OnTheTable: Mexican Poverty Assuaged with Communal Food

After a tantalizing encounter with the new, fine Mexican cuisine at La Cava, we at On The Table set out on a sun drenched, Mexican adventure in search of authentically traditional recipes accessible to our dear readers who are stuck in Colorado, in winter. So come along, join in, and you too can be, metaphorically, digging your toes into some of the finest, white sands of genuine Mexican cuisine. 

The foremost tip of the Baja peninsula, within the resort town of Cabo san Lucas, is home to an all-too-common juxtaposition of tourism-wealth and local poverty, the most dire being found in the neighborhood slum known as Caribe: a square mile of desert wasteland without electricity or plumbing, populated with over five thousand people (most of whom were lured there under false pretenses of a better life), a rat’s nest of poverty that, once every seven years, becomes a riverbed swept vacant by hurricane run-off. Every hovel that a single mother and her three children call home (nothing more than a cobbled together shack), every cinder block and plywood sheet, every rusty length of chickenwire used as crass property markers, every last bit of debris is washed into the nearby sea with each seven-year storm. Such devastation leaves the impoverished inhabitants with nothing to do but salvage materials and rebuild what meager lives they might scrap together. 

One may naturally ask: why don’t these people live elsewhere? The simple and truthful answer: they can’t, they haven’t the means. 

Hope is almost nowhere to be found. The local government turns a blind eye; the federal government disavows the population’s existence. The cyclical nature of hurricane devastation appears unstoppable. Yet slivers of hope remain. Raul Garcia and Karen Faith, a missionary-pastor couple, and their small team, have chosen to serve in the Caribe slum. Building within the neighborhood a church, a garden and a playground, the team has become the conduit for a divine breath of hope—and one of their most effective tools: communal food. 

Harnessing the bonding powers of shared meals via great recipes, Raul and Karen’s team have begun to build relationships and empower residents of Caribe. What follows are two of their favorites: 

Enchiladas Suizas (10 servings)

5 poblano peppers 

3 large chicken breasts 

bunch of cilantro 

1 large white onion, quartered 

6 cloves garlic 

2 cups sour cream 

1 cup chicken stock 

1 Tablespoon salt 

28 corn tortillas 

manchego cheese 

white rice 

cooking oil 

Directions

Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a simmer; to this add the chicken and set a probe thermometer for 150F. Meanwhile, in an oiled pan over medium heat, place the whole poblanos and the quartered onion. Cover and allow to both steam and char. After 7 minutes add the whole garlic cloves and re-cover for further roasting. Once a good char has developed on the peppers and onions, remove from heat and proceed to remove the stem, seeds, and outer, tough skin from the poblanos. Create the sauce by blending the charred peppers, onion and garlic, along with the sour cream, cilantro, salt and one cup chicken stock. Once the chicken has reached 150F—and been allowed to remain there for 3 minutes—remove from the water and proceed to shred with two forks. Roll a portion of chicken into each tortilla. Working in batches, place the tortilla wrapped chicken in an oiled frying pan over medium heat. Generously ladle the blended sauce over the top. As the enchiladas warm through, sprinkle with the cheese. Once the manchego has melted, remove from heat and serve with a side of rice. 

Salsa (approx. 3 cup yield) 

12 medium tomatoes quartered 

1 large white onion sliced 

bunch of cilantro (leaves only) 

2-4 serrano chilies (bifurcated) 

cooking oil 

Directions

Arrange half of the tomatoes, all the sliced onion and serranos over the surface of a large frying pan that has been covered in a shimmering slick of oil. While awaiting the tomatoes’ blackening, and the onions’ caramelization, patiently remove the leaves from the cilantro stems so as to avoid their bitterness. Once the tomatoes have released their juices and the onion and serranos have softened, incorporate the cilantro leaves and the remaining half of tomatoes. Eventually you will notice the color of the tomatoes deepen from their original bright red to an orange hue. At this point remove from the heat and allow to cool prior to blending the whole mess into a beautiful puree. 

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