Christmas 2007 with Adriana's Family

I was invited to spend Christmas Eve with Adriana and her family.  I came early to watch the cooking and to take these pictures.

The house was decorated inside and out for the Season.

The menu for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner was turkey, romeritos (shrimp patties with romeritos herb and mole salsa), bacalao (dried salted codfish with mushrooms and olives in a tomato sauce), and pasta.  Topped off with wonderful goodies from her new chocolate fondue fountain.

Adriana's daughter Wendy, with her son Eddy watching, begins preparing the turkey by injecting it with both while and red wine.

I had never seen this before, but the result was one of the best, perhaps the best, turkey I have ever eaten.

Nery begins preparing the romeritos by cutting dried shrimp into small pieces before putting  them into a spice grinder to turn them into a powder.

Wendy, with her daughter Lucy watching, is preparing the egg batter into which the powdered shrimp will be mixed.

Adriana spoons the shrimp batter into vegetable oil to make the patties.

Above right are the boiled romeritos which give this dish its name.  This herb looks similar to rosemary and is indigenous to México and parts of the US southwest.  I think it tastes a bit like spinach.

The sauce is a mole which Adriana usually makes from scratch, but today she is pressed for time, so she is using a prepared one, the old faithful standby -- Doña Maria's.

Adriana is cleaning and slicing mushrooms which will go into the bacalao while Wendy is pealing and quartering boiled new potatoes for both the bacalao and romeritos.

Nery is stirring the final pot of shrimp patties, romeritos, potatoes and mole sauce. The pot will be returned to the stove for a final re-heating before I get the first taste.

Bacalao is dried, salted codfish.

Nery begins by shredding the fish which has been soaked in water overnight to remove the salt.

The dish will include mushrooms, onions, potatoes, olives, garlic power, red chile flakes and salt.

Today, Adriana is using tomato purée for the salsa.  Sometimes she uses a red chile salsa.

First she sautés the onions and mushrooms until the onions are translucent.  Then the fish goes in and simmers a bit before the olives and potatoes are added.

When the potatoes are well warmed, she adds the tomato purée and spices and simmers briefly before spooning up a taste treat for me.

Delicious!  I could eat the whole pan.

Hours later, the turkey is ready, so the Christmas Eve feast begins.

The chocolate fondue fountain was a big hit.  There was a bowl of fresh strawberries for dipping in the chocolate.  She put a few chocolate covered strawberries in the fridge to firm into a very good candy which Nery brought to my house the next day.

Nery took these last two pictures because I left before the family dinner.  I went to Doña Martha's house for pozole and tamales with my other family.  I am amazed that I didn't get sick from eating so much good food.