Molcajete Magic by Tom Cole, Etta’s
It’s always a joy to eat “the real deal” Mexican food while visiting Mexico, but it’s better yet to eat it on a blistering hot lava rock. The molcajete, used primarily for making fragrant condiments and sauces, roars to life as an elemental vessel for holding dinner.
Eddie, one of Etta’s cooks and a native of Nayarit, says there are no hard and fast rules about what goes into a hot molcajete. Often a sauce is made of chicken stock, onions, tomatoes, ancho chiles, chile powder, and ground, dried tortillas for thickening. Next, the sauce is poured into the waiting molcajete, kept white hot in the oven. The final product (see photo left), from El Brujo Restaurante
in Puerto Vallarta, features beef, nopales (cactus), gooey panela cheese, fresh tomatoes, and sweet, charred green onions. Everything continues simmering and bubbling in front of you for at least twenty minutes. It’s like eating out of the fiery mouth of an ancient god.
El brujo means “the sorcerer” in Spanish and that’s appropriate in this case. Dinner served in a molcajete is some kind of powerful culinary magic.
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