More Edible Bites for Alexa

For our second piece for Alexa, Almond and I talked to my mother Maria Cristina Galvan. She taught us how to make chilaquiles. Chilaquiles are tortilla chips that are mixed with a chili sauce until they soften. To make the dish different types of chiles are used. First the chile is cleaned and the seeds are removed. They are then blended with a piece or garlic until they become a sauce. The sauce is then placed in a pot for about 10 minutes until it boils.

While the sauce is cooking, the tortillas are cut into small square pieces. They are then fried until they turn into golden brown chips. They are then removed from the pan and salt is added to them.

Once the tortillas are fried they are then added to the pot containing the chili sauce. They are stirred and left for a about 10 minutes until the tortillas absorb the chili sauce and once again soften.

The dish is topped with sour cream and cheese.

While teaching us how to prepare the dish, she told us a little bit about her life growin up in Mexico. She grew up with 12 siblings while her mother cooked and her older sisters helped she helped watched her younger siblings. Because of this she said that she never learned how to cook. Growing up, chilaquiles were an important dish because since there was not a lot of money in the household her mother had to find an inexpensive dish that could feed all 12 children.

My mother did not learn how to cook until after she married my father whom she met after she immigrated to the United States. After dating for a few years she rejected his marriage proposals because she thought that if she got married she would not be able to send money back home to Mexico and be unable to help her family.

Aside from chilaquiles my mom also showed us how to make orange rice which is a staple in a lot of Mexican households. Rice can be served with almost any dish such as chilaquiles and enchiladas.