This is a post I wrote a while ago, but it contains some of my favorite Mexican dishes. Moving to southern California was like “Open, Sesame!” for me – I encountered so many culinary treasures previously hidden. I left the photos unchanged, just like I submitted them to Rick Bayless’s Twitter contest. I hope at least one of these meals will inspire you for Cinco de Mayo.
I ate my first taco at a bowling alley in Highland, Michigan, in 1986, while accompanying my ex-husband’s sister and her friends to the meeting of their bowling league. And I did not care for it at all. I found out later that taco meat is highly seasoned with cumin and at the time I was put off by it. The texture of avocado reminded me of melons, and melons and I do no keep good company. I found the green mushy fruit bland and not deserving of my time.
I discovered cilantro purely by chance. Mother was visiting at the time and we were shopping for groceries at a local supermarket. We bought some nice looking green beans, but when we cooked them they had a specific taste that we could not stand. We deemed the beans spoiled, rotten, contaminated, and threw the whole batch away. The next day I went to the same supermarket to inspect the beans because I bought them before at the same place, and they were fine. When my nose approached the vegetables another smell, forceful and overbearing, got my attention. The green leaves next to the beans resembled Italian parsley, but when I rubbed them between my fingers, I thought I would just keel over and die. Poor, innocent beans were as healthy and fresh as they could be. They were just positioned next to cilantro, which usurped and overpowered their taste without a thought. And every time a family member would come to visit from Serbia, I would put them to the cilantro test. We are proud to be extremely adventurous in culinary matters, but not one of them liked it. Or to be more precise, we all just hated it.
For a while I avoided Mexican food, enjoying almost all the other world cuisines available to us. But I am a curious person, always looking to broaden my horizons, and it irked me to think that there was an abundance of dishes I was neglecting based on my underdeveloped palate. If I could eat liver, brain, Rocky Mountain oysters, snails, shellfish, feta cheese, and gorgonzolla, I could learn to like cumin, avocado, and cilantro. At the same time I started watching cooking shows on PBS and my passion for food came at me full strength. I started exploring this undiscovered territory slowly adding small amounts of cumin to my ground beef. I would buy the wrinkly, ugly, almost black avocado, and cut it in half, just to stand mesmerized by its pristine green pulp. I mastered the deceptively simple art of taking the pit out and started making my own guacamole. Little by little the cumin and avocado grew on me, seduced me, and made me fall in love with them.
Cilantro had a more arduous fight ahead of it. I’d pick it out from salsas in Mexican restaurants and became resigned to an eternity of not being its fan. I love to cook with herbs and spices. I have always grown my own, and every morning, for years, the first thing I do after a sip of coffee is to go out and look at my pots. I could not stand the thought of not being able to enjoy so many dishes just because I could not stomach the cilantro. So I braced myself, bought a bunch, snippped a leaf or two in pico de gallo or a salsa, and surrendered. It was definitely a battle. Over time cilantro won. I even learned to love it. Mexican food in our house became a staple.
And then we moved to Southern California and tasted our first fish taco. At a work potluck Christmas party, Ricardo brought home-made posole. Enrique made ponche spiked with tequila, Joe and Lupe brought spicy carne asada, Juan made chorizo. My Mexican neighbors send plates with tamales and lured the Beasties to stay over for some caldo de res and horchata (having three girls their age did not hurt). My mind was spinning. Where was all this coming from? So I started learning again.
In the spring of this year the College Kritter and I went to Yucatan and Cozumel over Christmas break. That was her present from us for graduating high-school, getting enrolled in a University and turning eighteen. It was her choice destination. And I was her choice companion. I will have to write about our adventure another time. But we discovered another variation of Mexican cuisine dining in Playa Del Carmen, Valladolid, and Cozumel. We avoided tourist traps and ate in the restaurants that locals frequented. Queso relleno, poc chuc, huevos motullenos, cochinita pibil, negro relleno, ceviche… We were in culinary heaven. In every restaurant we talked to waiters and cooks (Kritter speaks fluent Spanish and I can get by with what I picked up from co-workers, adding odd words in Italian), got the recipes, and vowed to replicate the dishes at home. I bought the “tortilladora” from an old woman in Valladolid, and decided to start making my own corn tortillas.
A couple of weeks ago Rick Bayless started a contest on Twitter. He tweets a recipe in 140 characters, we make it, photograph the finished dish, mail the photo to him, and hope to become winners of his newest cookbook Fiesta at Rick’s. I participate every time. It has become a much anticipated event in our household. My photos have not won me the book yet. But the journey that Rick took us on is a gift by itself. Every single recipe is a jewel, bursting with flavors, well balanced, assertive, and addictive. We are looking forward to Mondays when he puts out the new recipe, hidden in abbreviations of the tweeterese.
My love affair with Mexican food is only growing stronger. I do not think it will ever end. One of these days I am taking on the ridiculously long process of making the Yucatecan specialty cochinita pibil. I have already bought the banana leaves and stashed them in the freezer. Until then, Mondays at Rick’s will be more than sufficient to keep the flame growing.
WEEK ONE, POBLANO RAJAS
” Sear 1.25# bnls chix brst; cool, cube. Brn 1 onion,add 3 grlc,2 poblanos (rstd,pld,slcd),6 oz chard,1c broth,1c crema.Boil2 thickn.Add chix “
WEEK TWO, ENCHILADAS VERDES
” Rst 1#tomtllos,1 on,3 grlc,3 serranos;puree;sear n oil 2 thkn;simr w 2c broth,.5c crema.Oil,micrwv 12 torts,roll w rstd veg,sauce, chs, bake “
molcajete y tejolote (aka "el serdo") I bought at the Valladolid farmers market
WEEK THREE, TROPICAL BEACH CEVICHE
” 8oz slicd raw scallops+1c grapefrt j:45 min.Drain;blend 2/3c juice,1-2 chipotles,4 rstd grlc,2T br sgr.Mix w scal, red on,trop fruit,jicama “
Vladimir Jovanovic, my cousin extraordinaire, edited my photo
WEEK FOUR, CHIPOTLE GLAZED RIBS
“Proc 4 grlc,6T ancho,4t sugr&peppr,5t salt,1t oreg,½t cumin.Rub 4 slb ribs;ovrnite.Bake 300 75 min.Blend:7oz chiptles&3/4c honey.Grill;glaze”
For the longest time, I hate hate hated cilantro. But now, I don’t want to live without it. They say our bodies regenerate every seven years, maybe our tastes do as well?
I believe that our taste buds change throughout our life. I offer my kids food they don’t like every now and then, in small quantities, and it works. It’s all the conditioning, I think. Depends on how you were raised, where you grew up, what you ate…
Cilantro is my favorite herb. But, of course I grew up eating it. Lamb on the hand, I eat with trepidation – coaxing my palate to be more open. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.
FYI, I submitted recipes first round for Rick Bayless’ Twitter contest. He didn’t pick my pic either – my prize was eating the creamy rajas with chard and chicken. I already made rajas, but the chard is a very nice addition.
That’s how I feel, Andrea – I entered, I did not win, but I got the prize in food. I love swiss chard and now I can use it in Mexican food. That’s a bonus! See, you were born with cilantro surrounding you, and it is only natural that you love it. And I love lamb (but not everybody from Serbia likes it, even though they grew up with abundance of it at the butcher’s)
I saw your recipe for Rajas con Crema, and I’ll try it soon, because we are seriously on a Mexican kick these days.
If there is somebody that can totally change peoples mind about Mexican Food it’s Rick Bayless.
I think he is an amazing chef and a great person too. The food looks stunning. It gave me a huge crave for Mexican food now.
Thanks for compliment on photos – I am such a noob, and it seems I’. just fumbling around when shooting!. As for Rick Bayless, I think I am going to watch every show he tapes, and buy every book he writes. He just keeps on delighting me with his food.
Cilantro is really a love or hate relationship. I used to hate it and thought if I just kept eating it maybe I could tolerate it.
Now I LOVE it.
It’s called coriander here.. we don’t make a difference between the leaves, stems or root. We just say coriander leaves or roots.
I think it’s great that you’re doing the Rick Bayless tweet thing. I hope you win. I love his food.
I see that both of us had to overcome our loathing of coriander:) I am stubborn and I am an epicurean, so I was not willing to let an herb win:) And I won the forth and final photo contest! It’s something about flame, met and men that guarantees the success:)
I love the title of this post! And those chipotle glazed ribs look amazing. I’m just about to invest in a grill so I’m sure this will be one of the first things I make!
Chung-Ah, Rick Bayless Twitter contest was so cool! My photography skills were badly lacking and I am beyond excited when he picked my photo for the final win! Fire and meat does something to the men, I tell you!