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

Get Your Fill of Mole at Sunday's Fair

Even if you went to Mexico for a month, you wouldn't be able to taste as many moles as in a single day at La Feria de Los Moles this Sunday, Oct. 1.

And you wouldn't see glamorous mole queens like the beauty at the top.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the feria will take place in a spacious new location this year, Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles. Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

The program will include music, dancing, arts and crafts, a one-day mole museum, many special events and lots of food. Admission is free. You pay only for what you eat. 

Each year, the feria pits the moles of Oaxaca against those of Puebla. There's no real competition, because both states are famous for this dish and each is a winner.  

Here are some of the components of mole, displayed at a feria preview held at the restaurant El Valle Oaxaqueño.

The star of Oaxacan moles is mole negro (black mole). This is El Valle's version. You will be able to taste additional examples at the feria.

El Valle will also provide its unique mole tortillas (above), which are made of flour, almonds, oatmeal, soy and, of course, mole. 

Other foods at the feria will include tlayudas (above).

And Mexican breads. Those in the basket above, produced by El Valle Oaxaqueño's bakery, are typical of Oaxaca.

Special guests at this year's feria will include Chef Liz Galicia (above) of the restaurant El Mural de los Poblanos, which is located in the city of Puebla.

Galicia is famous for her vegan mole, which will be featured during the day. Here it is, made with nopales instead of meat and served on corn chips, which makes it gluten free too.

Galicia's innovative ideas include wontons with sweet chicken mole inside.

She also makes mole-filled tortas (sandwiches).

Another torta filling is chicken pipián (above). Pipián is one of the famous seven moles of Oaxaca.

The large round ornaments in the photo above are from Chignahuapan, a Mexican pueblo magico (magic town) and a special guest at this year's feria. The invited country is Guatemala.

The Feria de los Moles is a family event, great for kids. Even if they're too young to appreciate mole, they can enjoy plenty of other treats. 

For more information and a fun video, go to http://www.feriadelosmoles.com. 

La Feria de los Moles, Sunday, Oct. 1. from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Grand Park, 200 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

Dragon Fruit Makes a Great Drink

In Mexico, this beautiful drink would be called agua fresca de pitahaya.

But Savannah Muñoz calls it a Dragon Fruit Mocktail. Muñoz, who is a chef at Melissa's Produce, came up with the recipe for a recent Mexican-themed presentation featuring tortillas and cooking sauces from LA Tortilla Factory. 

Dragon fruit grow in California as well as in Mexico and Southeast Asia. I saw them for the first time years ago on the streets of Saigon and wondered what this extraordinary fruit could be.

It's expensive here, $5.99 a pound at one of the markets where I shop and where I took this photo. 

The fruit may be showy, but the flavor is so delicate that I usually eat it sprinkled with lime juice and sugar. 

Muñoz blends the fruit with lemonade, then adds mint. At first glance, her mocktail looks like agua fresca de chía, a Mexican drink made with chía seeds and lime juice. But the black seeds that punctuate the drink are those of the dragon fruit.  

The California dragon fruit season continues into November. You'll find the fruit in some supermarkets and in farmers markets where local dragon fruit growers sell their harvest.   

DRAGON FRUIT MOCKTAIL
By Melissa's Chef Savannah Muñoz

4 dragon fruit, peeled and roughly chopped
3 quarts any favorite lemonade
1 cup fresh mint leaves.

Place the dragon fruit and 2 cups of lemonade in a blender and purée. Transfer the mix to a 4-liter (4 1/4 quart)  pitcher and add the 2 1/2 quarts of lemonade.

Bruise the mint leaves with the back of a knife or by clapping them between your hands and add to the pitcher. Stir well and refrigerate overnight.

Strain out the mint leaves and stir. Serve over ice and garnish with fresh mint. Makes 4 liters, or about 4 1/4 quarts.

How to Make Enchiladas Suizas

Creamy, cheesy enchiladas suizas (Swiss enchiladas) are one of Mexico's great culinary contributions.

I knew they would be as good as they get in the hands of Marco Zapien, chef/owner of Zapien's Salsa Grill and Taquería in Pico Rivera (at the top).

Zapien's chile verde is one of the best--I wrote about it for The Los Angeles Times. (Click here to see that story.) His classic mole is superb too, as is anything else I have eaten at the Salsa Grill. 

The other day, Zapien left the restaurant to cook at Melissa's Produce in Vernon. His assignment was to show how to make enchiladas suizas, not with the usual corn tortillas but with specialty tortillas from La Tortilla Factory in Santa Rosa.

One tortilla blended wheat and corn, another was flavored with chipotle chile. The third was a flour tortilla, not what you usually use for enchiladas.

Making the enchilada sauce starts with cooking tomatillos, green chiles and other vegetables in chicken broth. Next, Zapien purees the mixture in a blender.

Then he returns the sauce to the pot and adds heavy cream and sour cream--the dairy products are what make the sauce "Swiss."

To assemble the enchiladas, Zapien covers the bottom of a baking dish with sauce.


Next, he rolls cooked chicken in each tortilla.

He lines these up in the baking dish and tops them with more sauce. 

And with shredded Cheddar cheese.

Then the dish goes into the oven until the cheese is melted and the enchiladas are hot, bubbly and irresistibly good.

Here is the recipe.  

MARCO ZAPIEN'S ENCHILADAS SUIZAS

1/2 pound tomatillos
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
3 Hatch chiles, roasted, peeled and diced
1/2 bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup sour cream
Salt, pepper
1 cup salad oil
18 tortillas
2 pounds chicken breast, grilled and diced
2 cups shredded Jack cheese

Remove the husks from the tomatillos. Prepare the garlic, onion, bell pepper, chiles and cilantro.

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the tomatillos, garlic, onion, bell pepper, cilantro, chiles and chicken broth and cook until the vegetables are tender. 

Cool slightly, then puree in a blender. Return the pureed sauce to the saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add the cream and reduce for 5 minutes. Stir in the sour cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

There will be about 4 cups sauce. Keep warm while filling the enchiladas.

Heat the salad oil in a skillet. One at a time, fry the tortillas in the oil just until softened. Drain on paper towels.  Fill each with diced chicken and roll.

Place a layer of sauce in a baking dish. Place the enchiladas in a single layer in the dish. Cover with sauce and top with cheese. Use 2 baking dishes if necessary to hold all the enchiladas.

Bake at 350 degrees 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly and heated through. Serve at once.

Makes 18 enchiladas. 

Note: If Hatch chiles are unavailable, substitute Anaheim chiles. 

An Easy Beef Dish from Veracruz

Mexican cooking can be so simple, like this shredded beef dish from a home cook in the city of Veracruz.

Only five ingredients are required, plus salt and pepper.  What makes it so good is the care taken in preparation. The meat is boiled and washed to remove any scum, then boiled again in fresh water until tender.  After shredding, it is added along with green chiles to a cooked mixture of onion, garlic and tomatoes.

I used New Mexico's Hatch chiles (above). Their season is ending, but I have them in the freezer, already roasted. If you missed out, you can substitute Anaheim chiles.

The original recipe is in my book, "Mexican Cookery." That version calls for green bell peppers, the way it was done in Veracruz. I revised it to use green chiles instead.  

Here are the steps in preparing the chiles for this dish.  First, roast them until blistered. I do this under the broiler, because I have an electric stove. 

When they are cool, peel the chiles and cut them into thin strips.

Then add them along with the cooked meat to sautéed onion, garlic and tomatoes. Add broth and simmer until heated through. Then you have a hearty, homey dish to serve with rice or use as taco filling or in tortas, the Mexican sandwich.  

CARNE DESHEBRADA
Shredded Beef

1 pound beef stew meat
Water
1/2 pound Hatch chiles or Anaheim chiles, hot or mild
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound tomatoes, peeled and chopped
Salt, pepper

Place the meat in a large saucepan and cover generously with water. Bring to a boil. Skim off and discard the scum that rises to the top. Drain the meat and wash it well

Return the meat to the saucepan. Add 2 1/2 cups water and bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover and simmer until very tender, up to 2 hours. Let cool in the broth, then drain, reserving the broth. You will need at least 1/2 cup.

When the meat is cool enough to be handled, tear it into shreds with your hands or two forks. 

Meanwhile, roast the chiles until blistered. Let cool slightly, then remove the stems and skins. Scrape off the seeds but do not rinse. Cut in thin slices and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and garlic and cook until tender but not browned. Add the tomatoes and simmer 10 minutes, until thoroughly cooked.

Add the chiles, the meat, the reserved 1/2 cup broth and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer gently until heated through.

Serve with rice or use as taco filling or in tortas (sandwiches).

Makes 4 servings.  

El Charro's Thursday Special--Cemitas

It was a cemita for sure, not like those in Puebla, Mexico, where this dreamy sandwich originated, but the best, and probably the only one, in a Los Angeles neighborhood that is a hotbed of Central American food.

The place was El Charro near 6th and Union, where the cemita is a Thursday special. Actually, you can get it any day--it's listed on the menu under antojitos--but on Thursdays you get a free drink with it.  

Of course it couldn't measure up to those at Las Poblanitas in the Mercado El Carmen in the city of Puebla. This is the place that set my standard for cemitas.

El Charro's round bun was properly sprinkled with sesame seeds, but it wasn't like the buns in Puebla, which are crisp as you bite into them, then delectably soft.

Missing were add-ons such as the herb papalo and seductive sweetened chipotle chiles. And, yikes, El Charro's cemitas come with French fries and tiny packets of ketchup.

To spike it up, you can choose salsas and pickled carrots from the salsa bar that serves taco-eaters. 

In Puebla, a local said I should not have a milanesa (finely-sliced meat) in my sandwich because it might not agree with a foreign stomach. Instead, I chose shredded quesillo (cheese).

At El Charro I did order a milanesa--thin-cut beef fried until almost crunchy. The other fillings are listed under tacos on the sign at the counter. 

The bun was lined with avocado, although not as much as in Puebla. Other additions were sliced onion and pickled chiles. Besides the meat, there was plenty of cheese--firm slices of queso fresco and shredded quesillo. 

El Charro's cemita was a valiant try, hinting at the original but not a replica. It's a cute place, though. And the French fries aren't bad.

El Charro Restaurant, 1621 W 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90017. Tel: (213) 292-0668

For Corn Lovers--Easy Esquites

It's so easy to make esquites, the Mexican street snack of corn seasoned with cheese, cream and chiles.

In this version, the corn is cooked in the microwave, then cut off the cob and mixed with the seasonings. The cheese is cotija, which is dry and crumbly.

The cream is Mexican crema, not sour cream. I buy Oaxacan style crema from the assortment at my market. It's so tasty I could eat it from a spoon, but any crema will do. 

I've used a mild Hatch chile in the recipe, because they're in season during the late summer. An Anaheim chile would work well too.

You can adjust the recipe to taste with hot chiles, salsa, lime juice or other seasonings and multiply it to make as many servings as you need.  

EASY ESQUITES

1 ear corn
1 Hatch chile or Anaheim chile, roasted and peeled
1 tablespoon finely chopped green onion
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon grated cotija cheese
1 tablespoon crema Oaxaqueña or other Mexican crema
Salt
Additional crema and cilantro leaves for garnish
Hot or mild red chile powder
Lettuce leaf, tortilla chips, optional

Remove any leaves and corn silk. Wrap the ear of corn in a damp paper towel. Microwave on high 2 minutes, or until fully cooked.  Remove and set aside to cool.

Remove the seeds and stem and chop the chile. 

When the corn is cool to the touch, slice off the kernels with a sharp knife. Place in a bowl. Add the chopped green chile, green onion, chopped cilantro, cotija cheese and crema. Mix well. Add salt to taste.

To serve, place in a small bowl or on a lettuce leaf. Top with additional crema and cilantro leaves. Sprinkle with chile powder.

Accompany with tortilla chips, if you like. 

Makes 1 serving.