Discover and re-discover Mexico’s cuisine, culture and history through the recipes, backyard stories and other interesting findings of an expatriate in Canada
Old-fashioned polvorones are enjoyed year-round both in Spain and Mexico, but become ubiquitous during the Christmas season, when batches of hundreds of the dusty and dusted sugary treats, are prepared in convents and bakeries. Some modern recipes call for vegetable shortening instead of lard, a good choice for vegan regimes. I offer the traditional recipe with lard, scaled down to a small batch, convenient to make at home ... click on title for more
In Mexico, these sweet confections are called orejas and abanicos, which translate literally as "ears" and "fans" from Spanish. As many sweet breads, they came from Europe, and although some recipes have changed to adapt to Mexican ingredients and taste, in this case, the basic recipe is practically identical everywhere, requiring only two ingredients: puff pastry (pasta de hojaldre), and sugar ... click on title for more
The town of Mixquic, in the valley of Central Mexico, has preserved many features of its pre-Hispanic aquatic culture, and one of the dishes that has survived since then is mixmole, a fish stew in red or green sauce ... click on title for more
Aguachile is a dish of shrimp partially cooked in lime juice, then mixed with veggies. Since I am allergic to crustaceans (lobster, crab, shrimp), and inspired by my previous post, I thought of making a batch of shrimp-less aguachile using shirataki noodles (konjac) ... click on title for more
In Mexico, the word maíz refers to the grain, so a bread made with nixtamalized corn flour (masa harina) or cornmeal, would be called pan de maíz. On the other hand, elote is the name used for fresh corn, either on the cob, or the corn kernels (granos de elote); some dishes made with fresh corn that come to mind are: fresh corn cake (pastel de elote), fresh corn bread (pan de elote), and fresh corn tamale (tamal de elote), to name just a few. My favourite fresh corn bread is a sweet rendition, so moist and creamy from the fresh corn kernels, that tastes almost custardy; the original recipe has no flour, but because fresh corn in Canada generally has a lower starch content compared to Mexican corn, I added some corn starch to prevent crumbling, and, as a bonus, the recipe remains gluten-free ... click on title for more
My Slice of Mexico 