Puebla’s gastronomy is one of the most delicious nationally, recognized as Intangible Heritage of the Humanity by UNESCO, which offers a wide range of options to satisfy all the palates at any time of the year and Lent is no exception.
With a religious tradition inherited from the time of the conquest and evangelization, Puebla preserves the tradition of preparing special dishes that use a protein other than red meat during the Fridays of Lent and Holy Week itself.
According to the different regions of the state you can find dishes in which local ingredients are used, for example, in the Mixtec area, chiles stuffed with cheese, chickpea snacks, coloradito of white beans with shrimp or vegetables and cauliflower stuffed with quesillo, capeada and caldillo.
In our state, the traditional shrimp pancakes with mole poblano and nopales or huazontles, zucchini “guias” (tender zucchini stems), huitlacoche, as well as insects such as grasshoppers and escamoles are not to be missed.
In colonial cities influenced in
its creation by the Spanish, during Lent it was customary to taste even
desserts for the occasion, one of them is the capirotada, a dish made from
toasted or stale bread that is cut into slices bathed in a piloncillo syrup and
covered with raisins, nuts, peanuts and grated cheese.
So that you don't get the munchies,
we offer you some of the recipes for seasonal dishes, provided by Chef Patricia
Juarez.
HUAZONTLE
2 Kg of Huazontles approximately
7 eggs
1/4 kg of fresh cheese (panela or asadero)
1/4 kg of chile pasilla
1 kg of lard
1oo gr flour
Salt and garlic to taste
PREPARATION
Choose the huazontles, discarding
the thick sticks, wash them and boil them in water with baking soda and salt
until they are cooked. Drain very well and squeeze out the water; fill them
with cheese, flour them and coat them in egg, previously beaten the egg whites
to the point of snow, and then add the egg yolks. Fry in lard and drain.
Sauce. Toast the chiles, wash them
and let them soak for a while in hot water.
Grind them with garlic, salt and
fry them, adding enough water, in which the huazontles cakes, already prepared,
are put to cook. Let them boil until the cheese dissolves.
CAPIROTADA
INGREDIENTS:
4 pieces of birote (bread)
5 tortillas from the day before
150 grs of walnuts
1/2 bag of prunes (50 grs.)
1/2 bag of raisins (100 grs.)
200 grs of peanuts
100 grs of dried apricots (dried fruit)
1 fresh apple in pieces without the peel
100 grs of dry white cheese (hard and a little salty)
1 orange for grating the peel
3 pieces of piloncillo
A few cinnamon sticks
Butter or lard
Salt
PREPARATION:
You will need a large frying pan
with a lid that can hold several layers of sliced bread) Cut the pieces of
bread in slices of 2 or 3 cm, brown them and spread them with butter. Place the
tortillas on the bottom and sides of the pan to avoid cooking directly on the
bread. A honey is prepared by boiling the piloncillo in 2-½ cups of water with
a few cinnamon sticks, an orange peel and a pinch of salt.
Arrange the slices of bread
(slightly separated from each other because they will expand) in layers, with
walnuts, prunes, raisins, peanuts and dried apricots. In the final layer
distribute the cheese with some orange zest and add the honey, allowing the
layers to moisten little by little. Cook over low heat and leave uncovered
because the bread will rise as the honey is incorporated.
Leave a little honey to add after cooking in case it dries out too much.
Cool to room temperature and do not cover completely.
