Lunch on the First Friday of Lent

Friday lunches during Lent are always special in Doña Martha's home.

On this first Friday of Lent 2005, she began by making camarones con nopales en chile colorado salsa.

Dried shrimp were dry toasted and then turned into a power in the blender -- shells and all.

The powered shrimp was stirred into a bowl of stiff egg whites to form a batter.  The eggs were prepared the same way we saw in the chiles rellenos story.

Spoonfuls of the shrimp batter were dropped into hot vegetable oil to form fried shrimp patties. 

The chile colorado salsa is made from blended pasilla chiles, tomatillos, onion, garlic and tomatoes that have been boiled until soft.

The salsa is added to strips of nopales that have been boiled for an hour, drained and washed as we saw in the gorditas story.

Then the fried shrimp patties are added and simmered briefly.  A little more water will be added to make a soup.

Peruano beans have been boiled until soft.  Then a tomato sauce with onion and cilantro is added to make a scrumptious soup.

Peruano beans are native to Mexico.  They are very creamy and rich.

Gaby is preparing the fish for frying.  First an egg wash, then prepared bread crumbs.

On the right, pipián is cooking.  Pipián is a prepared paste, like a mole, made of pumpkin seeds, nuts and garlic.  Doña Martha added water and oil, then  stirred and simmered until smooth.  It makes a tasty wipe on a tortilla.

We had a capirotada for dessert.  Each time Martha makes the capirotada a little differently.   Today she used whole-wheat bread and added bananas.   Tasty!

On the right we see the final meal laid out at my place at the table. (No I didn't finish it all.)  From the top left: pipián, fried fish, peruano soup and shrimp and nopales soup.  I skipped the rice and tortillas.

Doña Martha has an unusual way of separating egg whites.  She makes a small hole in one end and drains the white, then she enlarges the hole a little to drain the yoke.

She then washes the egg shells with soap and water, and when they are dry, she gives them to the two youngest grandkids to paint with water colors.

Notice that the kids use the hole as a finger grip.

More fun than TV.