Mazatlan trip nets hot potato party dish

Against my better judgment I sprang for street food during a vacation in Mazatlan, Mexico, and have lived to tell about it. And because of that, I've learned about a new grilling recipe that will become a regular on my summer party menus.

Normally, when I've been drawn in by the great-smelling food from a street vendor in another country, I follow the food-safety recommendations of just saying no and backing away. Always left wondering what was being prepared and how it might taste.

But when I read about Soledad Gonzalez, known as the potato lady, in the Pacific Pearl, a visitor's guide to Mazatlan, I was intrigued. The review was written by Louise Dewar, a transplant from Canada to Mazatlan. I figured if she had eaten the potatoes and didn't suffer any intestinal distress, I could probably survive, too.

Dewar had made the "la papa" (potato) sound so delicious with all the various toppings I just had to find the "Soledad's Tacos" cart. I convinced the rest of the family to come on the adventure.

For Soledad's street kitchen, it's a family affair. Her husband and son arriving at a corner near Hidalgo Square, in the central area of downtown Mazatlan, at about 6:30 p.m. Daddy bicycles up with a cart holding two big ice chests and several bags of groceries. He fires up the charcoal grill and starts unloading his cart. Meanwhile, Soledad bustles down the street with her son and more bags of prepared food. She fires up a griddle heated by a propane tank and starts mixing masa for tacos in a deep plastic bucket.

Within 15 minutes, she's rolling small balls of masa, pressing them into perfect circles on her wooden tortilla press and tossing them on the hot griddle. Her son is busy slicing onions to be cooked on the griddle. Husband is pulling out large pieces of thinly sliced steak that are thrown on the grill to sizzle next to the onions and tacos. When the meat is cooked, the son chops it to bits. Before you know it, Soledad is taking orders for the ultimate grilled, stuffed potatoes.

I go for everything. Her son pulls a foil-covered, pre-baked potato from the pile that has been placed on the charcoal grill to keep warm. He opens the foil and starts mashing the potato to flake it up, adding a glob of butter and a generous squeeze of Mexican crèma. He also tosses in some cooked whole beans.

Soledad flips a corn tortilla and smears it with a layer of refried beans and a huge handful of shredded cheese. Her son hands mom the potato, and she adds onions and beef. She turns the bean-cheese tortilla over the top of the potato, packing everything together, covers it up in foil again and puts it back on the grill so the flavors can meld.

While all this action is going on, her husband has filled three small volcanic-rock bowls with three salsas: extremely hot fire-roasted tomato salsa; superhot pico de gallo; and, blessedly, a mild, creamy avocado salsa. There's a bowl of freshly sliced cucumbers and radishes on the picnic table. When Soledad serves the potato bundles we open them and add fresh veggies and salsas of our liking, and tuck into maybe the best stuffed potato on the planet - at least the most unusual we've ever tasted.

I loved the meal so much I decided this would be easy enough to duplicate for interactive dinner parties. The key is to bake the foil-wrapped potatoes earlier in the day in a bed of charcoal.

The potato peel gets crunchy and flavorful. The thinly sliced beef is easily found at our several Hispanic markets, as are the thicker corn tortillas and Mexican cheese. A couple of the Mexican grocery stores have salsa bars where you can buy pre-made condiments. All the other ingredients can be found at any grocery.

Then all you need to do is heat up a grill just before guests arrive. Get the onions and beef cooking. When you and your guests are ready, have corn tortillas ready to be placed on the grill to warm refried beans and melt cheese. After each person picks and chooses what toppings he wants, slap the bean and cheese tortilla on top of the potato and rebundle them in foil for one final cooking on the grill.

After a few minutes, serve each person his potato and let him have his way with the salsa. One of these concoctions is filling, but it tastes so good, be ready for eager eaters to line up for a second go.
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Reach Farney at 636-0271 or teresa.farney@gazette.com. She appears Tuesdays on KOAA's Comcast Channel 5 at noon.