Seven layer bean dip

The Super Bowl deserves something above and beyond the usual guacamole and salsa. Don’t get me wrong. Well prepared, these two standards are always welcome. But since Russ has been looking forward to this game all year, something out of the ordinary would be nice. Despite all the typical Mexican elements, Seven Layer Bean Dip is not from Mexico, originating in Texas with one of its first print appearances in Family Circle magazine in 1981. Always called Seven Layer Bean Dip, it turns out that the seventh layer is loosely defined and usually whatever you wish to use as a garnish. Some recipes add cooked ground beef and call that the seventh layer. A garnish of chopped cilantro and red onion works for me. To be honest, it’s more like a six and a half layer dip.

In our part of Mexico, it’s tomato and avocado season. We have a bounty of locally grown, organic tomatoes and avocados. The tomatoes are going into the freezer, and were eating guacamole almost every day to keep up with the rapidly ripening supply. I’ve never frozen tomatoes before, but it sounds easy. Pop into zip-lock bags, and they’re good for a year.

I have a bone to pick with most recipes that give the preparation time as 20 minutes, 30 minutes, when you know darn well it’s going to take at least an hour. Recipes are able to do this is by listing the ingredients as how they are to be prepared. Minced, chopped, peeled, refried, grated. One of the most popular recipes online states preparation time for Seven Layer Dip as 20 minutes. One look at that, and you can be assured that the clock starts once every ingredient is prepped according to the recipe list. But I don’t buy grated cheese, minced onion, sliced olives. Some of you may buy canned refried beans or salsa in a jar. But you have the option, if you have the time, of doing everything from scratch, and ending up with the freshest flavors.

Seven Layer Bean Dip serves 6-8

• 2.5 cups (16 oz/453 g) refried black beans
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin (comino)
• 4 ounces (113 g) grated cheese (I use half sharp cheddar and half manchego)
• 1 cup (4 oz/113 g) sliced black or Greek olives
• 2 avocados
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 2 serrano or jalapeño chiles
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (237 ml) salsa fresca
• 3/4 cup (6.5 oz./184 g) sour cream
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• Tostadas or tortilla chips

1. Heat refried beans until starting to bubble. Stir in cumin. Salt to taste.
2. Grate cheese and set aside.
3. Slice olives and set aside.
4. Make a simple guacamole by blending mashed avocado, minced serrano or jalapeño chiles, lime juice and salt.
5. Make salsa or open your jar.
6. In a shallow dish (I used a glass 9″/22.86 cm pie plate) spread hot beans. Cover with grated cheese, then sliced olives, guacamole, salsa, sour cream and finally, garnish with chopped cilantro and red onion.
7. Serve with sturdy tortilla chips.

© 2009-2021 COOKING IN MEXICO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

All photos and text are copyright protected. Do not copy or reproduce without permission.

Chayote con chorizo

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Chayote is in season in Mexico. Trellises in local gardens are hanging heavy with this edible gourd, neighbors are giving them away by the dozens (thank you, Lupe), and the fruterias (produce stores) all have piles of green or pale cream colored chayote, smooth or spiney. I prefer the green, smooth variety, though Lupe is generous with her spiney harvest, which requires the use of heavy garden gloves to grasp the gourd without being punctured.

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Fruterias sell not only fruit, but almost every vegetable that can be found in Mexico. In fact, fruterias seem to be stocked with more vegetables than fruit. Maybe its just me, but I wonder why they are called fruterias, and not veradurias (vegetable store). That word doesn’t seem to exist in Spanish. This will be my first question if I ever meet a Mexican lexicographer.

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There are as many ways to cook chayote as there are to cook zucchini or any other squash. It appears in soups and salads, and fried or stuffed. Chayote is bland on its own and takes well to other seasonings. Chorizo, the uncooked, highly seasoned pork sausage, adds great flavor. Personally, I prefer chicken chorizo, made locally in our little town of Mascota, but pork chorizo would work just as well.

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Chayote is between zucchini and winter squash in density, being more firm and taking longer to cook. In the raw state, it really resembles a potato in its hardness.

There are a few wild stories associated with chayote. One involves its regenerative properties, so potent that those who eat a lot of chayote will mummify when deceased. At least that seems to be the case in San Bernardo, Columbia. The other story involves McDonald’s apple pies in Australia, suspected of being made with chayote instead of apples. McDonald’s has debunked this myth, though it is true that chayote was used as a substitute for apples in pies in Australia, because of fruit shortages during the Depression Era and World War II.

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Chayote con Chorizo serves 4

1. 1/2 large onion, quartered lengthwise, then sliced
2. 1 tablespoon plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
3. 2 cloves garlic, minced
4. 8 oz./228 grams chorizo, removed from casing
5. 2 large chayote, about 2 lbs/907 grams, peeled, quartered lengthwise, seed carved out, and sliced 1/4″/.74 cm thick
6. 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano, or 1 tablespoon fresh, finely minced
7. 1/2 cup (118 ml) crema or crème fraîche (or sour cream)
8. salt and ground pepper to taste
9. 2 oz/57 grams crumbled cotija cheese

1. In a large, oven-proof skillet, sauté onion in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until translucent and tender, adding garlic for final 2 minutes of cooking. Remove from pan.
2. Saute chayote in 1 tablespoon of oil, adding 2 tablespoons of water and oregano. Cover and steam until tender, about 15-20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Don’t allow to cook until mushy. Remove from pan.
3. Cook crumbled chorizo in same pan, adding 1 tablespoon of olive oil if using chicken chorizo. If using pork chorizo, no oil is needed. When cooked, remove from pan.
4. Return onion and chayote to pan and mix with chorizo.
5. Stir in crema or sour cream. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Top with crumbled cotija cheese.
7. Broil 6 – 8 minutes, or until cheese is melting and starting to brown.
8. Serve hot.

Notes ~

~ In the US, chayote is available at Mexican grocery stores or at large supermarkets. Zucchini or potato can be substituted for chayote. If using zucchini or potato, cooking time will vary.

~ Grated parmesan cheese can be substituted for cotija cheese, also found at Mexican grocery stores or large supermarkets.

~ Top leftovers with a lightly fried egg for a delicious and unusual breakfast.

© 2009-2020 COOKING IN MEXICO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

All photos and text are copyright protected. Do not copy or reproduce without permission.

Grilled plantain — plátano macho asado

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If you ever see plátanos machos (plantains) that are ready to be cooked, you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking they should be immediately dispatched to the compost pile. Black, spotted, and sometimes even a bit moldy, they don’t seem exactly appetizing in their raw form. As funky as they look, this is when they are at their sweetest and most flavorful. Don’t judge a plantain by its skin, or a book by its cover, someone once said.

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Years ago, when the restaurant El Coleguita was still in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, and so were we, we enjoyed many a pleasant Sunday afternoon meal with friends while overlooking the Bay of Banderas. Dessert was always the complimentary half plátano with a dribble of condensed milk. El Coleguita must have known how easy it is to do dessert for a hundred or more diners by serving grilled plátanos. I always passed on the too sweet condensed milk, hence my photo (from ten years ago!) shows a token drop of it.

I’m telling you this as a tip on serving dessert to a large number of people. Load up the grill or oven with dozens of plantains, and set out toppings for do-it-yourself. You don’t even have to peel the plantains. Just slit them and you will have a table of happy guests.

Once plantains are grilled, fried, or baked, their intense flavor outshines the everyday banana we eat out of hand or sliced over cereal. A spoonful of crema with queso cotija, or with cajeta (caramelized goat milk) or agave syrup to sweeten them up (as though they need any more sweetness), might have something to do with the enhanced tastiness. Russ liked the sweetness cajeta added. I liked the counterpoint of the salty cotija cheese.

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Grilled Plantain — Plátano Macho Asado

• 1 plantain per person
• foil
• crema or sour cream
• cotija cheese
• cajeta or agave syrup

1. Individually wrap fully ripened plantains in foil.
2. Grill over medium heat with grill lid closed until tender, about 25 minutes, turning every 5 minutes.
3. Unwrap and split skin lengthwise.
4. Serve in skins with crema, cotija cheese, cajeta or agave syrup.

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Notes ~

~ Plantain, known as plátano macho in Mexico, shares the same genus as bananas. They are normally cooked, not eaten raw. They are ready to cook when they are soft to the touch and the skin is mostly black. Cooked plantains are creamy and very sweet.

~ I grilled one plantain without wrapping in foil just to see the results. Not a good idea. The skin became almost crispy, and didn’t turn back easily when slit open.

~ Plantains can also be baked at 400 F (204 C) for 30 minutes, turning halfway through, until tender. Split skin lengthwise first. Or microwaved for 6 minutes, until tender, also splitting skin first. Foil is not needed for either of these methods.

~ Cotja cheese is available in US supermarkets, as is cajeta. I believe agave syrup is also widely available now in the US. My summer visit north of the border didn’t happen this year, so I’m not up to speed on the availability of Mexican products, but generally you will find all these ingredients if you have a Mexican grocery store in your town.

© 2009-2020 COOKING IN MEXICO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Simple bread and butter

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Two of the things we missed when we moved to Mexico were good, whole grain bread and the wide selection of butter available in the U.S. The large supermercados do a decent job of offering multigrain bread, but they don’t have the chew and crust that make a great bread. In Mexico’s defense, bread is not part of the traditional diet. And butter options are limited. If you are an expat who is missing bread and butter a cut above what is generally available in Mexico, the answer is to make your own and it couldn’t be easier.

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Jim Lahey’s popular no-knead bread recipe has made a huge impact in home kitchens. So easy, yet so good. If you have never baked bread before, you can make this one and feel proud of your accomplishment. My bread is a version of Jim’s, with whole wheat flour (harina integral) added, sometimes seeds, and yogurt instead of water for a sourdough-like tang. I’m not a real sourdough baker, so I pretend. An 18-hour rise allows for flavor and yeast to develop.

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Jim Lahey’s recipe calls for baking in a cast iron pot with a lid, which I don’t have. I improvise by using an insulated cookie sheet and a stainless steel bowl. You could also use a Pyrex dish with a lid. By covering the bread, steam helps form a crusty crust. An 18-hour rising time allows the flavors to develop.

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What Mexico lacks in butter, it more than makes up for with crema, very close to sourcream, but better. Like crème fraîche, crema is cultured with naturally occurring bacteria until it reaches a slight, acid flavor. As it turns out, crema makes an excellent cultured butter, with more depth and complexity than sweet cream butter. Crema, brought in from local ranches, is sold fresh in many of the small grocery stores, sometimes from a bucket in the cooler, usually in one-pint cartons. If you have a food processor, you can have butter in minutes. Well, add about 10 more minutes for washing the butter, but we’re talking again about great results for not much time and effort.

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Easy, No-knead Bread

• 10.6 oz (300 grams) whole wheat flour
• 3.5 oz (100 grams) white flour
• 1.4 oz (40 grams) gluten flour
• 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
• 2 teaspoons fine salt
• 1 1/2 cups (355 ml) plain yogurt OR 1 1/3 cups (316 ml) water

1. Mix all dry ingredients in a standing mixer bowl, add yogurt (or water) and mix using dough hook until a ball of dough forms. OR mix by hand in a large bowl until dough forms, adding more flour or more liquid as needed to form a sticky dough. You want dough that’s very sticky, but can still be handled.
2. Cover well with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 18 hours.
3. Place dough on well floured board and fold over on itself twice. Form a ball, with seam on bottom.
4. Place dough on parchment paper and slash top of dough with a very sharp knife. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to almost double in size, about 1 hour, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
5. Preheat oven to 450 F/232 C. If using a cast iron pot with lid, pre-heat pot in the oven for 30 minutes. If using an insulated cookie sheet and stainless bowl, there is no need to pre-heat sheet and bowl.
6. Using the parchment paper as a sling, carefully lower dough into the now very hot cast iron pot, leaving parchment paper in place, or place on baking sheet. If using baking sheet, cover with an overturned stainless steel bowl about 8″ across and 4″ deep, lined with a 3″ wide strip of parchment paper.
7. Bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove lid or bowl and bake another 20 to 30 minutes, or until well browned and bottom sounds hollow when thumped.
8. Allow to cool 1 hour before slicing.

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Cultured Butter

1. Process 4 cups (960 g) crema in food processor bowl until butter curds separate from the liquid. This may take as little as 30 seconds, or up to 2 or 3 minutes.
2. Using a slotted spoon, transfer curds to bowl, and with the back of a spatula press out milky liquid until there is almost no more to press out. Save buttermilk for baking.
3. Wash butter by adding 1/3 cup very cold water to bowl, and press water and butter together, washing out more milk from butter by pressing with a spatula. Repeat 3 or 4 more times, kneading butter with spatula until almost all liquid is removed.
4. Knead in 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt. Refrigerate or freeze. This makes 640 grams of butter and 1 overflowing cup of buttermilk.

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Notes ~

~ It is vital that yeast is fresh for any bread recipe. Store it in the freezer, where it will keep well for a year or more.

~ You can tell when bread has risen enough when you gently press a finger 1/2″ into the dough and an indentation remains.

~ The more sour the yogurt, the better approximation of a sourdough flavor.

~ In Mexico, gluten flour can often be found at bulk spice/seed/flour stores. La Abejita in Bucerias carries it. The large supermercados that carry imported foods sometimes have Bob’s Red Mill vital wheat gluten flour.

~ Sweet butter can be made the same way by using sweet, heavy cream. It may take longer in the food processor to become butter. Pasteurized or ultra-pasteurized cream will not have the same flavor. Avoid using cream with additives. Commercial brands of crema acidificada, like Lala or Alpura brand, will not make butter, as they have stabilizers added. These products are closer to commercial, American sour cream. Look for a pure cream product. 

~ The buttermilk by-product can be used in any recipe calling for buttermilk. This is real buttermilk.

~ Other agitation methods can be used to make butter. A large jar sloshed by hand, a regular mixer, or a blender will make butter. If you use a jar, make sure it is large enough to allow the cream to move around vigorously.

~ For 4-ounce bars of butter, press 1 pound into a parchment-lined, rectangle container. When cold, cut into 4 bars, wrap and freeze.

© 2009-2020 COOKING IN MEXICO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED