The recipe for Militares de Paris comes from the book “Las fiestas de Frida y Diego”, with recipes collected by the daughter of the painter Diego Rivera, those that Frida Kahlo used to prepare for her beloved husband Diego Rivera or for guests during the convivial banquets held at their home.
The book begins in August, when a wedding party was held in Coyoacán, with white rice and fried bananas, huauzontles in green sauce, oyster soup, black mole (prepared with more than 30 ingredients).
Guadalupe, author of the book, celebrated her birthday in October and during the time she lived with Frida celebrated with jocoque soup, macaroni with spinach, fried chicken with almonds, meat with pulque, guavas in sancocho, and cookies accompanied by French meringue called Militares de Paris…
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 25 cookies
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Mexican
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1 1/4 cups cornmeal
- 3 1/2 oz almonds
- 25 almonds
- 7 oz butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 pinch salt
- 3 egg whites
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar (same weight as the egg whites)
Steps
For the cookies:
Chop the almonds.
Mix the flours with the sugar, a pinch of salt, chopped almonds, softened butter, and egg yolks.
Work the dough and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Take the dough and shape 25 pieces, enclosing an almond inside and then shaping it into a cookie.
Bake at 340°F for 30 minutes.
For the French meringue:
Whisk the egg whites, gradually adding the same weight of powdered sugar.
Las fiestas de Frida y Diego, a collection of recipes and more…
Guadalupe Rivera, daughter of Diego Rivera, worked with Marie Pierre Colle on the texts and the reconstruction of dishes, ingredients, pots, and environments, to honor the memory of Frida.
Guadalupe lived for over a year with the couple in Coyoacán from 1942, where she acknowledges having experienced extraordinary experiences that marked her young life.
“Frida loved to enjoy everything“, she writes in the prologue titled “A Family Story”.
She mentions the terrible accident Frida had on the tram (1925), at 18 years old, but doesn’t go into details. She barely alludes to that initial year-long prostration that led her to change her mind from studying medicine to dedicating herself to painting.
The author of Las fiestas de Frida y Diego recalls the difficulties Frida, an inexperienced housewife, encountered in managing household chores, preparing food, and maintaining order and serenity in a small kitchen where, due to the tropical climate, cockroaches and other insects swarmed.
Even though the kitchen was small, they managed to prepare together cold poblano peppers, stuffed with picadillo and covered in a sweet and sour tomato sauce with onion slices; romeritos with shrimp tortes and nopalitos; fried black beans accompanied by cheese and crispy tortilla chips.
Even though the kitchen was small, they managed to prepare together cold poblano peppers, stuffed with picadillo and covered in a sweet and sour tomato sauce with onion slices; romeritos with shrimp tortes and nopalitos; fried black beans accompanied by cheese and crispy tortilla chips.
