Cooking Mexican

Perhaps my comment to Ranty in this post would make a good conversational blog post on its own:

I've developed awesome (if I do say so myself) vegetarian versions of pozole and menudo, the latter one I especially love because of all the oregano! Luckily The Mexican really loves soup--who knew Mexico as a country was so dedicated to it, even eating certain soups on on certain days of the week?--so I can make a batch and we'll eat it for a couple of days, just keeping it in the pot in the fridge and tossing that on top of the stove when we're hungry.

For me, the soups have been the best way to explore all these different herbs and flavor combinations that I'd never had before. Moles have been fun, too, just because of their culinary ad lib nature (half a piece of bread, one cracker, a burned tortilla, etc.) Guajes/huajes/uhuajes (however you want to spell them, because apparently anything goes) have also caught my eye and my next mole with involve them. I make moles more for The Mexican, though, since I haven't yet found a satisfying vegetarian application for them, aside from adding them to soups for depth. My only gripe is that certain things are harder to find here, like Mexican limas, Oaxacan oregano and, something I've yet to find anywhere, romeritos.

Today I'm pickling the 40-odd serranos I have leftover from what my mom gave me last week, after making a few batches of salsa roja and salsa verde for freezing. I was going to throw in some nopales with them, too, but the cool air outside is making me want to boil the nopales with salt, serranos and oregano instead, and just eat a bowl of steaming hot nopales. They make a perfect tangy cold salad in the summer, but this is how I prefer them when the weather starts cooling down.

Compared to our consumerist way of grocery shopping and cooking here in the States, I'm absolutely fascinated with a lifestyle that involves plucking wild herbs and cactus paddles from road ditches and open fields, then taking it home and making a meal out of it. How blissfully simplistic! And to have trees on your land that bear citrus fruits, and a chayote vine that literally never stops sprouting those delicious, juicy little squashes? I dream about it.

Comments

[ranty]

Doh! I guess I should have read more carefully - it *looked* like pozole from the garbanzo beans and avocado... :-)

I love nopales too.

[Alexis]

Well it's easy to get excited about either one! So delicious and good for you.

I ended up making nopales tacos today: boiling the nopales (with serranos for flavor), then sauteeing them with onions, mushrooms and Oaxaca string cheese and stuffing that into warm soft corn tortillas and ladling with hot tomatillo salsa. I also cooked up some Spanish-style saffron rice and refried beans with serranos and garlic.

[Marchelle]

One of my fonder memories of my childhood was my dad and I picking wild asparagus and rhubarb along the numerous country roads where we lived. I'm thinking I need to can some tomato sauce before it's too late.

[James D]

Pozole Thursdays, in Zihuatanejo, holy pozole is this the best...Only on Thursdays, at the A la Santa Prisca Pozoleria(large outdoor pavilion)downtown. Chile relleno appetizers & tequila ... If you haven't been here for pozole, you need to go.

[MOM]

Do you need any more serrano peppers? What am I going to do with all of them???

[Alexis]

I'll take them Saturday, Mom. I've been using them like crazy. Anything else you've got, too.

[MOM]

I'd love to have your pickled serrano recipe!

[Sarah Buckley]

We had a little Mexican up in here tonight...all your food talk and a batch of tomatillos from the CSA inspired me. Yummy!!!

[Alexis]

Your Sexican is strong, Sarah Buckley.