This intensive workshop is geared towards chefs and serious cooks who want to learn in depth about heirloom corn and its uses in Oaxacan gastronomy. During our 3 days of classes we focus on nixtamalization and two grinding techniques in two different communities where we will be cooking with regional varieties of heirloom corn.
In Teotitlán del Valle we will learn to do a quicker nixtamalization process to make tostadas de maíz quebrajada, ground by hand on the stone mill (metate) and make three textures of tortillas: blandas, tlayudas, and tostadas. We will also prepare the pre-Hispanic drink tejate, whose main ingredients of corn and cacao are some of the most important in the region. We´ll also learn to make a traditional dish amarillo (often referred to as yellow mole) which is thickened with heirloom corn masa. During this class we will work with four types of heirloom corn grown on site by our teacher, traditional cook, natural dyer, and weaver Aurora.
In Miahuatlán we cook on a traditional mezcal farm with a team of cocineras tradicionales, where heirloom corn, beans and squash are grown alongside agaves for small scale mezcal production. We will cook a dish that features dried corn (segueza, cracked corn mole), nixtamalized corn masa (tamales), and fresh corn (esquites). Here we will learn the long form of nixtamalization (letting our nixtamal soak overnight), perfect our tortilla-making skills, and learn about the five different types of atole in the region and choose which to prepare.
If you schedule your visit over a Sunday or Monday, we will incorporate a trip to the regional weekly market (día de plaza) in either Tlacolula or Miahuatlán. The día de plaza highlights the importance of the region´s food system and helps to understand corn’s important role in each region’s gastronomy.
Itinerary:
5 days/4 nights
Cost per person:
$1,265 USD/22,800 MXN (Open Outing 5-8 participants)
Dishes learned:
Tortillas: blandas, tlayudas, and tostadas
Main and side dishes: yellow mole, tamales, segueza, esquites
Drinks: tejate, atole
Skills learned:
Short-form and long-form nixtamalization techniques with cal (calcium hydroxide) and ash used by cocineras tradicionales in Teotitlán and Miahuatlán
How to grind nixtamalized corn by hand on a metate (stone mill) and how an electric stone mill works (molino)
How to create different tortilla textures based on grinding technique and heat control (blandas, tlayudas, and tostadas) on a clay comal over a wood burning fire
Have an understanding of how to form tortillas with a press and by hand
How to work with dried corn, nixtamalized corn, and fresh corn
Includes:
Personalized guide and translation (Spanish/English)
Comfortable transportation round trip from Oaxaca city
Three days of cooking classes which include learning different nixtamalization techniques, different grinding techniques, how to work with fresh, dried, and nixtmalized corn; in total learning 7 different Oaxacan corn based dishes and 2 traditional corn based beverages
Visit to a traditional mezcal palenque where will learn about the history in the region and production from a mezcal producing family
Tasting of traditional mezcal at the palenques
A chance to buy mezcal directly from the producer (price not included), our help packing in for travel
7 meals
Four nights stay: 3 nights accommodation at El Diablo y La Sandia and 1 night accommodation at Rancho Los Nahuales (double occupancy)
Take home kit of basic tools for tortilla making tools
Drinking water and light snacks
Donation to future community youth center
Donation to women´s cooperative annual project
The economic and cultural hub of the Sierra Sur, the Miahuatlán area is a biodiversity hotspot. It boasts an immense variety of mezcal producing agaves endemic to the area, resulting in some of the most complex and rare mezcales in all of Mexico. The region's cuisine creates a perfect complement to its traditional drink resulting in regional specialities like shobatá, chichilo, or barbacoa de chivo, or goat roasted in an earth oven. Barbacoa de chivo might as well be the official party food of December in the southern mountains of Oaxaca. Goat or lamb barbacoa is served to a crowd of anywhere from 15 to 1,000 guests in celebration of an end-of-year baptism, wedding, or quinceañera. During this experience we will immerse ourselves in the culture of mezcal country, preparing a traditional earth oven barbacoa with a maestro mezcalero and his family.
We will leave Oaxaca City and head to Miahuatlán where we will begin the preparations for the barbacoa: prepping the oven, chopping vegetables for the consome, and nixtamalizing dried corn for freshly made tortillas. On Day 2 we will rise early to learn how to butcher the goat and begin the day-long earth oven roast. While the oven is doing its job we will make consomé and handmade heirloom corn tortillas as well as learn about and sample traditional mezcal made on site. We recommend scheduling the experience on Monday and Tuesday so that we can incorporate a trip to the regional market where small farmers and vendors come in from surrounding areas once a week to sell and buy goods. Here we'll find everything from tamales, organic vegetables, up to 7 types of bananas, chiles native to the region, hand woven straw mats, pottery, to rain tarps and bamboo baskets.
Itinerary:
3 days/2 nights
Cost per person:
$765 USD/13,800 MXN (Open Outing 5-8 participants)
Dishes learned:
Tortillas (blandas)
Barbacoa de chivo
Consomé
Blood sausage
Salsa for the barbacoa
Skills learned:
Nixtamalization using cal (calcium hydroxide)
How to grind nixtamalized corn with an electric stone mill works (molino)
Have an understanding of how to form tortillas with a press and by hand
How to build and heat a traditional barbacoa oven
How to butcher a goat
Includes:
Personalized guide and translation (Spanish/English)
Comfortable transportation round trip from Oaxaca city (2 hours each way)
Two days of traditional cooking classes, including learning how to butcher a goat with a maestro mezcalero, how to make your own barbacoa oven, the nixtmalization of heirloom corn, and how to make tortillas by hand
Visit to 2 traditional mezcal palenques where will learn about the history in the region and production from a mezcal producing family
Tasting of traditional mezcal at the palenques
A chance to buy mezcal directly from the producer (price not included), our help packing in for travel
7 meals
Two nights stay: 2 nights accommodations at Rancho Los Nahuales (double occupancy)
Drinking water and light snacks
Donation to future community youth center
Mole, the most emblematic dish of Oaxaca. Depending on who you talk to mole is prehispanic, mole is post hispanic, there are three moles, there are seven moles; mole is thickened with bread, mole always has chocolate; you should only toast mole ingredients, you should fry mole ingredients; Oaxacans invented mole, Poblanos invented mole; and so on and so forth. In this intensive workshop we explore myths and truths, taste and prepare well known moles as well as moles rarely tasted outside of Oaxaca. We prepare the classic mole negro (also known as mole dulce, sweet mole) essential for Day of the Dead and other important ocassions like funerals. We´ll also prepare everyday moles such as yellow, green, and criollo as well as the more complex and rare moles like següeza, chichilo, and mole de castilla as well as tamales made with mole.
Itinerary:
6 days/5 nights
Cost per person:
$1,525 USD/27,500 MXN (Open Outing 5-8 participants)
Dishes learned:
Mole negro (mole dulce) and tamales de mole negro
Següeza
Mole de castilla
Amarillo and tamales de amarillo
Mole criollo
Verde
Chichilo
Tortillas
Skills learned:
Identify and work with more than 10 types of chiles
Grind mole ingredients on a metate, traditional stone mill and with an electric mill, molino
Thicken mole with bread and masa
Cook mole over gas and wood burning fire
How to use different leaves for making mole tamales (corn husks, leaf from the corn stalk, and banana leaf)
Nixtmalization process
Includes:
Personalized guide and translation service (English/Spanish)
Comfortable transportation round trip from Oaxaca city
Cost of all programmed activities over the course of 6 days (4 days of clases), 5 nights
10 meals
Five nights stay: 4 nights accommodations at El Diablo y La Sandía and 1 night accommodations at Rancho Los Nahuales (double occupancy)
Drinking water and light snacks
Donation to future community youth center
Donation to women's cooperative annual project