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| Pozole y Gorditas con Queso Fresco de Cabra |
If you want Mexican
food in Valencia you have to come to my house. I get a mad craving every once
in a while and I took care of it yesterday with pozole and gorditas that
I don’t think any self-respecting Mexican would turn away. This picture doesn’t
do it justice and it certainly doesn’t reflect all the time that went into
preparation. I also forgot to add the hot sauce before I snapped the picture
and by the time I figured that out I was too hungry to take another photo.
This food journey began
last week when I made tortilla soup and used corn tortillas that I bought at
Carrefour which were absolutely horrible. The ingredients list was so small you
need a microscope to read it, a device I didn’t have with me at the time of
purchase. It turns out that they are mostly wheat flour and have almost no
taste of corn. What they do taste like is cardboard, something I mostly avoid
eating. I’ll avoid the Carrefour corn tortillas from now on. I bought more corn
tortillas at the Latin grocery store just around the corner from my place and
they were expensive but slightly better in quality. El Serape brand tortillas aren’t horrible but they were horribly
expensive (2.50€ for 10 small units). I used to buy tortillas at another Latin
grocery (now out of business) for less than a third of this cost.
I bought hominy (maíz blanco) at the Latin grocery and
once again it was very expensive (1.50€ for a small can and I bought 4) but I really had set
my mind on making pozole. They also
had chipotle peppers in adobo sauce which I have never been able to find in
Spain and these are what I use in the pozole
I was taught to make. I was going to make corn tortillas from scratch to go
along with the pozole but I decided
to make gorditas instead. I
made mine exactly as she
does in the video as I had some achiote
on hand.
This is a little off topic, but I was in Castellon a few years ago and watched my friend's father and brother eat oranges with a knife and fork. My Catalan wife and I were bemused and our friend said she had never seen that before. They peeled and ate the oranges with a knife and fork and didn't touch them with their hands at all. Is this some type of weird Valencian table manners? Needless to say I refused an orange because I didn't want to look like an uncouth American baboon who eats fruit with his bare hands.
ReplyDeleteCount me in for the next one! I'll bring the tequila. These days, we have a number of Mexican places in Spain (lots in Madrid). There are two here in Mojácar which are pleasant if not great. Still and all, Mama makes a good enchilada without too much grumbling...
ReplyDeletePeople eat pizza with a knife and fork which is blasphemy in the USA. I juice all my oranges so I don't look like a slob. I'd kill for a decent Mexican restaurant here in VLC.
ReplyDeleteI could kick myself for not asking my brother to bring a tortillero/tortilladora. I just bought some decent corn tortillas from a hilal butcher shop, of all the weird places to find them.
ReplyDeleteHere is my recipe for pozole. Scroll down for the recipe. I didn't have any chayote but it is available almost anywhere in America.
ReplyDelete