Chilaquiles Verdes con Rojos
On my last trip, without even trying, we ate a different dish for breakfast every day for two whole weeks and I have a feeling we only barely scratched the surface.
There was not a bowl of cereal in sight.
There was always freshly squeezed juices — orange, mandarin, pineapple or watermelon to wake one up.
And then Mexican hot chocolate or freshly ground coffee maybe from Chiapas or Oaxaca. Next a plate of succulent, juicy, fruit with the sort of ripe flavours we can only dream of, mango, papaya, melon with a little segment of lime to make it really sizzle.
On day one, at a little hotel called Rancho San Cayetano near the monarch butterfly preserve in Michaocan, we had huevos rancheros and Mexican beans with queso fresco crumbled on top.
There were also delicious little rolls called bolillos to slather the local honey or guava and passion fruit jam onto.
In the city of Oaxaca, Cholita Diaz, our Mexican friend’s cook, served us her spicier version of huevos rancheros passed down in her family for many generations.
This is how indigenous Mexican women learn how to cook, helping to slice and chop from the time they are tiny children.
Next we flew down to Puerto Escondido on the Pacific coast in a tiny 12-seater Aero Toucan plane, with a bird’s eye view of the remote villages tucked into the mountains and rocky hillsides.
There, Angelina Martinez Perez was waiting, putting the finishing touches to the sopes that she had hand formed from the fresh masa brought in the market that morning. While we were slowly savouring our plates of freshly cut fruit, Angelina cooked the sopes on the metal comal (griddle), spooned some refried beans into each one and sprinkled it with crumbled queso fresco. We ate several of these still warm from the comal, each with slivers of ripe avocado. A quintessential taste of Mexico.
For our next breakfast we had quesadillas, but not just any quesadillas, these were made with hoja santa (piper sanctum), a large aromatic leaf which grows on a smallish bush all over Mexico.
These came fresh from Angelina’s garden. Again they were easy to make, she just tears a few pieces of the fresh leaf over a fresh corn tortilla, scatters it with some strips of Oaxacan string cheese, then slides it on to a hot comal. As soon as the cheese starts to melt, Angelina folds the tortilla to make a half moon shape, flips it over and cooks for a few more minutes until slightly crisp on both sides. Hoja santa is not something you’ll find in every supermarket in Ireland, but it is certainly available from your local garden centre.
On our last morning as an extra special treat, our Mexican friends asked Angelina to make a special type of tamale wrapped in banana leaves called tamales amarillia de pollo for our farewell breakfast.
The mole sauce had 32 roasted guajillo and seven costeño chillies (the latter is a rare chilli only found in a small area of Oaxaca). It was fantastically delicious but surprisingly not too hot.
There’s no hope of making this here so I just have to return to Oaxaca to recapture the flavour as soon as possible. Oh how I wish!
Cholita Diaz, a wonderful Mexican cook showed me how to make this favourite Mexican breakfast dish.
One mouthful transports me back to Mexico — one of the most magical places in the entire world.
45g (1½oz) butter (in Mexico they would use lard)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1-3 chillies — de-seeded and finely chopped (the amount depends on how much excitement you would like in your life!)
2 very ripe tomatoes, chopped
8 eggs, free-range if possible
½ tsp salt
Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan over a medium heat, cook the onion and chillies until the onion is soft but not coloured, add the tomato and cook gently for a few more minutes.
Meanwhile, whisk the eggs and salt well; add them to the saucepan and scramble, stirring all the time until cooked to your taste.
Serve immediately on warm plates, preferably with tortillas.
6 –8 corn tortillas (stale is fine)
12 fl ozs (350ml) tomatilla salsa (see recipe)
8 fl ozs (250 ml) chicken broth approx
1 large chicken breast, cooked and shredded with fingers
1 large sprig epazote (optional)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Accompaniment
2-4 tbsp sour cream
4-8 tbsp crumbled queso fresco or mozzarella and cheddar mixed
1 onion, thinly sliced (optional)
Fresh coriander leaves
Ovenproof dish 8 x 5 inches (20 x 10 cm)
Cut the tortillas into eights.
Dry them out in a moderate oven if they are moist, they are best stale and leathery for this dish.
Heat oil in a deep fry and cook the tortilla pieces in batches until crisp and light golden. Drain on paper towels.
Just before serving, spread half the tortillas over the base of a deep sided serving dish.
Cover with shredded chicken, season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Thin out the sauce with a little chicken broth if too thick. Put another layer of tortillas on top. Cover with the hot sauce and a sprinkling of cheese.
Heat through in a preheated oven 230C/450F/regulo 8 for 5-10 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
Serve immediately with sour cream, more grated cheese for sprinkling and fresh coriander leaves.
2-3 white corn tortillas
1 hoja santa leaf (Piper sanctum) about 8 inches across
Oaxacan string cheese or a mixture of mozzarella and cheddar
Pinch of salt
Salsa verde
Lay a tortilla on a chopping board, tear a few pieces of fresh hoja santa onto the tortilla then scatter some Oaxcan string cheese on top (we would use mozzarella mixed with a little Cheddar).
Heat a comal (griddle) or frying pan over a medium heat. Cook the tortilla for a couple of minutes.
As soon as the cheese starts to melt, fold over and cook the other side until slightly crisp on both sides.
Serve 2 -3 quesadillas per person with salsa verde.
Salsa Verde is always a surprise and varies with each cook’s interpretation — this one is quite hot but of course you could reduce the number of chillies.
6 tomatillas — (green tomatoes, covered with a papery husk) approx ½ kg
4 Serrano chillies
1 heaped tbsp chopped onion
1 small clove garlic
A loose fistful of fresh coriander leaves and soft stem
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp water
Peel the husk off the tomatillas and discard. Put them into a saucepan with the chillies.
Cover with cold water and bring to the boil and cook for approximately ten minutes until both are soft.
Drain and put into a food processor, add the chopped onion, garlic, coarsely chopped coriander, salt and water whizz for several minutes.
Taste and correct the seasoning. Serve with everything!
Angelina uses plum tomatoes for all her recipes, which are considerably larger than our standard sized tomatoes.
It’s also worth noting that Mexican garlic cloves are about half the size of ours and this salsa is also quite hot but you can adjust the number of chillies as you please.
Makes about ¼ pint
4 large ripe plum tomatoes quartered or 6 – 7 of our tomatoes
4 Serrano chillies
1 small clove garlic
Scant tsp salt
Wrap the tomatoes in tin foil and roast on the comal turning occasionally until soft — 20 minutes approximately.
Alternatively pre-heat the oven to 220C/425F/Mark 7 and roast for similar length of time until soft.
Put the tomatoes and the juices, roasted chillies, crushed clove of garlic and the scant teaspoon of salt into a blender and whizz for about 30 seconds.
Taste and correct the seasoning. Put into a bowl and serve as an accompaniment.
Butter and cheese-making is a simple but satisfying kitchen craft that can provide income and be a vibrant business. Learn how to make delicious dairy products, including homemade butter, yoghurt, cottage cheese, coeur a la crème, labneh, paneer, and a farmhouse cheese on the half-day ‘homemade butter, yogurt and several cheeses’ course on Wednesday, Jan 16, at Ballymaloe Cookery School, from 9.30am to 2pm. Phone 021-4646785, or book online at www.cookingisfun.ie.
The Standing Stone Garden Centre, near Schull, stocks Hoja Santa (Piper Sanctum) plants.
East Cork Slow Food Event — Kathe Burt O’Dea will talk on her research project, SPUDS (Sustainable Potato United Development Study), www.spuds.ie, at Ballymaloe Cookery School on Tuesday, Jan 15, at 7pm.
Slow Food Members, €6; non Slow Food Members, €8. Booking essential on 021-4646785 or slowfoodeastcork@gmail.com.
Midleton Farmers’ Market reopens today, from 9am to 2pm, on the Fair Green; www.midletonfarmersmarket.com.
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