Lesley Tellez

Tacos de rajas with queso cotija

September 10, 2010 by Lesley Tellez

Last week we had a guest instructor in cooking class, and he gave us a list of dishes to prepare over three hours: chiles rellenos, salsa de chile pasilla, fish wrapped in hoja santa and banana leaves, jalapeños en escabeche and rajas con queso cotija.

Out of all of them, the rajas were probably the least exciting. I love rajas (pronounced RAH-has) but what more can you learn about roasting, deveining and peeling poblano peppers, and then cutting them into strips? I’d already done it several times at home.

Instead, I chose to spend the class — where else — in front of the molcajete, grinding the chile pasilla salsa. I roasted my chiles and rehydrated them in boiling water, and then ground them to bits. (The key there: the chiles must be completely pliable. You can’t remove them from the water too soon.) I plopped one tomatillo after the other into the bowl and smooshed each one to death, while also trying to shield my apron from the splatter. (If you’re wondering why I used a partner’s molcajete instead of my own, it’s because I was too worried about a possible pumice aftertaste. I still haven’t seasoned the damn thing correctly.)

At the end of class, everyone got to take home a chile, one fish filet and the rajas in little plastic baggies. Back at our apartment, Crayton and I sat in front of the TV with a couple of beers and dug in.

I love to share with my husband, but the rajas were so good I wanted them all to myself. They had the sweetness of a roasted root vegetable, while the cheese gave the dish these bursts of saltiness, and a kind of sour, pastoral tang. Cotija is hard, crumbly cow’s-milk cheese that’s named after a town in Michoacán, where it’s manufactured; it is characteristically salty and slightly acidic.

The dish seemed hearty enough to work on its own as a taco filling. So I invited my friend Daniel over for dinner a few days ago and decided to make the rajas again. Right before he came over, I momentarily panicked: Was this going to work? Were the rajas too strong to serve on their own, with a few crumbly bits of cheese?

I made brown rice at the last minute, just in case we needed something bland. But everything turned out fine. The peppers were as sweet as I remembered, and I think the cheese actually helped mellow the dish out. I served the tacos with some of my leftover chile pasilla salsa and they were a hit.

Recipe below.
…

The desperate sounds of Mexico City traffic

September 9, 2010 by Lesley Tellez

Mexico’s Bicentenario celebration, marking 200 years of independence from Spain, is next week on the evening of Sept. 15.

It’s going to be the biggest party of the year. There’ll be concerts, music, and a bunch of people running around in fake mustaches and sombreros. I’ll personally be wearing a tri-colored headband and earrings, which I bought from a street vendor.

There’s one big downside to all this fun: the insane, soul-crushing traffic.

The city closed off a portion of Reforma earlier this week for “security reasons,” so every major thoroughfare nearby has turned into a parking lot. A few days ago I stared at the line of cars on the avenue near my house and remarked to Crayton: “This feels like Christmas.” (Christmas is another time of the year when traffic is particularly horrible.)

On top of all of that, there was a manifestación on Reforma today that shut down the area near the Angel.

The drivers this morning weren’t having it. At around 8:30 a.m., I captured a serenade of angry (and sometimes mournful) honks from my office window. Amazing how loud it was.

Please don’t stop listening when the track gets quiet — the drivers are just resting. They’ll start up again in a few seconds.

Five things I learned at the IFBC conference in Seattle

September 6, 2010 by Lesley Tellez

This is what a raw geoduck looks like. Weird, no?

I know I’ve been talking a lot about the technical aspects of blogging lately. I’m going to return to Mexican food soon, I promise, but I did just want to share a few more thoughts from the International Food Blogger Conference I attended a few weeks ago.

The conference really made me think. Not just about recipes and search engine optimization and stuff like that — although that was part of it — but also about how different all of us food bloggers are, and how it’s totally, mind-blowingly crazy that we’re a huge demographic that doesn’t quite belong to any one industry. We’re just kinda making up the rules as we go along.

Here are five things that stuck with me from the conference:
…

Doesn’t it make you feel insignificant?

September 1, 2010 by Lesley Tellez

Snapped this on the plane a few days ago, while flying home to Mexico City.

Morgan Spurlock on transparency and activism in food blogging

August 28, 2010 by Lesley Tellez

Morgan Spurlock at the International Food Blogger Conference in Seattle, on Friday Aug. 27, 2010

Morgan Spurlock kicked off the opening night of the IFBC conference yesterday, chatting for about an hour about why eating locally grown food matters and how we can get folks to care.

He’s a funny guy, and he talked briefly about creating a Supersize Me sequel called Supersize Me 2: Obesity Boogaloo. (“I still may do it,” he said.) What struck me most were his thoughts on the future of food blogging.

In his opinion, food bloggers need to get away from the computer and get out into the streets. We should be educating people, working with the local media to teach people where their food comes from and how to cook it properly. Bloggers could lead field trips to local farms, he said. Or organize a visit to a local restaurant, where the chef could talk about eating sustainably.

“That’s what you all need to be focused on,” he told the crowd. “How can my words drive action?”

He briefly mentioned that food bloggers need to be a lot more transparent. He said it at the end of his talk and he didn’t have time to elaborate, but I’m assuming he meant in regard to whether we’ve received free meals or if we’ve been paid to endorse products. I heartily agree.

I admit that while I’m passionate about eating less processed food and enjoying the natural taste of a product (as opposed to something laden with corn syrup), I haven’t spent enough time in Mexico yet to understand exactly how to educate people here. Regarding transparency: The only free meal I’ve received in writing this blog was at El Bajío, as part of the Aromas y Sabores tour. The entire tour was free for all the invited journalists/photographers. But that doesn’t excuse it — I should’ve left an extra-large tip or at least mentioned in the post that the meal was free.

I’m curious about your thoughts. If you blog about food, do you see yourself taking a more activist turn? Do you think you’re being transparent enough? Do you accept free meals when you’re writing, and do you expect it?

Headed to the International Food Blogger Conference

August 27, 2010 by Lesley Tellez

I’ve been visiting the States for two reasons over these past two weeks. One was to watch a dear friend get married, which she did, on a hill overlooking the San Juan islands. The second reason was to attend the International Food Blogger Conference.

I’m usually skeptical about blogging conferences and classes. With the exception of BlogHer, most of them tend to be outrageously expensive and focused on, “Look at all the swag we’re getting!”

This one seemed different. It’s small and aimed at how to specifically improve the content of your food blog, through streamlined recipe writing, and better writing and photography. There’s also a seminar on SEO and blog traffic (with my friend Joy on the panel), and a keynote speech from James Oseland, the editor-in-chief of Saveur. Other panelists include Victoria von Biel, executive editor of Bon Apetit, and Molly Wizenberg of Orangette and A Homemade Life.

Of course, there is swag too, but I’m more worried about how I’m going to fit it in my packed suitcase. (I’ve got a fancy new pair of rainboots taking up a bit of space.)

The conference starts tonight, with an opening reception at the Hotel Monaco with Morgan Spurlock, best-known for directing Super Size Me. I’ll have more updates to come!

How to season a molcajete, when you’re absolutely tired of grinding

August 25, 2010 by Lesley Tellez

During my last cooking class, Yuri announced that we were taking a break from the metate. Instead, we’d cook up a few antojitos — corn-based snacks — which we’d then get to eat. This was cause for rejoicing, because we hadn’t eaten anything in the past two classes, despite marathon-amounts of grinding.

On the menu was homemade refried black beans, various types of salsa made in our molcajetes, and tortillas, tlacoyos and sopes from ready-made masa.

First, he instructed us how to cook the beans. We should pick over them carefully to remove any small stones, and then soak them overnight until the water turned an inky black color. We could use the same soaking water to cook the beans, ideally in a clay bean pot. Yuri warned us not to salt the beans or add anything to them while they’re cooking, save for a wee bit of epazote at the end.

He rhapsodized a bit more about black beans and how delicious they are, and then sent us off to our molcajetes to make salsas. As folks began pulling their molcajetes off the shelves, he called out a question:

“Everyone has seasoned their molcajetes, right?”

I’d been dreading this moment.
…

And… we have a winner!

August 23, 2010 by Lesley Tellez

Wow. I am so amazed by all the comments over the past three days. Y’all shared some fantastic memories, and I felt honored to read each of them.

I wish I could give everyone just a little something (and maybe I will get to do that someday, when I’m rich and famous), but alas, the package goes to one winner.

And he/she is….

Melodie! The commenter who ate turkey tamales wrapped in foil as a child, even though neither of her parents were Mexican.

Melodie, you’ll receive the sweets package from La Nicolasa. I’ll email you directly using the email address you provided in the comments.

Thanks again to everyone for playing.

The first-ever Mija Chronicles blog giveaway

August 20, 2010 by Lesley Tellez

I know I use exclamation points a lot, but this deserves one: I’m giving away some Mexican goodies!

I’ve been wanting to do this for months now, as a way to say thanks for reading. I really appreciate every single comment you guys leave — at least, the nice comments anyway — and I’m just honored that y’all take the time to spend a few minutes here.

This little tray of goodies, all of which were purchased at La Nicolasa, includes tejocote jam (so fabulous I started buying loaves of bread, just to have something to spread it on); piloncillo en polvo; a package of peach ate — perfect for slicing and serving with Mexican manchego; and a package of dried xoconostle, which is the sour tuna fruit. When it’s dried, it has a pleasant, sweet-and-tangy flavor that makes it perfect for salads, rice, trail mix, etc.

The pretty plate in the picture above isn’t included, because it’s my mom’s. (Thanks for letting me use it Mom!) Also, in the interest of complete transparency, I purchased these things with my own money — La Nicolasa didn’t give me anything for free.

To win, all you have to do is answer this question in the comments below:

What is your favorite Mexican food memory, and why?

I’ll pick one person randomly as the winner on Monday. Thanks for playing, and thank you again for reading.

La Nicolasa: Organic, gourmet Mexican groceries in Mexico City

August 18, 2010 by Lesley Tellez

I’ve been meaning to write about La Nicolasa for a long time. It’s a small store in Azcapotzalco that offers organic, natural food products, all of them 100 percent Mexican.

There’s no other store I know of here where everything is both all-natural and domestic. Among the products for sale at La Nicolasa are:

Brie and Camembert cheese, olive oil, turkey burgers, whole frozen organic chickens, tejocote jam (my absolute favorite in the universe), organic ate, ground chiles, homemade potato chips, dried xoconostle, bottled spices to make vegetable caldo, and Mexican wine. You can also buy lead-free clay bean pots at La Nicolasa, similar to the one I purchased last year.

The prices aren’t cheap for Mexico standards, but they’re less than what you’d pay for similar high-quality items in the United States or elsewhere.

Really, what I love about this store is that I know exactly where the products are coming from. In Mexico, food transparency laws are still in their beginning stages and as a consumer, I have no way of knowing whether the packaged ate I purchase in the mercado was really made using fruit from China. (By the way: I heard recently that China supplies a lions’ share of dried chiles in Mexico. So you really never know.)

At La Nicolasa, I know I’m supporting Mexican farmers and food-makers, many of whom live in small rural communities. It makes it worth the trip. Plus Azcapotzalco — a quiet colonia north of Polanco — is quaint and cool anyway. I’d love to live there someday, if Crayton didn’t have to commute to Reforma.

Here are a few pictures of the place. If you’re looking for all-natural, artisanal Mexican food products, this place must be on your list.