Frijoles Charros (Real mexican charro beans)

A few days back, my mother bought this "Mexican Recipes" book, quite frankly I thought it would be a lame book to have. But as soon as I began reading and browsing through the recipes I realized it was a great book. It had a lot of the recipes I like and those I've always thought to be of a champions league... like Pozole or Chiles en Nogada even Cochinita Pibil. 

So after falling in love with the endless recipes and different types of cuisine I decided to try at least one. 

There is a small place near my house, probably one of the only places where I actually eat meat. As you wait for your food they give you Charro Beans (free of charge n.n) and they are heavenly. 

So it was probably one of the main reasons why I decided to try out this recipe in the first place. 

Even though I live in Mexico, I will admit I hardly know anything about our very extent and infinite varieties of cooking that have originated here. 

The small things I know, I owe to my grandma (who has this way of cooking that is simply divine) and I will admit that I was very much impressed with all the recipes the book my mom bought held. 

I know that Mexican food outside Mexico sucks and even when people attempt to do it, they end up with this seriously sick and awful version of our dishes (I am talking tacobell) so I take it as a personal challenge to show typical Mexican recipes every once in a while, just to set people straight for once. 

(I don't mean any disrespect though) This is Mexican cooking according to a Mexican recipe book by a Mexican chef done by me a 100%  Mexican gal. 

Frijoles Charros 

a.k.a 

Charro beans. 

250g of beans. 

 (You can use any type of beans you want, I used Pinto beans) 

Beacon. 

(I used three stripes) 

1/4 of an Onion, chopped. 

2 Tomatoes, chopped.

I clove of Garlic, thinly chopped. 

Olive Oil. 

1 Chile, chopped. 

1 teaspoon of Salsa Chipotle (optional) 

Salt&&Pepper.

(I decided to ignore the Chorizo the recipe calls for, because I am not into it, but by all means if you like it, do add it) 

Work that magic: 

1. First you need to cook the beans. And in order to have very good beans it's a good idea to leave inside a pot with water overnight. When you cook the beans be sure to add one clove of garlic, a small piece of an onion and a tomato, this will add flavor to beans instead of dealing with plain watery tasting beans. 

2. Once you've cooked your beans, taste, season and then set aside... you'll want to chop the beacon. 

Now, in a previously hot skillet, drizzle some olive oil on it and add the beacon. Let it fry there for a while until the beacon realizes its fat (sounds disgusting but I swear it's delicious). 

(If you decide to use the Chorizo this is where you add it) 

2. Once the beacon in reaching a goldish color add the onion, tomatoes and garlic and fry them for a while. 

You want them veggies to be very soft before following the next step. 

3.  Season with Salt&&Pepper, add the Chile and the Chipotle Salsa and add this beautiful, colorful mixture into the pot where you cooked the beans (at this point you can either transfer the beans and the mixture to a different deep pan). Give it a nice shake so that all the ingredients come together. 

And by all means, serve. 

I wonder what would be of me if I lived near the coast...

Ah! The heat... while some people (my boyfriend and sister) find this June terribly awfully hot, I find it lovely. 

Not only is everything getting green and the sky is always blue with white clouds, but I don't have to wear socks to bed anymore n.n which is great! I love sleeping without socks and wake-up without a soar throat. It is brilliant for me. 

And let us face it, Hot weather always gets me on this Caribbean-mood, and I don't just mean wanting to put a swimming suit and buy one of those kiddie pools they sell on the supermarket, I mean cooking in that sort of vibe. I am talking: Fresh, lemony, vibrant, exotic seafood.

And just, how lovely and brilliant seafood is? Am I right? Of course I am right. 

So, I humbly bring to you this over the top, A-maaa-zing, beautiful dish: 

I give you 

Red Snapper fillets wrapped in fried banana coconut balls 

otherwise known as:

The Delish Balls.

You shall be needing: 

2 fillets Red Snapper fillets. 

(Now, I actually used 4, which was a mistake. You can use 4 fillets but then you should probably use twice the amount of banana as well) 

2 Platains (A.K.A the big ripe bananas)

1/4 of a Red-Purple Onion

1 Clove of Garlic.

1 half of a dry Guajillo Chile. 

Olive Oil.

Lemon Juice. 

Dry Coconut.

One ripe Avocado. 

Salt && Pepper.   

Let us begin: 

1. First chop your platains --bananas, in big chunky slices, like so: 

Next in a deep pan, pour in some water and once it starts boiling add the bananas and leave them there for a while. You want to leave them there until they soften up, because as you already know (or will find out once you cut the platain) it is actually a very hard-ish type of banana.

This will probably take around 15 minutes or so, 

2. Meanwhile, chop your onion in small delicate pieces, your garlic and chile. 

3. In a previously hot skillet, drizzle it with some olive oil and add the onion. Once it begins to have a certain golden color add the chile and the garlic. (Know I played a very nice trick here, my mom had roasted some tomatoes and green chile in that same skillet, so I stole it once she was done with it and didn't wash it, hence, keeping the tomato and chile flavor) 

See that? Delicious. 

3. Once your ingredients are nicely cooked add your fish and just let it take in the smell and favor of the mix. 

Once your fish are nicely cooked, place it in a small bowl and add the lemon juice. 

4. Now let us get back to our bananas. You'll know it is time to take them out because a) they'll be loads softer and b) they'll be a lot more yellow. 

Now, peel your bananas. 

I actually enjoyed doing this bit a lot because of the "tails" They looked so pretty. 

Almost like a flower. 

Of course you need to be careful peeling them. You actually need to wait a bit, otherwise they'll be too hot and you'll burn yourself, which is always such an embarrassing deal.

Also you need to do a vertical cut to make this easier. 

5. Next you need to pure your bananas. 

6. Make the banana balls. 

Now this is a lot more harder than I first thought it would be, but it was so much fun as well n.n 

Okay once you have pured the bananas you need to take this small quantity and try to convert it into a small ball.

You also need to use a plastic paper bag or something and drizzle it with a bit of olive oil and place the banana ball on it. Fold the bag over the ball and pat it. Unfold the bag and place some small bits of the fish into them.

THIS IS THE HARD PART!

Slowly, begin folding the paper so you make the ball. This is quite difficult because you need to mold the ball using the bag.

Your result? 

Ugly sort of round looking banana balls.

7. Okay know you pass them over the dry coconut. Make sure your coconut is cold, because it will make the ball easier to mold and hold. 

Voila!

8. In the same pan you boiled the bananas, pour some Canola oil and let it heat up before adding the balls. (Of course you need to rid the pan of the water you used before) 

Fry'em balls!

Chop the Avocado in nice thin slices. Pour some lemon juice and season with Salt&&Pepper.

And by all means, EAT!

Comments much appreciated

n.n 

Aguita para el Calorsito!

Who isn't in mood for some fresh Water? 

Everyone, right? 

Right. 

 I'm a big sweet-tooth so when I saw the recipe that called for Strawberry & Vanilla sweetened 

with Honey I went craaazy over it and could not wait to try it. 

All I can say is: Oh My God.

The freshness of my very ripe strawberries and the deliciousness the Vanilla added, and just leaving a sweet

Honey flavor at the end. Really a drink I would offer the Olympic Gods without any sort of hesitation (granting me a constellation of my own, which would be pretty cool, maybe even my own myth...Now that would be AWESOME.) 

So before I start babbling on and on about what kind of myth I would like for myself or the very artistic shape and meaning of my constellation I will tell you the recipe for this Godly Award Drink that it's so easy to make us mortals can do it. 

(and end up with constellations of our own I might add) 

OkayOkay I'll get to the recipe already!

Fresh Strawberry&Vanilla Water

Sweetened with Honey. 

1 cup of fresh, ripe Strawberries. 

2 Teaspoons of Vanilla. 

1 tablespoon of Honey. 

2 cups of Ice-cold Water. 

1. I placed the two cups of water in the freezer a few hours before I made the water. My cold water actually froze and by the time I had to add the water there was still huge ice cub in the cup I used. 

The better for me. It looked pretty cool actually. So first step either make ice cubes or freeze your two cups and take them out just a few minutes after they have been frozen. 

2. Combine both Strawberries and Vanilla and let the blender... yes! work its magic, all right. 

3. You can either pass the mixture into the container you are going to serve the water in, or into another one so you can sweet-it up. I served it on a different container and stirred the tablespoon of Honey until it dissolved into the water. 

4. Then, I added more water. 

Serve with a nice small strawberry in a fancy cup or glass.