5-pepper and cheese tamales

When I was in Oaxaca, I had the pleasure of spending some time in the kitchen with my host family making tamales. They are impossible to reproduce at home due to the lack of fresh, soft masa and lard (which I wouldn’t use anyway but it sure does make for a rich and light tamal dough). So this recipe was inspired by that cooking adventure as Eunice uses swiss chard to wrap the tamales, rather than the traditional banana leaf or corn husk. I really enjoy the flavour the greens infuse into the tamale. And this version is 100% vegetarian.

These take a while to make, so be prepared to spend some quality time in the kitchen on a weekend. Your guests will be impressed.

These unique tamales are wrapped in swiss chard, which you also eat, rather banana leaves or corn husks that get tossed.

Yield: 10-14 tamales

Ingredients:

For the tamal dough:

(This will make double the amount of dough you need, so you can double the rest of the ingredients and make lots or you can use the remaining masa to make another kind of tamal. I made some amarillo mole with chicken tamales wrapped in corn husks with the remainder). 

280 g vegetable shortening, at room temperature 
Salt
1½ tsp baking powder
3½ cups dried masa harina for tamales mixed with 2¾-3 cups hot water
1 to 1½ cups vegetable stock

For the tamales:

·        2 big bunches of swiss chard

·        1 jalapeno

·        2 serrano chiles

·        1 red pepper

·        1 anaheim or banana pepper

·        1 poblano pepper

·        200 g of mushrooms

·        2 large or 3 smaller roma tomatoes

·        ½ onion

·        100-120g of monterey jack cheese with pepper in it (or really any melty cheese you want)

·        Salt

·        1 tsp Mexican oregano

·        Juice of half a lime

·        2 tbsp olive oil

For garnish:

·        Queso fresco or fresh ricotta

·        Salsa of your choosing, but freshly made is always best

·        Sour cream

Wash the swiss chard and let it dry. Then remove the stems so you are left only with soft leaves. I added probably about ¼ cup of finely sliced stems to the filling mixture, so cut and save that while you’re cleaning the leaves.

Tamal dough:

Mix the water and dried masa harina together until you have a soft dough. If it doesn’t hold together or is still a bit crumbly, add a bit more water until you can get a good ball of it. Sometimes if your masa harina has been around a while, it can get really dry so needs more water to reconstitute. Use hot but not boiling water for this as boiling water is really hard on the old hands when mixing it all together (obviously a lesson learned the hard way).

You can make the rest of the dough by hand, but it is much easier with a stand mixer so those are the instructions I’ll provide.

With your mixer on medium-high speed, beat the shortening, 2 teaspoons salt, and the baking powder for a minute or two. Continue beating as you add the masa in small handfuls.

Reduce the speed to medium-low and add 1 cup of stock. You should be able to roll the masa into a ball without it either breaking apart or being so soft it sticks to your hands so add more stock if you need to but be careful not to add too much. Continue beating for another minute or so, until a ½ teaspoon of the batter floats in a cup of cold water (if it floats you can be sure the tamales will be tender and light).

Taste the batter and season with more salt if you think it needs some. You can, if you have time, refrigerate the batter for an hour or so, then rebeat, adding a little more stock or water if you need to bring the mixture to the soft consistency it had before. This can make your dough a bit lighter.

Filling:

Roast the poblano. If you have a bbq or gas stove, char the skin over the flame. If you have an electric stove, put it under the broiler for 10-15 minutes turning it so all sides get charred.  Put the hot pepper in a bowl, cover it with a towel, and let it sit/steam while you chop up the other ingredients so it will be easy to peel. Then remove the skin, stem, and seeds. Rinse it to get all the black stuff off. Then cut into 2” slivers.

Stem and deseed all the peppers and chiles. (You might want to wear gloves for this part). Then cut them into fine slivers about 2” long. Finely slice the onion and the mushrooms. Chop the tomatoes into small pieces.

Heat the oil in a medium-sized frying pan and add the peppers, chiles, onions, mushrooms, oregano, and a pinch of salt. Saute until soft, then remove and put in a mixing bowl. Using the same pan, cook the tomatoes, along with the lime juice, until they’re soft. You may have to add a bit of water and squash them in the pan to make it all saucy. Pour the saucy tomatoes into the vegetable mixture.

Cut the cheese into 2” long slivers.

Making the tamales

To steam the tamales you will need a really big pot with a wire rack or vegetable steamer on the bottom. Add water to the bottom of the pot until it is just below the rack. Lay a couple of swiss chard leaves or parchement paper (with a few holes poked in it) across the rack so you won’t have the steam directly hitting the tamales.

Take enough masa dough to roll into a walnut-sized ball.  Starting with pushing your thumb into the middle of the ball, proceed to flatten the ball on the palm of your hand. Add a tablespoon or so of filling as well as two or three strips of cheese onto the flattened ball. Then bring the edges up and make a bit of a dough packet.

Wrap each ball in a leaf of the swiss chard. Try to make sure that there is no dough peeking out but the wrapping doesn’t have to be super neat because once it’s steamed, you won’t be able to tell. Place the wrapped tamales into the steaming pot making sure you leave a space in the middle of the pot for the steam to travel through. If you don’t have a huge pot, you may have to steam in a couple of batches.

Once you have all of the tamales wrapped and placed in the pot, turn it on and get the water boiling. Once it has started to boil, turn the heat down to a very low simmer, cover and let the tamales steam for about 1½  hours.

Once they’re ready, gently remove them from the pot (it’s a bit tricky because the steamed chard is so soft and you don’t want to tear it) and place them on individual plates. Garnish with a bit of salsa, crumbled cheese, and sour cream on top.

You can have these as a whole meal accompanied with rice and a bit of salad or by themselves as an appetizer or snack.

(10 Weight Watchers SmartPoints per serving)

© 2016 Gail J. Cohen

Chestnut soup

This soup has Christmas written all over it. Every recipe that I found for this soup had cream in it. However, this Christmas my Jewish family were coming over and we were having prime rib as our main course, so cream was out. I toyed with using coconut milk as a non-dairy cream substitute but really in the end there was no need for it. The soup was all kinds of delicious on its own.

Roasted chestnuts just out of the oven

 Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs of fresh chestnuts or two packages of vacuum packed chestnuts

2 ribs of celery

1 clove of garlic, chopped

2 medium onions

Pinch of nutmeg

2 small/1 big bay leaf

1.5 litres of chicken or vegetable stock

Couple of tablespoons of olive oil

Sprig or two of Italian parsley

Salt & pepper to taste

If you have fresh chestnuts, they need to be roasted.  Heat the oven to 425F. Place the chestnuts flat side down on a cutting board and with a small, sharp knife cut an X into the top of the nut. Place them on a baking tray and cook for about 20 minutes. The shells will burst open when they’re ready.  Take them out and let them cool, then peel. Either chop or crush with your fingers (more fun) so you have little bits of nuts. You can do this all a day or two ahead and keep the peeled chestnuts in the fridge.

Peel and thinly slice the onions. Clean and thinly slice the celery.  Put the olive oil in a large pot and when hot add the celery and onions. Sautee/sweat for about 10 minutes, adding the garlic near the end so it doesn’t burn.

Add the stock, nutmeg, bay leaves, and parsley. Add almost all the chestnuts leaving a couple of tablespoons for later. Bring to the boil. Turn heat down to low and simmer for 30 minutes.

Toasted roasted chestnuts

While the soup is cooking, heat a bit of oil in a small frying pan. Add the remaining bits of chestnut and fry for a few minutes until it’s all crispy. Be careful that you don’t burn the little bits as it’ll make it all bitter.

Remove soup from heat and let cool a little. Remove the bay leaves and parsley.  Then blitz up the soup mixture until it is very smooth – don’t be impatient. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Serve steaming hot with a bit of the crispy bits drizzled on top in each bowl.

The verdict from my nephew who is a picky eater: "Add this to the list of things I'll eat."

© 2015 Gail J. Cohen

Oaxacan mole amarillo

Now that I'm not travelling, I'm going to share some of the recipes that I learned or were inspired by my travels as well as any others that find their way out of my head since I love to cook and love to share. I welcome any and all feedback!

Costeno amarillo

In Oaxaca, I ate a lot of mole amarillo and absolutely fell in love with it. Like many of the traditional Oaxacan moles, it is made with chiles that can only be found in Oaxaca. In this case it’s chiles consteno amarillo. I brought back a whole bag of them and couldn’t wait to try it out. (Most recipes you can find on the internet will be made with guajillo, which just ain’t quite right!) While I ate a lot of this mole while there, it wasn’t one of the ones that I was shown how to make so this is a cobbling together of what I got from watching and tasting along the way.

My dad, who is a lover of both spicy food and Spanishy flavours has never really developed much enthusiasm for Mexican food. He envisions greasy, cheesy Tex-Mex and he’s just not interested. Not being one to give up when faced with Mexican food naysayers, I decided this dish could be the gateway to get him on board. And a good choice it was. While he did not go in with the most positive intent, he was won over by the smooth and distinctive flavour, which is not too spicy and relatively fruity as the chiles are sun dried and not smoky at all.

It is also one of the moles that is traditionally served with vegetables, in  this case chayote, potatoes, and green beans. This mole amarillo is also one of the most popular fillings for tamales, the best late-night treats available on the streets of Oaxaca.

4 servings

Mole

4 chiles costeno amarillo

2 large plum tomatoes

½ small white onion, sliced

2 garlic cloves

2 med or 4 small tomatillos

2 cloves

Pinch of ground cinnamon

Pinch of cumin

1 ball of allspice

6 peppercorns

1 tsp oregano (preferably Mexican)

2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

1/3 cup masa harina

1 litre of chicken stock

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt to taste

To poach chicken

8-10 chicken thighs

Handful of fresh parsley

1 clove of garlic

8 peppercorns

1 tsp salt

Vegetables

1 chayote

200 g of green beans

3 medium potatoes

Put chicken into a pot with parsley, garlic, salt, and peppercorns. Cover with water and poach chicken until done. Save stock to use in making mole. Set chicken aside.

Remove stem and seeds from the chile.

Gently soften the chiles on the comal. Remove and place in a glass bowl and cover with hot stock. Let soak for at least 20 minutes.

Dry roast onion slices, garlic in the skin, tomatoes, tomatillos on the comal. Once ready put them all in the blender (remember to cool and remove the skin from the garlic). Add the cilantro, oregano, and the chiles and soaking liquid.  Waz until smooth, about 3-4 minutes.

Grind the cloves, cumin, allspice, and pepper.

Heat oil in a pot and quickly fry spices when hot. Add chile mixture and sear.  Bring to the boil and stir for about 5 minutes. Add masa harina as well as ½ a cup or so of chicken stock. Let boil for about 10 minutes. Add more stock if it’s too thick and let boil for a total of 15-20 minutes. Add salt to taste.

In the meantime, peel and cut up the chayote. Cut up the potatoes into slightly larger pieces. Boil them in a mix of stock and water with a pinch of salt.  Clean and boil the beans in stock as well.

Mole amarillo

To serve: Two chicken thighs covered with one soup ladle + a bit of mole with a selection of the vegetables. Of course, fresh corn tortillas on the side are always welcome.

© Gail J. Cohen 2015

Cartegena independence day celebrations

There's still more to come about Oaxaca, but right now I'm in Colombia and in the moment as November 11 is a huge holiday in Cartegena. While it is Remembrance day in Canada, in this city on the Caribbean coast it's their version of Carnival, but celebrating the city's independence from Spain in 1811. At the time an extremely wealthy city, it was the first in Columbia to break with Spain and led the way for other city states to do the same. Caracas, Venezuela was the first city in South America to gain independence from Spain.

The celebrations in Cartagena go on for about five days and culminate with the Miss Colombia pageant (which, by the way if you're trying to get tickets, is sold out). We aren't going to be here for the full throttle of partying but are having the chance to get in on some of the action.

Today there was a parade of most of the schools in the schools in the city. Each one has their own costumes and dances and parade through the old walled city accompanied by live bands or bicycles laden with second-rate but loud sound systems.

Obviously some of the kids were more enthusiastic than others but alongside all of them were teachers and/or parents who made sure they were hydrated while dancing through the streets in temperatures of about 33C with 100% humidity.

I am not entirely sure what the black-face troupe was all about. 

The grown up parade is tomorrow and apparently it's totally crazy here with most shops and restaurants in the old city closed due to how crazy it can get. Will we brave it? Or will we simply chill by the awesome rooftop pool at our hotel? It could go either way.

Altars

Altars are an integral part of the celebrations of Dia de los Meurtos. Most families and businesses create one to honour the lives of those who have passed away. In the days leading up to Nov. 1, I saw them popping up all over Oaxaca. Some were very elaborate and expensive while others much smaller and more modest. But all have the same basic premise and building blocks.

Sugar skulls, bread, and flowers are integral to all Dia de los muertos altars.

Generally an altar will be two or three tiers and each layer will be covered with a cloth and ofretas or offerings. Many will have an arch made of marigolds and sugar cane over the top.

Almost all altars will contain the following elements:

• Marigolds, which symbolize death.
• Pictures of the dead (in many cases including beloved pets (or mascotas)).
• Candles.
• Incense, usually from the copal tree.
• Sugar skulls.
• Pan de muerto, the egg bread symbolizing the deceased.
• Food, drink, and fresh fruit that were the favourites of the deceased. These can include traditional as well as modern foods as well as alcholic beverages, particularly mezcal in Oaxaca.
• Papel picado, the hand cut paper decorations.
• Salt, which represents the continuance of life.
• Pictures of saints.
• There are often other favourite things included such as cigarettes, and other items belonging to the deceased.

At our school, we built a modest altar but all went together to the market to buy the items. Anyone could add in items for people they wanted to remember. Weaving the flowers and putting all the pieces together and remembering lost loved ones, even though mostly with a group of people who didn't really know each other well, was actually quite uplifting. 

Bottom left from our house and bottom right was the altar from our school.

These pictures show some of the altars I saw around Oaxaca, including the one from our school, the house I was staying in, as well as a few other family and business ones.

Dia de los muertos

While everyone knows I came to Oaxaca in large part for the food, the timing was expressly to ensure I was here for Dia de los meurtos. While I didn't go to everything or see probably even a tiny bit of what was going on in and around Oaxaca, I was fortunate enough to go on a few trips with the school to some cemeteries.

Crazy school kids on a wild night field trip.

I sort of knew what to expect but also didn't. I made a point of not looking at travel blogs or anything like that so when I got there, it would all be new and amazing. And it was! So spoiler alert if you're coming down to Oaxaca for the celebrations and don't want to see what it's all about, then stop reading.

Dia de los meurtos is actually more than one day. It kind of stretches from Oct 31 to Nov 2 but in reality celebrations stretch through more than a week. At least in the city, there's a parade of kids, marching bands, and even dressed up pets at least once a day for the whole week. It was a rare day to not hear the subtle sounds of a tuba nearby.

But for now, here's a bit about the cemeteries.  We went to two, one in Oaxaca and one in a small town nearby called Atzompa.

The cemetery in Atzompa is well known for having quite a raucous all-night event on Oct 31-Nov 1.  The whole gang of us from the school arrived and found the walkway toward the cemetery packed with people and vendors selling food, drink, and more with loud live music blaring from a stage up ahead. But once we walked through the gates, we were greeted with an awesome sight of hundreds of candles and the scent of thousands of flowers. There was a big stage set up on the one end of the cemetery but the live music stopped shortly after we got there and was replaced with some really odd Mex-pop that provided the soundtrack to our one hour visit.

Atzompa

The Atzompa cemetery is quite old and also quite small. The graves are somewhat of a disorganized mess but almost all had new soil piled on top and decorations of marigolds and other flowers as well as candles. We arrived about 10 pm just when it was getting busy with families arriving to spruce up the graves, light candles, or sit together and pray, eat, drink, sing, and laugh.  It was quite a wonderous sight.

The celebrations go on all night there and many families, and tourists, stay through the night, but I opted not to since there was really no connection to any of the families.

The next night we started off watching a parade in central Oaxaca, that was punctuated by a wedding celebration outside one of the city's large churches that we happened to be standing nearby. The couple had set up what is known as a cathedral, but is basically a huge fireworks structure that they set off and it ends with their names being all lit up at the top. Totally off the charts here with the fireworks.

Oaxaca's main cemetery. 

Anyway, after that the school gang walked over to the main Oaxaca city cemetery, which was substantially larger and more formal than the one in Atzompa. The owner of our language school and her husband both have parents buried there and we visited and decorated their graves and showed our respects.  

So there is a very serious side to Dia de los meurtos but there is also just total craziness as well. Especially in Oaxaca, it was like a cross between Halloween and I don't know what with tons of people in the graveyards all dressed up and taking pictures with each other. There was live music and bands wandering around and just outside the walls of the Oaxaca cemetery there was a carnival, complete with rides, games, food, and flower sellers.

It was a party for sure in Oaxaca.

It was total pandemonium and complete sensory overload. I'm not sure these pics do it justice but it gives you a bit of a taste of it.

The corridor of smoke

Not enough has been said in this little blog about the food in Oaxaca — at least not in my opinion as this trip is largely about the food!

I don't know if it has an official name, but at the Mercado 20 de Noviembre is a corridor that serves grilled meats. I call it the corridor of smoke because as you enter, you're assaulted by the smoke of dozens of charcoal grills being fanned by ladies cooking up meats, many kinds of meats.

I had read about it a bit in advance but otherwise the place makes absolutely no sense. You walk in and both sides of the corridor are lined with meat sellers. As you go by they loudly try to convince you of the superiority of their products and prices. But to me, they all seem the same, selling thinly sliced beef and pork as well as fat little chorizos and tripe; there's occasionally some other option. You order by weight, so if you know how much you want, you can tell them, or you can just give them a measurement with the space between your hands, ie: I want "this much."

But, first you actually need to go to another vendor to get yourself fresh chiles de agua (hot and grown only in the state of Oaxaca) as well as the delicious small white onions. Once you get those in a little basket, head over to a meat vendor, order up your meat, and then give them to the lady at the grill.

She'll chuck your chiles and onions right into the coals under the grill. Then the meat dude gives her the meat to cook. In the meantime, go find yourself a seat back with the vendor from whom you got the chiles and onions. From them you can order drinks, including beer, which is a delight in the smoky furnace of the place. They will also bring you a wide selection of side dishes including salsas, guacamole, pickles, fresh vegetables, and other stuff. You pay 15 pesos for each of these side dishes. So it does actually pay to go with a bunch of people 

At some point, your meat along with a few fresh and very large tortillas will be delivered to you and then you pay directly for that (I believe the ladies who cook and sell the tortillas are also independent vendors but as noted, it's a bit confusing). 

Well finally after all that, it's just up to the eating. I went with just one other person and we had way to much for just the two of us. I will say the chorizo was absolutely the best. Totally out of this world. The beef, carne asada, was tasty but a bit chewy. I didn't try the pork but my companion suggested it was tastier than the beef. 

I've seen now this meat selling, grill as you stand there thing in a few markets but the one in 20 de noviembre is by far the biggest and most elaborate.

This is me enjoying it all! Thanks to my pal Alice for sending me this (and insisting I post it!)

Beyond the corridor of smoke, this market, which has just been renovated (like last week) has dozens of places to eat traditional Oaxacan food. On another day, a school friend and I went and basically picked the counter that had the most Mexicans having lunch there. Unlike many of the other places, there was not someone yelling out to you to and sticking a menu in your face. We sat down and this place and asked for a menu and the dude was like, 'we have five things, pick one.' So I picked the chicken in salsa verde, which was also ridiculously good. And he topped me up with rice and sauce. Who doesn't like a place that gives you seconds. That and a drink cost 40 pesos. That's about $3.50!