Oaxaca Day 3

Another day, another cooking class. Today, we were scheduled to attend Cocina Oaxaquena with Socorro Pinelo to learn about tamales or chile rellenos. The communication with this class has been weak since trying to first sign up for it, but something told me that it was going to be good. Coupled with the unpredictable wireless access access at the hotel to look at email, we really had no idea about whether this class was going to happen. I finally decided to call the local phone number and found out the class had already started but they would come get us up in ten minutes. After getting picked up, we found out that the class would be making mole negro today. Nothing seems to go as planned.

Luckily the class started with a trip to the same local market we had gone in yesterday's class. It is fascinating going through these markets and I am looking forward to visiting one on my own schedule. Have to keep up with the group for now, it is easy to get lost in these places.

Socorro is a third generation Oaxacan cook who, of course, speaks no English. Again, there was a translator for the market trip and the beginning of the cooking process. They seem to disappear after that.

I did pick up some useful information on the market trip. The most important is that there is a clear difference between a hen and a rooster. You can see the size difference, the hen providing plumper and more tender meat. It is a hen or turkey that you want to use for the mole negro. The chicken butcher below was an artist with his knife cutting into the bird with hammer type hacks with a very sharp knife. He also proved the bird was a hen by displaying an egg pulled from within.

A short drive to the school, and we were ready to cook. Mole negro typically takes a single cook more than a day to prepare. Because there were ten students, a couple assistants, and of course the watchful eye of Socorro, we were going to be able to complete the mole in just over two hours.

It is not possible to cover the entire process now, but I hope to make a post of the entire process once I get home. For now, I will attempt to document some of the key points. This class wasn't too keen on taking pictures, especially of the staff. Whenever Socorro caught me taking a picture, she would quickly give me something else to do. I still managed to capture many of the important stages. I paid for the class, right?

These pictures of the ingredients are pretty poor. It was like playing chicken with Socorro at this point. I wanted to capture what they looked like though. The tomatoes were a heirloom variety, less than half ripe. The plantains were over ripened. The tomatillos were very small and starting to get soft. The bread was a crusty white loaf.


The herbs that were used were amazing. Thyme, oregano, and cumin were in dried form, but had such an aroma to them. I didn't get a picture of the preparation of these, but they were lightly toasted in a little oil. I am hoping to bring some of these home. Hard to sneak this fragrant stuff through customs.


The first thing that Socorro had everyone working on was preparing the ingredients. Chiles had their seeds, stems, and veins removed (we used a few drops of cooking oil on our hands to repel the chile spice from being absorbed into the skin). Tomatoes and tomatillos had stems removed and were quartered. Onion and garlic had their skins removed and were cut into chunks.


At this point, Socorro started sending everyone off in all directions to work on different things. Shane got assigned to toasting chiles. She emphasized that this was the most important step and the quality of mole depends upon it being done properly. Luckily Shane had some experience watching Reyna the day before. Still, Socorro always found something to improve on whenever she floated around. Socorro found things to improve on at all the stations in the kitchen. These were the little details that I was here for.


While this was going on, another student worked on crushing cloves and peppercorns in a small molcajete. This was good to see as I had problems grinding things like this in my courser grained large molcajete at home.


Luckily, I was given the task of working the large molcajete. I think that Socorro wanted to keep me busy. This is one tool I would really like to master because you can get so many different consistencies with it than you can with a food processor or blender.

First off, we toasted some sesame seeds in a little oil. Once they started to turn color, they went into the molcajete to grind. And this was some work to grind. My forearm got quite a workout.


From here, canela sticks (cinnamon) and the other ground spices were added. The canela was difficult to break up, but eventually, after many inspections, Socorro said it was done. The herbs were added along with almonds with their skin removed. More grinding.


I took a break to see what else was going on. The tomatoes and tomatillos were cooking in a frying pan. I was surprised to see how much they were cooked before being ready.

While this was going on, the chicken was being cooked in a pot of water with some onion, garlic, and green onions.

Shane was at another station working with an even larger molcajete. He was grinding raisins, prunes, and plantains that were lighly fried in oil.

Finally, the contents of my molcajete and some toasted bread were added to the large molcajete for the final grinding.

Now it was time to start cooking the ingredients. The chiles, tomatoes, tomatillos, onion, and garlic were blended in small batches and passed through a strainer into a clay pot.

This was heated at a medium boil and had to be stirred constantly. Socorro was adamant about stirring the same direction throughout as well. The contents of the molcajete was added and stirring continued. This mixture was to cook for one solid hour. Once these ingredients were mixed well, Oaxacan chocolate, sugar, and salt were added periodically.

An hour later, some chicken broth was mixed in. At last, the stirring stopped and the meal was consumed. This was probably the best meal that I have had here to date.

I would like to continue about the Halloween night experience including a trip to the local cemetery and its neighboring carnival, but writing about mole negro has been as exhausting as making it. Tomorrow we have a day off of cooking school to explore Mercado Juarez. I will catch up with the Dia de los Muerto stuff then. Hasta luego.

Oaxaca Day 2

Today's blog comes from the beautiful hotel garden with some other turistas from Seattle and a grande Cerveza Indio. It has been nice talking to other people on this trip to find out places to eat and things to do. I am not sure that nine days is going to be enough time to accomplish everything ;)

My training for the trip has paid off so far. I seem to be hungry all the time and need only a minimal amount of sleep. I am able to take advantage of eating many different things here (for remarkably little dinero) and save the sleep for when I get home.

My Spanish has its moments. Of course, many of those moments are low. I am good at forming my initial inquiry and good when I get an expected response. But throw in something else, and I am a little shaky. This morning, I went to get some coffee and was doing great at saying good morning, finding out if the place was open, and putting in my order for coffee and pastry. The barista must have thought I was a local. A minute later, the machine broke and he started giving me a rapid explanation and question. I don't remember what I said in return, but it got a laugh from a few people in the shop. I sheepishly decided to ditch the coffee and pay for the pastry.

So, today was the Casa de Los Sabores cooking class taught by Reyna Mendoza. This was one of the teachers that Rick Bayless recommended and it was a treat. A few things about the class, Reyna speaks only minimal English but there is an assistant to help out (at least for a little while). The class had eight students consisting of seven English speakers and one Spanish speaker. Finally, the class was supposed to be mole negro (black mole), but ended up being a mole amarillo (yellow mole) and tamales instead. This worked out for the best because I wouldn't have to crash the tamale class taught here next week.

First, we had a trip to Mercado de la Merced. Reyna walked us through all of the interesting and colorful displays within the market. With her intrepreter, she explained things about items in the market.

Here Reyna talks about chiles.


More chiles. Many of these are available only here and people from as close as Mexico City have to come here for them.

Some dry goods. Notice the strings of gusanos (worms) over the lady on the left hand sides head.


Chickens, they will chop them up for you too.


The meat counter, that is chorizo Oaxaca draped over the center.


The vegetable stand. Here, the proprietor stands atop a mountain of vegetables to weigh and charge for the exchange.


The fruit stand. Those candied pumpkins looked so good, but we had to keep up with the class and didn't have time for the purchase.


Finally, the Dia de los Muertos candy stand. This stuff is everywhere for a few days, then disappears until next year.


Now it was time to go back to the class and get to work. Luckily, I got to walk with Reyna. My Spanish held true for the short trip and I was able to find out about some of her experiences and cooking style.

We put on our aprons and started doing prep work for making the mole amarillo. I had made this before and it would take me a couple hours. Reyna (with our help of course) had it completed in about 15 minutes.

First came the preparation of the chiles. Reyna said that this was the most important step in the entire process. We used pasilla Oaxaquenos and guajillos for this dish. After having their seeds and veins removed, they were toasted on the clay comal. The chiles for mole amarillo are supposed to be lightly toasted until they just start turning color, while chiles for mole negro are toasted until they turn dark. From here, they are put into scalding water for a few minutes where they come back to life.


The chiles are blended with masa fresca and some other ingredients (I left the recipe in the room but will fill in later).


The mole negro was already prepared so we will have to wait for another day to see that process.


Now Reyna had to blend the masa to the right consistency. Tamales based off a tortilla type base, the masa fresca in its base form is used. For tamales with a thicker form, the masa is blended with chicken broth to the consistency of thick cake batter.


Now it was time to make the tamales. We were making three kinds using three different techniques. The first is a tamale con mole amarillo y pollo. It was built on the tortilla style masa.

These were wrapped in a corn leaf and put into the tamales steamer to cook.

Next came the tamales con mole negro y pollo. These used the thinner masa mixture that was spread on a banana leaf. The ingredients mole and chicken were put on and the leaf was folded into thirds from each direction. The package was then tied and put into the tamale steamer.


Lastly, came the tamales con frijoles negra. These were also made with the thicker masa pressed into a tortilla form, but this time, we gently placed them into a corn husk. An avocado leaf was placed on the top and bottom of the tamale for flavor. A smaller piece of the husk is placed on the top to seal in the tamale. They were then placed into the tamale steamer.


We made a few other things including a cactus salad and salsa. Finally, the tamales were ready and it was time to eat.

I think that this is enough for today. Off to explore the sites. Hasta luego.

Oaxaca Day 1

Hallelujah, I made it! It was quite an adventure getting here, but here I sit with my grande cerveza Victoria on the top balcony of the hotel Palomar San Miguel overlooking one of the Oaxacan mountain ranges and writing this post. I haven't taken a lot of pictures yet, but have a few to whet your appetite.

First, I want to vent about my trip from Los Angeles to Oaxaca. Okay, I like to have things planned out. I got a call from Mexicana Airlines a couple days before leaving that the Los Angeles to Mexico City leg of my journey was going to start an hour later than scheduled. That's alright, I had given myself a 3 1/2 hour cushion to get through immigration, screening, security, finding my gate, and whatever other barriers they would put in front of me. Now that time was cut to 2 1/2 hours. No problemo.

Jump to the day of the flight. I made my way to the gate in Los Angeles and everything was going smoothly. All of the sudden, there was a Spanish announcement that the flight was being delayed 2 hours. No explanation, no English announcement. I talked to a few agents who would always say, "don't worry, there will be a Mexicana Airlines representative when you arrive in Mexico City to assist you." Of course there was no representative there when we arrived and I had 30 minutes to get off my current plane and onto the next one. So I followed the cattle herd and luckily found a hidden information booth that no one else noticed. I got directions downstairs to the immigrations area, cruised through the H1N1 screening, went back upstairs to the gates, and navigated to the already boarding flight to Oaxaca. Finally, I could relax and think about what was awaiting me.

Upon arriving in Oaxaca City, I boarded a taxi with others going to the central district. We sped through town and eventually got dropped off at the hotel I am staying at. My friend Shane arrived at the hotel a little while later and we set off to explore the area and get some nourishment.


We made our way to the zocolo and found a nice outdoor restaurant. I was a little disappointed in the tinga de puerco torta I had. Maybe my expectations were unrealistically high. There were some good points though. When we sat down, we were given an amazing plate of peanuts. They were probably baked with lime juice and seasoning. We also got to hear some good music while we sat there. A girl I'm guessing to be 8 with an accordian was playing and singing songs. She was awesome, but didn't know "Guadalajara" so we sent her away. A little later, a full mariachi band came by and did know my request and "El Rey". Of course we had to hear them play.


After that, we cruised through the rest of the zocolo and a few other blocks. On one, we found these huge sand displays that were built depicting Day of the Dead characters. Apparantly, they are only here for a couple of days, then, like the rest of the holiday stuff, is gone until the next year.



Of course, there are alters built everywhere for deceased family members. Marigolds are in season and is the flower sold everywhere and used most in alters. Other decorations vary, pictures, plates of food, drink, musical instruments, cigarettes, candles, fruits, vegetables, you name it.


An interesting thing around here is the number of massive, old, beautiful churches. I haven't figured out which one is which yet, but I am planning on going to church in one on Sunday.


That is about it so far. People are a little fearful of having their pictures taken down here. Something about the camera taking their souls. They seem to be okay if you buy something from them though. Talk about selling your soul.

I have one more picture por me esposa. Looks like these guys make a pretty good living.


Tomorrow is the black mole class with Reyna Mendoza. Hope to post again afterward. Hasta luego.