When is a Crumble, not a Crumble? When it is de-constructed!!

I read recently that the grandmother of a Sunday Times columnist, sent her deconstructed crumble, back to the kitchen, for it to be reconstructed! I have a feeling that Gandalf the Grey, ( one of my sources in Mexico City,) could well do the same. He along, with Himself are great connoisseurs of Crumble and our truly Scrumptious is being well schooled in the art of the perfect crumble. Crumble is a bit like marmite, you either love it or you hate it, and if you love it, then do not mess with it!

Our little 5 year old Truly Scrumptious makes the perfect crumble in lieu of birthday cakes, but visits to various restaurants recently have left us in despair, well not me personally, but Gandalf the Grey and Himself.

We have eaten in several up market restaurants in Mexico, mostly Mexico city, we make it a point on each visit to try somewhere new. Our sylph-like blond and Gandalf the Grey are the prime testers. So this time out we tried Quintonil, located in Mexico City’s upmarket Polanco foodie district. Since opening in 2012, it has quickly established itself as one of the stars of the dining scene in the city. Head chef and co-owner Jorge Vallejo studied at the Culinary Center of Mexico and spent time at Noma in Copenhagen, and then three-years at the acclaimed Mexican restaurant Pujol ( see previous blog).

The restaurant actually does not seem to advertise itself from the outside, it is very low key. Inside there is a garden area, which would be the seating of choice, but it is small and understandably is in high demand. The interior is also on the small side, but appears larger with the whole of one wall being a large mirror. It gives diners ( male ones) the chance to check out all of the fashionistas at leisure and without being too obvious!
The restaurant serves modern Mexican but innovative cuisine, not suprising given the chef’s Noma background, and will include such items as Huazotles, really a weed, but akin to the broccoli family as well as Cuitaloche /Huitaloche. Cuitaloche, is a fungus that grows in ears of sweetcorn, Mexican farmers also call it ” El oro negro”, black gold. When cooked it becomes a gooey tar like mush, which maybe the rest of the world would throw away, but mexicans love it. ( my blond will not give it a sniff) !

Quiintonil, has two set menus from which to choose as well as a la carte. there is a 7 course menu as well as a nine course one. Needless to say the portions are small, but exquisitely cooked and served. Until we came to the crumble that is.

As pretty as this might be, it is certainly in no stretch of the imagination, a crumble , but as I have said, the young lady called Truly Scrumptious, does make a dessert that is truly a crumble.

She makes it the traditional way, by rubbing butter into flour and stirring in the sugar ( usually 1/2 butter to flour ie 4 oz flour, to 2 oz butter and the same again of sugar), and then sprinkling it on top of apples and blackberries, or rhubarb, those being the crumbles of choice. Gandalf the grey and Himself, like the slightly guey mixture that results from the flour mixture combining with the fruit, during the cooking process.

Raymond Blanc however, ( and I ) prefer the cook ahead method, where the crumble mixture is spread on a baking tray and pre-cooked, ( stirring a couple of times during the cooking process, to ensure even cooking). This can then be used immediately, or frozen until required. If using this method of making crumble, then it is also preferable to have precooked the fruit, to avoid over cooking of the crumble. By this method it is possible to make a summer fruit crumble year round by using frozen summer fruit.

On the Road Again!

On the road again and this week sees us in Tepoztlan which is in the state of Morales about an hour or so drive southeast-ish from Mexico City. I say and hour or so, as my sources tell me that Never do the drive at night but more importantly Never on a holiday weekend as it could take you three hours or more just to get out of the city. Once through the toll booths and past the shanty towns of the city’s suburbs one hits the federal highway and the countryside is amazingly green and beautiful. The road itself is a bit scary, very winding, and fast traffic with no lane discipline, so just sit back and admire the view!

Tepoztlan is a smallish agricultural/touristic town of about 15,000 inhabitants and is surrounded by the Tepotztcedo mountains which resemble mountains from ancient chinese paintings. At the time of our visit, the jacaranda and bougainvillea were in full bloom.

We rented a house with beautiful gardens and pool a short walk from the town centre. Having no intention of cooking ( equipment was limited anyway ) we had to explore the local restaurants.

Our first forays into town were less than successful. as it was mid week, most of the local restaurants were closed, they tend to open , outside of vacation periods, only at weekends, to cater for the influx of visitors from D.F ( D.F is what the locals call Mexico City).

We checked out Trip Advisor, which to my mind is not the best guide to eating out, after all it is very subjective. However there, ( after our disasters) were two of interest. the first of which was a Garden Literary Cafe, El Sombra del Sabino. It is a lovely little shop selling quality ethnic trinkets, panama hats and books, both in English and Spanish. The venture was esrablished by a group of friends, one at least is Canadian. Outside is a very pretty garden, with tables set under the trees, or under umbrellas, under the trees are also swings and hammocks. At weekends there is also a market, but again, not the usual Mexican Market, there were producers of organic vegetables and fruit, homemade jams and jellies, along with aromotherapy items, soaps and bees wax candles.

The menu at the cafe was limited, but wondeful fresh juices and sandwiches and salads and modernised mexican breakfasts/brunch type items. We enjoyed it so much ( it was so relaxed) that we went there twice!)

Our other find was Villa del Tepoz Fuego, and their restaurant Jardin. It is a small boutique hotel, set slightly out of Tepotzlan, surrounded by mountains. the setting is stunning, and is owned and run by Bruce and Marcie a retired couple from Baltimore. They love it in Tepotzlan and initally they were the chief cook, sous chef, chef, chamber maid, and uncle tom cobbley and all. Now though they are established and employ staff, though Marcie still gives cooking classes. They also do most of the shopping for their restaurant, which includes daily trips to Cuernavca, which is the largest town in Moreles state. Fresh fish is deliverd daily but the town today has a bit of a drug problem with the drug barons moving in.

We went there for lunch and it was exceptional, the garden was beautiful, the service impeccable as was lunch.

I have more to say on Tepotzlan, so watch this space for the second edition!!

Eating our way through Mexico Part Two

On leaving the Yucatan we headed to San Miguel de Allende a city far eastern part of the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico. It is 274 km from Mexico City or a three-hour drive ( or if #1 daughter is driving make that just 2 hours)! Historically, the town is important as being the birthplace of Ignacio Allende, whose name was added 1826. However, the prosperity of the town waned during and after the war of independence, and at the beginning of the 20th century was in danger of becoming a ghost town. However its colonial structures were “discovered” by foreign artists who moved in and began art and cultural institutes.

2014-04-16 14.21.04 — View of San Miguel from the Terrace

This attracted foreign art students, and a very large number of foreign retirees,North Americans, especially those wishing to escape the freezing temperatures of the North America, artists, writers and tourists, which is shifting the area’s economy commerce catering to outside visitors and residents.

2014-04-16 13.09.29 — View of the Cathedral

The main attraction of the town is its well-preserved historic center, filled with buildings from the 17th and 18th centuries. The town was declared a Unesco World Heritage site in 2008.

We rented a house overlooking the town and the main cathedral, with Bougainvillea all around. It was Semana Santa, or Holy Week, or Easter, and as such there were parades almost all day. Deeply religious and almost shocking in their intensity we witnessed enormous parades, with children dressed in white carrying various forms of crucifix or statues of bloodied martyrs.

breakfast pastries — Pastries at Cumpanio

The restaurant scene here is very much alive and kicking and I have to admit that we ate out every day. For breakfast, we ran down the hill ( we always took a cab back up, I hasten to add) and went to a restaurant by the name of Cumpanio. It is famous for the pastries as well as the wonderful breakfasts.

Huevos Poche, are poached eggs in a small casserole, with either a red sauce or green sauce, and cheese, but meanwhile the crepas de chicarron, is pork scratchings in a crepe with again a red sauce over it. Himself said, OK BUT! Meanwhile, I tried the stuffed cactus, convinced that if I tried it enough times I would eventually say, “YEAH!” but so far I have not.

Breakfast cactus stuffed with string cheese

Moving swiftly on, #1 daughter and I enrolled in a cooking class. This class has been featured in several publications, including Texas Monthly, Austin Home & Living, Travel Lady Magazine, the Miami Herald and The Washington Post.

The school is called La Cocina, and the classes are conducted in English and Spanish with the chef, being Mexican. The school is in the centre of San Miguel in a beautiful old building, lovingly restored with a central courtyard. There were about 12 of us in the class, predominately Americans some of whom were expats making the most of cheaper living in San Miguel. Also in our group were some tourists like us, a honeymoon couple and a couple from Canada. We started out with a trip to the local market to buy our supplies, including a ready roasted chicken, interestingly the spit roasted chicken which we purchased had no skin on (not sure how they do it). So, a skinny bird!

In the class — Hard at work in the kitchen

Between us we cooked a number of different dishes, including a smoked salsa, stewed cactus, Guacamole (wonderful to get an abundance of ready to eat avocados) the best we can do here in the UK either a local ethnic market, where some of the produce can be a bit iffy, or a supermarket, where likewise it can be a hit and miss experience. Sometimes when it says “ready to eat”, it really means “ready to eat next year, not today”!

some of the dishes that were cooked — Some of our work

We spent a long morning at the cooking school and was a good experience, we learnt a lot and it was mostly a “hands on experience”. This really depended on how pushy one could be, one American woman always seemed to be the first to put her hand up or grab the apron or smush the avocados. For me that was fine, but # 1 daughter only managed to chop the cactus! Maybe this did not appeal greatly to pushy woman.

Finally everything was ready and we ate lunch, ample quantities of everything including margaritas and strawberry daiquiris. Now that is what I call a cooking school!

We finally caught up with husbands and small ones, who it seemed had spent the day touring the toy museum and eating pastries and ice cream! More on that next time…

We have been eating our way through Mexico for the last five weeks, and my goodness, have we eaten. We started off in the Yucatan, for the uninitiated , it is the part of Mexico, that juts out into the Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Campeche. The most well known town is Cancun, and this points across to Cuba and onto Miami. In the 70’s Cancun was little known but now it is a bustling beachside resort, Mexico’s answer to Blackpool or Coney island (with better weather).

Cozumel, a great dive site, is around the corner, as is Tulum, one of the many Mayan sites which are to be seen in the Yucatan.There are no rivers in the Yucatan, but apparently many underground caves, for underground exploration and swimming (not for me, I hasten to add). The vegetation is rather scrubby and the 300+ Km drive across the peninsular, from a scenic standpoint leaves much to be desired.

A word of warning if you ever decide to follow in our tracks. Hit the Highway and the next gas station is 180 Km away, with no exit before then! One girlfriend got stuck when driving this route with her daughters, and flagged down a passing cop who was persuaded with some $$$$ to syphon off some for her!!

We gave the classic Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza a miss this time around, but went instead to Uxmal, which is only 80 Km south of Merida. BUT beware, it is easy to get a little lost. We followed the signs but then the signs were no more, so we ended up driving cross-country. An experience in itself. Mexico LOVES speed bumps, even when there is not a hope of speeding because of POTHOLES. SO on the cross-country route, there are speed bumps, which are huge and potholes which are so huge that they spread right across the road. However, the end result was worth it as UXMAL is such a pleasant experience, compared to Chichen Itza, there were almost no people there and the restoration work was fabulous.

We stayed in an old Meridian house, beautifully restored in the centre of Merida, (loaned to us by a friend of #1 daughter’s). From the outside it was nothing special but inside, it was lovely, built around a courtyard, complete with plunge pool and surrounded by Bougainvillea.

So onto food. I have to say were a little disappointed with Yucatecan food. We tried La Chaya Maya, which came recommended but the speciality we chose was not the best. The women sitting in the window making the tortillas, were interesting though and most people we met were friendly and helpful

There is a strong Mayan culture in the region ( maybe a resurgence?) and people do actually speak Mayan. The oldest Cathedral in North America, is to be found in Merida, built-in about 1543, by the Spanish after they destroyed the Mayan Temples, (much of the stone used in the building of the church, came from the destroyed temples.)

However for Breakfast we found a typical Mexican hangout ( just as well we do not eat like this everyday) and Himself had the Huevos Motulenos and I had the Chilaquilles. Mexicans buy fresh tortillas, everyday, just like the French buy baquettes. But of course they go stale overnight and so in the morning the stale ones are used to make Chilaquiles. Tortillas are cut into chips and fried, layered with cheese ( Oaxacan string cheese), topped with either shredded chicken or scrambled eggs, along with red or green salsa and maybe some sour cream.

Huevos motuleños comes from the town of Motul (Yucatán).It is made with eggs on tortillas ( or bread) with black beans and cheese, often with ham, peas, plantains, and salsa picante.

Moving right along, Frida Kahlo, the artist, wife of Diego Rivera and lover of Leon Trotski, had nothing, as far as I know,to do with Merida, Except there is a restaurant called La Casa de Frida. Small hole in the wall type place, dedicated to Frida, pictures of her everywhere and bright bold colours. We were the only diners, well it was rather early for Mexico, about 8.30pm, the time between lunch (which in some cases does not end until 5pm) and dinner.

I had ( well actually we shared) the Chile en Nogada. A wonderful dish consisting of a green chile,( stuffed with minced turkey) white walnut sauce and red pomegranate the colours of the Mexican flag. This dish is a Mexican Independence day favourite.

Himself ordered the duck breast in Mole. Mole IS Mexico, it takes hours to make, along with constant stirring and ooodles of ingredients, up to 15 of them just for this sauce. Basically it is stock, chilies and chocolate. Many restaurants have their own “secret” recipe, never to be divulged. But all streetmarkets have vendors of Mole, but I have yet to buy any, although in a class in Oaxaca we did actually make it.