My brother got back from Baja on Friday. He crossed the border at 10pm Thursday, got to my place around 3am, drank beer in my front yard till I woke up. Very considerate of him! This year he brought back tortillas from the market in El Rosario, which isn't ideal, but they are still pretty good. The
best tortillas are from farther down in central Baja, Villa Jesus Maria or Guerrero Negro; they make them with manteca (lard) down there, the ones this time were with manteca vegetal -- vegetable shortening. It's funny, he had stocked up on tortillas from G.N., but the wind/weather went bad, so he stayed down a little longer and had to eat them and buy more on the drive out.
Flour tortillas are considered 'yuppie food' in Baja. Corn tortillas are more proletarian (Amy has a
great post on this). My dad had a grad student from Mexico City via La Paz, Baja, who explained this to me. I like corn tortillas for tacos, but do prefer flour for enchiladas and quesadillas. He brought back 3 18 packs. We had quesadillas our way Friday night, quesadillas with buffalo on Saturday, and quesadillas + tacos with beans/creme fraiche/chanterelles on Sunday. Quesadillas 'our way' is a recipe we perfected in Baja over many trips. Alas, I haven't taken a picture of them since I began the blog, so no specific post on them -- My brother, Sara and I wolfed down roughly 25 of them in those 3 nights, ate too fast to take a pic.... Quasi-recipe: use a cast iron comal/skillet, medium low heat, lay down a tortilla, add some sliced cheese (queso mennonita is the best), add another tortilla, cover with a lid, flip once after a couple of minutes. Eat by putting a stripe of beans down the center and fold over.
Beans this time were adzuki + indian split yellow peas, cooked with epazote, bay leaf, dried chilies. Toasted some cumin and ancho chile powder, olive oil, asafoetida. An onion, didn't have garlic. Deglazed with white wine. Oregano from Baja, a couple of chipotles. Awfully good. Had a couple of hot sauces from Baja, but also a couple of my homemade ones, only
one of which has been blogged about. Avocado is great, too, no surprise....
Mmm, onions and ancho chile powder make me happy
Ok, still sitting on the creme fraiche post. One of these days. Me and Paul had a couple of soft tacos with beans, chanterelle, a couple of dollops of creme fraiche -- analogous to crema in Mexico. Pretty good, though S Bee was not impressed, the creme fraiche was fermented a little too much towards cheese for her dainty stomach....
Photo credit S Bee
Caguama of Tecate. The returnable 1Q bottles. Sweet.
My brother got back from Baja on Friday. He crossed the border at 10pm Thursday, got to my place around 3am, drank beer in my front yard till I woke up. Very considerate of him! This year he brought back tortillas from the market in El Rosario, which isn't ideal, but they are still pretty good. The best tortillas are from farther down in central Baja, Villa Jesus Maria or Guerrero Negro; they make them with manteca (lard) down there, the ones this time were with manteca vegetal -- vegetable shortening. It's funny, he had stocked up on tortillas from G.N., but the wind/weather went bad, so he stayed down a little longer and had to eat them and buy more on the drive out.
Flour tortillas are considered 'yuppie food' in Baja. Corn tortillas are more proletarian (Amy has a great post on this). My dad had a grad student from Mexico City via La Paz, Baja, who explained this to me. I like corn tortillas for tacos, but do prefer flour for enchiladas and quesadillas. He brought back 3 18 packs. We had quesadillas our way Friday night, quesadillas with buffalo on Saturday, and quesadillas + tacos with beans/creme fraiche/chanterelles on Sunday. Quesadillas 'our way' is a recipe we perfected in Baja over many trips. Alas, I haven't taken a picture of them since I began the blog, so no specific post on them -- My brother, Sara and I wolfed down roughly 25 of them in those 3 nights, ate too fast to take a pic.... Quasi-recipe: use a cast iron comal/skillet, medium low heat, lay down a tortilla, add some sliced cheese (queso mennonita is the best), add another tortilla, cover with a lid, flip once after a couple of minutes. Eat by putting a stripe of beans down the center and fold over. Beans this time were adzuki + indian split yellow peas, cooked with epazote, bay leaf, dried chilies. Toasted some cumin and ancho chile powder, olive oil, asafoetida. An onion, didn't have garlic. Deglazed with white wine. Oregano from Baja, a couple of chipotles. Awfully good. Had a couple of hot sauces from Baja, but also a couple of my homemade ones, only one of which has been blogged about. Avocado is great, too, no surprise....
Mmm, onions and ancho chile powder make me happy
Ok, still sitting on the creme fraiche post. One of these days. Me and Paul had a couple of soft tacos with beans, chanterelle, a couple of dollops of creme fraiche -- analogous to crema in Mexico. Pretty good, though S Bee was not impressed, the creme fraiche was fermented a little too much towards cheese for her dainty stomach....
Photo credit S Bee
Caguama of Tecate. The returnable 1Q bottles. Sweet.
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