A Group of Choice Spanish and Mexican Recipes
Reading edition
By Mrs. L. Rice
Baked Tripe, Spanish
Boil four pounds of fresh tripe until tender; drain and sprinkle with salt and pepper, and arrange in a well-buttered dish. Pour over it one quart of chopped tomatoes, one large onion, sliced very thin, one-half a cup of chopped parsley, and skin of one large red pepper, minced fine, one-half a cup of chopped olives and one teaspoonful of tabasco sauce. Pour over all one-half a cup of melted butter and bake one hour.
This is equal to finest fish and is certainly delicious.
Chili Con Carne, Spanish
To prepare the chili used in this dish: from two pods of dried red chili peppers take out all the seeds and discard them. Soak the pods in warm water until soft, then scrape pulp from the skins into the water, discarding the skins and saving the pulp and water. Cut two pounds of round steak into small pieces and cook in hot frying pan, in pork drippings, until well browned; add three or four tablespoonfuls of flour and stir until browned, then add one clove of garlic, in which two gashes have been cut, and chili water, of which there should be about one pint; let simmer until meat is tender (about two hours), adding hot water if needed.
When done the sauce should be of good consistency; add salt to taste.
String Beans, Spanish
Take two pounds of green string beans and chop fine. Put one tablespoonful of bacon drippings in a frying pan and one onion, cut fine, half a dry red pepper, cut fine; let onion and pepper fry brown, then add three ripe tomatoes, cut fine, and stir in one tablespoonful of flour; then add one quart of cold water; then the chopped beans, with salt and pepper to taste, and let the beans cook until tender; keep adding water as needed, so as not to let them get too dry.
Spaghetti à la Mexicana
Fry three large pork chops brown. Fry three minced onions and two cloves of garlic in pork drippings. Put the chops and onions into a granite kettle with two cans of tomatoes and two green chili pepper pods (remove the seeds), one tablespoonful, each, of dry chili powder, brown sugar, tarragon vinegar and sage, one teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce and celery salt, table salt to suit; let simmer slowly until pork chops fall to pieces; strain through coarse colander. This sauce should be of the consistency of thick cream, without adding any thickening.
Boil one-half a package of spaghetti in large kettle of salted boiling water; do not break into short pieces, but drop ends into the water and gradually immerse the whole stick. Keep the water boiling rapidly, adding boiling water as it boils down; do not cover; let boil forty-five minutes, drain in colander and pour one quart of cold water through to blanch.
Put the spaghetti into the tomato sauce and set on stove where it will keep hot, but not boil, for fifteen minutes. Arrange in a deep platter and sprinkle top with grated Parmesan cheese.
Serve with grated cheese and stuffed olives. If care is taken in preparing this dish you will be rewarded with something certainly delicious, and a typical Mexican dish.
Rice, Spanish
Put two frying pans on the stove, and in each put one teaspoonful of bacon fat. Take one onion and four green chilis, chop very fine, salt; put this in one frying pan and cook until done without browning. In the other pan, put one cup of rice, washed and dried; stir and let cook a light brown; add the onion and chilis and one cup of tomato; fill frying pan with boiling water and let cook until rice is dry.
Ice Cream à la Mexicana
Put two cups of granulated sugar in saucepan over fire and stir constantly until it is melted; add two cups of English walnut meats and pour into shallow, buttered pan to harden. When perfectly cold, grate or chop fine. Crumble two dozen macaroons into fine crumbs, then toast in hot oven a few minutes. Now make a rich, boiled custard, of yolks of four eggs, one-half a cup of sugar and two cups of cream, then pour over the stiff-beaten whites of two eggs and let cool. To one quart of cream add one-third a cup of sugar and beat until thoroughly mixed, add to the custard, and flavor with vanilla or maraschino, then freeze. When half frozen add the macaroon crumbs and half of the grated walnut mixture and finish freezing. Let ripen two or three hours. Sprinkle remaining grated walnuts over the cream when serving. This is the typical ice cream of Mexico, just as it is served there.
Caramels à la Mexicana
Put one cup of granulated sugar in an iron skillet and stir constantly over a slow fire until the sugar is melted. As soon as the sugar becomes syrup, add one cup of rich milk or cream,[A] and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add, next, one cup, each, of granulated and light brown sugar and boil steadily until mixture forms a soft ball when tested in cold water. Take from the fire, add one cup of coarse chopped nut meats and stir to creamy consistency. Pour into shallow pans, lined with paraffine paper, spread smoothly about half an inch in thickness and mark into squares while warm.