Mexican Oaxaca-style lentils: Lentejas oaxaqueñas
This spicy-sweet, meatless main dish is traditional Oaxacan Lenten fare. The combination of spices with fruit is characteristic of southern Mexican cooking. Lentils are one of the fastest-cooking legum...
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Mexican Yucatan-style lentil stew: Potage de lentejas estilo yucateca
This hearty stew gets its flavor from pork and a medley of vegetables. The best choice for the pork stew meat is shoulder. In Mexico, ask the butcher for espaldilla. Substitute güero chile for the xca...
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Mexican Queretaro-style lentil soup with nopales: Sopa de lentejas con nopales estilo Queretaro
This recipe, adapted from Diana Kennedy's The Essential Cuisines of Mexico, contains the characteristically Mexican ingredients nopales, fresh green chiles and cilantro.
Ingredients
½ cup brow...
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Refreshing squash drink: Agua de chilacayote
The bottle gourd, cucurbita Ficifolia, a rather bland member of the squash family, is common in Oaxacan cuisine, either cooked in stews, used to make a dulce something like candied pumpkin, or in this ...
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Potato and fava bean patties with costeño chile sauce: Tortitas de papas y habas con salsa de chile costeño
The potato tortitas, or "patties" sold inside some of Oaxaca's markets are superb — light on the inside, with a crunchy golden crust. This variation is typical of the region from Ocotlan south to the...
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Oaxacan yellow mole: Amarillo
Called simply (and fondly) "amarillo," this Oaxacan mole dish is a specialty of the Central Valleys region of this southern Mexico state. Although usually made with chicken, it is one of the few mol...
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Mexican turkey in a dark spice sauce: Chilmole from the Yucatan
A traditional and delicious Mexican dish, chilmole — sometimes called relleno negro — is made from one of the classic recados, or seasoning combinations. This dish, said to have orig...
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Mexican-style rabbit in red pipian with wild mushrooms: Pipian rojo con conejo y hongos silvestres
This colorful alabrije rabbit by Jacobo Angeles races across the Mexican mountain meadows.
© Alvin Starkman, 2008
I taught this in a cooking class I gave last summer in Cuetzalan, Puebla, where I ...
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Mexican chicken and allspice stew: Chilpozontle
A specialty of the Puebla mountain town of Zacapoaxtla, this Mexican dish uses allspice leaves as well as berries in a savory chicken stew. If you can't get allspice leaves, fresh bay leaves work well....
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Did you know? Some tequila is priced at $225,000
It may be ridiculous, but it is nonetheless true. The tequila company Tequila Ley .925 issued a press release in July 2006 proudly announcing the introduction of three different presentations of "Tequila Ley .925, Pasion Azteca, Gold and Platinum."
The tequila itself is exclusive, a premium quality 100% blue agave tequila, aged for 6 years. The bottles it comes in are even more special. The company has won several awards previously for its unorthodox designs. This time, each bottle is shaped like a barbed sea shell and engraved by Mexican artist Alejandro Gomez Oropeza. read more
