Cinco De Mayo : Chiles and Gossip--Shopping Is a Social Event

Tianguis, 3610 N. Peck Road, El Monte, (818) 443-3298; 315 Mission Blvd., San Fernando, (818) 361-3063. Open 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. Also citywide. It’s Saturday at Tianguis. A live Mariachi band pumps out music while pinatas shaped like rainbows, birds and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles dangle above the vast produce department of this 80,000-square-foot store. Tomatillos for salsas, de-thorned cactus paddles for nopalito salad, multicolored chiles and rows of ripe fruit are piled in pyramids that seem to go on for about a block. At the center of the store, a little girl in a lace-edged skirt and lace-edged socks stands watch as hundreds of tortillas move along a conveyor belt. At her side her mother scoops star-shaped macaroni into a bag from a section of bulk staples.

The El Monte branch of Tianguis Market is the largest store in this nine-branch chain (which is owned by Vons Inc.) and has the most complete selection of Latin-style products. But these stores are designed to be much more than simply an American-style supermarket stocked with ethnic goods. Markets play a central role in the Mexican way of life, and the Vons company sent a team of researchers to Mexico to visit local markets. Their findings were used to plan the stores.

In Mexico, only a small, urbane minority shops at modern supermercados with bag boys and free coffee. Everyone else goes to the weekly tianguis (pronounced tee-ON-geese --from the Aztec word tianquiztli , “marketplace”), which is more than just a place for routine food shopping. It’s a weekly social event for vendors and shoppers, who come, often in groups, to socialize, eat and drink.

Even before dawn, cooks will have prepared their stewed beans in clay cazuelas , ground the pumpkin seeds for their moles and steamed massive heaps of tamales. Someone will already be patting out tortillas by hand (though the machine-made varieties are widely available in Mexico). The people who soon surge through the tianguis --a huge hall or a collection of tented stalls erected by the vendors--may have ridden several hours by bus, and they will bargain happily, sniffing the tomatoes, poking at the melons, buying loaves of fragrant bread, tasting the local cheese and, above all, exchanging gossip.

Vons’ Tianguis markets try to capture the essence of these Mexican markets, though they do have all the usual American supermarket amenities. Because many Mexican families prefer foods cooked from scratch, Tianguis emphasizes fresh groceries. A woman in front of the bakery pats out tortillas and grills them in plain view. At the cheese counter, you can sample anything in the case. Several locations throughout the store sell snacks. One stand offers those long skinny doughnuts called churros and soft drinks--cinnamony horchata or tart tamarindo.

At the snack bar near the entrance, you can get antojitos such as torta al pastor , a fantastic sandwich on a bolillo (French-style roll) slathered with beans and salsa and filled with marinated meat just shaved from a rotating vertical spit. And if you’re thirsty you can buy a fresh coconut with a straw sticking out of it and drink the cooling juice.

DAIRY GOODS

We in California have been substituting Monterey Jack and Cheddar for Mexican-style cheese for so long that they seem a natural part of Mexican cooking. But several local manufacturers now make a good selection of Mexican-style cheeses. These can most easily be understood if you group them into three categories: fresh cheeses, lightly aged firm and melting cheeses, and aged or anejo cheeses. Tianguis also sells cultured Mexican cream. To try the dairy products, go to the Tianguis cheese counter (not the deli area, where some of the same cheeses are sold pre-packaged) across from the salchichoneria.

Fresh Cheeses:

* Requeson : Very much like ricotta but with a sweeter, creamier flavor. It’s delicious spooned right from the container or used in stuffings, or served with fruit or gelled Latin American-style fruit pastes for dessert.

* Jocoque: This Mexican-style cottage cheese is creamy, dense and slightly fluffy--somewhat like Italian mascarpone but not as rich. It’s excellent on fruit or spread on bread with a dash of salt.

* Queso Fresco (some brands are labeled queso ranchero ): A part-skim-milk cheese that comes in two-inch-high disks about the diameter of a small corn tortilla. It resembles farmer’s cheese or dry cottage cheese but is a little saltier and has a more pronounced acidic flavor. It’s good eaten plain or in enchiladas, or crumbled over other antojitos such as bean tostadas. And it’s sometimes used in South American baked goods.

* Panela : The same shape as queso fresco but firmer in texture, with a mellow, nutty flavor. Panela’s compressed curd holds its form when gently heated, and some cooks like to grill or deep-fry the cheese and serve it with salsa or a cooked spicy sauce; it’s a great foil for hot chile flavors. Served with drinks, panela becomes a botana (appetizer). Some use it in enchiladas or broken up and scattered over cold foods.

Lightly Aged Firm and Melting Cheeses:

* Cow’s milk manchego : Similar to the true Spanish sheep’s milk manchego and often compared to provolone, this ripened cheese is one of Mexico’s best for melting. Manchego is the first choice for making queso fundido , the Mexican-style cheese fondue, and also for quesadillas. I like to make queso fundido by sauteing 6 ounces of bulk chorizo and draining it well. Meanwhile I heat a 9 inch pie pan in a preheated 375 oven. Then I grate 10 ounces of the cheese, oil the pie pan, spread half the cheese in the pan, top it with chorizo and the remaining cheese and bake at 375 until stretchy (about 12-15 minutes). I serve it warm, and let my guests roll it into flour or corn tortillas.

* Asadero: Its name, literally translated, means “broiler” or “roaster,” according to Mexican food authority Diana Kennedy. Asadero comes in a log shape and has a smooth, firm texture similar to mozzarella. (In the deli case asadero comes sliced into blocks and pre-packaged.) Like manchego it melts beautifully, becoming stringy when heated. For nachos, top the tortilla chips with cooked chorizo and slices of asadero and melt in the oven.

* Oaxaca : This cheese looks like a yarn ball about the size of a small loaf of bread. Its string-like texture makes it a good eating cheese; you can virtually unwind skeins of it from the ball. Originally a Oaxacan specialty, it is now made throughout Mexico and its flavor varies from region to region. The California-style sold here is mild and not as tangy as mozzarella. The buttery-smooth flavor of this whole-milk cheese is brought out when it is eaten slowly.

* Enchilado : A long, loaf-shaped cheese about four inches square is rubbed on the outside with ground red chile, then aged. Its smooth, firm texture makes it a good grating cheese that also gives cooked food a spicy zing. Enchilado is favored for nachos and, of course, for enchiladas.

* Queso Quesadilla: A processed cheese flecked with jalapeno chiles; formulated especially for quesadillas, it melts quickly.

Aged (Anejo) Cheeses:

* Cotija : This comes in big wheels like aged Parmesan or Romano. And like those cheeses, it is hard, crumbly and sharply flavored. Cooks use cotija to sprinkle over both hot and cold foods and to mix with softer cheeses to add extra flavor. Tianguis carries three brands, each with a slightly different taste:

Reynoso is the most fermented with a slightly nutty flavor, less salty than others.

Cacique is the saltiest and slightly tart.

Ariza is the mildest but still has a pronounced aged cheese flavor.

Mexican Creams:

* Crema Mexicana : This thickened ripe cream, often likened to the French creme fraiche , has endless possibilities for garnishing both sweet and savory foods. Cookbook authors Rick and Deann Bayless suggest drizzling it on fresh corn tamales, butter-fried plantains or in chilaquiles , for which I’ve included a recipe. It’s also the ultimate topping for berries.

In Central and West-Central Mexico, cremas are often sold from clay pots in the weekly tianguis or neighborhood tiendas . They range from thin, sweet, fresh cremas to tart, thicker, aged ones. To duplicate the range of cremas found in Mexico, Tianguis carries several brands and styles of crema Mexicana , each with its own taste and character. Some Tianguis stores also carry the slightly sharper crema Centroamericana .

In a tasting at the cheese counter, I found that Cacique brand makes a thick, tart crema agria (similar to American sour cream but softer), a rich, pourable crema Mexicana (sweeter) and the tart crema Centroamericana. Ariza brand makes two delicious cremas: one is thick and spoonable and the other, a thinner cream with a tangy, slightly salty flavor, would be excellent with savory dishes such as enchiladas de queso fresco . The Reynoso-brand cream is slightly acidic and more pourable.

The best way to choose the cream for a dish is to taste them one after the other. Several of these crema Mexicanas also come in 15-ounce jars in the deli case at the back of the store.

SEAFOOD

Tianguis has a huge ice bank holding an assortment of fresh oysters, clams, crabs and other crustaceans. There are fresh catfish swimming in a tank and whole fish including red snapper for huachinango Veracruzana and mojarra for pescado al mojo de ajo .

MEAT

Sausages:

Tianguis is a sausage lover’s heaven. Its salchichoneria carries more than 20 brands of chorizo and longaniza from producers around the United States. Some are soft and fresh while others, such as B&S; Brand, are lightly dry-cured and have a denser texture and more intense flavor.

* Store-made regional chorizos: Tianguis butchers make a number of regional sausages, including a longaniza , which are lower in fat than most other brands.Each style is made in a beef and a pork version with hot or sweet seasonings.

For Norteno style chorizo , ground red chiles are the major flavoring while the Toluca--or Central--style have a complex aromatic spice taste. Yucatan-style chorizo is flavored with achiote ( annatto seeds) and vinegar.

* Bulk chorizo is especially easy to use. Delicious when scrambled into eggs or crisply fried potatoes, it can also be fried, sprinkled onto melted cheese or wrapped in warm, fresh tortillas. It can also be used for enchiladas or for seasoning vegetables or rice.

Meat Cut to Order:

A team of bilingual butchers is always on hand to carve up cuts from pork butt and loin to oxtail. Offal is popular with Hispanic cooks, so if you want a lamb’s head, beef heart, pig’s ears or soup bones, this would be a good place to shop.

Pre-Cut Meat:

Cooks preferring pre-cut meats will find them, along with a number of marinated items. Meat for carne al pastor and carne asada is cut thin in the Mexican style and ready to barbecue. Marinated spareribs called costillas en adobada are spareribs marinated in a well-seasoned mild chile sauce with a touch of vinegar. Milanesa (beefsteak pounded thin) is lightly breaded and ready to fry.

Chilaquiles are a sort of Mexican lasagna: tortilla strips layered with cheese, chile-tomato sauce and drizzled with crema Mexicana.

CHILAQUILES

2 dozen tortillas

Lard or oil

Chile-Tomato Sauce

1 cup chicken broth, about

1 1/2 cups crema Mexicana

1 1/2 cups crumbled queso fresco

1 cup shredded queso asadero

Cut tortillas into 1/2-inch strips. Fry strips (about 4 tortillas at time) in heated lard until chewy but not crisp. Drain on paper towels. Pour off most of lard, add Chile-Tomato Sauce to pan and heat. Stir in tortilla strips and 1/2 cup broth and blend well. Blend in 1 cup crema. Add queso fresco and toss with 2 wooden spoons until blended.

Cook on medium-low heat about 4 minutes. Mixture should resemble soupy hash with tortilla strips holding their shape. Add more broth if mixture is dry. Place Chilaquiles in 12x8-inch oiled glass baking dish; sprinkle with queso asadero. Bake at 350 degrees just until cheese melts. Drizzle remaining crema over top and serve at once. Makes 8 servings.

Note: For best results, use older or dry tortillas.

Chile-Tomato Sauce

1 1/2 pounds Roma tomatoes

1 clove garlic, minced

2 serrano chiles (seeded and deveined for milder sauce), minced

Oil

Dash dried oregano

1/4 cup bottled picante sauce

Line rimmed baking sheet with foil. Arrange tomatoes in single layer on baking sheet and broil close to heat source, rotating occasionally, until skin begins to blister and tomatoes are tender.

Place in plastic bag to cool about 10 minutes. Peel tomatoes while still warm. Cut in half and scoop out seeds. Finely chop tomatoes, reserving juices. Saute garlic and chiles in small amount oil until tender. Add tomatoes and juice and oregano and boil 5 minutes, until sauce thickens slightly. Stir in picante sauce.

ENCHILADAS DE

QUESO FRESCO

6 dry chiles anchos

1 pound tomatoes

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

Lard or oil

Salt

12 corn tortillas

1/2 pound crumbled queso fresco

1 cup crema Mexicana

1/2 cup finely diced white onion or sliced radishes

With scissors, trim away chile stems and scrape out most of seeds. Cut chiles into pieces. Soak in hot water 2 hours.

Meanwhile, line rimmed baking sheet with foil. Place tomatoes in single layer on foil and broil close to heat source, rotating occasionally, until skin begins to blister and tomatoes are tender. Place in plastic bag to cool about 10 minutes. Peel tomatoes while still warm, cut in half, scoop out seeds and chop finely, reserving juice.

Drain chiles, reserving soaking water. Puree chiles in blender adding enough water to make smooth puree. Add onion and garlic and blend until smooth. Fry puree in about 2 tablespoons oil or lard 3 minutes. Add tomatoes and their juice and fry 3 minutes longer. Season to taste with salt.

Heat about 2 teaspoons lard in skillet. Add 1 tortilla and fry, turning until softened. Dip tortilla in tomato mixture, fill with crumbled cheese and roll into cylinder. Place seam side down in oiled baking dish. Repeat with next tortilla, placing it close to first enchilada. Continue with remaining tortillas, keeping enchiladas warm under foil cover.

Pour remaining sauce evenly over enchiladas, cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees just to heat through, about 12 minutes. Serve drizzled with crema Mexicana and garnished with onion or radish slices. Makes 6 servings.

A delicious botana that may make dinner superfluous.

RAJAS CON CREMA Y

QUESO

8 fresh Anaheim or chiles poblanos

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 large tomato, seeded and diced

1/2 cup whipping cream

1/2 cup crema Mexicana

1 cup shredded Manchego or queso asadero

Salt, pepper

Corn tortillas

Line rimmed baking sheet with foil. Cut chiles in half lengthwise and remove seeds. Arrange on baking sheet and broil close to heat source until skin begins to blister and char. Place chiles in plastic bag to cool. Peel chiles while still slightly warm and cut into strips.

Heat oil and butter in heavy skillet. Add onion and saute until translucent. Add tomato and chile strips and cook to heat through. Add whipping cream and crema and heat. Add cheese and cook only until it melts. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve in small bowls and accompany with warm tortillas. Makes 6 to 8 appetizer servings.