Mexico Cooks!

Come Tour with Mexico Cooks!--Off the Tourist Track, Off the Beaten Path

A November market tour in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán. I'm holding a mamey fruit.  The mamey's scientific name is poutería sapote.

One of the great pleasures of my life is the number of tours Mexico Cooks! gives to lots of excited tourists.  Small, specialized tours are a joy to organize: the participants generally have common interests, a thirst for knowledge, and a hunger for--well, for Mexico Cooks!' tour specialty: food and its preparation.  Touring a food destination (a street market in Michoacán, an enclosed market in Guadalajara, a crawl through some Mexico City street stands, or meals in a series of upscale restaurants) is about far more than a brief look at a fruit, a vegetable, or a basket of freshly made tortillas.

A Pátzcuaro street vendor holds out a partially unwrapped tamal de trigo (wheat tamal).  It's sweetened with piloncillo (Mexican raw sugar) and a few plump raisins, wrapped in corn husks, and steamed.  Taste?  It's all but identical to a bran muffin, and every tour participant enjoyed a share of it.

A tour planned to your specifications can lead you to places you didn't know you wanted to go, but that you would not have missed for the world.  Here, Donna talks with the man who makes these enormous adobe bricks.  He let her try to pick up the laden wheelbarrow.  She could barely get its legs off the ground!  He laughed, raised the handles, and whizzed away with his load.

Several times in recent years, small groups wanted to tour traditional bakeries in Mexico City.  The photo shows one tiny corner of the enormous Pastelería La Ideal in the Centro Histórico.  Just looking at the photo brings the sweet fragrances back to mind.  And never mind the taste of the delicious pastries--wonderful!

Ramon and Annabelle Canova wanted an introduction to how ordinary people live and shop in Guadalajara.  We spent a highly entertaining morning at the Tianguis del Sol, a three-times-a-week outdoor market in Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara.  Our first stop was for breakfast, then we shopped for unusual produce, fresh spices, and other goodies that the Canovas don't often see in their home town.  Annabelle said she felt right at home because so much of the style and flavor of this market was similar to what she experienced in the markets near her home town in the Phillipines.

We went for comida (main meal of the day) to the original location of Guadalajara's Karne Garibaldi.  The restaurant does one thing--carne en su jugo (meat in its juice)--and does it exceptionally well.  The food is plentiful, delicious, and affordable.  The place is always packed, and usually has a line to get in!

Ramon wanted to try tejuino, a regional specialty in the Guadalajara area.  Mixed when you order it, the refreshing, very lightly fermented drink is thickened with masa de maíz (corn dough) and served with a pinch of salt and a small scoop of lemon ice. 

Pillars of nopal cactus paddles, taller than a man, at Mercado de la Merced, Mexico City.   La Merced is the largest retail market in Mexico, if not in all of Latin America.  It's the ultimate market experience and just a partial tour takes the best part of a morning.  Comfortable walking shoes are a necessity--let's go!

A more intimate, up-close-and-personal Mexico City market tour takes us through the Mercado San Juan.  The San Juan is renowned for its gourmet selection of meats, fish and shellfish, cheeses, and wild mushrooms--among a million other things you might not expect to find.

Pepitorias are a sweet specialty of Mexico's capital city.  Crunchy and colorful obleas (wafers) enclose sticky syrup and squash seeds.  Mexico Cooks!' tour groups usually try these at the Bazar Sábado in San Ángel.

Lovely and fascinating people and events are around almost any Mexican corner.  The annual Festival Internacional de Música de Morelia opens every year with several blocks of carpets made of flowers.  Residents of Patamban, Michoacán work all night to create the carpets for the festival.  This piano is made entirely of plant material.  Enlarge any picture for a closer view.

Entire flowers, fuzzy pods, and flower petals are used to create the carpets' ephemeral beauty and design; these carpets last two days at most. 

In November 2012, one of Mexico Cooks!' tours was dazzled by a special Morelia concert given by Tania Libertad.  With Tania is Rosalba Morales Bartolo, a fabulous traditional cook from San Jerónimo, Michoacán, who presented the artist with various handcrafted items from the state--including the lovely coral necklace and rebozo (long rectangular shawl) that Tania is wearing.


During a food tour in Oaxaca, Mexico Cooks! took this couple for breakfast with a marvelous regional cook.  We're standing in the doorway of her traditional kitchen--where she both prepares food and gives cooking classes.  We had a great day.

No matter where we start our tour and no matter what we plan together for your itinerary, a Mexico Cooks! tour always includes a terrific surprise or two, special memories to take home, and the thirst for more of Mexico.  Marvey Chapman had a wonderful time out on Lake Pátzcuaro!  By all means come and enjoy a tour!

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

Hacienda Tzintzimeo :: Antique Beauty, Gorgeous Gardens, and A Wonderful Sunday Meal To Delight You

Poster at the entrance to Hacienda Tzintzimeo, Álvaro Obregón, Michoacán.  Simple to find and close to Morelia, the hacienda has approximately 40 hectareas (approximately 100 acres) of beautiful gardens, a lake, campgrounds, villas for overnight stays, and buildings for social events.  Full information for contact is listed at the end of this article.  All photos by Mexico Cooks!.  

Two months or so ago, on a beautiful weekday afternoon, Luisa and I went out puebleando--a particularly Mexican word that means "going around to enjoy small towns".  We share a love for going out to see little towns near Morelia and often just go roaming around in the car for an afternoon, ducking into small-town churches, having a taco here or there, visiting a completely off the beaten track spiritual destination, looking at scenery and breathing crystal-clear air.  The May afternoon that we were out in this part of Michoacán, Luisa pulled into the driveway of this hacienda, where she had been several times before, so that she could show it to me.  Because it was a weekday, the restaurant wasn't open.  Because it was during Mexico's period of pandemic lockdown, the hotel was also closed.  The young man on duty said, "But of course, señoras, drive around and see whatever you like.  Enjoy yourselves."  Ooohh...thank you!  We certainly did enjoy ourselves, we spent well over an hour exploring gardens, the rock climbing wall, the villas (separate little houses to stay for an overnight or longer), one of the several large fiesta/events palapas, and the inside of the main building.  Everything we saw was beautiful, and beautifully maintained.


One of the many lovely pathways we drove or walked through in May at Hacienda Tzintzimeo.  The hacienda dates to the middle 18th century.

Toward the middle of June, Luisa asked me to set aside my birthday weekend of June 28-30 for a trip to Los Azufres, a mineral hot springs area high in the northeastern mountains of Michoacán.  Early in the afternoon of Sunday the 28th we drove out of Morelia heading east--and within a little more than half an hour, we drove once again into the entrance of the hacienda.  The surprise was enormous--wait, this wasn't Los Azufres!  This was, though, on the way to that destination, and I was flabbergasted to learn that she had made reservations for comida (Mexico's main meal of the day) at the hacienda restaurant.


Part of the restaurant terrace, looking from a dining table toward the pool.


The menu on the Sunday we were at the hacienda restaurant.  We decided to order and share different dishes, so we could taste some of almost everything.  I ask you to notice especially the price--at the bottom right-hand side of the menu.  At first I thought the cost was per "tiempo" (course) or per dish--but no, the cost was for the entire meal per person, and for the two of us, included a full pitcher of a fruity, deliciously chilled red wine concoction.


What we thought would be a choice of one appetizer each was in fact all three appetizers, to share.  Each was really delicious; I particularly enjoyed the freshly-picked elotes (tender early corn).  The hacienda grows most of its own vegetables--all organic--including this local native Mexican corn, cucumbers, melons, tomatoes, chiles, squash--et cetera.  The wine glass at top left of the photo is filled with tinto de verano--a refreshing, fruity, summery red wine.


The soups that day were (above) crema de uchepo (a creamy sweet tamal turned into soup) and (below):


Caldo moreliano.  This spicy, tomato-y, cheesy soup was just perfect for me.  The photo is pretty bad, but the soup was marvelous.  


We ordered house-made mole with chicken and rice.  The locally made mole was just spicy enough, the chicken was juicy and tender, and the rice was perfectly cooked.


Our other main dish to share was the parrillada--a mixed grill plate that included tender, beautifully seasoned carne asada, chorizo (those long reddish pieces of meat) and grilled vegetables.  The surprise was the tenderness of the carne asada; in many restaurants, it's often over-cooked and tough as the sole of your shoe, but this meat was as tender as your mother's kiss.


The buñuelo, topped with Pátzcuaro-style nieve de pasta (ice cream made with almonds, cinnamon, and other flavorings).The second dessert was sold out, so both of us asked for this--the happy ending to an astonishingly delicious meal.

Several days ago, I met with don Hedel Gasca González, to talk about the hacienda, its restaurant, and its philosophies.  Don Hedel has been, as he said, the "Estorbante Oficial" (the official bother-er) at the restaurant for the last 20-plus years.  He won't call himself the boss, or the manager: he said his function at the restaurant is to poke his head into the kitchen to ask the cooks about the availability of something, or to bother a waiter about a missing fork or salt shaker, or--you understand.  His kitchen staff has no chef; rather, the cooks are long-time home cooks as well as long-time employees who know how to prepare wonderful food for the restaurant and the hacienda's social events.  Each of the cooks knows that what she prepares is based on knowledge that has been passed down to her for generations, and is knowledge that she will pass down to future generations: "Es su herencia y su legado."  (It's her inheritance and her legacy.) 

Don Hedel said that he doesn't need to go check the cooking progress, because their philosophy and attitude is always, "Estás en tu casa," ("You're at home here,") and who in the world would go into his or her mother's kitchen to check what's happening in the cazuelas (clay cooking pots)?  The cook knows, and you have no reason to wonder!  It's always going to be marvelous.


Part of one dining room at the hacienda.  The hacienda's antique furniture, paintings, and other decorations make its ambience both relaxed and elegant, as lovely for a business dinner as for an afternoon-long Sunday meal among family or friends.  You will be in the comfort of your home for the dreamy time you are at the hacienda.  Can't quite bring yourself to leave at closing time?  They'll gladly wait till you're ready to go.


Looking down the corridor of the restaurant from a main room of the hacienda toward the under-roof terrace.

Don Hedel told me that although the hacienda grows its own regional native Mexican corn, they purchase masa (in this instance, corn dough) for use in the restaurant from a woman in the nearby town of Álvaro Obregón who nixtamalizes corn in her own home.  She's been doing it for years, and her masa is always of the highest quality.  Beef comes from the best local butcher, as does pork.  The hacienda also raises its own tilapia, its own goats, and even has a deer on the property.  All but one of the hacienda restaurant employees live in the towns of Tzintzimeo, Álvaro Obregón, La Loma, and Isla del Cirio; the headwaiter lives in Morelia.


An old-fashioned swing in one of the gardens at Hacienda Tzintzimeo.  The property has beautiful areas for walking, for children to play, for rock climbing and other exercise--anything you might need or want is available to you, because, as don Hedel says (and means with his whole heart), "Estás en tu casa.  "Do you want to try several different things from the menu?  We'll make small portions for you so you can do that.  Do you want to bring your own bottle of wine?  By all means--and we never have a corkage fee.  Anything that we can attend to so that you feel completely at home here, it's yours.  If you don't see it, please ask for whatever it might be."

The restaurant is open only on Sunday afternoons, between 2:00PM and 7:00PM.  Reservations are mandatory.  The restaurant has a base menu with some additions or subtractions depending on what meats, vegetables, and fruits are seasonally available that day from its own fields and its special providers.  I asked don Hedel, "What's the best time to get there?"  His answer--as always with the restaurant guests first in mind--was, "The best time to get there is the time you arrive."  Occasionally a dish on the menu sells out, so you might want to plan your visit to the hacienda accordingly.

Mexico Cooks! hopes to see you there very soon--we plan to go back often!

Hacienda Tzintzimeo
Carretera Morelia-Zinapécuaro km 28
Michoacán 58923
Morelia
Hours:  Sunday only for comida (main meal of the day)
           2:00PM - 7:00PM
For reservations call: 443 118 9173 (cellular phone)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haciendatzintzimeomorelia/

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here to see new information: Tours

Matatlán and Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca :: Mezcal and Traditional Cooking on the Road Home

The Ilegal mezcal palenque (in a big stretch of translation, it's a mezcal distillery) is right on the road between Tlacolula and Teotitlán del Valle, in the little town which is arguably the mezcal capital of Oaxaca: Santiago de Matatlán.  The animal's job is to keep that stone wheel moving over wood-fire roasted maguey fibers, crushing them to prepare them for the fermentation and subsequent distillation process.

The first week of May, 2018, Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza (Barrio Cafe Phoenix) and I were on the last leg of our Oaxaca trip, driving north from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to Oaxaca City, when we saw a sign on the side of the road for ILEGAL (in Spanish 'illegal' has just one 'L') mezcal.  She braked and swerved into the parking lot: "I can't believe we found this!  It's one of the best mezcales that we serve at the Cafe!"  We spent about an hour, fascinated, talking with an Ilegal mezcalero about its production.

From the Ilegal building's porch, I took this photo of the company's espadín maguey cactus fields.  Maguey grew as far as the eye could see.  This maguey is cultivated, not wild, and each plant takes between seven and ten years to mature enough to harvest.  Ilegal's joven (literally 'young', it means un-aged) mezcal gives you full-bodied espadín agave flavor. Barely smokey, its gently lemony flavors leave a slightly peppery sensation on your palate.  Ilegal also produces a reposado (briefly aged) mezcal as well as an añejo (longer aged) mezcal. 

Founded in approximately 2002-2003 by an American expatriate, John Brexer, in just 15 years the Ilegal brand has become one of the best-quality mezcales from Oaxaca.  Because our time was so short at the palenque, we had little time to talk at depth with the producer.  Click on this link to read the full story of the brand: ILEGAL MEZCAL.   Nonetheless, we took a lot of pictures and it's fun to share them with you here.


"Working from sun-up to sundown, life goes by this way in my village.  MATATLÁN the steam from your factories is the hope of all of us poor."


Just-filled bottles of Ilegal mezcal, sealed by hand-dipping each bottle top in emerald green wax.


View from inside the Ilegal building.


Antique sea-green glass garrafones (20-liter bottles, about five US gallons), used for holding water--or for bulk mezcal!  Today, it's difficult to find a garrafón like these; nearly all are now made of plastic.


Do you know what the Spanish word 'pendejo' means?  If not, here's your Spanish vocabulary lesson for today, just click here: not for children.

After our relámpago (lightning strike--i.e., really quick) stop at Ilegal, we headed for our much anticipated time prior to Oaxaca's airport: my dear friends Carina Santiago Bautista and her husband, Pedro Montaño, both soon to be equally dear to chef Silvana, had invited us to go to Tierra Antigua, their restaurant and gallery in Teotitlán del Valle, for a private comida with them.  Carina is a celebrated cocinera tradicional, and Pedro is a prize-winning Zapotec master weaver.  Silvana and I had been looking forward for days to being with them.

Tierra Antigua Restaurant and Gallery, Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, exterior.  Photo courtesy TripAdvisor.

Carina and Pedro and their family have been working for years to build the complex of restaurant, gallery, and bungalows for visitors.  The installations are beautiful; prior to our meal, Carina gave Silvana and me a tour of their beautifully designed and constructed buildings.  The interiors are modern and charming, the outdoor kitchen is rustic and traditional and designed for cooking classes.  And the restaurant/gallery!  Every wall shows off Pedro's extraordinary textiles (primarily wool rugs and wall hangings), all of which are for sale.  Their talented son, Diego Montaño, is also a weaver and is represented in the gallery.  His weaving incorporates whimsy and beauty into his designs. 


This small rug/wall hanging, woven by young Diego Montaño, represents the symbolism and traditions of the milpa, the ancient farming system of Mexico which is still used today.  Click on the link for information about that.  Chef Silvana bought this marvelous weaving for her home.


The completely delightful Carina Santiago in her outdoor kitchen, standing at the stove.  Those are clay comales (comparable to griddles) coated with cal, the white substance on each comal's surface.   It's put there to make the comal non-stick!  If you're thinking of going to Oaxaca, schedule a cooking class with her.  She is fluently bilingual (Spanish/English) and will teach you Zapotec food preparation methods and flavors that go back hundreds of years. 


First thing at the table: home-made Oaxaca-style blue corn tortillas and salsa verde cruda--raw green salsa.  This salsa is so bright, so vibrant in one's mouth, and so wonderfully delicious that it awakened our palates for the rest of our meal to come.  Carina and her assistants prepare dried corn in the evening for grinding into masa (dough) the following day.


What's on the plate?  Hoja santa leaf, with its light anise flavor, and quesillo (Oaxaca cheese), melted together with toasted chapulines (limón and chile-flavored grasshoppers).  A squeeze of limón and wow!


Mole negro (black mole), the king of Oaxaca's moles.  Prepared with more than 30 ingredients, the intense flavors of this dish become more complex and more developed as one continues eating it.  The component that gives mole negro on of its most distinctive tastes is dried and reconstituted chile chilhuacle negro, a rare Oaxacan chile.

First quality chile chilhuacle negro, for sale at the Mercado 20 de noviembre, Oaxaca City.  The sign shows an interesting and uncommon spelling.


Chiles rellenos Oaxaca style: a fresh chile jalapeño, in this case seeded and stuffed with picadillo (a kind of Mexican hash), then covered with an egg batter and fried.  I'll be seeing Carina in a few weeks and would love to eat this again--and everything else, too!  Carina 


It's obligatory in Mexico to have a photo taken for posterity.  From left, chef Silvana, cocinera tradicional Carina, Mexico Cooks!, and weaver Pedro Montaño.  Behind us are two of Pedro's gorgeous rugs.  If you're anywhere near San Diego, California, you'll find him and his wonderful work at Bazaar del Mundo's annual Latin American Festival, August 3-5, 2018.  Click on the link for more information!


On the way out of town, we stopped for ice cold bottled water in a tiny grocery store across the street from the church.  This is the Mexico I've known since 1981: a little bit of this, a little bit of that, just what you need when you need it, and the friendliest owner in town. I know I'll go back in August to say hello.

Tierra Antigua Restaurante y Galería
Benito Juárez 175 (left-hand side of the street)
Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca
Telephone from the USA: 011-52-951-166-6160 for reservations, cooking classes or to eat at the restaurant. 
Spanish and English spoken
Tell them Mexico Cooks! sent you!

Next week: where to next?  It's going to be as much a surprise to me as it is to you!  I hope you've enjoyed coming along as chef Silvana and I traveled through one small part of wonderful Oaxaca.  I'd be happy to take you touring there--in real life.  Let me know if you'd like to schedule a trip!  

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

Market to Table :: Second Annual Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca, Days Three and Four

Oaxaca's Mercado de la Merced.  It's small compared to the city's downtown Mercado 20 de noviembre, yet quite complete in its offerings and is arguably the most traditional of Oaxaca City's markets. You'll find everything from freshly baked pan de yema to--well, to anything you might need from a market.  The Merced also has a number of excellent fondas--small, often family-run restaurant stands where one can eat well for a relatively low price.  The market is at the corner of Calles José María Morelos and Leandro Valle in the city of Oaxaca.


We started our morning at the famous Fonda Florecita inside the Mercado de la Merced.  Foamy hot chocolate was the envy of this piggy bank.  Although I have eaten here with great pleasure on many other occasions, none of us were too happy with breakfast today.  We finished fairly quickly and took a walk through the market to see what was available and interesting.


These oval, "pleated" tomatoes are shaped almost like kidneys--hence their name, jitomate de riñón (kidney tomatoes).  They are endemic to Oaxaca and have a slightly different and more intense tomato flavor that gives a truly special taste to the dishes in which they're used.


On the left, locally grown granadas (pomegranates).  On the right, a tiny fruit called jiotillo, similar to its large cousin, the pitaya.


Anywhere you wander in Oaxaca, you'll find chapulines (grasshoppers) for sale.  They come toasted with salt, chile, and a little jugo de limón (juice of Mexico's most common lime).  These are my favorites, the tiniest ones.  Sprinkled into a quesadilla, served with guacamole, or as a botana (snack) on their own, they're delicious.  Yes, they really are.  


What we see in Mexico is often a surreal juxtaposition of objects.  Here, a market vendor displays raw chickens with their feet splayed out below a huge and beautiful magnolia flower, still on its branch.  And why not.


Left to right: locally grown and freshly harvested ajo (garlic), an enormous green pod--close to 18" long--called cuajinicuil, tiny green miltomates in a plastic bag, and granadas (pomegranates).


Later we cut the cuajinicuil open at the edges to see and taste the edible parts inside.  The raw, fluffy, white, fibrous material protects the green seeds and is the part that's eaten as a sweet fruit.  The green seeds, which are just under two inches long, can be cooked and eaten, but are not eaten raw.  We and several friends tried the white part and pronounced it delicious and refreshing.  


Outside the market, newly laundered jeans hung on a chicken wire fence to dry.  

We grabbed a cab from the market to the Plaza de la Danza in Oaxaca's Centro Histórico to continue with Day Three at the Second Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca.  


Just inside the entrance to the event, we saw this wonderful example of ingenuity: a wheelbarrow, converted into a fogón (fire enclosure, the flames are just visible)--complete with a cal (builder's lime) coated clay comal supported by bricks for preparing tortillas.  The use of cal gives the surface of the comal a non-stick coating. Cocinera tradicional Sra. Martina Sánchez Cruz of the Valles Centrales de Oaxaca, was in charge of preparing the tortillas.  We'll see more of doña Martina next week, in a special event at the Encuentro.  "Doña" is an honorific given to women (it's "don", for men) as a sign of respect.


Ceviche made from wild mushrooms by young cocinera tradicional María del Carmen Gómez Martínez from Tlahuitoltepec, Sierra Norte, Oaxaca.


Garnachas--in this case, five small tortillas similar in size and shape to the antojito known as sopes, served with frijoles negros refritos (refried black beans), and with picadillo, among other toppings, all accompanied by delicious crumbled cheese and verduras encurtidas (pickled vegetables).  Served with choice of salsas.


Cocineras from the Zona Triqui, west and slightly to the north of the city of Oaxaca City.  The indigenous Triquis live in some of the most remote villages of Oaxaca state; outside their region, their food is very little known.  These women, and several other Triqui women, traveled with some difficulty to bring their cuisine to the Encuentro.  They were unfortunately disappointed in the public's limited understanding and acceptance of the food they prepared.


We were much enamored of each community and region's typical dress and hairstyle.  Unfortunately I don't have notes to indicate some of the communities.  There was simply too much to see, to much to hear, too much to experience, and above all, too many people crowded into booths to take highly detailed information. 


Making tortillas with a press.


These beautifully dressed and coiffed cocineras tradicionales are anticipating what writer/chef Margarita Carrillo de Salinas will say as she takes notes on what the food they prepared and served in their stand.


Panza rellena con barbacoa (sheep stomach stuffed with meat and spices and then long-cooked).  The panza had just been removed from the cooking vessel and cut open.  The fragrance was delicious!  The panza, along with several other dishes made of sheep, was prepared and served by cocinero tradicional Sr. Irving Sergio Clemente Villegas from Villa Tejuapam de la Unión, Teposcolula, in the Zona Mixteca.  Men rather than women are almost always in charge of making barbacoa. Each molcajete (volcanic stone grinding vessel) filled with traditional green and red salsas was actually bigger than the panza itself.  


One other barbacoa expert was selling his wares at the Encuentro.  Sr. Alejandro López Cosme from the Villa de Zaachila in the Valles Centrales prepared Niño Envuelto made of barbacoa de res (beef barbacoa) or barbacoa de cerdo (pork barbacoa).  Niño Envuelto translates literally to "a child wrapped up" and is the term used for making a jelly roll, so you can imagine how the meats are prepared for this dish.  The beef is cut very thin, the way tasajo is cut, and well-seasoned.  Then it's rolled around vegetables, layer upon layer, in a covering of native avocado leaves; the native avocado imparts an anise flavor to the meat.  Then it's slathered with a concoction made by don Alejandro, covered, cooked for several hours, sliced, and served with salsa.  Photo courtesy El Universal.


Cocinera tradicional Sra. Faustina Lucía Valencia Sánchez from San Antonino Castillo Velásco in the Valles Centrales, preparing chocolateatole early on the morning of the fourth day of the Encuentro.  Sra. Valencia generously took the time to instruct us in the specifics of this uniquely Oaxacan drink.  The foam for the drink, made of a particular kind of cocoa beans that are buried underground to ferment for as many as eight months--along with ground, toasted wheat, sugar, cinnamon, water, and other ingredients--is made separately from the atole itself, which is white.  The foam is whipped until quite stiff with a special molinillo (chocolate beater) which has no loose rings.  Once the foam is ready to be used, it will hold its shape for several hours or more.  To serve the drink, one's cup is first filled with atole blanco, and then the thick, heavy foam is heaped on top.  The foam is often made some time prior to the day it will be served, and then dried solid; when the festivities are about to start, the dried hunks of foam are ground to powder, sprinkled with water, and beaten again to use on top of the atole blanco (white atole).


Cacao fermentado (fermented cacao beans), the principal ingredient for Oaxacan chocolateatole.  You might be familiar with champurrado, the chocolate atole (note separation of the words) made in many parts of Mexico.  Chocolateatole is not champurrado, it is a drink unique to Oaxaca.

Grinding the fermented cacao beans on a metate to prepare for the foam for chocolateatole.

Chocolateatole oaxaquéño, topped with a large amount of extremely thick chocolate foam and ready to be drunk.


The Encuentro offered four full days of academic conferences in addition to offering food from every region of Oaxaca. We heard panel conference about El Quehacer de una Cocinera Tradicional (The Tasks of a Traditional Cook), moderated by chef Margarita Carrillo de Salinas; about La Cocina Oaxaqueña como Patrimonio del Estado de Oaxaca y la Importancia de Preservarla (The Oaxacan Cuisine as a Heritage and the Importance of Preserving It), presented by teacher, writer, and designer Claudio Sánchez Islas; El Maíz Como Patrimonio Gastronómico (Corn as a Gastronomic Heritage), presented by Maestro Rafael Mier Sáinz Trapaga (photo above); and Conversario de Cocineras Tradicionales del Estado de Oaxaca "Historias de la Vida" (A Conversation Among Traditional Cooks from Oaxaca: Life Stories, again moderated by writer/chef Margarita Carrillo de Salinas.   

The group of eight cocineras tradicionales who willingly shared their life histories.  Left to right: Sra. Carina Santiago Bautista, Sra. Faustina Lucía Valencia Sánchez, Sra. Martina Sánchez Cruz, Dra. Ana Laura Martínez (director of the Culinary Arts School in Tijuana, Baja California); Sra. Dolores García Arroyo; Sra. María Sarah Gómez Galán; Sra. Emma Méndez García (holding the microphone), Sra. Elena Tapia Flores (in the white cap), Sra. Porfiria Bautista López, and chef/writer Margarita Carrillo de Salinas, the moderator of the panel.  This conference was so moving that we in the audience wept unguardedly as these women spoke.  They opened their hearts and minds to tell us who they are, why they cook, and the incredible deep personal meaning their cooking holds for them, for their children, and for future generations.  It was an honor and a privilege to be present.

At the end of that conference, cocinera tradicional Sra. Emma Méndez García, from Huautla de Jiménez, La Cañada zone, sang her gratitude to the audience with this song in her native Mazateco language.  Sra. Méndez prepared five distinct dishes for the Encuentro, among them pipián con huevo duro (a seed-based sauce with hard-boiled eggs), tamales with tesmole (a pre-Hispanic recipe), and quelites (native greens).

On that beautiful note, we'll stop until next week.  Come back on June 9, 2018, to enjoy Mexico Cooks! final report about the Second Annual Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca.  We're going to visit 70 cocineras traditionales as each of them prepares tamales important in the region where each cook lives.  You know that I've been to many, many of Mexico's fantastic food events, but I have never been so bowled over as I was by the tamales demonstration.  Don't miss it, right here in one week.

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico?  Click here: Tours. 

Hearts Filled with Love, Stomachs Filled with Food :: 2018 Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca, Day Two

The 2nd Annual Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca was about food, of course--more than 300 different and delicious dishes, prepared and served by about 85 of Oaxaca's finest traditional cooks, from all eight regions of the state of Oaxaca.  The event was also food for the heart and soul, an opportunity to reconnect with old friends and colleagues and to meet people who were sure to become close to us.  Lifelong cocinera tradicional (and owner with her husband, Fidel Méndez) of Oaxaca City's Restaurante Las 15 Letras, my beloved and beautiful friend Celia Florián (above) is the person in charge of organizing and overseeing the Encuentro.  She works in tandem with Adriana Aguilar, director of the Oaxaca City Tourism Department, and with Myriam Corro Niño de Rivera of the same agency, as well as with an entire team of incredibly organized and dedicated people, to bring the Encuentro to fruition each year.  It takes the steady hands of people passionately devoted to an event to bring it to such a high state of art.  Photo courtesy Lourdes Rosas.  All other photos copyright Mexico Cooks! unless otherwise noted.

At the early-April Mexico City press conference before (and about) the Encuentro, key members of the organizing committee along with two cocineras tradicionales, without whom there would be no Encuentro. Left to right: Sra. Dolores Ofelia Martínez Pacheco, Oaxaca; Sra. Celia Florián; Sra. Adriana Aguilar; Myriam Corro Niño de Rivera; Sra. Margarita Carrillo de Salinas; Sra. Catalina Chávez Lucas.


The irrepressible María del Carmen Gómez Martínez, cocinera tradicional from Tlahuitoltepec, Sierra Norte, Oaxaca.  Due to her wonderful charisma and her delicious array of regional dishes (empanadas de frijol, several types of tamales, caldo mixe, and the spectacular tepache con espuma roja (pictured below, all from the Sierra Norte), her stand at the Encuentro was always crowded with fans.  Photo courtesy Silvana Salcido Esparza.


One of the delicious traditional preparations little known outside regional Oaxaca and made by María del Carmen Gómez is this tepache con espuma roja, a slightly fermented drink made with pulque, panela (raw brown sugar), and a thick foam made of ground corn, chocolate, and achiote.  Achiote is a spice/coloring agent usually associated with comida (food) from Yucatán, but it is also used in Oaxaca.  To the left, blue corn tortillas.


Sra. Concepción Abrego Rivera, cocinera tradicional from San Pedro y San Pablo Teposcolula, in the Mixteca region north of the city of Oaxaca.  Sra. Abrego is holding hoja de milpa, long corn leaves used to wrap a kind of regional tamal.


Chile relleno mixteco prepared by Sra. Abrego.  The chile she used was the small, dried chile pasillo oaxaqueño, reconstituted, filled with delicious picadillo (in this case, a savory and fruited hash), then covered with egg batter and fried.  The sauce, which makes my mouth water just seeing the picture, contains almonds, capers, olives, pineapple, and typically sweet and sour seasonings.  This dish was among my top three favorites at the Encuentro.  I liked it so well I ate it two days in a row and wish I could have it for my comida (Mexico's main midday meal) today!


A group of colleagues and friends in Mexico's culinary world: left to right, long-time journalist Celia Marín Chiunti, extraordinary professional photographers Sergio Mendoza Alarcón and Bertha Herrera, and delightful writer/editor Marichuy Garduño.  Seeing each of them--and particularly having the opportunity to spend this time together eating, laughing, and catching up on the latest news--was a sweet treat indeed.  


Abigail Mendoza Ruíz in her outdoor home kitchen, preparing just a small amount (!) of mole negro for a fandango (huge Oaxaca-style party) in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca.  In the background, you can see a large pedal loom; the Mendoza Ruíz family are well-known as wool rug weavers as well as cooks.  Mexico Cooks! was privileged to have been among the women invited to the day-long fiesta.


Rufina Mendoza Ruíz (back to camera) and Marcelina Mendoza Ruíz as they prepare plates of enmoladas for eager diners at the 2018 Encuentro.  Their glistening hair is braided with red ribbons typical to Teotitlán del Valle.  The braids are often wrapped together on top of a woman's head, as you can see in the photo of Abigail Mendoza making her mole negro.  Photo courtesy Silvana Salcido Esparza.


Enmoladas con mole negro (tortillas dipped in black mole, then rolled with chicken and topped with more mole negro, thinly sliced onion, chopped parsley, and fresh cheese) as prepared by the delightful Mendoza Ruíz sisters: Abigail, Rufina, and Marcelina.  The Mendoza Ruíz family are lifelong residents of Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, about 30 minutes south of Oaxaca City.


Chilecaldo, shared with me by my lovely Mexico City friend, Ruth Fajardo González.  The reddish-brown chile chilhuacle rojo to the left in the bowl gives the caldo an inimitable taste: no other chile is like the chilhuacle.  In the case of the chilecaldo, the chile is used when fresh. If you need this chile dried, (it has black, red, and yellow varieties) and live outside Mexico, it's sometimes available online.  Ruth generously let me taste the soup--the broth alone was deeply flavorful and spiced perfectly by the chilhuacle.  This regional caldo was prepared by cocinera tradicional Sra. Mayra Mariscal Hernández, of San Juan Bautista Cuicatlán, where most of the chilhuacle chiles are produced by just five producers, in the Cañada zone of Oaxaca state.


Beloved friends--we took a brief break from stuffing ourselves to have our picture taken.  What joy to be together at the Encuentro!  Left to right: Celia Marín Chiunti and (standing, in red) Sonia Ortiz, founders of the wonderful Youtube channel Cocina al Natural, (seated) Mexico Cooks!.  Standing, Rafael Mier, found of the profoundly important Facebook group Tortilla de Maíz Mexicana (if you haven't joined, please add your name to the group's nearly 350,000 followers!) and Silvana Salcido Esparza, six-time James Beard nominated chef (Best Chef Southwest USA) and owner of restaurants Barrio Café and Barrio Café Reserva, Phoenix, Arizona.  Photo courtesy our long-suffering waiter, who pushed his way through the crowds to deliver drinks, food, and photographs!


Our group of many friends shared this newly made fresh cheese.  The cheese was wrapped in the large leaf you see; the leaf left its imprint on the cheese and kept the cheese moist and cool.  We ate it all, of course. 

Beautiful mazapán (marzipan) shaped like various fruits.  These delicious candies are made by cocinera tradicional Sra. Verónica Josefina Sánchez Pérez, from Ejutla de Crespo in Oaxaca's Valles Centrales.  She makes them by hand, from squash seeds or coconut, and colors them by hand as well.  My particular favorite is at the far right of the plate: it's a miniature jícama!


Everybody loves mezcal from Oaxaca and it's always good to taste whatever brand or variety is offered.  Click on this or any photo to make it bigger so you can see it better; here, the priest has a tasting glass in each hand.  As the saying goes, "Una vez al año no hace daño."  (Once a year does no harm.)  Mexico Cooks! saw him in the Market section of the Encuentro.


Vendedor de gardenias (gardenia seller) at the Encuentro.  He walked by every table and sold many bouquets of fragrant gardenias.  

Next week, Days 3 and 4 of the Second Annual Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca.  We're only halfway through--and the festival just kept getting better.  Days 3 and 4--well, you'll see.  Remember to come back to read more!

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

De Vaga en Veracruz, Tierra Jarocha :: Vacation Wanderings in Veracruz, Part II

After leaving Puerto de Veracruz, our next stop was the town of Coatepec, high in the coffee-producing mountains of central Veracruz state. We stayed just outside the town, at Eco-Hotel La Jicarita (hee-cah-REE-tah).  The property at La Jicarita is beautiful, planted with native trees and flowers (and shade-grown coffee).  You'll find hiking paths, a swimming pool, and delicious Veracruz breakfasts (not included in the room cost).  Although the rooms and bathrooms are fairly primitive, the beds are quite comfortable.  The rooms are inexpensive and the management works hard to please guests.  The photo, courtesy Hotels.com, is the outside of the room where I actually stayed.

Coatepec is just about equidistant between Xalapa (the Veracruz state capital) and Xico (a charming provincial town known for its mole), and was an ideal place to stay in order to visit all three towns.  

Before the trip, several friends who are from the Xalapa area recommended with great enthusiasm the breakfasts at the Hotel Mesón de Alférez, in Xalapa.  The restaurant is charming and service was attentive, but what we ate left something to be desired.  There was nothing exactly wrong with it, but we had hoped, given the high recommendations, that the food would be more regional and of higher quality.


After we finished breakfast in Xalapa, we went to the Xalapa Museo de Antropología primarily to see the display of colossal Olmec heads. The heads, carved of basalt and estimated to date between 1400 and 900 B.C.E.,  range in height from just under five feet to just over eleven feet and weigh between six and fifty tons apiece.  Seventeen--or possibly 18--heads are known to exist.  The color variation in the photo is due to the lighting of the displays.


The original Olmec head comes from Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, a town near the Papaloapan River (upper left in the map).  The area in the map is the original Olmec territory.  According to archeological notes seen in the Xalapa museum, the American archeologist M. W. Stirling and his team found the head face up at the bottom of a canyon in 1938.  Some scholars dispute this version of the find, and some say that a Mexican traveler accidentally discovered the first known Olmec head in 1861, but that the find was kept secret until the mid-1940s.     


Each of the heads is a portrait of a distinctly different Olmec man; each wears a helmet.  Theories about who these men were (warriors, rulers, ballplayers--one now-debunked theorist even believed that they might be Africans) have never been proven.  The Olmecs brought the basalt used to sculpt the heads as many as 150 kilometers to the site where carving took place, dragging the raw stone with ropes and rudimentary wheels.


Excavation of a  monumental Olmec head.  The photo appears to be original, but the website where Mexico Cooks! found it is full of astonishing and probably inaccurate and misleading information.  Read at your own risk.  Photo courtesy MessagetoEagle.com.  

Writing the basic description of the Olmec heads is merely reporting data.  The personal impact of standing in front of these giants is extraordinarily moving and difficult to put into words.  Once we were on the street, we saw that the faces carved in stone and many present-day faces of the area men and women are the same as these colossals: strong, individual personalities in ancient stone and in modern-day flesh and bone.  
   

While in Coatepec, we had the great pleasure of a visit to Panadería El Resobado, one of the few remaining commercial bakeries in Mexico using wood-fired ovens. The bakery opened for business more than a century ago; its ovens have not been allowed to cool in more than 25 years.   


We were completely entranced with El Resobado. The bakery is faithful to its traditions: to make delicious bread with the flour, sugar, and yeast, the basic ingredients. People say that the best breads at El Resobado are the conchas (shells)--and that if you should be stricken with hunger in the middle of the night, don't worry: the bakery is open 24 hours a day!  


One of the several ovens at El Resobado, ready for baking the next load of bread.  To judge the oven temperature, the skilled bakers stick their hands and forearms in--the bakers' experience is so great that they don't need oven thermometers.


Bread dough, kneaded, shaped, cut, and ready to be separated for baking.


Shelves at El Resobado, loaded with hot, fresh-from-the-oven conchas.  We bought a huge bag of many kinds of bread; we were struck by the unusual smokiness of what we tried.  


Some of the many cats that live at El Rebosado.  We were a group of crazy cat ladies and truly appreciated their gentle feline presence.  The bakery is a mouse-free zone! Photo courtesy Pamela Gordon.


Also in Coatepec, we visited Museo El Cafetal to see the process of growing, harvesting, roasting, and grinding Veracruz's high altitude, shade-grown coffee.  Museum admission charge is 40 pesos and worth every centavo. Photo courtesy Museo El Cafetal. 


Coffee beans against a tree trunk at the Museo El Cafetal. Photo by Mexico Cooks!.


Coatepec also boasts an orchid museum--a private collection in a private home.  This photo shows less than a quarter of the collection.  

After two nights in Coatepec, we moved on to Casitas, on the Gulf of Mexico.  We'd had some drizzle in Coatepec, but we arrived in Casitas to discover that the coast had suffered a tremendous storm the night before.  Although we'd been looking forward to sunshine, the beach, and the humid heat that Veracruz is famous for, instead we had grey skies, churned-up Gulf water, and weather unsuitable for swimming.  

We settled for driving to nearby San Rafael, which has the reputation of being a French-influenced town due to French settlement there in the 1840s.  We asked every adult on the streets about how to find a hint of Frenchness, but nobody knew.    


Here's what we did find: a carnicería (butcher shop) with a really wonderful sign.  Click on the photo to enlarge it for a better view; the sign painter had a field day with accents!  Two charming young women behind the butcher counter let us taste their version of carnitas.  Verdict: not bad for Veracruz, but definitely not carnitas from the state of Michoacán, where carnitas originated.

Next week, come with Mexico Cooks! to Papantla, Veracruz, where we investigated regional food and vanilla.  We'd planned to stay one night and ended by staying three!  We had a marvelous time and truly wanted to stay even longer.

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here to see new information: Tour

De Vaga en Veracruz, Tierra Jarocha :: Vacation Wanderings in Veracruz, Part I

On the malecón (pier) in the port of Veracruz.  Mexican president Venustiano Carranza used this lighthouse building, built at the turn of the 20th century, as the Palacio Nacional (federal government offices) from 1914 to 1915. During that short period, the city of Veracruz was the nation's capital. Today, the Faro Venustiano Carranza (lighthouse of Venustiano Carranza) serves as part of Mexico's naval headquarters. All photos by Mexico Cooks! unless otherwise noted.

Directly across the street from the lovely old building in the photo above, the hyper-modern port of Veracruz receives and sends enormous quantities of goods to and from everywhere in the world.

Vacation!  And not just vacation, but vacation in Veracruz, one of Mexico's most beautiful states--I was so excited at the prospect of re-visiting the Puerto de Veracruz (port city), where I had not been since about 1994.  Two friends and I carefully chose two weeks for travel that would not be too hot, not be too humid: the temperatures along the Veracruz coast can range as high as more than 100ºF, with humidity equally high. Even during the second and third weeks of December, the high temperatures were in the mid-80s and the humidity was in that same range or higher.  Did we get used to it?  Not so much, but we definitely enjoyed a most fascinating trip together.  From the Puerto to the mountain towns of Xalapa, Coatepec, and Xico, and from the Córdoba flanks of the Pico de Orizaba (Mexico's highest mountain, an inactive volcano) to Papantla, the land of vanilla's origin, we traveled and learned.  And ate. And ate some more. Come along!


One of our group seriously craved and insisted on breakfast at La Parroquia.  In researching the trip, I'd read that this old-time restaurant was muy de caída (had gone a long way down hill), but oh my goodness, our first breakfast in Veracruz was fantastic.


La Parroquia is most noted for its ritual lechero--freshly brewed Veracruz-grown coffee, poured from on high to the level you prefer in your glass, the glass then filled (again, from on high) with steaming hot milk.  This first morning, the coffee wowed all three of us.


Hot milk from the heights!  Photo courtesy Mexico Destinos.


The place was jam-packed for breakfast; there was no sign of a down-hill slide in quality or quantity the late-morning we were at La Parroquia.  Best of all, our server, don Galindo, was a real treasure-trove of knowledge about the area.  He directed us to--well, we'll go there next week on Mexico Cooks!.


Among many other regional specialties on the breakfast menu, the house special tortilla parroquia intrigued us. It's a tortilla española (Spanish-style omelet with egg and potato), cooked and then submerged in rich turkey broth. It's topped with shredded turkey, grilled onion, and chile serrano toreado (lightly fried in oil until the skin blisters and the chile is soft).  Doesn't it sound odd?  We were entranced by the flavor combination!  Just writing about it makes me want another one right now!  


Gorda negra with cheese, from La Parroquia.

We also requested other Parroquia specialties: gordas negras (corn tortilla dough combined with finely ground cooked black beans), patted out or pressed to form tortillas a bit thicker than usual.  These are then fried in oil until they inflate and are served with salsa and cheese or cream. We also ordered gordas dulces (corn dough mixed with a little flour, a pinch of baking soda, and quite a bit of brown sugar), patted out and fried the same as the gordas negras, and served with thick grated mild white cheese and salsa.  We also asked for what turned out to be a perfect plate of huevos motuleños, specialty of the Yucatán peninsula.  We relished everything, shared among us, along with freshly squeezed super-sweet orange juice (the state of Veracruz produces nearly 40% of the oranges grown in Mexico) plus a second glass of lechero filled us to the brim.


That night, we enjoyed watching danzón in the Puerto de Veracruz zócalo.  The group of both dancers and spectators was small but happy. Danzón is the official dance of Cuba and also very, very popular in Mexico.  

Just to show you the dance form, here's a danzón video from Guadalajara, where one can danzón (or take inexpensive danzón classes) every Sunday evening in the plaza just in front of the Templo Expiatorio, at the corner of Calle López Cotilla and Av. Enrique Díaz de León.  


In our meanderings close to the port city, we happened upon an island restaurant in tiny Mandinga-Alvarado. "Happened upon" is, of course, a euphemism for "asked everybody in the general area where to find it".  Once we found the town of Mandinga, population approximately 1500, we stopped at the town taxi stand and asked a cabbie for directions to the restaurant, Isla Paraíso.  He had no idea! Another fellow approached the car and said he'd guide us; he went running down the street ahead of our car and led us right to this bridge.  We walked across into a world apart: Isla Paraíso opened nearly 40 years ago and is still going strong.  


Mandinga is famous world-wide for its oysters.  The oyster (Crassostrea virginica) is harvested throughout the entire Eastern coast of North America, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, including huge daily harvests from the Mandinga lagoon.  Of course we had to eat a plateful.


The specialty of the house at Restaurante Isla Paraíso, oysters cooked in various ways and, in this case, served as an appetizer.


The restaurant owner, Patricia Waters Mújica, is British. Her Mexican husband, who passed away just a few years ago, met her in England and moved her and their family to Puebla, then to Australia, then to the Puerto de Veracruz--and ultimately to Mandinga, after many fascinating life adventures.  They opened the restaurant, and Patsy has lived in tiny Mandinga all that time, raising their two daughters and running the restaurant. It was a delight to spend the afternoon and evening hearing her story.  


Our last morning in the Puerto de Veracruz, we once again had breakfast at La Parroquia.  This time, the restaurant unfortunately lived up to its current way-down-hill reputation.  Almost everything we ordered, including this repeat plate of huevos motuleños, was far, far below the quality of what we ate the first morning.  Even the coffee was disappointing. We shared the opinion that had this been our initial breakfast, we wouldn't have returned.  

Next week, come back for much more de vaca y de vaga (vacation and wandering around) in central Veracruz.

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here to see new information: Tours

Adobo de Cerdo Huasteco, from Verde Blanco y Rojo by Ricardo Muñoz Zurita

Originally published in October 2011, this illustrated recipe for Adobo de Cerdo Huasteco is a perfect meal for February's chilly weather.  Mexico Cooks! celebrates its ninth anniversary of publishing with this delicious meal to warm body and soul.  Enjoy!

Roma tomatoes and onion quarters toasting on a comal (in this case, a cast iron griddle).  That little tomato on the right looks downright happy to be toasting.

Several months ago, Mexico Cooks! was thrilled to receive a copy of Chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita's newest recetario (cookbook), titled Verde, Blanco, y Rojo en la Cocina Mexicana.  Due to the pressures of moving and settling into a new and somewhat more frenetic life in Mexico City, the very attractive book sat patiently in the kitchen bookshelf with its 150 or so brother and sister cookbooks, waiting to be chosen.  'Choose me, choose me!' it whispered each time I passed by the shelf.  And finally I listened.

Serving-size pieces of maciza de cerdo (lean, fresh pork leg) simmering with onion and garlic.

My friends and I are very fond of traditional Mexican cuisine.  Like most people, we have our favorite dishes.  And like most people, I have a hard time breaking habits and wading into a new cookbook: it means learning a new format, a new organization of ingredients, and a new dish that I had never prepared. 

The first task was reading the recipe all the way through to the end to make sure that I had all of the ingredients and utensils on hand prior to starting to cook and that I understood the order of cooking.  It's really no fun at all to start the preparations and discover at the time of need that oops, there is no garlic and ouch, that one bowl I really wanted to use is full of last night's stew.  You'll want to organize yourself and prepare your mise en place (all ingredients in place, ready to cook) well before you turn on the stove.


Differentiating between dried chiles ancho and chiles mulato can be confusing.  If you open a chile ancho and hold it up to the light, it looks from the inside like red stained glass.  The mulato, on the other hand, looks brown when held to the light.  It's immediately apparent which this is.  Always try to buy chiles that are leathery and flexible, not brittle.

Ingredients
2 kg (approximately 4.5 pounds) lean pork meat, cut into serving-size pieces
1 white onion, cut into quarters
1 head of garlic, split in half
4 liters water
6 tsp salt
8 chiles guajillo
5 large chiles ancho
3 large tomatos, roasted
1/2 white onion, quartered and roasted
5 garlic cloves
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dry Mexican oregano, crumbled
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4 cloves
3 Tbsp pork lard (you can substitute oil if you can't get real, freshly rendered lard)
1/2 cup white vinegar

Utensils 
Comal or griddle
Mesh strainer
Several small or medium-size mixing bowls
Mixing spoons
Heavy-bottom pot with lid
Blender

Toasting the chiles ancho on the comal.

 
Toasting the chiles guajillo on the comal.

Procedure
Put the pork, onion, and head of garlic in a large pot.  Cover with water, add 4 tsp salt and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat until the water is down to a simmer and cook until the pork is tender, about an hour.  Remove the pork from the water, drain the liquid into a bowl, and reserve both the meat and the cooking liquid for later use.

Remove the stems, seeds, and veins from all of the chiles and discard them.  Lightly toast the chiles on the comal, being careful not to burn them.  If they turn black, they will be bitter.  Soak the toasted chiles in four cups of the reserved cooking liquid from the pork.

Both types of toasted chiles are then soaked for a few minutes in some of the freshly cooked hot pork broth.

Blend the soaked chiles with enough of the cooking liquid to make a smooth, somewhat liquid paste. 

Roast the tomatoes, onions, and garlic on the comal, then blend them until they make a very smooth sauce.  If necessary for blending, add just a little of the reserved meat cooking liquid.  Using the wire mesh strainer, strain into a bowl and reserve. 


The mix of various seasonings (foreground), the blended and strained chiles (left rear) and the blended tomato/onion/garlic mixture (right rear).  

Grind the cumin, the oregano, the pepper, and the cloves together until they are powdered.  Set aside for later use.

Over a high flame, heat the lard or oil in a heavy-bottomed pot until it smokes slightly.  Add the ground chiles (splatter alert!) and fry for about 15 minutes or until the mixture is reduced by about one-fourth.  Add the blended tomato mixture, the spices, and two tablespoons of salt.  When the mixture comes to a boil, lower the fire and allow to simmer until the sauce has reduced a little.


The pork now needs to simmer in the adobo for an hour or more, either in the oven or over a very low fire.  The fragrance will drive you crazy, it is so tantalizing.  Mexico Cooks! prepared this recipe on top of the stove using the cast iron comal as a heat diffuser.

Add the meat, the vinegar, and three cups of the reserved meat cooking liquid.  Correct the seasonings and cook with the lid ajar over low heat (or bake covered in a 350° oven) for about an hour.  The finished sauce should be thick enough to cover the meat without sliding off the pieces.  

Adobo de cerdo huasteco, ready to eat!  Serve the dish with steamed white rice and plenty of hot-off-the-comal corn tortillas.

The finished recipe also freezes very well.  Mexico Cooks! served half the recipe as comida for six and froze the rest for a later meal. 

Serves 12. 

The wonderful Spanish-language Verde, Blanco, Rojo en La Cocina Mexicana, written by my friend Chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita of Restaurante Azul/Condesa.

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours. 

Heads Up! Heading for Mexico's Markets: What You Might See

If you've been reading Mexico Cooks! for long, you know that we photograph a lot of ripe and colorful fruits, vegetables, and other edibles in Mexico's markets. This gorgeous turkey, for example, was tethered with some others at the Thursday weekly market in Zaachila, Oaxaca.  He didn't know it, of course, but he would soon be purchased and...well, you can imagine. This is a food market, after all.

In the interest of early and full disclosure, the rest of the photos in this article might just gross you out.  It turns out that for reasons unknown even to myself, I have, in addition to taking lots of market photos of benign and lovely fruits and vegetables, made lots of head shots. Disembodied heads of animals. Be warned.


This Mexico City butcher saw me approaching with the camera and obligingly sat the pig head up straight for a portrait.  He's shaving the head, which was to be sold either whole or in parts for making Jalisco-style pozole. Better he should shave it than you should have to do it!

That's a goat head at the left of the photo.  To the right is a container of chinicuiles (red maguey worms).  The goat head is for preparing birria, the chinicuiles are for roasting and eating as a snack.

I think this is the first pig head picture I took, years ago at Guadalajara's Mercado Libertad.  All the pigs' heads I've seen have had that same charming little smile.

See what I mean?  This fellow looks downright happy to have given his all for your bowl of Guerrero-style pozole.


Anyone for bouillabaise?  It's been a long time since I prepared this delicious French fish stew, but Mexican markets always have the ingredients.  Like pozole, bouillabaise starts its broth with heads--in this case, fish heads.

Doña Martha has taken the cooked pig head out of the broth to remove its bones and teeth.  At this point, the pozole is almost-but-not-quite ready to serve.


Admit it, you would have taken this picture, too.  How could I resist?


You might want to click on this photo to enlarge it, for a better view.  It's barbacoa de res (beef barbecue, Mexican style), wrapped in penca de maguey (cactus leaves) and cooked for hours in a pit.  You can still see the teeth in the jaw.


A raw beef head, hung upside down in the butcher shop.


Here's another beef head with the skin and fur removed from the top of the head.  The butcher's gloved thumb is just about to pull the skin off the nose.

Chicken heads.  I don't have a recipe nor do I know of a recipe.  If you do, please let me know!


You'll be glad to know that this is the last pig head for this article.  This one, thoroughly cleaned, shaven, and ready for the pot, is merely waiting for a customer. The ears, snout, and tongue are delicacies in Mexico.


Has this photo essay driven any of you into the vegetarian camp?  Here's a vegetarian head: cabbage, of course.  

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours. 

XIº Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Michoacán :: Fiesta y Comida en México: In Mexico, the Food's the Party

Ana Pellicer and James Metcalf's handmade--by their own hands--copper pots and pans--from their own kitchen--perfectly illustrate Maestra Pellicer's Saturday morning talk explaining the history and uses of copper in the kitchen.  By 1450 A.D., the Tarascan (Purépecha) kingdom in the state of Michoacán had become the most important center of pre-hispanic metalworking. Metallurgy played a significant role in the structure of political and economic power in the Tarascan Empire. 

Although many people erroneously believe that Don Vasco de Quiroga brought copper work to Michoacán in the 16th century, the excavation and working of copper items predates Don Vasco's arrival by approximately 900 years. Copper was crafted for use in funeral practices, ornaments, and ritual items.


Malachite and copper.  Mtra. Pellicer, an internationally renowned copper sculptor, spoke about the connection between malachite and copper ore. She and her husband, the late James Metcalf, were instrumental in developing artisan copper work in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán.  Santa Clara is the last home of Mexico's copper art.


A panel of highly knowledgeable judges concentrates on the presentation of a traditional dish. From left, this panel includes chef Martha Ortiz, restaurateur Roberto González Guzmán, Maestro Benjamín Lucas Ángel, and jefe de cocina Yuri de Gortari, among others.

Norma Alicia Urbina Rangel, who lives in Uruapan, Michoacán, wore her most festive finery for the Sunday closing of the eleventh Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales.  Her hand-embroidered guanengo (traditional Purépecha blouse) features the Virgen María and Niño Dios on the front, back, and sleeves.  I asked her if she had made the blouse herself and she laughed. "Señora, my hand is skilled in the kitchen, not for embroidery.  I bought it."  For this Encuentro, Sra. Urbina competed in the category platillo de rescate ('rescued' dish--one that is now seldom prepared and is at risk of disappearing) with pescado seco capeado en salsa verde (battered dried fish in green sauce).


Edmundo Escamilla (left) and Yuri de Gortari, executive co-directors of the Escuela de Gastronomía Mexicana in Mexico City, gave an extraordinary talk about the conjunction of parties and food in Mexico.  The two men are a living treasure, repositories of culinary history, techniques, ingredients, art, tradition, folklore, and much, much more.  Authors of nine books, they were thrilled to participate in the Encuentro this past April.

As always, Mundo and Yuri gave a marvelous talk, filled with facts, myths, folklore, and tremendous good humor. Beginning with a short history of the caste system in colonial New Spain, they taught us about the body's need for a daily ration of salt, which led to the word salario (sal+diario) (salary), the huge variety of tamales that continues to exist in Mexico (4,000!), and how tamales were prepared in pre-Hispanic days in this country: without fat of any kind, tamales were eaten to celebrate the New Year. 


Casta (caste) painting from colonial New Spain.  This and many other paintings of the era reflect the importance that the Spanish gave to the mixture of races in the world they had conquered.  The Spanish caste system gave rise to ethnic shame in what was eventually to become Mexico.  The nomenclature of the mixes is long, and sometimes shocking to our 21st century sensibilities.  Click on any photograph to enlarge the image for a better view.

Tamales de zarzamora (blackberry), a sweet Michoacán specialty.

When the Spanish arrived with pigs (think lard) and Catholicism, lard became part of many recipes for tamales: with the addition of lard to corn masa, the tamal became Christian, along with its indigenous cooks.  Bendito puerco, bendita manteca!  (Blessed pork, blessed lard!)

In Morelia every January 6, a giant-size Rosca de Reyes (Three Kings Bread) is dished up to hungry hordes.

Mundo and Yuri pointed out that Christmas feasting includes a fusion of the indigenous Maya belief that corn is our actual flesh and bones, combined with the newly arrived and harvested Spanish wheat which forms the Communion host--in Catholic dogma, the actual body and blood of Christ, which believers (the spiritual body of Christ) consume.

 
After conclusion of the Sunday conferences and before the prizes were awarded for the XIº Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Michoacán, many of the cooks, jurors, and festival attendees danced for the sheer joy of it--as the crowd cheered, "Michoacán!  Michoacán!".  In Mexico Cooks!' video, historian Edmundo Escamilla dances with maestra cocinera Rosalba Morales Bartolo of San Jerónimo, Purenchécuaro, Michoacán. 

The next edition of the Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Michoacán will take place on October 4, 5, and 6, 2014.  If you'd like to come with me to see it all, please let me know!  Mexico Cooks!' email address is [email protected].  

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.