Vanessa Barrington

What I Finally Did with my Massa Organics Duck

Last fall, Greg tweeted that he’d be selling rice-paddy raised ducks at the Berkeley market if folks wanted to order ahead. I did. I picked mine up on a bright day in September or October. I have no idea which. It was frozen so I put it in the freezer thinking I’d cook it within the month.

 

All sorts of crazy life stuff ensued, including a move. The duck, of course, came with me to my new home and took up residence in my new freezer. Sitting there in my freezer all winter and into the spring, the duck took on a gigantic importance. It was a special duck. A Massa-raised duck. Not just any old duck. I had to DO something with it. Just roasting it would not do at all. I was waiting for an occasion.

 

Finally Haven’s mother was in town and since the two of us had been meaning to cook a dinner together out of Niloufer’s wonderful book, My Bombay Kitchen, we decided it was time. Only problem is that there wasn’t really a recipe for a whole duck in the book.  Improvisation was in order.

I decided to make the Green Curry Masala (page 135) that Niloufer says is versatile enough for lamb, brains, or chicken. My thought was to rub the duck with ginger garlic paste (page 36) and steam it for 15 minutes to render the fat. Then I’d rub it with the masala and roast it. I also made the Watercress and Turnip Salad (page 215). Haven made a variation on the Fresh Turmeric and Ginger Pickle (page 234) and her mother (appropriately) made Mother’s Khichri (page 165).  Sorry about the white rice! We didn’t use the Massa Rice.

All went swimmingly. In the end I decided the duck needed a little sauce so I whisked together some white wine, butter, and Green Curry Masala and we spooned it over the duck. Four of us picked that thing clean. It looked as if buzzards had gotten in and taken up residence at the dinner table. The appetizer was a real coup. Instead of flatbread we ate the pickle with Cowgirl Fromage Blanc (they were out of paneer) on toasted Massa Whole Wheat Tortillas.

I’m hoping for another duck this fall. Greg: are you listening?

 

Just before steaming. Steamer insert rigged up in wok with foil covering it for 15 minutes.

Just after steam bath.

Rendering fat to use for roasting potatoes.

After roasting. It wasn't that pretty but it sure was good. PS: 1 duck is barely enough for 4 people.

On Smuggling, Renaissance Men & Chile Baked Beans with Nopales and Queso Fresco

I found these beans back in January while wandering around the big market in Cuernavaca Mexico. Like almost all markets in Latin America, there’s so much to look at it was a little hard to take it all in. At one vendor’s stall I looked down and there, among the usual plastic woven bags filled to the brim with posole, beans, and chiles were these gorgeous, fat, purple beans. I had never seen them before.

I stopped and stared, waiting for the vendor to finish helping another customer. Interestingly, a solo male shopper somehow picked up on my excitement and in very slow, elementary Spanish patiently told me what they were called—Ayocote Beans. He then spelled the name for me slowly so I could write it in my notebook, and told me that these types of beans are commonly eaten with molé in the state of Morelos. I’ve cooked with Steve Sando’s Ayacotes, before but I’ve never seen the purple version.

Throughout this exchange, the vendor just watched us, smiling. I thanked the man profusely and marveled on what had just happened. In Mexico, the women in the household usually do the marketing and the cooking. Sometimes you’ll see entire families shopping together, but it is rare to see a man shopping for food alone, especially one so clearly passionate that he was willing to share his knowledge with an ignorant gringa. (Incidentally, some of the people I met in Cuernavaca call this place north of the border “Gringolandia”, but not unkindly) He was either a chef or a renaissance man.

I tucked these babies in my backpack, buried deeply in layers of dirty clothing and made it through customs. I only felt a little guilty for lying about not transporting “seeds or plants.” My plan if caught was to say, “Get Out! Beans are seeds? I had no idea!”

I hung onto these for a couple months until it was time to make a celebratory bean dish. I wanted to do them justice, but didn’t want to make molé. Plus I needed something vegetarian so I went on over to Heidi Swanson’s bean-friendly vegetarian blog, 101 Cookbooks, and found this recipe which I improvised from to create my own. Basically I kept the queso and pesto, ditched the breadcrumbs, added nopales, and switched out the tomato sauce for a straight chile sauce. You don’t have to smuggle exotic beans from Mexico. I think either recipe would be great with pretty much any bean—from pintos to cannellinis, to borlottis.

Chile Baked Beans with Nopales and Queso Fresco:

3 dried red New Mexico or Ancho Chiles

3 garlic cloves

1 pinch of Mexican oregano

1 pound of beans, cooked until tender with enough of their broth to be moist but not too soupy

2 nopales

Queso Fresco

Pesto:

1 bunch cilantro

2 garlic cloves

Juice of 1/2 of a lemon

Salt to taste

Olive oil

Destem and remove the seeds from the chiles. Toast the chiles in a hot dry cast iron pan or comal until fragrant but not smoking, about 20 seconds per side.

Remove them to a small bowl and pour boiling water over. Soak for 20 minutes.

  

Put the chiles, the 3 garlic cloves, the oregano, and a few pinches of salt in a food processor or blender, reserving the chile soaking water. Process until smooth, adding chile soaking water a little at a time until the puree is the consistency like that of thin batter.

Using the edge of a sharp knife, scrape the spines off the nopales. Slice them into thin strips and then dice them. Boil for 10 minutes in salted water until tender. Drain.

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and, in a large casserole dish, stir together the beans, the chile puree and the nopales. Sprinkle with queso fresco and then bake until brown and bubbly.

Meanwhile, make the pesto. Place the cilantro leaves and garlic in the bowl of a food processor. Process until finely chopped. Add the lemon juice and salt and then slowly add the olive oil in a thin stream until the mixture is smooth and emulsified. Drizzle over each individual serving of beans.

Food Orgies I’ve Lived Through: Oyster Bliss and IACP in Portland

 

You'd think it was the holidays judging by how much I’ve been eating. It’s a little weird when the forced austerity of tax time collides with not-to-be-missed eating opportunities. Credit card bills and elastic-waist pants are usually the result.  No regrets here because hey, this is just how I roll now. Living in the moment and all that.

 

I attended my first ever Kermit Lynch party on Saturday the 17 followed by 4 days of gorging on all manner of both street food and fine restaurant eats in Portland.

   

 

Oyster Bliss is all about oysters, homemade sausages by Chris Lee and Samin Nosrat, wine by  Kermit Lynch and desserts by Café Fanny, along with plenty of sun, friends, and music. It was a blast drinking buckets of rose, chewing on sausages, slurping oysters and laughing with friends and tablemates. It’s tough to spend a Saturday afternoon like that because it’s too tempting to continue the debauchery. Luckily I’ve reached the age of reason and spent the late afternoon and early evening napping.

 

Fanny's strawberry rhubarb tart

Fanny's Chocolate Pave

 Barely recovered from the oyster party, Tuesday I arrived in Portland and proceeded to eat my way through town. I had plenty of good company and made countless new friends. Here are a few of the pictorial highlights.

 

The dreamiest coffee ever from the sweetest 200 square foot storefront.
 

Porchetta sandwich from The People's Pig Cart. Yowza!
 

Ziba's pitas: like my grandma's strudel only savory with cheese and lamb and Ajvar!
 

 

Poutine from Spudnik
 

I've had some pretty sorry examples of Korean tacos. This was not one of them.
 

Ok so I probably didn't really need to eat Texas toast grilled cheese with hamburger.
 

Cutest shack ever
 

My roomie Amy's Schnitzelwich from Tabor. She was nice enough to share. It was a textural wonderland.
 

Civilized lunch with new friends Laiko Bahrs, Maura Sell, Brona Cosgrave, and Patrice Savery at Pasta Works.
 

Green garlic soup!
 

farmers market pizza!
 

Much to my surprise, I walked into the Chronicle Books party and there was my book cover all blown (and grown) up and looking gorgeous. I had to get a happy shot. It's blurry but too fun not to include.

In closing, the conference was inspiring, exhausting, exhilerating and magical this year. The best ever. Everyone I met, famous or not, was kind, engaging, friendly, and helpful. It felt like one big giant love fest and sharing sphere. It made me feel like anything is possible and we’ll all get where we are going by helping one another. And you know what? I believe we really will. I don’t know if it’s the new economy or Portland itself but the conference felt like one big happy family. Maybe I just had “city of the roses”-colored glasses on, but I don’t think so. I think it was real.

This Ain’t No Chicken Factory: Soul Food Farm Tour

 
On a recent rain-threatening Saturday I set out with a friend and fellow Soul Food Farm CSA member for Soul Food’s first ever farm tour. We weren’t sure what to expect but we were pretty sure we’d like what we saw. I mean they wouldn’t invite people if it weren’t going to be a pleasant experience.

Though the wind came up, roaring through the chicken houses and causing hens to scurry and cluck, the weather held. It was a lovely romp through the different parts of the farm followed by lemonade and chicken salad sandwiches in the kitchen, where we chatted with Alexis and one another between bites. We even made it to the tail end of the Berkeley farmers’ market on the way home. Pretty perfect Saturday if you ask me.

These are the meat birds. Note the clean straw and healthy looking chickens. They take about 10 weeks to grow. These, I believe, are about 7 weeks old.

These are the meat birds inside their house. The modular houses are disassembled and moved around the farm every few months to keep things clean. The birds are never given any drugs to keep them healthy. Sage oil in their water acts as an anti-microbial. 

Sort of like a chicken/or Easter egg hunt but not. Now this is free-range.

3 day old chicks that arrive by US Mail to the post office, where Alexis picks them up cheeping away in their boxes. They look like Peeps don't they?

These are the laying hens outside, but under a shelter. Note how healthy they look. Their beaks have not been clipped, which is commonplace in the egg industry (yep, even the organic, cage free kind).

What a pretty pretty girl!

Comfortably roosting in clean, dry straw.

These were gathered in the hen houses by farm tour participants.

Llamas and chickens are friends. The llamas keep the predators away from the hen houses at night.

Here we are walking up the gentle slope of the farm. This is the site of the devastating fire last fall that nearly killed the farm just before its CSA program was about to launch. Amazing how nature renews. 

What a wonderful opportunity to be able to feel so connected to the eggs and chickens and people who feed me!
 

 

A Sort of Persian, Mostly Vegetarian Passover

I finally wrangled an invitation to a Seder. For years I’ve only heard about the ceremony and the food, and finally this year I got to experience both. I also had the opportunity to help cook this one, so I was really excited.

 

Our hostess, Haven Bourque, decided on a Persian menu. There were several reasons for this: One was a recent musical outing, that inspired us to want to eat Persian food, one was an article in the New York Times, and one was a vegetarian on the guest list, and our own veggie leanings.

 

Here’s the menu:

 

First Course:

 

Seder plate—in the Persian tradition green onions are on the table for the guests to beat one another with. Yep, that’s right. It symbolizes the sting of the whips of the Egyptian slaveholders. Rather fun and they do sting!

 

The charoset was wonderful. Lots of delicious dried fruits, cardamom, and pistachios.

 

Second Course:

Beet soup—very simple vegetarian version made with beets and leeks and balanced with champagne vinegar and then garnished with lebne and cilantro.

 

Third Course:

Smoked salmon

Asparagus roasted in a blazing hot oven with olive oil and salt

Deviled Eggs

 

Mainish Course:

 

Two types of grape leaves—one with lamb and rice and one with rice and dried fruit from the recipe in the New York Times above

 

Roasted/braised baby artichokes: Quartered and roasted with salt, olive oil, thyme sprigs, and sliced lemons until brown and then oven-braised in white wine.

 

Dessert:

Flourless chocolate cake and macaroons from La Farine and illegal for Passover baklava from Zand’s. Best baklava I’ve ever had. I finally understand why people eat baklava.

 

The ceremony was great. It was a secular humanist Passover and we sung songs of social justice while drinking plenty of wine.

 

Hope I get invited back next year!

 

DIY Cheese and Fresh Pasta with Asparagus

My new book: DIY Delicious: Recipes and Ideas for Simple Food from Scratch will be published this fall by Chronicle Books. I just finished going over the final proofs and finalizing the cover. It looks beautiful! The designer did a wonderful job and the photos are by the fabulous Sara Remington. I’m very excited about this project. There is so much kitchen inspiration to share.

My idea of the book is to inspire people and give them the tools and confidence to make some of the food items from scratch that they would normally buy. The payoff is better tasting, more economical, more environmentally friendly, additive free food, and the pride of kitchen self- reliance.

Each DIY recipe is followed by one or more simple recipes that show readers how to use the DIY ingredient to create incredibly simple dishes that are super flavorful because the ingredients you’ve made yourself are so fresh and tasty.  For example, in the book, following this cheese recipe, and in addition to suggestions sprinkled throughout the other chapters, you’ll find the pasta recipe, a recipe for cheese crepes and a simple marinated cheese appetizer.

In celebration of sending my baby off to be printed, I’m offering one of my favorite spring dishes using a homemade, soft, ricotta like cheese and whole wheat pasta to make a simple, seasonal dish with fresh asparagus and lemon—two of spring’s stars.

I probably shouldn’t give away all the recipes in the book so I’m assuming here that you can figure out how to make the pasta (or buy fresh pasta from a good specialty store) Of course you can use dried pasta too, but the chewiness of fresh pasta makes this dish more interesting.

Fresh Whole-Milk Soft Cheese

It helps if you have a thermometer for this recipe (see below). Time Required: 10 minutes active; 1 hour mostly passive, yet watchful

You can create your own particular style of fresh cheese by adjusting the time you drain the cheese and the thickness of your cheesecloth. The longer you drain, the drier it will be. When moist, this cheese is good for spreading and using as a dessert filling. Drain it longer and it’s perfect for pizza and pasta.

Makes about 1 1/4 pounds, depending on how much whey you drain out

• 1 gallon whole milk (not ultra-pasteurized as you may have trouble curdling it)
• 1/3 cup white or apple cider vinegar or 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Non-iodized salt, such as kosher or cheese salt

Pour the milk into a large nonreactive pot (stainless, ceramic, or enameled). Over medium-low heat, slowly bring the milk temperature up to 185 degrees F, stirring occasionally.  Take your time, so you don’t scorch the milk. Stir occasionally and watch closely. This can take 45 minutes or longer.

While you wait, ready 2, 4, or 6 layers of cheesecloth, folded into a square of about 18 inches on each side. Place the cheesecloth in a strainer (the number of layers depends on how dry you want your cheese). Fewer layers will make the cheese drain more quickly and yield a drier, crumblier cheese.

If you don’t have an accurate thermometer, you can still make ricotta. The milk should be just short of boiling. Signs that the milk is almost ready include tiny bubbles on the sides of the pan and a shimmering, vibrating surface not yet broken by bubbles.

When the milk reaches the proper temperature, turn off the heat, pour in the lemon juice or vinegar and stir to distribute. Stop stirring and let the milk sit undisturbed for 5 to 8 minutes. You will see curds begin to form and separate from the whey. Using a slotted spoon or small, hand-held strainer, spoon the curds out into the cheesecloth-lined strainer. It will look a little like wet biscuit dough. Work the cheese a little with a spoon to release some of the liquid.

Tie the ends of the cheesecloth together so you have a bundle of cheese and hang it from a wooden spoon set over a big pot until it reaches the desired consistency (5 to 10 minutes). Reserve the whey (see Note), transfer the cheese to a medium bowl, and add salt to taste, if desired. If using for desserts, you’ll want to add little or no salt. Will keep, refrigerated, 4 to 5 days.

Fresh Pasta with Asparagus, Homemade Cheese, and Lemon

Time Required: 15 minutes active (excluding cheese and pasta)

Serves 4 to 5

• 1 bunch (about 3/4 pound) fresh, in-season medium-thick asparagus
• 1 pound Fresh Pasta or store-bought whole wheat fettuccini
• 2 tablespoons butter or store-bought butter, softened
• 1/2 pound Fresh Whole-Milk Soft Cheese, drained to a moist, slightly crumbly texture
• 3 tablespoons mixed chopped fresh herbs (parsley, mint, chervil, savory, marjoram, anything you like)
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon, for zesting

Grasp 1 end of each asparagus spear in each hand and bend until it snaps at its natural breaking point. Discard (or compost) the lower fibrous ends. Cut the remaining parts of the spears into bite-sized pieces. In a vegetable steamer, steam the asparagus until tender but still vibrant green, about 2 to 3 minutes. Submerge it in ice water to stop the cooking, drain, and pat dry. Set aside.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, put the softened butter in a bowl large enough to hold all the ingredients, and get the cheese, chopped herbs, and lemon zest ready, as this dish comes together quickly.

Add the fresh pasta to the boiling water and cook until it is tender but still chewy, 2 to 3 minutes (if using store-bought pasta, follow package instructions). Drain immediately, do not rinse, and add the pasta to the bowl with the butter. Toss to coat the pasta, and then add the cooked asparagus, cheese, and herbs to the hot pasta. Toss and add salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the pasta to plates. Using a microplane, or the small holes of a cheese grater, grate lemon zest over each serving and top with a few grindings of fresh pepper. Serve immediately.

Note: What To Do with Whey
Don’t dump it down the drain! It provides nourishment for indoor and outdoor plants, and has many culinary uses besides. It can be used to cook porridges or grains for salads, in smoothies, as a broth for soup or beans, or you can drink it over ice.

Curried Cauliflower Soup with Annabelle’s Mustard Seed Oil and Yogurt

Whether roasted, braised, sautéed, gratinéed, or simmered gently into a soup, cauliflower is one of my favorite winter vegetables. I crave it for comfort…its soothing sweetness and versatility. It is a vegetable that takes very well to Indian spices, so when I’m craving that flavor profile, I usually braise it with whole spices that I’ve toasted and ground and serve it as a side dish.

One recent cold night I wanted soup. And I wanted Indian spices. Plus I had some of Annabelle Lenderick’s hand-harvested mustard seeds that she’d given me last summer. I wanted to do something special with them and I didn’t need any more homemade mustard in the house. I decided to try infusing them into oil.

The flavor result wasn’t earth shattering, but instead rather subtle. Toasted in oil as described below, the seeds will turn brown and pop energetically. Strain the oil and drizzle it over the soup. You’ll notice a nutty, warm flavor spreading over your tongue as you sample the soup.

Serves 4

1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (depending on its level of heat and your preference)
3 tablespoons olive oil or ghee
1/2 of a large yellow onion, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 1/2 pounds cauliflower (1 medium to large head)
5 cups chicken or vegetable broth
Salt and freshly ground fresh pepper
4 tablespoons vegetable oil for high heat cooking
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
Fresh lemon juice (optional)
Plain yogurt for serving
Cilantro leaves for serving

In a small, dry skillet, over medium heat, toast the cumin and coriander seeds, shaking the pan often, for 3 to 5 minutes, or until beginning to brown and become fragrant. Remove from pan and cool. In a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle, grind the seeds finely. Stir in the turmeric and cayenne and set aside.

In a large soup pot over medium heat, warm the olive oil or ghee. Add the onion and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and fragrant (about 10 minutes). Add the garlic and cook 2 to 3 minutes. Add the spice mixture and cook, stirring for an additional 2 to 3 minutes, until fragrant. Add the cauliflower and the broth along with a few pinches of salt and some pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, and then lower heat, cover partially and simmer until the cauliflower is soft, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the mustard seed oil. In a small skillet, over medium –low heat, warm the vegetable oil with the mustard seeds for 4 to 5 minutes. They will brown and begin to pop. Don’t let them burn. Cool and let sit to infuse the oil and then strain before using.

Cool the cooked soup and then puree until smooth. Return to the pot and heat slowly. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper. If you find the soup needs a little acid, add a squeeze or two of lemon juice to taste.

Serve with a drizzle each of yogurt and mustard oil along with a few leaves of fresh cilantro.

Mexico 3: The final days in Cuernavaca

My final week was filled with great eats and as many market trips as I could fit in between classes. I really didn't want to leave and need to figure out a way to go back and stay for an extended period of time.

On a coincidentally sad note, during that final week, I was reading Mountains upon Mountains, the book about Dr. Paul Farmer's work in Haiti. When I got to the airport the afternoon of Jan. 13th and saw the news about the earthquake, I was utterly stricken after reading in such detail the incredible harshness of everyday life for the majority of people in Haiti. At the same time, my grammar lessons at the school, Cetlalic were accompanied by lessons on the social, political and economic reality for the people in Mexico. Things aren't so easy there either.

As conduct my daily life here in the US, no matter how hard any day or situation might become, I try to remember how incredibly privledged I am to always have enough to eat, a roof over my head, and the means to be a "budget traveler" in countries less well off than ours. Enjoy this last installment of photos and I promise we'll be back to our regularly scheduled recipe posts soon!

The picture at the top of this post is a rosca de reyes and it's for the special celebration called "the feast of the three kings". (incidentally, my people celebrate Jan 6th as "Serbian Christmas) This is the day in Mexico that the children go crazy for--the day they wake up at 6 am to recieve their gifts! The traditional food is this cake and hot chocolate. 

Inside the cake are 4 or 5 little white plastic babies. The people who get the babies in their piece of cake have to have a party on February 2nd, for which they provide tamales and atole. Unfortunately, none of the parties were close enough for me to attend. Fortunately I didn't get a baby because I was in the middle of moving on February 2nd and it would have been hard to have a party!

the child unswaddled.

Oh yeah, it tasted good too.

All the bakeries have roscas displayed all day and the next and people everywhere are carrying big boxes of roscas home to eat. You've got to love a bakery called "the happy turtle"

tamarind pods in the market

chilis and cheerios

Maize, maize, maize!

Crazy potatoes!

Caldo de pollo eaten en casa. I can't get enough of this.

The best enchiladas ever. Chicken, queso, crema, red rice and fried plantains!

Facing down your meat. Sorry vegans and vegetarians. 

Another crazy market sighting.

The preferred way to eat corn on the street in Cuernavaca is cut off the cob, and spooned piping hot into a cup with mayonnaise, lime, chili, and cheese. Yum.

Super cool pro-Choice poster in the bathroom at a bar. I took this photo from the toilet!

Mexico 2: Taxco

When I was in Mexico in January, I stayed in Cuernavaca pretty much the whole time studying Spanish during the week. The weekends were mostly free for day trips and wandering around the city. One day I took a bus with another student and amiga to Taxco, a town in the mountains in the Northern part of the state of Guerrero. Taxco has been a silver mining area for many years and is known for its plethora of shops selling silver jewelry. Silver is fine, but in my opinion, there are many other reasons to go to Taxco.

 

It is stunningly beautiful, the people are friendly, there are very very old and interesting churches nestled among white-washed buildings with red tile roofs. artisans doing interesting work that I hadn't seen elsewhere in Mexico, and even some of the tourist restaurants serve tasty food. 

The sun was shining that day and it was warm and breezy. A welcome change from the chill that descended over Cuernavaca about 4 days into my stay. We wandered, took photos, ate, and had a dreamy day that I'll never forget. The market in Taxco is particularly interesting as it starts in the street across from the bus station and ascends up up and up into the clouds, winding around indoors and out and,like many markets in Mexico, is a completely wonderful and slightly overwhelming maze. 

 

Artisans
 

Bean and seed pod art.

Meat drying in the market

Laundry drying

Beloved Virgin de Guadalupe

Even the walls are pretty!

An interesting dish with tortilla strips, green sauce, a firm cheese, cilantro, and sesame seeds.

Great enfrioladas (tortillas stuffed with chicken in a bean sauce with crema and queso)

The Golden Hour in Taxco

Walking to the bus, nearly sunset. So sad to leave.

Comida and Markets in Cuernavaca Mexico

I'm finally getting around to posting some of my food photos from my trip to Cuernavaca. I lived with a family there for two weeks while I studied Spanish at a wonderful school called Cetlalic How's my Spanish now? Let's just say it's better but I'm more fluent in the food of Mexico than in the language.

The entire experience was amazing. The school has a unique method of teaching grammar in a cultural, political, and social context. The teachers are engaging and super smart. The family I lived with was warm and kind and Dona Mari welcomed me into her kitchen with open arms, let me help her and take photos and answered so many questions. She said she doesn't like to cook, but I don't believe her because it's not possible to make such wonderful food for a perfect stranger unless you like doing it.

The home was comfortable and the people in the city of Cuernavaca are inviting and helpful. Cuernavaca also has a wonderful market that is large, lively, and full of delicious things to eat. I think I'll go back. I have family and friends in Mexico now. So much better than being a tourist!

Here's the first installment of photos and captions. Enjoy!

 

A typical cena (around 3-4pm) after school. Soup, nopale salad, salsa, agua de jamaica, freshly made tortillas, some kind of meat (not pictured).

Freshly made gorditas in the market. Stuffed with beans, freshly fried and then topped with fiery green salsa, crema and delicious cheese. Craving these now!

Prepping the fruit for the punche, a fruit cocktail/punch to enjoy with the traditional New Years Eve Posole.

The punche on the stove cooking. Many fruits as well as fresh sugar cane and tamarind.

 

Tacos dorados to serve with the posole. Half are stuffed with potatoes and green chile and the other half with requeson (a type of cheese).

Here is the New Years meal. Posole blanco, (traditional accompaniments oregano, lime, chile, avocado) punche, tacos dorados, enjoyed at 11pm before fireworks. 

 

These are the fireworks. It's a structure with a bull in front carried by a runner. Fireworks fly off in every crazy direction and the people in the streets run with the bulls. It's nuts.

 

Another market photo

A really cool prehispanic cooking vessel in the excellent museum at the ruins at Xochicalco, an important site outside of Cuernavaca.

Gorgeous banana blossom on the tree at the school.

That's it for now. Look for another installment of Markets and Comida in Cuernavaca soon!