Frybread

by Rikki

Step 1: Make the dough mixing baking powder, water, and flour.

Step 2:Let the dough set for at least 30 mins. (dough will rise)

Step 3: Start separating dough and stretch them with rolling pin, and make a slash of middle of dough.

Step 4: Bake in vegetable oil (as if you're cooking a tostada) and wait till it's golden brown.

Step 5: Once dough is all cooked you may add a bit of powdered sugar.

Step 6: Enjoy a sweet pastry.

Fry bread tastes like a soft bread shaped like a tostada shell. It's a fulfilling pastry that you'll enjoy every time you eat it. The powdered sugar makes it sweet and the cooked dough is thick enough to fill you up. Though it holds a lot of oil, still, it is a warm sensation that makes me feel warm inside. Once I finish eating I feel lazy because it gets me really full and I want to take a nice long nap. That is how I can describe how it tastes.

Fry bread is important to me because my Nana Bessie taught me how to make it when I was five. By the time I turned eight she passed away. So every time I eat it, I think she is sitting next to me enjoying her own share. Every year it's her birthday I make fry bread (her favorite dessert), and not only does my family eat it we leave a plate for her also. We do this out of respect and to let us know she is still here with us. That's why it is important to me.

It's important to my culture because it's been passed down from generations. Each daughter from mom's side learned it from their mom. But unfortunately I learned it from my Nana Bessie (because I'm special). My culture believes in spirits being here with us so like since we learned fry bread from our moms it is out of respect to leave a plate for the deceased. When we eat fry bread it's like we're all together again. That's why it is important to my culture.

Photo Credit
Flickr Creative Commons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/navin75/161284227/

Tamales

Tamales Recipe

By: Jose Sainz

Ingredients for Filling

8oz pork tenderloin (fillet)

¼ onion

1 sprig oregano

½ teaspoon salt, or to taste

(Cleaned, seeded, and, deveined)

1½ cups warm water

3 large garlic clove, peeled

½ tablespoon of lard

1 teaspoon of cumin

12 oz. New Mexico chili

(Take out the seeds)

¼ teaspoon of black pepper

¼ cup of oil

1 cup of dough

For Tamales:

2lb prepared corn tortilla dough

30 corn husk (if dried available)

(Depends on how much tamales you want to make)

Washed, soaked in warm water for 30

Minutes, and drained well

Directions

For filling: Place the pork, onions, herbs, and salt in a pot and add enough water to cover. Boil for two hours or until the meat is tender. Then shred the pork tenderloin. Set aside. Soak the chilies in the warm water for about 10 minutes. Puree the chilies, water, oil, black pepper, dough, and garlic in a blender until very smooth. Heat the lard in a frying pan and fry the chili mixture over medium heat until it stars to boil. Add the pork and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Cook for 5 minutes to heat through and thicken slightly.

For Tamales: Mix the dough with an electric beater for five minutes and set aside. Divide the dough mixture among thirty corn husks, spooning the dough into the center of each, along with one teaspoon of filling. Fold the sides of the husk together and bring the tip down to seal completely. Heat water in the bottom of a tamalera or vegetable steamer, line the basket with husks, and place the tamales on top. Cover with the remaining husks, a dish towel, plastic wrap, and the lid. Steam for 45 to 55 minutes or until the husk can be easily separated from the filling and serves 30 tamales.


Tamales
Tamales taste so good especially fresh out of the pot. You can smell it from far away. When you unfold the husk you taste it without giving it a bite. It gets closer to your mouth and it smells and smells so good that you just want to put it in your mouth to get flavor. Tamales are sometimes too spicy, but that’s how we like them. That’s how tamales taste like.

Do you know why tamales are important to me? Tamales are important to me because it’s something traditional for our family. It’s been passed from generations to generations. Everyone has their own recipes, but some how our tamales are the same. The things I also like about it’s are that my brothers, sister, mom and dad join up and participate on cooking the tamales. It’s not as boring as you think. Its actually fun. We always have fun cooking it together.

Tamales are important to my cultural. Do you know why it’s important, because it reminds my family when they use to live in Mexico. They would put their own species that they could find. When corn grew from the fields. They would take of from the corn was the husk and or save them for later. They would pick the chilies that they grew on their own. They would squish them for chili sauce. All the ingredients they use, they plant or find when my family use to live in Mexico.

Photo Credit

Flickr Creative Commons

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_spivack/109476184/

burritos

This recipe makes four burritos

I N G R E D I E N T S
1/2 cup long grain rice
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon dried Mexican Oregano
7 - ounce can chopped tomatoes in juice
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 1/4 cups grated cheese
Sour Cream

I N S T R U C T I O N S
Bring a saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the rice and cook for 8 minutes. Drain, rinse, then drain again.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion with ground cloves and oregano and fry for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the rice and tomatoes and cook over low heat until all the tomato juice has been absorbed. Set the pan aside.

Put the chicken breasts in a large saucepan and pour in enough water to cover and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and poach the chicken until it is cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Shred the chicken by pulling it apart with two forks then add the chicken to the rice mixture with the grated cheese. Stir in the sour cream if using.
Wrap the tortillas in aluminum foil and place them on a plate over point water for about 5 minutes. Alternately you can wrap in microwave-safe plastic wrap and heat in microwave about 1 minute.

Spoon 1/8 the filling into the center of a tortilla and fold in both sides. Fold the bottom up and the top down to form a parcel. Secure with a toothpick.
Place burritos in a shallow dish or casserole, cover with foil and keep warm in oven while you make 7 more bundles. Remove the toothpicks before serving.

This recipe is important to our culture because we eat it all the time. It's weird how what we eat is so much a part of who we are, but it's true. Also it is important because it is how we express ourselves. We express ourselves by cooking a lot of food. We always make this because it's really good. We also love baking flans. Flans is the best desert every. Also we make those things all the time. So, that's why we love making this dish.......

Cho-Oat-Chip Cookies

by Patricia

Ingredients
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg (without the shell)
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup flour (not flower)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/4 cup oats
A bag of chocolate chips

Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter and the sugars until it looks creamy.
2. Add egg, milk and vanilla and beat well.
3. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt into a mixing bowl.
4. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients.
5. Stir in the oats and chocolate chips.
6. Wrap the dough up and refrigerate it over night.
7. The next day, get the dough out and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
8. Grease the cookie sheet.
9. Drop balls of cookie dough onto the cookie sheet.
10. Bake cookies for 9-10 minutes for chewy cookies and 12-13 minutes for crisp cookies.

These cookies are very tasty. My mom and her mom make them to give the little ones a treat when they are good. Sometimes they just make them for a snack. They aren't really part of a holiday or anything, but it's still a part of our culture and they do make them for the holidays. This has been going on since I was little and when my mom's mom was little. This recipe is really old and continues to be passed down from generation to generation.

enchiladas de pollo

For 6 people
8 pasilla chiles
tortillas
chicken
cheese
Repollo
garlic

You put the chicken to cook for 1hour. When its cooked its a bit melted .You put water to boil after its boilled you put the chiles in the water,and you wait until they turn soft, for 30 min.Then you take out the chiles, and you remove the seeds then you put it in the blender 1 spoonful of flower, salt, garlic, ledes.Then all chile is put in boilled water,then heat up tortillas you then put chile.They get filled up with chicken and with cheesse then you roll them up.you put cheesse on top and they are acompanied by rise. AND THATS HOW YOU MAKE ENCHILADAS DE POLLO!

I love this dish and it's one of those dishes that people don't always think of when they think of Mexican food. It's something you'll never see at Taco Bell and for some reason that makes me love it even more!

a morning dish

by JV

For some dishes, there are no recipes. Sure, people put down a recipe on a card, but anyone who makes the dish knows that each person has his or her own way of making it. That's how it is with Chilikales.

Chilikales is a dish where you take a bunch of tortillas and cut them into little squares. Some people just tear them, which I guess is alright, too. Afterward, you put them in an oiled pan and wait for them to turn a golden brown. It's a good idea to add a little salt, but not a lot. Next, it's important to add some tomato sauce and cover all the tortillas with the tomato sauce. At this point, they are ready to eat, but it tastes better if you have a little cheese to add to it. They end up tasting like a tomato tortilla, but it's better than you think.

Originally they were there the same thing as enchiladas but since people don't have that much time in the morning they just eat them with tomato sauce and cheese. It's a lazy meal, but it's really tasty! And for me it reminds me of a morning in Mexico and I can feast on it before walking to my American school where they feed us candy disguised as cereal.

carne asada

by M.H.

2 pounds flank or skirt steak
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Marinade:
4 garlic cloves
minced 1 jalapeño chile pepper, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon freshly ground cumin seed
1 large handful fresh cilantro
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 limes, juiced
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup olive oil

Steps
Put Carne Asada in a bowl with juice you can buy at a Mexican Store. Let it marinade.You then put the carne asada on a grill. Do this for how you want your carne asada. Some people like it really grilled, while others don't. It all depends on your tastes. Then add the special ingredients afterward. Eat in different ways. I like it on a tortilla and eat like a taco.
ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Carne Asada is the best Mexican Food in my opinion. You can eat in a lot of different ways and it goes great with other tasty stuff like tortillas or salsa. In my personal opinion, I like eating carne asada in a nice tortilla and putting some tasty chili my mom makes. Carne asada has a relly good taste all of my family likes it. People can eat in a lot of ways. It's like ketchup, you put on almost everything.

Its important to me because its what we eat almost every weekend. Also, it's one of Mexicans' favorite food. It's what we love to eat. I go to a friends house and they are making carne asada. If I go to another friends house they are making carne asada. If I go to a tia's house, it's carne asada again. It seems that everyone in the world is making carne asada, but no one gets tired of it. It's good and it's delicious.

Carne asada is one of the favorite foods of the Mexican culture. People in Mexico make carne asada when they have parties or just having a good home-cooked meal. It's the kind of meal people make when there is a special occasion. Here in America, this meal is important to our culture and our tradition. By eating it in America, it's like a ritual that brings us back to our roots in Mexico.