This month, I find myself thousands of miles away from my usual turf. I’m in the city of Oaxaca, in the state of the same name, in southern Mexico. Rather than take a break, I thought I would become a foreign correspondent for a spell. Besides — there is a Chapelboro connection here. I’m staying at the Casa Colonial, a wonderful small hotel located in the old city that is owned by my friend Jane Robison. Her daughter Amanda Barr owns Bowbarr on Rosemary Street on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro line. We’re conducting a mostly food tour of the region while trying to dodge the pandemic. Needless to say, this is complicated, but the State of Oaxaca seems to be exemplary when it comes to masking, hand washing and sanitizing. There are long lines everywhere of people waiting to be vaccinated. Many places have restricted entry and lots of restaurants already had outdoor seating.

This place is gorgeous. There is art and wonderful food and a calming vibe that my friends here attribute to the Zapotec people who make up the majority of the population. Restaurants range from the traditional to the very innovative. And, like all over Mexico, there is street food at every turn. Since this is a food tour, all of us are eating a lot more than we would ordinarily — and don’t even ask about drinking, because this is the home of mezcal.

There is a whole plaza (the Jardín de Socrates, no less) devoted to ice cream and I could sit for hours in the zócalo drinking beer and watching people go by. I’ve been here many times before, but this is the first visit where I’ve unexpectedly run into people I know. Oaxaca, it seems, has been discovered.

The Cathedral of Our Lady of Solitude.
Tlayuda, Oaxaca’s answer to the grilled cheese.
Leche Quemada with Nieve de Tuna.
Everybody wears a mask in Oaxaca.
Art is everywhere you turn.
Making Mezcal.
Monte Alban.

I mentioned street food, so I’ll tell you about two of my favorites. One is simply called elote, translated as corn on the cob or sweetcorn. It can be either grilled or boiled. Then a lime is squeezed over it, it is rolled in mayonnaise, dusted with a dry crumbly white cheese called cotija and some kind of chili powder. It’s handed to you stuck on a popsicle stick and, no matter what you do, eating it makes a big mess. It is delicious. The second is from the ice cream plaza. A specialty here is an ice cream called leche quemada, or, “burnt milk.” This is exactly what it is, sweetened of course. Locals recommend that your second scoop be of tuna. Not fish ice cream but, here, the fruit of the prickly pear cactus. It’s bright red and sweet and is perfect with leche quemada. In the Jardín de Socrates, you can again sit at a tiny table and watch the world go by.

I’m going to end with a recipe that I learned from my Mexican friends when we all worked in the kitchen at Crook’s Corner. Everything still seems a little loco out there, so stay safe.

There are three completely different ways to prepare this, and all of the results are good. Sometimes, I’d think this sauce was the best thing that came out of our kitchen. And, as was often the case, it was for staff lunch.

Originally, everything was thrown on the grill to char, then dusted off and ground up. Later, we started baking everything together in a tightly sealed pan, but if we ran out during the shift, we would just throw everything into the fryer basket. Then we’d grind it all up and it was ready to go. Often, when I’m in Mexico, someone will offer me something to eat off a fire out in the yard or a gas ring by the side of the road and it will be fabulous. This is that kind of recipe. I’m giving you the baked version for the home kitchen, but at the end I’ve added a coda with the other two versions.

For the sauce

Makes about a quart of salsa

  • 4 large tomatoes (and they don’t even have to be very good)
  • 5 tomatillos, husked and rinsed
  • 2 large chilies poblanos
  • Up to 6 jalapenos
  • 12 cloves of garlic
  • 1 large onion, peeled and quartered
  • 1 tablespoon whole cumin seeds
  • 1 bunch of cilantro
  • The juice of 1 lime
  • Salt to taste (a shy teaspoon, for me)

Cut the stem out of the tomatoes and stem the chilies. Seed the chilies if you’d like. Put all of this plus the garlic and onion into a pan that has a tightly fitting lid or into one that you can seal well with foil. Toast the cumin seeds in a dry skillet until they begin to color a little to give off a nice aroma. Add them to the vegetables and seal the pan tightly. Bake at 350 degrees for about two hours.

Rinse the cilantro carefully, as for some reason it is often sandy. Remove any woody stems and rough chop it. It doesn’t have to be dry. Peel the tomato. Put the vegetables, juice and all into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the chopping blade. Add the cilantro and the lime juice. Puree by pulsing and taste for salt. This is delicious hot or cold and on everything except chocolate cake.

For the pork chops

Serves four

  • Preheat oven to 350°
  • 8 8-ounce center cut pork chops brushed with a tiny amount of cooking oil on each side
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Have a baking pan ready that can hold all the chops without crowding them too much. They can overlap some. Salt and pepper, then sear the chops in a frying pan for about three minutes on a side until they are pretty and brown. In most cases, this will cook them through except near the bone. Put a cup and a half of the sauce in the baking pan and lay the browned chops on top of it.

Place the pan in the 350° oven for about ten minutes. The pork chops will have made some juice in the pan so swirl it around with the sauce. Remove the meat to a platter or plates and spoon the sauce over it. In the summertime, we serve this with grilled corn on the cob and grilled okra.

In the Crook’s Corner kitchen, we had both a fryer and a grill. Sometimes my cooks would throw all of the vegetables into the fryer. By the time they had begun to brown they were done. Let everything drain for a minute. Shake off excess oil, peel the tomato and proceed as above.

My favorite is grilled. Again, everything is cooked together, but different things take different amounts of time. The garlic is trickiest because it can fall through, and it takes the longest to cook. The tomato is ready as soon as it is hot at the center and charred on the outside. The tomatillos and jalapeños take a little less time. The onion should be brown. Peel the tomato, but just dust the ash of everything else. Proceed as above. Of course, if you are grilling the vegetables, you can grill the chops as well.

Any leftover sauce keeps well for three or four days and is good hot or cold.

“Just The Bill, Please” is a regular column on Chapelboro.com penned by local culinary legend Bill Smith. Born and raised in New Bern, Bill Smith spent 25 years heading up the kitchen in Crook’s Corner — and over the years, he accumulated the accolades to match his incomparable takes on classic Southern food.

 

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