11am
So let me start off by clarifying the title of an earlier post: “I was OK Until the Chorizo Started Exploding” as I have had several emails asking for such since I was so rudely silent in the actual post.
I was taught by my friend Juan (and have seen here since) that the way to cook chorizo was to remove it from its casing and then fry it gently until the fat has been rendered out: mostly or somewhat depending on the quality of the chorizo. That accomplished, the pan is tilted to one side and the crispy, meaty nuggets of porky goodness are given a final draining. With me so far? OK. With the locally-made chorizo (longaniza) the ingredients are less finely ground than the factory made sort and thus there are actual pieces of meat/fat. As this cooks the water inside the fat heats up and turns to steam and occasionally explodes the little fat nugget. The resulting mess is quite impressive.
So now you know. I laughed when it happened the first time and the title just rolled off my tongue as a declarative to Darcie. After much collective giggling we decided it was a good title, much diminished by this explanation in my opinion.
Today is Thanksgiving in the US and as should be expected the expat contingent are in full turkey swing, ourselves included. Here is the fine Chilean bird (bought at the Mega store) we are cooking for today’s gluttony downstairs with John and Yaya and their friends (just a small group of 8 people):
Interestingly you can buy a fresh bird or a smoked (Ahumado) bird at the supermarkets all wrapped up in impenetrable plastic straight from the factory, oops I mean kitchen. Not knowing the meaning of ahumado could lead to shock and horror I expect. Of course, it sort of depends on how smoked the bird is and whether one hour, give or take, at 500F would bring new life to the beasty, perhaps a little rendered chorizo fat liberally applied…
While our fresh bird is cooking I will attempt to recall the past few days which as usual have been a smorgasbord of studying, walking, shopping, eating, shopping, walking and so on.
This was our last week of classes at Warren Hardy for Level 1 (yesterday was the final class). Monday kicked off with the usual 3 hour class and you could tell that the natives were getting restless as there was much communal hilarity at the expense of several students (one very hung over seemingly and one just a littttttllle late) which was a good excuse for putting off the actual start of the class. The rest of the day was actually pretty casual for us but finished with a bang at the party hosted by Warren and Tuli at a local bar/restaurant/hotel, Casa Linda.
What a beautiful location. There are several terraces floating above an enclosed courtyard all very well designed/presented. Definitely worth a visit or two. The rooftop terrace where we all lounged had a magnificent view of the sunset and a good angle to watch the glow off the Parroquia.
Cafe Linda is a double entendre: It is the name of the owner and means “lovely” in Spanish. She sent up many hors-d’oevres gratis (we think otherwise thank you Warren and Tuli). Of course we were drinking 55peso ($5) margaritas at an alarming rate along with beer and wine. There were several very happy people milling around. We had fun and met a lot of other people studying at different levels (there are 4 in the WH method).
Tuesday we went for a marathon wander around town walking all the way out to the local hyper market aptly named Mega. They sell everything, really! We were really on a quest for parmesan, real parmesan, to go with the Caesar salad I am making for today. There is a cheese shop well on the road to Mega so once we had already gone so far, what the hey?
We were able to buy huitlacoche (pronounced wheat la koch eh) which for the unwashed amongst you is variously know as corn smut, Mexican truffle and so on. It is exceedingly tasty and is in reality a black fungus that grows on some ears of corn when conditions are right (humidity, temperature and so on). In the US and elsewhere it is considered a blight and highly controlled/eradicated. Foolishly I reckon since the end product is really tasty. For the squeamish amongst don’t forget we all eat a variety of odd things (hotdogs…need I say more). We are using it to make an appetizer for this afternoon’s feast.
Wednesday saw the last class come and go for Level 1 Spanish, I am not sure we really learned all that much (that day that is). Right after the class we hopped in the car belonging to Gregg Blackburn (not directly related as far as we can tell) along with several other classmates and legged it over to the nearby (40km ~25miles) town of Dolores Hidalgo which was the seat of the initial rebellion against the Spanish. Dolores is doubly famous now as they also have a stupendous pottery addiction. They produce Talavera pottery by the semi-truck load. All very brilliantly colored and patterned. Going into a shop/warehouse sends one into visual-sensory overload:
I am sorry but the pics just don’t do the stores justice. I want to bring a truck down and stock up. Prices were amazingly reasonable: A full dish service for 8 was 5800 pesos so that works out to $450. All hand made/painted and very pretty. We also saw the following sunflower commode:
After glutting on the visuals we went further into town and had carnitas tacos washed down with a hand-scooped icecream from the vendors littering the town square wherever you looked. They had all sorts of unusual flavors: tequila, beer, mole, chicharone…. We mostly all settled for chocolate and I went with guava on the side (yumm).
We also spent an hour or so in the museum dedicated to Father Hidalgo and the roots of the revolution: mainly made up of murals and a sprinkling of historic documents and mostly presented in Spanish (of course). Unfortunately the Spanish required a level of comprehension way above any of us (unlike the anthropology museum in Mexico City). Three of the murals were truly fantastic. Since you couldn’t take photos you will just have to take my word for it. Worth going to, it is only 15 pesos ($1.20).
The day was rounded off with a little culture in SMA. We started off walking up through the chilly and very blustery evening to the Jardin to listen to a string quartet play Beatles tunes. Two violins, a viol and a cello doing Hard Days Night, Yesterday and so on. I was too underdressed (shorts and a t-shirt for God’s sake) to hang outside for long (the locals had thick parkas and scarves as if it was the arctic). We listened to four songs and then hied ourselves over to the Instituto de Allende, the local high-end art school for an exhibition opening, The art was in parts entertaining and confusing (and perhaps just a little pretentious).
Yes, those are what you think they are meant to be. There was a performance-art bit featuring a woman leading her teenage son around and then attaching to him a pair of testicles (potatoes I think) and a phallus, made of longaniza, longer than the inseam of the boy. While she was thus adorning her son, three women came out and danced around wearing masks and tackle made from sausages, potatoes, cucumbers and tomatoes etc. which all eventually wound up getting snipped off and dropped into a large saucepan. We are still confused. Don’t know what they were trying to say with/by this. Anybody want to take a swing (no pun intended) at this (would Carl Jung please step forward).
The evening was capped off by a refreshing glass of wine with one of John’s friends who we bumped into on the way home.
7:30pm
hemos comprado, cocinamos, que comieron más (we bought, we cooked, we overate)!
What a lovely afternoon, spent with a crusty group of characters, much hilarity, in part at one guest’s expense who opened himself up early (he showed up in a pink shirt!). Eight people did an awful lot of damage – that was a 16lb turkey. We even managed to watch the Raiders/Cowboys game with the sad but predictable outcome that the Raiders lost. But the meal was excellent if I do say so myself and the Chilean Turkey was better than most that I have had in the US. I shouldn’t be so surprised since all the chicken we have had locally has been muy excelente, es verdad!
Looks like a tasty turkey dinner! But did you cook it with exploding pork fat?
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