Yucatan. Coz Y not Mexico

Or: How to get away with doing Mexican again, without incurring the wrath of Dorottya.

23 June 2022

Yes, yes, we should be on X.

But X is Lianne’s, and she is currently couch-surfing between homes, so Bernhard is doing Y first.

And his mother is coming.

And it’s her birthday.

We’re gonna to have to be on our best behaviour!

Being a straight-talking, rowdy, not-to-say potty-mouthed bunch that we are, this will take some concentration.

We’ll have to distract her with the food. I wonder how she feels about Tequila…

Anyway. I’m stalling – We’re here to talk about food.

You may remember that a few dinners ago Bernhard cooked a Mexican dinner for M(1); It was delicious, but left him with a sense of not-quite-there, imperfect. So he relished the chance to revisit this cuisine – this time from another region of this vast and diverse country.

So – south-west we go, to the Yucatán peninsula, home of the Maya people, and the many conquistadores that followed.

This Caribbean region has many of the classic dishes one would associate with Mexico – Tortias de Maíz, tacos filled to overflowing with salsa and guacamole – but with it’s own twists and additions.

After consulting this terrific website, and balancing innovation with ease of preparing, and a decent array of flavours and textures, Bernhard came up with a menu for us.

It naturally required the obligatory shopping trip for the less-than-ordinary (in the cold UK) ingredients (I’m not sure where the Coke Zero fit in). The banana leaves aren’t real- they’re reusable table matts! 😀

The menu was as follows:

To open: Sopa de Lima (lime soup) – a tangy chicken broth with lots of lime juice & zest, served with toasted slivers of tortia;

Then Panuchos: deep-fried tortillas stuffed with refried beens and served with lemony chicken strips (this was simply the chicken from the soup, quickly tossed in a pan with lime juice, chilly, salt & white pepper).

And the pièce de résistance – Cochinita Pibil: slow cooked pork shoulder, marinated in orange juice and Achiote paste (Annatto seeds with cumin & herbs; here’s a recipe if you want to go hard-core, but Bernhard bought his).

(This leisurely braising meat gave off an intoxicating aroma throughout the day)

Of course we couldn’t not do a fresh Guacamole: crushed ripe avocado, very finely chopped raw chilli, onion & garlic, diced cherry tomatoes, lots of lime juice, and salt & pepper. It’s fool-proof, and I challange you to find someone who can resist it!

For dessert we had Dulce de Papaya served with soured cream.

Somehow I found myself making this one; At the advice of this You-tuber we added baking powder to the cooking water, to help the papaya flesh keep its consistency and not disintegrate in the hours of slow boiling.

This is also a leisurely-cooked (though not labour-intensive) dish, which competed with the Cochinita Pibil in filling the apartment with the aromatic, heady scents of cinnamon and cloves…

The finished dish is very sweet and heavy on spice, and the soured cream serves well to balance and freshen it. I had this for breakfast the next day, too!