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

A Fresh Corn Dessert from Veracruz

It could have been a lazy Sunday afternoon in Mexico, with a handful of women gossiping as they shared recipes. Only the place was mid-Wilshire in Los Angeles.

The recipe was totally Mexican, though, a corn dessert from the state of Veracruz-- pudín de elote. Showing how to make it was Diana García, 18, from the city of Córdoba, Veracruz. It's a specialty of her mother, María del Carmen Aguilar Ortega, who was present too--via phone as Diana called home to double-check the details.

The first step was to cut away the kernels from fat ears of corn. Diana, who is here as a student, popped them off with her thumb rather than slicing with a knife (above).

Next, she combined the ingredients in a blender, making layers of condensed milk, corn, eggs, vanilla and butter. Little by little, she blended this until finely ground (above).

Then she poured the mixture into a buttered and floured baking dish (above).

Here's how it looked when it came out of the oven, golden brown and rich with the aroma of fresh corn.

After the pudín cooled slightly, it was time to slice and taste. Sometimes, Diana's mother puffs it up with baking powder. Diana's touch is a sprinkle of cinnamon, which is a nice accent for the corn.

PUDÍN DE ELOTE
Veracruz Corn Dessert
From María del Carmen Aguilar Ortega 
    and Diana García

3/4 cup canned sweetened condensed milk
4 cups fresh corn kernels (5 to 6 ears corn)
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
6 tablespoons butter, softened
Ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 10x6-inch baking dish.

Place the condensed milk in a blender container. Add some of the corn, then both eggs. Add more corn, then the vanilla. Add a little more corn and half of the butter. Add the remaining corn and top with the remaining butter. 

Blend at low speed until combined, then blend on medium speed until finely ground.

Turn into the prepared baking dish. Place on the middle rack of the oven and bake 45 minutes, until golden brown and a wood pick comes out clean. Cool in the baking dish on a rack. While still warm, cut into squares. Serve sprinkled lightly with cinnamon.

Makes 8 to 10 servings.  

 

The Hottest (Shrimp) Dish of the Week

This super spicy dish is camarones a la diabla (deviled shrimp) at Chalio Mexican Restaurant on Atlantic Boulevard in East Los Angeles. 

Not one but four types of hot chile push the sauce to incendiary levels. They are habanero, jalapeño, chipotle and chile de árbol. But there's more than fire going on in the sauce. It's also spiced with cumin, cinnamon, chocolate and pepper, and so restaurant owner Raul Luis calls it a sort of mole.

But if you don't have a tough tongue, don't try it. And if it's too late and the pain is excruciating, ask for a glass of horchata. It's really good here, made from scratch by grinding rice and cinnamon sticks and adding evaporated milk for creaminess.

Of course, what you really go to this restaurant for is Zacatecas style birria, which is a richly-flavored goat stew. And it's comfortably mild, unless you splash on hot sauce from the table.

Chalio's birria is made with cabrito (goat) from Utah. When goat is scarce, as may happen during winter, the restaurant substitutes lamb. Strong and gamy, birria is served in a variety of ways--with bones, without, in a bowl with broth and in a crisp-shelled taco dorado (above). A layer of the broth under the taco soaks in to enhance the birria flavor. 

Or you could have a birria sope (above). But if you insist on the spicy shrimp instead, you can still enjoy the flavor of birria by ordering a cup of the broth--consome birria--on the side. 

Chalio (above) is large and roomy, open every day from breakfast through dinner.  The menu is extensive, and the lunch specials are a real bargain, starting at $4.25.  

In 1987, Raul Luis' father, Chalio Luis, opened the original Chalio on East 1st Street. With $7,000 from his family, Raul Luis opened the Atlantic Boulevard Chalio (above) in 1997, taking over a space occupied by a coffee shop and incorporating the original counter into the restaurant.  He'll introduce a new menu in July with dishes tailored to  a younger generation as well as traditional favorites. 

Chalio Mexican Restaurant, 760 S. Atlantic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90022. (323) 262-3456.

 

A How-To Guide to Cinco de Mayo

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo, you have to have icy margaritas.

Chips and salsa. 

Non-stop mariachis. 

Lots of great food, like this ceviche.  

And this chicken torta.

And this pork slider.

 

And a guy in a lucha libre mask cutting up avocados. 

And colorful aguas frescas made from pineapple and cantaloupe and, in the center, horchata. 

Although the weather was hot, this was the coolest party imaginable, hosted by Del Real Foods to show off its Mexican foods including carnitas, chicken tinga, barbacoa, tamales, salsa, sopes and more.

It took place in Rancho Cucamonga at the estate of the Cardenas family, which owns the company. And talk about food trucks. What better way to advertise your products than to send around a truck that looks like this? 

Sabores Yucatecos from Chichén Itzá

This is the best ceviche I have eaten in a long time. It's from Chichén Itzá, the Yucatecan restaurant in the Mercado La Paloma.  The flavor is full, fresh and so remarkable that it could stand out amid tough competition.

The event was a book launch party, and all the dishes that were served came from the restaurant's cookbook "Sabores Yucatecos," which has just been released in a Spanish-language edition.

The English-language version of the book, published in 2012, was the first by a working chef from Yucatán, Gilberto Cetina.  Read about both books in my article for LA Weekly's Squid Ink.

If you don't have them, hurry down to the Mercado to get one, in either language. They're on sale at the restaurant. And be sure to order the ceviche. The one in the photo is mixed seafood, the one on the menu is fish. Either way, it's very good.  

Chichen Itza restaurant, 3655 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90007 (inside the Mercado La Paloma). Tel: (213) 741-1075.