Mixiotes, Gift of the Maguey

Give me a great travel story centered around a delicious dish using exotic ingredients, and I'm smitten.

Through many trips and the many cookbooks sitting on my shelves, Mexico continues to deliver the delicious and the exotic. I've been inspired to make time consuming moles utilizing rare chiles I've brought back from the open air markets. I've returned home heavily laden with dried herbs and chiles, cooking tools, and on one trip, 10 kilos of sea salt.

I've been willingly led to try ant eggs (escamoles), crickets, salsas made with gusanos, iguana and travelled off the beaten path - 10,00o feet to be exact - to indulge in wild potato and heirloom corn tortillas. Some didn't live up to expectations - you can keep the escamoles - and others exceeded it - I still dream about those tortillas. Then I read about mixiotes.

Huge century plants, or magueyes, dot the Mexican landscape and are commonly associated with pulque, that milky fermented beverage that predates mezcal. But that's not all. Their giant pointed leaves are used to line barbecue pits and the tough outer skin of each leaf is peeled off and used to wrap chile-marinated meat before being cooked in the pit. Exotic? You bet. Besides, I love the idea of food that's gift wrapped. The image and consequent fantasy about the dish has been in the back of my mind for years, so when two years ago, I spied real dried sheets of maguey leaves in a market in Jalapa, Mexico, I couldn't believe my eyes, or my luck.

They're tough and very much like parchment paper - even stronger - an amazing thing to behold. You can still see the pointed ends from the original leaf shape. They've been waiting patiently in my pantry to be put to use.

Using a Diana Kennedy recipe as a springboard, I created a guajillo-pasilla chile paste by first toasting the chiles - no seeds - and soaking them in a mixture of hot water and beer . The beer is a substitute for the pulque, which I couldn't seem to locate in my neighbourhood.

Herbs and garlic were hand ground in my trusty molcajete and added to the mix. The soaked chiles and herbs were blended together to form a smooth paste and slathered over beef ribs to sit for 12 hours.

The maguey skin was soaked to easily unfurl, and laid out.

One rib and sauce for each leaf, wrapped and tied.

Steamed for 2 hours over more beer and water, I served the dish with garlic mash and green beans, and unwrapped each package at table.

I'm sure it's nothing like being cooked in a maguey-lined pit - which is still on my bucket list - but they were delicious none the less. A hearty rich meal with lusciously tender meat, gift wrapped. A gift of the maguey.

Jalapenos Rellenos - Stuffed with Mint and Two Cheeses

Once you get the hang of roasting and cleaning jalapenos, this appetizer dish, stuffed with goat and cream cheeses, and brightly flavoured with mint, is a hands down winner.

Roasting a jalapeno not only partially cooks and softens the flesh but mellows its heat, especially once the seeds and inner membrane are removed, and the cheese and mint combination counterbalances the chile's remaining fire.

Choose jalapenos that are smooth skinned and of normal size. We are often inundated with mega-sized chiles that are better suited for other recipes, not for a delicate two bite appetizer. (But if you can only find the mega variety, once you roast them, cut the peppers in half length-wise, and stuff).

Roast the chiles on a cast iron comal or pan until evenly blackened. Transfer to a plastic bag, or covered bowl and allow the chiles to sweat. This makes them easier to peel.

Using a paring knife, scrape away the blackened skin, then make a lengthwise slit in each chile and carefully remove the seeds and inner membrane. Lightly rinse the chiles to get rid of any residual seeds and skin and pat dry.

Meanwhile, make the filling (see recipe below), and using two teaspoons, fill the chiles and shape the chile around the filling to keep it enclosed and neat looking. Don't overfill them. I found around two teaspoonfuls is ideal with a regular sized jalapeno.

At this point, the dish can be made ahead.

Just before serving, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and heat the stuffed chiles until heated all the way through, around 12 to 15 minutes.

Enjoy with icy margaritas, preferably on a hot sunny patio.

Fire Roasted & Stuffed Jalapenos with Mint and Cheese

Yield: About 12 chiles (allowing two per person)

12 roasted jalapenos, peeled, seeds removed

125 gr. cream cheese

113 gr. plain goat cheese

1 Tbsp. minced shallots

1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, tightly packed, chopped fine

Roast the chiles on a comal or cast iron griddle until evenly blackened. Put them in a plastic bag to sweat.

Meanwhile, make the cheese filling, working the softened cheeses together with the back of a spoon. Add the minced shallots and chopped mint and work it in evenly and set aside.

Carefully, scrape the blackened skins off the chiles. With a small sharp knife, make a slit lengthwise on each each chile and removed the seeds and membrane, especially the seeds attached to the stem of each chile. Take care to leave the chile attached to the stem. It's going to make it easier to stuff.

Pat the chiles dry, and with two teaspoons, add 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoonfuls of the cheese mixture to each chile.

When ready to serve, heat the chiles in a 350 degree oven until heated through.

Salsa de Chile Pasilla de Oaxaca - Version Two

The smoked chile pasilla de Oaxaca, or chile Mixe ( pronounced, mee-hay) is unique to the state of Oaxaca. It imparts a fiery, smokey flavour to salsas, chiles rellenos, and vinegary condiments for the table. Used in a cooked tomatillo salsa, it's exquisite with grilled meats, served alongside chips or tostadas with fresh cheese, or even topped onto scrambled eggs nestled inside a hot corn tortilla.

I stock up on the chiles whenever I'm in Oaxaca, easily purchased in one of the many market places in the city or on the outskirts. I would recommend that you bring back some the next time you go to Oaxaca - because you are going, aren't you?

The following salsa recipe is one of the easiest around, and was a table salsa used in a friend's Oaxacan restaurant, where I helped out for a brief time. It was served with tlayudas, those large sized tortillas made with various kinds of corn masa, from golden yellow to deep blue, heirloom of course. Slow food at its finest. Carried in woven baskets expertly balanced on their heads, a coterie of women would drop by the restaurant once a week with their freshly made, still warm tlayudas for sale.

Salsa de Chile Pasilla de Oaxaca - Version Two

(Version One here)

Makes 2 1/2 cups

2 medium sized chile pasilla de Oaxaca

1 lb tomatillos, husked and rinsed

3 small garlic cloves, crushed

Salt to taste

Cook the whole chiles and cleaned tomatillos together in just enough water to cover. Bring the water to the boil and simmer until the tomatillos soften and change colour. Don't let them fall apart.

The chiles will soften sooner than the tomatillos, so remove them with a slotted spoon to a plate to cool.

Once the chiles are cool enough to handle, make a lengthwise slit in the chile and scrape out the seeds and remove the stem.

Blend half the tomatillos, garlic and chiles, then add the rest of the tomatillos and blend until smooth. Add salt to taste.

Let the salsa cool down before serving at room temperature.

Candied Jalapenos

Not only for salsas or roasted and stuffed with cheese, jalapenos can also be used for purposes of a sweet nature.

Washed and dried, stemmed, seeded with the inner white membrane removed, I like to slice the chiles into strips before dipping them into a sugar syrup. (You could also slice them).

The ratio of sugar to syrup I use is 2 cups sugar to 1 cup of water, brought to the boil and boiled for a few minutes before my little lovelies take a bath.

Once the strips are added, bring the syrup to the boil again and boil the chiles for two minutes. Remove the strips with a slotted spoon to a rack over a parchment-lined sheet pan. Cool. Repeat. Three to four times.

Drain for the last time and transfer to a clean piece of parchment to dry a bit. I just love the shapes they make. Without question their flavour is sweet, but they retain the chile's grassiness and a delicate heat.

You can roll them in sugar if you prefer, but I like them just the way they are. Delicious served with coffee after a meal, or as a garnish for flan or ice cream. Store them in a lidded container until use.

Another candied item you might like to try are hibiscus flowers. The next time you make yourself a batch of agua de jamaica, save the blossoms. Once they are almost dry, add them in batches to sugar syrup and let drain before use.

That is all.