Viva Mexico!
It's incredible how little I knew about Mexican food until I came to live in North America. The realisation that everything I thought I knew was completely wrong and extremely limited was highlighted by the fact that I, like many people in the UK, considered Chili Con Carne to be the epitome of good Mexican food. It's not even Mexican, I can hear you shout. I know, now. It was created within the boundaries of that Mexican/American hybrid, Texmex.
Even Fajitas, which are the other standby of Mexican restaurants, are not particularly authentic and Burritos, which obviously are the mainstay of Mexican food in the US and Canada, are not that popular in the UK, (at least, I didn't really know what they were when I came to live here).
Authentic Mexican chili sauces
All that changed when my husband and I visited Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. Not to go into too much detail, but the first visit there was an unmitigated disaster, not that Mexico had anything to do with the problems. Both our luggage was lost, (mine for the whole trip)! and the holiday consisted of buying awful clothes with miserly compensation money and making phone call after phone call to try and locate our luggage, something the terribly incompetent reps should have been doing.
Needless to say, we needed comfort, which bottles of rum and tequila provided, but the food surprised us. At first, we encountered the usual guacamole made at table, fajitas, burritos, tacos etc., but when we asked at our hotel for an authentic restaurant, they sent us to a gem.
The server was a funky, young Mexican girl who once had a boyfriend from Manchester in the UK and recognised my husband's accent. Seeming to sense our naivety, she made some recommendations which blew us away. We had three incredible salsas; one made from tomatillos, one black from a particular chili and one red and spicy as hell with a subtle, mysterious smoky twist which I'm assuming came from pimento (smoked paprika). All three had a sophistication and flair that seemed to lack in other places, the flavours a little more subtle and with depth and complexity. Then we had tostadas. Small pieces of bread with toppings, but not the regular cheese, mushroom etc. One was rabbit, one duck and chicken. All delicious and very interesting!
We went back to the same restaurant on our second (compensation) trip 5 months later and the server remembered us, even noticing that my blond hair was dark again!
Another memorable restaurant wasn't even Mexican. It was called Barcelona Tapas and stood at the top of a building right at the top of a hill affording gorgeous views of the ocean and town. The food was incredible, Spanish tapas, but the wonderful almond tequila was so fantastic we bought a bottle to take home.
That's another thing, like Sake, Tequila is misunderstood as a get drunk quick drink, hoardes of young people the world over getting legless on the lethal tequila slammer, which couldn't be further from the truth. There are some very refined and expensive Tequilas which drink like the best brandy or cognac.
I have since learnt a lot more about Mexican food, Quesadilas, enchiladas etc. and have tried my hand at cooking a lot more, but I have not yet tried to conquer the famous mole sauce.
Yesterday, for Mexico's bicentennial independence celebration, I decided to make some carnitas, (pulled meat) fajitas from some left over 6 hour pork shoulder I had cooked the previous night.
The ingredients:'Pulled pork'
daikon
yellow pepper
onions
Carnitas 'Fajitas"
Leftover pulled pork from 6 hour pork shoulder
1 onion, sliced
1/2 yellow pepper, sliced
1 inch piece daikon, sliced
5 Swiss chard leaves, stems chopped and leaves shredded
2 cloves garlic, chopped small
handful chopped fresh sage
juice of 1 lime
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
Fry together for about 20 minutes on low heat, covered
Serve with : Sour cream, grated cheese, barbecue sauce, guacamole etc.
Wrap in a tortilla
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