EatMx: Real Mexican food, at home and on the road

Spicy Steak Straight from Baja

Here is one of those simple, homestyle Mexican dishes that are as comforting as they are delicious.

Only this recipe isn't from a home but from a resort, Villa del Palmar at the islands of Loreto in Baja California Sur.

I think of resort and hotel food as bland and "safe," tailored to please tourists wary of anything spicy and unfamiliar. But that isn't the case at Villa del Palmar.

The food I had there was so good that I wish I could find its equal at home. But at least I have a few recipes like this one for steak in spicy tomato sauce, given to me by Angel Ruiz Gutiérrez, the food and beverage director.

PUNTAS DE FILETE
Steak in Tomato-Chipotle Sauce
From Villa del Palmar 

1 pound trimmed flank steak
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large white onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound tomatoes, chopped 
1/2 cup canned tomato sauce
2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo, chopped 
1/3 cup cilantro leaves, chopped

Cut the steak into 3/4-inch chunks or strips. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the meat and cook until browned and any liquid has cooked away, 12 to 13 minutes.

Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until the onion is tender, about 6 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Lower the heat. Add the tomatoes, the tomato sauce and chipotle chiles and simmer until the tomatoes are softened into a sauce, about 20 minutes. Stir in the cilantro.

Serve with rice.

Makes 4 servings.   

Zihuatanejo's Amazing Pork Relleno

Relleno de puerco (literally, pork filling) showed up repeatedly during last spring's Food & Wine Festival in Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo.

Town cooks--elderly women who grew up with the old recipes-- prepared it for a luncheon, where they served the fruity pork mixture in split bolillos (above). You could call this a local version of a pulled pork sandwich. 

The relleno turned up again at a tasting staged by local restaurants. Carmelitas, which is in the center of Zihuatanejo, presented it in a steaming iron pot (above). Another container held tamales de ceniza, flat ash-flavored tamales that served as a base for the meat.

I loved this unusual dish and went to Carmelitas to see if I could learn more about it. I was in luck. María del Carmen Ramírez de González, who runs the restaurant, was there. It's usually made with a large cut of pork, she told me, maybe a whole pig, and then is cooked overnight in an adobe oven.

My stove can't accommodate anything that big, and I had to make do with a small roast, which I marinated overnight, as María del Carmen instructed me. Then I roasted it along with assorted fruits and vegetables (above), minus one ingredient that was beyond my scope--fresh pork skin.  

In my version, the relleno (stuffing) is outside rather than inside the pig. I served it separately in a casserole (above).

Lively and fun, with bright tropical flavors (plantains and pineapple), relleno de puerco is a great party dish. The friends who came over to try it included a chef who cut the meat into the neat slices that you see in the photo. 

RELLENO DE PUERCO
Carmelitas Restaurant, Zihuatanejo

3 1/2 pounds pork shoulder roast, weighed after fat is trimmed and any bones removed
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 clove garlic, mashed to a paste with 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano, finely crumbled
2 ripe plantains, peeled and cut into thick slices
1/2 small pineapple, sliced into wedges
1 pound russet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 large yam, about 3/4 pound, peeled and cut into chunks 
3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
2 roma tomatoes, each cut into 8 wedges
1/2 large onion, cut into wedges
Salt
4 bay leaves
2 sprigs thyme
2 sprigs marjoram
Juice of 1 orange
3 tablespoons sweet wine, optional

Place the meat in a large baking dish.

Combine the vinegar, garlic, pepper, cumin and oregano and mix well. Rub this mixture all over the pork. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Drain the meat, shape it into a roast and tie securely. Place the meat in a large roasting pan. Arrange around it the plantain slices, pineapple wedges, potatoes, yam, carrots, tomatoes and onion. Season with salt to taste.

Add the bay leaves, thyme and marjoram. Sprinkle evenly with the orange juice and wine.  

Place in the oven and roast, uncovered, 45 minutes. Baste with any juices. Cover loosely with foil and roast 45 minutes longer, or until a meat thermometer registers at least 150 degrees (it can go a little higher without any harm). 

Watch as the meat roasts. If it browns and dries too much, cover with foil earlier. Start checking the temperature before the end of the cooking time. If necessary, roast longer until the meat reaches the desired temperature.

When done, remove the roast to a cutting board and slice as desired. Arrange the slices on a heated serving platter.

Scoop the fruits and vegetables out of the roasting pan into a casserole. Reheat before serving, if necessary. You can do this in a microwave oven. 

Makes 6 servings.  

Daniel Ovadía's Easy Mole Carretera

Don't believe that you have to put scads of hard-to-find ingredients into a mole before it amounts to anything.

Nothing could be eaiser than Mexico City chef Daniel Ovadía's mole carretera (at the top). It has just two main ingredients, aside from meat--plantains and ancho chiles. And only common seasonings such as onion, garlic, cinnamon, cumin and oregano.

This fruity, aromatic mole comes from the state of Veracruz. The name means "highway mole," which sounds like rough and ready food for truck drivers.

"Some people in Veraruz call it an adobo or sauce," Ovadía (right) said when he demonstrated the dish at the recent Food & Wine magazine festival at Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo. "But it's a fruit mole."

At his restaurant Paxia in Mexico City, Ovadía serves the sauce with duck, but he switched to beef at the festival.

Hardly road food, it's what you would expect from an upscale Mexico City restaurant. Ovadía poured the sauce over a single portion of beef filet, topped this with crisp, fine shreds of potato, leek and plantain and swirled a golden puree of sweet potato and guava on the side.

My adaptation of his recipe (above) uses a heartier cut of beef and leaves out the garnishes. Despite its simplicity, the sauce has extraordinarily good flavor.

It should be made with a plantain, not the sort of banana that you eat raw. If the plantain you buy is green or yellow, let it stand until the skin turns black. Then it will be ripe and sweet enough for the mole.

MOLE CARRETERA
Adapted from a recipe by Daniel Ovadía

1 pound boneless chuck steak
Pork lard or oil
4 cups water
1 slice onion
1 clove garlic
Salt
6 black peppercorns
3 dried red ancho chiles
1/2 medium onion, sliced
1 very ripe plantain, sliced
1 1/2 inches stick cinnamon
Dash ground cumin
Dash dried oregano
3 cups beef broth, more if needed
Sesame seeds

Cut the steak into chunks, removing any excess fat.

Heat 2 tablespoons lard or oil in a heavy skillet. Add the beef and sear on all sides.

Place the beef in a deep saucepan. Add the water, onion slice, garlic, salt to taste and peppercorns. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, 30 minutes. When cooked, strain off the broth.

Rinse the chiles. Roast them in any fat remaining in the skillet until fragrant. Remove them and discard the stems and seeds.

Add more lard or oil if needed. Add the sliced medium onion half and cook until tender. Add the sliced plantain and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. 

Combine the onion and plantain in a large saucepan.  Add the chiles, the cinnamon stick, cumin, oregano and 2 cups broth from the beef. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the chiles are softened, 10 minutes.

Cool 15 minutes, then puree in a blender. Return to the saucepan. Rinse out the blender with another 1 cup beef broth and add to the saucepan.

Bring to a boil, add the beef and simmer gently 20 minutes. If the sauce becomes too thick, dilute with additional broth. 

Serve sprinkled lightly with sesame seeds.

Makes 4 servings. 

From Northern Mexico: Asado Verde

Friends have told me that this version of asado verde, or pork in green sauce (above), is one of the best pork dishes they have tasted. I would agree.

The recipe is from María Elena Rocha Vallejo of Comidas María Elena, located near the famous waterfall Cola de Caballo in the state of Nuevo León. 

Maria Elena had prepared a tableful of guisados (above) the day I was there, traveling with chef Patricia Quintana's tour of northern Mexico.

I worked out the recipe from her description, so perhaps it's not quite like she makes the dish, but it's very good anyway.

Change the green chiles to dried cascabel chiles and you have asado rojo, or pork in red sauce, she says. 

Very generous with her recipes, María Elena (above) also told me how to make her shredded beef dish, deshebrada de res, and picadillo with beef and potatoes, both as delicious as they are simple. So look for those recipes in the future.  

ASADO VERDE
From María Elena Rocha Vallejo 

6 large Anaheim chiles
1 dozen tomatillos, husks removed
1 serrano chile, or to taste
6 cloves garlic, unpeeled
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano, or other oregano
3 pounds lean pork
3 tablespoons oil
Freshly ground black pepper
3 bay leaves
Salt
1 cup water

Roast the Anaheim chiles under the broiler or over a gas flame until the skins are blackened. Cool, peel and discard the stems and seeds.

Heat a large griddle over medium high heat. Add the tomatillos, serrano chile and garlic and roast until spotted with brown.

Combine the Anaheim chiles, tomatillos, serrano chile and peeled garlic in a blender container and blend until pureed. Add the cumin and oregano and blend well. Leave in the blender container. There will be about 3 1/2 cups sauce.

Trim the pork and cut it into 3/4-inch cubes. Heat the oil in a large, deep skillet. Add the pork, sprinkle with freshly ground pepper, and cook over medium high heat until browned on all sides and any water that comes from the meat cooks away. This can take 20 to 30 minutes.

Add the green sauce, bay leaves and salt to taste. Rinse out the blender with the 1 cup water and add to the meat. Cover and simmer 30 minutes.

For best flavor, cool the meat and refrigerate overnight, then reheat in the sauce just before serving.

Makes 8 servings.

Put Chilorio in Your Tacos

Northern Mexico's chilorio is great taco meat. It's pork seasoned with chiles (the "chil" in chilorio) but also with vinegar, which probably helps to preserve it in the intense heat of the northern deserts.

The following chilorio recipe is from a book called "Chiles" by  Patricia Quintana, an accomplished chef who has the restaurant Izote in Mexico City. 

The book is part of a series on various aspects of Mexican cuisine called "La Cocina de Patricia Quintana." Other topics include meats, fish, poultry, soups, vegetarian dishes, natural foods and desserts. The publisher is Editorial Océano, and the books are in Spanish only.

Look for them at bookstores in Mexico, but you may also find them in supermarkets. I saw several on racks at a Soriana market in the city of Monterrey.

Books in English by Patricia Quintana are available through Amazon. 

But back to chilorio. Making your own is a good idea. I once had a can of chilorio from Mexico, and the fat content was so high I was afraid to eat it. In this recipe Quintana offers oil as an alternative to lard, and you can use less, if you prefer, but the oil also helps to preserve the meat and to keep it moist.

Quintana suggests pounding the meat in a molcajete (I put it in a pan and pounded it with the pestle from my molcajete).  This gives an interesting shreddy consistency, but you can also tear the meat apart with two forks or with your hands. Don't eat it the day you make it. It's much better if it seasons for a day or two in the refrigerator.

CHILORIO
From "Chiles" by Patricia Quintana

2 pounds pork cushion meat or shoulder
Water
Salt
Oil
5 dried ancho chiles
2/3 cup cider vinegar or white vinegar
6 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon  cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
10 black peppercorns, freshly ground

Cut the meat in 2/3-inch chunks (it's easier to cut if slightly frozen). Place the meat in a large saucepan. Add water to cover and salt to taste. Bring to a boil over high heat. Then lower the heat and cook, uncovered, until all the liquid has evaporated. Stir occasionally to keep the meat from sticking to the pan.

Sprinkle the meat with 3 to 4 tablespoons oil and cook and stir a few minutes longer.

Place the meat in batches in a large mortar (or saucepan) and pound with a pestle until shredded. Or shred with two forks or by hand. Set aside.

Cut the chiles in half and remove the seeds and veins, then wash them and drain well.

On a hot griddle, roast the chiles for 2 to 3 minutes, turning and flattening with the back of a spoon or a spatula. Remove from heat, place in a bowl and cover with hot water. Let stand 15 minutes, until softened.

Drain the chiles and place them in a blender container. Add 3/4 to 1 cup hot water, the vinegar, garlic, oregano, coriander and cumin seeds and ground pepper. Blend thoroughly.

Heat 2 to 3 tablespoons oil in the saucepan in which the meat was cooked. Add the sauce, mix with the oil and cook briefly. Add the meat and cook over medium heat about 40 minutes, uncovered, or until the sauce is thick. If it becomes too thick, add a little water or the soaking liquid from the chiles. Taste and add more salt if needed.

Eat with hot corn or flour tortillas.

Makes 8 servings.