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Title
Cooking with Baja Magic Dos - Mexican Recipes by Author Ann Hazard
These
are featured in Ann Hazard’ book, Cooking With Baja
Magic Dos. The cookbook has over 60 new recipes with corresponding
stories and all new art. Whether or not you have Ann’s original cookbook,
you will want a copy of Baja Magic Dos! For more information on Ann and
her Baja books, visit
http://www.bajamagic.com or order her book from Amazon.com on the
right.
Thank you to Author Ann Hazard from BajaMagic.com for this contribution.
SOPA
ROMPE CATRE — BROKEN COT SOUP
Next time you’re in La Paz, you have to visit Marcelo, the owner of Mr.
Azucar’s (Mr. Sugar’s) Restaurant and Bar on 5 de Febrero, about four
blocks off the malecón. He is an imaginative, competent chef whose
story-telling abilities are legendary. His menu is extensive and his
prices very good. So is the weekend musical entertainment. When I met him
in 1997, he gave me the recipe for La Cola de la Sirena and it came with a
story
as
delicious as the dip itself. This Broken Cot Soup is no different. He
explained to me that when it’s really hot and sticky in Mexico, people
sleep on canvas and wood cots under a fan or outdoors. The married folks
tend to get a little rowdy sometimes and have been known to break their
cots and end up on the hard ground. He claims that this soup will induce
such behavior because the catfish in it is an aphrodisiac! I can’t vouch
for the story, but if you try it and you break your cot, please let me
know! This recipe serves about eight and the broth is wonderful with meat
and nopales soup too!
2 pounds catfish fillet (no bones) cut into large
chunks
1 pound crabmeat, cut into chunks
1 pound shrimp, skinned and deveined but with head attached
8 large tomatoes
2 tbsp vegetable oil
5 cups water
4 guajillo chiles, lightly toasted
20 chiles de arbol, lightly toasted
2 ancho chiles, slightly toasted
6 epazote leaves
2 medium white onions, puréed
10 cloves garlic, puréed
3 tbsp cider vinegar
¼ cup caldo de camarón o pollo (shrimp or chicken bouillon powder)
Salt and pepper to taste
8 large chunks queso fresco or feta cheese
In a large skillet, sauté tomatoes in oil until blackened and softened. Mix in bowl with one cup water, guajillo, arbol and ancho chiles. Add epazote, onion, garlic, vinegar and shrimp bouillon. Purée in food processor until completely liquefied.
In Dutch oven, place puréed chile mixture. Add remaining water, catfish, crab and shrimp. Bring to boil and simmer for three to four hours. Serve immediately with a chunk of queso fresco on the side. Now, prepare to play “crash the cot” tonight!
CHILES
EN NOGADA
Suzanne lives next to a chile field in Todos Santos where poblanos are grown every year. After the chiles have been harvested in early June, she’s invited to pick any leftover chiles for herself and her friends. Terry and I visited in mid-June and she made us this amazing creation for dinner. There were no pasas (raisins) anywhere in town, so we bought a box of Raisin Bran and fished out enough raisins to make this famous and elegant Mexican dish. The next morning she took me out and we had a field day (literally) picking chiles. We filled giant grocery bags with fresh chiles. I went home and went on a poblano binge! This is Suzanne’s recipe and it serves four.
8 poblano chiles
4 tbsp butter
2 white onions, finely chopped
1½ tbsp flour
½ tsp white pepper
½ tsp nutmeg
6 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup raisins
1 green apple, peeled and cut in chunks
½ cup mango, peeled and cut in chunks
½ cup pineapple, peeled and cut in chunks
1¼ cup crema media ácida or sour cream
6 cups cubed cooked chicken
1½ cups chopped walnuts blanched in boiling water for 2 minutes
If you have a gas stove, lay the chiles over the open flame and char skins well, turning with tongs frequently until they’re uniformly blackened and stop snapping. The more charred they are, the easier it is to remove the skins. If you have an electric stove, place chiles in a large skillet on high heat. Turn frequently as above. Remove chiles to plastic bag, close it and let stand for 10 minutes. Remove from bag, place in ice-cold water and remove the skins, veins and seeds. Do not remove stems.
Melt butter in frying pan at medium heat. Add onions and cook until limp. Stir in flour, pepper and nutmeg and stir until bubbling. Add chicken broth, raisins and apples. Cook, stirring until softened. Add mango and pineapple. Gradually stir in media crema. Add chicken and heat thoroughly.
Place two chiles on each plate, or arrange all chiles on a platter. Fill each chile with chicken and sauce mixture. Sprinkle walnuts over top and serve.