Food Glorious Food

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After the bland food of Cuba our minds were very focussed on food when we arrived back in Mexico. We weren’t disappointed as Mexico delivered; scrambled eggs wrapped in a large tortilla and smothered with a rich sauce and avocado for breakfast; guacamole, frijoles, quesadillas or tacos for lunch; and around Oaxaca we discovered some of the seven types of mole (pronounced mo-lay). Our favourite mole has to be Mole Negro made from Oaxacan chocolate and chillies and poured generously over chicken. The chillies are first roasted creating a pungent vapour. Oaxacan chocolate is strong and bitter and is also used to make thick, creamy hot or cold drinking chocolate.

Oaxaca, about 6 hours south of Mexico City, is known for its local cuisine so while there we did a cooking course at the Casa del los Milagros. Our day started with a visit to a local food market to buy ingredients for the lunch we were going to prepare which included quesadillas con hierbasanta, salsa verde asada, Squash Flower Soup, chiles en nogada and coconut flan. In the market we selected chillies from a wide variety of colours, sizes and spiciness; we bought prepared maize dough for the quesadillas; and tried a maize and chocolate drink.

Dressed in frilly, checked aprons – and very ably directed by a quartet of Mexican chefs – we sliced, stirred, fried, blended, roasted and pounded various ingredients to produce a relatively simple but delicious meal. The Squash Blossom Soup is one of our favourites – simple and beautiful as the main ingredients of squash, their flowers, onions and corn are cooked and blended together and the final dish is garnished with a single squash blossom. The Chiles en Nogada was also divine. The large poblana chilli is roasted and peeled and then stuffed with an array of diced fruits and chicken, and finally bathed in a walnut and cream sauce. We completed the meal with a slice of refreshingly creamy coconut flan.

The meal was accompanied by the seemingly mandatory Mexican tradition of mixing an insect with strong liquor – in our case roasted and ground worm, mixed with lime followed by a shot of Mezcla (local legend has it that even at 40% alcohol content one does not get drunk on Mezcla).

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Comments

[trish]

Awaiting dinner invitation
My goodness, sounds fabulous. Maybe you could reproduce a cooking course for the rest of us. Talk soon Trish

[Michaela]

Mexican cantina
Your Mexican Kitchen Rules! I hope you were able to keep the aprons - Andrew, clearly had a bit of divine intervention to assist him cooking up a storm. We will expect chocolate sauce with next BBQ!

[margarita]

me gust a el aprons
especialamente el apron del Andrew.....muy fetching. Estoy esperando por una cena deliciousa en canberra...adios amigos