Last week, while grocery shopping at the Superama in Polanco, I got seduced by a big bunch of huazontle.
It sat in the herb section, towering over the epazote and parsley like emerald-green heather. (Huazontle, pronounded “wan-ZONE-tlay,” is a tall, wild green native to Mexico. People here remove the rough stems, cover the buds with cheese and eat them.)
I had a vague recollection of trying huazontle once, and an even vaguer recollection that I didn’t like it. But — this plant was so pretty. I may not have liked it before, but that was when other people had cooked it. In my own kitchen, with my All Clad cookware and pantry full of vinegars and oils, I could whip the huazontle into submission and make it taste the way I liked.
I decided to buy a bunch, either braise it or sauté it, and serve it with butternut squash and roasted chicken.
Lola happened to be over that afternoon. She gave me a strange look when I told her I’d be sautéing the huazontle.
“You’re not going to boil it? Or, you know, people also serve it with cheese. Es muy rico.”
I said no. I didn’t want to cover it with cheese. I wanted to taste the huazontle. Even though I didn’t exactly remember what it tasted like. And um… I didn’t plan to taste it until after I was done cooking. (You may be realizing, as I am now, that I may have been slightly more in love with looking at the huazontle than actually eating it.)
The next day, I invited Alice for lunch. A few hours before she was scheduled to show up, I cut the butternut squash into cubes, and tossed them with olive oil and salt. I scooped them into a roasting pan and rested the chicken pieces on top. Something nagged at me — was I supposed to do something else here? — but I ignored the feeling and set my timer for 45 minutes. When the chicken was done, I realized my error: I’d forgotten to turn the squash halfway through its cooking. The bottom sides were dark-brown and nearly burned.
Crap!
Wait, I told myself. This is okay. I’ll just deglaze the pan with a little beer and add the huazontle.
I picked up my big bowl containing about 6 cups worth (I measured) of huazontle, and tossed it in with the squash. I cooked everything a bit, and fished out a piece of huazontle with my wooden spoon. I bit into it… and nearly choked.
This stuff was bitter. Not broccoli rabe bitter, or even arugula bitter. Bitter like a fresh dandelion, pulled from the backyard. Bitter like all those weeds your mom made you pull as a kid. (Imagine stuffing them in your mouth.) Plus it gave me a weird heat sensation in the back of my throat, like a chili pepper. I took that as a sign that human beings were not meant to eat this in its natural state.
Thinking quickly, I tried to remove all the huazontle from the pan. But some of the leaves were too small to fish out. They remained with the squash, like a stealth pesticide. I tasted again. The whole thing tasted like one huge weed.
Feeling anxious and a teensy bit hysterical — Alice was going to be at my house in 30 minutes! — I decided to blanch the huazontle (blanching would keep its pretty color) and mask the taste of the butternut squash with a large sweet potato. I zapped the potato in the microwave, and smashed it in with the butternut squash. Tasted… too bland. Maybe a little crema and milk. And salt.
After mixing, this looked kinda like vomit. But I’d gone too far to turn back. I placed a little bit on my spoon, and swallowed.
It was salty and horrible. Just. Really. HORRIBLE.
Meanwhile, my huazontle was bubbling over in its boiling water bath. I used a set of bamboo tongs to remove the weeds to a bowl of ice water and — SNAP. The tongs broke. I started laughing. Half hysterically.
At that moment, I decided we’d eat out for lunch, and I rushed to clean up my sweet potato-butternut squash-beer-crema disaster before Alice rang the bell. I’d managed to quaff a few sips of the extra beer, too, with sweat running down my temples, when my buzzer rang.
“We can’t eat here,” I announced to Alice, when I let her in downstairs. “The whole thing was a disaster.”
That’s not entirely true. The chicken turned out fine.
Now, four days later, I am not letting the huazontle win. I’m braising the rest of my greens, dammit. I will squeeze every last ounce of bitterness out of them by cooking them over a gentle heat, for three hours. Maybe in white wine and garlic. Or maybe it was the smaller, thinner stems that contained all the bitterness, and if I just braised the buds, I’d be fine.
If any of you have any suggestions on how to make a bitter green less bitter, I am listening with an open and less-shallow heart. I promise not to covet a vegetable’s looks anymore, before I taste it. And I promise not to assume I can do anything better than all the Mexican cooks in this country, who have been eating huazontle for hundreds of years.
UPDATE: Guess what else comes from the huazontle family? Quinoa, according to the Spanish-language Wikipedia entry. My quest to make huazontle palatable just got that much stronger.
Bitter like weeds? Treat it like turnip or mustard greens, then. The garlic is good, but use a bit of vinegar too. A little red wine or balsamic should do the trick.
Blanch in salted water for like 30 seconds. Put into cold water. Chop. Sautee onion and garlic. Add greens and some stock. Simmer down until stock is about evaporated, then mix in a little bit of vinegar.
Treat huazontle just as you would verdolagas. Both have their place, and it’s down the garbage disposal. Now that you mention it, broccoli belongs there, too.
Jennifer: Broccoli down the garbage disposal? For shame! It’s even better roasted with lime juice. Mmmm.
I’ve been too scared to try verdolagas. I’m guessing you can cook the hell out of them in bacon fat, and maybe they wouldn’t be so bad. (This is probably my next course of action with huazontle. Gonna try Emeril’s recipe here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/southern-braised-greens-with-bacon-recipe/index.html)
Ian: Thanks for the tips. Sounds delish… maybe I’ll try a small batch for lunch today, considering I just happen to have all of that stuff in my pantry.
Just like with anything, you want to get it fresh! Giant fresh verdolagas you could eat raw, and same with the other ingredients. When older or
Staler, just lightly boil them and then change the water. (Rinse them). Then you’re good! But yeah don’t even mess with an old plant of huauzontle or verdolagas, they got too many seeds and fiber, they belong in the compost or thrown out somewhere to set seed and start a new colony!
Lesley,
Check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WTy5LSUT18
I’ve never heard of preparing huauzontle in any way except in tortas, like in the video Bob posted. Not only delicious, but one of my favourite dishes altogether! Why re-invent the wheel is my advice.
We include 1 or 2 of the egg yolks per 4 or 5 egg whites. After beating the whites to soft peaks, fold in the yolk(s) gently to avoid deflating the egg batter. Also, we leave the huazontles on their long, thick stems (but trim the stems to a shorter length). To make each torta, take several stalks, place the cheese in the middle of the leafy part and gently press the leaves around the cheese. It helps to tie the stems together with thread. Holding the bundle by the stalk, dip it into the egg batter and fry. You can see tortas de huauzontle that have been prepared this way (with the stalks) for sale in markets.
Thanks for the tips, Margaret… although I must say, one of my joys in life is attempting to reinvent the wheel. I should at least try the tortas at the market, though, to see what I’m missing.
So you eat the stalks, too?
You could also make a super delicious easy quiche or omelette/scram. Just boil the shit, then pull it apart, the flowers into a bowl, then mix it with egg. Better than spinach! (When cooked)
I’ve never experienced this green before but it sounds like you’re on the right path. Braise the hell out of it! Maybe add a little sugar or sweetener (orange juice, cider?) in the end to take the sting out of the bitterness. Works for collards!
Mmm… cider. I don’t know if they sell that here — I’ve looked for it at my local supermarket, to no avail. I wonder if I can get really crazy and use some type of tropical fruit nectar? Or yeah, just regular OJ. There are lots of great varieties here. Gracias J!
Just as an added note of possible interest…the Latin name for Huazontle is “Chenopodium berlandieri” and the English name is “Lambsquarters”. Verdulaga is “Portulaca oleracea” in Latin and “Purslane” in English. I thought you’d might like to know 🙂
Thanks Bob! You’re a wealth of info. I enjoyed the video too… especially the techno-music intro. 🙂 I will have to try tortas after I braise the huazontle to my satisfaction. (As Karen Carpenter said, “We’ve only just begun…”)
An amiga in Cuernavaca once prepared huauzontles for us. They made me feel that I was getting an internal scrub from a particularly rough brush. STALKS!
I’ve not been keen on trying them again.
Saludos,
Don Cuevas
Don Cuevas, as Margaret writes below, the central stalk is meant to be the handle not eaten. Been there, done that. With the salsa, one of the best dishes I’ve eaten in Mexico. Don’t be surprised if the person at the grocery checkout asks you what it is. I’m a verdolagas fancier too.
By the way, Bob Mrotek; I didn’t know that one could embed a video into a comment reply.
Saludos,
Don Cuevas
oh, I love huauzontles! They are such an enchanting looking vegetable! I have only had them one way, fried in egg batter with cheese and served in chile pasilla sauce…Really Good…and what a great word!
–Liz
I like huazontle – I made the traditional fritters and was very happy – nice blog you have here.
@leslie, the stalks are as tough as sticks of wood! They make excellent handles; you hold the torta by the stalk while you eat the egg coating, the cheese and the tenderest leaves. Then you are left with the stalks and the remainder of the leaves clinging to them. You can draw them through your teeth like scraping meat off the bones to get every last tasty bit. Basically you eat what is edible and leave the rest. It was great fun for the kids when they were little (now that they are big, they still think huauzontle is a treat).
Oh! I love huazontle! Nice blog!
If you come to Acapulco, go to Kookaburra where they do a fish “breaded” in Huazontle…DELICIOUS !!!!
Yum! Thanks Anna. Will have to look that up.
The bitter taste is in the leaves. You have to pick them all out before boiling or steaming the huauzontle, then you’re good to go. Depending on how you want to eat them, you can leave the tougher stems in and run them through your teeth or trim off just the seed clusters and use them like any other vegetable. The latter option keeps your fingers clean if you cook them in any kind of salsa, esp. the traditional pasilla, which stains easily.
Thank you for the info, Padraic. It’s really helpful.
Naw it’s super easy- watch just boil the whole thing after cleaning it from dirt and old parts. It is then very easy to eat or to pull the buds off-they slide into any bowl or dish. The leaves are not bad too when you boil them for like 10-15 minutes. I’ve worked with the weeds too same thing. Also I grew a variety which when old, turned red and really sucked at that point. So watch out for old ones, because as is natural, the plant crosses with the self-preserving weed species it gets when overripe very very throat-grindingly bitter. It’s a lot easier when you have actual plants to work with. Same with verdolagas-fresh and after a good rain their both delicious!