Part 1

Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.

Italics are represented thus _italic_.

Many headings are decorated with small outlines of chiles. These are indicated by [illustration].

One Hundred & One MEXICAN DISHES

COMPILED BY MAY E. SOUTHWORTH

PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY PUBLISHERS, SAN FRANCISCO

_Copyright, 1906 by_ PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY SAN FRANCISCO

Second Printing, 1914

CLASSIFICATION

SOUP FISH MEAT FOWL VEGETABLES MEAT DUMPLINGS DESSERTS ENCHILADAS TAMALES OLLA PODRIDA

SOUP

ALMENDRA

Wash a cupful of rice and put in a double boiler with a quart of milk and cook slowly until every grain is tender. Shell and blanch a half-pound of almonds, chop fine and then pound in a mortar; add, a few drops at a time, a half-cupful of cream, forming a smooth paste. Mix with this a tablespoonful of sugar, a little ground chile and a pint of milk and put all in with the cooked rice and simmer for a half-hour. Season with salt, and if too thick add more milk.

CALDO DE PESCADO

Chop four onions and fry in four tablespoonfuls of oil; add six tomatoes peeled and cut fine, one herb bouquet, a sprig of parsley, a glassful of white wine, four tablespoonfuls of oil, one chile pepper and four tablespoonfuls of flour. When brown add three pints of water and boil a half-hour; then add six slices of fish of almost any variety. Remove the herb bouquet, add salt, and pour over crusts of dry bread.

CHILE BISQUE

Take eight large sweet chile peppers, remove seeds and veins, boil and put the pulp through a colander; to this add a cupful of boiled rice, mashed smooth. Season highly with tabasco and salt. Beat an egg with a half-cupful of cream and add to a quart of hot milk. Put the bisque in this, let boil up once and serve immediately, pouring over toasted squares of bread.

CORDERO

Cut a pound of young lamb into small chunks and fry with a sliced onion in hot lard. When nicely browned add three peeled and sliced tomatoes and three green peppers chopped fine. Cover with two quarts of water and simmer slowly; add a cupful of green peas, one of green corn cut from the cob, a half-cupful of rice, salt and chile pepper. Work into a raw egg a teaspoonful of oil and a half-teaspoonful of vinegar; put this in the bottom of the soup-tureen and pour the soup over it.

GITANO

Into three quarts of good beef stock, put one onion, four cloves of garlic and an eighth of a pound of salt pork; to this add a cupful of beans and a pound of salt codfish which has been soaked overnight. Cook slowly, and when partly done, season with _chorizo_ (Mexican sausage) and add some potatoes peeled and cut into dice.

MEXICAN NOODLE

Use two quarts of any clear stock. For the paste, take a small cupful of grated Parmesan cheese, one of flour, and a little salt and cayenne; beat four eggs and add slowly, also a half-cupful of cream, making a rather thin batter. Have the stock boiling, and let this batter run into it through a very small but coarse sieve. It will make long strings which must boil ten minutes.

RANCHEROS

Fry a large cupful of minced vegetables, mostly onions, in a small cupful of butter. When a light brown, mix in a small cupful of flour and set the pan in the oven for the mixture to brown through without burning. Then scrape the contents of the pan into three quarts of soup stock and add two cupfuls of dry stewed tomatoes, eight cloves, half a bay-leaf and a teaspoonful of chopped chile pepper. Cook an hour, skimming the top occasionally and season well with salt.

FISH

CANGREJUELOS

Put a teaspoonful of lard in a deep porcelain saucepan and when hot add a quarter of a pound of ham, chopped fine, an onion chopped, salt and chile powder. When these are well browned, add a pint of picked shrimps and stir until hot; then put in a half-pint of washed rice, a bay-leaf, thyme and parsley. Cover and simmer with sufficient water added to cook the rice until each grain stands out alone.

CARACOLES CON PEREJIL

Soak the snails in salt water, then wash them in two or three waters. Crack the shells and throw them in boiling water with a little salt and herbs. Cook fifteen minutes, drain from the water and pick the snails from the shells. Fry some chopped onion, garlic and parsley in olive-oil and add a bay-leaf and some thyme. Dry the snails and put in this, with a seasoning of salt and pepper, and fry twenty minutes. Thicken with a little flour and at the last moment add the juice of a lemon.

LANGOSTA À LA CATALANA

Remove the lobster meat from the shell, lay it in a bowl, so as to save all the water that comes from it, and cut in quarters. Chop four large onions and a bunch of parsley, mash four cloves of garlic, and fry all together in a half-cupful of olive-oil until nearly brown. Season with salt and cayenne; add the lobster with all the juice, a cupful of washed rice and a tablespoonful of capers. Cook until the rice is done. When serving put whole pimientos on top.

PILCHERS

Take the sardines carefully from the box, skin and bone them and lay on brown wrapping paper until ready to use. Cut strips of bread a little longer and a little wider than the sardines, removing all crusts. Fry these in olive-oil a delicate brown. Lay a sardine on each piece and put in the oven until heated through. When ready to serve sprinkle each one with grated parmesan cheese and lay a thin slice of pimiento on top.

MEAT

BUEY AHUMANDO Y HUEVOS

To a cupful of chipped beef, soaked in hot water and chopped fine, add a cupful of strained tomatoes, two hard-boiled eggs cut fine, one tablespoonful of grated cheese, one grated onion, a chile pepper chopped fine and a big lump of butter. Beat all these together, break in two raw eggs and scramble in a frying-pan.

CHILE CON CARNE

Cut a pound of fresh pork into inch chunks and parboil. Soak five chiles in hot water, take out the seeds and veins, wash them well and put in a mortar (the Mexicans use the _molcajete_ and _tejolote_). Pound to a pulp, adding a little garlic, black pepper, two cloves and a cooked tomato. Fry this in hot lard; then add the meat with some of the liquid in which it was boiled and a little salt. Cover and let it cook down until rather thick.

CHONZO

Cut one pound of fresh pork and one pound of beef into small pieces. Chop two pods of garlic and add one teaspoonful of ground chile, one-third teaspoonful of ground cloves, one teaspoonful of black pepper and one of oregano. Season with salt and mix all together with a glass of port wine and fry in two teaspoonfuls of olive-oil. When ready to serve break in two whole eggs and scramble together.

CHULETAS DE TERNERO

Trim veal cutlets and season with pepper and salt; roll them in flour and lay them in a frying-pan in which six onions chopped fine have already been placed in hot lard. Cover the pan tightly and let the cutlets fry, turning to cook the other side; add a tablespoonful of vinegar, a little thyme, a bay-leaf, a clove of garlic and some comino seed or chopped parsley. When the cutlets are well browned, cover them with boiling water and move the pan to the back of the stove and let them simmer in this spicy bath for two hours. Serve with a garnish of fresh, crisp, cold radishes.

ESTOFADO

Heat a tablespoonful of drippings in a saucepan and put into it two whole green peppers, one onion sliced, one clove of minced garlic, one tablespoonful of vinegar, two tomatoes peeled and sliced, one-half cupful of raisins and olives mixed, and a pinch of thyme. Add two pounds of round steak cut small, cover closely and stew slowly and thoroughly. When serving, put squares of toast on the platter and pour this over.

GUISO

Cut a round-steak into small pieces and put into a frying-pan with a tablespoonful of hot drippings, four tablespoonfuls of rice, a cupful of boiling water and a sliced onion. Cover closely and cook slowly until tender. Remove the seeds and veins from four Mexican peppers, cover with a half-pint of boiling water and let stand until cool; squeeze them from the water with the hand, getting out all the pulp. Add salt and a little flour to thicken. Pour this over the cooked meat, let boil for a moment and serve very hot.

JAMON CON PIMIENTOS

Cut a pound of ham into small chunks; add to this a pound of sausage meat, two onions and two tomatoes sliced, a sprig of parsley or a few comino seeds and some small bits of dried chile pepper. Fry these together in a little butter or drippings and then add a pint of boiling water. Stir in a pound of soaked rice, cover and set where it will cook slowly without stirring. Salt to taste and serve hot.

LENGUA DE BUEY CONCIDA

Dissolve one-half cupful of salt in enough boiling water to cover a beef's tongue and cook until just done. When cool remove the skin and slice thin. Take a dozen _chiles anchos_ or large dry chiles, cut them the long way, remove all seeds, veins and the stem end; drop the skins into boiling water with one-half cupful of salt, press them under the water and keep at boiling heat two hours. Skim into a chopping-tray, chop fine and press through a sieve. Add a teaspoonful of powdered summer savory, two of finely chopped onion, salt and a half-cupful of olive-oil. Squeeze the juice of two lemons into a cup and fill it up with vinegar. Add this to the sauce by spoonfuls and a bottle of olives stoned and cut fine. Heat and pour over the tongue as it is served.

LOMA DE VACA

Take a quarter of a pound of suet, slice thin and fry until thoroughly melted. Put a sliced onion in this and fry until brown; then put in a four-pound roast of beef and brown on all sides. Take the juice of a large tomato, the pulp of a chile pepper, two whole cloves, one teaspoonful of vinegar, one of sugar, salt, and a dash of pepper, and put in the pot with the meat. Add a little water, just enough to keep from scorching, cover tightly, set on the back of the stove and cook slowly until tender. Serve with brown gravy.

PATITAS CON MANI

Scrape, singe and wash the pigs' feet thoroughly clean. Place in a kettle with plenty of water to which a little vinegar has been added and boil until tender. Peel, quarter and parboil some potatoes and have a cupful of roasted peanuts, half of which are whole and half ground. Remove and dry the trotters and fry with the potatoes and peanuts in hot olive-oil. Season with allspice and salt. Stir constantly so as to brown on all sides, cooking about ten minutes.

PUERCO EN ESTOFADO

Sauter in a frying-pan a pound of young pork cut small; add the livers and gizzards of two chickens, an ounce of green root-ginger and three stalks of celery, all cut into small pieces. Then add, a little at a time, a mixture of four tablespoonfuls of olive-oil, one of wine-vinegar, one of Worcestershire sauce, a dash of powdered cloves, salt and pepper. Add a half-cupful of boiling water and cook until nearly done; then put in a cupful of bean-sprouts and one of small mushrooms.

PULCHERO GRUESO

Cut up three pounds of beef, one pig's foot, a half-pound of ham, the giblets of a fowl and a chile pepper and simmer together for two hours; add a slice of pumpkin, free from seeds, half of a small cabbage, a large carrot, a bunch of herbs, two large onions and some broken macaroni. Cook an hour longer, then put in six small sausages and boil until they are done. Strain, thicken the gravy and serve meat and vegetables on separate dishes.

TIA JUANA

Chop a clove of garlic very fine, peel and slice a medium-sized onion and fry both with a pound of sausage meat made into balls. When it begins to brown add a pint of tomatoes and one chile. Meantime scald a pound of tripe, scrape it with the back of a knife and cut into strips about two inches wide and five long. Roll each and tie with a thread; brown quickly in butter, dredging with a little flour. Remove to a hot platter, making a circle of the rolls of tripe. Lift the sausage balls from the sauce and heap in the center. Strain the sauce, season with salt, reheat and pour over all.

TRIPE SPANISH

Boil the tripe until tender and cut into narrow strips. Brown a sliced onion, a clove of garlic and half a chile pepper chopped fine in two tablespoonfuls of olive-oil. Thicken with a little flour, season with salt and add a peeled tomato cut fine and a pinch of smoked Spanish sausage. Put the tripe in this sauce and cook fifteen minutes, adding a little water if necessary.

FOWL

À LA MODA

Boil a well-cleaned fowl slowly until tender. When cold, cut from the bones in small pieces and to these add a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, an onion and a pepper chopped fine; season with salt, chile powder and a little Spanish sausage. Line a mold with cooked macaroni, pour in the chicken, cover lightly and steam for an hour. Serve with tomato sauce.

CHILE CHICKEN

Boil a chicken until tender. When cold, cut into small pieces. Wash and dry a cupful of rice, put in hot olive-oil and fry for a few moments; add a peeled tomato, an onion cut fine, salt and chile peppers or powder. Put in the chicken and some of the broth, and cook until the rice is tender.

GALLINA CON GARBANZOS

Put the giblets of a chicken with a sliced onion, a little parsley and grated lemon-peel in a frying-pan with fresh lard or olive-oil, and fry slowly. Cut up a chicken, slice some ham or bacon, put these in with the giblets and fry brown. In a separate stew-pan put a little of the strained gravy, salt, chile pepper, a teaspoonful of olive-oil and one of tarragon vinegar. Add the browned fowl, also the giblets chopped fine, some chopped onion and parsley; last, put in a quart of green peas and cook until the peas are done. Serve with the peas in the center and the chicken piled about.

GANSO EN ACEITUNAS

Boil a goose until well done in water to which has been added two cloves of garlic and three chile peppers. Lift from the water, dry, and put it immediately in a pan of sizzling-hot bacon for a few minutes, turning it constantly so that every part is covered with the hot grease; add a half-pound of coarsely cut olives to the gravy before serving.

MEXICAN TURKEY

Soak fifteen _chiles anchos_ or the broad dried peppers, without roasting, in a pint of water; then grind with two onions and the boiled giblets of the fowl; fry all in oil, adding a large pinch of _oregano_ (wild marjoram), salt and a little vinegar. Stuff the turkey with whole onions and boil until about half cooked. Remove, wipe dry and put in a pan to roast. Add the liquor in which it was boiled to chile sauce and pour half of it over the turkey. After it has roasted for half an hour, turn, and pour over it the remaining sauce and cook until tender, basting often with the sauce in the pan.

MOLE DE GUAJOLOTE

Boil a turkey, save the broth, and cut into pieces as for serving. Remove all the seeds and veins from a pound of dry chile peppers, a pound of broad chiles and one of black chiles. Throw away the veins but fry the seeds with peanuts, almonds, walnuts, a piece of cinnamon, a pinch of comino seed and a piece of chocolate the size of a walnut. Fry the peppers until brown and then grind with the seeds to a smooth paste; fry all together again, then mix with the turkey broth. Put the pieces of turkey in a deep pan with a small piece of lean pork, pour the dressing over and bake an hour. When dished for serving sprinkle anjonjoli seeds over the top.

POLLO GUISADO

Steam two tender spring chickens for twenty minutes and then cut into pieces as for fricassee. Strain a can of tomatoes and mix with a can of corn and add a pepper chopped fine and a little parsley. Season with paprika, salt, cayenne, celery-salt and black pepper. Put the pieces of chicken in this and thicken with cracker-crumbs. Turn into an earthen baking-dish, put big lumps of butter over the top and bake for half an hour.

POLLUELO EN ESTOFADO

Quarter a young chicken and fry in plenty of olive-oil with half a cupful of finely chopped onion and diced raw potato mixed. Let this all fry until the fowl is white; add a little fine parsley and chopped green pepper and a little hot water. Season with salt and pepper and simmer over a slow fire until thoroughly cooked.

VEGETABLES

ARROZ EN EL HORNO

Take a pint of any very strong vegetable stock and mix with it four tablespoonfuls of big whole rice; add a tablespoonful of chopped green pepper, a peeled tomato, an onion finely shredded, a big lump of butter, salt and paprika. Put all in a small stone jar, cover with a loose lid and bake in a slow oven for two hours, without stirring.

BEANS MEXICAN

Soak two cupfuls of pink beans in six of water overnight; in the morning add a small onion and boil gently until soft; take out the onion and set the beans to drain. Put a large tablespoonful of fresh lard in a skillet and when sizzling-hot add the drained beans. Mix beans and lard thoroughly until each bean seems to have a coating of the fat and begins to burst. Add a cupful of the liquid in which the beans were boiled and gently crush a few of the beans with the spoon to thicken the gravy. Add the remainder of the bean liquor and a chopped chile pepper and simmer until the beans are quite dry.

CHILE REINAS

Cut chile peppers lengthwise down the sides, remove the seeds and carefully roast in hot ashes, after which the outer skin can easily be wiped off. Grate dry cheese and stuff the peppers full of this and press the two sides together and fasten. According to the number of peppers being prepared, take enough eggs for a liberal dressing; beat the whites and yolks separately to a light froth and then mix them. Have ready a frying-pan with sufficient boiling lard to cover the peppers. Dip each pod into the frothy egg for a moment, then drop into the boiling lard, pouring over each more of the egg while the frying peppers are turned. Serve with a chile sauce to which has been added a few chopped green walnut meats.

CIDRACAYOTE

Take young summer squash, wash and remove stem and flower and cut into dice. Put in a stew-pan a tablespoonful of pure lard and when hot add a half-teaspoonful of finely minced onion; stir about and then put in the squash, salt and black pepper. Fry for ten minutes, stirring often, then add tender sweet corn fresh from the cob, in proportion of a half-cupful of corn to a full pint of squash. Cook until sufficiently soft to mash.

EJOTES CON VINO

Cook string-beans until tender in boiling salted water. Fry a little chopped onion and green pepper in oil until brown; add the beans and some white wine with a seasoning of salt and pepper.

ESTILO SECO

Boil a pint of pink beans until very tender in plenty of water, adding hot water as it boils away. Put in a frying-pan a heaping tablespoonful of lard and butter mixed; strain the hot beans from the pot and put into the boiling fat; add a sliced onion and seasoning of salt and red pepper. Stir well and allow to brown slightly. Ten minutes before taking from the frying-pan add seven tablespoonfuls of grated American cheese. Serve with thin slices of hot buttered toast and sliced cucumbers with oil and vinegar.

ENTRADAS

Make a sauce of a quarter of a cupful of olive-oil and two tablespoonfuls of butter heated together; in this fry two green onions, a bunch of parsley, a little celery, a leek, a little garlic, and green peppers, all chopped fine. Season with salt and a tablespoonful of the Spanish sausage. After all is well cooked down, add a half-cupful of good stock. Boil some macaroni until tender and then plunge in cold water to blanch. Place orderly on a wide platter, strain the hot sauce over it and cover the top with grated Edam cheese.

FRIJOLES

In the bottom of a bean-jar put a whole onion with a clove stuck in it, three whole cloves of garlic, four pieces of mustard pickle and three tablespoonfuls of the mustard vinegar. Over this put a layer of uncooked red beans and a piece of salt pork, then more beans; over all a tablespoonful of sugar. Fill with hot water and bake slowly all day. Renew with hot water from time to time.

FRIJOLES CON QUESO

Boil two cupfuls of red beans until soft; drain and put in a skillet with a tablespoonful of hot lard and fry, pressing a few to thicken the gravy. Add a cupful of hot water and when bubbling put in a cupful of grated cheese. Season with salt and chile sauce.

FUENTE ITALIANO

Boil spaghetti until tender, strain and put into a deep baking-dish. Chop an onion and a clove of garlic fine and add, with three peeled, sliced tomatoes. Dilute chile powder to taste in a little water and pour over all. Cover the top with grated cheese and put in the oven to brown.

GREEN CHILES

Boil two pounds of meat until tender and chop fine; add a large ripe peeled tomato, two sliced onions, two slices of bread chopped fine, raisins, olives, salt and a tablespoonful of vinegar. Fry all these together in olive-oil and season with a little sugar and pepper. Remove the stems and seeds from six green chile peppers and stuff them with this dressing. Dip each chile in a rather stiff batter and fry in deep drippings.

HABAS ESPAÑA

Soak one and one-half cupfuls of Spanish beans overnight; in the morning lift into boiling water and boil three hours, adding boiling water as it boils away. Drain from the water and add a quarter of a pound of bacon and two chile peppers. Put a half-cupful of olive-oil in a large frying-pan, add six large onions and three cloves of garlic sliced fine, and fry gently to a light brown; add two bay-leaves, a can of tomatoes, salt and black pepper, and simmer an hour, stirring frequently. Then put in the beans and boil for three hours, adding some of the water in which the beans were boiled, if too thick.

MACARRONES