• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Other Side of the Tortilla

  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • CONTACT ME
    • FAQ
    • PRESS
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • MEDIA KIT
    • ADVERTISE
  • RESOURCES
    • BOOKS
    • SHOP
    • INGREDIENTS
    • KITCHEN TOOLS
    • Thanksgiving
    • Mexican Christmas Traditions
  • RECIPES

cinnamon

Sweet potato flan

17 · Aug 21, 2014 · 3 Comments

Sweet potato flan #recipe from theothersideofthetortilla.com with California Sweetpotatoes #CAbatata

This post is part of a compensated campaign in collaboration with California Sweetpotatoes and Latina Bloggers Connect. All opinions and the recipe are my own.

Sweet potato flan is a non-traditional flavor for a very traditional dessert, but if you’re a sweet potato fan, I guarantee you’ll like this rich, decadent dessert. Mashed sweet potato gives this recipe a more dense, textured quality than your traditional flan.

I like cooking with sweet potatoes because they can be prepared in a variety of ways from savory to sweet. This low-carb and vitamin and mineral-rich vegetable is considered a superfood and one sweet potato contains more than one day’s worth of Vitamin A. My favorite way to eat them is baked and sprinkled with a little chopped piloncillo, ground cinnamon and a little bit of butter, which is what led to the idea to create this flan recipe….

Read More

Dessert, Recipe, Sponsored canela, cinnamon, evaporated milk, leche condensada, leche evaporada, piloncillo, sweet potatoes, sweetened condensed milk

How to make horchata

44 · Apr 11, 2011 · 35 Comments

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked for an horchata recipe since I began blogging. But each time I start explaining how to make it from scratch, I can see people start to lose interest around the time I mention that making horchata from scratch involves soaking rice and cinnamon sticks overnight and then grinding it and straining it. When I make it from scratch I sometimes also blanche almonds and soak them with the rice for an added depth of flavor. But the average person asking for a recipe always seems to get a frown on their face when they realize making it from scratch takes a little extra time and effort.

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcm9_7LVHv0[/youtube]

RELATED RECIPE: Oaxaca-style paletas de horchata

It was because of this dilemma of nobody wanting to take the time to soak and grind the rice that I began experimenting in the test kitchen to try to make an acceptable quick recipe substitute for those times when we just need a quick fix of a tall, cool glass of horchata. This is the simplest recipe I came up with that passed the taste test with family and friends. It beats any powdered or pre-made liquid mix I’ve tried from a variety of grocery stores. The store-bought mixes always taste either too sweet or too fake to me. I hope you enjoy this version if you’re looking for a quick but yummy horchata recipe!

…

Read More

Aguas frescas, drinks, Recipe, Video aguas frescas, canela, cinnamon, horchata, la lechera, leche condensada, rice milk, sweetened condensed milk

Warm Winter Margaritas

101 · Nov 24, 2010 · 6 Comments

If you’ve never had a warm winter margarita, you’ve been missing out. It’s basically a tequila hot toddy!

Warm margaritas are boozy and comforting, and an easy-to-make drink that’ll be sure to please your guests all winter long.

RELATED RECIPE: Ponche de tamarindo

I attended a Ladies’ Night In party in Chicago with Chef Marcela Valladolid, cookbook author and host of the Food Network’s “Mexican Made Easy.” We sipped and sampled numerous Sauza Tequila drinks and had a fantastic time tasting dishes from Marcela’s cookbook, Fresh Mexico.

One of the drinks Marcela showed us how to make was this warm winter margarita. It was an instant hit with the crowd and the perfect way to end the evening.

It was so much fun to hang out with her for an intimate evening of cooking tips and getting to taste some of her recipes!

RELATED RECIPE: Grapefruit margaritas

Here’s my photo album from the party:

Thanks so much to Sauza and Chef Marcela for a fabulous Ladies’ Night In. And thank you to the hostesses, Stacey Roney and Beth Rosen for inviting me! I had a great time. Each party attendee received a little tequila to practice making their own drinks as well as a copy of Chef Marcela’s book, which I really like and would recommend as a gift for yourself or the Mexican foodie in your life. I’ve already made this recipe a few times and several other recipes from her book and I’m definitely impressed. They taste very similar to the Mexican food I make in my own kitchen.

Click on the English or Spanish-language image of the book below to purchase that version.

Print
Warm Winter Margarita

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients

  • 3 ½ cups (28 ounces) apple juice or cider
  • 1-2 sticks of Mexican cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons granulated cane sugar (optional)
  • 1 cup dried fruit of your choice (I like apricots, apples, cranberries, tart cherries, and golden raisins)
  • ¾ of a cup (6 ounces) tequila blanco or reposado (whichever you prefer)

Instructions

  1. Combine apple juice or cider and cinnamon sticks in a deep pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Remove cinnamon sticks.
  2. Add sugar and tequila and stir to incorporate.
  3. Pour into cups and add dried fruit to each cup just before serving so they don’t rehydrate too quickly.

Notes

For added fun, you can sugar the rim of the glass if you like. Just gently wet the rim of the glass and dip it in a small dish of fine granulated cane sugar before pouring the margarita into the glass.

3.1
https://theothersideofthetortilla.com/2010/11/warm-winter-margarita/
©2009-2015 theothersideofthetortilla.com

If you’re looking for other hot drink recipes to make your holidays a little more Mexican, check out Abuelita Elda’s ponche Navideño, a staple during our family’s holiday celebrations.

RELATED RECIPE: Cinnamon and chile-spiced hot apple cider cocktail

Books, Cocktails, Holidays, Recipe apple cider, canela, cinnamon, dried fruit, fruta deshidratada, granulated cane sugar, jugo de manzana, tequila, tequila hot toddy

Spicy fig jam (Mermelada de higo con chile)

6 · Sep 9, 2010 · 7 Comments

mermelada de higo con chile en yogur (fig jam over Greek yogurt)

I have a love affair with figs and fig jam. A few summers ago when I was visiting Mexico City, my suegra and I went to the Mercado Coyoacán to pick up some handmade tortillas and oranges for making fresh-squeezed juice. As always, we strolled through the market at a leisurely pace, taking in all the sights and smells of all of our favorite stalls.

One of her favorite stalls, run by a wrinkled old lady, had an abundance of just-picked figs. The viejita stood in the middle of the aisle with her hands cupped, filled with figs as she cried, “Higos! Higos!”

We stopped to say hello to the woman and she cut open a fig to show me the inside. It was perfectly pink. She must’ve seen the look of excitement on my face because she stuffed two figs in my hand and said they were a gift to enjoy. She gave my suegra a few as well and after thanking her profusely and buying a few oranges, we were on our way.

higos (figs)

I don’t recall seeing fresh figs often in the grocery store while I was growing up  in the Midwest– and I’m not sure if that’s the reason why they fascinate me so much now, as if I have a lot of catching up to do or if, like many things, I’ve just gained a new appreciation for them while in Mexico. Figs have been growing in Mexico for centuries; the Spaniards are credited for bringing them to the New World in the 1500s.

If you pay attention to the produce in the grocery store or at your local farmer’s market, you may have noticed figs are in season right at this time of year. Recently, a friend who lives in Los Angeles mentioned that she had an over-producing fig tree. Jokingly, I told her if she wanted to get rid of some of her extra figs, she could send them to me and I’d put them to good use. After a few emails, the figs were on their way to me in the mail. They arrived perfectly bubble wrapped in a box and as she had picked the figs before they were ripe so they’d survive being shipped cross-country, they were just starting to ripen. …

Read More

Chiles, Dessert, Recipe canela, chile ancho, chile puya, cinnamon, figs, higos, Mercado Coyoacán

GUAYABAS EN SANCOCHO (AKA GUAYABAS EN ALMÍBAR)

34 · Mar 11, 2010 · 11 Comments

Mexican guayabas en almíbar. Get the recipe on theothersideofthetortilla.com.

Guayabas en sancocho, also known as guayabas en almíbar, is a delicious dessert of guavas stewed in a cinnamon and piloncillo syrup.

I love the smell of ripe Mexican guavas. Their creamy white flesh and tropical fragrance are simply intoxicating. They remind me of this one particular little stall that sells fruits at the Mercado Coyoacán where my mother-in-law likes to shop. Whenever I visit Mexico City, I’m always eager to tag along with my suegra when she needs to grab something from the mercado because I love walking among the vendor stalls discovering new things.

José also likes the smell of guayabas–but for a different reason. You see, as a big brother, José has always dabbled in a serious form of sibling rivalry. My cuñada, on the other hand, can’t stand the smell or taste of guayabas. The smell actually makes her wretch. A few years ago when we were visiting around Christmastime, we bought a big bag of guayabas for making ponche navideño. I’m sure you can guess what happened next.

RELATED RECIPE: Ponche navideño…

Read More

Algo dulce, Dessert, Recipe canela, cinnamon, Coyoacán, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, fruit, fruta, guava, guayaba, Mercado Coyoacán, Mexico City, piloncillo, sancocho

How to make ponche navideño

31 · Jan 30, 2010 · 6 Comments

It’s not the holidays in Mexico without ponche navideño. This Mexican Christmas punch is served during las posadas, Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) and at holiday parties, and is often spiked with brandy or rum.

ponche navideño

This recipe gives me such warm, fuzzy feelings and memories of being back in Mexico with our family for Christmas. Typically, this is a holiday punch, but in my house we sometimes drink it all winter long if we can find all the ingredients. …

Read More

Christmas, drinks, Holidays caña, canela, Christmas, cinnamon, ciruelas deshidratadas, dried plums, guava, guayaba, La Navidad, Mexican hawthorn, naranjas, Navideño, oranges, ponche, posadas, sugar cane, tejocotes

CHURROS

27 · Oct 26, 2009 · 12 Comments

This recipe for homemade churros will have you excited that you don’t have to go all the way to Mexico anymore to get an authentic churro!

In the U.S., I’ve seen several different versions of churros. Make no mistake: none of them is very authentic. Some make my stomach churn at the thought (think theme park churros filled with chocolate or fruit-flavored goo), while others are passable for some quick cinnamon-sugar satisfaction during a desperate moment. It’s important to fry the pastry dough just right because if they’re over-fried, they’re just no good.

Churros WEB
churros

When José and I were still dating, I made my first trip to the legendary Churrería El Moro in Mexico City. Founded in 1935, this cultural culinary gem is more than just a 75-year-old churro depot. It’s an incredible experience. The storefront has a big glass window so you can watch the churros being made. That alone makes it worth the trip. In fact, even famous Chicago-based chef Rick Bayless is rumored to have stood outside El Moro for hours upon hours when planning the concept for his street food-inspired quick eatery, Xoco.

The waitresses at El Moro wear mustard-yellow diner uniforms with white trim and aprons. The blue, white and yellow patterned tiles, stained glass and yellow stucco walls inside are elements of any dream I have had dealing with churros ever since. (Yes, I dream about churros.) It’s all a part of the experience. With four types of hot chocolate to choose from and for the equivalent of a few dollars, you can’t go wrong when ordering churros y chocolate, especially in the chilly winter months. …

Read More

Dessert, Mexico City, Recipe canela, Churrería El Moro, churros, cinnamon, dessert, Mexico City, postre, Rick Bayless, Xoco

CAFÉ DE OLLA

73 · Aug 24, 2009 · 25 Comments

I vividly remember the first time I really tasted café de olla. It was a sunny summer morning in Mexico City’s upscale Polanco district and I was eating brunch with my then-boyfriend and his parents at a well-known restaurant (side note: I would later marry him). I say “really tasted” because I know that a few times earlier in my life I’d had some bastardized versions—God-knows-where in the Midwest—that just had cinnamon in it and were called “Mexican coffee,” or worse, actually passed off as café de olla by name on the menu.

In terms of food and beverage experiences, this first taste of real café de olla was a pivotal moment in the way that I viewed coffee. It suddenly became more than a morning caffeine fix, laced with milk and sugar. The restaurant, El Bajío, has become one of my all-time-favorite places and is known for its truly traditional Mexican fare. They serve their café de olla in a beautiful tiny earthenware mug that resembles a larger olla. If you’ve never seen one, an olla is a big lead-free clay pot that is glazed on the inside for cooking and typically painted with a folk art design on the outside.

How to make authentic Mexican café de olla - recipe via theothersideofthetortilla.com

El Bajío also introduced me to many traditional foods that I’d never eaten before and changed the way I felt about Mexican cooking. So, I suppose to say it changed my view of coffee is certainly an understatement. It introduced me to a host of new flavors and ideas; it made me want to learn to cook traditional Mexican food and toss out any Americanized recipe I’d ever made. It is for the above reasons that I chose café de olla as the first recipe to share here.

If you’ve not been to Mexico City, you likely haven’t heard of El Bajío. Founded in 1972 by Raúl Ramírez Degollado and Alfonso Hurtado Morellón, the restaurant is now run by Carmen “Titita” Ramírez Degollado, who took over when her husband passed away in the late 1970s.  El Bajío has six locations: the original, Cuitláhuac, and five others. Of the many times I’ve had the pleasure to eat there, I’ve only ever visited the Polanco location but my husband has been to both the Cuitláhuac and Polanco dining rooms. Usually when we go to El Bajío with family, it’s to the one in Polanco.

To read more about the restaurant and to view their menu, you can visit El Bajío online.

When I returned to Chicago that summer, one of the first things I did was make the trip to a Mexican grocer in Pilsen to find piloncillo and start experimenting. Named for its cone shape, piloncillo is unrefined brown sugar, a result of the crystallization of two types of sugar cane. It’s also known as panela or panocha, though I wouldn’t walk into a store and ask for it using those names; you may get some strange looks due to the slang meanings.

How to make an authentic Mexican café de olla - recipe via theothersideofthetortilla.com

Some people like to flavor their café de olla with whole cloves, aniseed or allspice. I did a bit of research and there are even some weirdos who put semi-sweet chocolate in their café de olla—guacala. (A Spanish expression reserved for a supreme form of icky.) Not me; I like to keep it pretty simple.

Now, every time I drink café de olla, I close my eyes with the first sip and remember the start of my journey into traditional Mexican cooking. I hope you’ll enjoy my recipe below, and please feel free to leave comments with your thoughts, fond memories of café de olla or what you do differently in your recipe.

TIP: If you don’t have an olla (and most people don’t have this traditional clay pot) you can steep the coffee directly in the saucepan and strain before serving. I often use a 32-ounce French press to avoid spilling while straining the loose coffee grounds and cinnamon sticks from an olla; the instructions below are for steeping with a French press. If you use a saucepan or an olla, it is best to use a fine mesh sieve over a serving carafe to filter out the coffee grounds and cinnamon sticks. If you don’t have a fine mesh sieve, you can use a regular-sized sieve with some cheesecloth to catch the grounds.

Print
Café de olla

Yield: Yields 2 servings if you use big mugs or 4 servings if you use small coffee cups.

Café de olla

How to make authentic Mexican café de olla with a French press.

Ingredients

  • 3 ¼ cups water
  • ½ cup whole coffee beans
  • 2-3 sticks of Mexican cinnamon
  • 3-4 small cones of piloncillo (about 1 ounce each)
  • 1 teaspoon unsulphured molasses (optional, but adds a nice depth)

Instructions

  1. Boil the water in a medium saucepan. When the water is at a rolling boil, add the cinnamon sticks and piloncillo. Allow it to boil for a few minutes and then reduce to medium heat, stirring until the piloncillo is completely dissolved and you can smell the cinnamon.
  2. Remove from heat and let it sit to steep the cinnamon for 3-5 minutes.
  3. Grind the coffee beans to a medium-coarseness (make sure not to grind too fine or you’ll get sludge at the bottom of your cup). It’s important that the coffee is as freshly-ground as possible.
  4. Remove the cinnamon sticks and reserve.
  5. Pour the liquid mixture into the French press carafe. Pour coffee grounds over the liquid and push the press down just enough to fully wet the grounds, then pull up so the grounds are released and begin to steep. Allow it to steep for about 5 minutes.
  6. Pour into a small coffee cup. If you’d like, add a cinnamon stick to your cup for a little extra cinnamon flavor.
3.1
https://theothersideofthetortilla.com/2009/08/cafe-de-olla/
©2009-2015 theothersideofthetortilla.com

drinks, Mexico City, Recipe café, canela, cinnamon, coffee beans, melaza, molasses, piloncillo

Primary Sidebar

¡Bienvenidos!

Hi, I'm Maura Hernández. Welcome to my kitchen! I'm an award-winning food and travel blogger, recipe developer, and former journalist sharing my passion for all things Mexico. Married to a Chilango, I've traveled Mexico extensively over the last 15 years. Here, you'll find a mix of traditional and modern Mexican cooking, along with my advice on where to eat, stay and play on your visit to Mexico! READ MORE

New recipes, fresh travel tips + more

Delivered straight to your inbox!

Copyright © 2023 The Other Side of the Tortilla on the Cravings Pro Theme