So far it’s been a most enjoyable summer. I can’t remember the last time I ate at a restaurant, taco stand or some sort of eating venue. What has been truly enjoyable is taking the time to sit down with neighbors and friends to share meals together.
I’m not telling you anything new, but eating in today’s world is often a most hurried affair. As much as my home—The Canelo Project—is a place for workshops, a B&B and more, we have always been a place to share great meals with others. We are as much a destination for food as we are anything else.
Summer makes it easier if the weather is decent and that would include sitting with a friend, prepping ingredients in the soft rain of the early evening. More than the food, it’s the beauty of the afternoon light, the shadows changing across the landscape.
The blossoms of the Yucca shottii, which grows in the wild nearby, are delicious and easy to cook with. You don’t need much—usually a couple of branches of the plant will do.
Blanch the blossoms and rinse quickly in cold water. Be careful not to overcook them; overcooking causes them to lose their structure.
From this point on you can add them to other ingredients. There is no exact method. Here, they are added to a simple preparation of purslane, onions and garlic, with a final topping: a perfectly ripe nectarine.
What’s been especially good this summer has been the opportunity to focus on what are considered to be weed-like ingredients, or so they are called in this day and age. Specifically I want to talk about “quelites,” as they are called in Mexico. One of the plants that often falls into this category is wild amaranth, sometimes called pigweed or in Spanish, “bledos.” In our manicured urban environments, they can be found in out-of-the-way areas, or everywhere once the monsoon rains have started. Another example is lambsquarters, called “chuales” in Spanish. The ones grown and prepared in Sonora typically have bigger leaves than what grows in Canelo.
We prefer the wild amaranths but in our vegetable garden we also grow the cultivated varieties in our garden—one is Hopi Red Dye amaranth, from which we also can get grain.
Another very usable plant is commonly called “magenta spreen.” We harvest the leaves from spring to fall. It is available through most seed suppliers. Those in the know say that it made its way to the new world from Asia. A most versatile plant from early spring to fall.
Like spinach, these all have varying amounts of oxalic acid that can cause irritation if consumed raw. The way I was taught was to boil the leaves and if they are large, throw out the water and drain. Then they can be used however you like. If they are small and tender, no need to change the water. A common style found throughout Sonora is to saute finely chopped white onion, garlic and a tablespoon or two of all purpose flour. Add the greens, chop them if you like and cook as desired. Whole cooked beans are sometimes added.
When in Sonora, it can be fortuitous to stop by the homes of friends mid-day unannounced. It is the hour of the comida and I never seem to be in truding. Sonoran hospitality is great, especially when food is involved. For example, I stopped by the home of Blanca Lopez in the town of Banamichi thinking I might find something delicious to eat. The odds were good, as the mule of her husband Prieto Ochoa was tied to a tree adjacent to the house.
Blanca cooks for the tours I lead at the family’s small ranchito, Ranchito La Martina, in a bosque on the outskirts of town. When I visited, she was making quelites from bledos with the addition of “nopales” (prickly pear cactus pads). The beauty of this kind of meal is that it couldn’t be any more local than this. The bledos came from an alleyway by the house and the nopales nearby.
Don’t be fooled—quelites at first glance can look somewhat bland and boring. They are not exactly a visual statement of color. Once you’ve taken a bit with a corn or flour tortilla and a pinch of the wild chile “chiltepin,” you will understand.
This sequence shows Blanca’s process of preparing quelites from start to finish. In this case, nopales were added to the wild amaranth bledos during the prep:
Here’s the onions and garlic together. I don’t know what to call them but the onions are somewhat like scallions, only bigger; they’re the kind that are typically grilled to go along with carne asada.
The bledos and nopales were both cooked, separately. Here’s the bledos:
Garlic and onions were cooked with a tablespoon of flour:
Next the bledos were added to the onion/garlic/flour mix:
Then the scallions were added:
Then the already cooked nopales were added:
And finally, chiltepines— the wild chiles—were added for spice.
Don’t ask me for quantities—next time I’m sure they will be different.
Also: don’t be timid when it comes to experimenting. A similar dish from India is called saag and is often prepared with a type of local cheese called paneer and some spice. It would be totally acceptable to add different herbs, spices, cheeses and chiles. As long as the flavors combine well, no problem. Sonoran food is pretty basic—it’s food for hard-working campesinos who aren’t necessarily concerned with culinary precision.
For a very traditional approach to preparing wild amaranth/bledos, consult the “La Herencia de Las Viudas” YouTube channel produced by Esmeralda Noriega of the tiny pueblo of San Pedro de la Cueva.
This is the go-to channel for all things related to Sonoran cooking. One of the most creative and fun things about her outdoor kitchen is the equipment she uses such as tire rims and more. All of Esmeralda’s videos are beautifully produced and make you want to sit down to enjoy one of her meals.
I’m pretty sure I would love to be her neighbor.