Eating My Way Around Mexico

Today I am writing to you from Mexico City. I'm in town with my husband, who is working here, soaking up every bit of the culinary culture this great city has to offer. From crispy grasshoppers at the market, to the little blue corn tortas that a sweet old lady at a roadside stand taught me to make, to possibly one of the most fantastic meals of my life at the Aguila y Sol where the chef has interpreted traditional Mexican cooking that rivals any fancy restaurant in New York or Paris.

One thing in particular that has struck me on this trip is the Mexican people's renewed dedication to tradition. Yesterday, we witnessed thousands of people making their annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, some of them having walked for three weeks to make it to the church on this special day. The markets are filled with seasonal produce, including the largest fresh morels I've ever seen and huitaloche (a fungus that grows on corn and is considered a delicacy). We also visited the M.A.P. Museum (Museo de Artes Popular) which has begun the painstaking task of collecting and documenting folk art from all over Mexico.

The city is abuzz with Christmas shoppers with their newly-received bonuses in-pocket and huge, brightly-colored "Feliz Navidad" decorations line the streets. There is nothing simple or understated about the connection to their holiday and I've felt so touched by the warmth and genuine feeling of the people celebrating their big winter festival.

Last night, in that self-satisfied moment after a gargantuan meal, I started thinking about what the holidays have meant to me and my family over the years. The feast of Christmas provided our extended family the opportunity to gather and enjoy the local connection to tradition through food, something that is possibly being lost as time goes on. Life takes its toll, some of our older family members have passed, some of the young, including myself, have grown up and moved away. My time here in Mexico has reminded me of that tradition and made me nostalgic for those childhood times with my family.

Just as that old lady at the roadside stand guided my awkward hands in shaping the masa to create her tortas, I remember my grandma directing me in the kitchen as a young girl. Every holiday, Grandma and her sister, Pat, would join forces to create the most incredible meal, usually with the same dishes year after year. I always looked forward to Grandma's creamy mashed potatoes and gravy and Aunt Pat's buttery dinner rolls. The food was so extraordinary that we behaved as though we were in some sort of eating contest.

For the past couple of years, I've experimented with our holiday dinners, forming elaborate menus filled with decadent foods. This year, I want to go back to tradition and recreate the Christmas dinners of my past. I realize that I will never be able to capture that exact atmosphere, but through food I hope I can generate that feeling with my new family once again.

Pat's Refrigerator Rolls

My great-aunt Pat is famous for her hot rolls. She has many specialties, but these rolls are my favorite. They are a staple at all of our family functions. Big and fluffy in texture and fragrant with the sweet smell of yeast, these rolls just can't be beat. They usually disappear straight out of the oven.

1/4 cup warm water, about 110°F

Two 1/4-ounce packets active dry yeast (4 1/2 teaspoons)

1 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup canola oil

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 cup cold water

1 cup boiling water

7 to 8 cups all-purpose flour

In a small bowl, mix the warm water with the yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar. Set aside for about 5 minutes, until the mixture starts to thicken and bubble slightly. (If the mixture does not start to bubble, the yeast is not working. Check the expiration date on the yeast and start over.)

In a large bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, the eggs, oil, and salt. Mix in the cold water and then the boiling water. Add the yeast mixture and stir until well blended. With a wooden spoon, slowly stir in 7 cups flour, until incorporated.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Coat the palms of your hands with flour and knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes. If dough remains sticky, add an extra 1 cup or more of flour as needed. When you're done, the dough should be stretchy like elastic. Put the dough into a clean large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 hours.

Punch down the dough. (At this point the dough can be re-covered with plastic wrap and stored in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Remove the dough and continue with the recipe 3 and a half hours before you are ready to bake.)

Grease two 12-cup muffin tins. Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Using a large knife, cut the dough into 24 equal pieces. Divide each piece into three 1-inch balls. Place each set of three balls into one muffin-tin cup. Loosely cover and allow the rolls to rise for about 3 hours at room temperature.

Thirty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 350°F.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden on top. Remove from the tins and serve warm.

Yield: 24 rolls

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Inactive Prep Time: at least 6 hours

Cook Time: 15 minutes

I invite all of you readers to share your family's holiday stories and the recipes that permeate your minds. What are you making this year?

For more holiday season tips, click here for more from Huffington Post's Living!

Comments

[TedB]

Thanks for the post. I just got back from a week down in Baja California Sur and have been wallowing in post-vacation let-down. This post brings up the best part of visiting our southern neighbor--the food! The carnitas at Los Michoacanos in Cabo San Lucas, the carne asada at the roadside stand in Todos Santos, the tamales......Katie, thanks for extending my vacation a little!

[gandydancer]

I am of Slovenian heritage and we make potica (pronounced "poeteetza") for Christmas and Easter. Potica is a sweet dough rolled and stretched paper thin, covered with a walnut filling and rolled up. It can then be coiled in a round pan or cut into chunks and baked in bread pans. I am a granny now and have to say that my older daughter's potica looks better than mine.

My husband was Finnish and the Finns make "Finnish Tart" for Christmas. My younger daughter is the tart expert and makes them better than my mother-in-law did. Finnish tart is a pastry dough cut into squares with a dab of prune filling placed in the center, then it is cut pin wheel fashion and the corners are turned in like a pin wheel.

I was not aware that I was setting up a family tradition when my girls were young and I made "Watergate Salad" at Christmas. But they now consider that an important part of the Christmas (and Easter) meal. A few years ago someone asked me for the recipe, I googled it thinking that it had been a local recipe from northern Minnesota where we lived back then and most likely wouldn't find anything, and lo and behold I got many, many hits! The mystery remains however as to how the name came to be, other than that it was the time of the Watergate scandal.

[PanFx]

Careful with those roadside food stands in Mexico. You just might encounter Montezuma's revenge.

[lungfish]

I was in Mexico City not too long ago... and I was very nervous... there are 22million people living there and, at the risk of sounding indelicate, the place smells like a garbage dump. We stayed in a hotel near the airport for the first night and the smell permeated everywhere. I had no appetite for the week we spent there.
I was very nervous about the water as the wells that the city draws its waters from allegedly have lead contamination.
My journey to Teotehuacan, about an hour outside of Mexico City, was punctuated with an incessant and persistant onslaught of poor people trying to sell me trinkets and stuff that made having even the briefest conversation or quiet moment of contemplation on the grounds of the site impossible.
Attempting to dine in a local resteraunt I was unable to discuss anything we had seen that day because a mariachi band took up position right behind our heads and would not stop yelling while demanding tips.
Finally, we stopped at the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe and were confronted by the entire lower portion of the new cathedral that was filled with stores selling every aspect of idoltry related to the shrine. The shrine itself commemorates a relic that is nothing more than a handpainted piece of burlap. There are 40ft high murals of the Spanish governors and Viceroys and they did not look the least bit compassionate... they were dark and mirthless men, swords prominantly displayed. You could practically still hear the screams of tortured natives....
I have to say that I have been to parts of Mexico that are really lovely and whose people are gratious and friendly and where the food is appealing and appetizing but it isn't anywhere near Mexico City. I warn all my friends against going there.

[unionworker2]

Katie Lee your posts are just a breath of fresh air. With all the serious issues and non-serious ones that are made into being more serious than they are, I sincerely have looked forward to each of one your posts. I am happy to see your vivid descriptions of your current trip in Mexico as well as your family traditiions. Thank you! Happy Holidays!

Cheers!

[cafebird]

I look forward to the holidays, my family is always on the go and Christmas means we all get together for The Feast of the Seven Fishes (la vigilia). We're about as Italian as it gets and our Christmas Eve tradition of fish and meatless dishes is a feast to behold.

What's really special is that all the children and grandkids look forward to it as much as the adults. The table is filled with calamari, shrimp etc.and the best pastries and italian cookie platters are set on a table with roasted chestnuts, fresh fruit and the best cheeses. It's a feast that brings out the best in everyone. Bon Natale!

[NotaBeliever]

I suppose it's a sign of the times that I see a cup and a teaspoon of sugar in a recipe for dinner rolls and immediately think "no way," and isn't that sad? I'm sure they're absolutely delicious, but after years of using Splenda instead of sugar and sugar-free applesauce instead of shortening, I just don't connect with "real" anymore. Except for my mother's turkey dressing which still contains innards, and the neck and all other good things that we get to eat once a year.

[panchovilla]

I meant, nice to *k*now.

[panchovilla]

Nice to now. Buen provecho.