Our First Cooking Class!

 It’s hard to judge one incredible day from another, honestly, but not sure Robert can take a third – so glad tomorrow is our “off” day and we can actually relax just a little bit!  (Although I am thinking about the Natural History Museum…)

 Up this morning about 7 (which is really late for us!) but as our Casa Jacaranda cooking class didn’t meet until 10 am, I figured a little sleeping in was permitted.  The class information had us meeting at Quentin Café, (of which there are several in town) and said they had good food, so we decided to breakfast there.  Uber only took about 7-8 minutes to get us there – not sure of the area, possibly Condesa, but it was really lovely.  We both ordered the chilaquiles, R had red sauce, and I had their green, at the waiter’s recommendation.  Turns out the green was the spicier of the two!  I also had a scrambled egg with mine.  R had coffee, and I had excellent hot chocolate, along with orange juice. 

 

R's breakfast

My breakfast (notice the egg!)

How do they do that on the chocolate?

Exactly at 10 am, Emilio, our instructor quite literally bounced into the area and collected all nine of us who had gathered.  Interestingly, there were five Brits, an older couple plus a friend, and another younger couple, all from London!  There was another young couple from the D.C. area, and us!  The young London couple were (he) a gastroenterologist and (she) a psychiatrist, so at least we could feel safe eating in the markets! Lol  

 The first thing Emilio wanted to know was about our food allergies.  Fortunately, there was only one: Cristobal (from D.C.) was allergic to peanuts.  Unfortunately, that ruled out most moles, but not all!  He then asked if there was anything special that we were interested in making!  I, of course, said MOLE, and another gal (George) wanted ceviche.  With that as the foundation, Emilio said we could make some of both, and we were on our way!

 Off we went to the Juarez Market, as our first stop.  Emilio was amazing!  Very knowledgeable about Mexico and food and the origins of things.  We spent about an hour and a half in the market, with him showing us various things, most of which were specific to Mexico and Mexican cuisine.  I think we all learned quite a bit.  (As a side note, we did a food tour with Diana on our last visit, and we spent so much time in the market that we never got to the cooking, but we learned/tasted and enjoyed such a variety of things that are only grown or found in Mexico or Central America that it was totally worth it!  This was very different, but still very interesting.)

Outside Juarez Market

Emilio talking about chilis

Emilio with corn, beans, and cilantro

Our group in front of the chocolate shop!

From the market we headed to a chocolate shop for a very interesting lecture on cacao and its processing.  We tasted several different varieties/strengths, and it was an interesting comparison.  We also had the opportunity to purchase some of the chocolate that the shop manufactured itself; yummy!

 From there, we headed to the “cooking school” itself.  It’s located in a beautiful building, and comprises three rooms, all of which we discovered during the day.  The first room is the “participation room” – and after we all washed our hands, we lined up around the table, with Emilio and the gas range (VERY powerful burners!) at one end.  We were all provided with leather aprons (very fancy!) and got started! 

Set up for cooking class

The way the school is organized is that once Emilio discovers allergies/likes/preferences, he comes up with a menu and sends it to his team.  The team then does the shopping and most of the prep work.  That way, by the time the class assembles in the prep room, basically much of the work is already done!   Emilio introduced us to Charlie, his assistant, who basically cleaned up after everyone and made sure that Emilio had everything he needed.  We were all wishing for a Charlie for our own kitchens!  

 The first thing that we worked on was the mole, as that took the longest preparation, and it was wild!  Because the mole was without nuts or seeds, it instead used bread for thickener and fruit (pineapple, plantain and apple) for sweetness.  It was amazing!  We made it in two parts – the chili part, which required us all to split and clean dried chilis, and then roast them over the open flame, and then the “sweet” part, that included the fruits and the bread.  He has a Vitamix blender that works like a charm and seems like it can digest just about anything!  We’ve never had one, but we’re thinking about getting one, as it seems much more powerful that our blender, for sure! 

A glass of wine is always helpful...

Emilio and Cristobal scorching tomatoes & onion

 At any rate, after the mole, we made three different salas, all excellent.  For our final dish, we were given lumps of masa to turn into tortillas, which was great fun!  No surprise that R and his partner, Cristobal, were the best tortilla makers!  Jeremy and I actually finally got the hang of it and did pretty well ourselves. It was really interesting putting the masa on the grill and turning them over and then watching them puff up!  Amazing process!!

  

Me cutting pineapple for mole

Mole in ceramic bowl on the burner

Now I'm cutting cucumbers for one of the salsas

 

Blue hands from the blue corn masa!

Our taco spread!

  

At this point, we all left to wash our hands, as the blue corn masa left our hands rather more than blue, and when we returned, the table had been totally reset (thank you, Charlie!) for some taco tasting!  It was incredible!  Besides our salsas, we had both chorizo (cooked by Robert!) and thinly sliced beef, with guacamole along with onion, grasshoppers (and no, neither of us indulged although most everybody else did…), corn mushrooms (interesting, as they are a fungus that grown in place of corn kernels, and are excellent!) and sliced peppers – along with, of course, our own just hand-made tortillas!  They were great!!  

 After this, we left our aprons behind and headed into room two, the center room, which turned out to be the kitchen itself!  This is where the shrimp for the ceviche had been marinating in the refrigerator, and several other things had been done behind the scenes.  We watched as the mole was combined with the vegetables and the chicken, as well as the final preparations for the ceviche – sauce ladled on top, then slices of avocado added, with flourishes of cilantro and salt. 

Moving then into the final room – the “dining room” we were all seated and presented first with the ceviche – to be eaten Mexican style – on tostadas.  First, a foundation of mayonnaise, then the ceviche, avocado and sauce mounded on top.  It was actually really good, but I had already eaten several tacos and couldn’t finish very much!  Which was too bad, as the chicken with fruit and mole was still to come!!  Some of the younger folks could eat like they were starving; can’t do that anymore!!  

Our chicken with fruit mole and rice

Shrimp ceviche

Settling in to the dining room.

R's birthday flan!

 

With fruit sauce; very good!

Art work in the building!

Some interesting faces!

The chicken with mole was also served with an excellent Mexican rice, and some wonderful red wine!  Oh!  With the tacos, Emilio mixed up some crazy cocktail that included tequila and several other things – I guess it was some sort of Margarita – R said it was excellent, but I stayed with a Jasmine tea, which was lovely!  

After that, they came out with a lovely big Flan with some sort of “Roman candle” on top – ostensibly to celebrate R’s birthday, which was a lovely gesture – again, with a sweet fruit sauce to go on top.  By this time, most everyone had had more than enough to eat, but it was really delicious.  We were totally exhausted, as, I think were most of the others … a really lovely group!

 We sat around the table and chatted for a bit, and Emilio wanted to know if anyone needed any advice about things to do/go/eat in Mexico City, and he made some specific suggestions.  By this time, it was about 4:30 pm – and believe it or not, he had another class to teach tonight at 6:30 pm!  Oh my!!  Of course the 6:30 pm class wouldn’t include the market, as it’s closed in the evening – but still – he really talked almost non-stopped from 10 am – do NOT know how he does it – and he’s going to do it twice again tomorrow!  Ah, youth!!

 At any rate, we all agreed that it had been a truly fantastic day!  But that’s what I mean by saying I’m not sure we can handle another truly fantastic day in a row…Ubered back to the apartment, and did a load of wash…so we’ll see what tomorrow brings … tomorrow!  And no, we’re NOT going out for dinner tonight!!

 Much love,

m

xxx