Part 2

Boil macaroni in salted water, drain and blanch by pouring cold water over it. Melt three tablespoonfuls of butter and add two tablespoonfuls of chopped green peppers and one of finely chopped onion. Cook five minutes and then pour in gradually a small cupful of brown stock and one of stewed and strained tomatoes. Season with salt and paprika. Reheat macaroni in this sauce and serve immediately.

MAÑANA-LAND

Fry in a tablespoonful of olive-oil a large sliced onion and eight chopped green peppers; to this add a cupful of uncooked rice and stir constantly until the rice is nicely browned; then put in a half-can of tomatoes and fill up the skillet with rich soup stock and cook slowly, without stirring, for an hour.

PAPAS RELLENAS

Chop some cold cooked beef and mix with it raisins, chopped hard-boiled eggs, stoned ripe olives and a pinch of ground cloves. Moisten with port wine and make into little cones. Have ready some highly seasoned mashed potatoes, beaten until light. Cover the cones with this and fry in hot oil like doughnuts till a golden brown.

PIMIENTOS

Chop some cold cooked beef very fine and add one-half the amount in each, of finely chopped raisins and chopped walnut meats. Prepare the peppers for ordinary stuffing, only scrape rather thinner. Fill with the mixture, dip in thin egg batter and fry brown. Serve with chile sauce.

PLATO FUERTE

Select even-sized chile peppers and cut out the stems, seeds and cores. Make a stuffing of boned and skinned sardines mixed with finely chopped cheese, blended together with beaten egg. Stuff the peppers with this, dip in thick batter and fry in deep fat. When thoroughly cooked, drain on brown paper and serve very hot.

RELLENOS

Grind fine a pound of well-cooked veal and add to it a Spanish sausage (_chorizo_), a half-cupful, each, of seedless raisins and blanched almonds. Moisten this with the veal stock and season with salt. Broil sweet Mexican green peppers, pull off the skin and stuff with this. Dip the peppers in a thin batter of egg and flour and fry in hot olive-oil. Serve with tomato sauce.

RELLENOS DE QUESO DE GRUYÈRE

Put six chile peppers in the oven for a few moments and then wipe off the outer skin. Cut off the tops and carefully remove seeds and veins. Make a stuffing of strips of Swiss cheese, flavored with chopped onion, parsley and a few drops of lemon-juice. Fill the peppers, not very full, with this. Beat four eggs, whites and yolks separately, put together and thicken with a teaspoonful of flour. Dip the chiles in this batter and fry in hot olive-oil until brown. Serve with tomato sauce.

STUFFED CHILES

Take a dozen large green chile peppers and lay them on the top of the stove until roasted slightly on all sides; remove and wrap in a cloth for a few minutes, when they can be easily peeled. Prepare the stuffing by chopping a half-pound of cheese very fine and adding a cupful of fine bread-crumbs, an onion chopped fine, a big lump of butter, salt and pepper. Beat the whites of three eggs to a froth and add two tablespoonfuls of milk and flour enough to make a thin batter. Fill the chiles with the stuffing, dip each one in the batter and fry in deep, hot olive-oil. Serve with tomato sauce.

SUCULENTO

Fry a half-pound of chopped salt pork with a sliced onion and six green peppers cut small. When brown add a can of corn and four small summer squashes sliced. Cover with milk and cook slowly two hours, without stirring.

MEAT DUMPLINGS

ALBONDIGAS

Take equal parts of fresh pork and beef, chop fine, add salt, a piece of soaked bread, one egg well beaten, and one teaspoonful of chile powder. Mix thoroughly and make into small balls, putting into each a piece of hard-boiled egg. In a tablespoonful of hot lard put five peeled and crushed tomatoes, a little chopped onion, salt and chile powder; add one cupful of broth and let boil a few moments; then put in the meat balls and boil until the meat is thoroughly cooked.

ALBONDIGUILLAS

To a pound of raw chopped beef add an onion finely chopped, a little garlic, parsley, marjoram, salt, a half-cupful of peeled and sliced tomato and a teaspoonful of cider-vinegar. Soak two slices of bread in broth, squeeze dry and add a beaten egg. Mix all well together and drop with a spoon into a saucepan of boiling broth and cook three-quarters of an hour.

ARTIFICIAL TURTLE

Beat together until smooth a half-pound, each, of chopped fat and lean veal; add three boned anchovies and season with mace, red pepper, salt, shredded parsley, juice of one lemon and two teaspoonfuls of Madeira wine. Mix all together and make into little balls; dust with flour and stew for a half-hour.

BUÑELOS

One and a half pounds veal cooked tender and put through a meat-grinder. To three cups of the veal add one of blanched almonds, one of whole raisins, seeded, and a teaspoonful of Mexican sausage. Stew all together with a little of the veal broth. When cold form into little cakes and fry in hot olive-oil. Pour over them thickened tomato sauce, seasoned with a little cinnamon and sugar.

HUEVOS DE CARNE

Put through a coarse meat-grinder an equal amount of fresh pork and beef; add one-third as much bread as meat, soaked in water and squeezed dry, an onion and a chile pepper chopped fine. Season with salt and put in a pan with a beaten egg and mix thoroughly. Roll into balls the size of eggs. Take a quart of strained tomatoes, add the pulp of a chile pepper and an onion chopped fine. Simmer until the onion is cooked, season with salt and put in the meat-eggs and boil gently an hour. Lift them out carefully to a hot platter, thicken the sauce with a little flour, and pour over.

DESSERTS

CAMOTE Y PIÑA

Boil a pound of sugar to the candy degree, remove from the fire and add a pound of sweet potatoes, boiled and pressed through a sieve. Return to the fire and cook until thick, stirring constantly; then add half a pineapple grated and cook a few minutes more. Serve in sherbet glasses.

DULCE

Pick the stems from each raisin and wash in boiling red wine; then put them in an infusion of cognac, Marsala wine and slices of fresh lemon for three days. Remove and heap them in bunches about the size of large goose-eggs and wrap each bunch in large fig leaves, layer upon layer, and bake for a half-hour in a light oven. When serving turn the leaves back and send to the table hot.

MANTECADO

Melt a cupful of granulated sugar in a smooth saucepan; add a cupful of English walnut meats and pour into a shallow buttered pan to harden. When cold grate or chop fine. Crumble twelve macaroons fine and toast in the oven a few moments. Make a custard of the yolks of two eggs, a fourth of a cupful of sugar and a cupful of milk, then pour over the stiffly beaten whites of two eggs and let cool. To a pint of cream add a third of a cupful of sugar and beat until thoroughly mixed, add the custard and flavor with maraschino, then freeze. When half frozen add the macaroon-crumbs and half of the grated walnut mixture and finish freezing. Sprinkle the remaining grated walnuts over cream at serving time.

POSTRE DE MANZANAS

Take a goodly portion of Roquefort cheese and about one-third as much butter and rub them together until they are thoroughly mixed, then add about a dessert-spoonful of French cognac or just enough to moisten the mixture well. Peel, core and slice the round way, rather thick, russet apples, and over each slice spread the cheese. Serve with black coffee.

REALENGO

Rub three-quarters of a cupful of fresh fruit through a sieve; heat and sweeten. Beat the whites of three eggs until stiff; add gradually the hot fruit pulp, beating continually; turn into a buttered mold, set in a pan of hot water and bake in a slow oven until firm. Remove and cover the top with whipped cream, flavored with sugar and wine and decorated with preserved cherries, angelica or citron.

TORTO FRUTAS

Line the sides of a baking-dish with a light puff-paste; cover the bottom with sliced pineapple; next, a layer of peeled sliced oranges, then sliced bananas and then a few thin slices of lemon. Sift a most generous supply of sugar between each layer. Repeat the layers until the dish is full and cover the top layer with chopped nuts. Lay over the top narrow strips of the pastry and bake slowly for an hour or more.

ENCHILADAS

Enchiladas are made of tortillas sprinkled with cheese, onion, olives, etc. They are adorned with lettuce leaves and radishes, but are always covered with hot chile sauce.

Tortillas are the national staple article of food, and are made of Indian corn ground on the metate, mixed with a little water and cooked on a flat surface over hot coals.

SAUCES FOR ENCHILADAS

CHILE

Cut open two chiles and take out all the seeds and thick yellow veins; put them on the back of the stove in cold water enough to cover them and let soak for two hours. Pour off this water and cover again with fresh water and boil fifteen minutes. Drain in a colander and save the water in which they were last boiled. When cold enough to handle, take a knife, scrape off all the pulp from the skin, and put in the water in which they were boiled and mix thoroughly. Fry two onions chopped fine in olive-oil to a delicate brown; add a teaspoonful of flour and allow that to brown also. Stir in the chile mixture, season with salt and let all thicken together.

COLD COLORADO

Cook for fifteen minutes a half-pound of large Mexican sweet red peppers, after removing the seeds of all but two or three. Take off the skin, put the pulp through a sieve and add one and a half tablespoonfuls of the Mexican sausage, salt and a little of the water in which the peppers were boiled. Bottle tightly and it will keep about three weeks in a cool place.

MEXICAN CHILE

Toast ten _chiles anchos_ (the dried pepper in the broad shape) and ten _chiles posillos_ (the dried pepper in the thin shape), take out the veins and seeds and soak them in a quart of boiling water. Pass through a sieve twice, getting out all the pulp, and fry this chile liquor in two tablespoonfuls of boiling lard, which has been thickened with a tablespoonful of browned flour. While boiling add salt, a pinch of Mexican sausage, a pinch of sugar, a teaspoonful of cider-vinegar and a tablespoonful of oil. Cook all together in the lard for fifteen minutes.

SALSA NUEZ

Scald and peel two tomatoes; add a minced onion and a few pepper seeds, season with salt and stew until thick. Strain and add a few chopped green walnut meats. Reheat and serve hot. This sauce is also used with fried peppers.

TOMATO

Boil two pounds of tomatoes in a very little water and then rub them through a coarse sieve. Grind fine a half-pound of raisins, a quarter of a pound of blanched almonds, an ounce of garlic, an ounce of green ginger and a half-ounce of dried chiles; add these to the strained tomatoes with an ounce of salt, a half-pound of sugar and a pint of vinegar. Boil all together until thick.

TORTILLAS

HECHO EN CASA

Take three cupfuls of sifted flour, a tablespoonful of lard, a level teaspoonful of salt and enough water to make it like pastry dough. Roll very thin and cut the size of a dessert plate. Have ready in a large frying-pan some hot lard, enough to float the tortillas, but not so hot as to brown them. Put in the tortillas, one at a time, and when they begin to blister they are done. This quantity will make about two dozen.

TORTILLAS DE PATÁTAS

Work a large cold boiled potato with a big teaspoonful of lard and a teaspoonful of salt into a pint of flour and add water until about the consistency of bread dough. Knead thoroughly and divide into chunks about the size of an egg and roll very thin. Brown very quickly on a smooth hot stove, turning often. When thoroughly cooked, place between a cloth and keep covered in this way until ready to use.

ENCHILADAS

AMERICANO

Cut six large red chile peppers in halves, remove the seeds and veins and cook in boiling water fifteen minutes, then press through a colander. The sauce should be thick and smooth. Chop the dark meat of a cold cooked chicken, season with salt and add two tablespoonfuls of the pepper pulp. Beat two eggs without separating, very light, and add a cupful of milk. Mix a half-cupful of corn-meal with a cupful of flour and a little salt; pour the egg and milk in this, making a thin batter. Put a little olive-oil in a frying-pan, and when boiling hot turn in enough batter to make a thin cake about six inches in diameter. Shake the pan until the mixture is set, then put two tablespoonfuls of the chicken mixture on one side of the cake, roll with a knife and remove to the serving-dish. When all are made pour over the remaining chile sauce and sprinkle the whole with grated Parmesan cheese.

DOMESTICO

Have ready two cupfuls of cold cooked chicken cut into small bits, over which pour the juice of a lemon and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Also chop two onions very fine and three hard-boiled eggs; grate a pound of good cheese, wash a large cupful of raisins and dry them; have three dozen green or ripe olives handy and the chile sauce piping hot. Dip the tortillas in the hot sauce, place on a large platter and on one-half of it put a little of the onion, egg, chicken, cheese, two raisins, one olive, and lastly a spoonful of the chile sauce. Fold over the other half and roll slightly. When they are all finished, sprinkle cheese over all and pour over what chile sauce is left.

MEXICAN

Boil eight large Mexican peppers until tender; remove skin and seeds and put the pulp through a sieve. Into two tablespoonfuls of smoking hot olive-oil put two sections of garlic, a teaspoonful of fine marjoram and salt; add the pepper-pulp and cook slowly. Chop two onions very fine, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with a little marjoram and let stand in a very little vinegar. Grate a pound of Edam cheese. Strain the sauce and return to the stove; dip a tortilla in the sauce, place on a plate and spread it with a teaspoonful, each, of the drained onion and the cheese; add two olives, two large seedless raisins and a tablespoonful of the chile. Roll the tortilla and sprinkle each with onion and cheese. After all are made, pour over the remaining chile and garnish with olives.

NATIVO

Buy a dozen tortillas and put on a tin in the oven to keep warm. Remove veins and seeds from a half-dozen chile peppers and boil them with a small onion and a clove of garlic until all are soft. Press through a colander, with the water in which they were boiled and return the sauce to the stove to keep hot. Tear three heads of lettuce into bits, cover with a French dressing and mix with it a cupful of chopped olives and six hard-boiled eggs, chopped. Drop each tortilla in hot lard for a minute, then in the sauce; place on a hot platter and put a big spoonful of the salad mixture in the center. Sprinkle generously with grated cheese and fold over one side, and roll. When all are ready pour over the remaining sauce and serve hot.

QUESADILLAS

Make thin corn-meal pancakes six inches across. Dip one in hot chile sauce, lay on a plate and cover with raw onion chopped fine, grated cheese and stoned olives cut in half. Lay on this six other pancakes, each dipped in the chile sauce and covered with the onion, cheese and olives. Pour the remaining sauce over the top and set in a hot oven for a few minutes. Serve hot, cutting like layer-cake.

TAMALES

Tamales are a mixture of meat or fowl made hot with chiles and wrapped in corn-husks. In preparing the dough or _nixtamal_, unless scalded meal is used for a substitute, it is necessary to prepare the shelled corn with lime-water. The Mexicans grind the corn prepared in this way, on the metate, and instead of a mortar use the _molcajete_ and _lejolote_.

To prepare the corn, cover it with water, add the lime-water and boil until the husks slip off easily between the fingers, then wash in cold water until perfectly white. The lime-water is made by adding an ounce of common lime to a quart of water; stir well and let settle; when clear, drain off the water for use. One quart of lime-water prepared in this way will do for a pound of corn. For the wrapping, cut off the inside leaves of the corn-husks about an inch from the stalk end and boil in clear water until perfectly clean. Tear a few in narrow strips to use for tying the ends; dry the rest and rub them over with a cloth dipped in hot lard.

FARSANTA

Use equal quantities of cold boiled chicken and veal, and half as much ham, all chopped. Mix together and moisten with good gravy. Season with salt, cayenne and a little chopped parsley. Make a dough by pouring a cupful of boiling water on a quart of fine, fresh corn-meal; work in a big lump of butter and add water until like biscuit dough. Have ready, as directed, a pile of the soft inner leaves or husks of green corn. Take a lump of dough about the size of an egg; pat it out flat, put a tablespoonful of the meat on it and roll for the inner husk. Then put on the outer husks with a thin piece of dough in each. Tie the ends and boil in water containing a few red peppers and a clove of garlic.

GENUINO

Boil three quarts of whole corn in ash lye until the hulls come off; soak in clear water until the lye is all out, then grind. Remove the seeds and veins from six chile peppers, boil soft and then put through a colander to separate from the skin. Boil a chicken tender and set aside half of the well-seasoned broth; the rest, with the chicken, thicken with part of the ground corn and add the pepper-pulp and three tablespoonfuls of fine marjoram. For the batter, take the remainder of the broth and ground corn and mix into it a tablespoonful of olive-oil; season with salt and make the dough just thick enough to spread. These proportions will make fifteen tamales.

HACIENDA

Grind two quarts of hulled corn through a meat-chopper and mix to a paste with two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, salt and cayenne. Divide a large, fat chicken and stew until tender, in water containing a clove of garlic and a pinch, each, of salt, comino seed and marjoram. Scald two dozen dry chiles, remove the seeds and veins, scrape the pulp from the skin, add this to the chicken-stew and thicken slightly with flour. Shape the corn-husks with scissors and soak in warm water for an hour. Remove, dry and rub each one with hot fat. Fill one with the chicken-stew, spread four others with the corn-paste; fold over the one containing the chicken and roll the others around. Tie the ends with a strip of the husk and steam for two hours.

HOT TAMAL

For the dough, add to one pint of corn-meal, one tablespoonful, each, of salt and lard, and enough boiling water to make a thick dough. Prepare the corn-husks as directed. For the filling boil one pound of beef and pour over it hot beef fat; cut into small bits and season with salt and chile sauce. Put a layer of the dough in the husk, over this a tablespoonful of the prepared meat; roll like a cigarette, with a layer of dough between each husk. Tie each end and steam two hours.

LAREDO'S CELÉBERRIMO

Boil a pound of pork until two-thirds cooked; then grind it rather fine. Add a small amount of garlic, also a small quantity of seeded raisins and prepared almonds. Soak two and a half ounces of chiles in hot water; take out the seeds and veins, wash them well and grind fine, adding enough of the stock in which the meat was boiled to make a sauce, and strain. For the dough use the ground corn prepared with lime-water; add six ounces of fresh lard to the pound, salt to taste and moisten with the meat stock. Have the husks prepared, spread each with a thin layer of dough, and for the center one, a tablespoonful of the pork and a tablespoonful of the chile sauce. Roll carefully, tie the ends and steam over the liquid in which the meat was boiled.

MESA REDONDA

Cover a four-pound chicken with hot water and add four onions, a clove of garlic chopped fine, a stick of cinnamon, ten whole allspice, ten cloves, three red chile peppers and a teaspoonful of salt. Simmer until the chicken is tender, then remove and cut into small pieces. Strain the liquor, put the chicken meat into it, add enough yellow corn-meal to make a thick mush and boil ten minutes. Have ready the green corn cut from a dozen ears and two pounds of raisins, seeded, and mix these into the mush, with a half-teaspoonful of cayenne. Fill the center husk with a piece of the chicken and some of the mush, roll the others around, each spread with a tablespoonful of the mush. Tie at each end and boil an hour.

VIAJERO

Scald a quart of good Southern white corn-meal, making it moist, but not soft. Have a chicken boiled until tender and separated into parts; season the broth with the pulp of two dozen chile peppers, a quart of whole olives, two pounds of raisins, a cupful of sweet lard, salt and a suspicion of garlic; add enough corn-meal to thicken like gravy. Lay one of the prepared husks flat, put a piece of chicken on it and two tablespoonfuls of the thickened gravy; fold the husk over with the chicken inside, and roll around this six more husks, spreading each with two tablespoonfuls of the scalded meal. Tie each end securely with a narrow strip of the husk and steam three hours or longer.

OLLA PODRIDA

AJOQUESO

Boil three Spanish peppers and pass the pulp through a sieve. Fry a small onion and a clove of garlic, chopped fine, in hot olive-oil; add the pepper-pulp, a small piece of butter, salt, a dash of tabasco and a cupful of grated cheese. Stir, as it heats, and add thin cream until it will pour nicely. Serve immediately on hot toasted biscuits.

ALMIBAR