Tacos de adobada/trompo/pastor

Pork loin in fruit mole

In a previous post I commented about the moles we brought back from our trip to Ensenada. This is one of the possible presentations for the most unknown of them: the fruit mole. Well, after a bit of investigation my suspicions were true and it does go well with pork meat, hence the loins. What follows here is a pictorial of how we prepared and presented the dish accompanied by red rice and corn tortillas.

One of the loins after cooking in the pressure cooker

Seared post-cooking,a.k.a. reverse sear

As if it were some illegal substance, the mole! (powder form)

According to my brother, it takes a 2:1 ratio of tomato sauce to mole powder to reach a nice pastey consistency to which you add the stock

On the pan, tomato sauce + mole powder

After mixing and adding some pork stock to get a pleasant texture

Plated

Oh yeah!, the sesame seeds!

Moles

En nuestro mas reciente viaje a Ensenada no solamente nos tocó probar algunas de las mejores cosas que tiene que ofrecer el puerto, sino que también nos tocó que muy como hubiera hecho mi abuelita, nos mandaron con nuestros bultitos de comida, en este caso: moles. Desde el más conocido mole poblano hasta el (al menos para mí) desconocido mole de frutas pasando por pipián y mole negro.

In our most recent trip to Ensenada, not only did we get to taste some of the best things the city has to offer, but we also left with our bundles of food, not unlike my grandma would have forced upon us. This time it was mole, and by mole I mean 4 varieties: from Puebla and Oaxaca, a pipián and a new-to-me variety made with fruits.

Carne asada torta, Ensenada style

Ok, it'd be more true to form if the meat had been grilled over a charcoal fire, but you get the point. This is how the taco stands do tortas in Ensenada, on a soft telera bun, sliced in half, layer butter and/or mayonnaise, mashed beans, carne asada, shredded lettuce, cilantro and onions, salsa (usually red and fresh) and the top half gets a slathering of guacamole. Close up, chow down and glug a coke, or, you know, a barrilitos soft drink.

El Borrego de Oro, Red Rock, TX [Restaurants]

This time we're not singing high praises for groupon for getting us out of the house, rather, a combination of airbnb and yelp. The only place near the farm we stayed at that had 4 stars on yelp, AND it serves mexican dishes, well I'll be... yes, please!

Up there on top you see the pork chop plate, called "chuletas de puerco" on the menu and on the bottom, the carne asada plate. Both were served with beans, rice and salad, with the addition of a seared jalapeño for the carne asada.

From hearing other patrons' orders, it would seem that they sell a lot of enchiladas, not too surprising given the adventurous nature of the rural texan, but c'mon people! live a little, enchiladas are not all there is to mexican food!

Even though it was mid-afternoon, the place had a few people come in, meaning that their food probably doesn't go to waste. Overall, this restaurant is very recommendable, especially given it's in-the-middle-of-nowhere location.

La avioneta [Restaurants]

Trips have a learning effect on all of us, some more, some less, but in this most recent trip to our hometown of Ensenada, we.. learned.. a... lot!!! But, more importantly we had a few lessons in the culinary realm as well; one of them being this taco place/stand. I've taken the liberty of lumping this place with the rest of the restaurants we've visited over the years, but only for the reason that they have tables, from coca cola, sure, but a place to sit is a place to sit. And much like other taco places where you get a place to sit, you don't get a waiter, you order at the cart, add your goodies and sit back down to eat away. Once you're done, you get up and ask how much you owe them, usually you have to keep track of what you've eaten, and trust me, eat. you. will! ... just about the only thing I didn't like about this place is that there was some old dude playing guitar and asking for "any help"... or.. maybe it was just too damn early for a weekend+vacation day.

If you're in that neck of the woods, we highly recommend this place, you can find it's street address as: Calle 7a entre Rayon y Aldama #1840 Colonia Obrera, Ensenada, Baja California, 22840 they even have a facebook page!. Among other things, they have on offer:

Smoked marlin

Camarón a la diabla (Devil's shrimp sans cheese)

Camarón a la diabla (Devil's shrimp avec cheese)

Abalone chorizo and egg

Octopus

Lobster (left) Devil's shrimp (right)

Breaded fish

Batilongo

So... about that stomach ulcer you have from drinking too much coffee... let's make it worse!

Olives with hot sauce, chamoy (a kind of salty, sweet apricot sauce) and chile powder

Same as above, but now with orange slices instead of olives and add some rielitos (chile and tejocote pulp)

Or maybe some japanese style (covered in flour and toasted) peanuts and cueritos (pickled pork skin) to go with your already mouth-watering cup of olives?

And, of course, lets top it all off with some tostitos locos, same sauces as above, plus maybe some clamato, cucumber, peanuts and cueritos, of course and you can't go wrong with rielitos.

King's cake

Despite my best intention to share this recipe earlier.. this friggin' cold just doesn't let the dough rise like it should... and, of course, my ADD for reading non-precise recipes doesn't help either... anywhoo, I'll just get on with posting the recipe from the webcamsdemexico facebook page.

And, in spite of us Mexicans wanting to lay claim to this tradition.. nay, I say.. it's Spanish in origin... but, you know.. the rest of the lore is ours, right? I mean they SURE don't have chocolate abuelita!!

Very well then.. I'll transcribe and translate that recipe for you... 

Ingredients

For the dough

• 600 gr flour
• 12 gr instant yeast
• 150 gr sugar
• 10 gr salt
• 180 gr butter
• 150 ml milk (1/2 cup + 2 tbsp)
• 30 ml vanilla extract (2 tbsp)
• zest of one orange
• 5 egg (yes, the picture shows 6, remember how I said that I should read these things better?)

For the decoration

• 150 gr citron or candied fruits (picture shows guava paste and candied cherries)
• 50 gr sugar
• 3 plastic figurines
• 2 egg whites

For the sugar crusts

• 200 gr shortening
• 200 gr flour
• 200 gr confectioner's sugar
• 10 ml vanilla extract (~2 tsp)
• 2 egg yolks

Procedimiento

• Mix dry ingredients: flour, yeast, sugar, salt and orange zest.

• Add eggs.
• Add butter and vanilla extract. Knead until an elastic dough is reached, adding milk as needed.
• Rest for 2 hours or until bulk doubles.
• Deflate and shape into a round. Add the figurines in this step.
• For the sugar crusts, mix shortening and confectioner's sugar, add flour and egg yolks.
• Rest until it's time to decorate.

• Paint the bread with the egg whites and decorate with the sugar crust and candied fruits. 
• Sprinkle with the decorating sugar.
• Bake at 190° C (375° F) fpr 35 to 40 minutes.
• Make hot chocolate and enjoy!

La Cocedora de Langosta, Ensenada, B. C. [restaurants]

I've never been much of a fan of paying for the artsy fartsy stuff, but sometimes you get all these recommendations for X place's Y, almost signature dish... And we'll, you cave in... I admit it I didn't want to go to this place because I sternly believe that there's much better values across the street (literally) and that whatever dish they dare give a traditional name to is going to be offensive to all the generations that created them... And guess what? It's pretty damn good! BUT, I stand by my preconceptions, their dishes are modern, bland interpretations of the originals. 

Let's start with aguachile... Agua?, check... Chile?... Meh.. Yes, I have to remind myself that this place caters to american-type tastebuds.. Oh, and lime, the other prime ingredient in aguachile?... None... Replaced by what I believe to be some sweet oranges... Hmm.. As an aguachile, this is dissappointing... call it a geoduck (the thing that make this worthy of so much hype) citric crudo and I'm in!

Is it good? Yes. Is it worth all the hype?...nnaahh... Oh, and don't let me get started on their salad ceviche that isn't even cured in lime!

But... Enough ranting... I have to give them this one: the baby clams are. To. Die. For! Definitely saved the night, and of course, it's less traditional fodder and more European inspired.. Very nicely done

Yujajai, Ensenada, B. C. [restaurants, revisits]

Us humans are creatures of habit, some habits are bad and those it would be better to not have; but is eating good food a bad habit? naaah, this is one habitual spot that we absolutely love to come back to every time we visit Ensenada. Last time, we had some more restaurant-like dishes that they prepare beautifilly, but this time we had some more street-food type fare: fish and shrimp tacos and some ceviche! You know.. yes, you could walk accross the street and get some ceviche that's more artfully done (I'll post about that place in a later post), but if you want some traditional tasting ceviche, this place is hard to beat and yes, you could go to that little tostada stand that Anthony Bourdain made famous and pay something in the order of 4 dollars per tostada, but this place, only serves fish or shrimp ceviche and only a little over a dollar per unit. And he fish tacos? man, oh, man... warm, crunchy exterior leads into soft fish inside, all wrapped in a corn tortilla, you.. DID know that Ensenada is the birthplace of the fish taco, right?

Pictured is a fish ceviche tostada, fish taco and a shrimp taco; yes, that other fried thingy in the last picture is another shrimp, these tacos are so over-filled, you'll only need 2 or 3 to fill your gullet (but you'll want more!)

Pan de Muerto (Bread of the dead) [recipes]

We were approaching the end of October and we stil hadn't tried our hand at a bread of the dead recipe, a quick google search brought us to this recipe. By October 30 it was made ​​with the proportions as they come on the original ... something you should do for any occasion when you have visits over, practice!!! And, since we don't have a scale, we used volume measures such as the lady puts on her recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 c flour ( 250 gr )
• 1 tbsp baking powder ( 5 g )
• 1/4 c sugar ( 50 gr )
• 1/2 tsp salt ( 5 g )
• 2 tbsp butter ( 40 gr )
• 2 tbsp margarine ( 40 g )
• 2 pcs egg
• zest of 1 orange
• 1/4 c milk
• 1/2 tsp orange blossom essence ( or orange , if you live in a country where they do not know what that is you won't find it )

Procedure

1. Mix all ingredients , adding flour or milk to make a soft, kneadable dough
2. Knead for about 15 minutes or until you think you've made enough gluten
3. Rest 15 minutes and turn the dough itself, repeat this step 3 times
4. Rest the dough between 1½ to 2 hours
5. Separate segments are going to use for the "bones" and form a ball with the rest
6. Do the bones by making worms first ... you know, like in kindergarten
7. Paste the bones to the ball with a little water
8. Rest 20 to 30 minutes
9. Give it an egg-wash with one beaten egg
10. Bake for 20 ~ 30 minutes @ 350 ° F
11. Once it has cooled, paint with melted butter and sprinkle sugar on top

Chilaquiles

Si, puedes hacer trampa, pero la mera onda de los chilaquiles es que hagas tus propios totopos y salsa.

Debo admitir que después de escribir ese primer enunciado me quedé pensando si convertir este post en uno de receta.. y.. neh, no me acuerdo de las cantidades exactas como para hacer una receta bien.. así que a medias, igual que como se suele cocinar los fines de semana para el desayuno... Para la salsa, coce unos chiles en agua, si quieres que se endulce un poco, con cebolla y unos dientes de ajo, ya que estén suavizados, dale una buena licuada con la licuadora de mano y si te quieres ver fancy, cuela y regresa a un sartén u olla con aceite caliente y fuego a reducir. Para los totopos, corta unas tortillas de maíz en cuartos o tiras, según tu preferencia; luego fríelos en aceite caliente hasta que estén dorados. Ahora, la técnica para unir ambas partes puede ser diferente según... tus gustos... puedes echar los totopos a la salsa o puedes echarle salsa a los totopos... cualquiera de los dos está bien, para lograr lo de la foto, un poco de queso encima y un poco de guacamole.

Mazapán

O, maná del cielo, como le quieras llamar

Chilaquiles

Yes, you can cheat, but the real deal for chilaquiles is to make your own chips and sauce.

I'll admit, I wrote that first sentence and just sat in front of the computer, pondering wether or not I should make this into a recipe post or not... and... meet half way? a pseudo recipe follows then... For the sauce, boil some chiles in water with maybe an onion and garlic, zap with the hand blender and pass through a sieve. Then return to some hot oil and mix well, reduce... For the chips, cut up some corn tortillas and fry in hot oil until golden brown (and delicious). Introduce chips to salsa, let them mingle with some shredded cheese and guacamole (if you're into that sort of thing... ) serve with some refried pinto beans on the side, or like they did in my alma mater, under the chilaquiles.

Mazapan

Or, mana from heaven, however you want to call it