Finishing school in Guadalajara -breadcrumb flowers and cooking
Prompted by my upcoming trip to Guadalajara where I’ll be revisiting old haunts and seeing my university mates, I started thinking how I got to Guadalajara from El Paso, Texas in the first place.
Having graduated in the top 10% of my high school class at Loretto Academy, I fully expected to go on to college in the United States, preferably in Arizona so I could go home on weekends to Agua Prieta, Sonora, my birthplace ,where I had been having lots of fun on weekends away from boarding school in El Paso, Texas. My parents had other plans for me and I was incredulous.
Instead of pursuing the serious education I thought they had been preparing me for all my life, they decided to send me to finishing school in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. I never asked my mother how she found the Instituto Familiar y Social but there I was dipping large paper roses in wax and painting them with oils, knitting a complete layette set, making cameos out of miniscule flowers made out of bread crumb paste, de-staining, learning flower arranging, making dress patterns and….cooking.
It was Mexican food but nothing like I’d grown up with – this was fancy food, the kind rich people ate at the time and it was good. Mind you, you weren’t expected to make it yourself, you had to learn enough to teach your cook how to make it. But I recently found the handwritten cookbook of my time there and I am astounded at how many of those recipes I still make today.
It’s amusing that though I ridiculed my experiences there , they were a key factor in getting my Mexican-inspired products into WalMart.
Take our famous corn flour bread that originally started as a zucchini bread, the camarones tia Cuquita we have on the menu today and the Mexican wedding cookies we make for special occasions The influence has lasted for 40 years and the recipes are timeless.
Recipe: Mexican Wedding cookies
Summary: These polvorones de nuez come from a classmate at the Instituto Familiar Y Social in Guadalajara , Yolanda Serrano, There they would never wrap them up so garrishly but rather they would be put on a delicate crystal platter or silver tray.
Ingredients
- POLVORONES DE NUEZ
(Walnut Cookies for Christmas)In Mexico these are wrapped in papel de China, the brightly colored tissue paper that we call “Chinese.”l/2 cup butter or margarine
2 tablespoons confectioners sugar, plus additional for dusting
l/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
l cup sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 cup walnuts or pecans, very finely chopped but not groundYIELD: 2 dozen.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 .Cream butter until very light. Add sugar and vanilla and beat for l or 2 minutes more. Gradually beat in flour; stir in the walnuts.Shape dough into l-inch balls, using about l tablespoon of dough for each. You should have 24 cookies. Place them about an inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake on second highest shelf of oven for l5 minutes, turning cookie sheet once so that they will bake evenly. They should be only lightly colored.Carefully transfer cookies to a rack and let cool completely. Roll in sifted confectioners sugar and wrap like party favors in colored tissue paper.
Meal type: dessert
Culinary tradition: Mexican
Copyright © Zarela Martinez.
Recipe by on.
Microformatting by hRecipe.
Recipe: Torta de Elote
Summary: This recip was originally made with zucchini but it is one of only two breads we make at Zarela. At the Instituto Familiar y Social, I learned a zucchini dish with a consistency something like a moist, cakey bread, called torta de calabacitas. Over the years I’ve found it a good basis for departures like this version made with corn. Because rice flour has no gluten, it will not rise to be as light as if it were made with wheat flour. I sometimes take the dough and use it to fill roasted and peeled whole poblanos, bake until puffed and serve as a side dish.
Ingredients
- TORTA DE ELOTE
(Savory Corn Bread)l pound corn kernels, fresh, frozen, or canned (3 cups)
l cup (l/2 pound; 2 sticks) unsalted butter or margarine
2 tablespoons sugar
3 large eggs
l l/2 cups rice flour (not the Chinese kind)
l tablespoon baking powder
8 ounces white cheddar cheese, shredded
4 ounces poblano chiles, roasted and seeded, diced (2 or 3 chiles, to make about l/2 cup diced)
Instructions
- Working in batches if necessary, grind the corn by pulsing in blender until coarsely crushed but not pureed. Set aside.Preheat oven to 325 . In large mixing bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Add the eggs, one by one, beating after each addition to incorporate thoroughly.
Sift dry ingredients together and add to the creamed mixture in two parts, beating on low speed until each is well incorporated. With spatula or large mixing spoon, fold the ground corn into the batter. Fold in the grated cheese and diced poblano chiles.Butter and lightly dust with cornstarch a l3 x 9-inch Pyrex baking dish. Pour in the mixture and bake at 325 for 30 minutes or until puffed and golden. A toothpick inserted in center should come out clean.Serves 6 – 8 as side dish.
VARIATION: TORTA DE ZANAHORIA
(Carrot Casserole)This further experiment with the basic zucchini torta from my student years is made just the same as Torta de Elote, except for two departures. Instead of the corn, use l chayote or mirliton squash (simmered in a small saucepan with salted water for 5 minutes or until slightly tender but still crunchy, peeled and diced when cool) and l pound peeled shredded carrots. Fold in the diced chayote and shredded carrots after the dry ingredients, and proceed as above. I sometimes make this version in the form of muffins, baked in buttered and cornstarch-dusted muffin tins at 375 for l5 minutes.
Makes l2 muffins.
Number of servings (yield): 12
Meal type: brunch
Culinary tradition: Mexican
Copyright © Zarela Martinez.
Recipe by on.
Microformatting by hRecipe.
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