This market is enormous. You can find it on the map above to the southwest of the center of downtown. The stalls literally take up all of the empty space indicated. And they're all covered, under an enormous hodgepodge of corrugated iron, sheet plastic, plastic panes, tarps, etc. So once you enter, which you do by passing through really small gaps in the outer walls, you can't see anything but the market. That means that you should really keep your wits around you or by the time you take three or four turns in the rabbit-warren of paths, you might have no idea where you are. Fun, yeah? Also, this is apparently a good place to get pick-pocketed if you flash a lot of money around, so its a good idea to watch yourself a bit.
Inside, it seemed like the outer layers were clothes, music and dvds, and towards the interior were food stalls - fruit, vegetables, herbs, dried goods, and meat. But that's not all! There were hardware stands, hat stands, cheese stands, a sprawling shoe district, restaurants, knife-sellers. I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but you get the idea. And wandering through everything were people with bags of bananas, limes (which confusingly, here, are called limons - lemons are called limas), cheese, you name it, all for sale. One of the websites I've seen said it isn't uncommon to see a burro for sale, but, sadly, we didn't.
We did, however, buy a whole mess of raw peanuts (cacahuetes crudos), oats, dried morita peppers (hence the name of the post, with more to come), epazote (a herb that is considered an absolute must for cooking black beans), cilantro, some dried hisbiscus (jamaica: ha - mai - ka) various fruits and vegetables, and a small goat. No, just kidding, he's actually pretty big already. ;)
While we were under the roofs, it started to pour rain - we continue to plan a lot of our excursions for the late afternoon, for some reason - which was quite an experience. The sound was cacophonous under the corrugated roofing, and everywhere there was a gap in the tarps (mostly, cleverly, over pathways and drains) water poured in. Undeterred, we rolled up our pant-legs and soldiered on, having a fun time dodging vendors and other shoppers who were crouching in dry patches to wait it out.
With a lucky guess at the direction, we found our way to an exit pretty close to where we came in and made it back home with our prizes. So now today we're making use of them. We toasted the peanuts - 20-25 minutes at 350 does the trick, but be careful, they get really hot on account of all the oil inside - and the oats as well - same deal, but we coated them first with a mixture of honey and oil - and we made a salsa from the moritas.
To make a salsa from dried peppers, you first reconstitute them for 15 minutes or so in simmering water. You don't want to let the water boil or it will really shred the peppers and make retrieving them a bit of a pain. If you want, you can remove the seeds and veins first to reduce the spice levels. And you can toast the peppers in a hot pan first as well to bring out a smokier flavor. Just press them flat with a spatula until they're aromatic, then turn. Once they're soft from the hot water, just chop the peppers (by hand or in a food processor) add some onion, cilantro, and garlic and some lime juice and salt. Voila! Salsa!
Ours has about a cup of reconstituted moritas, a small white onion, juice from one lime (which, happily for me, have seeds down here!), four large cloves of garlic, about quarter cup chopped cilantro and about a teaspoon of salt. It's very spicy, and very delicious, with just a hint of smoke. I can't wait for all the flavors to get to know each other in the fridge overnight. And why moritas? Well, there were about a dozen varieties and you have to start somewhere...
Next up is to make a sweet-and-sour drink from the jamaica blossoms that's pretty popular at restaurants here.
Happy cooking!
1 comment:
who knew you'd have to travel to Mexico to find your lime seeds?! ha! I still say you should volunteer to cook somewhere :}
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