South Western dishes was Re: SC - Huevos con salsa-

[Linda Peterson]

> There are some other Mexican/South Western dishes I'd like to ask about 
> please:
> 
> Tamales     
> 
True American fare.  Tamales are Pre-Columbian.  The word tamale is common
to a number of related Indian tribes of Central Mexico including the Aztecs.


> Chiles Rienos (?spelling)  Modern or not?
> 
Rellenos.  Stuffed chiles.  This is probably of Spanish origin and a product
of applying an existing method to a new product.  How old it is is open to
debate, however; there is a sardine relleno recipe in "A Drizzle of Honey."

> Enchiladas  
> 
IIRC, the Spanish found the locals making tortillas.  Wrapping things up in
bread seems to a fairly common way to eat things so the technique is
probably old.  The problem I have is the sauced enchiladas of today are not
a finger food as the tamale is.  I would place the  modern enchilada as a
fairly recent invention.

> Lastly.     Blue tortillas.  I saw a documentary on the TV a few years
> 
>             ago that explained that there was a certain New Mexican tribe 
> 	    (Hopi maybe) that had traditionally cooked blue tortillas, 	    
> 	    and on analysis by the anthro people, it was found that by
> adding 
> 	    just enough of a certain ingredient (don't remember what it was 
> 	    sorry) to the tortilla recipe, the cooked tortillas acheived a 
> 	    certain blue colour (they were being cooked very thinly on a 
> 	    heated bakestone). Apparently the reaction causing the blue 
> 	    colour produced or activated a certain a mineral not otherwise 
> 	    found in the diet of the people.   
> 
> 	    As weird as this sounds (maybe not?), I just wonder if anyone
> 
>             else had heard anything about this.  I know blue tortillas are
> 
> 	    available in stores sometimes, as well as the nacho chips, but 
> 	    they're made of blue corn and are not the same as the ones 	    
> mentioned above?
> 
> Elysant
> 
This is a new one on me.  I've always heard that blue tortillas are that way
because of blue corn meal used in making them.  I'll have to take a look at
this.

Bear 
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================