Mexican breakfasts in Houston
This afternoon my mother-in-law and I took a cooking class down here in Houston. Since we don’t have such great Mexican or Tex-Mex food in Boston, I’m all about eating as much as I can of it while I’m here. This class focused on Mexican breakfasts, a meal I don’t normally associate with Mexican food. (That said, one of my favorite egg dishes is huevos rancheros and I pour hot sauce on my scrambled eggs. Huh.)
We took the class at Sylvia’s Enchilada Kitchen, just south of my in-law’s home. Sylvia Casares is in her 50s, although she looks more like 40. Hailing from Brownsville, Texas, down on the U.S./Mexico border, Casares learned to cook from her mother and grandmother.
I was curious to learn the difference between Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine. As I suspected, I’m more of a fan of Mexican food than I am of Tex-Mex, after I learned Tex-Mex includes more beef, flour tortillas, and yellow cheese. (Mexican food is generally more pork, corn tortillas, and white cheese.)
Casares made a half-dozen breakfast recipes for our group: atole, which is like Cream-of-Wheat made with corn flour and flavored with cinnamon (yum!); flour and corn tortillas; gorditas, which were absolutely delicious on their own, but are typically filled with beans; salsa ranchera; quick refried beans; a tomatillo-based salsa; and migas con huevo. At the end of the demonstration, students could practice their tortilla-making. I’d not planned on doing this, but when I could see students eating their practice tortillas, I went for it. Afterwards we were served a delicious lunch that included some of the dishes “we” created, along with some potent margaritas. (I had to take a nap when I came home — I can’t hold my tequila like I used to!)
Here I am, rolling out a flour tortilla.
It was a fun afternoon, and it rekindled my interest in cooking more Mexican dishes. I’ve been reading Discover Your Inner Economist, and one of the things I agreed with is that one should learn to cook a cuisine that’s not readily available in one’s neighborhood. His example is LA — it would be best to learn to cook German or Scandinavian cuisine if you lived there, since great Asian and Mexican foods are readily available. Thus in Boston, learning to cook fabulous Mexican food is a good investment of my time. Hey, I’m game!
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In Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s newest book, her co-author talks about each year choosing a cookbook, usually ethnic, and spending that year cooking her way through it, learning everything she could about that cuisine. I keep meaning to try that. Your point about cooking outside your community is good too.
Amy, that’s a great idea - sort of along the lines of Julie/Julia. Right now I’m reading Fuchsia Dunlop’s memoir of cooking in China and am dying to learn Sichuan cooking — but now I’m thinking Rick Bayless/Diana Kennedy will probably be more popular in my house.
This looks like such a fun cooking class, as well as a happy kitchen. I would have enrolled in this class in a heartbeat!
I want to thank you for leaving a comment about my post over at Paper Palate. Agreed. The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook is phenomenal and guess what? I’ve made that Southern Seafood Gumbo before! Divine…absolutely divine. Even my kids gobbled it up!