Perennial food growing

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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Month Sow indoors Sow outdoors When to harvest Jobs to do
Once in a lifetime or every few years
Asparagus – A healthy plant will yield for up to 20 years! Can be grown from seed but it is easier to begin with a ‘crown’ From crowns. Anytime from October to January Two years from first planting.  When the plant is ready, harvest in spring Prepare a raised bed on sandy soil and weed free, place the crowns with a lot of space between them about 45 cm is good enough, the crowns need to be planted in a trench with mulch and to add soil as they grow during their first winter.
Strawberries – A healthy plant will yeald for up to five years From plants, anytime from June – September As soon as they turn red They like a well drained soil with some compost.  Place straw underneath each plant to protect the fruit. Allow runners to set and cut them from their parents in August
Rhubarb – A healthy plant that is divided every 5 years will continue yielding for as long as you keep dividing Can be grown from seed but it is easier to begin with a ‘crown’ Late autumn or early winter Allow one season without harvesting, a good frost will benefit the stems May to August, only take the stongest stems two or three the first year and then increase as the plant becomes stronger.  Divide every five years. Give plenty of growing space.
Wild rocket – This little one was once seen as a weed, so it will keep on growing year after year

 

 

 

 

Artichokes

 Very easy to grow from seed from March –

September

 

 

 

 

Begin with a subdivision that is planted on mulched and well drained soil in autumn and cover with fleece on cold climates

 April – November, keep cutting the leaves only, as you need them.

 

 

 

 

April – late June.

 Just sprinkle the seeds on a row over any kind of soil.  In late autumn, cover the patch with some fleece and wait for next spring for more delicious salad!

 

Prepare the soil by feeding well each year, artichokes like a nourished soil and cover in winter

Recipe for Mexican Ponche de Navidad

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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The evocative power of food, its flavours and aromas can be used to take us back to long and forgotten corners of our mind.  Periods like Christmas are of course charged with a variety of memories, so each one of us have our personal catalogue of food experiences that relate to certain moments of our lives.

It is no surprise that for some, the aroma or roasted chestnuts on a cold corner is equivalent to Christmas and for others, the flavour of ginger biscuits or of Bacalao is the marker of this time.

For some of us, the smell of tropical fruits slowly poaching in a syrup are instant reminders of this period.  In Mexico ponche de Navidad is a delicious and warming drink that takes me back to posada parties.

What is a posada? The word literally translates as inn, and this is a representation of the journey that the Virgin Mary and St Joseph did at the time of the birth of baby Jesus, that culminated in barn and manger.

Like most things, these parties have changed with time, but the format remains the same: a street procession that stops and chants a litany which culminates at the house of the hosts of the posada –or the place where the party is going to take place.  The joyous entry to the house by those outside and the subsequent pinata breaking, food sharing and ponche drinking!

It is the combination of fruits and the sweet aroma of a lightly spiced syrup, simmering somewhere that gives this drink a particularly strong power for memory of cold nights in Mexico.  The smell of sweet sugar-cane and guavas, tejocotes and cinnamon, always take me right back to my childhood and I can again see and hear things that lie otherwise dormant in my mind: my younger parents, the unique feeling of attempting to break a pinata, the sounds of children laughing.  Sometimes it is worth forgetting about food miles for once and make some proper ponche just for the memories.

Here is a simple recipe, if you live away from the tropics, it might be difficult to find some fruits, I give alternatives in the recipe below.  Try doing this at this cold time of year, repeat doing this and you will see how with time, this evocative drink will take you back to good memories.

Cultivate your future memories by having good times now!

Recipe for ponche de Navidad

Makes about 3 litres

20 tejocotes –these are quite particular to Mexico, if you can’t find substitute with 10 quartered apricots and 4 green apples in chunks

7 guavas, cut in wedges

3 Tbsp raisins

10 prunes

about half a kilo of sugar-cane chunks –found in caribbean shops

4 Tbsp dried apples

2 sticks of cinnamon

3 litres of water

muscovado sugar

Begin by making the syrup, dissolve sugar in water –I have deliberately omitted quantities here, add enough so that it tastes nice and sweet to you.

Add the fruits and bring to below boiling point, simmer gently until the fruits soften and poach, the syrup should be slightly thicker at this point.

Before serving add some piquete a dash or rum or brandy to give it extra warming properties.

Serve in cups with a few fruits.

** If you have a memory of ponche that you want to share here, please add a comment.  My memory now is of a posada at secondary school aged 13, with my friend Marcelita, on a very cold day and how my father threw himself to get some goodies at the pinata with the kids!

Save our corner shops

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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Save our corner shops / NO to Sainsbury’s in Stoke Newington!!!

 

This is an old rant on corner shops, but surprisingly or rather NOT surprisingly, nothing changes, please say no to Sainsbury’s in Stoke Newington by signing this petition,just click here

Last week, I heard somewhere that if trends carry on as they are, the corner shop will disappear in a few years… I remember now, I heard this on Radio 4.  There was a slightly sarcastic comment saying that it will be a ‘shame’ to loose those shops that sell overpriced and dusty tins of rice pudding…

…the corner shop contains features that makes us remember dusty, half empty shelves of expensive items that are near their sell by date, and maybe the owners  of these shops will need to review their stock in more ways than one in order to keep their shop and not to sell it to a developer that will transform it to a ‘charming flat with a shop front feature’.

However there are other kinds of corner shops, and these are the ones that I feel we should support.  I happen to live in an area that thankfully has not yet been invaded by hypermarkets, supermarkets or their ‘city/express’ equivalent.  My nearest supermarket -if it can be called that, is an organic one where we can find fabulous produce and all eco-friendly-organic goodies that cost a lot of money.  There are as well a myriad of small shops that sell produce aimed at the local Turkish community, and it is these type of shops that I think we should try to support.  In my part of London these are mainly Turkish, but depending on the area where we live, these shops can be Indian, Bangladeshi, Greek or Portuguese.

What I like of these shops is obviously the things they sell, in my case we can find large chunks of fetta cheese, wonderful yoghurt, freshly baked flat breads and the usual basket containing bunches of fresh dill, coriander, parsley, basil, mint and spinach.  These goodies sit happily next to neat rows of dried pulses, nuts and rice, Turkish tea and coffee as well as the usual -often dusty, packets of breakfast cereal and digestive biscuits.

The staff at these shops are usually friendly and welcoming, sometimes they give me free chillies, other times they let me pay later, once I was even able to use their fridge! These guys are always there, 365 days open from 9 to 9, many times they are glued to the blasting Turkish version of the Oprah show; other times they are just chatting to their mates and -especially in the summer, this seems an OK existence.  However what we don’t see is that in order to keep their shops running, they have to get up at 4 am and buy fruits, veg and herbs.  I have been to Spitalfields to buy fruit and veg at that time in the winter and I know that is not exactly fun.  Then they have to be there in the shops all year round.  For the place to look open, they need to have their doors fully open too and that means living in the cold for half the year.

Then, there is also the problem of prices, at markets like Spitalfields, the price of the produce varies everyday, so our friendly shopkeepers are constantly having to juggle with prices, often making very little money if any at all.  As an example, my local shop sells avocados at 70p each, he buys at 50p so his profit is hardly what we can call a profit.  The bullets that resemble an avocado in a supermarket -the ones that have obviously not been ‘ripened for flavour’ cost the same amount.  I wonder how much to they get these at? it is certainly not 50p, otherwise the profits would not be so healthy for these guys.

There is the question of choice, for some strange reason, we are led to believe that a large supermarket has a large range of items, well think again; next time you go into a supermarket look into the stock and ask yourself the question if there is really a large selection, or are you really being sold what they are telling you what you buy… I don’t want to portray large supermarket chains as evil guys that are planning your life, dictating what you should consume; however, it is extremely annoying to go to these places and then find that the only kind of cocoa powder they sell is their own brand, that you can only find ‘the most popular’ of meat cuts i.e. mince and two others, that their fish counter looks like a fishmonger but they cannot sell you the heads of the fish to make stock.  Instead they have oversized rows where they sell oversized ‘family’ bags of all kinds of flavoured crisps… if we are not careful our families will be oversized in a very short time.

We complain and mock that the stock at local shops is nearly out of date and that they don’t often have what we want, and the reason for this is exactly because we don’t buy enough stuff from them. It is very difficult to always have the same selection of produce if half of it goes to waste, when there is really no need for that to be so.  If we bought more from these shops, then the stock rotates more often and we will find more choice and fresher stuff as well.  Regarding choice, well, my local shop does not sell 27 varieties of tortilla chips but they sell amongst other things medjool dates, white onions, shallots and large white eggs by the piece (10p each), and frankly I prefer this kind of choice, I like my ‘totopos’ (Mexican for tortilla chips) plain thank you.

What I am trying to say here is that I think there is enough room for both kinds of shops to survive, yes it is nice and comfy to take the car and buy a whole year load of dishwasher tablets and toilet paper, yes it is nice to buy two for the price of one items like chicken breasts… although we should ask if this is actually an ethical thing to do… and yes it is nice to be able to get cashback when we pay and to buy very cheap wine.  But it is also nice, very nice to be greeted by the local shopkeeper and to feel like a human being there.  It is nice to find weird and wonderful seasonal produce, pomegranates in September for instance, but it is nicer to feel that one is contributing directly to keep somebody in business.  Next time you think that your local shop is a weird place packed with dusty and expensive items, think again, yes things might cost a little more, but not much more and also think that this extra price keeps these guys in business and this includes the community feel that these shops bring.

Yes, there is the question of lifestyle, of living busy, of our life being made easier by doing all the shopping in one go, but have we actually stopped and thought how little we need to buy in a week? how much waste we create by buying lots of veg in one go and then spending all week eating out or eating take aways? Maybe, just maybe if we divide our shopping and spend 10 minutes at the local shop we will end up buying things that we did not know existed and we are prompted to use our imagination, we might find things that we have not seen in years -white eggs for instance.  Just doing a little bit of shopping at these places will help save them.  So why don’t we do it?

Last Saturday pm I had the misfortune to go to a large supermarket and just when I was feeling lost in the family size crisp department, amongst many upset people that looked more like lost robots than actual human beings; there was a cute Spanish girl having a fit, she said to her mother: ‘there is nothing I like about this shop and the only thing I like you won’t buy’.  Obviously she wanted to get some crisps, but what I thought interesting is that she did not like that place, and it seemed that most of us seemed unhappy there.  Then the question is, why do we carry on buying like if there is no tomorrow, when there is an option to buy stuff from our local shop? if we carry on like this, there won’t be a tomorrow for our little shops and we might come to regret that.

How to make a starter for sourdough bread and how to make sourdough bread, step by step

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
1

This is the time it takes to transform a simple mixture of flour and water to crusty sourdough bread.

My friend lent me the book from Bourke Street Bakery and in it, there it was a step by step way of making sourdough ferment from flour, water, air and time.

Having heard horror stories of failed fermentations, I decided to follow this easy guide to great results.  What you need is:

1.     The best quality of strong flour that you can afford

2.     A good source of fresh water

3.     A set of scales

4.     Basic organisational skills

5.     A little patience

Day one: Begin by mixing 50 g of flour and 50 g * of water


Mix well, cover and leave in a warm place overnight.

Day two:  Make a paste by mixing 50 g of water and 50 g of flour, fold this mix into your original mix, cover and leave to rest overnight in a warm place

Day three:  Make a paste by mixing 100 g of water and 100 g of flour, fold this mix into your original mix, cover and leave to rest overnight in a warm place

Day four: Make a paste by mixing 200 g of water and 200 g of flour, fold this mix into your original mix, cover and leave to rest overnight in a warm place

Day five: Discard all but 100 g of the mix [the book says you can place what you won’t use into the compost].

The flour and water are mixed to a rough paste

The starter is folded into the flour/water mix but never stirred

The starter is folded into the flour/water mix but never stirred

* Richard Bertinet advocates for measuring water by weight and not by volume, it is more accurate

Repeat the steps from day two to five, every day for three weeks.  This time should be enough to make your ferment strong enough for making bread.

As the days go by, you will see that your mixture will start to bubble and smell ‘bready’.


It is important to feed the mix every day, otherwise at this stage,  you run the risk of starving and killing the ferment.  It is important to keep the mix in a warm place, an airing cupboard is good or any place that is draught free. DON’T put in an oven, over the AGA or over a radiator, you want warmth but not direct heat.  It is also important to work with clean utensils and to keep containers clean.  This is like a baby and as such, it needs to be fed and to be kept warm and clean!

If your mixture is too cold or hungry, it can develop a grey liquid in the surface, if this happens, please put in a warmer place or feed it with some more flour/water mix.

 

A grey liquid on the surface might mean the ferment is either hungry or cold.

If your mixture does not bubble anymore, it means it might be dead and you need to start again!

To be honest, if you are careful, you cannot go wrong.  Give it a go and when you are ready you can start baking the most amazing bread ever.

Once your ferment is mature, you can feed it less often, twice a week should be enough.  You can even put in the fridge for later use.   If you want to use your ferment from the fridge, feed it three times in a day as described below, this way you can revive your fermet at any time.  This means you can put your bakery on standby and go on holiday for instance.   Once you have mature ferment, you can also share with friends.  I have done this before and it is a great thing to do, however corny this might sound, it transforms lives, do it and you will see what I mean!

Below is an adaptation from the original recipe for sourdough from Bourke Street Bakery, it is not difficult, it just requires a little time and attention. Give it a go, the results are well worth the wait.  This is pure magic!

Begin by feeding the starter on the day you are going to start the baking process; this needs to be done whether you are using your starter/ferment for the first time, from the fridge or from ambient temperature, what you want is to get the ferment going!  Follow the feeding times as described below, this way you will not have to wake up in the middle of the night to feed this baby -a sure advantage of having a bread baby instead of a real one!

First feed about noon: 50 g flour and 50 g water, add this to 100 g of starter, remember to roughly mix the flour and water and then fold this onto the starter as you did when creating the starter.

Second feed -  eight hours after the first feed: 100 g flour and 100 g water,  same process.

Last feed – eight hours after the second feed or early in the morning: 200 g flour and 200 g water, same process.

Now for the bread! This makes 1.5 Kg of bread, that you can divide in three very nice 500 g loaves.

Ingredients:

400 g starter

600 g organic strong white  flour

170 g organic strong wholemeal flour – this particular flour blend makes a heavier mix, for a lighter version use only strong white flour

400 g water

20 g sea salt -ground

In the bowl of a food mixer, put the starter, add the flour and water.  Attach the dough hook and mix on slow speed for four minutes and then increase to the next speed and mix for another three minutes.  You should end up with a rough dough.   Cover the bowl and set aside for 20 minutes, add the salt and mix on slow speed for one minute and increase the speed to medium, mix for six minutes, you should have a very elastic dough that can be stretched to form a ‘window’.  To ensure that you have reached the right level of elasticity, take a small portion of the dough and stretch it within your fingers,  the dough should be able to stretch to transluscent without breaking, if it tears, knead it for another minute or so.

Leave the dough in the bowl and cover with cling film, leave to prove for one hour by allowing to rest in a place at room temperature.

Take out of the bowl and place on a lightly floured surface, stretch to obtain a rectangle that is about 2 cm high and fold one third of the rectangle onto itself and repeat with the remaining third.  Turn ninety degrees and repeat the folding process.  Place the dough in the bowl and cover with cling film, leave to rest for another hour.

Take out of the bowl and cut into three pieces that should weigh roughly 500g each.  Shape the loaves by repeating the folding process described above.

Line three bowls with a tea towel and sprinkle liberally with flour, place the dough seam side up, cover with cling film and put in the fridge to prove overnight [eight to twelve hours is best].

The morning after, preheat the oven to 200 C.  Take the loaves out of the fridge and leave them to rest for a couple of hours or until they have grown by about two-thirds of their original volume.  To ensure they are ready to go in the oven, apply light pressure with your finger on the loaves, if the dough springs back nicely when you put pressure, they are ready, if the indent stays in the dough, they need further resting.

Turn the loaves onto a baking tray that has been covered with grease-proof paper, score using a serrated knife or a razon blade, make sharp indentations about 1 cm deep -this is your signature on the bread.

Put in the oven and if you want, spray with water, this will give a crustier loaf.  Bake for 35 – 40 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped underneath.

Leave to cool on a wire rack and enjoy fresh or lightly toasted, the best!

Easy mid-week supper: Veal with Rosemary and Marsala

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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During these cold times, nothing nicer than to eat some slow cooked food.  Difficult task to combine slow cooking with busy lifestyles? Not really, with a little thinking ahead you can enjoy weekend food in the middle of the week, the obvious secret: cook in advance.  This is easy and guarantees great results.

Casseroles are great dishes to prepare in advance, they in fact are tastier if made one day ahead.   Of course if you are really organised you can make a large batch and then freeze… this way you can access home-made ready meals at any time.

The principle of casserole making is more or less the same for a number of dishes, make a sofritto by sauteing some onion or shallots and garlic in oil or butter, then dust some meat with seasoned flour, seal the meat, add some herbs and alcohol, add some stock and put in the oven, wait at least one hour and voilá, comfort food at its best.

Here is a quick recipe for veal with rosemary and Marsala wine:

Ingredients for four people

20 g butter

20 g olive oil

1 medium onion, sliced

2 cloves of garlic, pureed

a sprig of rosemary

400 g diced veal

2 Tbsp white flour

salt and pepper

about 70 ml Marsala wine

chicken, beef or vegetable stock

Begin by heating a casserole pan and add the butter and the oil

Onion, Garlic and Rosemary SofrittoSaute the onion for 5 minutes until transluscent. Add the garlic and rosemary, saute for 2 more minutes.  In a large tupperware container put the flour and sprinkle salt and pepper, add the diced veal, close the lid and shake well.  Take the onion, garlic and rosemary off the heat and reserve.

The browining of the meatAdd a little more oil and seal the meat until light brown on all sides.  Return the onion mix and add the Marsala, cook on high temperature to reduce the volume a bit.

 

Add enough stock to almost cover the meat. Cover the pan and place in the oven, the lower the temperature and the longer it is cooked the better, go for 120 C for 1 ½ hours.  Check the liquid level from time to time, add more stock if the pan looks dry.

Check the meat, it should be really soft and have that melt in the mouth feel.

Enjoy!

 

Yum

You can add mushrooms, wild mushrooms or potatoes to this dish.

How to make Mexican pan dulce

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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One aspect of Mexican cuisine that seems to be a little overlooked is that of bread-making.  Although Mexico is not a country that has strong associations to bread as it is the case in many other places around the world, and although we are mostly associated to tortillas; there is actually quite a strong tradition of bread making that we inherited through European colonialism and which became firmly established during the years of Empire in the nineteenth century.

It is particularly during the short period in which Mexico became subject to the puppet emperor Maximilian, where traditions of European influence became adopted by the elites.  This included the introduction of bread-making, particularly that of making sweet confections that included pastry, elaborate biscuits and a variety of other items made out of sweetened dough.

As it tends to happen in Mexico, these items were adapted to locality and they took their own shapes and names; so it can be an amusing and strange experience for a foreign person to go and buy ears, gendarmes (or policemen), banderillas (or a hurting device that gets stuck on the back of a bull during a bull fight), shells, bows, rhombs and of course the once yearly Bread of the Dead.

It is not difficult to recreate these confections and recently I made a batch of conchas or shells that we consumed with gusto whilst accompanied with my Mexican parents.  They the big judges actually loved them.

The recipe is taken from Diana Kennedy’s El Arte de la Cocina Mexicana. I have done very small adaptations.  Be aware, this recipe takes a long time to make, but if you have time and with a little preparation you can have a fun weekend of making bread with delicious results at the end of the day.  Since the recipe is so long you might want to make a large batch and then freeze the bread.  To enjoy from frozen, simply place in a warm oven to defrost and warm through and enjoy with a cup of steaming coffee or hot chocolate.

Makes about 16 conchas

Begin by making a first ferment or siembra for the bread, many Mexican breads begin by making a first ferment that is used for the confection of the various types of sweet bread including bread of the dead:

250 g strong bread flour

one sachet [8g] of dried yeast

2 Tbsp warm water

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Put the flour in a bowl.  In a small bowl, crumble the yeast and mix with the warm water, beat well to obtain a paste, add this paste to the flour and eggs, beat well using the dough hook attachment of a food mixer for a couple of minutes, the dough has to be soft and sticky.  Add a tiny bit more flour so that the dough comes off the bowl, take out and place on a lightly floured surface, using your hands, fold it so that it looks like a round cushion and put on a baking tray that has been covered with some greaseproof paper, make three diagonal cuts across and leave to rise in a warm place for a couple of hours, until it doubles its size.

Use half of this ferment and freeze the rest, if you want you can use all the ferment, in which case it will be necessary to double up the quantities below.

Now you are ready to make the main dough:

Cut the ferment into large chunks, place in the mixing bowl and add the following:

500 g strong flour

180 g sugar

½ tsp salt

45 g soft butter

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

60 ml warm water

Beat the ferment and the ingredients using a dough hook for 8 minutes at a medium-high speed, the dough needs to be soft, sticky with a shiny gloss and it should stick together.  Add a little flour so that the dough comes off the mixing bowl.  Again place on a lightly floured surface and fold to make a round cushion shape.  Butter a large bowl and place the dough in it.  Sprinkle with a little flour and cover with cling film and a tea-towel, leave in a warm place for 2 hours or until it has doubled in size.  After this period, place in the least cold part of the fridge and leave it to ferment for 8 hours or overnight.

Before finishing with this process, make the butter and sugar cover for the breads, for this you will need:

125 g plain flour

125 g icing sugar

60 g butter at room temperature

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Sieve the flour and icing sugar and add the butter, mix well using your fingers or whiz using the food processor, you are aiming to have a soft dough.  Divide in two portions, add the cocoa to one and the cinnamon to the other one, incorporate well.  Cover and set aside.

After the long fermentation period, put the dough on a lightly floured surface and turn it into a cushion without pushing too hard, you don’t want to lose the bubbles formed during the fermentation period, divide the dough in four and then in four again in order to obtain 16 pieces, it is wise to weigh the pieces, they should be about 60 g each:

Place some greaseproof paper on three baking trays.  Make a dough ball rolling the pieces of dough and place on the trays, leaving a space of about 8 cm in between each piece.                                                                                                                                                     Divide the chocolate and cinnamon sugar mixtures in eight small pieces each and roll into rounds that you will flatten using the palms of your hands, press until you have a sheet that is slightly larger than the bread ball:

Place this over the bread ball and press firmly over the dough ball, flattening it a little and repeat with all the bread pieces. Once you have done this, proceed to make the cuts; using a sharp knife, cut into the sugar paste making diagonal incissions:


Leave to rest in a warm place for –yes you guessed another two hours, or until the bread rises once more from this:

To this:

Heat up the oven to 190C.  Place the trays in the oven and bake for twelve minutes or until they puff up and turn golden brown:

Now they are ready to be eaten!

Although this process seems interminable, it actually works perfecty for a weekend at home, start on Saturday morning, carry on with your life and do the fermentations during the day, leave the dough in the fridge overnight and continue on Sunday am, you should have bread ready to dunk into hot chocolate sometime around brunch time!

Pan de Muerto / Bread of the Dead

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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Pan de muerto / Bread of the dead

It is that ime of the year again, the one where evenings get longer and when spooky ghosts will knock on our doors.  In the area where we live, it seems that the number of ghosts grow exponentially each year, we started with 10 and now there seem to be hundreds of kids knocking for tricks or treats.  This is a nice thing and I like to see our road full of little witches, ghosts and vampires, I like to see carved lanterns and it is all quite picturesque.

What I also like is to put a small altar with flowers to my ‘abuela’ Enriqueta, to my second  mother Alisi and to my ’muertitos’ to our dead ones, to remember them with a small and colourful offering which will include pan de muerto, this bread is typical of Mexico and it has lots of symbolism, it made in a round shape to signify the world, it has small pieces of dough attached and these signify bones, and it is always made only at this time of year.  It is very nice served with Mexican Hot Chocolate or Cafe de Olla here is a recipe:

Pan de Muerto  (Bread of the Dead)

Makes 1 large bread

1 x 7g sachet ‘fast action’ dried yeast

100 ml warm milk

500 g flour

150 g plus 2 Tbsp caster sugar

4 eggs, beaten

the juice and zest of 1 small orange, about 35 ml juice

1 tsp vanilla essence

50 g soft butter

½ tsp crushed caraway seeds (optional)

Put the oven to 180 C conventional /  160 C fan / Gas Mark 4

Activate the yeast by dissolving it in the warm milk and add 2 teaspoons of the sugar.

Sieve the flour into the bowl of an electric mixer such as a Kitchen Aid or Kenwood, add the sugar and salt plus the optional caraway seeds and the orange zest.  Add the yeast mixture and mix well.  Add the liquid ingredients except for the butter and using the flat paddle or the attachment for bread, mix at a medium speed for 5 minutes. Add the softened butter and continue mixing for 10 more minutes.  The dough should look very elastic and translucent.  Cover the bowl with cling film or a moist tea towel and leave to rise for a couple of hours in a draught free place or overnight in the fridge.  Punch the dough and put on a floured surface.

Cut ¼ of the dough and with the rest form a ball and flatten on the edge.

Separately make ‘bone’ shapes, you will need 4 long bones plus one ball that represents a skull.

Put the bread on a non-stick, floured baking tray or on some baking parchment.

Leave the bread and bones to rise for another ½ hr and when ready, decorate with the bones making a cross pattern and putting the ball on top.  Brush the whole of the bread with beaten egg and sprinkle with 2 Tbsp of caster sugar.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes at the indicated temperature, then lower the temperature by 20 C and leave for 20 minutes, then lower the temperature again by 20 C and leave for a further 20 minutes.

To see if the bread is cooked, it should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom, and should look golden brown and it should have risen quite a bit too!

Note.  This recipe makes a rustic version of bread of the dead which is more dense than commercial varieties.

It is a funny thing that whilst outside the street is a vampire party with everyone dressed mainly in black, inside the house the place is full of vibrant colours with a more solemn atmosphere, a funny contrast which seems go to well in our diverse society.

How to eat a taco and the best taquerias in Mexico City.

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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Like mole, the subject of tacos is enormous, there are tacos for all occasions, and for all types of people.  Small children in Mexico begin their taco-eating journey from an early age, most likely with ‘flautas de pollo’ which translates as chicken flutes the name being related to the similarity of these crispy tacos to a small flute or piccolo.  Some kids are brave enough to pour salsa on theirs, but many people, little or large enjoy eating these with guacamole, topped with lettuce a dollop of ‘crema agria’ and some crumbled ‘queso fresco’ and of course the ubiquitous optional salsa.  As we continue on our life journey, the palate matures -or in the case of many, it toughens; so more chilli, complex textures and flavours are required and here is where the taco subject extends massively.

To complicate things further, tacos are also associated to different occasions and they can be eaten at christenings, at private parties called ‘taquizas’, for lunch, as a snack just before going out, or as a perfect accompaniment to a long night on the tiles and of course as a good cure for the hangover that develops afterwards.

To attempt to classify tacos according to class, gender, race and festive occasion, would go beyond the scope of my simple blog, so I am not going to do that, not yet.  In fact I think that those outside Mexico who are interested in eating tacos, could perhaps start their own taco-journey by going to places like Taqueria -see my entry below, or its equivalent in whatever city you are.  If you are either in Mexico or are planning to visit and eat like the real Mc Coy, then you can follow these bits of advise:

1.  If you have Mexican friends join them, ask them to take you to their favourite taqueria, do ask what are you going to be eating, we tend to eat everything and although everything is delicious, it might not appeal to all, so ask first.  Then copy your friends add salsa, lime, coriander, onion, whatever takes your fancy, but remember that there is a code here and your friends will guide you, for instance a taco al pastor has to be eaten with onion, coriander and ‘salsa borracha’.  A taco de bistec should have lots of lime and perhaps a tomatillo or pico de gallo salsa. One taco topped with different salsas is a no, no, and don’t dip your tortilla chips (totopos) on salsa it is not quite the done thing… follow your friends or those sitting next to you.

2.  If you are a just a tourist and don’t know of anybody, then this guide might help you.

First of all go to a reputable place, don’t be mislead by the tourist thinking: if I am going to a stall that is full of people, food is being sold quickly so I might not get sick, well this might not be the case, also you might be eating things that are not necessarily of your fancy, so I would recommend going to a proper taco restaurant, or taqueria.  I will give some suggestions below.

Your taqueria should be clean, busy and it should have a ‘maestro taquero’, a master of the art of making tacos: this is a man (apologies for stereotyping people), he is usually in his thirties/forties, generally with a rounded belly and the proud owner of a bushy-black moustache.  He usually wears a white shirt, a white cap or paper hat and and apron and is extremely skillful in the art of taking orders, preparing meat, slicing, grilling, chopping, serving, making a mental account of how much each person is consuming, and then telling you exactly how much you need to pay.  Unlike sushi chefs, a ‘maestro taquero’ does not train for sixteen years before he can make his first taco, this trade is a ‘learn as you go’ job, but an advanced skill it is indeed! So much so that when I see them working so hard, so accurately, and always with a smile, I feel like giving them a round of applause -I won’t do that, I am not that ridiculous!

If you are a novice, go for simple tacos, things like bistec, chuleta, costilla, choriqueso (mexican chorizo and cheese), al pastor (pork in guajillo salsa and grilled pineapple), nopales (cactus), rajas (poblano strips, onion and cream) and alambre (poblano strips, char-grilled onions, bacon and steak). These should come on two tortillas piled with fillings and you need to divide these to make two tacos.  Then you add lots of lime and the salsa of your choice.  Fold the tortilla in half and in half again… if you want to look like a pro, then follow these simple steps:

  • Eat the taco with your hand, placing fingers like this: thumb and fourth fingers underneath the taco, index and middle fingers on top of the taco and little finger sticks out like when you drink a posh cup of tea.
  • Body position is very important.  Gentlemen, remove your ties! Tacos are better eaten while standing up.  To avoid spillages, chest sticks out a little and so does the bottom, this is in order to keep balance!  Tilt your head to face the taco and then you are ready to go.  Remember, practice makes perfect!

Most important is to enjoy the taco and for that you could go to:

El Califa.  Altata 22, corner with Alfonso Reyes in Condesa. Tel. 5271 7666.  London prices but the ‘Gaonera’ is delicious, go for the simple ‘taco de bistec’ which is very good, this is a post-modern establishment with videos, music, fancy deco and exhorbitant prices.  If you are in the area, go and mix with the in crowd, with luck you might spot Gael Garcia Bernal or Diego Luna

Los Panchos -since 1945.  Tolstoi 9, Anzures between Leibinitz and Dante, round the corner from Camino Real Hotel Tel: 5254 2082.  This is a traditional place which is always busy and where you can eat standing up, go for the carnitas, which are yum.  This is great to watch working Mexicans at lunch.

El Rincon de la Lechuza -since 1971.  Located in Miguel Angel de Quevedo almost corner with Insurgentes Avenue, very near Coyoacan district.  Tel: 5661 0050.  My parents used to bring me here when I was little and yes it is a family place, take mum, dad, cousins, brothers, sisters and granny.  Visit on a Sunday for lunch so that you can watch the other families; the grilled meats are very nice and so it was the chicken soup.

El Charco de las Ranas, in Rio Mixcoac 209 Tel 5598 6597.  In the middle of nowhere touristy, yet slightly close to Condesa, this place is a must, their pastor tacos are generous and delicious. In fact all their tacos are very generous.  This is a sui-generis place with slides for the kids, noisy, full of families and it looks like Mc Donald’s goes to Disneyland, but forget all that and enjoy the food, which is not only delicious but generous with fantastic salsas.   Also drink the rice drink (horchata) which is a favourite.

El Tizoncito in Tamaulipas 122, Condesa.  Tel. 5286 7321.  A beloved place that is full of memories, when I used to visit with my friends, where they used to have an ad hoc ‘park in’: people would park all over the place and someone would come and take the order and serve us in the car.  In my university days are full of memories where we used to all eat crammed inside my VW Beetle, and the smell of coriander would linger for days in the car!!  Sadly nowadays this place is a chain with franchises, more of a ‘concept’ now and their tacos do taste formulaic, however it might be worth visiting because they are in Condesa, because they are cheap, and because that first bite of a hot taco al pastor with all the trimmings is a fantastic experience.. and also because to watch Mr. Taco Master at work is something worth watching.

*this guide was partly borrowed from Chilango magazine and also from my own experiences and memories… enjoy!