water to cover, onion, pepper, garlic and bay and boil for 1 hour, skimming off foam. Remove meat, strain the broth and discard spices and onion.

Reduce broth to about 1/2 cup. Return meat to pot, add salsa verde and bouillon cube. Simmer for half an hour.

Add spinach and zucchini and continue cooking for another 1/2 hr., adding broth or water if necessary. The sauce should be quite thick by the end of cooking .Adjust seasonings. Serve with tortillas (makes great tacos!)

Mexican Wedding Cakes

Also known as Viennese crescents: delicious little nutty cookies.

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup sugar (1/2 cup with pecans)
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 cup ground walnuts or chopped pecans
  • 1 t vanilla
  • if using pecans, 3 t water

Cream butter and sugar. Add flour, nuts, vanilla and water if pecans are used. Combine well and shape into crescents or balls. Bake on greased baking sheet for 15 to 20 minutes. Dust with icing sugar.

Pozole: Mexican Hominy Soup

Pozole is a pork, chicken, and hominy soup very typical of south central and western Mexico. In many places it is traditionally served on Thursday afternoons and evenings.  It is ladled into clay bowls and each person garnishes and seasons the soup at the table per individual taste.

Ingredients for Pozole: Mexican Hominy Soup

  • 1/2 lb. pork shank
  • 1/2 lb. spare ribs
  • 1 cut chicken
  • 1 pigs foot
  • 1/2 onion
  • 1 t. oregano
  • 4 quarts water
  • salt
  • 2-3 cups hominy
  • 3-5 guajillo chiles, soaked overnight

Preparation

Cut meat into pieces. Boil pork meat and chicken with onion, oregano, and salt. Skim as necessary. When meat is half-cooked, add hominy and whole chiles. Cook till hominy is tender and begins to pop open. Serve in clay bowls accompanied by any or all of the following garnishes and additions:

  • powdered or dried leaf oregano
  • quartered limes (squeeze juice into soup as desired)
  • red chile powder (chile piquin or cayenne)
  • sliced avocado
  • shredded lettuce
  • fried pork rinds (chicharrones)
  • queso fresco (Mexican fresh cheese)
  • sliced radishes
  • chopped serrano chiles

pozole


Elote con Queso

A Mexican corn and cheese casserole with a zing of fresh green chiles.

Elote Con Queso Ingredients

2-1/2 cups corn kernels (from about 5 ears)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 lb Manchego cheese, cubed or grated
1/4 lb. cheddar cheese, cubed or grated
4 fresh green chiles (serranos, for example), seeded and chopped
3 tbsp sugar
9 eggs
3 cups heavy cream
1 tbsp salt

Heat oven to 250º F. Butter an ovenproof 3-quart baking dish.

In a blender, break down corn kernels slightly. Mix with cheese, chiles, sugar, and baking powder.

Whisk together eggs and cream. Add to corn mixture with salt.

Pour into baking dish. Bake until just set, 45-55 minutes. Serve immediately. 12 servings.

Corn cobs

 

Pico de Gallo Hot Sauce

Pico de Gallo is a uncooked Mexican salsa made with coarsely chopped tomatoes, onion, chiles, and sometimes fresh coriander.  This version has a little vegetable oil and a hint of garlic added.

This salsa will be as hot as the chiles you put into it. An excellent addition to Pico de Gallo is small cubes of avocado

Pico de Gallo literally means “rooster’s beak”–

Ingredients for Pico de Gallo Hot Sauce

  • 3 ripe tomatoes, chopped finely
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 2 to 3 jalapeño or Serrano chiles, seeded and chopped finely
  • Salt
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander
  • 1 small clove garlic, crushed
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil (optional) (olive or avocado is best)
  • lime juice to taste

Preparing Pico de Gallo Hot Sauce

Combine all ingredients and let stand for awhile before using.  The salt will help bring out the pungency of the chiles, and adding oil and/or lime juices makes for a juicier sauce.

If you don’t like fresh coriander, simply leave it out, and the salsa will still work.