these are so excellently awesomely deeelishusss and actually addictive….

The star ingredients, walnuts and pomegranate seeds, are not available any other time of the year. So it’s a festive time. Restaurant storefronts become festooned with “We have chiles en nogada!” banners. Pomegranates glitter at the tianguis. Mexican Independence Day is right around the corner (on Sept. 16), and the dish is pretty much the culinary centerpiece of the celebration.

To me, the most interesting thing about chiles en nogada is that it’s a living piece of Mexican history. Puebla nuns invented the dish in 1821, to honor a visit by Mexican General Augustín de Iturbide. The dish featured the colors of the Mexican flag: a poblano chile stuffed with dried fruits and nuts, covered in creamy walnut sauce (white) and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds and parsley (red and green). The Mexican flag was unveiled around the same period, so you can imagine the patriotic fervor.

Today, the chile en nogada sounds awfully baroque. Fruity meat? Pomegranate seeds? Who would eat that? At the time, however, nogada sauce was popular. And so was the idea of combining dozens of ingredients to create a complicated, tedious dish. (The Pueblan nuns also invented mole.)

Chiles en nogada is not an easy dish, and it’s not meant to be. That’s part of the tradition. Walnuts must be peeled. Spices assembled. Raw and dried fruit, chopped. Even after assembling your chile, you must dunk it in egg batter and fry it.

In the olden days, the nuns didn’t have blenders, so they ground the walnut sauce on the metate. As someone who has done her fair share of metate-grinding, I can tell you that it had to take entire days of grinding to get the texture they wanted. Let me repeat that: days of grinding.

Last week, I took a chiles en nogada course at the Escuela de Gastronomía Mexicana, where I’m currently studying for a diploma in Especialización de Gastronomía Mexicana.

Yuri de Gortari, who teaches cooking in my diploma program, taught the chile course. Since there was so much worked involved, he decided to conduct most of the course as a demonstration. By the time we arrived his kitchen assistants had already roasted, seeded and de-veined the chiles, and chopped all the fruit and measured out the spices.

It was kind of like being on the Mexican version of Barefoot Contessa.

Roasted poblano chiles, waiting to be filled with picadillo

Clove, thyme and cinnamon, among other spices, for the picadillo
As he spoke, I got caught up in how amazing it is that this dish is still eaten how it was intended, nearly 200 years after it was invented. Yuri has studied colonial-era cookbooks extensively — he stressed that authentic chile en nogada picadillo contains finely chopped meat, not ground. In addition, one must use small, hard yellow peaches, not the regular large kind, because they’re too watery.

The nogada sauce contains walnuts, sherry, milk and goat cheese. No cream cheese or heavy cream.

The picadillo, as it cooked

A bowl of peeled walnuts, preserved in milk. The eggs will be used in the batter, and the sherry, in the nogada sauce.

Yuri pours milk into the walnut sauce

Chef Yuri de Gortari, opening a bottle of sherry with a knife
To speed things along, Yuri made the nogada sauce with a Thermomix, which is a high-tech kitchen gadget that blends, cooks, kneads and does a dozen other things. We each dipped our spoons in the pitcher to taste, and the sauce was thick, creamy and completely smooth. Oh god, it was good.

I didn’t realize this, but there’s a controversy among Mexicans as to whether a real chile en nogada is capeada or not. To capear, as I’ve mentioned in other posts, means to dunk an item in frothy egg batter and fry it in lard or oil. It’s totally unhealthy. But it’s an integral part of this dish. The egg-batter shield prevents the chile from becoming too soggy, once it’s doused in walnut sauce. Plus the chile en nogada, for the sheer amount of work involved, is not meant to be eaten every day.

Yuri insisted that we capear the chile, because otherwise we wouldn’t be respecting the plato. (I agreed.) He showed us how to stuff and batter our chiles, and then we each attempted to repeat the work.

In case you were unsure how much lard we were talking about, when cooking just one chile en nogada in a pan…

Stuffing the chile with picadillo

Dredging the chile in flour, before dunking it in egg batter

The egg-batter covered chile, about to hit the frying pan

The messy-looking chile, once it begins to cook
See the picture above? That’s exactly how you want your chile to look when it hits the frying pan — surrounded by a little cloud of egg batter. The idea is to scoop up these folds with a spatula and cover the chile, so it’s entirely swaddled in a puffy, eggy blanket.

A properly swaddled chile
My chile turned out okay. I stuffed it as best I could. I pinched the seams closed with my forefingers and thumbs, dunked it in the egg batter and carried it, slightly dripping, to the pan. (Note: keep egg batter closer to the stove next time.)

I hadn’t put enough egg batter to swaddle it too well, so it only had a thinnish layer. The chile turned a dark-golden brown in a matter of minutes and then, just like that, it was done. Hours’ worth of work — or a week’s worth, no doubt in the olden days — finished in seconds. I drained my chile on paper towels and then spooned over my sauce.

“How much sauce do I add?” I asked another student, who happened to be a chef at a restaurant.

He shrugged. “Al gusto,” he said. That means: “to taste.”

So of course I ladled a small lagoon of sauce over, so you could no longer see the chile. That’s how it’s meant to be, I think.

Here’s my little chile, in all of its patriotic glory:

Yuri told us to make the dish again in the next 24 to 48 hours so that we could retain all that we’d learned, but I’m visiting the United States for the next few weeks and don’t have time to do it. I’ll just have to remember through the pictures.

AND FINALLY… THE RECIPE: Here’s a link to the Escuela de Gastronomía Mexicana’s Chile En Nogada recipe, which we used in class. It’s in Spanish first, then English, so you’ll have to scroll down.

preparación:
1. En unza cazuela con un poco de manteca caliente se sofríe la cebolla y el ajo, se agrega la carne de cerdo y la de res se sazona con sal y pimienta

2. Cuando se empieza a cocer la carne se agrega la uva pasa y el acitrón y en seguida el jitomate, se agrega el tomillo y el orégano.

3. Enseguida se agrega la almendra se deja en la lumbre unos minutos a fuego medio, se sazona con canela y clavo en polvo.

4. Luego se agrega la pera, el durazno y el piñón, se rectifica la sazón y se quita del fuego, estando el picadillo ligeramente tibio se rellenan los chiles.

5. Ya relleno el chile se revuelca en harina, cuidando que no tenga exceso, se capea con el huevo batido y se fríe en manteca caliente hasta que queda dorado y cocido por todos lados.

Para la nogada:

1. La nuez, conforme se va pelando se remoja con la leche.

2. Se muele perfectamente la nuez y después se agrega la almendra que también se muele.

3. Se agrega el queso de cabra, cuidando que quede una salsa cremosa, se le agrega un poco de azúcar y el jerez.

4. Se integra bien y se cubre el chile con esta salsa y se adorna con granos de granada y perejil picado.
ingredientes:
12 pzs Chile poblano asado, sudado, pelado y desvenado
4 Pzs Huevo batido para capear
Harina de trigo c/s
Manteca de cerdo o aceite para freír

Para el relleno:

1 pza Cebolla blanca finamente picada
500 grs. Jitomate asado, molido y colado
2 dientes de ajo pelado y finamente picado
350 grs. Lomo de cerdo picado
350 grs. Aguayón de res picado
1 taza Acitrón picado en cubitos
100 grs. Uva pasa
70 grs. Almendra remojada, pelada y picada
4 pzs.Durazno amarillo picado en cubitos
2 pzs. Peras picadas en cubitos
¾ cucharadita de Canela en polvo
½ cucharadita de Clavo en polvo
1 pizca deTomillo
1 pizca de Orégano seco
½ taza de Pinón rosado
Manteca de cerdo o aceite para freír c/s

Para la nogada:

1 kg. Nuez de castilla fresca y pelada sin la cáscara gruesa y sin la pielecita amarilla
2 tazas de Leche
500 grs. de Almendra remojada y pelada
250 grs. de Queso de cabra
1 taza de Jerez seco
1 cucharada de Azúcar

Para el adorno:

250 grs. de Granada pelada y desgranada
1 taza Perejil lavado, desinfectado, secado y picado

Chiles in walnut sauce
Traducción al inglés del Chef Arturo Anzaldo

procedure:
1. In a casserole with a little hot lard fry the onion and garlic, add pork and beef and season with salt and pepper.

2. When it begins to cook the meat add the raisins and acitrón and then the tomatoes. Add the thyme and oregano.

3. Then add the almond leave it in the fire a few minutes over medium heat, season with cinnamon and cloves.

4. Then add the pear, peach and pinion correcting the seasoning is removed from fire to warm up, and stuff peppers.

5. Put them in flour and beaten egg are wrapped and fried in lard until golden and cooked on all sides.

Walnut sauce:

1. The nut, as you peel it is soaked with the milk.

2. Grind walnut perfectly using very little milk, add the almonds.

3. Add goat cheese and a little sugar is added after a bit of sherry.

4. Cover with the chile sauce. It is garnished with pomegranate seeds and chopped parsley.
ingredients:
Poblano chile roasted, sweaty, peeled and deveined 12 pieces
Beaten egg to “capear”( wrapped in egg ) 4 pieces
Flour
Pig lard or oil for frying

For filling:

White onion finely chopped 1 piece
Roasted tomatoes, blended and strained 500 grams
Minced garlic 1 clove
Chopped pork loin 350 grams
Chopped sirloin beef 350 grams
“Acitron” chopped 1 cup
Raisin 100 grams
Almonds Soaked peeled and chopped 70 grams
Yellow peach minced 4 pices
Pear chopped 2 pices
Cinnamon 1 teaspoon
Clove 1 teaspoon
Thyme 1 teaspoon
Oregano 1 teaspoon
Pinion ½ cup
Lard for fry

Walnut sauce:

Fresh peeled walnuts 1 kilo
Milk 2 cups
Almond soaked and peeled 500 grams
Goat cheese 250 grams
Dry sherry 1 cup
Sugar

Garnishee:

Peeled and shelled grenade 250 grams
Parsley washed, disinfected, dried and chopped 1 cup

another recipe  for these—

southward sloooowly — i like la cruz de huanacaxtle–next stop may be of shorter duration–we wil see–deends onhow much i like the community …this works for named storms so far, and has great provisioning capabilities… now, for crew…….

ok, guys–is early in cane season and here we are looking down the shotgun barrel of number 2 storm already–could be an interesting summer….B already and we only in may, still…wow.

 

well–good news is –we will  be not hit–is going to hit somewhere south of us with 45 kt winds….so–here’s  summer…lol

seems the report that was given to previous owner by surveyor was not true–there is no rot in mizzen mast at the spreaders–the fitting keeping the spreaders on mizzen was bent and loose–so we fix that. also we found mast step and base both to be awesome good. so i just have to epoxy my support beams and go–HOOYAAHHH.
we are also placing new mast boots–being made by canvas man now–on the deckand masts so water does not enter into boat anymore–will keep damage from growing and will make boat happy.
i’m so excited!!!!

Witness Says Cargo Ship Caused Yacht Crash

U.S. Sailing Association President Says Witness On Another Sailboat Saw Cargo Ship Hit Aegean

UPDATED: 11:46 pm PDT April 30, 2012

SAN DIEGO — A witness on another sailboat claims she saw a cargo ship hit a yacht off the Coronado Islands, resulting in a crash that left three men dead and one missing.

A spokesman for Newport Ocean Sailing Association, which puts on the annual Newport to Ensenada race, said the wreckage of the 37-foot Aegean dropped off the race’s boat-tracking system about 1:30 a.m. Saturday, and the debris field found when the sun rose later the same day suggested it was hit by a much la
The president of the U.S. Sailing Association told 10News over the phone that a woman on another sailboat witnessed the accident, telling investigators the Aegean was hit by a cargo ship.

U.S. Sailing Association President Gary Jobson told 10News his group plans to appoint an independent panel to investigate the accident.

“At night, it’s conceivable that the ship did not see the small boat, but there were a couple hundred boats on the water, so for sure the ship had to know there was a lot of traffic in the area,” Jobson said.

Sailors who knew skipper Theo Mavromatis, 49, of Redondo Beach, said he was conscientious, safety oriented and had his Hunter 376 outfitted with “all the bells and whistles,” including radar, which is a collision-avoidance tool.

10News has learned many yachtsmen now have an Automatic Identification System, known as AIS.

Les George, an Oceanside yachtsman who sails a 39-foot yacht called Obsession, demonstrated how the system picks up signals from ships that are sometimes miles away and transmits their position, telling the vessel name, course, speed and destination.

“But if the boat isn’t transmitting, you just cannot see them until they’re on top of you,” said George, who has sailed in the Newport to Ensenada race at least a dozen times.

Winds were light at the time, and if only one person were on deck, he may have had trouble starting the boat’s auxiliary engine and getting out of the way in time.

“It’s a tragic accident, I mean, you’re out there and its dark, everybody’s racing with minimal lights,” said George, who spoke with some friends who just returned from the race. “They’re saying it was a light wind race, with not a lot of sea condition but there was a ton of boat traffic out there.”

On Saturday afternoon, the bodies of Joseph Lester Stewart, 64, of Bradenton, Fla. and 57-year-old William Reed Johnson Jr. of Torrance were recovered, along with the body of Kevin Rudolph.

The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office said Monday that Rudolph died of blunt force injuries to his head and neck; Johnson died of multiple blunt force injuries; and Stewart drowned.

The ship that struck the fiberglass sloop has not been identified. Some of the first rescuers on scene were able to identify a debris field as that of the Aegean, because its transom, emblazoned with its name, was still afloat.

The yacht was one of 213 sailboats in the roughly 125-mile race, which started about noon Friday. Most boats finished Saturday.

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search Sunday afternoon.

“It’s never easy to make the decision to suspend a search and rescue case,” said Capt. Sean Mahoney, the commander of the agency’s San Diego sector. “The Coast Guard extends its sympathies to the families and friends of the Aegean crew. They will be in our thoughts and prayers.”

A local private rescue group has stepped in to help search for Mavromatis who is still missing at sea.

Niki Burgan is the founder of SoCal H2O Rescue Group.

Burgan’s parents and sister were killed when their small plane crashed near Carlsbad State Beach five years ago. Her father’s body was never recovered.

“It’s our goal to let the family know that every possible last resource was utilized in bringing their family member home, if that’s at all a possibility,” Burgan told 10News.

She added, “I feel like this is my way of giving back. Yesterday was the five-year anniversary of the crash and it was very emotional for me… I just wanted to isolate myself with my family, but I felt a nudge from my mom saying, ‘Get out there and see what you can do.'”

Burgan’s group is comprised of certified lifeguards and specially trained search and rescue dogs.

They left from the Chula Vista Marina at 1:30 a.m. Monday morning. They will meet up with Mexican authorities who are still searching the area.

Burgan and her dog Rummy came back empty handed on Monday but plan to go out again later this week.

“You just never know… the search is never done and until that one person comes back,” she said. “I know what the families are going through… It’s heart-wrenching.”

The fatalities were first in the 65 years that the Newport to Ensenada race has been run, race organizers said.

Rich Roberts of the Newport Ocean Sailing Association, which puts on the race, said the collision occurred just south of border near the Coronado Islands, a group of four islands about 8 miles off the Baja California coast.

The course of the Aegean crossed shipping lanes used by commercial and military ships headed to and from the ports of San Diego and Ensenada, and maritime investigators will attempt to identify the ship involved. The captain of ship hundreds of times as big as the Aegean might have been unaware of the collision.

The deaths marked the second yachting disaster this spring. On April 14 off San Francisco, five lives were lost when a yacht in a race around the Farallon Islands was disabled by a breaking wave and washed onto a rocky shore. That prompted the Coast Guard to suspend offshore sailboat racing in Northern California.

please keep a vigilant and alert watch when near large cities and shipping lanes and islands….

update—

 

Transponder Info Clarifies Aegean Tragedy

May 2, 2012 – Coronado Islands, Mexico

(Click on the photo to enlarge it.)
According to Aegean’s SPOT track, she remained on the same SE course from about 10:15 p.m., April 27, until 1:30 the next morning, when she apparently hit the island. © 2012 SPOT

At least part of the mystery of how the Redondo Beach-based Hunter 376 Aegean was destroyed during last weekend’s Lexus Newport to Ensenada Race may have been solved. Aegean’s SPOT Messenger GPS track shows the boat on a constant course and speed for more than three hours — leading them directly onto the rocky shore of North Coronado Island. This almost certainly eliminates the possibility that Aegean was hit by a ship, which had been the most prevalent initial speculation.

Lt. Bill Fitzgerald of USCG Sector San Diego says that investigators “have a substantial amount of evidence of a particular scenario,” and Aegean’s running into the island was “one of the primary possibilities.” He noted that the GPS track was just one of the pieces of evidence. Fitzgerald was also quick to point out that investigators are not ready to announce a conclusion at this point, but hope to do so soon.

The rest of the mystery is why Aegean was kept on a constant course toward a solid obstruction. It’s possible that the crew was overcome by carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty exhaust. It’s possible that whoever was on watch at that late hour fell asleep. There are other possible explanations also, of course. We may never know the full story. For what it’s worth, Theo Mavromatis, who chartered the boat, is said to have been an experienced skipper, which is supported by the fact that he’d won his division in the Ensenada Race on two previous occasions.

A few people have clung to the ‘hit by a ship’ theory based on that fact that Low Speed Chase, which went onto the rocky shore of the Farallones during the huge surf of the Full Crew Farallones Race on April 14, remained intact enough to be removed from the island by helicopter, while Aegean, in much smaller four-foot swells, appears to have been broken into small pieces. It doesn’t seem curious to us, as Low Speed Chase appeared to have been washed up on a ledge, while Aegean mostly likely was repeatedly slammed against a steep and jagged shore. It was something like six hours between the time her GPS signal was lost and the first bits of her were discovered near the island by Eric Lamb of Vessel Assist. Given a sufficiently jagged shore, that’s plenty of time for a fiberglass boat to be left in little pieces.

The San Diego County medical examiner reports that Kevin Eric Rudolph, 53, of Manhattan Beach, died of blunt force injuries to his head and neck; William Reed Johnson Jr., 57, of Torrance, died of multiple blunt force injuries; and Joseph Lester Stewart, 64, of Bradenton, FL, drowned. Theo Mavromatis, 49, is still missing.

The Aegean tragedy marks the first fatalities in the Newport to Ensenada Race, which has been held for 65 years, and at the height of popularity attracted well over 500 entries. We think it’s worth noting that most major sailing events on the West Coast — the TransPac, the Pacific Cup, the Singlehanded TransPac, and the Baja Ha-Ha have all had long histories without any fatalities. This is not to say that it can’t happen in those events, or that there was anything about the Ensenada Race that made it unusually risky, but rather that West Coast offshore racing events are generally quite safe.

– latitude / richard

 

seems bubba was bitten by a semi-feral neighbor cat–grew a big lump where he was bitten on back of neck. if this doesnt diminish by mon or if it opens by then, at 1800 mon eve, bubba again sees the vet for treatment. pooor bubba.
cat bite are not cool, especially when the cat attacks in and on bubba’s own boat.

Toll Increase for Panama Canal Announced
Posted on April 25, 2012 by sarah
This is not great news for many cruisers, but be sure to take it into account if you have plans to head through the Panama Canal after July 1.

The board of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has approved a toll increase of 15% in two years on seven types of large ships and from 60% to 113% for small vessels passing through the Panama Canal as of July 1. The proposed change approved last Wednesday also increases tolls on eight to eleven distinct types of ships passing through the waterway, which “seeks to approximate the amount of toll to the value offered by the interoceanic route to their users,” detailed the ACP in a statement.

The segments will be defined as: container, general cargo, container / bulk cargo, refrigerated cargo, bulk dry, tankers, gas carriers, car carriers, ro-ro and passenger and others. Those with recorded increases of 15% (7.5% in 2012 and the same percentage in 2013) are general cargo, containers/breakbulk, bulk dry, tankers, chemical tankers and others (those not covered by any of categories). Car carriers and ro-ro (roll-on/roll off, equipped with ramps) will increase by only 1.6 to 1.7% in the toll from July 1, said the statement of the proposal. The rate for each segment is calculated on a table that gives a price for the first 10,000 tons, one for the next 10,000 and a third rate for the rest.

For smaller vessels, which have suffered an increase since 1998, proposed increases in four price levels on the basis of the length of the vessel, ranging between 60% and 113%, so the new tolls would be $500 to $800 dollars for smaller boats (50-feet) and $1,500 to $3,200 to the largest (100-feet).

Furthermore, the rate per ton of displacement, now $3.02, also will increase 15.5% to $3.25 as of July 1, and to $3.49 in the the same month next year.

About the increases, the ACP administrator Alberto Aleman, said the proposal brings the tolls closer to the value and quality advantages offered by the route through the Panama Canal, while maintaining the competitiveness of the route.

“The ACP reaffirms its interest in maintaining a dialogue with the industry to enable us to structure a system of tolls according to the needs of our users which results in benefits for themselves and for Panama,” Aleman said.

For the complete story, go to http://www.panama-guide.com.

today i had my rudder packing gland restuffed–is awesome to see so much less water enter into my boat!!!! trading some chain for the job well done….this is such a relief,, as i have seen this worsening some over the past few years during which i have owned and maintained this boat— my fears of destroying her as i repair her are lessening– she is a tough bird and awesome boat.
now i will research hurrycame hole hide places for this summer’s adventures in stormdom…

with eva’s brickhouse not condoning the parking of row dinghies on the public beach across the malecon from the restaurant, there is no reason to remain in this cute lil town. the greed mongers have taken over here and are ruining it for the town itself. i will sail out as soon as possible to zihuatenejo and south from there…..
i have been asked to write up a 5 star revue for evas brickhouse in trip advisor, but i dont feel i am able to do that. 5 star restaurants do not serve food with hair of server in it, nor do they brag on being cruiser friendly then turn on those with whom they are allegedly friendly…. go figger.. we be going onward…..

i was anchored on top of a 2’6 in deep rock… in 20 ft water, imagine hitting a bludi rock with keel…ok, so i moved… now i get to row about 2 football field lengths to beach to walk a long way to find foods and get my laundry. is all good–exercise is good for ye– i would rather sail–
jib is going to be finished around my payday, whew– then i can find a place to which to sail i can afford…is pretty, but there is a point….rofl…i am enjoying my time and the places i go—-
and the ericson was defaulted again…. we will find someone who wants to purchase it….