Entomatadas

linda_g...@pacbell.net

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Jan 26, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/26/99

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Entomatadas

Recipe By: Cook's Tour of Mexico: Nancy Zaslavsky
Serving Size: 6

*Sauce*
1 cinnamon stick 3 inch
3 black peppercorns whole
1/2 tsp cumin seed whole
1/4 tsp allspice ground
2 lbs ripe tomatoes (about 6)
5 chiles de arbol, stemmed, seeded soaked 30 minutes
1 1/2 Tbsp lard or oil
1 med white onions minced
12 cloves garlic minced
1 Tbsp panela or dark brown sugar
1 tsp dried Mexican oregano
1 bay leaf
salt to taste

*Entomatadas*
3 Tbsp lard or oil
12 corn tortillas
1/2 c ranchero cheese
1 white onions thinly sliced
1/4 c flat leafed parsley or cilantro roughly chopped

Toast the cinnamon stick, peppercorns, and cumin seed until their scents
are released, then put them in a blender and grind with the allspice.
Skin the tomatoes by making an X on the bottom of each and blanching in
boiling water for 1 minute. Remove from the pot with a slotted spoon and
cool. Peel the tomatoes and put in a blender with the ground spices.
Drain and add the chiles to the blender. Blend. Heat the oil or lard in
a deep pot until it smoking hot. Add the onions and fry until they are
transparent. Add the garlic and, when the garlic is light brown,
carefully add the tomato mixture (it splatters!) and stir. Stir in the
sugar, oregano and bay leaf. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 5
minutes, stirring, to reduce and dry the sauce. Add salt to taste.

Finishing the entomatadas:
Heat a little lard in a skillet and fry each tortilla quickly until it
is soft, then turn it over with tongs to fry the other side. Drain.
Holding it by upper edges, dip a tortilla in the tomato sauce. Put it
on a plate and fold in half, then in half again to make a triangle.
Repeat with another tortilla on the same plate (each serving consists of
two tortillas).
Spoon more sauce over the tortillas and sprinkle with cheese. Garnish
with onion slices and parsley or cilantro leaves. Repeat with the other 5
servings.

Victor M. Martinez

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Jan 27, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/27/99

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<linda_g...@pacbell.net> wrote:
>Recipe By: Cook's Tour of Mexico: Nancy Zaslavsky

I have this book, and I find it quite good, although I was suprised by
this particular recipe. See below.

>1 cinnamon stick 3 inch

>1/2 tsp cumin seed whole

I was just reading this morning an article on Diana Kennedy's new book
in our local paper (sorry, the darn paper is not on-line, hard to believe
in a high-tech city like Austin...) and it had a small list of things
"not found in real mexican cooking". One of those things read something
like "cinnamon, cloves, cumin, etc., are very unusual in cooked sauces"
And it made me think that I've never made a savory dish using cinnamon,
and only a couple using cloves and I don't think my mom has cumin in her
pantry at all! When I get home this afternoon I'll look up this recipe,
to see where it's from. I've had entomatadas before, and it's basically
just an enchilada with a tomato-based sauce (as opposed to chile-based).

>1/4 c flat leafed parsley or cilantro roughly chopped

I really think parsley and cilantro cannot, ever, be substituted for one
another. I think using parsley would ruin this dish.

--
Victor M. Martinez, Jr. | The University of Texas at Austin
mar...@che.utexas.edu | Department of Chemical Engineering
http://www.che.utexas.edu/~martiv | Austin, TX 78712
If we knew what we were doing it would not be called research, would it?

Karen O'Mara

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Jan 27, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/27/99

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I was surprised to see cinnamon, too. On New Year's Eve I went to a
dinner party and the hostess served her favorite dishes from her
homeland, India. The rice (basmati?) was made with coarsely crushed
cinnamon sticks (and other stuff), and they were removed before serving.
I always think of cinnamon being used in sweet recipes, but this wasn't
at all. It's a good spice to use; it has great flavor.

Sorry, OT...
--

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****ka...@randomgraphics.com, Hips...@aol.com****
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Irv Mullins

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Jan 27, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/27/99

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Victor M. Martinez wrote:

> I was just reading this morning an article on Diana Kennedy's new book
> in our local paper (sorry, the darn paper is not on-line, hard to believe
> in a high-tech city like Austin...) and it had a small list of things
> "not found in real mexican cooking". One of those things read something
> like "cinnamon, cloves, cumin, etc., are very unusual in cooked sauces"
> And it made me think that I've never made a savory dish using cinnamon,
> and only a couple using cloves and I don't think my mom has cumin in her

> pantry at all! <snip>

No cumin for ejotes, or tortas de habas?
How about espinaca al horno, or capirotada de calabacitas, or escabeche for
the cinnamon?

Irv

Karen O'Mara

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Jan 27, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/27/99

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Victor M. Martinez wrote:
>
> I was just reading this morning an article on Diana Kennedy's new book
> in our local paper (sorry, the darn paper is not on-line, hard to believe
> in a high-tech city like Austin...) and it had a small list of things
> "not found in real mexican cooking". One of those things read something
> like "cinnamon, cloves, cumin, etc., are very unusual in cooked sauces"
> And it made me think that I've never made a savory dish using cinnamon,

Interesting. I thought practically all recipes for mole included
cinnamon as an important ingredient. That's a cooked sauce...

Karen

Heather Allen

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Jan 27, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/27/99

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In article <78nama$oiu$1...@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>,

mar...@bullwinkle.che.utexas.edu (Victor M. Martinez) wrote:

> <linda_g...@pacbell.net> wrote:
> >Recipe By: Cook's Tour of Mexico: Nancy Zaslavsky
>
> I have this book, and I find it quite good, although I was suprised by
> this particular recipe. See below.
>
> >1 cinnamon stick 3 inch
> >1/2 tsp cumin seed whole
>

> I was just reading this morning an article on Diana Kennedy's new book
> in our local paper (sorry, the darn paper is not on-line, hard to believe
> in a high-tech city like Austin...) and it had a small list of things
> "not found in real mexican cooking". One of those things read something
> like "cinnamon, cloves, cumin, etc., are very unusual in cooked sauces"
> And it made me think that I've never made a savory dish using cinnamon,

> and only a couple using cloves and I don't think my mom has cumin in her

> pantry at all! When I get home this afternoon I'll look up this recipe,
> to see where it's from. I've had entomatadas before, and it's basically
> just an enchilada with a tomato-based sauce (as opposed to chile-based).
>
> >1/4 c flat leafed parsley or cilantro roughly chopped
>
> I really think parsley and cilantro cannot, ever, be substituted for one
> another. I think using parsley would ruin this dish.

Well, I'm not one hundred percent sure on this, but I believe that
cinnamon like we buy in the US is not found in Mexico. However, I think
that what they and the rest of the world have is known to the US as
cardamon (sp?) or ceylon. Which is sometimes marketed as "true"
cinnamon. Last time I bought some it was outrageously expensive,
something like $12.00US/oz. This made all the difference in dishes asking
for "cinnamon". It's not as strong or bitter as US cinnamon.

Heather A.

--
Heather Allen
sha...@macwhiz.com

Karen O'Mara

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Jan 27, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/27/99

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Cardamom is a seed, and cinnamon is bark, and there's some similarities
in flavor... kinda. I wonder if it's from the same plant?

Karen

Gerald Endres

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Jan 28, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/28/99

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Karen O'Mara <ka...@randomgraphics.com> schrieb:

>Cardamom is a seed, and cinnamon is bark, and there's some similarities
>in flavor... kinda. I wonder if it's from the same plant?

Hello Karen,
They are from different plants. Cardamom has the latin name Elletteria
cardamomum, Cinamon comes in a bunch of varieties, which all begin
with "cinnamonum... ". (in Europe we normally use the Ceylon-cinnamon,
cinnamonum verum, in USA you usually get the Chinese cinnamon,
cinnamonum cassia).

Cardamom is very typical for the arabian, iranian and indish kitchen.
For example in Arabia often the coffee is spiced with a little bit
cardamom. The spanish kitchen is quite influenced by the arabian
cooking, so maybe the cardamom came over this way into mexican
recipes.

In my feeling the taste of cinnamon und cardamom is quite different.
In arabian and indish recipes both are often used together, an i can't
imagine that one could replace one with the other.

BTW: You can find a lot of information about these and other spices in
Gernot Katzer's spice encyclopedia:

http://www-ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~katzer/germ/engl/index.html

Greetings
Gerald

--
http://www.snafu.de/~endres/