Remembering Lupe
I spent many of my teen age years in Mexico City.
Our "girl" Lupe had charge of the house and the kitchen. If I wanted to eat
or to practice my Spanish I hung out in the kitchen with Lupe.
One of our favorite dishes was Enchiladas Suissas invented by and made
famous by Sanborns in down town
Here how Lupe made them:
She simmered a Chicken and stripped off the meat saving the broth.
She then stripped off the outer husks from a bunch of tomatillos and par
boiled them for several minutes.
When tender the added them to a blender with a small amount of the boiling
water and liquefied adding several Serrano chilies. She then heated a little
oil and added the liquefied sauce to the hot pan adding a minced white onion
and several cloves (teeth) of garlic, allowing the sauce to simmer and stay
simmering.
She then heated a pan of oil (maybe 1/2 inch or so).
The fresh corn tortillas were then dipped into the oil to soften and then
into the tomatillo sauce then filled with chicken and some kind of fresh
white cheese.
The rolled enchiladas were placed into an open casserole pan and placed in
the oven with a small amount of sauce spooned over the top.
When served I remember she called the cream, creama agria (sour cream) with
extra sauce spooned over the plate & the cream on the top.
A nice memory - once in a while I walk into a Mexican joint that smells like
Lupe's kitchen.
Dimitri
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