When I first read Pinedo's recipe on pages 47-48 called "Capirotada," I was astonished at the concepts embedded in it. This looks like an English bread pudding but doesn't contain the milk-and-egg mixture that soaks the bread. Instead it uses a sugar syrup. So I expected it to be a dessert. Except it has green onions, tomatoes, and hard-boiled eggs. So savory? But then it also has raisins. What is this thing?
Wikipedia provides a brief history of the dish, stating that it originated in Spain as a savory dish with meat and stale bread as early as the 1400s. Then, with its introduction to Mexico during the Spanish Conquest, it slowly shifted to the sweet dish of today. In fact, it currently is a favorite to consume during Lent and typically has cheese as its only savory ingredient.
It appears to me that Pinedo's recipe came from a time when the recipe was still shifting from savory to sweet. The 1400s recipe moistens the stale bread with broth and beaten eggs - and those ingredients were available in Mexico, so why the shift to the syrup? I can't help but think someone like me who has a raging sweet tooth decided to try it, and liked it. Or perhaps using sugar was a display of wealth used to impress an important person.
Whatever the reason, I wanted to try it.
My Translation
My Redaction
one 1-1/2 pound loaf of white bread
10 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
8 hard-boiled eggs, peeled
1 tablespoon butter
2 green onions, chopped
3 cups boiling water
1/4 cup fresh tomato, chopped and including the juice
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins
3/4 teaspoon pepper
3 cups sugar
1 cup sliced almonds
Slice bread very thin, 1/4 inch thickness or less; toast to golden brown.
Slice the cheese or use shredded as I did.
Slice the eggs.
Melt the butter in a skillet, add green onions, tomato, and salt. Saute it over medium-low heat until the tomato and onions are soft. Don't let it get too dry.
Add boiling water, raisins, pepper, and sugar to the skillet. Simmer it about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. While it is heating, assemble the capirotada.
In a 13 x 9 inch casserole dish, pour enough of the sauce to cover the bottom, distributing the raisins and onions across the bottom.
Here is the order of the layers that start on top of the syrup on the bottom:
Bread
Cheese
Eggs
Almonds
Repeat until the casserole is full, making the last layer just bread, syrup, and almonds.
Heat it through in the oven. Don't bake it, just get it hot. Then broil it for a few minutes to make the top golden brown.
 |
| Very thin! |
 |
| Golden brown |
 |
| This is just 2/3 of the syrup. |
My Notes
Originally I thought she intended me to use tomato paste, not fresh tomato, but a look around the 'net showed a few recipes that used fresh.
The tomatoes and onion mixture smelled so good while it was frying! And I didn't let it get "too dry."
Originally I used 2 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar with the spices, but after assembling the capirotada, I felt it looked too dry. I let it heat for 20 minutes and checked it - the bread was definitely too dry. So I made another batch of syrup with just salt and pepper - no onions or tomato - and brushed some over the top layer of bread then poured the rest over all the layers. Another 10 minutes later, I noticed the cheese was melted.
I actually started with 1 cup of sugar and then kept tasting until it seemed "very sweet." I realized this gave made a basic simple syrup with a sugar-to-water ratio of 1 to 1.
It wasn't time to serve it, so I dropped the oven temperature to about 225 deg just to keep it warm. At serving time, I broiled it for just a few minutes to brown the top.
 |
| Distribute the veggies and fruit about the bottom of the casserole pan. |
 |
| First bread layer. |
 |
| All the layers except the top. |
 |
| All done. Maybe broil a little less so as not to scorch the nuts and raisins. |
The Verdict
I had several friends as guest tasters - ones confident enough in my cooking that they requested me to experiment on them. (!) We had the capirotada along with a tossed green salad and baked chicken thighs. (Notice that I had the thighs as a backup plan in the case no one liked the experiment; no one would go hungry.)
We liked it! We found it intriguing to have the sweet syrup and syrup-soaked bread together with the cheese, eggs, raisins, onions, and almonds. The pepper flavor came through but was not overwhelming, and made an interesting complement to the sweet syrup. The cheese seemed to add body to each bite but did not, in itself, add much flavor. Perhaps cotija cheese would be better?
The almonds were a good idea as they added crunch to an otherwise soft dish.
The general consensus was that it was a good side dish - and it was nice to have the protein and non-sweet of the chicken to go with it. (Whew!)
I was glad that I added more syrup to the mixture. The bread was not dry, not even the top. The lower layers of bread were very moist, and I liked that a lot.
 |
| Layers! |
Another guest taster tried it the next day and thought that it would make a very good brunch dish, because of the sweet bread (like French toast) and the eggs and onions (like an omelet).
Success!
I tried the syrup before it all went onto the layers, and loved the mixture of sweet, onion, tomato (very faint, but there), and pepper. The salt was not discernible, but it needed to be there and none of us felt like the dish needed more.
By the way, it was good hot from the oven and also warmed up as leftovers.
