One Hundred & One
MEXICAN DISHES

COMPILED BY
MAY E. SOUTHWORTH

PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY
PUBLISHERS, SAN FRANCISCO

Copyright, 1906
by Paul Elder and Company
San Francisco

Second Printing, 1914

• SOUP
• FISH
• MEAT
• FOWL
• VEGETABLES
• MEAT DUMPLINGS
• DESSERTS
• ENCHILADAS
• TAMALES
• OLLA PODRIDA

[Pg 3]

ALMENDRA

Wash a cupful of rice and put in a double boiler with a quart of milk and cook slowly until every grain is tender. Shell and blanch a half-pound of almonds, chop fine and then pound in a mortar; add, a few drops at a time, a half-cupful of cream, forming a smooth paste. Mix with this a tablespoonful of sugar, a little ground chile and a pint of milk and put all in with the cooked rice and simmer for a half-hour. Season with salt, and if too thick add more milk.

CALDO DE PESCADO

Chop four onions and fry in four tablespoonfuls of oil; add six tomatoes peeled and cut fine, one herb bouquet, a sprig of parsley, a glassful of white wine, four tablespoonfuls of oil, one chile pepper and four tablespoonfuls of flour. When brown add three pints of water and boil a half-hour; then add six slices of fish of almost any variety. Remove the herb bouquet, add salt, and pour over crusts of dry bread.

[Pg 4]

CHILE BISQUE

Take eight large sweet chile peppers, remove seeds and veins, boil and put the pulp through a colander; to this add a cupful of boiled rice, mashed smooth. Season highly with tabasco and salt. Beat an egg with a half-cupful of cream and add to a quart of hot milk. Put the bisque in this, let boil up once and serve immediately, pouring over toasted squares of bread.

CORDERO

Cut a pound of young lamb into small chunks and fry with a sliced onion in hot lard. When nicely browned add three peeled and sliced tomatoes and three green peppers chopped fine. Cover with two quarts of water and simmer slowly; add a cupful of green peas, one of green corn cut from the cob, a half-cupful of rice, salt and chile pepper. Work into a raw egg a teaspoonful of oil and a half-teaspoonful of vinegar; put this in the bottom of the soup-tureen and pour the soup over it.

[Pg 5]

GITANO

Into three quarts of good beef stock, put one onion, four cloves of garlic and an eighth of a pound of salt pork; to this add a cupful of beans and a pound of salt codfish which has been soaked overnight. Cook slowly, and when partly done, season with chorizo (Mexican sausage) and add some potatoes peeled and cut into dice.

MEXICAN NOODLE

Use two quarts of any clear stock. For the paste, take a small cupful of grated Parmesan cheese, one of flour, and a little salt and cayenne; beat four eggs and add slowly, also a half-cupful of cream, making a rather thin batter. Have the stock boiling, and let this batter run into it through a very small but coarse sieve. It will make long strings which must boil ten minutes.

RANCHEROS

Fry a large cupful of minced vegetables, mostly onions, in a small cupful of butter. When a light brown, mix in a small [Pg 6] cupful of flour and set the pan in the oven for the mixture to brown through without burning. Then scrape the contents of the pan into three quarts of soup stock and add two cupfuls of dry stewed tomatoes, eight cloves, half a bay-leaf and a teaspoonful of chopped chile pepper. Cook an hour, skimming the top occasionally and season well with salt.

[Pg 9]

CANGREJUELOS

Put a teaspoonful of lard in a deep porcelain saucepan and when hot add a quarter of a pound of ham, chopped fine, an onion chopped, salt and chile powder. When these are well browned, add a pint of picked shrimps and stir until hot; then put in a half-pint of washed rice, a bay-leaf, thyme and parsley. Cover and simmer with sufficient water added to cook the rice until each grain stands out alone.

CARACOLES CON PEREJIL

Soak the snails in salt water, then wash them in two or three waters. Crack the shells and throw them in boiling water with a little salt and herbs. Cook fifteen minutes, drain from the water and pick the snails from the shells. Fry some chopped onion, garlic and parsley in olive-oil and add a bay-leaf and some thyme. Dry the snails and put in this, with a seasoning of salt and pepper, and fry twenty minutes. Thicken with a little flour and at the last moment add the juice of a lemon.

[Pg 10]

LANGOSTA À LA CATALANA

Remove the lobster meat from the shell, lay it in a bowl, so as to save all the water that comes from it, and cut in quarters. Chop four large onions and a bunch of parsley, mash four cloves of garlic, and fry all together in a half-cupful of olive-oil until nearly brown. Season with salt and cayenne; add the lobster with all the juice, a cupful of washed rice and a tablespoonful of capers. Cook until the rice is done. When serving put whole pimientos on top.

PILCHERS

Take the sardines carefully from the box, skin and bone them and lay on brown wrapping paper until ready to use. Cut strips of bread a little longer and a little wider than the sardines, removing all crusts. Fry these in olive-oil a delicate brown. Lay a sardine on each piece and put in the oven until heated through. When ready to serve sprinkle each one with grated parmesan cheese and lay a thin slice of pimiento on top.

[Pg 13]

BUEY AHUMANDO
Y HUEVOS

To a cupful of chipped beef, soaked in hot water and chopped fine, add a cupful of strained tomatoes, two hard-boiled eggs cut fine, one tablespoonful of grated cheese, one grated onion, a chile pepper chopped fine and a big lump of butter. Beat all these together, break in two raw eggs and scramble in a frying-pan.

CHILE CON CARNE

Cut a pound of fresh pork into inch chunks and parboil. Soak five chiles in hot water, take out the seeds and veins, wash them well and put in a mortar (the Mexicans use the molcajete and tejolote ). Pound to a pulp, adding a little garlic, black pepper, two cloves and a cooked tomato. Fry this in hot lard; then add the meat with some of the liquid in which it was boiled and a little salt. Cover and let it cook down until rather thick.

CHONZO

Cut one pound of fresh pork and one pound of beef into small pieces. Chop two pods of garlic and add one teaspoonful [Pg 14] of ground chile, one-third teaspoonful of ground cloves, one teaspoonful of black pepper and one of oregano. Season with salt and mix all together with a glass of port wine and fry in two teaspoonfuls of olive-oil. When ready to serve break in two whole eggs and scramble together.

CHULETAS
DE TERNERO

Trim veal cutlets and season with pepper and salt; roll them in flour and lay them in a frying-pan in which six onions chopped fine have already been placed in hot lard. Cover the pan tightly and let the cutlets fry, turning to cook the other side; add a tablespoonful of vinegar, a little thyme, a bay-leaf, a clove of garlic and some comino seed or chopped parsley. When the cutlets are well browned, cover them with boiling water and move the pan to the back of the stove and let them simmer in this spicy bath for two hours. Serve with a garnish of fresh, crisp, cold radishes.

ESTOFADO

Heat a tablespoonful of drippings in a saucepan and put into it two whole green peppers, one onion sliced, one clove [Pg 15] of minced garlic, one tablespoonful of vinegar, two tomatoes peeled and sliced, one-half cupful of raisins and olives mixed, and a pinch of thyme. Add two pounds of round steak cut small, cover closely and stew slowly and thoroughly. When serving, put squares of toast on the platter and pour this over.

GUISO

Cut a round-steak into small pieces and put into a frying-pan with a tablespoonful of hot drippings, four tablespoonfuls of rice, a cupful of boiling water and a sliced onion. Cover closely and cook slowly until tender. Remove the seeds and veins from four Mexican peppers, cover with a half-pint of boiling water and let stand until cool; squeeze them from the water with the hand, getting out all the pulp. Add salt and a little flour to thicken. Pour this over the cooked meat, let boil for a moment and serve very hot.

JAMON CON PIMIENTOS

Cut a pound of ham into small chunks; add to this a pound of sausage meat, two onions and two tomatoes sliced, a [Pg 16] sprig of parsley or a few comino seeds and some small bits of dried chile pepper. Fry these together in a little butter or drippings and then add a pint of boiling water. Stir in a pound of soaked rice, cover and set where it will cook slowly without stirring. Salt to taste and serve hot.

LENGUA DE BUEY
CONCIDA

Dissolve one-half cupful of salt in enough boiling water to cover a beef’s tongue and cook until just done. When cool remove the skin and slice thin. Take a dozen chiles anchos or large dry chiles, cut them the long way, remove all seeds, veins and the stem end; drop the skins into boiling water with one-half cupful of salt, press them under the water and keep at boiling heat two hours. Skim into a chopping-tray, chop fine and press through a sieve. Add a teaspoonful of powdered summer savory, two of finely chopped onion, salt and a half-cupful of olive-oil. Squeeze the juice of two lemons into a cup and fill it up with vinegar. Add this to the sauce by spoonfuls and a bottle of olives stoned and cut fine. Heat and pour over the tongue as it is served.

[Pg 17]

LOMA DE VACA

Take a quarter of a pound of suet, slice thin and fry until thoroughly melted. Put a sliced onion in this and fry until brown; then put in a four-pound roast of beef and brown on all sides. Take the juice of a large tomato, the pulp of a chile pepper, two whole cloves, one teaspoonful of vinegar, one of sugar, salt, and a dash of pepper, and put in the pot with the meat. Add a little water, just enough to keep from scorching, cover tightly, set on the back of the stove and cook slowly until tender. Serve with brown gravy.

PATITAS CON MANI

Scrape, singe and wash the pigs’ feet thoroughly clean. Place in a kettle with plenty of water to which a little vinegar has been added and boil until tender. Peel, quarter and parboil some potatoes and have a cupful of roasted peanuts, half of which are whole and half ground. Remove and dry the trotters and fry with the potatoes and peanuts in hot olive-oil. Season with allspice and salt. Stir constantly so as to brown on all sides, cooking about ten minutes.

[Pg 18]

PUERCO EN ESTOFADO

Sauter in a frying-pan a pound of young pork cut small; add the livers and gizzards of two chickens, an ounce of green root-ginger and three stalks of celery, all cut into small pieces. Then add, a little at a time, a mixture of four tablespoonfuls of olive-oil, one of wine-vinegar, one of Worcestershire sauce, a dash of powdered cloves, salt and pepper. Add a half-cupful of boiling water and cook until nearly done; then put in a cupful of bean-sprouts and one of small mushrooms.

PULCHERO GRUESO

Cut up three pounds of beef, one pig’s foot, a half-pound of ham, the giblets of a fowl and a chile pepper and simmer together for two hours; add a slice of pumpkin, free from seeds, half of a small cabbage, a large carrot, a bunch of herbs, two large onions and some broken macaroni. Cook an hour longer, then put in six small sausages and boil until they are done. Strain, thicken the gravy and serve meat and vegetables on separate dishes.

[Pg 19]

TIA JUANA

Chop a clove of garlic very fine, peel and slice a medium-sized onion and fry both with a pound of sausage meat made into balls. When it begins to brown add a pint of tomatoes and one chile. Meantime scald a pound of tripe, scrape it with the back of a knife and cut into strips about two inches wide and five long. Roll each and tie with a thread; brown quickly in butter, dredging with a little flour. Remove to a hot platter, making a circle of the rolls of tripe. Lift the sausage balls from the sauce and heap in the center. Strain the sauce, season with salt, reheat and pour over all.

TRIPE SPANISH

Boil the tripe until tender and cut into narrow strips. Brown a sliced onion, a clove of garlic and half a chile pepper chopped fine in two tablespoonfuls of olive-oil. Thicken with a little flour, season with salt and add a peeled tomato cut fine and a pinch of smoked Spanish sausage. Put the tripe in this sauce and cook fifteen minutes, adding a little water if necessary.

[Pg 23]

À LA MODA

Boil a well-cleaned fowl slowly until tender. When cold, cut from the bones in small pieces and to these add a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, an onion and a pepper chopped fine; season with salt, chile powder and a little Spanish sausage. Line a mold with cooked macaroni, pour in the chicken, cover lightly and steam for an hour. Serve with tomato sauce.

CHILE CHICKEN

Boil a chicken until tender. When cold, cut into small pieces. Wash and dry a cupful of rice, put in hot olive-oil and fry for a few moments; add a peeled tomato, an onion cut fine, salt and chile peppers or powder. Put in the chicken and some of the broth, and cook until the rice is tender.

GALLINA
CON GARBANZOS

Put the giblets of a chicken with a sliced onion, a little parsley and grated lemon-peel in a frying-pan with fresh lard or [Pg 24] olive-oil, and fry slowly. Cut up a chicken, slice some ham or bacon, put these in with the giblets and fry brown. In a separate stew-pan put a little of the strained gravy, salt, chile pepper, a teaspoonful of olive-oil and one of tarragon vinegar. Add the browned fowl, also the giblets chopped fine, some chopped onion and parsley; last, put in a quart of green peas and cook until the peas are done. Serve with the peas in the center and the chicken piled about.

GANSO EN ACEITUNAS

Boil a goose until well done in water to which has been added two cloves of garlic and three chile peppers. Lift from the water, dry, and put it immediately in a pan of sizzling-hot bacon for a few minutes, turning it constantly so that every part is covered with the hot grease; add a half-pound of coarsely cut olives to the gravy before serving.

MEXICAN TURKEY

Soak fifteen chiles anchos or the broad dried peppers, without roasting, in a pint of water; then grind with two onions and [Pg 25] the boiled giblets of the fowl; fry all in oil, adding a large pinch of oregano (wild marjoram), salt and a little vinegar. Stuff the turkey with whole onions and boil until about half cooked. Remove, wipe dry and put in a pan to roast. Add the liquor in which it was boiled to chile sauce and pour half of it over the turkey. After it has roasted for half an hour, turn, and pour over it the remaining sauce and cook until tender, basting often with the sauce in the pan.

MOLE DE GUAJOLOTE

Boil a turkey, save the broth, and cut into pieces as for serving. Remove all the seeds and veins from a pound of dry chile peppers, a pound of broad chiles and one of black chiles. Throw away the veins but fry the seeds with peanuts, almonds, walnuts, a piece of cinnamon, a pinch of comino seed and a piece of chocolate the size of a walnut. Fry the peppers until brown and then grind with the seeds to a smooth paste; fry all together again, then mix with the turkey broth. Put the pieces of turkey in a deep pan with a small piece of lean pork, pour the [Pg 26] dressing over and bake an hour. When dished for serving sprinkle anjonjoli seeds over the top.

POLLO GUISADO

Steam two tender spring chickens for twenty minutes and then cut into pieces as for fricassee. Strain a can of tomatoes and mix with a can of corn and add a pepper chopped fine and a little parsley. Season with paprika, salt, cayenne, celery-salt and black pepper. Put the pieces of chicken in this and thicken with cracker-crumbs. Turn into an earthen baking-dish, put big lumps of butter over the top and bake for half an hour.

POLLUELO
EN ESTOFADO

Quarter a young chicken and fry in plenty of olive-oil with half a cupful of finely chopped onion and diced raw potato mixed. Let this all fry until the fowl is white; add a little fine parsley and chopped green pepper and a little hot water. Season with salt and pepper and simmer over a slow fire until thoroughly cooked.

[Pg 29]

ARROZ EN EL HORNO

Take a pint of any very strong vegetable stock and mix with it four tablespoonfuls of big whole rice; add a tablespoonful of chopped green pepper, a peeled tomato, an onion finely shredded, a big lump of butter, salt and paprika. Put all in a small stone jar, cover with a loose lid and bake in a slow oven for two hours, without stirring.

BEANS MEXICAN

Soak two cupfuls of pink beans in six of water overnight; in the morning add a small onion and boil gently until soft; take out the onion and set the beans to drain. Put a large tablespoonful of fresh lard in a skillet and when sizzling-hot add the drained beans. Mix beans and lard thoroughly until each bean seems to have a coating of the fat and begins to burst. Add a cupful of the liquid in which the beans were boiled and gently crush a few of the beans with the spoon to thicken the gravy. Add the remainder of the bean liquor and a chopped chile pepper and simmer until the beans are quite dry.

[Pg 30]

CHILE REINAS

Cut chile peppers lengthwise down the sides, remove the seeds and carefully roast in hot ashes, after which the outer skin can easily be wiped off. Grate dry cheese and stuff the peppers full of this and press the two sides together and fasten. According to the number of peppers being prepared, take enough eggs for a liberal dressing; beat the whites and yolks separately to a light froth and then mix them. Have ready a frying-pan with sufficient boiling lard to cover the peppers. Dip each pod into the frothy egg for a moment, then drop into the boiling lard, pouring over each more of the egg while the frying peppers are turned. Serve with a chile sauce to which has been added a few chopped green walnut meats.

CIDRACAYOTE

Take young summer squash, wash and remove stem and flower and cut into dice. Put in a stew-pan a tablespoonful of pure lard and when hot add a half-teaspoonful of finely minced onion; stir about and then put in the squash, salt and black pepper. Fry [Pg 31] for ten minutes, stirring often, then add tender sweet corn fresh from the cob, in proportion of a half-cupful of corn to a full pint of squash. Cook until sufficiently soft to mash.

EJOTES CON VINO

Cook string-beans until tender in boiling salted water. Fry a little chopped onion and green pepper in oil until brown; add the beans and some white wine with a seasoning of salt and pepper.

ESTILO SECO

Boil a pint of pink beans until very tender in plenty of water, adding hot water as it boils away. Put in a frying-pan a heaping tablespoonful of lard and butter mixed; strain the hot beans from the pot and put into the boiling fat; add a sliced onion and seasoning of salt and red pepper. Stir well and allow to brown slightly. Ten minutes before taking from the frying-pan add seven tablespoonfuls of grated American cheese. Serve with thin slices of hot buttered toast and sliced cucumbers with oil and vinegar.

[Pg 32]

ENTRADAS

Make a sauce of a quarter of a cupful of olive-oil and two tablespoonfuls of butter heated together; in this fry two green onions, a bunch of parsley, a little celery, a leek, a little garlic, and green peppers, all chopped fine. Season with salt and a tablespoonful of the Spanish sausage. After all is well cooked down, add a half-cupful of good stock. Boil some macaroni until tender and then plunge in cold water to blanch. Place orderly on a wide platter, strain the hot sauce over it and cover the top with grated Edam cheese.

FRIJOLES

In the bottom of a bean-jar put a whole onion with a clove stuck in it, three whole cloves of garlic, four pieces of mustard pickle and three tablespoonfuls of the mustard vinegar. Over this put a layer of uncooked red beans and a piece of salt pork, then more beans; over all a tablespoonful of sugar. Fill with hot water and bake slowly all day. Renew with hot water from time to time.

[Pg 33]

FRIJOLES CON QUESO

Boil two cupfuls of red beans until soft; drain and put in a skillet with a tablespoonful of hot lard and fry, pressing a few to thicken the gravy. Add a cupful of hot water and when bubbling put in a cupful of grated cheese. Season with salt and chile sauce.

FUENTE ITALIANO

Boil spaghetti until tender, strain and put into a deep baking-dish. Chop an onion and a clove of garlic fine and add, with three peeled, sliced tomatoes. Dilute chile powder to taste in a little water and pour over all. Cover the top with grated cheese and put in the oven to brown.

GREEN CHILES

Boil two pounds of meat until tender and chop fine; add a large ripe peeled tomato, two sliced onions, two slices of bread chopped fine, raisins, olives, salt and a tablespoonful of vinegar. Fry all these together in olive-oil and season with a little sugar and pepper. Remove the stems and seeds from six green chile peppers and [Pg 34] stuff them with this dressing. Dip each chile in a rather stiff batter and fry in deep drippings.

HABAS ESPAÑA

Soak one and one-half cupfuls of Spanish beans overnight; in the morning lift into boiling water and boil three hours, adding boiling water as it boils away. Drain from the water and add a quarter of a pound of bacon and two chile peppers. Put a half-cupful of olive-oil in a large frying-pan, add six large onions and three cloves of garlic sliced fine, and fry gently to a light brown; add two bay-leaves, a can of tomatoes, salt and black pepper, and simmer an hour, stirring frequently. Then put in the beans and boil for three hours, adding some of the water in which the beans were boiled, if too thick.

MACARRONES

Boil macaroni in salted water, drain and blanch by pouring cold water over it. Melt three tablespoonfuls of butter and add two tablespoonfuls of chopped green peppers and one of finely chopped [Pg 35] onion. Cook five minutes and then pour in gradually a small cupful of brown stock and one of stewed and strained tomatoes. Season with salt and paprika. Reheat macaroni in this sauce and serve immediately.

MAÑANA-LAND

Fry in a tablespoonful of olive-oil a large sliced onion and eight chopped green peppers; to this add a cupful of uncooked rice and stir constantly until the rice is nicely browned; then put in a half-can of tomatoes and fill up the skillet with rich soup stock and cook slowly, without stirring, for an hour.

PAPAS RELLENAS

Chop some cold cooked beef and mix with it raisins, chopped hard-boiled eggs, stoned ripe olives and a pinch of ground cloves. Moisten with port wine and make into little cones. Have ready some highly seasoned mashed potatoes, beaten until light. Cover the cones with this and fry in hot oil like doughnuts till a golden brown.

[Pg 36]

PIMIENTOS

Chop some cold cooked beef very fine and add one-half the amount in each, of finely chopped raisins and chopped walnut meats. Prepare the peppers for ordinary stuffing, only scrape rather thinner. Fill with the mixture, dip in thin egg batter and fry brown. Serve with chile sauce.

PLATO FUERTE

Select even-sized chile peppers and cut out the stems, seeds and cores. Make a stuffing of boned and skinned sardines mixed with finely chopped cheese, blended together with beaten egg. Stuff the peppers with this, dip in thick batter and fry in deep fat. When thoroughly cooked, drain on brown paper and serve very hot.

RELLENOS

Grind fine a pound of well-cooked veal and add to it a Spanish sausage ( chorizo ), a half-cupful, each, of seedless raisins and blanched almonds. Moisten this with the veal stock and season [Pg 37] with salt. Broil sweet Mexican green peppers, pull off the skin and stuff with this. Dip the peppers in a thin batter of egg and flour and fry in hot olive-oil. Serve with tomato sauce.

RELLENOS DE QUESO
DE GRUYÈRE

Put six chile peppers in the oven for a few moments and then wipe off the outer skin. Cut off the tops and carefully remove seeds and veins. Make a stuffing of strips of Swiss cheese, flavored with chopped onion, parsley and a few drops of lemon-juice. Fill the peppers, not very full, with this. Beat four eggs, whites and yolks separately, put together and thicken with a teaspoonful of flour. Dip the chiles in this batter and fry in hot olive-oil until brown. Serve with tomato sauce.

STUFFED CHILES

Take a dozen large green chile peppers and lay them on the top of the stove until roasted slightly on all sides; remove and wrap in a cloth for a few minutes, when they can be easily peeled. [Pg 38] Prepare the stuffing by chopping a half-pound of cheese very fine and adding a cupful of fine bread-crumbs, an onion chopped fine, a big lump of butter, salt and pepper. Beat the whites of three eggs to a froth and add two tablespoonfuls of milk and flour enough to make a thin batter. Fill the chiles with the stuffing, dip each one in the batter and fry in deep, hot olive-oil. Serve with tomato sauce.

SUCULENTO

Fry a half-pound of chopped salt pork with a sliced onion and six green peppers cut small. When brown add a can of corn and four small summer squashes sliced. Cover with milk and cook slowly two hours, without stirring.

[Pg 41]

ALBONDIGAS

Take equal parts of fresh pork and beef, chop fine, add salt, a piece of soaked bread, one egg well beaten, and one teaspoonful of chile powder. Mix thoroughly and make into small balls, putting into each a piece of hard-boiled egg. In a tablespoonful of hot lard put five peeled and crushed tomatoes, a little chopped onion, salt and chile powder; add one cupful of broth and let boil a few moments; then put in the meat balls and boil until the meat is thoroughly cooked.

ALBONDIGUILLAS

To a pound of raw chopped beef add an onion finely chopped, a little garlic, parsley, marjoram, salt, a half-cupful of peeled and sliced tomato and a teaspoonful of cider-vinegar. Soak two slices of bread in broth, squeeze dry and add a beaten egg. Mix all well together and drop with a spoon into a saucepan of boiling broth and cook three-quarters of an hour.

[Pg 42]

ARTIFICIAL TURTLE

Beat together until smooth a half-pound, each, of chopped fat and lean veal; add three boned anchovies and season with mace, red pepper, salt, shredded parsley, juice of one lemon and two teaspoonfuls of Madeira wine. Mix all together and make into little balls; dust with flour and stew for a half-hour.

BUÑELOS

One and a half pounds veal cooked tender and put through a meat-grinder. To three cups of the veal add one of blanched almonds, one of whole raisins, seeded, and a teaspoonful of Mexican sausage. Stew all together with a little of the veal broth. When cold form into little cakes and fry in hot olive-oil. Pour over them thickened tomato sauce, seasoned with a little cinnamon and sugar.

HUEVOS DE CARNE

Put through a coarse meat-grinder an equal amount of fresh pork and beef; add one-third as much bread as meat, soaked [Pg 43] in water and squeezed dry, an onion and a chile pepper chopped fine. Season with salt and put in a pan with a beaten egg and mix thoroughly. Roll into balls the size of eggs. Take a quart of strained tomatoes, add the pulp of a chile pepper and an onion chopped fine. Simmer until the onion is cooked, season with salt and put in the meat-eggs and boil gently an hour. Lift them out carefully to a hot platter, thicken the sauce with a little flour, and pour over.

[Pg 47]

CAMOTE Y PIÑA

Boil a pound of sugar to the candy degree, remove from the fire and add a pound of sweet potatoes, boiled and pressed through a sieve. Return to the fire and cook until thick, stirring constantly; then add half a pineapple grated and cook a few minutes more. Serve in sherbet glasses.

DULCE

Pick the stems from each raisin and wash in boiling red wine; then put them in an infusion of cognac, Marsala wine and slices of fresh lemon for three days. Remove and heap them in bunches about the size of large goose-eggs and wrap each bunch in large fig leaves, layer upon layer, and bake for a half-hour in a light oven. When serving turn the leaves back and send to the table hot.

MANTECADO

Melt a cupful of granulated sugar in a smooth saucepan; add a cupful of English walnut meats and pour into a [Pg 48] shallow buttered pan to harden. When cold grate or chop fine. Crumble twelve macaroons fine and toast in the oven a few moments. Make a custard of the yolks of two eggs, a fourth of a cupful of sugar and a cupful of milk, then pour over the stiffly beaten whites of two eggs and let cool. To a pint of cream add a third of a cupful of sugar and beat until thoroughly mixed, add the custard and flavor with maraschino, then freeze. When half frozen add the macaroon-crumbs and half of the grated walnut mixture and finish freezing. Sprinkle the remaining grated walnuts over cream at serving time.

POSTRE DE MANZANAS

Take a goodly portion of Roquefort cheese and about one-third as much butter and rub them together until they are thoroughly mixed, then add about a dessert-spoonful of French cognac or just enough to moisten the mixture well. Peel, core and slice the round way, rather thick, russet apples, and over each slice spread the cheese. Serve with black coffee.

[Pg 49]

REALENGO

Rub three-quarters of a cupful of fresh fruit through a sieve; heat and sweeten. Beat the whites of three eggs until stiff; add gradually the hot fruit pulp, beating continually; turn into a buttered mold, set in a pan of hot water and bake in a slow oven until firm. Remove and cover the top with whipped cream, flavored with sugar and wine and decorated with preserved cherries, angelica or citron.

TORTO FRUTAS

Line the sides of a baking-dish with a light puff-paste; cover the bottom with sliced pineapple; next, a layer of peeled sliced oranges, then sliced bananas and then a few thin slices of lemon. Sift a most generous supply of sugar between each layer. Repeat the layers until the dish is full and cover the top layer with chopped nuts. Lay over the top narrow strips of the pastry and bake slowly for an hour or more.

[Pg 53]

Enchiladas are made of tortillas sprinkled with cheese, onion, olives, etc. They are adorned with lettuce leaves and radishes, but are always covered with hot chile sauce.

Tortillas are the national staple article of food, and are made of Indian corn ground on the metate, mixed with a little water and cooked on a flat surface over hot coals.

CHILE

Cut open two chiles and take out all the seeds and thick yellow veins; put them on the back of the stove in cold water enough to cover them and let soak for two hours. Pour off this water and cover again with fresh water and boil fifteen minutes. Drain in a colander and save the water in which they were last boiled. When cold enough to handle, take a knife, scrape off all the pulp from the skin, and put in the water in which they were boiled and mix thoroughly. Fry two onions chopped fine in olive-oil to a delicate brown; add a teaspoonful of flour and allow that to brown also. Stir in the chile mixture, season with salt and let all thicken together.

COLD COLORADO

Cook for fifteen minutes a half-pound of large Mexican sweet red peppers, after removing the seeds of all but two or three. [Pg 56] Take off the skin, put the pulp through a sieve and add one and a half tablespoonfuls of the Mexican sausage, salt and a little of the water in which the peppers were boiled. Bottle tightly and it will keep about three weeks in a cool place.

MEXICAN CHILE

Toast ten chiles anchos (the dried pepper in the broad shape) and ten chiles posillos (the dried pepper in the thin shape), take out the veins and seeds and soak them in a quart of boiling water. Pass through a sieve twice, getting out all the pulp, and fry this chile liquor in two tablespoonfuls of boiling lard, which has been thickened with a tablespoonful of browned flour. While boiling add salt, a pinch of Mexican sausage, a pinch of sugar, a teaspoonful of cider-vinegar and a tablespoonful of oil. Cook all together in the lard for fifteen minutes.

SALSA NUEZ

Scald and peel two tomatoes; add a minced onion and a few pepper seeds, season with salt and stew until thick. Strain and [Pg 57] add a few chopped green walnut meats. Reheat and serve hot. This sauce is also used with fried peppers.

TOMATO

Boil two pounds of tomatoes in a very little water and then rub them through a coarse sieve. Grind fine a half-pound of raisins, a quarter of a pound of blanched almonds, an ounce of garlic, an ounce of green ginger and a half-ounce of dried chiles; add these to the strained tomatoes with an ounce of salt, a half-pound of sugar and a pint of vinegar. Boil all together until thick.

HECHO EN CASA

Take three cupfuls of sifted flour, a tablespoonful of lard, a level teaspoonful of salt and enough water to make it like pastry dough. Roll very thin and cut the size of a dessert plate. Have ready in a large frying-pan some hot lard, enough to float the tortillas, but not so hot as to brown them. Put in the tortillas, one at a time, and when they begin to blister they are done. This quantity will make about two dozen.

TORTILLAS DE PATÁTAS

Work a large cold boiled potato with a big teaspoonful of lard and a teaspoonful of salt into a pint of flour and add water until about the consistency of bread dough. Knead thoroughly and divide into chunks about the size of an egg and roll very thin. Brown very quickly on a smooth hot stove, turning often. When thoroughly cooked, place between a cloth and keep covered in this way until ready to use.

AMERICANO

Cut six large red chile peppers in halves, remove the seeds and veins and cook in boiling water fifteen minutes, then press through a colander. The sauce should be thick and smooth. Chop the dark meat of a cold cooked chicken, season with salt and add two tablespoonfuls of the pepper pulp. Beat two eggs without separating, very light, and add a cupful of milk. Mix a half-cupful of corn-meal with a cupful of flour and a little salt; pour the egg and milk in this, making a thin batter. Put a little olive-oil in a frying-pan, and when boiling hot turn in enough batter to make a thin cake about six inches in diameter. Shake the pan until the mixture is set, then put two tablespoonfuls of the chicken mixture on one side of the cake, roll with a knife and remove to the serving-dish. When all are made pour over the remaining chile sauce and sprinkle the whole with grated Parmesan cheese.

[Pg 60]

DOMESTICO

Have ready two cupfuls of cold cooked chicken cut into small bits, over which pour the juice of a lemon and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Also chop two onions very fine and three hard-boiled eggs; grate a pound of good cheese, wash a large cupful of raisins and dry them; have three dozen green or ripe olives handy and the chile sauce piping hot. Dip the tortillas in the hot sauce, place on a large platter and on one-half of it put a little of the onion, egg, chicken, cheese, two raisins, one olive, and lastly a spoonful of the chile sauce. Fold over the other half and roll slightly. When they are all finished, sprinkle cheese over all and pour over what chile sauce is left.

MEXICAN

Boil eight large Mexican peppers until tender; remove skin and seeds and put the pulp through a sieve. Into two tablespoonfuls of smoking hot olive-oil put two sections of garlic, a teaspoonful of fine marjoram and salt; add the pepper-pulp and cook [Pg 61] slowly. Chop two onions very fine, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with a little marjoram and let stand in a very little vinegar. Grate a pound of Edam cheese. Strain the sauce and return to the stove; dip a tortilla in the sauce, place on a plate and spread it with a teaspoonful, each, of the drained onion and the cheese; add two olives, two large seedless raisins and a tablespoonful of the chile. Roll the tortilla and sprinkle each with onion and cheese. After all are made, pour over the remaining chile and garnish with olives.

NATIVO

Buy a dozen tortillas and put on a tin in the oven to keep warm. Remove veins and seeds from a half-dozen chile peppers and boil them with a small onion and a clove of garlic until all are soft. Press through a colander, with the water in which they were boiled and return the sauce to the stove to keep hot. Tear three heads of lettuce into bits, cover with a French dressing and mix with it a cupful of chopped olives and six hard-boiled eggs, chopped. Drop each tortilla in hot lard for a [Pg 62] minute, then in the sauce; place on a hot platter and put a big spoonful of the salad mixture in the center. Sprinkle generously with grated cheese and fold over one side, and roll. When all are ready pour over the remaining sauce and serve hot.

QUESADILLAS

Make thin corn-meal pancakes six inches across. Dip one in hot chile sauce, lay on a plate and cover with raw onion chopped fine, grated cheese and stoned olives cut in half. Lay on this six other pancakes, each dipped in the chile sauce and covered with the onion, cheese and olives. Pour the remaining sauce over the top and set in a hot oven for a few minutes. Serve hot, cutting like layer-cake.

[Pg 65]

Tamales are a mixture of meat or fowl made hot with chiles and wrapped in corn-husks. In preparing the dough or nixtamal , unless scalded meal is used for a substitute, it is necessary to prepare the shelled corn with lime-water. The Mexicans grind the corn prepared in this way, on the metate, and instead of a mortar use the molcajete and lejolote .

To prepare the corn, cover it with water, add the lime-water and boil until the husks slip off easily between the fingers, then wash in cold water until perfectly white. The lime-water is made by adding an ounce of common lime to a quart of water; stir well and let settle; when clear, drain off the water for use. One quart of lime-water prepared in this way will do for a pound of corn. For the wrapping, cut off the inside leaves of the corn-husks about an inch from the stalk end and boil in clear water until perfectly clean. Tear a few in narrow strips to use for tying the ends; dry the rest and rub them over with a cloth dipped in hot lard.

[Pg 67]

FARSANTA

Use equal quantities of cold boiled chicken and veal, and half as much ham, all chopped. Mix together and moisten with good gravy. Season with salt, cayenne and a little chopped parsley. Make a dough by pouring a cupful of boiling water on a quart of fine, fresh corn-meal; work in a big lump of butter and add water until like biscuit dough. Have ready, as directed, a pile of the soft inner leaves or husks of green corn. Take a lump of dough about the size of an egg; pat it out flat, put a tablespoonful of the meat on it and roll for the inner husk. Then put on the outer husks with a thin piece of dough in each. Tie the ends and boil in water containing a few red peppers and a clove of garlic.

GENUINO

Boil three quarts of whole corn in ash lye until the hulls come off; soak in clear water until the lye is all out, then grind. Remove the seeds and veins from six chile peppers, boil soft and then put through a colander to separate [Pg 68] from the skin. Boil a chicken tender and set aside half of the well-seasoned broth; the rest, with the chicken, thicken with part of the ground corn and add the pepper-pulp and three tablespoonfuls of fine marjoram. For the batter, take the remainder of the broth and ground corn and mix into it a tablespoonful of olive-oil; season with salt and make the dough just thick enough to spread. These proportions will make fifteen tamales.

HACIENDA

Grind two quarts of hulled corn through a meat-chopper and mix to a paste with two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, salt and cayenne. Divide a large, fat chicken and stew until tender, in water containing a clove of garlic and a pinch, each, of salt, comino seed and marjoram. Scald two dozen dry chiles, remove the seeds and veins, scrape the pulp from the skin, add this to the chicken-stew and thicken slightly with flour. Shape the corn-husks with scissors and soak in warm water for an hour. Remove, dry and rub each one with hot fat. Fill one with the chicken-stew, spread four others with the [Pg 69] corn-paste; fold over the one containing the chicken and roll the others around. Tie the ends with a strip of the husk and steam for two hours.

HOT TAMAL

For the dough, add to one pint of corn-meal, one tablespoonful, each, of salt and lard, and enough boiling water to make a thick dough. Prepare the corn-husks as directed. For the filling boil one pound of beef and pour over it hot beef fat; cut into small bits and season with salt and chile sauce. Put a layer of the dough in the husk, over this a tablespoonful of the prepared meat; roll like a cigarette, with a layer of dough between each husk. Tie each end and steam two hours.

LAREDO’S CELÉBERRIMO

Boil a pound of pork until two-thirds cooked; then grind it rather fine. Add a small amount of garlic, also a small quantity of seeded raisins and prepared almonds. Soak two and a half ounces of chiles in hot water; take [Pg 70] out the seeds and veins, wash them well and grind fine, adding enough of the stock in which the meat was boiled to make a sauce, and strain. For the dough use the ground corn prepared with lime-water; add six ounces of fresh lard to the pound, salt to taste and moisten with the meat stock. Have the husks prepared, spread each with a thin layer of dough, and for the center one, a tablespoonful of the pork and a tablespoonful of the chile sauce. Roll carefully, tie the ends and steam over the liquid in which the meat was boiled.

MESA REDONDA

Cover a four-pound chicken with hot water and add four onions, a clove of garlic chopped fine, a stick of cinnamon, ten whole allspice, ten cloves, three red chile peppers and a teaspoonful of salt. Simmer until the chicken is tender, then remove and cut into small pieces. Strain the liquor, put the chicken meat into it, add enough yellow corn-meal to make a thick mush and boil ten minutes. Have ready the green corn cut from a dozen ears and two pounds of raisins, [Pg 71] seeded, and mix these into the mush, with a half-teaspoonful of cayenne. Fill the center husk with a piece of the chicken and some of the mush, roll the others around, each spread with a tablespoonful of the mush. Tie at each end and boil an hour.

VIAJERO

Scald a quart of good Southern white corn-meal, making it moist, but not soft. Have a chicken boiled until tender and separated into parts; season the broth with the pulp of two dozen chile peppers, a quart of whole olives, two pounds of raisins, a cupful of sweet lard, salt and a suspicion of garlic; add enough corn-meal to thicken like gravy. Lay one of the prepared husks flat, put a piece of chicken on it and two tablespoonfuls of the thickened gravy; fold the husk over with the chicken inside, and roll around this six more husks, spreading each with two tablespoonfuls of the scalded meal. Tie each end securely with a narrow strip of the husk and steam three hours or longer.

[Pg 75]

AJOQUESO

Boil three Spanish peppers and pass the pulp through a sieve. Fry a small onion and a clove of garlic, chopped fine, in hot olive-oil; add the pepper-pulp, a small piece of butter, salt, a dash of tabasco and a cupful of grated cheese. Stir, as it heats, and add thin cream until it will pour nicely. Serve immediately on hot toasted biscuits.

ALMIBAR

Put two cupfuls of brown sugar in a saucepan, add a half-cupful of milk, and boil gently until a little put in cold water can be rolled into a ball between the fingers. Stir steadily while boiling; add a lump of butter the size of an egg; when this is melted remove from the fire and beat until the mixture begins to look creamy and slightly granulated. Stir in quickly a pound of English walnuts shelled and broken, beat for a moment and then turn into buttered tins to harden.

[Pg 76]

AZUCARILLO

Cream a quarter of a cupful of butter with a half-cupful of powdered sugar; add gradually a quarter of a cupful of milk and seven-eighths of a cupful of flour. Flavor with vanilla and spread very thin, with a broad knife, on a buttered inverted dripping-pan; sprinkle with blanched and chopped almonds, crease in three-inch squares, and bake until delicately browned. While warm cut the squares apart and roll slightly.

BLANQUILLOS

Chop two large onions fine and fry in hot olive-oil; add two large peeled and sliced tomatoes and a teaspoonful of ground dry chile. Cook twenty minutes and just before serving put in a half-dozen hard-boiled eggs cut in quarters. Pour over toast.

CAFÉ CON LECHE

Set the drip coffee-pot where it will keep hot. Put a cupful of ground coffee into the strainer and pour two tablespoonfuls [Pg 77] of boiling water in the top; in five minutes, pour in a little more water, adding a little at a time until you have used four cupfuls, but never pour in water a second time until the grounds have ceased to bubble. In serving, fill the cup only half full of coffee and add the rest in boiling milk. On top put a tablespoonful of hot cream.

CRIOLLO GUISADO

Get ten of the Mexican tortillas, cut them in small pieces and fry in hot lard; in another pan, fry a large onion and a clove of garlic chopped fine; just as it browns, add the fried tortillas, and brown together for a few minutes; then add a pound and a half of mild cheese, grated, and a cupful of chopped olives. When all are fried together nicely, season with salt and pour over it a chile sauce, and put in a deep dish and bake for fifteen minutes. Serve as soon as taken from the oven.

EMPAREDADO

Beat into a cupful of cold mashed potatoes one of thick sour cream or milk, and add two beaten eggs. Sift into a cupful [Pg 78] of flour a half-teaspoonful, each, of soda and salt, and beat this lightly into the potatoes and milk. Drop the batter in big spoonfuls on a hot griddle and bake on both sides. Put grated ham, chopped olives and a little parsley on one cake, and place the other on top to form a sandwich. Serve hot and pass with them chile sauce.

ENSALADA

Slice two Spanish onions in thin rings, cut two fresh chiles across in rings, removing the seeds, and slice three ripe, firm tomatoes. Put these in alternate layers in a shallow bowl, sprinkle parsley and bread-crumbs over the top and cover with a dressing made of three parts oil to one of vinegar, seasoned with salt. Serve ice cold.

LLENAR MEJICANO

Cut a pound of mild cheese into tiny bits. Prepare a cupful of olives stoned and chopped fine, one large onion chopped fine, and ten chile-prunes (that is, the dried shells of the chiles, without the seeds), toasted and crushed fine. To these add a pinch [Pg 79] of marjoram crushed fine, a tablespoonful of olive-oil and a teaspoonful of cider-vinegar. Mix all well together, let stand an hour and then put between thin slices of bread and butter.

MEJICANO-AMERICANO

Cream a quarter of a pound of butter, adding by degrees the beaten yolks of six eggs; beat together until thick and creamy, then sift in ten ounces of flour, stirring all the time. Whisk up the whites of the six eggs, and gently, but thoroughly, stir these in, adding sufficient milk to make a medium thick batter; flavor with vanilla. Bake in waffle-irons, well greased and hot. Butter each waffle as it comes from the iron, and dust with fine sugar mixed with a little powdered cinnamon.

MIGAS

Soak slices of stale bread and squeeze dry. Put plenty of fresh lard in a frying-pan and when boiling hot put in an onion chopped fine, some ground chile and a pinch of sweet marjoram. Lay the slices of bread in this with [Pg 80] plenty of fresh crumbled goats’ cheese, and fry for ten minutes, stirring to cook on all sides. Remove to a hot plate and cover with fresh grated cheese, stoned ripe olives and hard-boiled eggs chopped fine.

MOLLETE

Beat together a cupful of cold boiled squash, one of milk, and two eggs. Sift together a cupful of corn-meal, one of flour, a half-teaspoonful of salt and two of baking-powder. Mix all together into a smooth batter and bake on both sides in little cakes on a hot griddle. Serve hot with sugar sprinkled on each.

PAN RELLENO

Chop onion very fine and mix with mild cheese cut in small pieces in the proportion of one-third onion to two-thirds cheese; add a few ripe olives stoned and cut in half, and a pinch of oregano . Mix this together with a dressing made of oil and vinegar: two-thirds oil and one-third vinegar. Cut off the top of a small loaf of French bread the long way, [Pg 81] dig out the center and fill with the cheese mixture. Put the crust back on top and cover with the mixture and bake in a rather quick oven.

POLENTA

Into three pints of boiling water put a teaspoonful of salt and a tablespoonful of butter. When boiling, sift in slowly, stirring constantly, about a pint of Indian meal and boil a half-hour. Have ready, hot, a cupful of good gravy, and one of tomato sauce, made with chile. Put a layer of the cooked Indian meal in the bottom of a baking-dish, then the sauce and gravy, sprinkled with a little grated cheese. Fill the dish with these alternate layers and bake for half an hour. Serve hot with a little extra chile.

PUEBLECILLO

Sauter little half-inch squares of chicken or calves’ liver in olive-oil over a brisk fire; when nicely browned, add some thick tomato sauce and some leftover gravy. Into this cut up half-inch lengths of cooked macaroni, mushrooms, and a few olives cut small. Season highly and work in [Pg 82] a big lump of butter. Serve on toasted squares.

TORTAS SERRANO

Beat six eggs together until light; add a half-cupful of flour and an onion chopped fine. Stir in lightly one teaspoonful of baking-powder and a pinch of salt. Cut a half-pound of mild cream cheese into thin squares and add to the egg mixture. Have ready a kettle of hot lard. Take up one piece of cheese at a time with as much of the egg mixture as the spoon will hold, and drop into the fat and fry until brown. Serve with hot chile sauce.

TORTILLA DE HUEVOS

Chop a small clove of garlic and fry in olive-oil; add a cupful of mushrooms, cut small, and a half-cupful of stewed tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Make a plain omelet and just before folding it over, spread this on top. Serve immediately.