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krusty kritter
 
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Default Secret ingredient in Escamocha?

I was exploring Old Town in the city where I grew up and discovered that some
of the old stores had been "gentrified", made into upscale restaurants to
attract wealthy tourists who might be looking for antiques...

Problem is, I am never in Old Town when those expensive restaurants are open
for dinner, but there is a taqueria that opens for breakfast and lunch, and
it's always filled with Mexican families, so that's where I experienced my
first Escamocha...

But I was Jonesing for some kind of greasy antojito fix, looking for something
like a tamale or enchilada but a little different, when I noticed that the
Saturday specialty was Birria de Chivo, young goat in red chile sauce...

Now, I had previously tried Birria made from an old goat's back and ribs, and I
had found the experience to be greasy and messier than trying to eat barbecued
ribs without getting barbecue sauce all over me, and the old goat tasted
like---well, an old goat. And the experience of fishing the goat's vertebrae
out of the red chile sauce sort of reminded me of Conan the Destroyer sampling
the stew in Thulsa Doom's caverns, if you know what I mean...

But the concept of Birria made with the meat of a young tender kid intrigued
me, so I ordered that, and got into deep chile, the red sauce was fiery and I
had to make the choice of whether to eat something that was burning up my mouth
or whether to throw away something that I had already paid for...

I was pulling the chunks of meat out of the flaming hot sauce and making little
burritos with the flour tortillas provided. I believed that no sober human
being could ever get to the bottom all the the fiery red chile sauce in the
bowl of Birria de Chivo and live to tell about it...

That was when I decided to try the intriguing Escamocha from the juice bar...

The first thing the girl at the bar did was put about half a teaspoon full of
the secret ingredient in a large dessert glass, then some milk and honey and
some papaya that had been run through a blender, filling the bottom of the
dessert glass...

Then she added large slices of papaya and mango and watermelon and pineapple,
you name it, whatever goes into a fruit salad, she threw it into the mix...

But to call her Escamocha "fruit salad" insults her creation. To me, fruit
salad was always something that came in a can labeled "Dole", with limp and
almost flavorless small chunks of fruit and wrinkled grapes...

This Escamocha was vibrant and exciting, a culinary creation of the fruity
kind...

She topped the fruit salad with banana slices and walnut halves and sliced
strawberries and kiwi fruit and shredded coconut and topped all of that with a
cherry and poured more of the papaya and milk and honey and secret ingredient
mixture over it all...

And the Escamocha put out the fire that was burning in my mouth after the
ordeal with the Birria de Chivo and the secret ingredient came to my rescue...

The secret ingredient was half a teaspoon of ordinary table salt...

Salt will act to draw moisture out of the tongue and inside of the mouth and
stop the chile burning sensation...

Salt draws the flavor out of sliced fruit...

Salt in fruit salad? It worked for me...
# * 0 * #
^



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Jim Lane
 
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krusty kritter wrote:
> I was exploring Old Town in the city where I grew up and discovered that some
> of the old stores had been "gentrified", made into upscale restaurants to
> attract wealthy tourists who might be looking for antiques...
>
> Problem is, I am never in Old Town when those expensive restaurants are open
> for dinner, but there is a taqueria that opens for breakfast and lunch, and
> it's always filled with Mexican families, so that's where I experienced my
> first Escamocha...
>
> But I was Jonesing for some kind of greasy antojito fix, looking for something
> like a tamale or enchilada but a little different, when I noticed that the
> Saturday specialty was Birria de Chivo, young goat in red chile sauce...
>
> Now, I had previously tried Birria made from an old goat's back and ribs, and I
> had found the experience to be greasy and messier than trying to eat barbecued
> ribs without getting barbecue sauce all over me, and the old goat tasted
> like---well, an old goat. And the experience of fishing the goat's vertebrae
> out of the red chile sauce sort of reminded me of Conan the Destroyer sampling
> the stew in Thulsa Doom's caverns, if you know what I mean...
>
> But the concept of Birria made with the meat of a young tender kid intrigued
> me, so I ordered that, and got into deep chile, the red sauce was fiery and I
> had to make the choice of whether to eat something that was burning up my mouth
> or whether to throw away something that I had already paid for...
>
> I was pulling the chunks of meat out of the flaming hot sauce and making little
> burritos with the flour tortillas provided. I believed that no sober human
> being could ever get to the bottom all the the fiery red chile sauce in the
> bowl of Birria de Chivo and live to tell about it...
>
> That was when I decided to try the intriguing Escamocha from the juice bar...
>
> The first thing the girl at the bar did was put about half a teaspoon full of
> the secret ingredient in a large dessert glass, then some milk and honey and
> some papaya that had been run through a blender, filling the bottom of the
> dessert glass...
>
> Then she added large slices of papaya and mango and watermelon and pineapple,
> you name it, whatever goes into a fruit salad, she threw it into the mix...
>
> But to call her Escamocha "fruit salad" insults her creation. To me, fruit
> salad was always something that came in a can labeled "Dole", with limp and
> almost flavorless small chunks of fruit and wrinkled grapes...
>
> This Escamocha was vibrant and exciting, a culinary creation of the fruity
> kind...
>
> She topped the fruit salad with banana slices and walnut halves and sliced
> strawberries and kiwi fruit and shredded coconut and topped all of that with a
> cherry and poured more of the papaya and milk and honey and secret ingredient
> mixture over it all...
>
> And the Escamocha put out the fire that was burning in my mouth after the
> ordeal with the Birria de Chivo and the secret ingredient came to my rescue...
>
> The secret ingredient was half a teaspoon of ordinary table salt...
>
> Salt will act to draw moisture out of the tongue and inside of the mouth and
> stop the chile burning sensation...
>
> Salt draws the flavor out of sliced fruit...
>
> Salt in fruit salad? It worked for me...
> # * 0 * #
> ^
>
>
>


Now you can understand why some put salt on watermelon. It "brightens"
the sweetness.


jim
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BillB
 
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On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 22:07:44 -0700, Jim Lane wrote:

> Now you can understand why some put salt on watermelon.
> It "brightens" the sweetness.


I'll do that occasionally if I think of it, but I always put salt
on cantaloupe. Taught that by Carolina cousins who grew their own
melons.

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Andreandanita
 
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Default

Title: Escamocha Camacho
Yield: 4

Ingredients

1 banana; sliced
6 strawberries
1 thick slice fresh pineapple;
- cut in chunks
1/2 c cantaloupe; cut in chunks
1/2 c seedless watermelon; cut in
-chunks
1/2 green pear; seeded and
-sliced
1/2 firm apple; seeded and
-sliced
1/2 c mexican papaya; seeded and
-sliced
1/2 mango; sliced
2 kiwi fruits; peeled and
-sliced
1 orange; juice of
1 c sweetened condensed milk
1 c loose oat granola
1 c shredded coconut
1/2 c slivered almonds

Instructions

Makes 4 escamochas

Place banana, strawberries, pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon, pear,
apple, papaya, mango and kiwi on a cutting board. Chop to 1/4-inch dice,
being careful not to smash fruit, or pulse in food processor until diced,
but not liquid. Transfer chopped fruit to a medium bowl and squeeze
orange juice over fruit, gently mixing. Divide fruit mixture into 4 equal
portions.

Take tall serving glasses (about 12 ounces) and drizzle inside of each
with 1 tablespoon or so of condensed milk. Sprinkle as much granola as
needed over milk, so it sticks to sides of glass.

Fill each glass with 2/3-portion of fruit mixture. Sprinkle on a thin
layer of coconut, granola and about 1 tablespoon of condensed milk. Fill
glass with remaining third of fruit; top off with a tablespoon of slivered
almonds, another layer of coconut, to taste, and another tablespoon of
condensed milk. Repeat for the other three glasses and serve immediately.

Stole this one off the chef2chef website, go there, it's got some great recipes
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