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Joanne asked a good question. When is produce in season? In other words when is it at it's peak?  I have always taken as my guide the fact that seasonal produce is always at it's cheapest when it's a glut on the market. It's a win/win situation, cheap and at it's peak.
I did some research on the web and frankly found very little information. Here is a list for the United States that would serve as a guide if you look at what is available in Florida and Texas since the climates are similar (especially in the gulf), Louisiana is probably a good bet too.
There is a wonderful website called Mexico Cooks! and right now she is doing a series on what is available in the mercado in August in Morelia. Part 1 and Part 2 can be found by clicking on the links.


Theresa is the author of ¿What do I do all day? and Theresa's Cooking Blog.  

In my last article I asked if for some input.

I wanted to know if you had heard of the following foods available here, and if you used them; nopales, chayote, camote blanco, camote amarillo, yucca, platanos machos, platanos manzano, calabaza,  epazote,guayaba.

From the people who responded I got the idea that at least a few of you hadn't, or at least aren't familiar with the Spanish names. Calabasa translates to pumpkin and refers to the little green pumpkins that are sold here. You just use them like you would any other squash. If you have shopped in a mercado, I am sure you have noticed plastic bags full of diced vegetables, calabasa is one of the veggies. The plastic bags are for soup. Personally, I prefer to chop my own vegetables,so I haven't ever bought any of the mix Actually, about the only things I ever buy in the mercado that have already been peeled or cut are coconuts and nopales.

Speaking of nopales, or cactus paddle. I did a blog post on nopales entitled Nopales and Me.

As for camote, those are sweet potatoes, camote blanco is white sweet potato, I grew up calling it boniato and eating it as a sickenly sweet dessert. Here is a link to a facts sheet on boniatoscomplete with nutritional information and some recipes. Camote amarillo is the orange sweet potato that you probably bought NOB. I like to bake camote amarillo and carrots together in the oven and serve with an ginger orange glaze. Here is a fact sheet for sweet potato.

Moving down our list we come to chayote. Funny thing about chayote, I have a cookbook that my mom gave me when I turned 18 in 1973 (you can do the math if you want) and it has three listings for chayote! This is the Chicago Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook originally published in 1948 but I have the revised edition published in 1971. I love this cookbook, I learned to cook out of my mom's copy which was the 1962 edition. The recipes are pretty basic Cooked Chayote, Fried Chayote  and Chayote,Carrot and Avocado Salad. Pretty exotic stuff for the 1070s don't you think? I also wrote a blog post called Consider the Humble Chayote in which I give my favorite chayote recipes.I have also substituted chayote for zuchini in a few recipes and have eated stuffed chayotes in a cocina economica. Try the chayote halwa, it's really good, even if it's a weird colour.

For a glimpse into the past here are the chayote recipes from the Encyclopedic Cookbook. Actually, while I doubt that I would make the salad, the other two sound great to me.

Next week I will write about the rest of the list. My special thanks to everyone who takes the time to make a comment, it really helps me to write a column that is useful to everyone.

CHAYOTE,CARROT AND AVOCADO SALAD

1 1/2 cups diced carrots

1 1/2 cups diced chayote

French Dressing

Lettuce

1 1/2 cups diced avocado

Cook carrots and chayote separately in boiling, salted water until tender. Drain, add a little French dressing and chill. Cover salad plate with shredded lettuce, pile chayote in center,surround with a ring of carrots and a ring of avocado. Serve with French dressing or mayonnaise. Serves 6

COOKED CHAYOTE

1 1/2 pounds chayotes

1/2 cup water, 3/4 teaspoon salt.

Pare chayotes, and slice crosswise into 3/4 inch slices. Heat water and salt to boiling, add chayotes, cover pan tightly to prevent escape of steam and heat again to boiling. Reduce heat at once and simmer about 25 minutes. Drain. To serve,season with pepper and butter. Serves 6 to 8

FRIED CHAYOTE

1 recipe Cooked Chayote

1 egg,beaten

1 cup dry bread crumbs

fat (personally, I would use olive oil or vegetable oil)

Dip slices of chayote into egg,roll in bread crumbs and brown in fat. Serves 6 to 8.

Theresa is the author of ¿What do I do all day? and Theresa's Cooking Blog. Her weekly column, Comida Listo, can be found on Yolisto most Tuesdays. 

 

When Malcolm asked me if I would be interested in writing this column, I was a little nervous. I am not a  cooking professional. I am an expat and I am interested in food. I have a cooking blog where I write about what I am doing in my kitchen. I don't update it as often as I do my regular blog.
I don't know what to write about, so I need some help.
So this week I am asking for questions in the comment section, but instead of answering them in the comment section, I am going to answer them in this column. I don't know how many people read the comments.If you don't,you should, there are great questions.
There was a discussion about butter, that lead to me standing at the cold case in Megabalcones reading the ingredients list on all the butters to find out why Mexican butter doesn't taste like American, Canadian or Danish butter.
When I wrote the jicama article, I thought it would be a ho-hum article, but I was surprised to find out that jicama isn't a common food everywhere.
I want to know if you have heard of the following foods available here, and if you use them. Or are they totally strange to you. In no particular order:
nopales, chayote, camote blanco, camote amarillo, yucca, platanos machos, platanos manzano, calabaza,  epazote,guayaba

I may be naive in thinking that most people know how to eat mangoes, pineapples,coconut,pepino blanco (white cucumber), and chiles poblanos.
If there is someone out there that knows alot about chiles and would like to do a guest column that would be great. I mostly just use, poblanos, habaneros,  serrenos, chile dulce and jalapeños then there is  Chile Cuaresmeño but according to my research that is another name for jalapeños. I also have a few recipe that use some dried chiles such as chipoltes, guajillo and pasillo. Those jalapeños sure get around because a chipolte is a smoke dried jalapeño. I have several vegetarian recipes which use a whole dried chipolte as a subsitute for a smoked ham bone, removing it of course.
Actually, if someone has a good food story about living in Mexico, I would certainly love to showcase it here. I have noticed that there are many people here with much more experience in the food industry than I ever will have. So if some of those people want to share their food experience, I invite you to be a guest columnist too.

Theresa is the author of ¿What do I do all day? and Theresa's Cooking Blog. Her weekly column, Comida Listo, can be found on Yolisto most Tuesdays (sometimes Wednesday, this is Mexico, afterall). 

One of the things that people who are unfamiliar with the Yucatan will say to me is, "Oh, I love Mexican food. You are probably getting such great food there." I just sigh, and say that there are a few Mexican restaurants here, but the food is Yucatecan, and most of it is very different than "Cal-Mex," "Tex-Mex" or even the much maligned, "Taco Bell Mex." One of my friends has a 13 year old son who was very indignant over his mom taking him to the part of Mexico that didn't have burritos!

 

I have one Mexican cookbook, and I like it very much, Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless of the PBS show Mexico, One Plate at a Time fame. In the discussion of What to bring here, enchilada sauce came up.

 

What? No enchilada sauce in Mexico? I don't know about Mexico, but there doesn't seem to be any canned enchilada sauce in Merida. Part of that may be cultural. Enchiladar means, "to cover with chile," and it's also what happens when you eat too much chile and get overheated: "Esta enchilado."

 

My son got enchilado'd on one of his first days in Merida. We were eating at a cocina economica and there was a chile habanero on his plate. His Spanish was minimal at the time, but he knew the word for hot, so he asked, "¿es caliente?" Since no food is ever served hot here, the server replied in the negative. He tentatively took a nibble at what he thought was maybe a mini-bell pepper (un chile dulce). You can actually eat the hottest chile if you take tiny bites, but after suffering no ill effects, he boldly popped the entire chile habanero in his mouth and chewed it up.

 

Without exaggeration, the poor boy's ears turned maroon. He was enchilado! He was treated to every remedy possible, from sugar, Coca Cola, milk, bread, tortillas, and who knows what else. He did survive the longest five minutes of his young life, but was thereafter very particular about what he ate. He also learned that the Spanish word for, "hot" as in, "spicy" is picante. He should have asked, "¿Se pica?" or, "¿Es picante?"

Enchilada Sauce

4 large cloves of garlic, unpeeled

4 medium dried chiles guajillo, stemmed, seeds and deveined

6 medium dried chiles anchos ,stemmed, seeds and deveined

1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns

1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 cups any poultry broth (plus extra if needed)

1 teaspoon salt

Sugar, a big pinch if needed

Heat a heavy skillet or griddle over medium heat. Lay the garlic on one side to roast. Tear the chiles into flat pieces, and a few at a time, press them against the hot surface with a metal spatula. Flip them over and press again. You'll hear them crackle and see them blister and change color.

 

Remove to a bowl, cover with boiling water, weigh down with a plate to keep them submerged, and soak for at least an hour, preferably 2 or 3.

Turn the garlic frequently for 15 minutes or so, until blackened a little and soft within. Remove, cool, peel and place in a blender. Grind the peppercorns and cumin seeds in a mortar or spice grinder and add to garlic.

 

Drain the chiles, squeezing gently. Add to the blender and measure in 1 1/2 cups of the broth. Blend until smooth and then strain though a medium mesh sieve into a large bowl. Season with salt, and if the sauce is bitter or sharp, sugar. Add additional broth to the consistency of a light tomato sauce.

NOTES: if you are using powdered caldo, you may want to taste the sauce before you add the salt, as caldo can be fairly salty. One good thing about making your own sauce is that you control the amount of salt. Chile Ancho may also be called chile poblano or pasilla. Guajillos are very mild. If you want to substitute another type of dried chile to change the hotness, you certainly can, but I would not use chipoltes since that would totally change the taste to a smoky one.

 

 

I realize that many newcomers don't speak Spanish, and that makes going to the grocery store a bit of a challenge sometimes. Oh, a cucumber looks like a cucumber, whether the sign says pepino or cucumber... unless it's a white cucumber, then it looks more like a bleached zucchini.

 

I usually buy the regular green cukes, because they are what is available where I shop, but if you are are shopping in a Mercado, don't hesitate to buy the pepino blanco. Once you peel it, you will never notice a difference.

Someone with more knowledge of botany will have to explain why they look like they do, and any differences that exist, but for me it tastes like cucumber, and that is all I care about.

 

One area where it isn't so easy to guess is in the spice department, so I am reprinting my spice list for you. Molido means, "ground," and entero means, "whole." While grano means, "grain," if you are buying ground coffee it's molido but whole coffee is en grano... not frijol. Another food term that doesn't translate is brown rice; it's arrozo intergral. Whole wheat flour is harina integral, too. If you ask for arroz cafe or arroz moreno, who knows what you will get.

 

That all being said and done, here is my spice list. These are the spices I actually have in my cupboard right now. The spices and herbs in red were imported, and the rest bought locally. As an interesting aside, you can also buy tumeric root in the grocery store, but then it's known as raize de safron instead of curcuma.

 

Allspice, Whole = Pimienta Tabasco en Grano
Anise Seed = Anis Semilla
Basil = Albahaca
Bay Leaves = Hojas de Laurel
Cardamom, Ground = Cardamomo molido
Cardamom, Whole = Cardamomo entero
Caraway Seed = Semilla de Alcaravea
Cayenne = Chile piquin molido
Cilantro = Cilantro
Cinnamon = Canela
Cloves, Whole = Clavo entero
Coriander Seeds = Semilla de cilantro
Cumin, Ground = Cumino molido
Curry Powder, Indian = Curry de India
Dill Weed = Hojas de Eneldo
Epazote = Epazote
Garlic = Ajo
Ginger = Jengibre
Marjoram Leaves = Mejorana entera
Mexican Pepperleaf = Hoja Santa
Mustard Powder = Mostaza molida
Mustard Seeds, Yellow = Mostaza semilla
Nutmeg, Ground = Nuez Moscada Molida
Oregano Leaves = Oregano entero
Paprika = Pimenton dulce
Paprika, Smoked = Pimenton Ahumado
Parsely = Perejil
Peppercorns, Black = Pimienta Negra, entera
Peppercorns, Green = Pimienta Verde, entera
Peppercorns, Red = Pimienta Rosa, entera
Rosemary = Romero
Sage = Salvia
Tarragon = Estragon
Thyme, Ground = Tomillo molido
Tumeric = Curcuma

 

 

 

According to Wikipedia, the word, jicama (hee-kah-mah) comes from the Nahuatl xicamatl(hee-kah-mahtl) and is also called the Mexican Potato or Mexican Turnip. Personally, I've never heard it called anything except jicama.

I don't remember the first time I ate the pale tuber, maybe as crudités along with some raw brocolli and bell peppers? I'm pretty sure that Ranch dressing was involved. The common element to my prior to Merida exposure has always been that the jicama has been peeled and eaten raw. While I still peel it I have found some other ways to serve it. Especially now that Ranch dressing is on our forbidden foods list.

One of the more common ways that we have had it served to us has been as a botana sprinkled with chili and lime. In addition to snacking on jicama sticks sprinkled with Tajin (a chile and lime condiment) at home, I've sprinkled it with a mix of curry powder, cayenne pepper and salt for an East Indian flavor.

The other day we had a jicama citrus salad. I looked at several versions, they all combined various citrus fruit slices with jicama slices the dressing being orange and lime juice combined with cayenne pepper and salt to taste. Ours was simply peeled orange slices,jicama slices some chopped cilantro, the juice of an orange and a lime sprinkled with Tajin. I saw other versions that included mandarins and grapefruit.

One thing, that I have found out is that you can also use jicama as a subsititute for water chestnuts in Chinese food or Spinach Dip. It will also work as a substitute for Jerusalem arthichokes, which I have never seen here. I have also pickled jicama along with carrots and used it in escabeche with jalapeños.

If you follow the link you'll find a few recipes for jicama including one for a stir fry.

I had always heard that jicama is low in calorie, according to the Kitchen Dictionary at the RecipeZaar there are only 49 calories in a cup of the cubed root and a whooping 6.4 grams of fiber. The low calorie count makes sense, since I also learned that it's composed of 86-90% water.If you want to check out the rest of the nutritional information you can find it here.

I have always stored jicama at room temperature, though I think it would do just fine in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator. One of the jicamas that I bought got forgotten and sprouted, I planted it in our backyard. Jicama has the most amazing looking leaves and the vine is reputed to grow up to 4 meters tall! I'm looking forward to seeing what the flowers look like. My understanding is that all the plant is poisonous except the tubers which can grow to be several pounds in size.

Theresa is the author of ¿What do I do all day? and Theresa's Cooking Blog. Her weekly column, Comida Listo, can be found on Yolisto each Tuesday. 

I had this brilliant idea for an article.I was going to do a photo essay of grocery shopping in MegaBalcones. I was asked by the security guard not to take any photos. I did a few of the bakery and some other bits. I am going to take my camera to a few other grocery stores and see if I can piece together a photo montage of an Merida grocery experience.
Not wanting to leave you all totally hanging here are some cool links
Unit conversions changing measurements from Imperial to Metric.
Rolly Brook's Mexican-Spanish to English Cooking Lexicon
and Culinary terms every novice should know, but might not.

Sorry that I was late on this, but I will be donning my super spy suit and trying to get some supermercado photos ready for next week.

With hurricane season officially open, it's a good time to take everything down off the kitchen shelves and see what you might want to stock up on. We've been reviewing the contents of our pantry to see what we need. My husband and I are both long time country folk. Before we moved to town, every year we used to prepare for the winter rains, so we are old hands at it. Some of our preparations are different, however... we no longer have a freezer and we don't drink the tap water here.

 

So let's start with water. It's recommended that you have 5 gallons of water per person. We have 6 garafons, so that covers Husband, Mr. Dog and me for about 10 days, or maybe 2 weeks if we're careful. We used to only have 3 garafons, but we've doubled our amount since going through our first hurricane watch. Our reasoning is that the 5 gallon recommendation is a minimum, and they are assuming that you normally drink the tap water.

 

I think it's better to start stocking up on stuff now, little by little, rather than waiting until the hurricane warning gets to a yellow alert status. By that time, the stores will be stripped, since most people here don't have an emergency pantry.

 

Since we have a gas stove, we assume that we'll be able to cook. We have a rooftop gas tank which we plan on topping off if it looks like a hurricane is heading our way. Our hope is that it will be heavy enough to stay put, but that is anyone's guess. We will, however, make sure that we have matches since our electronic ignition system for the stove won't be getting any electricity. We have lots of candles laid in, too.

 

This brings us to the pantry itself. What's in there? I don't like canned vegetables very much, but I have canned mushrooms, mixed vegetables, rajas, peas, hominy (for pozole), and corn. We always have on hand a variety of dried and canned beans. We like frijoles charros, garbanzos and refried beans. We also have barley, split peas, lentils, several types of rice, and cracked wheat. I will be stocking up on flour, since I have just been buying it 5 kilos at a time lately, instead of in a large bag. It's not that I will be doing any baking, since our oven runs on electricity, but that doesn't mean we can't have fry bread or other flat breads. Of course, we also have spaghetti and other pastas. I don't usually buy canned pasta sauce, but I do keep tomato sauce on hand, along with small jars of pesto.

 

It doesn't do any good to stock up on things you don't really like, so I don't buy much tuna fish, since I don't like it, but Husband and Mr. Dog eat it. I do buy canned chicken breast at Costco, and I have some dried machaca (like shredded beef jerky). There are other canned meats available here including cochinita pibil, so we'll probably cruise that aisle if a storm heads our way.

 

I'll also make sure that we have plenty of salt, spices, sugar, coffee, tea, cooking oil, popcorn, and maybe even some hot chocolate. We used to get flooded in for a few days every year, and there is nothing like eating popcorn and playing board games while you wait for the water to recede . The longest I personally have gone without electricity is 2 weeks, but we lived in a rural area then.

 

If you drink milk, don't forget to stock up. At least here you can buy milk in boxes. We used to have to buy powdered milk for our pantry.

 

It was amazing watching people strip the shelves during the last close call. The stores were so crowded that we just left. We didn't need anything, but were just looking for a few extras. Don't forget pet food, and stock up on any necessary medications if a cyclone warning is broadcast. It doesn't fall under the heading of food, but stock up on bleach (for disinfecting), toilet paper and soap, too.

 

Hopefully, you won't need any of these things, and you can look at it as one less trip to the grocery store.

 

Randio posted a comment that asked about salted butter. When he's been to the grocery, they seem to be out. My answer was that you probably just needed to add it, to taste. I have since then done a little research on the web regarding butter making.

 

I actually have made butter in a churn before, but we aren't talking about the homesteading, milk the Jersey cow, skim the cream off the milk type of butter making. All you need is some cream and a food processor or mixer. You simply beat the cream until it separates out, and leaves behind buttermilk. I was interested in how much salt to add to make salted butter. I looked at six different recipes. The answer seems to be "a pinch," in other words, not very much salt. Therefore, I feel that when you are making cookies it simply doesn't matter if you use salted or unsalted butter if you are already using salt in the recipe.

 

After reading the butter making recipes, I am all stoked and ready to make my own butter the next time that I bake some bread. The cream here is incredible! If you check the media crema, they vary from 25 to 30% fat! Well, after writing that sentence, I realized that butter making may have to wait until after the next cholesterol test. Sigh.

 

Which brings us to Boing's question about baking. She wanted to know about baking times. Since we are effectively at sea level, there is no change in baking times or boiling times to worry about, unless you come from a high altitude and your recipes have been adjusted for that. One thing that is different here is the flour. I haven't found any high gluten flour here. I had an opportunity to ask the baking instructor at the cooking school in Merida, and she told me that harina fuerte, which is high gluten, or bread flour, is not available here.  I assume that if you were serious about wanting some extra gluten, you could wash the starch out of some regular flour and use that, but I haven't tried that.

 

I bake bread here, but I don't have the meticulous nature of a true baker. I have some observations though. I think the dough has a tendency to rise too fast here, so when I bake bread, I do it in the morning before it gets over 80 degrees Fahrenheit . If you are serious bread baker and devoted to slow rise, you already know much more about this than I ever will, so I won't go into methods of retarding rise. Another thing I haven't found is pastry or cake flour, but for the type of baking I do, that doesn't matter. If your favorite recipe isn't the same with all purpose flour, you can substitute a quarter cup of corn starch for some of the all purpose flour and get an even softer flour.

 

 

 

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