Basic Party Buffet

Yesterday I attended a cousin's surprise wedding anniversary party. I wondered what was so special about 38. My wife gave me at least three answers. The most likely is that it's a reason to party. Folks down here don't need a lot of coaxing for a family celebration. Secondly, it was to be a surprise for the couple, Luis and Maria Elana. I guess it's easier to surprise them on their 38th than it would be for the 25th or 50th. The third and most fatalistic; "you never know". That can mean anything, I guess.
Silly me. Forgot the camera. So words are going have to suffice today. The location was a private palabra. I think that's what it's called. It's a big room with a grass roof. There were around 150 relatives. I'm finally getting to recognize about half of them!
First come the drinks and snacks. This was a low budget thing so it was pretty easy to recall. Food is chicharones and salsa. Someone told me the chicharones are deep fried right here in town but most of the raw material, pig skin, is imported from north of the border! That's where the supply and best price is. The drinks are either tequila or rum, Coca Cola or grapefruit soda.
The buffet, served around 4pm, was sparse but tasty. Refried beans with a bit of white cheese crumbled on to. The beans was white pintos (that's different) and very finely pureed. Rice with veggies. A delicious molé; dark with cinnamon and a lot of other flavor hint. Unfortunately, I had no idea what to put it on! The only meat with a shredded pork and it was served with in its own tomato-based sauce -- mild. The 5th and last Sterno pan had some thin green things blended with a little scrambed eggs and a bit of white sauce. I've been here long enough to know two things; they aren't French cut green beans and I don't even try them. They are chilies and darn near everyone in the room but me likes them. I tried exactly 1 piece, 1/4-inch long. It was hot and I tracked it's progress across my tongue, down my throat, and into my stomach. I wonder how long it'll take before I get at least somewhat accustomed to the picante!
The Gringo Whine: I miss the variety of textures and colors. Everything served is basically a well chopped or blended paste. I want chunks and slabs of things mixed with the sauces and pastes. And colors? Not everything should be various shades beige or red. OK, chilies and avocatos are green. I stand corrected. Plus this was a last-minute, low budget buffet for 150. It was good.
I forgot to mention the tortillas. I am amazed at how good real corn tortillas taste here. In Arizona they are gritty and blah. Down here they are just as smooth as flour tortillas and have lots more flavor. At the party they are served in foil packs of around 10-15 to stay warm. In addition to tasting good, they provide the idea way to sop & mop all those sauces and pastes. It helps that there are hundreds of places and people making them fresh every day. I think the freshness has a lot to do with their yumminess.
I must remember the camera next time the family gathers. My mother-in-law, Guadalupe, will be 85 December 12th. It's also her saint's feast day. Sounds like a party to me!

Too Much Time

After my first cup of coffee in the morning I either shut off the coffee maker or let the French press cool off. Burnt sugar I like. Burnt coffee -- eeech.
If I'm in the mood, I put the (other 5 cups of) coffee in a thermal carafe. If I am lazy (usually), I reheat as needed in the microwave. Reheating coffee and popping corn are the two biggest uses of that electricity hog. Now comes the Too Much Time part.
My microwave has a built-in turntable. Since I like the handle of my cup to "arrive" at about 3:30 or 4 o'clock when the coffee is heated, I actually did some timing. My turntable rotates at 1 revolution every 44 seconds.

Heating cold coffee: 132-sec = 2:12 = 3 revs
Heating freshcoffee: 22-sec = ½ rev

On my microwave, these times deliver my cup of coffee the way I like it (150ºF /65ºC). I don't have a probe for my microwave so I kept my instant digital thermometer on the ready till I got it down. My coffee maker brews at about 150 but the addition of cream and a cold coffee mug brings the temp way too low for a good cup of coffee.
When I nuke a cup directly from the coffee maker, I put the cup on the turntable over at 10 o'clock and it is delivered at 4 o'clock. Ya see... at 4am I am not equipped to locate the handle of the mug that easily. I'm lucky I remember the coffee is in the microwave if I miss the beep!

Speaking of morning grogginess...

• has anyone else poured the ground coffee into the water door rather than into the filter basket?
• has anyone else poured fresh, steaming coffee into the sugar bowl instead of the mug?

Making Méx. Minestrone

Sunday dinner for the family this week will feature my wife's lasagna.

lasagna: n.

1. Pasta in flat, very wide strips.
2. A dish made by baking such pasta with layers of sauce and fillings such as cheese or meat. [Italian, possibly from Vulgar Latin lasania, from Latin lasanum, chamber pot]

Since there is no Italian sausage down here in Aguascalientes, her version uses some ground beef and ground pork. No ricotta either so she's using something Mexican as well. About the only two things I recognize are mozzarella and Kraft Parmesan (Parmigiano-Reggiano is but a fond memory!). She also adds cream to her tomato sauce for some reason.

My contribution will be the soup. Now that fall is here, I decided to make minestrone. I started with notes and ingredients from Simply Recipes. But like most of my cooking, it was time to improvise. First, certain foods taste best when they are warmed up leftovers. Beef stew, baked bean, and any hearty soup come to mind. In fact, I prefer cold day-old pizza! [What's your item that "tastes even better the second night?"] Since it was Friday and dinner is Sunday, the soup will be made ahead of time and then reheated Sunday.

The recipe called for beef or chicken broth. Since I like beef in my vegetable soup, I went with some boney chunks of beef with fat and meat all around 'em; around a kilo (2.2lb). This I put in a pan with some extra virgin olive oil and sauted. I have learned to be patient and don't move the stuff around. That way the meat has a chance to get nicely browned and leave some danrk, crispy chunks on the pan; the basis for great taste. After 10-15 minutes on a medium fire, I tossed the meat into a pot with 10 cups of water. I was happy to see many of the bones sported marrow-filled holes. Yum! I splashed a bit of wine in the pan to deglaze, added some of the water, then transferred all the liquid crispy chunks to the pot. The stock pot then started heating up... cover off. Stock is like minestrone itself. Toss in whatever you've got and let it simmer. Since the recipe called for lots of veggies from carrots to cabbage, potato to zucchini; I decided to prep the veggies and use the peelings, ends, etc., for the stock. Naturally I washed everything well first. Onion: chop off the two ends and throw then ends in the pot. Cut the onion in half and peel off a couple layers. Throw the dried outer layer away but toss the inner peels in the pot. More tossing with tomato skins, celery ends (leaves are too bitter), parsley stalks, ends of zucchini, etc. I remembered that a couple of cloves and a bay leave get tossed into lots of stocks and sauces; so in they went. This all was Friday. After around 4 hours of slow cooking, the pot rested for the night. Next morning I removed the fat, fished out the meat and bones, reheated the stock, seasoned to taste, and then strained through cheesecloth and seive. It's a fine tasting base! The meat was then removed from the bones and set aside.

Saturday: The recipe calls for adding certain veggies in two steps since they cook at different times and some are first browned a little. So on Friday, when peeling, chopping, slicing and dicing, I segregated to different plastic bags. Although not in the original recipe, in addition to a diced potato, I had to add a cup of pasta shells. I mean, it is Minestrone! Saturday afternoon is cookin' and combining time. The large white beans are being stubborn but they will be tender! Once each ingredient is cooked properly they will cool and then be combined in the crock for an evening in the bottom of the 'fridge. Tomorrow they will come back to room temp and then be crock potted for an hour or two.

While I don't have decent Parmesan, I'll make do with the Kraft Khemical Kompound and some toasted garlic bread; minced garlic on buttered bolillos.

I gotta tell you, the butter down here is a lot better butter than up north. For one thing, they don't charge more for unsalted than for salted. How about that! Secondly, it doesn't get all sputtery when it's in the pan. Third, it's a lovely shade of yellow instead of pale blah. And finally, it tastes good. It tastes like butter used to taste. I find that lately I have been "cleaning off" the spoon or knife I use to spread butter. It must be higher in butterfat. I'm sure it's unhealthy; things that taste good usually are. e.g. Krispy Kremes, pot roast with gravy, pie dough made with lard* (manteca).

* Did you know lard is lower in saturated fat than butter? See: lard


Hasta el lunes.

Limes Yes - Lemons No

According to the signs in the stores, these are limones or lemons. Nope. They're little bitty limes. And they taste like limes. So what's a fella to do if he craves a cold glass of lemonade, a slice of lemon meringue pie, or just a squeeze on a big ol' slab of salmon? The answer, so far, is a glass of limeade, a slice of lime pie, or lime juice on the fish.

There are tons and tons of these small limes in the market for pennies. They are small, but they are soft (when ripe) and full of juice. I've measured and a small limone will yield well over a teaspoon of juice and they can be squeezed by hand. However, the do have some big seeds so the squeezing is best done over a strainer. The limones above are just about an inch in diameter. The 10 Peso coin (I don't have a quarter!!) is about an inch also.

The markets also sell a large lime (about the size of a small lemon) for triple the price per kilo. [Most everything is priced by the kilo here = 2.2 lbs.] They don't have triple the juice so the only reason to buy them would be for an easier time zesting. They do tend to be greener and less prone to blemishes.

I have been asking about and a cousin (one of my wife's >150 cousins) said she has seen a couple of lemon trees at the base of a great uncle's rancho out in the country. She said there are always lots of big yellow fruit on the trees. No wonder, no one uses them!

Oh, I did find a "kinda" substitute right in my own back yard. We have an old orange tree that is full of fruit. The bad news is that the tree is ornamental. The good news is the sour juice (what little there is -- mostly seeds and skin) tastes quite a bit like lemon juice! I hope it's safe for digest. I have already used it in a pie and over fish!

Of course the plentiful little green limones are great in guacamole and to hold the salt on the edge of a margarita glass!

The Famous Garbage Plate

Talk about legends!

This is the infamous Nick Tahou Garbage Plate. It is known far and wide as long as you're in Rochester, NY, near my hometown. The reason there are four plates in the photo is that there were four original Garbage Plates. The main entre was either 2 red hots, 2 white hots (also an exclusive favorite in W.N.Y), 2 hamburgers or 2 cheeseburgers. Nowadays you can also get fish or eggs I believe.

For all the yummy details, just type "garbage plate" in Google. I tol' you it's infamous! Google should shoot you over to the Garbage Plate entry in Wikipedia. Or click on hyperlink.

The original Tahou's was in an old train station at Broad & Main. It was about 4 blocks west of the courts, jail and the legal and banking area of Rochester as well as the newspapers. So there were lawyers, judges, cops, newpaper folks grabbing a late night plate. To the south and west were the black neighborhoods and to the north were the German and Italian areas of the old city. So it was/is always quite a mix of customers.

One night after drinking too much, my pals and I cruised in for Garbage on the way home. The place was full and noisy. Someone had been killed out front earlier. The chalk marks were still fresh. Some wise guy had grabbed a piece of coal and etched a hop-scotch pattern inside the chalk marks!

And finally, a word about the hot sauce that covers the Garbage Plate. Although mighty tasty, it can be addictive and harmful. One of my friends had an ulcer and was told to stay away from spicy foods. He ate at Nick's at least 3 times a week. One weekend his stomach was really giving him problems. He went to the hospital and under the knife; the ulcer had perforated. When the doc opened him up, he exclaimed, "Oh no! I told him to stay away from Tahou's!" The sauce is probably included in the local Poison Control Center database.

Mexican Tomato Paste

You'd think in a country like México there would be no problem in picking up a can of tomato paste. If anyone uses a lot of tomatoes, it's either Mexico or southern Italy. Well, bucko, I can't find any. And I need tomato paste to exist. They also don't have much in the way of canned spaghetti sauce down here. I could use Prego as a base but that's hard to find. What they do have in a can (Hunt's or Del Monte) isn't worth the can it comes in.

What is available in the markets (agropecuarios) are tons of plum tomatoes; Fresh and cheap. I am coming to the conclusion that I have been spoiled. Just like I assumed that Jello pudding was a scratch ingredient, I am adjusting to the fact that if I want tomato paste, I am going to have to make it ... from tomatoes! I wish I could find 3-4 ounce canning jars.

So who's got a good recipe or information on making tomato paste? I'm going to have to buy a non-reactive stock pot. Or will a ceramic crock pot do it? The "high" setting does eventually get things boiling.

Same deal down here for sun-dried tomatoes. Sun-dried tomatoes are as in these days as balsamic vinegar, buffalo mozzarella, and goat cheese. But I haven't found any sun-dried tomatoes for sale in México. I don't have the time or patience to dry tomatoes (or grapes) in the back yard. I think I'll surf Ebay for a realtively small dehydrator.

The bottom line on tomatoes down here; they sell tomatoes and they sell a thin tomato sauce called pure de tomate condementado. No whole tomatoes in a can, no stewed tomatoes, to thick tomato sauce, and no tomato paste. I think I'm going to have to plan ahead to make my own from those fresh red orbs.

Next time: A Limone is Not a Lemon

We're Off and Crawling

Day #1. While I was setting up Google's "Hello" to send a few pictures over the internet (quicker than email), I saw the option to move them to my free Blogger blog site. I have been toying with the idea of setting up a blog on my Grainer.org domain but that costs money and looks a little more involved than what I want for starters. Their package includes 2 web sites and domain names and a blog plus my usual Grainer.org email.

I am thinking of using grainer.org for a web site for the family. It would be similiar to what I have at MyFamily.com but friendlier and with more control of the options. The other domain would be used to set up a web site for my Class of '59. I've been interested in doing that for years! The 3rd element, the blog, would be for casual observations and recipe stuff (a foodie blog) from down here in Mexico; hence the blog name.

Well, rather than starting with all of that, I decided start out with just a blog on Blogger. It's free and I can get a feel of how much time and work are involved. Although I am retired now, I have other things to do and the last thing I want to do is lock myself into a "job". I already feel like I am spending too much time reading 25 subscribed food blogs (Accidental Hedonist -to- Too Many Chefs) plus Woot!, USAToday's "Today in the Sky" of, of course, a little Dave Barry.

So let's see how it goes. I have a lot of whining to do regarding my cooking and shopping efforts down here, to say nothing of the politics, crime, and drivers! Then again, the temperature is 30 degrees cooler than Phoenix!