28/09/2021
The story behind the 🌮
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What is it about the exotic that entices us?
I mean you and me, not the timid souls that are content with the trite, the familiar, the limited and boring routine of the industrialized food for the masses.
Perhaps, because just like me, you know you are going to die. And, you are going to die virgin. Virgin of a 1,000 pleasures. But not this one, because I bring it to you within reach.
The star ingredient in this weeks special is an exotic fruit of a particular cactus called “xoconostle”. It’s been enjoyed by the Aztecs since more than ten thousands of years before Christ was born. A fruit that hasn’t been exploited by the food industry, because Big Agro will turn almost any produce into a tasteless hybrid-monster that meets it’s only requirement of long shelf-life and profitability. But Big Agro is not interested in: anything small volume, difficult to grow and harvest, anything with low yield per acre, anything unknown, non-famous with a difficult to pronounce name.
On top of that, xonocostle is hard to sell, this is not a sweet kiwi fruit (considered exotic in the 80’s) that you could peel and take a bite therefore immediately and almost without any effort appreciate.
Xonocostle ( pronounced choko-nose-leh) is an obscure seasonal fruit from a particular cactus tree that only grows in very arid desert lands. Unlike other cactus sweet prickly peas, Xoconostle is hardly sweet, it’s actually quite a bit sour and acidic but it packs a ton of flavor. And so, it scapes mass popularity because you have to make into a salsa if raw, or cook it along other ingredients in a recipe to enjoy it.
In this case I smoked the xoconostle to make a salsa to compliment a tender roasted pulled brisket taco. The smoked xonocostle is peeled, seeds removed and the flesh is cut in very small dice, then mixed with roasted tomatillos, jalapeños, garlic, orange peel and chipotle.
Oh yes, please remind your friends that chipotle can be more than chipotle-Mayo please, not that they could understand, but oh well. In any case, I hope you make it to this journey, this week only, because next week is a different destination. And only at Rene’s Mexican Kitchen.
