Oklahoma City prepares to CINCO-PATE
he fiesta will be where ever you want to make it this weekend as Cinco de Mayo cycles through town.
We had originally planned to prime your experience from recipes at our first “Open Flame” of the year, but this is Oklahoma so you must be weather-prepared to adjust. Fire danger concerns had us rethinking a celebration of patio fires when so much of northwest Oklahoma was battling blazes.
Our first “Open Flame” is now May 17 with chefs Gerry Reardon and Klaudya Barcenas from El Toro Chino and chef Miguel Barrera from Revolucion, but Cinco de Mayo is Saturday and you still need guidance.
For that, I began the process of sourcing wisdom on Mexican cooking for this occasion way back in October. That’s when we presented videos for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s “Salsa: One Taste at a Time” party of local restaurateurs making salsa from scratch.
The simplest versions we tracked down came from Ramiro Padilla of
La Oaxaquena Cafe & Bakery, 741 SW 29 St., and local chips-and-queso legend Marcelino “Chelino” Garcia of the local chain that bears his nickname.
In my four decades of chasing the perfect salsa recipe, these two opened my eyes to some possibilities I never considered. Each of their recipes called for a combination of cooked and raw ingredients, which I’d never tried. And neither recipe includes, gulp, garlic.
That’s right, all these years I’d spent my life believing garlic was as integral to salsa as tomatoes and chile, but on separate occasions I was presented with evidence to the contrary.
Rodrigo did mention it was “just fine” if you wanted to add “a little garlic.” He explained homemade salsa was an expression of the individual who makes it.
“I like a little onions and cilantro,” he explained.
Both Ramiro and Chelino started with the same two ingredients: Tomatoes and hot pepper. Both
cooks roasted the tomato and chilies in the oven until skins were blistered and loose then allowed to cool completely. This is important when mixing cooked and raw ingredients. Especially delicate ingredients like cilantro or avocado. Mix either of those two with roasted tomatoes and peppers fresh out of the oven and they will cook, fundamentally changing the integrity of the salsa.
All that said, you could simply take roasted tomato and hot pepper and blend them together with plenty of salt and a little black pepper and go to market with it.
For Ramiro’s taste, he adds fresh onion and cilantro. Chelino likes to add fresh diced avocado. Chelino likes add a pinch of toasted ground cumin for an aromatic flourish for the salsa that separated him from the competition more than 25 years ago.
“I started making this salsa when we opened the restaurant,” Garcia said as he smashed a whole, roasted pepper in a Bain-Marie pan.
Indeed, I remember the two stores he started with back in the early 1990s and how long the lines were to get in the front door, much less get a table. For me, the warm salsa with fiery peppers and cool avocado was a big part of the draw.
Either salsa is great on tostada chips or on food. You can make a quick dinner with this salsa by serving it over a whole tostada topped with rotisserie chicken, black beans, lettuce and cheese in less than an hour. You can make it even quicker if the salsa was made a day or two ahead and stored in the refrigerator.
Yes, that’s right, this recipe keeps. Perhaps the greatest drawback of homemade salsa is its shelf-life. For years, I struggled to find the best way to prepare salsa I intend to use over the course of a week, and this recipe is it.
Salsa fresca (pico de gallo) is best eaten the same day because fresh tomatoes become a mealy when refrigerated — especially when drunk with lime juice. Recipes including fresh onion are almost unpalatable after an overnight of coalescing with the malodorous seepage of white onion. But the cooking of the tomato apparently releases enough acid to “cook” the onion the way citrus “cooks” fish for ceviche.
Thus, the salsa gets needed texture without taking on unpleasant flavor. For extra protection from onion headaches, I soak the diced onion in water and a squirt of lime for at least 10 minutes, then dry them in paper towels to extract as much unwanted onion juice as possible.
This salsa technique is perfect if you’re hosting your own Cinco de Mayo dinner or if you’re attending a party and want to be the talk of the table.
Look for the recipe at the end of this column, and watch videos of Chelino and Rodrigo demonstrating how they make salsa on NewsOK.com.
If you have no interest in making food this Cinco de Mayo but are looking to celebrate it with a few top-notch tacos and cervezas, keep reading.
Cinco in the streets
Capitol Hill’s fourth annual Cinco de Mayo en Calle Dos Cinco celebration is 6 to 9 p.m. Friday in the heart of Capitol Hill. The festivities will take place at 2512 S Harvey, between SW 25 and SW 24, and include food trucks, kids activities, and live musicfrom Conjunto Sin Ley.
The festival kicks off with a Mexican dress show, featuring folks of all ages showing off their cultural pride with traditional dress. The show is open to anyone who has clothing they would like to showcase on stage.
Now that you have the foundation for a great salsa recipe, you can enter theSalsa Competitionfor a $20 entry fee. Teams or individuals can submit their favorite recipe to be judged by a panel in the categories of “Salsa Mas Picante” (best heat), “Salsa Mas Sabrosa” (best flavor) and “Spirit de la Fiesta” for best costume/presentation as judged by attendees who pay $1 to vote for their favorite. All proceeds will benefit the Latino Community Development Agency.
Visitors can sample salsa varieties with authentic Mexican street tacos from Taco Box and washthem down with cold beer and margaritas from Medio Tiempo Bar & Grill. Not all the food will be Mexican. Dawgy Wagon will be on hand slinging hot dogs and Philly cheesesteaks. Churros Meoqui will have sweets, fruit treats will be available from Gourmet Smokehouse, and Upbeat Treats will have snowcones.
Downtown will have a fiesta to choose from on the east and west side on Saturday.
West of downtown, Revolucion, 916 NW 6 St., will once again clear its south parking lot to offer their Don’t Kill My Vibe party with a DJ set from Ryan Drake, drink specials, commemorative items, water guns, inflatable pools, shots and an introduction to the Revolucion food truck. The party runs noon to 11 p.m.
East of Broadway, Cultivar Mexican Kitchen, 714 N Broadway Ave, and The Yard, 21 NW 7 St., will co-host Cinco on 7th Street: a day of live music, laser shows, multiple bars,and tacos. The party starts at 11 a.m. and ends at 1:30 a.m.
Just around the corner, Iguana
Mexican Grill will offer five bars under three tents from 11 a.m. to midnight. Iguana will have a photo booth, special taco menu and music from Carte Blanche DJ.
The seasoned and determined Cinco-pator could attend the street party Friday night, and make the rounds at all three downtown events and make some salsa for his loved ones on Sunday for an immersive Cinco experience. (If you do, send pictures!)