Cooking Workshop - Mexico City

Today I decided to go off the beaten path for toursists and participate in a local cooking workshop. Our host, who conducted the workshop runs her own restaurant and works with "mayoras" (ladies from the countriside without formal culinary education, but with lots of knowledge and experience in cooking). We made different types of salasas, guacamole, we learned about different types of chile, we learned how to deal with the masa (corn dough), how to press and roast tortillas, how to make quesadilla, sopes and tlocoyos. Very cool and informative workshop.

In Mexican cooking, quelites is a family of edible greens. The word comes from the Nahuatl quilitl, and in Mexican food culture it refers broadly to tender edible leaves, shoots, stems, young plants, and even some flowers. They have been part of Mexican foodways since pre-Hispanic times, and they are especially associated with seasonal, local cooking and the world of the milpa and traditional markets rather than with one fixed canonical ingredient.

Here are some examples:
- Verdolaga is the fleshy, juicy, slightly acidic one; in Mexico it is famously cooked into stews, especially verdolagas con carne de puerco, and more generally its young leaves and tender stems are used in soups, broths, and other cooked preparations.
- Berro is a darker green with a fresher, more peppery profile; in rural central Mexico it may accompany tacos, while in cities it often appears in simple salads.
- Quelite cenizo is a more rustic, earthy cooking green, also counted among the classic quelites; Larousse notes it as a traditional Mexican edible plant known in some regions by Indigenous names and treated as one of the recognizable country greens of central Mexican cuisine.

We have so many edible vegtables in the wild that we don't cultivate...

Another intersting thing is the huitlacoche. It's an edible fungus that infects young corn, growing between the kernels and swelling them into soft gray-black galls; in Mexico it has been harvested since ancestral times, especially during the rainy season, though today it can also be cultivated in a controlled way. When it is still young and tender, it is prized for its deep, earthy, mushroom-like flavor and is commonly cooked in quesadillas, tamales, soups, and stews, often sautéed first with onion, garlic, chile, and even goes on pasta, pizza and risotto!

Chiles are very diverse and are used everywhere in MExican cooking. Every type of chile can be either fresh or dried. Here is a short mental map of them:

• poblano → ancho when dried
• chilaca → pasilla when dried
• jalapeño → chipotle when smoked and dried
• morita is a smaller smoked-dried jalapeño / chipotle type
• mirasol -> guajillo when dried
• chile de árbol is often sold fresh, but is used very often dried
• habanero is mostly used fresh rather than dried

Here are the characteristics and use of each:

• Poblano: large, fleshy, dark green, broad and conical, with relatively mild heat. It is the classic chile for chiles rellenos, rajas, and roasting/peeling. When dried, it becomes ancho.
• Ancho: the dried poblano. It is broad, triangular, reddish-brown, and especially valued for color, body, and depth rather than aggressive heat. It is one of the main dried chiles in red sauces, moles, adobos, and many guisos rojos.
• Chilaca: long, dark green to almost black, somewhat twisted, fleshy, and sometimes quite hot. In central Mexico it is often roasted and peeled, then used in rajas, chopped, ground, or stuffed. When dried, it becomes pasilla.
• Pasilla: the dried chilaca. Long, dark, wrinkled, and moderately hot, it is used for salsas such as salsa borracha, as well as moles, adobos, revoltijo, and meat stews.
• Mirasol: the fresh form of guajillo. Its name comes from the way the fruits point upward “toward the sun” on the plant. It is used fresh in some regional stews and salsas, though outside those contexts you are much more likely to encounter its dried form, guajillo.
• Guajillo: the dried mirasol. Smooth, shiny, reddish, and elongated, it is one of the standard dried chiles because it gives red color and consistency to sauces, moles, and stews.
• Jalapeño: fresh, fleshy, green, conical, and medium to fairly hot. It is used in salsas, rajas, fillings, and everyday cooked dishes. When smoked and dried, it becomes chipotle.
• Chipotle: smoked, dried jalapeño. Dark, wrinkled, and distinctly smoky, it is one of the hotter dried chiles and is especially associated with adobos, escabeches, canned chipotles in adobo, and brothy dishes.
• Serrano: small, green, pointed, and clearly hot. It is one of the most common fresh chiles in Mexico and is used raw, cooked, roasted, or fried, especially in fresh and cooked salsas.
• Morita: a small smoked-dried jalapeño type, related to chipotle. It is very hot but also slightly sweet, and is used much like chipotle in salsas and adobos.
• Chile de árbol: long, thin, and very hot. It can be found fresh, but it is most commonly used dried, especially for fiery table salsas and to sharpen sauces and guisos.
• Habanero: small, lantern-shaped, and extremely hot; the classic chile of Yucatecan cooking. It is usually used fresh rather than dried, often in salsas and condiments, and commonly appears green, yellow, or orange depending on ripeness.