November 10, 2023 Breakfast - Raisin and pecan sweet roll. Lunch - Tacos al Pastor. Dinner - Poached Salmon in a garlic and Wine Cream Sauce with rice and diced asparagus
This was our first full day in Mexico and it was full. We started with a warmed sweet roll with pecans and raisins and a cup of tea. Suzette and Harold chose coffee and Suzette ate a few v bites of the sweet roll.
We put together a grocery list and Harold told us where to find the two bakeries and Walmart where we intended to shop.
We then drove the 1 1/2 hour drive to Chapala. The traffic is stop and go going through the northern lake towns of Ajijic and Chapala, that have a series of stop lights.
Finally we arrived st the Yate Club area in Downtown Chapala where the Féria de Maestros de Arte was being held. We paid our 100 peso admission fee and went in. I immediately got the impression that it was as much a gathering of festively dressed American Ex-pats than a craft show, but there were some lovely overpriced Mexican crafts. Suzette bought four Hand decorated fabric Day of the Dead skull wall hangings for the Bistro. I saw a lovely small hand painted bowl from Puebla for 650 pesos ($37.12) but resisted the urge to buy it after the disaster of the shattered tea cup I bought in Santander, Spain. Especially, since the Spanish tea cup was more beautiful and cheaper.
It was 12:30 by the time we arrived at the Féria, so we checked the food options and settled on a plate of four tacos Al Pastor for 80 ($4.50) pesos being made in the outdoor kitchen at the Yacht Club. The way they ate served is the sautéed flavored beef is folded corn tortillas on a plate and you add the additional ingredients you wish, such as green or red salsa, chopped onion, lettuce and lime wedges for juice.
We went through two tents and then ate at a table set on the patio near the open air kitchen where the food was being prepared. I was pinned in a chair next to the low patio wall, Suzette fetched the food and also a cup of melon juice for me. She went to the liquor table and bought a Modelo Especial.
After our lovely small lunch we toured the other four tents of crafts. There were many lovely large objects such as decorated mirrors and almost life-sized ceramic jaguars and huge decorated platters, that would be lovely in any of the fancy lake houses of the rich Ex-pats, but were unthinkable to try to carry back or even ship back to the U.S.
After another hour we had visited all the booths, so we left. As soon as we left our parking spot we had paid an attendant 30 pesos to use there was another car waiting to park in it. The attendant was doing a wonderful business parking cars.
We drove out of Chapala and I saw out of the corner of my eye on the left Vickie’s Bakery that was on the list.
Suzette turned across the lane of oncoming traffic and parked on the side of the street behind a telephone pole, which is common in Mexico. People seem to park wherever they wish without much regard for others and there are no police to enforce any traffic control measures that adds to the chaos of driving.
When we went into Vickie’s I immediately saw that it was an American style bakery.
A gentleman ahead of me was ordering bagels for delivery tomorrow.
When he finished a lady bought the last two colored sparkles decorated donuts.
We then bought a baguette and two more pecan and raisin sweet rolls.
We then drove to the Scandinavian Bakery that produced a wide selection of breads and French style baked goods where we bought a loaf of Rye bread and four chocolate Croissants.
As we exited the driveway of the Scandinavian Bakery we saw the large Walmart across the street when we got a light we drove across the highway to the Walmart and parked in a handicapped space. This trip we decided to bring our Handicap hang placard.
I pushed a basket that we began filling. We started at the cheese and deli section where we bought a loaf of goat cheese, a round of Spanish Manchego, 150 grams of real Italian salami, a package of thick cut smoked bacon, and three Spanish chorizos.
Then we travelled down the packaged meat section to the dairy section where we bought container of LaLa natural yogurt, butter, eggs, milk, and sour cream.
We were now at the meat area and went past the meat to the fish section where we found large frozen filets of skin on salmon for 399 pesos per kilo ( $6.90/lb.). We bought a 3 1/2 lb. filet.
We then turned to the produce section where we bought onions, a bunch of fresh asparagus, garlic, and two bunches of limp dill.
Finally it was time for beverages. We bought an eight pack of 1 1/2 liter bottles of bottled water, a 12 pack of Noche Buena beer (my favorite Mexican beer that is a Bock beer brewed only in the holiday season of the year), three bottles of Trapiche Argentinian Torrontes white wine and three bottles of Amor red Argentinian red wine. The single bottle price is 225 pesos but if you buy three the price is 450 pesos or 150 pesos per bottle.
Suzette also found a bottle of Italian Cinzano red vermouth. I suggested buying a bottle of Mexican brandy but that suggestion was rejected.
On our way to the cashier I picked up a package of Mexican Gamex chocolate wafer cookies.
I went to the money machine while Suzette checked out.
When we loaded all our food purchases into the car it was 4:30 and we were hungry, so Suzette tore off the end quarter of the baguette that we ate greedily with large sips of water as we drove back around the lake through Ajijic and a number of small and larger towns to the lake house.
Harold helped us unload and I made Harold and me a herring sandwich by spreading some of the sour cream on slices of fresh rye bread and then garnishing each slices with slices of onion and pieces of Harold’s lovely Canadian pickled herring.
Suzette was creating a new tapa recipe for the bistro. Her plan is to serve vermouth with tapas. The tapa she created this evening was a pitted date filled with a slice of Manchego, a slice of fresh pear, and an almond and secured with a strip of bacon held in place with a toothpick. She made ten of them and roasted them in the toaster oven to crisp the bacon and heat the other ingredients.
Suzette will use slices of quince instead of pear, but the effect was nearly the same in this rendition. Tasting an entire roasted date gave an overwhelming taste experience of cheese, almond, pear fruit, sweet date, and tangy salty fried bacon, all at once.
I drank beer with mine. Suzette said the Cinzano vermouth was a little sweet and a drier vermouth would be a better match for the sweetness of the roasted date.
Harold then Q@introduced us to a delicious locally produced tequila named Calaba over cubes of ice.
Gravad Lax and Dinner -
Harold and I then turned our attention to making Gravad Lax and Suzette started dinner.
I started by making a cup of rice with two cups of water, 1 cup of rice, and 1/2 cube of Knorr dehydrated chicken broth.
Harold fetched a deep square glass dish and I then cut the salmon into three pieces, two to fit the inner width of the dish for Gravad lax and the rest of the tail for poaching for dinner.
I showed Harold how to compute the amount of sugar (1/2 cup per 3 lb. of salmon) and salt (2/3 cup per three lb. of salmon). Since the dish was a little large for the amount of salmon, I increased the amounts of sugar and salt by 50% to 1 cup of salt and 3/4 cup of sugar. Harold measured and mixed the sugar in a bowl with 1 tsp. of hand ground black pepper.
I then rinsed and dried the two equal sized salmon filets and we spread dill fronds on the bottom of the dish. Th en Harold sprinkled the mixture over the skin side of one of the filets and I turned that skin side down. We then covered the inside of that filet facing up with dill fronds and the mixture. Then we did the same in reverse for the other filet and poured the remaining mixture over the top of the skin side up other filet.
Harold then fetched a bag of small ceramic tiles that he put into a bag and he placed the bag of tiles on top of the fish that we had covered with Saran to weigh down the fish to increase the contact between fish and mixture.
Harold then placed the dish into the fridge at 7:30 p.m. and we decided to cure for 24 hours, so the flip would be at 7:30 a.m.
We then turned our attention to dinner. I snapped about 24 stalks of asparagus that Suzette then blanched.
I also minced two slices of onion and we pressed three cloves of garlic that Suzette sautéed in butter.
Suzette then made a poaching medium by adding white wine and water to the sautéed onion and garlic in a medium casserole to a depth that would cover a bit more than 1/2 the height of the salmon. She then poached the salmon tail piece at high heat for a few minutes.
While the salmon was poaching Suzette made a buerre marie by mixing softened butter with flour into a creamy smooth paste.
When the fish was finished poaching, which took only a couple of minutes, Suzette removed the fish from the casserole and removed the skin and broke it into large pieces. She then added spoonfuls of buerre marie to the casserole as I stirred and then whisked it into solution.
In about four or five minutes when the flour had cooked and the sauce began to thicken, Suzette returned the salmon pieces to the cream sauce and diced the asparagus.
I opened the chilled bottle of Trapiche Torrontes, Harold fetched wine glasses and I filled three glasses with the Torrontes.
I then sat down and Suzette plated the dish. She spooned a pile of rice onto plates, then covered the rice with the salmon in the onion, garlic, and white wine cream sauce, and finally garnished the dish with diced blanched asparagus.
The combination of rice, fish in a wine cream sauce and asparagus was delicious, especially with the light, mildly fruity Torrontes white wine.
We enjoyed dinner and conversation until 10:00 when we all went to bed.
Bon Appetit
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