*The pictures from last night's dinner did not turn out well - too much glare on the surface of the soup that no amount of editing could fix - so if you'd like to see what CALDO TLALPEÑO looks like, please check it out on Google Images. I apologize...
One of the things that I have always liked about being in Mexico is the concept of eating your big meal in the middle of the day, and then having something lighter for dinner. If you don't take a long siesta (another magical concept) after your large midday meal, then it really is healthier to eat big during the day when you have time to work or walk it off, and save the lighter fare for the evening.
In most of the homes I've stayed in while living in Mexico, dinner often consisted of a small sandwich and a glass of chocolate milk or a cup of tea; a pan dulce with a cup of hot chocolate; a couple of small, corn tortilla quesadillas with a soda; or even a couple of small enchiladas made from leftovers from the earlier midday meal. In the first home I stayed in - the one that served us the same toast, strawberry jelly, fresh orange juice and tea for breakfast every morning - we had a ham sandwich with mayonnaise and mustard on toasted white bread (the beloved Pan Bimbo), and a cup of hot tea every night for 6 weeks. I don't want to say that I got sick of it, but a couple of evenings I ducked out for some "studying" and some taquitos de carne asada around the corner from where we lived.
No question about it - sin duda - the meals that I had in the middle of the day, and in all of the homes I stayed in, were always large, imaginative, filling and delicious.
So, yesterday we decided to make a CALDO TLALPEÑO, a recipe that I learned to make while living for 2 weeks with a family in Monterrey, Mexico, and eat our meal in the afternoon. The woman that I lived with in Monterrey, Señora Rosa, was not only one of the nicest people I've ever met anywhere, but also a very good cook who showed me how to make several of her family's favorites. CALDO TLALPEÑO is very similar to Caldo de Pollo, except for two additions: garbanzo beans and a chile chipotle. The one I made yesterday had chicken legs (which for me have the best meat), zucchini squash, carrots, butternut squash, cilantro, and the garbanzos added at the end.
I had some dried chiles chipotles on hand which I had re-hydrated in a small jar of water the day before. I cut one in two with kitchen scissors and then put one half in the bottom of our soup bowls before ladling the soup, vegetables and chicken leg on top. Normally we would eat this meal with Mexican rice and tortillas, but we are really pulling back on the calories and decided to just eat the caldo yesterday.
Our afternoon meal was so satisfying yesterday that we ended up sharing a bowl of popcorn for dinner as we watched a movie on TV!
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