Caldo Tlalpeño

Serves 4

One of Mexico City's municipalities is called Tlalpan.  I was not born in Tlalpan, but my parents moved there when I was about 6 years old, and that's where I grew up.  In the early 1900's Tlalpan was a little town outside the city, and people who travelled there for business started talking about this very special soup a lady called Pachita was cooking there.  This soup was actually just a simple chicken broth with vegetables, but there was something about it that made it unique.  Her caldo from Tlalpan became a legend.

What you will need:

Chicken breasts                                   4

Baby morrows                                     4, sliced

Peas                                                          1 cup

Carrots                                                      2, sliced

Green beans                                         around 20, cut into pieces

Potatoes                                                 2, diced

Avo                                                           1, diced

White cheese                                       around 100 gr. diced

Rice                                                          ½ cup

Onion                                                       ¼

Tomato                                                    2

Garlic                                                        2 cloves

Chipotle Chile                                        2 (Chipotle is a jalapeño that has been allowed to dry on the vine,  and is then smoked.  It's usually sold in tins.  Some supermarkets in Johannesburg cater for ex-pat communities, and they sometimes stock it.  If you can't find it, you can substitute it with a few drops of Tabasco Chipotle, which is becoming available at almost any big supermarket.)

Bay leaf                                               1

Marjoram                                            1 pinch

Coriander                                            2 branches

Lemons                                               2 cut in thick wedges to squeeze

In about 1 ½ litres of water boil the chicken and the potatoes with the salt, garlic, bay leaf, marjoram and coriander until the chicken is cooked.  Shred the chicken and add it back to the broth.  Bring it back to the boil and then add the rest of the vegetables.  Let it simmer   for about 20 minutes.

In the blender put the tomato, garlic, onion and salt liquefy entirely.  In a shallow pan fry the rice, in about one tablespoon of oil.  Once the rice is transparent, add the tomato paste and wait until it turns its colour to orange and you can see the bottom of the pot.  Add 3 cups of water and as usual don’t stir it just check the liquid occasionally and add more if its not entirely cooked.

Once the chicken broth is ready add half of the cooked rice and some of the Chipotle.  At the table have the cheese, lemons, chipotles and avo. Your guests can dish for themselves the quantity they want.

And… that’s it. ¡Buen Provecho!

LOLA

¡Tacos de pollo!

Serves 4

I hear you, I hear you, all this Mexican cooking, but where are the tacos? HERE!! This recipe is really, really one of my favourites.  Truly if I had a choice and they were diet-friendly, I’d most probably eat them at least once a week.

The salsa for today is one of my secrets, my mom taught me how to cook it, and every time I prepare it my guests just love it.

Now what is a taco? A taco is anything that is contained by a tortilla, usually a maize tortilla. (toɾˈtiya', with a soft "y"... al Spanish words with double l are pronounced like that). Tortillas are soft, round, flat disks similar to a wrap or roti, made with either maize or wheat flour.  You can harden tortillas for other Mexican meals, or have them soft.   They are NEVER a hard disc folded in a V shape.  This is just silliness. Have you ever tried to eat one of those abominations with anything in them?  One bite and the whole thing collapses… it makes no sense so please try to use the real thing, believe me it’s worth the effort.  For this recipe you can't use flour tortillas (besides the fact that the ones we get in supermarkets are too big, the flour ones are too absorbent, and won't fry properly). If you're after some maize tortillas in Jozi, drop me an email  at lolainafrica@gmail.com and I'll put you in touch with the person I get them from.... for want if a better word, my dealer!

What you need

Maize Tortillas                                    16

Chicken breasts                                   4 boiled as per previous recipes and shredded click here

Lettuce                                                  ¼, shredded very finely

Sour cream

White Cheese                                       a handful,  shredded

Romano Pecorino cheese               a pinch

Tomatoes                                            4

Onion                                                  ¼, Chopped

Garlic                                                   1 clove

Chilli (Serrano)                                 1

Coriander                                           1 handful, chopped

Avo                                                       1, cut into squares

Sea salt                                                a pinch

Toothpicks                                         20

Oil

In a dry frying pan or baking tray, warm a tortilla until it is just a little bit brown on both sides....at home we use a Mexican comal, but the frying pan will work fine.  Don't heat the tortillas too much, or they will go hard and won't fold; they need to be supple.   In another frying pan, preheat about 1/2 a cup of oil.  Take some of the shredded chicken and lay it into one tortilla.  Roll the tortilla and secure the edge with a toothpick.  Once you've done enough to more or less fill the frying pan, fry until they're golden.  Remove them and place on a rack or plate with absorbent paper towel.   Carry on until you’ve done all the tortillas.

 

For the salsa, blacken the tomatoes, garlic and chilli.  When the tomatoes' skins start peeling off, blend all the blackened ingredients coarsely, with the sea salt. Add the chopped onion, coriander and avo.

 

 

To eat: set a group of tacos on your plate and remove the toothpicks.  Put some lettuce on top of them, drizzle with a little sour cream, sprinkle some of the cheese and finally spoon on some of that chunky salsa.  Eat immediately…yes with your hands; this isn't neat, prissy food. It's a little bit messy... It's tactile, earthy, real food.  ¡Buen provecho!

Love, LOLA

No meat Monday! Bean stuffed peppers and Mexican rice

Serves 3

One of the things we've been trying to do is to eat less meat; both for the environmental and health reasons.

Few people know that the Mexican diet was almost completely vegetarian before the arrival of the Spanish. The main reason being that in the area that is now Mexico there were no large animals like cattle, pigs or even horses.   The biggest animal that the locals ate was the turkey....in Mexican Spanish, the guajolote.

They say that when Hernán Cortes arrived in Tenochitlan -what is now Mexico City- he was invited to a banquet with emperor Moctezuma in which more than 300 dishes were served. The majority of these dishes were vegetarian.  This pre-Hispanic influence remains to this day, so there are a great number of vegetarian Mexican dishes to choose from.

So for my vegetarian and non-vegetarian friends here is the recipe:

Peppers                                       6

Refried beans                              2 cans

          (you can get them at some supermarkets, and are usually
          in the pasta aisle. If there are no refried beans
          available buy the normal tinned "Mexe" Beans and
          liquidise them after seasoning, to form a paste)

Onion                                          ¼ diced

Garlic                                          2 cloves

Sour cream                                  4 tablespoons

Tussers cheese                             a handful grated

Rice                                            1 cup

Baby corn                                    6 pieces (fresh or canned)

Vegetable broth                           3 cups

Olive oil                                      2 table spoons

Preheat your oven to 180º C

First you will have to “pimp up” the beans as when they come from the can they are usually just boiled and the flavour tends to be a little bit bland.  Heat up a pan and add one tablespoon of olive oil. Once it’s hot, add the onion and one of the cloves of garlic , chopped.  When the onion is almost transparent, add the two cans of beans and a squirt of water.  Let it boil for a few minutes and set aside.

  

Cut off the top of the peppers and clean the insides of any seeds. Spoon in some of the refried beans, then top with the cheese and sour cream.  Add about 1 cup of water to the bottom of the pan (this will cook the peppers, and prevent them form losing their form and spilling their contents).  Let them cook for about 20 min or until they have changed colour form bright green to olive green.  Grill for 5 more minutes.

For the rice, in a hot pan add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and let 1 clove of garlic blacken.  Add the cup of rice and fry it until it’s transparent and sounds like sand (remember my abuela?)  Add the baby corn and the 3 cups of broth and let the water evaporate.  Now here’s the secret; you don’t stir the rice.  Why? Well, if you do you release the starch and it gets all sticky and mushy.... not good! Mexican rice is not supposed to be sticky, believe me. So every now and then check if you can see the bottom of the pan through the rice. If you can, and the rice is still a bit hard, add 1 more cup of water.

And that’s it! Easy huh? Buen provecho (Bon Appétit in Spanish)

Love LOLA

From my Grandma’s Kitchen ... “Fideos Secos”

Serves  4

 

This recipe reminds me so much of my abuela, my grandma. The way she taught me how to cook, you know. No specific quantities, no times or measurements; for her the way to cook was to understand how ingredients behave, and to "read" them.

Fideos secos, or "dry noodles" is a great combination of European and Mexican cooking. It’s a really homely recipe; nothing fancy, but perfect comfort food for a broken heart or a 'bout of the flu.

This dish can also be cooked as a vegetarian meal, simply replace the chicken broth for vegetable broth.... um, and obviously, remove the chicken too.

What you will need:

Chicken breasts                                                   4
Carrot                                                                1
Fresh cilantro (coriander)                                     1 handful
Thyme                                                                1 handful
Sea salt                                                               around a dessert spoon
Potato                                                                1
Bay leaf                                                              1
Black pepper                                                       4 kernels
Chillies                                                               2 fresh, or a tea spoon of chilli paste
Onion                                                                 ½, cut into  2 pieces
Garlic                                                                 2 cloves
Tomatoes                                                            4-5
Pasta Capelli d'angelo,
Or the thinnest pasta you can find                         ½ a packet

The other night I did this for my husband -it's one of his all-time favourites- but we didn't have any angel pasta, so I just used spaghetti. It worked fine, but I find the thinner pasta holds the flavour much better, and gives the meal its comforting texture.

Sour Cream                                                        4 tablespoons
Cheese (Tussers, Gouda or Cheddar)                     a handful, grated.
Pecorino Romano cheese                                     about a quarter of the milder cheese
Avo                                                                    1, cut into rounds.

Boil the chicken in water with the carrot, one of the pieces of onion, coriander, thyme, salt, potato, bay leaf and black pepper. Once the chicken is cooked through, remove the breasts and let them cool down before shredding the meat. I find your fingers work best, but raking a fork across the grain of the meat works well too, especially if you're in a hurry and can't wait fir the chicken to cool. Sieve the broth.

In a pan or baking tray, blacken the tomatoes, the other piece of onion, fresh chillies and garlic. The tomatoes will start to dance and sizzle. Remember to turn the ingredients over once a side is partially blackened. Don't blacken the chillies if you're using the paste, just add it to the blender. When you blacken chillies, we call it "torear" or bullfighting them. Bullfighting chillies improves the flavour, but also makes them a lot hotter! Once the ingredients are blackened, throw them in a blender with some salt, coriander and a squirt of water.

Break the pasta up and fry it with about a tablespoon of olive oil until it is a little bit golden, (and here I can still hear grandma, "be careful not to burn it, don’t stop moving it... you will know it’s ready when the pasta sounds like sand"). Add the blended mix (grandma again, “wait until the mix has changed colour from light red to bright orange... and when you push the pasta to the side you see very little liquid and the bottom of the pan”). Add 2 cups of the chicken broth, stir in the shredded chicken, and let it cook further.

Once it’s cooked (once there is very little liquid at the bottom of the pan) add some dollops of sour cream and cheese to the top, and grill it in the oven until it’s golden. Decorate with the rounds of avo and some coriander; serve immediately.

¡Buen provecho!

LOLA

Amazing get together!

Serves 4

For the first food entry, I decided to go wintery and hearty.

The hubby and I invited one of our favourite couples to lunch. On the menu; mango margaritas, guacamole "Lola style" with nachos, Pozole and strawberry kisses.

Let me give you a little introduction about Pozole.  Pozole is a soup and main course all in its own, it's a warm, wholesome soup with hearty maize, and a slight hint of lemon and chili. I know it sounds a bit of a strange combination, but that’s true of so much Mexican cooking.  However that’s no the most unusual aspect of this dish...History tells us that ancient Aztecs used to prepare this dish with the flesh of those they beat or captured in wartime.  They believed that by eating their fiercest enemies they would gain their strength and courage on the battlefields. 

Sorry to disappoint you but we Mexicans no longer employ human meat in our diet, so today we use pork in Pozole.  [Besides being easier to come by, pork is easier to prepare]

The strawberry kisses are a very nice dessert; just bear in mind you have to serve them straight when they come out of the frying pan otherwise they loose their freshness and amazing taste.

Ok! Less talking more action here are the recipes.

MANGO MARGARITAS

Powdered chile mixed

with sugar                              5 tablespoons

Mango nectar                          2/3 cup.

Triple sec                               ½ tot

Tequila                                   1 tot   

Lime juice                              2 tablespoons

Ice cubes

Mix the mango nectar, triple sec, tequila, lime juice and ice. Shake or stir vigorously for 30 seconds. Rim the glasses with a combination of sugar and chilli. [more here... What chili can you use here? Not Birdseye! Not paprika! Try those chilis that come mixed with salt and add your bit of sugar we only want to achieve a little bit of spike.  Strain equal amount into each glass.

GUACAMOLE LOLA

Firstly, it's pronounced "gwa-ka-moh-léh" not "gwaka-MOLE" or "gwaka-mo-LEE"...unless you want to sound like a gringo with a bad Spanish accent. Avocados, and guacamole originate from Mexico, so we have the naming rights!

Avos                                        3 big ones

Onion                                      ¼

Garlic                                      2 cloves

Chile                                       1 or 2 pieces

Lemon                                     3 tablespoons

Milk                                         100 ml.

Coarse salt                               1 teaspoon

Coriander                                 a handful (chopped)

Blend everything in the blender (except the coriander) and VOILÁ.

If it happens to you as it happened to me on Sunday, that the coriander hid at the very bottom of the fridge and when it was rescued was all wilted….then just use a teaspoon from a jar of the pre-prepared stuff.  It is real life saver.

Don’t forget the nachos or chips.

Whatever you do, don't use that powdery stuff you can buy at some supermarkets.  Sure, if you like it, use it. But don't ever present that to me as guacamole. That's like substituting cabanossi for boerewors, and still expecting to add it to a braai at any self-respecting Saffa get-together.

 

POZOLE

Deboned pork leg                   1kg

Onion                                     ½

Garlic                                    1 clove

Bay leaves                              2

Oregano                                 1 tablespoon

Black Pepper                          1 tablespoon

Beef stock                              2 tablespoons

Coarse salt                             1 handful

Cacahuasintle Maize                500 grams
                                                       [this is very difficult to come across, but the good
                                                        news is that you can replace it with samp. The
                                                        real deal looks a bit like a tooth, and should be
                                                        about the size of your thumbnail]

For the table:
Shredded lettuce                   3 cups

Finley sliced radishes             10

The chile sauce of your choice... I think habanero is a good one, but don't add too much! Don't use peri-peri, or sweet-and-sour sauce; these will just overpower or deaden the other flavours.

In a large pot dry fry the pork leg until is golden on all sides. Add 1.5 litres of water, salt, the bay leaves, oregano, black pepper and the beef stock cook for 20 to 30 minutes or until is completely cooked. Let it cool down, remove the fat, and shred the meat.

In another pan boil the samp with garlic and onion.  Don't add any salt or it can go tough. Once the samp is cooked take out the onion and the garlic and add the shredded meat and the broth of the meat.

For the table:  Put the sliced radishes, chile sauce, shredded lettuce, some diced onion and oregano in small bowls.  You and your guests can add as much or as little of these to the Pozole as you go.  If you find that you've added too much chili, you can add a little sour cream to your bowl to cool it down.

STRAWBERRY KISSES

Strawberries                           20

Milk                                        ½   cup

Cooking oil                             4 tablespoons

Salt                                        1 teaspoon

Sugar                                      ½ cup

Self rising flour                        1 cup

Eggs                                       2

Ground cinnamon                 6 tablespoons

In the blender mix the milk, oil, salt, eggs, flour and 3 tablespoons of sugar. Wash the strawberries and dip them in the batter.  Fry them in a shallow pan, then roll them gently in  a mix of sugar and cinnamon and serve immediately.

It was a lovely, fun evening. By the end of it we were laughing, singing and having the occasional heated, but good-natured argument. These things tend to happen when we drink tequila. Don't worry, this is just a part of being Latino...

Try it and let me know your results.

Buen provecho!

LOLA