Cinco de Mayo

Drinko de Mayo is approaching, one of my biggest nightmares. Every year I complain about cultural appropriation, the distortion of Mexican history and white people being incredibly insensitive. 

Since I try to keep this blog merely culinary related, I'll avoid controversial subjects, but to talk about any cuisine we need to understand historical aspects, geography, politics, climate, immigration, traditions and religion. Cuisine is a complex and ever-evolving phenomenon. Some techniques like braising and deglazing are as universal as breathing and laughing, yet the ingredients make the difference, that's where you have to talk about politics. 

So, Cinco de Mayo is May 5th translated to Spanish, so you can't have a seis de cinco, or whatever some people are trying to do, that's just stupid and you should avoid it. Second, Cinco de Mayo is broadly mistaken to be Mexico's Independence Day, which is actually celebrated on September 16, but let's move on, May 5th is The Day of the Battle of Puebla, the inconceivable defeat of Mexico over French army back in 1862, only 41 years after Mexico won the war of Independence against Spain, and just 14 years after pro-slavery US stole half of Mexico's territory in defense of some racist libertarian ranchers in Texas. 

I could tell you the story about the French invasion and all of that, and I would love to, but I have a crying baby in the background and I'm not your History teacher, it's also cloudy and that doesn't help either. 

So, now you know that Mexico's independence from Spain is celebrated in September, that's a huge advance, you still need to return those tiny sombreros to wherever you got them from, and if you own a huge sombrero but have no idea what is it for or the why of the sombrero, you have a special place in hell, sorry, I don't make inferno's rules. You can also help civilization by not using fake mustaches, I'm a real Mexican and I've never had a mustache. Have fun, go out, get some margaritas or coronas, eat tamales and red rice, sing Mexican songs, do all of that without insulting Mexicans. You probably don't behave like that, but we all know some people who do. 

First, trying to describe French food is complicated, each region in France is different from each other and the same thing happens in Mexico, each region possess incredibly rich and unique dishes, but in order to understand Mexican most influential cuisine we need to think Mexico City-Oaxaca-Puebla + Paris and Veracruz + Marseille. French cuisine as a whole is also a compilation of Arabic flavors, techniques and spices too, at least the most common food, not necessarily the 5 stars Parisian restaurants, but even them. I know this is getting complicated, but trust me, the links between Mexican and French food are very strong and not broken. 

Four dishes from Mexican-French war era: crêpes with huitlacoche (corn smut), quail with mango sauce, bouillabaisse-style stew a la Veracruz and fresas con crema, or strawberries with Crème fraîche. 

You know how important tortillas are to Mexicans, and of course corn as the base of our diet, huitlacoche is a corn fungus and it's pronounced weetlakochee, my mouth is watering right now just to think about it, its flavour is difficult to describe, I can think of walnut and apricot together, with a hint of black truffle. Now, go make your crêpes. Ok, if you're lucky enough you'll buy some huitlacoche, which I doubt because you can't introduce corn smut into the US other than pre-cooked canned huitlacoche, but let's pretend that you figure something out, you're going to need shallots, garlic, fresh thyme, dry guajillo pepper, olive oil, salt and pepper. Crème fraîche and shredded iceberg lettuce. Caramelized your shallots, start in cold pan and seriously wait until your shallots are caramelized, add your diced garlic, you figure out the amounts, I trust you. Wait like a minute or two then add your huitlacoche, you probably need some salt and pepper at this point if you didn't do it before, remember that salt enhances flavors and pepper adds and disguises. When everything is cooked, add some chili flakes, of course from the guajillo and fresh thyme. Toss everything in a bowl, add more EVOO, this time the oil is adding flavour. You can even add some parmesan cheese if you have a fancy restaurant in Soho, otherwise avoid it, but my point is that you can play with it, just make sure to leave some of the Huitlacoche flavours intact, you need to respect the main ingredient. So, you have your stuffing ready and warn, I don't know what's the origin of serving three tacos or crêpes on each plate, but just do it, two is not enough and four is disrespectful if you have other hungry guests. Top your huitlacoche crêpes with Crème fraîche and shredded lettuce. Enjoy.

You can also use corn tortillas instead of crêpes and Oaxaca cheese along with your stuffing, then top your quesadillas with salsa verde, queso cotija and sour cream. But, right now you are in Mexico 1862, because you really want to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and you can't find Mole Poblano for some strange reason. 

Now, I said strawberries with crème fraîche, fresas con crema is a dessert as Mexican as Apple pie is American, they're neither, they're French, but we like them and they're popular. Now Fresas con crema are broadly served with sour cream and granulated sugar on top, fork-mashed taste better too. Mexicans think it's a Mexican dish and you don't argue with a hungry Mexican, and I don't have the heart to demystify my own family, that's a dangerous territory.

Quail entrees in Mexico are coming back, especially in fine-dining restaurants and that's a great thing because quail is delicious and for centuries Mexicans have cooked game, or what we now call game, French and Mexican birds back in the 1800s were completely different, but cooked with identical techniques but different ingredients. If you've read Laura Esquivel's Como Agua para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) if not, I totally recommend that novel, one of the recipes is precisely quail with rose water and rose petals, that's very arabic and Mexican, it's both French and Mexican. This time we're going to go a little bit more tropical, you're going to need the following ingredients: semi-boneless quail, ripe mangoes, chile serrano, white onion, garlic, cilantro, white wine, flour, butter, olive oil, saffron, salt + pepper. You can stuff your quail too, that's optional. White rice with pistachios is a great combination for stuffing, but you can make your own. If you have a cast iron pan, much better. So, dust your birds with flour, add salt and pepper of course, wait until your oil is screaming hot, you don't want your quail to swim in oil, just be gentle, put your birds right in the center of the pan, I would be gentle and use my hands, don't be scared of hot oil, if you are I can guarantee that the oil is going to jump and burn your hand, so be firm, you own that oil. Wait until quails are golden brown and crispy, then cook the other side and finish them in the oven, 350 F is a safe temperature, your food is crispy now, you need to cook the interior of the quail now. In the meantime, blend your mangoes, add one chile serrano, no salt and pepper. Remove quails from pan and put the pan back in the fire, add butter, finely diced onion and garlic, once the butter is melted add equal amount of flour, you're making a roux, then add a little chicken stock (oh yeah, you need chicken stock too) whisk very well, add saffron, reduce, now you're making a classic velouté, add white wine and reduce, season. Add some of that mango blend now, strain the mango first, you don't want the fiber in your sauce. Reduce. Your sauce is going to be kind of thick right now, but not super thick, because of course you didn't make roux to sink a battle ship, at this point you're going to pull some of the chopped butter from the fridge, the one butter I didn't tell you about but you need, you are going to incorporate your chilled butter into the sauce now, one chunk at the time using your whisk, wait until butter blends with the sauce before adding more butter. Serve with chopped cilantro on top, white rice goes well together.

Finally, bouillabaisse-style dish. If you have a debate between a proud Mexican from Veracruz and a chauvinistic French from Marseille on whose fish stew is better, you'll have the French army invading Mexico all over again as result, and Mexicans will likely kicked their butts again too. Just know that Mexicans have cooked fish stews for centuries, each town and family has a different recipe, you can use crab and grouper in Veracruz, or shrimp, lobster and marlin in Sinaloa. Mexico is lucky to be located between the Pacific ocean, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, so if you want to talk about Mexican cuisine, seafood is 1/2 of it, poverty, NAFTA and tourism have changed the rules of the game, while working-class people in Sinaloa and Veracruz can still access to fresh seafood, people in other places have to pay higher prices now, and the best seafood goes directly to US and European markets, as a Mexican chef in the US with family in Sinaloa and Yucatan this breaks my heart, and when I cook seafood from the gulf of Mexico or the Pacific, I know how illogical this is, NAFTA changed Mexican's diet for generations to come, it's a bittersweet feeling because I love cooking, I love cooking fish stews and entrees because it's part of me, my heritage, but I also know how the market works, and it's not easy to deal with this, I'm also a worker so I need the income.

Anyway, if you like Mexican food, I invite you to be curious about our entire heritage and culture, our politics and history. Can we also start considering Mexican accent something sexy just like French? Because mine is not going anywhere.