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ICSA 69 entry! Thanks Liquid Communism for the challenge. For a wedding anniversary, Mrs. Boitano and I went to Oaxaca, Mexico for a week. This was almost entirely planned around cooking and eating, including a wonderful class by Oscar Carrizosa at Casa Crespo. In that class, we practiced many moles and salsas to go with mixiotes, chile rellenos, and tamales.  Also on the trip, we stayed at El Diablo Y La Sandia Boca Del Monte, which had some incredibly talented folks cooking a different breakfast every day. Aside from the occasional Whataburger breakfast taco at 1 am, I had never really had salsa before noon, but now that I have, my eyes are open and my heart beats stronger. So here it is, a tribute to our favorite trip to our new favorite state! Prep some poblanos and onions   Evict seed pods from hibiscus (aka roselle aka jamaica) and break calyxes up a bit   (not shown) toast and then rehydrate dried peppers - I used costeno amarillo, pasilla, ancho negro, and morita. Roughly chop and add to now-jammy hibiscus. (optional) add pepper jack cheese because you happen to have some. (optional optional) add some hibiscus near the end of cooking down so there's some textural difference. This is the most important step of the whole meal -- befriend your local cornmeal man. Show up to the farmer's market when he has brought along dried whole corn as a visual aid to woo his customers. Convince him to sell you some whole dried corn. Be flattered when he gives it to you for free and make a mental note to give him some of the finished product.  Nixtamalize! That! Corn!  (not shown because I was tired) drain and thoroughly rinse squeaky corn. Grind with just enough water to get it moving. Whip with lots of pork fat! Set up a station - we're making tamales!    Steam for 90 minutes because homemade masa needs more time than store masa. Have a snack because the hard part is over -- habanero jelly and cream cheese on the finest of Ritz crackers  Make some bread (okay I did this a long time ago and froze it, so I don't have good process photos  )  Next dish!    Use the sheetpan method because you have to run to the store for last minute ingredients. Bloom your spices in some butter, add butter to vegetables in a blender, then use the residual butter in pan for your eggs   Juice some oranges, add a touch of citric acid for balance, and plate all the things!  Hibiscus and dried chiles tamales with salsa verde Cheddar and jalapeno sourdough Green "shakshuka" My wife was so happy to have a fancy breakfast, sure, but it was even nicer since it brought back memories of our favorite trip. If you've never had hibiscus, you can do basically the same thing with dried hibiscus reconstituted. It's an amazing ingredient. It's primarily a tart flavor, sort of like rhubarb mixed with strawberry. We've grown our own for years, but the Oaxacan trip showed us it can star in savory dishes too! The tamale was by far the best thing I've ever made, since I usually measure such things by "tastiness adjusted for difficulty of just buying it". Sadly, there are no tamale ladies nearby, so I'm very happy we went through the trouble!
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Oct 13, 2019 03:08
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 11:02 |
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Gorgeous!
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Oct 13, 2019 04:32
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It all looks good, but those tamales both look and sound amazing
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Oct 13, 2019 04:41
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I just had lunch, and somehow your post has made me hungry all over again. Lovely.
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Oct 13, 2019 12:09
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Such pretty peppers! This is a tasty looking entry. And we have the same plates!
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Oct 15, 2019 18:48
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how many crickets did you eat
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Oct 15, 2019 20:23
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I ate all the cricket snacks long ago 
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Oct 16, 2019 01:05
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Braver then I. And I have family members from Oaxaca . I'll never eat your drat crickets!  Dat cheese tho...diff story. Food looks great my dude.
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Oct 16, 2019 10:12
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Thank you!
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Oct 16, 2019 11:19
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That looks amazing. What's your process for making masa? I've never done it before but I kinda want to try since the best tamales here in Charlotte come from loving Trader Joe's.
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Oct 16, 2019 12:41
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I use a food processor for a long time. Ends up needing a full 1 1/2 to 2 hours to cook, since the grind isn't really fine. If I wanted tortillas I'd probably either buy a grinder or test out the vitamix, but the coarseness is great for tamales!
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Oct 16, 2019 12:46
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Coasterphreak posted:That looks amazing. What's your process for making masa? I've never done it before but I kinda want to try since the best tamales here in Charlotte come from loving Trader Joe's. You can probably just buy masa harina at the store instead of making it fully from scratch (not that that's not cool). You may need to find a store that specializes in Latin American products, but I've seen it in some supermarkets around here.
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Oct 16, 2019 13:32
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 11:02 |
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Oh yeah, Publix has masarepa flour. I also forgot to say, pro tip save your bacon grease and use that instead of the lard. Lard is great but bacon grease is just as good and $free
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Oct 16, 2019 17:55
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