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Thursday, September 08, 2005
Phoenica Foods
After weeks of whinging about the lack of Mexican/Central American ingredients available at our grocery store, I finally managed to get myself to a specialty food store which stocks those kind of things. At first, I was only midly impressed - they did have cornflour, they did have tomatillas (though not fresh), and they had some very nice ginger beer. But I didn't notice any dried chillies, the key element to all the Mexican foods I want to make. After drinking my ginger beer, I was just about to walk off when I decided to go take another look. And there they were. It was beautiful. Dried chipotles, cascabels, Guajillo, pasilla, ancho....dozens and dozens of little bags of dried chillies. It was heaven.
Street-Style Enchiladas
Speaking of authentic Mexican stuff (or so these cookbooks I'm looking at claim), I've made these enchiladas several times now, and they are amazing. Supposedly these things are sold at road-side stands all over Mexico, and I can certainly see why. Tasty, but very simple, once you make the required salsa, called Mild Red Chile Salsa in my cookbook. Once made (if anyone wants the recipe, I can send you it), the process is simple. You take a slighly stale tortilla, dip both sides of it in the gooey salsa, then briefly fry it in a hot pan for 5-10 seconds on each side. Fill it with potato, or some Monterey Jack (cheddar doesn't go so well), or just eat as is. The great part is how the sauce gets seared into the tortilla; the tortilla gets a lovely red colour and the salsa takes on a new life. It's beautiful. Also very different from enchiladas one sees in a lot of Mexican places.
After weeks of whinging about the lack of Mexican/Central American ingredients available at our grocery store, I finally managed to get myself to a specialty food store which stocks those kind of things. At first, I was only midly impressed - they did have cornflour, they did have tomatillas (though not fresh), and they had some very nice ginger beer. But I didn't notice any dried chillies, the key element to all the Mexican foods I want to make. After drinking my ginger beer, I was just about to walk off when I decided to go take another look. And there they were. It was beautiful. Dried chipotles, cascabels, Guajillo, pasilla, ancho....dozens and dozens of little bags of dried chillies. It was heaven.
Street-Style Enchiladas
Speaking of authentic Mexican stuff (or so these cookbooks I'm looking at claim), I've made these enchiladas several times now, and they are amazing. Supposedly these things are sold at road-side stands all over Mexico, and I can certainly see why. Tasty, but very simple, once you make the required salsa, called Mild Red Chile Salsa in my cookbook. Once made (if anyone wants the recipe, I can send you it), the process is simple. You take a slighly stale tortilla, dip both sides of it in the gooey salsa, then briefly fry it in a hot pan for 5-10 seconds on each side. Fill it with potato, or some Monterey Jack (cheddar doesn't go so well), or just eat as is. The great part is how the sauce gets seared into the tortilla; the tortilla gets a lovely red colour and the salsa takes on a new life. It's beautiful. Also very different from enchiladas one sees in a lot of Mexican places.