Passing on Food Traditions: Weeknight Mexican

A big part of motherhood is passing along family traditions, particularly food traditions. Expat parents have the full responsibility for maintaining these food traditions, as we live far away from extended family who would otherwise share this task. Coming from southern California, my food culture campaign centers on Mexican food. I’m determined that my kids grow up thinking tacos and guacamole are just as much of their lives as cervelat and schnitzel. So far it’s working. My kids may never have moments like the one shown below, where my father and his cousins picked and shucked corn together so grandma (calling through the screen door) could make green corn tamales. But they will have many memories of assembling tacos on my homemade tortillas.

Since I don’t have access to convenient and affordable (let alone tasty) casual taco shops, I’ve had to learn to cook everyday Mexican from scratch without spending hours in the kitchen. Below are a few recipes and tips in case you, too, miss Mexican food as much as I do. Buen provecho!

Beyond Fajitas to Carnitas

As evidenced by the Swiss tortilla packaging, fajitas are the first and last stop for Swiss-Mex cuisine. Do yourself a favor and branch out to “carnitas,” which is a slow roasted/braised pork that will elevate any taco to pure bliss.

I use David Lebowitz’s recipe, which is practically perfect. I’ve included my simplified version below. His recipe calls for 4-5 pounds pork but I’ve had success with as little as 500gr and as much as 6kg (shown in photo above). Just adjust the seasonings accordingly. Buy Schweizehals (neck), not Schweinschulter (shoulder); I’ve tried both many times and the neck is always moister. Buy your meat at Kilometzg, which sells quality Swiss meat in bulk. You have to buy 2kg, but the price is around 30-50% less that at the regular grocery stores.

Ingredients

1 kg boneless pork shoulder, cut into 2-3 inch chunks
1 tbs table salt
2 tbs canola or neutral vegetable oil
water
1 tbs chile powder or sweet paprika
1/2 tsp ground cumin
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed

Method

1. Salt pork pieces and refrigerate for 1-3 days. You can skip the refrigeration if you are short on time, but it does make a difference.

2. Preheat oven to 180C.

3. In a large dutch oven (or wide pot that can go in the oven later), heat the oil, then brown pork on all sides. Don’t crowd your meat; brown in multiple batches if you have a lot of meat.

4. Remove the pork and set aside. Pour in about 300ml water into the hot pan, scraping up the tasty brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the chilli powder, cumin, bay leaves, cinnamon stick, garlic. Add back in the meat. Add more water so the pork is about 2/3 submerged in liquid.

5. Move pot into oven and braise, uncovered, for about 3 to 3.5 hours. Check about every hour to turn your pork pieces, so one side doesn’t get too brown and dried out. Add a little water if it gets too low.

6. When the pork is falling apart, take the pot out and break apart the pork into edible-sized pieces. Stir it around in the fat and juices left in the pan. Put it back in the oven for about 15 minutes until most (but not all) of the liquid has evaporated and the pork starts to crisp up. Serve warm with tacos and/or with rice.

Salsa

It drives me loco that many Euro-Mex restaurants serve bottled salsa. It couldn’t be easier to make. Even when tomatoes aren’t in season, roasting them is an easy fix to boost the flavor. If you can’t find fresh jalapenos, use the jarred pickled ones available at Coop and Migros. Also, this is a perfect opportunity to teach your kids some knife skills, since it’s all chopping.

Ingredients

500gr tomatoes, chopped (leave whole if first roasting, see note below)
1 small onion, chopped fine
1-2 jalapeno chillies, chopped fine
¼ cup fresh coriander, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
fresh lime juice to taste, usually about half a lime
¼-½ tsp salt, or to taste

Method

Simply mix all the above together and adjust seasonings to taste. It’s better after sitting about an hour.

Note: If your tomatoes are not super ripe and tasty, turn on your oven broiler and place the tomatoes on a baking pan lined with foil, about 6 inches below the broiler. Roast about 6 minutes on each side until they are soft with black skin. Peel off the skin, puree the tomatoes and mix in with the rest of the above ingredients.

Beans, beans, good for the heart, the more you eat, the more you…

I used to love canned refried beans, so I don’t judge. But since I learned how ridiculously easy (and tasty!) refried beans are to make, I’ve never gone back. You simply puree the beans and briefly mix them with sautéed onions and seasoning. You can even use canned beans, saving you the long soak and simmer for dried beans. If you can’t find pinto beans, I find that borlotti beans are a good substitute, if a bit sweeter. Refried beans freeze very well, so I usually make 1kg at a time and freeze small bags for later meals.

Ingredients

1 onion, chopped
4 slices bacon, sliced into 1cm chunks (optional, you can use lard or oil instead of bacon grease)
2 cans cooked borlotti beans (or 250gr cooked borlotti, pinto or black beans)
½ tsp cumin
Salt

Method

1. In a pot over medium heat, cook the bacon until it has rendered its fat and is somewhat crispy.
2. Remove the bacon, leaving grease. Saute onions until soft, about 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, drain and rinse the canned beans. Place in blender with ½ cup water. Puree to desired consistency.

4. Pour beans into pan with onions. Add cumin, salt and reserved bacon. Mix and adjust seasonings. You can serve now or cook the beans longer on a low heat to mellow the flavors. As the beans cook, stir regularly and add water as needed to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the pan and/or drying out.

Tortillas

I try not to be a food snob, but I just can’t eat those supermarket tortillas anymore; they taste stale and like chemicals. I usually make my own tortillas, both flour and corn. But for big parties, I will buy them. For flour tortillas, I buy the Kale Dürüm brand you’ll find in the Middle-Eastern food section (not in, but next to, the Mexican section) at some Coops and Migros. For corn tortillas, I shop at El Maiz in Zurich. To refresh corn tortillas, I dip each tortilla briefly in water then heat on a hot greased non-stick pan for 10-30 seconds per side. Then I put them in a covered basket where the heat and moisture keeps the stack of tortillas ready to go for about an hour.

Homemade flour tortillas are not difficult and definitely worth the effort.

1.5 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
3 tablespoons (45g) butter
about 1/2 cup water

In a food processor, process the flour, salt and butter and pulse for 30-60 seconds until well-mixed. With the machine running, pour the water through the feeding tube and process just until dough forms a rough ball (about 1 minute). Remove dough. (To mix by hand, cut the butter into the flour using knives or a pastry cutter. Then add the water a couple tablespoons at a time as you mix/knead the dough.)

You can use the dough right away, but it’s better if you let it rest at least 20 minutes for the gluten to relax. You can wrap the dough in plastic and let sit at room temperature for a few hours before forming the tortillas.

To form the tortillas, cut the dough into 6-10 pieces and roll each into a ball. On a floured surface, press each ball into a disk then use a rolling pin to roll it out very thin, to a about a 20cm circle.

Heat a large skillet or electric griddle over medium heat. Cook the tortillas on the griddle about 1-2 min each side, until brown spots begin to appear. Be careful to not cook too long or they will be crispy and dry. Stack and wrap tortillas in a clean kitchen towel to keep them warm and moist.

Text and photos by Tanya Deans

Tanya is from California and has lived in Zurich for almost a decade. Besides eating and cooking, she writes the blog Moms:Tots:Zurich, which focuses on hiking with kids in Switzerland and other family-friendly activities in and around Zurich.

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