The pot in the front = the most luscious black bean soup I ever had. Served with fried tortilla strips, fried pasilla chile, avocado cubes and queso fresco. It defies descrition - unctuous, savory, a little sweet, a bit smoky and spicy, tremendously soothing.Left pot = chiles rellenos - these poblanos were stuffed with picadillo - an Spanish inheritance, itself redolent of Moorish influence: ground meat cooked with sliced almonds, raisin, peas and carrots, spiced with cumin and maybe a touch of cinnamon. The chiles were spicy, the stuffing was sweet and the tomato sauce was tart - it all balanced out perfectly.
In the back = white rice. But white rice a la mexicana - the raw rice is fried in oil with onions and a jalapeño, then cooked slowly with chicken stock. Divine.
The are no pictures of the lovely birthay table with the white cotton Puebla tablecloth, because we were too busy eating. But above (bc I still don't know how to control the placing of pictures in blogger!) is a picture of the gorgeous talavera dishes the soup was eventually poured into.
This morning I had spicy green tomato chilaquiles - day old tortillas cut into pieces and cooked in tomatillo and chili sauce, then covered in manchego and roasted in the oven until the cheese melted. Spciy, tart and nutritious (right?). Breakfast of champions!
-J.
