SC - New World Feast/Recipes

[ana l. valdes]

Here comes my promissed recipes, from the mayaculture.
The most of the recipes are very vague, since the Spanish did not found
any Mayaprinces or priests, as they did in Mexico, when they were
honored as guests by the Aztecs.
The Mayaculture is still a mystery. Near 8 miljon people belonging to
the Mayas lived in Guatemala, Honduras and Yucatan. But when the
Conquest come the cities were desert and the only remaining from the
Mayas were impressing pyramids and castles, but not any people. The
writing is still undesciphred, contributing to the mystery.
But the interpretation of researchers and chronists speak about a people
ruled by their priest-princes, in a theocratic way.
The cities were only used in ceremonial and administratives ways, as a
kind of shrines.
But the people lived in the countryside, in small villages.
Here is a pick from the kitchen who is still used in Yucatan, the most
"authentic" part of Mexico.

Pumpkin Seed-Dip
(Sikil-Pak)

2 tomatoes, roasted and peeled
1 fresh habanero chile, roasted and peeled, with all the seeds removed
2 cups toasted pumpkin seeds, finely ground
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons chopped onions
salt and peppar
1 tablespoon lemonjuice

Cover tomatoes with water, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer
for 15 minutes. Drain.
Place the tomatoes and chile in a blender or foodprocessor and purée
until smooth.
Stir the tomatoes into the ground seeds until the sauce is the
consistency of the mayonnaise. Add the lemonjuice.
Add the cilantro, onions, salt and peppar.

Use as a dip.

Cochinita Pibil
(The most known food from the Mayas, made before with wild boar, when
the Spanish come, with pig)

10 whole black peppercorns
1 teaspoon cummin seeds
5 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons achiote paste (a paste made with chiles)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup bitter orange juice (if you dont find bitter oranges, take lime
juice)
2 pounds lean pork (or boar)l, cut in cubes
3 fresh chiles, without seeds
2 bananas or platanos (the cook banana)
Sliced purple raw onions
Banana leaves or aluminium foil
String


Make the peppercorns and the cummin to a fine powder, in a coffe
grinder. Mix the powder and the garlic in a mortar or a food processor.
Combine the achiote, oregano, bayleaves and orange juice. Pour the
marinade over the pork (or the boar) and marinade for a night.
Cut two pieces of string long enough to fit around a roasting pan. Lay
the strings on the bottom of the pan. Cut the banana leaves in pieces to
fit the pan and line the pan with them.
Place the pork, including the marinade, on the leaves and top with the
chiles and the onions. Fold the banana leaves over the meat and tie with
the strings.
Cover the pan and bake in a 325 degree oven for 1 1/2 hours.
Serve with corn tortillas or rice, blackbeans and a chilesauce.


Dessert

Altak


1 pound black beans
6 tablespoons honey
1 stick cinammon
1 stick vanilla

Cook blackbeans until soft. Make a puree and mix with the honey, the
cinammon and the vanilla.
Form small cakes and let it them be cold or eat as a puddin.

Bon Appetit!
Ana
============================================================================

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".

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