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 Entertainment | Restaurants & Dining | May 2005 
Casseroles à La Azteca
 Vicky Cowal - The Herald Mexico
Fresh corn tortillas, like freshly baked bread, are heavenly whether you eat them to accompany a meal or to make tacos or quesadillas. But, again like bread, they dry out quickly. As Mexican cooks are thrifty and never throw away any edible food, they have invented many ways to make old tortillas just as good but different as when they came hot off the griddle.
One of the most delicious preparations is in layered casseroles (budines or pasteles ) in which day-old, or even a bit older, tortillas are very quickly and lightly fried in order to soften them and then are layered generally with some kind of beef, chicken or pork, a sauce, cream and cheese. The result is like a lasagna and makes a great party dish. I went to a dinner party recently at a friend's house and she served a Mexican buffet which included such a casserole (she called it Pastel Azteca) and I noticed that just about everyone had second helpings.
By the way, if you want to imitate her very successful buffet, the other dishes were pipian rojo , white rice with peas and carrots, and fantastically good beans I suspect the goodness came from just a little lard added to the cooking water and that the beans themselves came from the cook's pueblo.
The tortillas can either be cut into wedges, as for chilaquiles, or be be kept whole. The amount of tortillas to other ingredients varies from recipe to recipe. But don't even think of preparing one of these casseroles unless you have on hand old tortillas as fresh ones absorb far too much oil when they are fried. For the rest of the dish, use your imagination. You don't have to include any kind of meat or poultry as vegetarian casseroles are equally good. Salsa roja, salsa verde, mole sauce take your choice. You can use thick cream or thinned sour cream and any kind of cheese that melts. This is surely not a diet dish, but it's worth every calorie.
BUDIN DE TORTILLAS Y PICADILLO
I got the idea for this one from another old (1964) book called The Food and Drink of Mexico by George C. Booth. The recipe for the picadillo, however, is one of my own that I have used for years. The mole, as explained below, is a paste bought at a public market.
I had never thought of combining Mexican food with cream cheese, but I liked the result very much as the blandness of the cheese cut the richness and spiciness of the mole.
- 12 tortillas (day-old).
- 3 cups picadillo.
- 2 cups mole sauce.
- Cooking oil.
- 1 large package cream cheese.
Drop the tortillas in deep, hot oil and fry for a few seconds on a side, so they don't crisp or toughen. Remove and drain thoroughly on paper towels.
Spread a thin layer of mole on the bottom of a greased baking dish. Top with a layer of four tortillas, then spoon a third of the picadillo on top and a third of the mole over the picadillo. Repeat the layers.
Lay strips of cream cheese on top and bake in a 350 F/175 C oven until the cheese is melted, about 15 to 20 minutes. Makes 6 servings.
PICADILLO FILLING:
- 2 pounds ground beef (buy molida especial).
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon.
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves.
- 1 teaspoon sugar.
- 1 tablespoon apple vinegar.
- Salt and pepper, to taste.
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil.
- 1 large white onion, finely chopped.
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced.
- 1 large jalapeño chile, seeded and minced.
- 2 large ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped.
- 1/4 cup almonds, chopped coarsely.
- 1/2 cup raisins.
- 1 cup chicken or beef stock.
In a large mixing bowl, combine (best with your hands) the ground beef, cinnamon, cloves, sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and chiles and cook for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook for 5 more minutes. Remove to a plate with a slotted spoon. Add the meat to the skillet, one layer at a time, and brown until the meat is no longer pink. Put the vegetables back in the skillet with the almonds, raisins and stock. Simmer until it almost dries out, about 30 minutes.
REGARDING MOLE SAUCE
Mole is not difficult to make, but it does involve time and many ingredients. A good solution is to buy mole paste which is sold at almost any public market (mercado publico ) and most large supermarkets. Most of the pastes, and there are usually up to half a dozen varieties including poblano , almendrado and negro , are really good. Although it's a little hard to tell from just a tiny taste, the best way to see if you will like it and it's not too spicy for your palate is to ask the merchant for a sample. (Asking the merchant if something is spicy ¿pica ? seems to me like a rather ridiculous question as how do you know what his/her frame of reference is.) All you do with the paste is to mix it with good stock until you have the right consistency and let the mole simmer for about half an hour. Start with a little stock and keep adding. In order to get the 3 cups that this recipe calls for, buy half a kilo of paste and mix with about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of stock. It you want a lighter taste of mole, dilute the paste even more.
PASTEL MOCTEZUMA
- Another wonderful way of using mole.
- 24 tortillas (day-old).
- Oil for frying.
- 3 whole cooked chicken breasts, shredded (cook preferably on the bone).
- 4 ears of fresh corn, cooked and sliced from the cobs.
- 4 poblano chiles, blistered, peeled, seeded and cut in thin strips.
- 2 cups sour cream.
- 2 cups mole sauce.
- 1 pound Oaxaca or panela cheese, grated.
Preheat oven to 350 F / 175 C. Lightly grease a rectangular baking dish.
Fry the tortillas for 30 to 40 seconds on a side and drain well on paper towels. In the prepared dish, place alternate layers of overlapping tortillas, chicken, corn, chile, mole, cream and cheese. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until browned on top. Makes 10 to 12 servings.
Vicky Cowal is a weekly contributor to The Herald. VickyCowal@prodigy.net.mx |
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