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