Welcome to Esteban Castillo’s Pantry! In every installment of this collection, a recipe developer will share with us the pantry gadgets important to their cooking. This month, we’re exploring 5 staples stocking Esteban’s Mexican-American kitchen.
Among the finest items of recommendation I’ve ever acquired got here from my mother, when she advised me, “Aprende a cocinar una buena olla de frijoles y nunca tendrás hambre,” or, learn to make a great pot of stovetop beans, and also you’ll by no means be hungry. After she advised me this, I spotted frijoles de la olla, with pinto beans swimming in a broth with aromatics like onion, cilantro, and garlic, repeatedly stored me and my siblings fed when our dad and mom couldn’t afford to place the rest on the desk. So once I was first studying cook dinner, I made certain to comply with my mother’s recommendation: I perfected a pot of beans.
In fact, I discovered to cook dinner tons extra, too. I’ve discovered my place within the kitchen, and realized that I take pleasure in creating dishes that mirror my childhood, current within the house between two completely different international locations. I not solely prefer to showcase conventional Mexican dishes like birria, pozole, and mole; I additionally take pleasure in taking conventional Mexican components and mixing them with components I grew up with in Southern California. I create fusion dishes, like cilantro pesto, or gown fries with a spicy mole and tons of shredded Oaxacan cheese for a “Chicano poutine.” My mother has been an enormous inspiration for me, as a result of when she first got here to this nation, she needed to be taught to adapt the dishes she beloved with the components she was capable of finding within the U.S. Now, each time I’m making a dish that showcases each conventional and nontraditional components, I ask myself, how would my mother strategy this?
Right now, my Mexican-American pantry appears to be like very very like my mother’s, and there are 5 staple gadgets that I all the time have available.
1. Dried Beans
In fact, I’ll begin with beans. Beans, when paired with different components, like corn and chiles, type the muse of Mexican delicacies. I like to purchase dried black and pinto beans in bulk and retailer them within the pantry—I are likely to cook dinner a big pot of beans in the beginning of the week and maintain it within the fridge to make use of over the subsequent a number of days. Beans are such a flexible ingredient, particularly in Mexican delicacies, and I’m in a position to remodel stovetop beans with completely different preparations: frijoles refritos, or creamy refried beans; frijoles charros, also called cowboy beans, or pintos stewed with aromatics and pork; frjioles puercos, the refried beans cooked with spicy chorizo, candy carrots, and onions; and clearly, a easy pot of frijoles de la olla.
2. Masa Harina
Basically a corn flour constructed from nixtamalized corn, masa harina is one other pantry staple. For these of us who love Mexican delicacies, however don’t have a fresh-tortilla hookup, nor entry to contemporary corn masa, masa harina is a crucial ingredient to have round. With just a little water and salt (plus further flavorings like puréed greens or chiles, if desired), masa harina kinds the bottom for do-it-yourself corn tortillas. With that very same dough, I’ll make sopes, or fried masa disks with toppings; thick tortillas filled with completely different fillings, like diced potatoes with chorizo, referred to as gorditas; huaraches, rectangular masa truffles filled with refried beans with toppings like shredded lettuce, carne asada, and queso cotija; and crispy meat-filled empanadas.
3. Crema Mexicana
A number of of my “pantry” staples can really be discovered within the fridge. Crema mexicana, or desk cream, is one in every of my favourite gadgets to maintain within the kitchen. Wealthy and buttery, crema is much less tangy and looser than bitter cream. Crema mexicana is one in every of my go-to components to thicken and enrich stews, or drizzle over tacos dorados, sopes, or potato-and-chorizo-filled tortas.
A Very Critical Information on How one can Make Quesadillas
4. Queso Cotija
In my fridge you’ll discover loads of cheese, however my favourite is queso cotija. Queso cotija is a tough, creamy, and salted white cheese that’s sometimes crumbled. It offers dishes from frijoles de la olla to flautas just a little further zing of taste and richness.
5. Recent Mexican Chorizo
Final however not least, one of many components that I prefer to all the time have available in my fridge is chorizo. Mexican chorizo is a contemporary pork sausage seasoned with an adobo that sometimes consists of vinegar, a combination of guajillo and ancho peppers, and spices like cinnamon, paprika, and clove. Chorizo is nice when faraway from its casing, damaged up into items, and fried. I’ll toss it in scrambled eggs for breakfast tacos or burritos, nestle it in a skillet with diced potatoes for pambazos (telera rolls dipped in a guajillo sauce and crammed with potatoes and chorizo); use it crumbled and fried as a topping for huaraches or sopes; or just grill it in its casing to eat as a facet. In case you’re not capable of finding contemporary chorizo domestically, Mexican longaniza is a superb substitute; it has the identical taste profile as chorizo, however is a mince, fairly than floor pork sausage.
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