THE FLAVOR OF MEXICO

Some of the best Mexican food in the world is in Los Angeles. No, not in those formula restaurants with the greasy red sauces that crust onto the plates. The really good food is in homes where ties to Mexico are strong, and dishes are prepared the way mother or grandmother made them.

To taste such food, you have to know people like Anita Aviles, Susana Luna, Marcos T. Sanchez and Laura Vera. These four provided an insight into the status of Mexican cooking in California today. All live in or around Los Angeles, but only Aviles was born in the United States. Luna, Sanchez and Vera came here from Mexico City, Sanchez as a child, Vera 14 years ago and Luna, the most recent arrival, four years ago.

When asked to provide two or three favorite recipes, they came up with an assortment of food that filled The Times’ Test Kitchen with enticing aromas. Their dishes were good examples of the charming way in which Mexican cooks blend earthy seasonings, bright color and the unexpected. Meatballs were sliced to reveal a hard-cooked egg inside. Chiles rellenos hid black beans under a topping of cheese. A domelike dessert was paved with shimmering jewels that turned out to be fruit-flavored gelatin.

Also surprising was the lightness of the food. The bean-stuffed rellenos dispensed with batter and were baked, not fried. The dessert, although lavish in appearance, was sweetened with such restraint that one felt no guilt in eating it.

Three of the cooks proposed the same recipe, Tortas de Carne (meat fritters), which indicates the dish must be very popular in Mexican homes. The tortas resemble chiles rellenos except that shredded beef is enclosed in the puffy batter instead of cheese-stuffed chiles. The version that appears here is from Marcos T. Sanchez of Boyle Heights.

Sanchez was born in Mexico City, came to Los Angeles at the age of 4 1/2 and once had a Mexican restaurant named Fondongo’s in Burbank. He is now completing a master’s degree in art history at UCLA, specializing in Chicano art.

Sanchez copied the tortas made by his mother, Graciela, and added a tomato and olive sauce that his father, Marcos, used to serve with huevos rancheros. The elder Sanchez, who died a few years ago, had a Mexican restaurant called Taco Plaza on Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles.

The egg-stuffed albondigas are modeled on a dish prepared by Sanchez’s aunt, who lives in Mexico City. This intricate dish combines ground pork and beef with a surprising blend of seasonings, among them cinnamon and cloves. It takes skill to pat the mixture evenly over the hard-cooked eggs so that the coating does not pull away when the albondigas are boiled. If this should happen, the dish can be saved by hiding the bare portions of the albondigas in the sauce.

The sauce is a tomato mixture flavored with chipotle chile and fresh mint. “The chipotle chile is a key flavor factor in this recipe. However, it is a very hot ingredient,” Sanchez warned. For a milder sauce, he suggests simmering the whole chile in the sauce and removing it rather than pureeing it with the tomatoes. Another trick is to add cooked potato to the sauce. “It’s a good complement and takes some of the bite off the chipotle ,” Sanchez said.

Susana Luna, who lives in Rolling Hills, is known for her fine cooking and contributed a menu and recipes to the Chadwick School cookbook, “International Flavors,” which was published in 1986. Her husband, Alejandro, manufactures Mexican candies here under the El Panal label and has ranches in Mexico that produce pistachios and other nuts.

“I like soups,” Luna said, “and I make a lot of casseroles.” So a soup and a casserole are part of the menu she drew up for this article.

The casserole is quite different from the American concept of ingredients baked together in a dish. Luna’s Pollo Moreliano (Morelia-Style Chicken) is more accurately a stew that is served in a casserole rather than baked in one. It is also a fine example of light eating, Mexican style. The chicken is boiled and then combined with corn and zucchini in a tomatillo sauce that, while delicate, still has a dash of chile.

Luna’s menu typifies what would be served in a Mexican home for the midday meal, which is the main meal of the day. It starts with Sopa de Fideos, a light broth that includes coil vermicelli, fresh tomatoes and chard. This combination is “a very typical Mexican soup,” Luna said.

The dessert is the spectacular gelatin mold, which is called Gelatina Arcoiris. The latter word means rainbow and refers to the riot of color supplied by gelatin cubes in four colors. The mortar that holds the cubes together is vanilla-flavored sweetened milk, set with unflavored gelatin. This fanciful dessert would be fun to serve at a children’s party, but adults will admire it too.

Laura Vera’s cooking became even more authentic when her mother, Mercedes, flew in from Mexico City to bring not only advice but Chihuahua cheese for Vera’s bean-stuffed chiles rellenos. Vera uses black beans for this dish and cooks them in a pressure cooker as her mother does. When the beans are tender, she simmers them a little longer with a sprig of the herb epazote , which she grows at her home in Pasadena. Then she fries the beans in oil in which she first cooks sliced onion.

Mercedes Vera showed how to peel the fat, dark green pasilla chiles by first roasting them over an open flame, standing the chiles on end in order to roast the indented part around the stem. Instead of steaming the roasted chiles in a bag, which makes them easy to peel but also more likely to tear, she stripped the peel off at once under running cold water.

The next step was to stuff the chiles with the beans and cheese and bake them until the cheese melted. The rellenos are served on iceberg lettuce leaves flecked with pepper from the oil and vinegar dressing in which they are dipped. The only sauce is a spoonful of sour cream.

While Laura Vera prepared a meat salad called Salpicon, her mother resumed crocheting the doilies that she would stitch together to make a tortilla holder. Salpicon is another dish that puts the lie to the idea that Mexican food is starchy and fattening. The shredded meat--Vera uses flank steak cooked in the pressure cooker--is tossed with avocado cubes, cilantro and shredded lettuce in a simple wine vinegar and olive oil dressing. The salad is spooned onto a platter and garnished with onion rings, tomato, more avocado and lettuce. Salpicon is a meal in itself. The only accompaniments Vera would add might be soup and corn tortillas.

Anita Aviles contributed the one Americanized dish of the lot, an enchilada casserole made with canned chicken soup, canned green chiles and longhorn cheese. The combination works so well that Aviles was asked to contribute the recipe to Tower Talk, an in-house publication at the Sears Roebuck catalogue merchandise distribution center where she works as an inspector.

“I kept taking these green enchiladas to Sears, and they became so famous,” she said. As Aviles’ experience indicates, the dish is ideal for a buffet or potluck.

Aviles was born in the town of Uvalde, which is about 95 miles west of San Antonio, Tex. She grew up in Modesto and now lives in Huntington Park. She suggests serving the enchilada casserole with a plain green salad and what she calls Spanish rice.

The rice has also earned Aviles a reputation as a good cook. The recipe appears simple, but it involves certain techniques that Aviles learned from her mother.

“One of the secrets of Spanish rice is toasting the rice.” she said. That means browning it in oil. Seasonings included a tiny dash of cumin--less than one-eighth of a teaspoon, Aviles specified. “It gives it (the rice) that good taste,” she said.

The other secret is to stir tomato sauce into the rice and cook it a few moments before adding water. This produces a deep, rosy color. If the water and sauce are added together, the color will be much lighter, Aviles explained.

For a quick dinner, she suggests preparing the enchilada casserole in advance and reheating it. “The rice can be made anytime in a matter of half an hour or so. It’s really convenient,” she said.

ALBONDIGAS RELLENAS

(Stuffed Meatballs)

(Marcos T. Sanchez)

1/2 pound lean ground pork

1/2 pound lean ground beef

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

1/3 cup finely chopped tomato

1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon finely crushed oregano

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 medium egg

3 tablespoons flour

7 medium eggs, hard-cooked

3 quarts water

Chipotle Sauce

Mix pork and beef thoroughly. Add onion, tomato, cilantro, salt, pepper, oregano, cinnamon, cloves, egg and 2 tablespoons flour. Mix well. Mixture will be slightly sticky.

Dust hard-cooked eggs with remaining 1 tablespoon flour. Wrap 3 ounces meat mixture around each egg in thin layer to coat completely.

In large pot, bring water to boil, then reduce heat to strong simmer. Using slotted spoon, lower meatballs into water 1 at a time. Simmer 5 minutes or until meatballs rise to surface, then simmer 30 minutes longer. Drain meatballs. Reserve 2 cups broth for Chipotle Sauce.

Place meatballs in Chipotle Sauce to reheat. For individual servings, cut 1 meatball in half and place on plate with some of sauce. Or place all meatballs and sauce in large serving dish and cut 1 meatball in half to show filling. Makes 7 stuffed meatballs.

Chipotle Sauce

1/2 large onion, chopped

1 clove garlic

1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes

1 pickled chipotle chile

2 tablespoons oil

2 cups reserved meatball broth

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 parboiled potatoes, sliced crosswise

6 sprigs mint

Puree onion and garlic in food processor. Separately, puree tomatoes with chipotle chile. Heat oil in 2-quart saucepan. Add onion and garlic and cook 5 minutes. Add tomato mixture and cook 15 minutes. Add meatball broth and salt and simmer 25 minutes. Add potatoes and mint during last 5 to 10 minutes of cooking time.

TORTAS DE CARNE DESHEBRADA

(Shredded Meat Fritters)

(Marcos T. Sanchez)

1/2 pound beef stew meat or flank steak, cooked and shredded

1 1/2 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 cups oil

4 medium eggs, separated

Dash salt

Tomato Sauce

Divide shredded meat into 6 equal portions. Squeeze each portion together, then pat each flat so that center is not more than 1/4 inch thick. Flour both sides of meat patties and set aside. Heat oil in large, deep skillet. Beat egg whites with salt until stiff, then beat in yolks thoroughly. Place each meat patty on large spoon, lower into egg batter, cover completely and transfer to heated oil. Cover any meat visible with batter. Fry until browned on both sides, 4 to 5 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Place tortas in simmering Tomato Sauce and cook 2 minutes or until heated through. Makes 6 servings.

Tomato Sauce

3 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

3 1/2 cups tomato wedges

1 1/2 cups beef broth or water

1 small onion, sliced lengthwise

1 green pepper, sliced lengthwise

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

6 small fresh basil leaves

2 bay leaves

1/2 cup pitted black olives

Heat oil in large skillet. Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Add tomatoes and cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add broth and bring to boil. Lower heat to simmer. Add onion, green pepper, salt, basil and bay leaves. Simmer, uncovered, 15 minutes. Add olives and simmer 5 minutes longer.

SOPA DE FIDEOS

(Vermicelli Soup)

(Susana Luna)

5 tablespoons oil

2 coils of fideo (vermicelli)

2 tomatoes

1/2 medium onion

1 clove garlic

1/2 cup water

6 cups chicken broth

2 leaves chard, julienned

Salt

Heat 1/4 cup oil in skillet. Add fideo and fry until golden brown, being careful not to burn. Drain on paper towels. Combine tomatoes, onion, garlic and water in blender and blend until pureed. Strain.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in saucepan. Add sauce mixture and cook until tomatoes turn dark red. Add chicken broth and chard, then fideo. Season to taste with salt. Bring to boil. Lower heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes. Makes 8 servings.

POLLO MORELIANO

(Morelia-Style Chicken)

(Susana Luna)

1 (3 1/2-pound) chicken, cut into serving pieces

2 quarts plus 2 cups water

2 small onions

1 clove garlic

1 bunch cilantro, roots removed

1 tablespoon chicken stock granules

Salt

12 tomatillos

2 serrano chiles

1 tablespoon oil

3 zucchini, diced

1/2 (10-ounce) package frozen whole kernel corn

Combine chicken, 2 quarts water, 1 onion, garlic, 1 sprig cilantro and 1 1/2 teaspoons chicken stock granules in Dutch oven. Season to taste with salt. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, 30 minutes.

In large saucepan, combine tomatillos, remaining 2 cups water, remaining cilantro, remaining onion, chiles and remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons stock granules. Boil 15 minutes. Cool, then puree undrained mixture in blender.

Drain chicken, reserving broth. Heat oil in Dutch oven. Add tomatillo mixture, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups chicken broth, zucchini and corn. Cover and cook 5 minutes. Add chicken and cook 5 minutes longer or until chicken is tender and heated through. Season to taste with salt. Makes 4 servings.

GELATINA ARCOIRIS

(Rainbow Gelatin)

(Susana Luna)

4 (3-ounce) packages gelatin, in different flavors

9 cups water

1 quart milk

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons vanilla

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin

Select gelatins to have 4 colors. The day before, prepare flavored gelatins separately according to package directions, using 2 cups water for each. Pour each gelatin into separate 9-inch square baking dish. Chill until firm.

Heat milk with sugar and vanilla. Stir unflavored gelatin into remaining 1 cup cold water. Let stand 1 minute. Add gelatin to hot milk and heat until dissolved. Remove from heat and let stand until milk is cooled but not set.

Meanwhile, cut flavored gelatins into 3/4- to 1-inch cubes. Arrange cubes in decorative, tall 3-quart mold. Pour cooled milk into mold carefully so as not to dissolve cubes. Refrigerate until firm. When ready to serve, loosen edges and invert onto plate. Makes 12 servings.

CHILES RELLENOS DE FRIJOLES REFRITOS

(Chiles Stuffed With Refried Beans)

(Laura Vera)

12 pasilla (poblano) chiles

2 cups dried black beans

3 cups water

3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon oil

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 large sprig epazote

2 slices medium onion

3/4 pound Chihuahua or Jack cheese, cut into 24 sticks

1 head iceberg lettuce

Vinegar Dressing

Sour cream

Roast chiles over burner of gas stove or under broiler until blistered on all sides. Peel under cold running water. Make slit in 1 side of each chile and remove seeds. Leave on stems. Set aside.

Place beans in pressure cooker with water and 1 teaspoon oil. Cook 30 minutes, following manufacturer’s directions. When beans are done, stir in salt and epazote. Simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes longer.

Heat remaining 3 tablespoons oil in large skillet. Add onion slices and cook until browned. Remove onion slices and discard. Drain beans, add to skillet and fry, mashing until pureed. Spoon about 3 tablespoons beans into each chile. Top beans with 2 sticks cheese.

Arrange chiles in 13x9-inch baking dish. Cover with foil. Bake at 350 degrees 20 minutes or just until cheese is melted.

For each serving, dip 1 large or 2 smaller lettuce leaves in Vinegar Dressing. Drain and place on plate. Arrange 2 stuffed chiles on lettuce. Top each with spoonful of sour cream. Serve at once. Makes 6 servings.

Vinegar Dressing

1 cup white wine vinegar

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

Pepper

Combine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste in large bowl.

SALPICON

(Shredded Steak Salad)

(Laura Vera)

1 1/2 pounds flank steak

1 quart water

2 slices medium onion

2 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon salt

2 cups finely shredded lettuce

2 avocados, cut into small cubes

1 bunch cilantro, stemmed and chopped

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup oil

Lettuce leaves

1 medium onion, sliced and separated into rings

1 tomato, sliced

1 avocado, sliced

Corn tortillas

Cut steak lengthwise into strips 2 inches wide. Combine meat, water, onion slices, garlic and 2 tablespoons salt in pressure cooker. Cook 20 minutes, following manufacturer’s directions. Drain meat and cool slightly, then tear into fine shreds.

In large bowl, combine meat shreds, shredded lettuce, avocado cubes and cilantro. Mix vinegar, oil and remaining 1 teaspoon salt. Add dressing to meat mixture and toss gently but thoroughly. Spoon onto platter and arrange lettuce leaves around edge. Top with onion rings and garnish with tomato and avocado slices. Accompany with corn tortillas. Makes 8 servings.

GREEN ENCHILADA CASSEROLE

(Anita Aviles)

1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of chicken soup

1 (7-ounce) can whole green chiles, rinsed and shredded

Salt

Garlic salt

Pepper

1/3 cup oil

12 corn tortillas

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 pound longhorn cheese, shredded

Turn soup into bowl and dilute with water as directed on can. Add chiles and season to taste with salt, garlic salt and pepper.

Heat oil in large skillet. Add tortillas, 1 at a time, and fry until softened. Drain on paper towels. Line 11x7-inch baking dish with 4 tortillas. Top with layer of sauce, onion and cheese. Make 2 more layers in order directed, ending with layer of cheese. Bake at 350 degrees 30 minutes. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

SPANISH RICE

(Anita Aviles)

3 tablespoons shortening

3/4 cup long grain rice

1 teaspoon salt

Pepper

Dash ground cumin

1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce

2 cups water

Heat shortening in large, heavy saucepan. Add rice and saute until lightly browned. Add salt, pepper to taste and cumin. Stir in tomato sauce and cook a few moments. Add water. Cover and boil 15 minutes. Reduce heat to low and cook 5 minutes longer. Rice should be moist but not soupy. Makes 4 to 6 servings.