¡No Más Burritos!
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Special Section 1 of 3 The average Mexican-at-home ¡No Más Burritos! dinner goes something like this: Combine ground beef, bland The Gringo’s Old El Paso spices, neon yellow hard shells and—voilà!—tragedy Guide to Cooking tacos. With the help of Mexico’s top chef, Enrique Olvera, you Real Mexican can do better. From a farmers’- market quesadilla to a feastworthy chicken mole, this is how to take Photographs by Romulo Yanes your kitchen south of the border 1. The Perfect Four-Step Fish • This is pescado a la veracruzana— a beautifully seared snapper dressed in a Mediterranean-ish salsa—and it looks harder to make than it actually is. “Just make sure that your grill is nice and hot,” says Olvera. Serves four Olive oil 1 onion, diced 6 garlic cloves, diced 2 serrano chiles, seeds removed, diced 2 Tbsp. capers 4 tomatoes, chopped ¾ c. green olives, halved 1 whole red snapper (2 lb.) Salt Ground black pepper ½ Tbsp. fresh oregano, chopped ½ Tbsp. fresh marjoram, chopped 1 lime Directions i l S o n . 1 > Coat the surface of a cast-iron pan my W with 2 tablespoons a of olive oil and : ST place on a grill over yli medium-high heat. T S Add the onion, P garlic, and chiles, then cook for 5 . Pro minutes, stirring PS periodically. 2 > Add the capers, S r e tomatoes, and olives yer to the pan. Cook m 5 more minutes. 3 > Season the fish with salt and Carol T pepper. Coat the a grill grates with S olive oil, place the fish on top, and let it cook for 12 others take five minutes, flipping to taste like. The they are obscenely minutes from start to halfway through. dishes from chef refined and delicious. scarfing. None are on : Paul Grime 4 > Plate the fish Enrique Olvera’s That’s why we the Chipotle menu. ST with the salsa and Learn Eat at Pujol kitchen—regional asked Olvera for a And they’ll all become chopped herbs. Add from in Mexico City and classics, street food few of his favorite regulars in your a drizzle of olive El Jefe you learn what included—aren’t recipes. Some are cooking arsenal. oil and a hit of lime. Mexican is supposed always flashy, but apron-on involved; —ERIC SULLIVAN Food STyli 164 GQ. COM SEPTEMBER 2013 2. The Flowering Eat 2 of 3 Quesadilla • This is nothing Cook Real Mexican like the bland, oily discs on every Ruby Chilibee’s menu, thanks to the squash blossoms. “It’s crispy, oozy, and herbal,” says Olvera. If you can’t find fresh squash flowers, oyster mushrooms are a worthy alternative. Makes four 1 Tbsp. olive oil A Different Shade of Salsa 20 squash blossoms Salt Ground black pepper Despite all visual evidence to the contrary, 1 c. Oaxaca cheese, tomatillos are not mini tomatoes. And the salsa shredded verde you create with them blows away the 8 corn tortillas jarred stuff. “What makes this good is the balance between acidity and spiciness,” says Olvera. Directions Use a molcajete (a mortar and pestle made of volcanic rock) to crush the tomatillos. “No blender, 1 > Heat the oil in a because an over-liquefied salsa will destroy a cast-iron pan over tortilla,” he says. It’ll keep, refrigerated, for three medium heat. Sauté days; slather it on everything. the blossoms for 2 minutes. Season Makes two cups tomatillos whole with salt and pepper ½ lb. tomatillos, husks for 5 minutes. and set aside. removed, washed 2 > Meanwhile, toast 2 > Wipe the oil from 1 serrano chile, the chile, garlic, the pan; place two seeds and veins onion, and coriander. tortillas in. Cook removed, diced in a cast-iron for 1 minute, then 4 garlic cloves, pan over medium- flip. Add ¼ cup minced high heat for of cheese and five ½ onion, chopped 5 to 7 minutes. squash blossoms ½ tsp. coriander 3 > Put all the to one tortilla; 2 Tbsp. lime juice ingredients in the top with the other. molcajete and Sauté 1 minute Directions then pummel away per side. until you have 3 > Repeat with the 1 > Bring 3 cups a smooth salsa. other tortillas. Eat of water to a boil immediately. in a pot. Boil the 3. Mole, Minus 2 tsp. ground cumin and cinnamon. the Hassle ½ tsp. ground clove Cook for 10 minutes. 1 tsp. cinnamon 5 > Put the sauce, • The average mole, ½ c. masa (a.k.a. chiles, and stock a dish as common corn flour) in a blender. Puree in Mexico as ½ bunch cilantro until smooth. bribable federales, 6 > Pour the blended is a daylong chore Directions sauce into the pot. to cook. But this Add the chicken quick-ish mole 1 > Bring the chicken and cook for amarillo is just stock to a simmer 15 to 20 minutes as flavorful. “The in a pot. Add the over medium heat, simplicity is what chiles, remove from until the meat is makes it so elegant,” heat, and set aside. cooked through. says Olvera. 2 > Pour the olive 7 > Pull the chicken oil into a large from the pot and Serves four heavy-bottomed plate it, then slowly 4 c. chicken stock pot and set whisk the masa 4 dried guajillo the burner on into the sauce to chiles, tops and medium-high heat. thicken it. seeds removed 3 > Season the 8 > Spoon the sauce 2 Tbsp. olive oil chicken breast onto the chicken, 4 bone-in chicken with salt and pepper top with cilantro, breasts and cook about and serve with Salt 5 minutes per side warm corn tortillas. Ground black pepper until golden brown. 1 onion, diced Remove the chicken 5 garlic cloves, and set it aside. minced 4 > Turn the heat 3 tomatoes, roughly down to medium. chopped Sauté the onion 3 tomatillos, roughly and garlic in the chopped pot for 5 minutes. Then add the tomatoes, tomatillos, cumin, clove, 166 GQ. COM SEPTEMBER 2013 Red-Onion Garnish Eat 3 of 3 1 red onion, halved, thinly sliced Cook Real Mexican ½ c. lemon juice 1 Tbsp. fresh oregano, minced (or ½ tsp. dried) 1 jalapeño chile, 4. God’s Own Serves eight to ten seeds and veins Pork Taco ¾ c. achiote paste removed, minced ¼ c. lime juice 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin • Start with the ¾ c. orange juice olive oil classic cochinita ½ tsp. ground black ½ tsp. salt pibil, a drool- pepper plus extra inducing pile of for seasoning Directions slow-cooked pork 2 tsp. ground cumin Know Thy Chiles that’s equal parts 1 habanero chile, 1 > For the red-onion sweet and spicy. seeds and veins garnish: Combine “The achiote gives removed, finely all the ingredients Olvera has tasted many of the world’s the fatty pork minced in a small bowl and 200-odd chiles, but he says these six will work in shoulder a balance 5 lb. boneless pork refrigerate. most any Mexican recipe. To tone down the heat “Cooking the pork of heat and acidity,” shoulder, trimmed 2 > In a large bowl, of a fresh chile, remove the seeds and veins (the in banana leaves Olvera says. You of most fat and dissolve the white stuff on the inside). Always ditch the seeds adds a subtle could eat the meat cut into 2-inch achiote paste in from dried chiles, above. And remember: When fragrance and by itself, but in taco cubes the citrus juices. you work with hot peppers, the oils get on your form it becomes Salt Add the ½ teaspoon hands. Wear rubber gloves or scrub really looks great.” one of mankind’s ½ lb. banana leaves of pepper, cumin, well before jumping into bed with your señorita. —EnrI q UE Olv E r A tastiest creations. (optional) and habanero, ½ bunch cilantro, and blend well. FRESH DRIED chopped 3 > Season the pork Used most often for Best for sauces. And cubes with salt and salsas, ceviches, and they’ll keep forever pepper. Add the meat taco garnishes. if they’re stored in a to the bowl with the cool, dry place. achiote sauce. Using Jalapeño a spoon, toss until A workhorse pepper Ancho lightly coated. that brings medium It’s more sweet 4 > If you use banana heat and grassy flavor and sour than spicy, leaves, place two to anything. Olvera but Olvera loves on the bottom of a says to slice it thin. ancho for its whiff of baking dish. Add tamarind and smoke. the pork and sauce, Serrano top with a few more A step up on the spice Guajillo tucked-in banana ladder. Olvera chars Also known as the leaves, then cover them on the grill and travieso (“naughty”) tightly with foil. Or eats them on their own. pepper, and highly nix the leaves; put versatile. Hot but the pork in the dish Habanero not flavorful, it can and cover with foil. It’s a four-alarm burn kick up the burn in 5 > Roast at 300 with a hint of citrus. anything from tortilla degrees until the Use a small amount soup to red salsa pork is falling when cooking, says to sautéed shrimp. apart—about 3½ Olvera. Or mix the to 4 hours. minced pepper with Chipotle 6 > Serve with warm fresh-squeezed lime It’s not just a burrito tortillas; top with juice, let sit for several chain. It’s also a the cilantro and the minutes, strain, jalapeño put through a red-onion garnish. and cook with just the wood-smoked drying chile-laced liquid. process, which adds a mesquite flavor that plays nicely with meat. on i S TCH e Hu C ion: Bru ion: T ra ST illu 170 GQ.