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

Claudia's Fish with Cilantro Sauce

What amazing luck, to find real home style Mexican food in a town I'd never visited before, and almost as soon as I arrived. 

The town was Loreto in Baja California Sur, a half-hour shuttle ride from Villa del Palmar, the resort where I was staying. 

Loreto is one of Mexico's Pueblos Mágicos (Magic Towns), selected for their cultural and historic importance, charm and touristic appeal. Its laid back seaside location makes it a beautiful place to relax. 

Magic was definitely at work as I strolled about, looking for a place to eat. There were lots of choices, but I didn't want pizza or steaks.

And then I came across Claudia's Restaurant (at the top). Little more than a stand with tables outside, it was so charming I simply had to eat there. It appealed even more when I met Adela David (above), the cocinera (cook), who could have come straight from a home kitchen.  

Bright Mexican cloths covered the tables, and strips of the same fabric were tied around the chair backs.

My drink, a tamarind smoothie (above), came in a heavy Mexican glass and my food on a traditional clay platter, not restaurant ware.

There were lots of other smoothies to choose from, as well as margaritas and other cocktails.

What do you order, when you have only one chance at a perfect meal?  Seafood, because Loreto is a fishing center--the water is only a short walk from Claudia's

Fish tacos (above) were one possibility.

But I chose grilled fish with cilantro sauce. And it was wonderful, thanks to the skill of Señora David. The fish was cabrilla (sea bass), so fresh it must have come out of the water that morning.

Everything on the plate was good.  Mexican style red rice came in a little pottery bowl. Simple boiled vegetables--carrots, broccoli and zucchini--were perfectly seasoned.

The pale green sauce covering the fish was delicate and creamy, so lightly flavored with cilantro that people who detest that herb could probably eat it too.

I asked Señora David for the recipe. And like much great food, the sauce turned out to be very simple, just four ingredients, one of them a canned thick Mexican sweet cream.

If your markets don't carry this canned crema, you may have to substitute another thick sweet cream, but that should work too.   

Life in Loreto is so laid back that I couldn't get an address for Claudia's.  But it's on Javier Salvatierra, a main street, and you can't miss it if you walk a short distance from the town's Historical Center toward the sea and look for the most colorful place there. 

FISH WITH CILANTRO SAUCE
From Claudia's Restaurant in Loreto. 

1 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 cup milk
1/2 cup canned Nestlé Media Crema, available in some Mexican markets
1 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoons flour
Salt
Oil
4 white fish fillets, about 1 pound 

Combine the cilantro, garlic, milk and crema in a blender container. Blend until the cilantro is very finely ground.

Heat the butter in a saucepan. Add the flour, and cook and stir about 30 seconds. Add the cilantro mixture, bring to a gentle boil and cook, stirring, until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Season with salt to taste and set aside. There will be about 1 1/2 cups. 

Heat a large skillet and coat the bottom with oil. Add the fish fillets in a single layer. Sprinkle lightly with salt. Cook 5 minutes, turning once, or until the fish flakes and is cooked throughout.

Place each fillet on a heated plate and cover with sauce. Accompany with steamed vegetables and rice.

Makes 4 servings. 

A Parade of Beautiful Baja Food

Look at this gorgeous shrimp cocktail, so fresh because the shrimp are straight from the sea. 

Holding it is Gerardo García Martínez, executive chef of Villa del Palmar a resort at the Islands of Loreto in Baja California Sur. Here, Garcia is at Casa Mia, the resort restaurant where I had gone for lunch.

As I nibbled on guacamole (above), I watched a parade of such tempting dishes that I leaped from my seat to photograph each one.

Shrimp taco salad is one of the most popular dishes at Casa Mia. It's in a crisp fried tortilla shell.

This beautiful tropical salad combines shrimp and mangoes.

What makes fried squid rings stand out is the puffy fried onion rings that come with them.

There are meaty dishes too, like burgers made with beef from Sonora. 

And tacos al pastor.

And fajitas of every type.

This vegetarian and gluten-free sub sandwich caters to special diets.

And here is Mazatlan style aguachile--shrimp in a lime juice and green chile sauce on a beautifully decorated plate.

Holding it is Oscar Torres, Villa del Palmar's food and beverage manager. Torres had ordered this for his own lunch and let me share. Even better, he told me how to make it.

The recipe below is what I came up with when I followed his directions. My sauce is bright and limey but not as green as that at Villa del Palmar, perhaps because I didn't use as many chiles. But it's delicious. 

What's really missing, though, is the atmosphere--sunshine, palm fronds waving in the breeze, swimming pools and the beach close by. And my house doesn't look a bit like Casa Mia (above).

MAZATLAN STYLE AGUACHILE
From Casa Mia restaurant at Villa del Palmar Loreto. 

16 jumbo shrimp (15-20 to the pound), about 3/4 pound
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup diced Persian (mini) cucumbers or seeded regular cucumbers
1/3 cup diced red onion
1/2 cup lime juice   
1 serrano chile, or more to taste, seeded and sliced
Salt, pepper
Garnishes:
    Diced avocado
    Halved grape tomatoes
    Strips of red onion 
    Finely shredded carrots and celery
Tortilla chips

Peel the shrimp and place in a large shallow bowl. Add the garlic and half the cucumber and red onion. Pour in the lime juice and stir gently to make sure all the shrimp are coated. Marinate for 5 minutes, stirring again once or twice.

Remove the shrimp from the marinade and set aside. Place the marinade ingredients in a blender container. Add the remaining cucumber and red onion and the serrano chile. Blend thoroughly.

Pour the blended mixture into a sieve over a bowl and press to extract the liquid. Discard the vegetables. Add salt and pepper to taste. There will be about 1/2 cup liquid. 

To served, place the shrimp in a circle on a large plate. Spoon the liquid over the shrimp.  Place diced avocado in the center of the plate. Place tomatoes around the edge. Top the avocado with carrots and celery.

Accompany with tortilla chips. 

Makes 4 small plate servings. 

Frida's Tangy Green Ceviche

What could be cooler, literally, than this tangy, refreshing ceviche from Vicente Del Río, owner and chef of Frida Mexican Cuisine. 

It's totally green, meaning no red tomatoes, only a couple of tomatillos. 

Del Río showed how to make it as one of the cooking demonstrations arranged by The Taste of México Association of Los Angeles at The Taste 2012, held at Paramount Studios.  

HALIBUT CEVICHE VERDE
Green Ceviche
From Vicente Del Río of Frida Mexican Cuisine 

1 pound halibut
1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
Salt
Black pepper 
1 large clove garlic, chopped 
1/3 small onion, diced
2 small tomatillos, husks removed, cut in halves
1 avocado, peeled, seeded and sliced
1/2 bunch cilantro, stems removed
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley leaves
1 serrano chile, stemmed, seeded and chopped
1/3 small cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Mexican oregano, crumbled
Tostada bases or chips 

Dice the halibut and place in a bowl. Stir in the lime juice and salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

To make the salsa, combine the garlic, half of the diced onion, the 2 tomatillos, the avocado, cilantro, parsley and serrano chile in a blender and blend until finely ground. 

Drain the halibut and place in a serving bowl. Add the salsa, the remaining onion, the cucumber, olive oil and oregano. Mix well. Taste and adjust the seasonings as necessary. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving. Spoon onto tostada bases or accompany with tostada chips.

Makes 6 servings. 

This Cheff Makes a Great Breakfast

Marco Antonio Meza serves a great breakfast. But you have to go to San Felipe in Baja California to get it. The place is his restaurant, El Rincón del Cheff.

"This is a very typical breakfast here in San Felipe," Meza said as my companions and I started to work on enormous plates of food.

Not waffles, French toast or hot cakes, but camarones rancheros, succulent shrimp from the Sea of Cortez in a tomato and fresh chile sauce, and spicy machaca de pescado, fish shredded and cooked like hash.

Refried beans and a scoop of red rice sat alongside each other. The edges of the plates were dusted with red chile powder.

To make the breakfast even heartier, we could have freshly made flour or corn tortillas or both.  

Meza (above) is a native of San Felipe and knows where to get the best ingredients. He used dogfish (cazón) for the machaca, a dish that goes back to the days when there was no refrigeration in San Felipe. Then, people dried fish in order to preserve it and needed a way to cook it so it would be palatable. Now they make machaca with fresh fish. 

The camarones rancheros were so delicious I asked Meza for his recipe, and he explained each step. There's no secret to it other than using good, fresh ingredients.

When I tried the dish at home, I was able to make it more authentic than expected, thanks to a supermarket special on jumbo shrimp from the Sea of Cortez. That's my version above. 

El Rincón del Cheff is an informal, neighborly place with bright chartreuse walls and an artsy map of Baja California on one of them. The clock is a chef's face. It's easy to find, on a main street downtown and not far from the malecon.

El Rincón del Cheff, Avenida Mar de Cortez, San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico (a couple of doors from Chumpo's Restaurant). Tel: 57707-11. Open daily from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

CAMARONES RANCHEROS
Marco Antonio Meza, El Rincón del Cheff

24 jumbo shrimp
1/2 pound tomatoes, chopped
1 small onion, halved lengthwise and sliced crosswise
1 fresh California chile
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup canned tomato puree
1/2 cup water
1 bay leaf
Natural sea salt 

Peel and clean the shrimp, leaving the tails attached. Prepare the tomatoes and onion.  Cut off the stem and tip of the California chile. Cut the chile in half lengthwise and rinse out the seeds, then cut each half into 2 strips and slice these crosswise.

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the shrimp and cook 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, onion and chile, stir to mix and cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Add the tomato puree, water, bay leaf and salt to taste. Bring to a boil and simmer 2 minutes.

Makes 4 servings. 

 

A Tale of Two Sikil Pacs

Never heard of sikil pac? Then you've probably not been to Yucatán, where this nutty squash seed dip is a favorite snack.

The photo at the top shows how it's served at Cenote Xocempich, where tourists can stop for lunch after exploring the ruins at Chichén Itzá. This is a private ranch, but a visit can be arranged through Catherwood Travels, which specializes in tours of the Mayan world and colonial Yucatán.

My group went for dinner, served outdoors under an enormous ficus tree.

The first course was sikil pac, spooned into colorful bell pepper cups (above). Then we ate cochinita pibil, which is pork cooked in a pit in the ground, along with rice, beans, guacamole and tortillas that local women patted out and cooked over hot coals. A Malbec was a good match for this menu, and we finished with coconut ice cream.

Although daylight lasted for part of our visit, we were soon eating in the dark, because there were no lights. That's why I couldn't photograph the rest of the meal.

The creamy sikil pac was so pleasing that I asked for the recipe. It never arrived, but I did get one from just as authentic a source, the restaurant Chichén Itzá in Los Angeles. That version is in the photo above.  

The recipe is in the book "Sabores Yucatecos: A Culinary Tour of the Yucatán" by restaurant owner and chef Gilberto Cetina (right), his son Gilberto Cetina Jr. and Katharine A. Diaz.

This is the first cookbook in English by a chef who is a native of Yucatán. You can buy it at the restaurant, which is in the Mercado La Paloma in downtown Los Angeles, or through Amazon.com. The price is $27.95.

The recipes have been handed down in Cetina's family, and they are traditional, not altered to please gringo tastes or reworked with supermarket ingredients. There's no need for that because almost everything required is available here, at least that's the case in Los Angeles.

Cetina says he served sikil pac at the reception following his daughter's wedding in Mérida, Yucatán. It's perfect party food, especially if there are vegetarians in the group. 

SIKIL PAC
From "Sabores Yucatecos"

3/4 cup ground toasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
3/4 cup chiltomate (see below)
1 habanero chile, roasted and chopped (optional)
1/4 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chives, finely chopped, or green onions
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

In a bowl, combine the ground seeds, chiltomate, the habanero chile, if using, cilantro and chives. Adjust salt to taste.

Serve with tortilla chips.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

Chiltomate
Roasted Tomato Sauce

10 medium plum (roma) tomatoes, roasted
1 habanero chile, roasted (optional) 
3 to 4 sprigs cilantro, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt

Roast the tomatoes and the chile, if using, on a griddle or in a skillet until charred on the outside and soft to the touch. Let cool.

Place the tomatoes and chile in a food processor and pulse into small chunks.

Turn into a bowl, add the cilantro and salt and toss to mix.

Makes about 2 cups. 

Chichén Itzá Restaurant, 3655 S. Grand Ave. (in the Mercado La Paloma), Los Angeles, CA 90007. Tel: (213) 741-1075.

 

From Ruins to a Recipe at Palenque

What a great guide at Palenque--José Luis Zúñiga

Sure, he knew all about the Mayas who built the extraordinary structures there. And he made certain I saw them by steering me up and down the rough, steep steps.

He wasn't too modest to show how an ancient outdoor toilet worked (above). No walls, no shelter, just a hole in the rocks where you did what you had to in full view. And this facility was for royalty, not commoners.

The ruins were misty and mysterious after a night of rain. Gorgeous, but the real highlight was getting a recipe on the way down.

It was a long hike, plenty of time for José to tell me how to cook fish Chiapas style.

It couldn't have been easier, fish layered with vegetables between anise-scented hoja santa leaves. You enclose this in foil and then grill it for 15 minutes on each side. The photo above shows how it is assembled.

Clouds of fragrant steam pour out as you open the foil, and the fish is wonderfully moist and light. The photo above shows it after cooking.

The wrapper is responsible for the name, pescado empapelado, which means fish wrapped in paper--in this case, foil.  

José used a word that I hadn't heard before for hoja santa--momo. The only other name I know is acuyo. Momo grows wild at Palenque, and José led me through a patch of soggy grass and dripping trees to see it. 

There he is, showing how large the leaves are, ample enough to wrap the fish. 

Momo grows in my yard too, so I made his dish as soon as I got home. If you can get a plant, be careful. It will pop up everwhere. Mine invaded my neighbor's basement, so now I keep it in a pot.

You can make the fish even if you can't get momo. You could wrap it in chard or some other large leaf and add another herb, such as fresh basil.

But for the true taste of Chiapas, you have to use momo.

PESCADO EMPAPELADO
Chiapas Style Grilled Fish 

4 large leaves momo (hoja santa)
1 pound any mild white fish fillets
1/2 pound tomatoes, sliced
1/2 medium onion, sliced
1 small green bell pepper, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped 
Salt

Heat a barbecue or stove-top grill.

Lay out 2 long sheets of foil.  Place a momo leaf on each sheet.

Place 1/4 of the sliced vegetables and garlic on each leaf. Sprinkle with salt.

Top the vegetables on each sheet with half the fish, then with another 1/4 of the vegetables and garlic and season with salt.

Cover the vegetables with a second momo leaf.

Now wrap each stack of fish and vegetables securely in the foil.

Place the 2 packets on the hot grill and cook 15 minutes. Turn and cook 15 minutes longer.

Place the packets on a platter and unwrap. Divide the fish and vegetables in each packet in half and place on serving plates. Discard the momo leaves, which are for flavoring, not for eating. 

Makes 4 servings.

If you like, you can make larger individual servings by using 1 1/2 pounds of fish divided into 4 servings. You will then need to increase the amount of vegetables by half.

For each packet you will need 2 momo leaves, or a total of 8. However, if the leaves are large, you could use 1 leaf, divided in half, for each packet.