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RE: [ranchos] Re: Tamales and mole

 
Alicia,
    You're making me hungry.  My parents used to make the agua fresca w/ lettuce & fruits.  Unfortunately we didn't appreciate it because of the lettuce.  My folks are from Jalostotitlan, Jalisco.
Irma

From: Alicia Carrillo [mailto:alliecar@...]
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 10:48 PM
To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [ranchos] Re: Tamales and mole

Esperanza,
 
These tamales were a recent addition to our family that is within the last 25 years or so. We learned that from the families in Ensenada.
 
My mom is and has always been an excellent cook but she didn't make tamales with all these ingredients. I believe that in addition to economics, family culture also is very telling in how a family cooks and eats.
 
In my mom's family, everyone prides themselves in their culinary skills. My mother is renowned for her mole, pozole, tortas de camaron con nopales, capirotada, all types of atoles. Atole de piña, de maizcena, atole blanco etc. My mom has this great dish that she makes called patas de puerco en salsa cruda. It's labor intensive but oh sooo good. She makes this agua fresca with romaine lettuce, fresh orange slices, lemon slices, sugar and yerba buena and other fruits if desired and is served only in the summer when it's very hot. She lets the ingredients sit in the very cold water for a couple of hours and is served in a tall glass with a spoon so you can spoon out the oranges, romaine and other fruits. I prefer it without the other fruits and only with citrus.
 
 Mom's mole is a two day job as she uses about 4 different types of dried chiles. She seeds and cleans them, toasts the chiles then she boils them till tender and then puts them in the blender and purees them, strains them to remove skin that didn't completely puree. Next she toasts all the other spices such as sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, cumin, oregano, avocado leaves the  bread and tortillas also get toasted and are used as the thickening agent. The following day she boils the turkey or chicken and proceeds to gradually fry all the toasted and ground ingredients. This is when she adds the peanut butter and chocolate mexicano along with the broth from the turkey or chicken and all the other seasonings such as garlic, salt, pepper etc. I have learned how to make it but only make it for very special occasions because it's so laborious
 
With many of these dishes it's how you serve them and what you serve them with that makes a difference. I guess I'm lucky to have a mom that has spoiled us with great food from Zacatecas.
 
Alicia
 
 

latina1955@... wrote:
Wow Alicia, those tamales sound fascinating.  Where are your people from that they had available such resources?  Do you think this is rather a recent phenomena?  I surely do appreciate the article Joe sent us all regarding tamales and the relative recent acceptance of tamales and other delectable's as decent, and even desirable food!
 
To change the conversation a bit, how does your family make mole?  I know the recipes vary according to region and even what you put in it, or how you wish to serve it.  While I love my mother-in-law deeply, I can't stand her "mole", especially when she uses it in tamales.  But as mentioned previously, her skills and resources were limited.....and so while I don't blame her for lack of her cooking abilities, I still don't like her "mole".
 
Being raised by folks rom Jalisco, I can tell you that there were at a minimum two variations that were used frequently which were called mole rojo and mole poblano.  The ingredients had a similar base, but the mole oscurro was contingent on additional resources and time.  I love mole, wherever the regions......
 
Esperanza