Evening Star Newspaper, June 6, 1937, Page 92

X ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ x MARGO TALKS VIVACIOUSLY OF FINE MEXICAN DISHES SHE USED TO HAVE AT HOME P ARGO settles herself on a big floor-pillow, with her back against the divan. She looks enor- mously comfortable and is disarmingly young and friendly. It is a brief between- engagements period for the twenty-year-old star of stage and screen. She has just finished in last season’s Broadway production of “The Masque of Kings,” and has not yet set out for Hollywood where her new picture is now in the making. Meanwvhile we talk about food. She has interesting suggestions that give us vivid glimpses of her not very remote childhood in Mexico and of the dishes she learned to love then. Two favorites are specialties her grand- mother used to make. “And we loved them,” Margo says and goes on to describe them. “One is a dish of stuffed-onion fritters,” she says. “You boil the onions until they are very tender. Then you remove part of the centers and fill the holes with cheese. Mean- while you have prepared a batter — it should be very golden with eggs — and you dip the onions in the batter and fry them in deep fat. %When they are finished, serve them with a spicy tomato sauce. “The other dish is stuffed green peppers. Boil them until they are tender, fill them with a spicy mixture of rice or vegetables or meat, combined with a generous amount of cheese. Bake them until the filling is well blended and the top nicely brown and then serve them with white sauce.” The grandmother, whose cooking so de- lighted the child, has been an important [ Mexican Entrées and Desserts | Our leaflet this week gives a number of ! interesting Mexican recipes in addition to I those for dishes named here. To get it | send a three-cent stomp either with this | coupon or with a letter to This Week | Magazine in care of this newspaper. THIS WEEK NERLS sonin Margo’s life. She came from Ireland to Mexico where her father owned much land. And there she married a Spanish gentle- man to whom she bore six- teen children,’among them Margo’s mother. This grandmother, whose life had been extremely con- «ervative and filled with domesticity and children, was the one to understand and encourage her Spanish-Irish grand- daughter’s interest in the stage, when all the rest of the family were opposed. Empanadas are another dish that harks back to grandmother’s meal-planning. ‘‘She used to make it most often with fish,” Margo says, “‘and salmon is my favorite.” We give a recipe on this page for this interesting entrée. There is a Spanish recipe that Margo recom- mends especially for picnics — potato omelet, but very differently served from anything we are familiar with. “It is a regular omelet,”’ Margo explains, “‘but very, very big and you put rather large pieces of boiled potatoes into the pan with the eggs as they are cooking. “Meanwhile, cut a loaf of French bread in half lengthwise, cover the cut surfaces with cheese, put them under the broiler until the cheese is melted. And when the omelet 1s cooked put it between the two halves, sand- wich fashion. Wrap it securely and carry it off to your picnic. It will taste marvelous with steaming hot picnic coffee.” “But my favorite, favorite Spanish dish is one that all working people eat in Catalonia,”’ Margo says. “Perhaps you won't think it sounds good, but it is — try it. You boil lima beans and mix them with mashed potatoes, i over the mix- ture pour olive oil, sea- soned with salt, pepper, paprika and a little garlic.” For a warm day there is Huacamole, often spelled Guacamole. It is made from mashed avocado mixed with several other ingredients. First you mix small pieces of fresh tomatoes with finely chopped Bermuda onion, stir this thoroughly into a mixtureof oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and then combine the mixture with the mashed avocado. Put it in a wooden or earthenware bowl that has been rubbed with garlic and top it with sprigs of fresh, cool parsley. “That is delicious on a summer day, with a cool drink and Melba toast,” Margo says enthu:iastically. Among desserts Margo ‘“loves” fruit and nuts s=rved together, but she also has a great preference for that delicate caramel custard for which the Spanish are so famous. ‘I like gelaiin desserts, too,”” she says — “‘they look so beautiful. And I'm fond of anything that’s chocolate-flavored and light in tex- ture.” It is very Mexican of her to have a taste for chocolate in a land where hot choco- late is almost a national institution. As for parties, ‘‘informal ones are definitely the nicest,” Margo declares. “I think one of the things that’s most fun in California is that very informal, late-morning combination of breakfast and lunch which they call ‘brunch.” That's the time for delicious hot cakes, very tiny and very thick, and served with honey and sausages. Sunday lends itself especially well to this delightful meal. Mogozine Section by GRACE TURNER Color Photography by Hewitt & Keene SALMON EMPANADA IS A DISH TO TEASE OUR AMERICAN APPETITES * h Kk Kk K Kk Kk K * Salmon Empanada Salmon, fresh or canned, has special Y zest in summer dishes — for canned salmon, use 2 (No. 1) cans. 2 pounds fresh salmon 6 cups soft crumbled bread 1 cup warm water 1 cup milk 2 medium-sized onions, minced 2 tablespoons butter 4 tomatoes, chopped 114 teaspoons salt ! 4 teaspoon pepper 1!, teaspoons chili powder 1 standard recipe baking powder biscuit dough Simmer salmon 8 minutes in boil- ing, salted water. Drain, bone and flake. Mix bread with water. Add milk and cook, stirring until blended. Add onions which have been lightly browned in butter, then tomatoes and seasonings. Roll dough out thin. In center place half the bread mixture. Arrange salmon over this and top with remaining bread mixture. Fold dough over, sealing edges completely. Turn over, slit top, brush with beaten egg and bake on lightly greased pan in moderately hot oven 375° F. about 40 to 45 minutes. Approximate yield: 6 portions. * % % % % % % X % ¥ * ¥ » “Any formal party should be either very, very small or so tremendous that everyone icg just about lost, and it does not matter whether you have succeeded in bringing only congenial spirits together. Actors and actresses never have time to find twenty-five people who are all interested in the same things, and so if you must have a big party, let it be very, very big. But in any case I much prefer buffet service.” LA MARGU Margo, the animated Spanish- lrish star of the screen, goes Mexican when she talks about food _ ¢\