November 12, 2023 Lunch - Libertad Market. Dinner - Mahi Mahi iwith Vegetables in foil with Sushi rice
Suzette made a great Gravad Lax and goat cheese omelette for breakfast with two slices of Baguette that we spread fig jam on one and Bonne Marie French cherry preserves.
We then drove to Guadalajara, Mexico, Mexico’s second largest city with 7 to 8 million people. What incredible density!
We first drove to Tianguis Trocadero de Antiguedades located on a boulevard in the center of town on the promenade in the center that was about ten blocks long.
I noticed immediately several stalls selling specimen minerals and fossils among the amazing array of other items offered at the hundreds of stalls.
Suzette bought a French Chafing dish insert that held the hot water with two handles that was copper on the outside and nickel on the inside that she wants to use to float flowers in our new bathroom.
I found a stall with opalized fossil sea shells and bought the best one for 100 pesos.
We had parked in the parking lot of the Toyo Oriental Market, so when we finished shopping for antiques we went to the Japanese grocery store.
I was thinking about making sushi with the Mahi Mahi filets or at least showing Harold how to make sushi rice. So I selected a small package with packets of dehydrated dashi (a broth flavored with dried Bonita flakes), a tube wasabi paste, a bottle of dried wasabi, a bag of dried seaweed, a bottle of rice vinegar, a bottle of mirin, a package of sheets of nori seaweed with perforated lines as guides of where to cut the sushi roll, and a 1.5 liter bottle of sake. So now Harold has all the stuff he needs to make a fabulous sushi feast.
We then drove to Libertad Market in the center of the city that must be one of the largest covered markets in Mexico. It is two or three levels and seems to the eight or nine blocks long on each side.
Although one would assume that one could find anything, we were unable to find two of the three things we sought, morcilla sausage and fresh Hoja Santa leaves.
Suzette did buy several colorful plastic woven shopping bags, the third item.
Then we walked up a ramp to an area with lots of restaurants and seated ourselves in the dining area of a restaurant that had an extensive menu.
Harold ordered a Chile Poblano plate and a plate of eight freshly made taquitos stuffed with chicken and cheese. Suzette ordered four tacos, two of chorizo and two of carne asada (grilled meat). I could not make up my mind. I wanted something without chili. Harold came to my rescue and ordered Bifstec Ranchero with a Milanesa cut of beef that turned out to be an about 1/3 inch thick steak grilled and cut into strips with rice, refried beans, a wedge of avocado, and lettuce. Soon the waitress brought four bowls filled with lime wedges, chopped onion, red chili, and cilantro
The platters of food were served with a pile of warm tortillas covered by a towel.
I loved the steak that reminded me of the thin steaks that I recently ate in Spain served as an entree as part of a comida del dia. I filled a warm tortilla with beans, strips of steak, rice and, avocado and rolled the tortilla around the ingredients to make a rolled burrito and repeated this twice more for a total of three burritos and washed them down with a large Coca Cola for a very satisfying meal.
Suzette liked the chorizo tacos and ate both, but only one carne asada taco.
Harold did not touch the lettuce or rice on his plate and suggested I not eat the lettuce on my plate.
After lunch we returned to the car and drove to Tonala, which was a mad house of people, stalls and activity. We parked in the shade in an indoor public parking garage, so I stayed in the car and rested and read while Suzette and Harold went shopping.
They returned in about 45 minutes and Harold said it was really crowded with bodies pressed shoulder to shoulder and without having bought anything. Suzette said this would be her last trip to Tonala. It must have been crazy out there.
We then drove 1 1/2 hours to return to the Lake House and arrived at 6:00.
When we returned we started drinking glasses of Harold’s South Sider Tequila Vermouth and cooked three dishes.
We were preparing all three dishes at the same time.
The Fabada
Suzette started the chicken stock for the beans for the Fabada by covering the leftover grilled chicken parts and added chopped celery, carrots, and onion simmering.
The Fish in Foil
We then prepped the fish in foil. I julienned a carrot, 1/2 onion, four mushrooms, and snapped 9 stalks of asparagus. Harold rinsed and dried two Mahi Mahi fillets and fetched the leftover nopal and tomato salad.
Suzette then tore six squares of aluminum foil and I crimped and filled three squares with three pads of butter, then lay down fish fillets cut to fit the aluminum, then garnished the fillets with carrots, onion, mushrooms, asparagus, and nopal and tomato salad. I then added about 1/4 cup of white Torrontes wine to each packet and crimped the edges to seal the ingredients. Then we lay each crimped packet inside a second square of aluminum and sealed the first packet inside a second packet. We have found that the first packet is not waterproof unless resealed in a second packet.
We then broiled the packets on the propane grill for twenty minutes.
The Sushi Rice
Next Harold and I prepared the sushi rice utilizing the two cups of cooked rice we prepared last night.
In a small sauce pot. We put 1/4 tsp. of dehydrated dashi, 2 1/2 T. of rice vinegar, 2 T. of sugar, 1 T. of mirin, and 4 T. of water and heated it on the stove to dissolve the sugar into solution and to reduce the liquid volume by about 1/3. We then added the PPI rice to the sushi seasoning liquid and covered and simmered the rice until the rice had absorbed the liquid and turned off the heat.
The Fabada cont’d
I sliced 1/2 onion into thin strips and minced a medium head of garlic and 1 of the Spanish chorizos we bought at Walmart on Friday.
Suzette cut the meat and fat off the bones of the pork ribs we bought yesterday at the restaurant in Tizapan and sautéed it and the diced chorizo in 1 T. of olive oil. Suzette then removed the meat and sautéed the garlic and onions. Then she filled the casserole with the sautéed garlic and onion, the meat, the chicken broth, and the soaked beans that she started soaking yesterday evening and simmered the beans for 2 1/2 hours until we went to bed.
We took a few minutes to look at a lovely sunset.
We then ate dinner of fish baked in foil with spoonfuls of sushi rice. Suzette and I drank Torrontes and Harold drank his tequila vermouth.
After dinner we sipped Presidente brandy mixed with Cassis and ate chocolate wafer cookies.
Dessert
We had bought hand mixers at Libertad market and Harold had fresh raspberries and powdered sugar, so I mixed a bowl of sour cream with 1/4 cup of powdered sugar and Suzette mixed those together with the new hand mixer until smooth to make a Romanoff sauce. Suzette then divided the sauce into three bowls and added fresh raspberries for a delicious dessert.
We ate and drank a lot but it was a fun day of shopping and eating and an evening of cooking and eating.
Bon Appetit
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