Mexico: One Plate at a Time

Ceviche de Salmón a la Naranja (Salmon Ceviche with orange, capers and roasted green chile)
Makes 4 cups, serving 8 as an appetizer

1 pound very fresh skinless salmon fillets (you'll need about 1 1/4 pounds if the salmon has the skin -- trim off the skin before proceeding), cut into 1/2-inch cubes or slightly smaller
About 2/3 cup fresh lime juice
About 2/3 cup fresh orange juice
1 medium red onion, chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
1 large fresh poblano chile
2 large seedless oranges
2 tablespoons drained capers
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro, plus some leaves for garnish
Salt
2 generous cups frisée lettuce (what you'll get from 1 small head)
Thin slices toasted French bread or special crackers for serving

1. Marinating the salmon. Place the salmon in a 1 1/2-quart glass or stainless steel bowl and stir in the lime and orange juices and onion. You'll need enough juice to cover the fish and allow it to float somewhat freely. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours, until a piece of salmon looks "cooked" about halfway through -- it'll still be translucent pink inside. Drain off all but a little of the juice.

2. The flavorings. Roast the poblano over an open flame or on a baking sheet 4 inches below a very hot broiler, turning regularly until the skin is evenly blistered and blackened, about 5 minutes for an open flame, 10 minutes for the broiler. Cover with a kitchen towel and let stand for 5 minutes. Rub off the blackened skin, then pull or cut out the stem and the seed pod. Tear open and quickly rinse to remove any stray seeds and bits of skin. Cut into 1/4-inch pieces and place in a large bowl.

Cut the stem and blossom ends (tops and bottoms) off both oranges. Then, standing each orange on your cutting board and working close to the flesh, cut away the rind and all the white pith. Cut out the all-orange, no-white-pith segments: With a small sharp knife, cut between the segment-dividing white membranes, releasing perfect little segments (called suprêmes). Cut the segments in half and add to the bowl.

Stir in the capers, cilantro and marinated salmon (with the remaining juice). Taste and season with salt, usually about 1/2 teaspoon, then cover and refrigerate if not serving immediately.

3. Serving the ceviche. Divide the frisée among eight martini glasses or small decorative bowls. Spoon the ceviche into the center of the lettuce, lay on a leaf or two of cilantro and you're ready to share this wonderful dish with your guests. Serve with toasts or crackers.

Working ahead: This ceviche is best made the day it is served. After marinating the fish, the flavorings can be successfully added 4 or 5 hours ahead, but spoon the ceviche onto the lettuce when the guests are seated.

Tamales de Pollo con Chile Verde (Green Chile Chicken Tamales)
Makes about 24 tamales

One 8-ounce package dried corn husks

For the filling:
1 pound (10 to 12 medium) tomatillos, husked and rinsed
Fresh hot green chiles to taste (roughly 4 to 6 serranos or 2 to 3 jalapeños), stemmed and roughly chopped
4 large garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
3 to 3 1/2 cups chicken broth
Salt
4 cups (about 1 pound) coarsely shredded cooked chicken, preferably grilled, roasted, or rotisserrie chicken
2/3 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro

For the batter:
10 ounces (1 1/4 cups) rich-tasting pork lard (or vegetable shortening if you wish), slightly softened but not at all runny
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 pounds (4 cups) fresh coarse-ground corn masa for tamales OR 3 1/2 cups dried masa harina for tamales mixed with 2 1/4 cups hot water

1. Preparing the corn husks. Cover the husks with very hot water, weight with a plate to keep them submerged and let stand for a couple of hours, until they are pliable.

For forming the tamales, separate out 24 of the largest and most pliable husks -- ones that are at least 6 inches across on the wider end and 6 or 7 inches long. If you can't find enough good ones, overlap some of the larger ones to give wide, sturdy surfaces to spread the batter on. Pat the chosen husks with a towel.

2. Preparing the filling. On a baking sheet, roast the tomatillos about 4 inches below a very hot broiler until soft (they'll blacken in spots), about 5 minutes; flip them over and roast the other side. Cool, then transfer to a food processor or blender along with all the delicious juice that has run onto the baking sheet. Add the chiles and garlic and process to a smooth puree.

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high. When it is quite hot, add the puree all at once and stir until noticeably thicker and darker, about 5 minutes. Add 2 cups of the broth and simmer over medium heat until thick enough to coat a spoon quite heavily, about 10 minutes. Taste and season generously with salt, usually about 2 teaspoons. Stir in the chicken and cilantro; cool completely.

3. Preparing the batter. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the lard (or shortening) with 2 teaspoons salt and the baking powder until light in texture, about 1 minute. Continue beating for another minute or so, until a half-teaspoon dollop of the batter floats in a cup of cold water (if it floats, you can be sure the tamales will be tender and light).

Beat in enough of the remaining 1/2 cup broth to give the mixture the consistency of soft (not runny) cake batter; it should hold its shape in a spoon. Taste the batter and season with additional salt if you think it needs some.

For the lightest-textured tamales, refrigerate the batter for an hour or so, then rebeat, adding a little more broth or water to bring the mixture to the soft consistency it had before.

4. Setting up the steamer. Steaming 24 husk-wrapped tamales can be done in batches in a collapsible vegetable steamer set into a large deep saucepan. To steam them all at once, you need something like the kettle-sized tamale steamers used in Mexico or Asian stalk steamers, or you can improvise by setting a wire rack on four coffee or custard cups in a large kettle. Pour an inch or so of water into the bottom of the steamer and heat to a boil.

It is best to line the rack or upper part of the steamer with some of the leftover corn husks to protect the tamales from direct contact with the steam and to add more flavor. Make sure to leave tiny spaces between the husks so condensing steam can drain off.

5. Forming the tamales. Cut 24 8- to 10-inch pieces of string or thin strips of corn husks. One at a time, form the tamales: Lay out one of your chosen corn husks with the tapering end toward you. Spread about 1/4 cup of the batter into about a 4-inch square, leaving at least a 1 1/2-inch border at the end toward you and a 3/4-inch border along the other sides (with large husks, the borders will be much bigger). Spoon about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the filling down the center of the batter. Pick up the two long sides of the corn husk and bring them together (this will cause the batter to surround the filling). If the uncovered borders of the two long sides you're holding are narrow, tuck one side under the other; if wide, roll both sides over in the same direction around the tamale. (If the husk is small, you may feel more comfortable wrapping the tamale in a second husk.) Finally, fold up the empty 1 1/2-inch section of the husk (to form a tightly-closed "bottom," leaving the top open), and secure it in place by loosely tying one of the strings or strips of husk around the tamale. As they're made, stand the tamales on their folded bottoms in the prepared steamer. Don't tie the tamales too tightly or pad them too closely in the steamer -- they need room to expand.

6. Steaming and serving the tamales. When all the tamales are in the steamer, cover them with a layer of more leftover corn husks; if your husk-wrapped tamales don't take up the entire steamer, fill in the open spaces with loosely wadded aluminum foil to keep the tamales from falling over. Set the lid in place and steam over a constant medium heat for about 1 1/4 hours. Watch carefully to make sure that all the water doesn't boil away and, to keep the steam steady, pour boiling water into the pot when more is necessary.

Tamales are done when the husks peel away from the masa easily. Let the tamales stand in the steamer off the heat for a few minutes to firm up. For the best-textured tamales, let them cool completely, then steam again for about 15 minutes to heat them through.

Working ahead: Both filling and batter can be made several days ahead, as can the finished tamales; refrigerate, well covered. Resteam (or even microwave) the tamales before serving. For even more flexibility, batter, filling and finished tamales can all be frozen. Defrost finished tamales in the refrigerator overnight before resteaming.

Manteca de Cerda (Fresh Pork Lard)
Makes 1 3/4 cups

Okay, okay. I know I've said it before, but no one seems to remember: Lard has less than half the cholesterol and about one-third less saturated fat than butter! You won't drop dead if you eat a little bit of it every once in a while. And using it won't raise any questions about your moral fiber. In fact, it's delicious, digestible and the perfect flavor component in many Mexican dishes. When buying pork lard, I suggest you look for fresh-rendered lard from a Mexican or other ethnic butcher, rather than the hydrogenated pale blond bricks they sell in most groceries. Or, go through the easy steps of making it yourself.

2 pounds pork fat (scraps trimmed off roasts and chops are good here, but don't use salt pork or fatty bacon -- those flavors are very strong)

Cut the pork fat into 1-inch cubes. Spread it out in a deep baking dish and set it in an oven turned on to 275 degrees F. Stir it every once in a while as the fat renders into a clear liquid. When the baking dish contains only clear liquid and browned bits, after about 2 hours, carefully remove the dish from the oven. (Letting the cracklings, as the browned bits are called, color richly gives the lard a fuller, roastier flavor.)

Let the lard cool to lukewarm, then strain. (The little browned bits are wonderful sprinkled over a salad.) Store the lard in a tightly sealed jar in the refrigerator -- or freezer, if you're not going to use it all within a month.

Horchata de Almendra (Almond-Rice Cooler)
Makes 6 cups, serving 8

Though it may sound a touch odd to North Americans, this milky-looking cool drink is ubiquitous in Mexico. It's refreshing while offering the comforting flavors of rice pudding. But since it's made from soaked, raw rice, there's no thickishness to make it heavy or cloying. I am, however, offering a recipe enriched with almonds (patterned after my all-time favorite version at Casilda in the old downtown Oaxaca market); most cooks use only rice. And, for those interested in a seductive experience, make horchata with milk rather than water.

2/3 cup (5 ounces) rice -- medium- or long-grain rice is fine
1 1/4 cups (6 ounces) blanched almonds
A 3-inch piece of cinnamon stick, preferably Mexican canela
4 1/2 cups water (or 2 1/2 cups water and 2 cups milk)
1 cup sugar, plus a little more if desired

In a large bowl, combine the rice, almonds, cinnamon stick, and 2 1/2 cups of the water -- here it should be hot tap water. Cool, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Pour the mixture into the blender, add the sugar and blend on high for several minutes, until the mixture is as smooth as possible -- there will still be a hint of grittiness when you rub a drop between your fingers. Strain through a fine sieve (if yours isn't very fine, line it with cheesecloth), pressing on the solids until only a dryish pulp remains. Pour into a pitcher, add the remaining 2 cups (cold) water (or the milk), taste and sweeten with a little more sugar if you wish. Serve over ice. In Oaxaca, they swirl a little pureed red cactus fruit (tuna or jiotilla) into each glass, turning the horchata rosy, then top the drink with cubed canteloupe and broken pecans.

Recipes from Mexico One Plate at a Time by Rick Bayless. Copyright © 2000 by Rick Bayless.