Cooking Classes with Nora Valencia, in Oaxaca, Mexico
If you absorb just a small fraction of what Nora’s grandmother taught her about Oaxacan cooking over the course of some four decades, you’ll walk away with not only a wealth of knowledge about ingredients and techniques, but also a deep understanding of the history. and the geography. variation of all that is Oaxacan cuisine today… and of course fully satiated at the end of your gourmet meal.
Oaxacan Nora Valencia captivates her students with informative stories and humorous anecdotes peppered throughout her class about her grandmother’s perceptions of food preparation and ingredient combinations. But she also confesses, as she walked from the market, that hers was a long journey to reach a “classroom” environment more than ten years ago: “What my grandmother and mother taught me was not enough. My coming of age as an instructor it required a lot of research and travel, in the nature of sociological and anthropological research, some chemistry and physics, and even botany, and I always tried to get as many old books as possible on Latin American foods, and where possible on plants and Mexican and Oaxacan herbs and pre-Hispanic recipes. There’s one book in particular that I still need, called ‘Conquest and Food’… maybe you’ll find it at a local bookstore and let me know.”
The day of the lesson begins at 9:30, with the students meeting and chatting briefly with each other and with Nora, in a relaxed and informal setting at their B&B, La Casa de Mis Recuerdos. Around 10, taxis arrive to take everyone to Mercado de La Merced, one of the daily markets in the center of Oaxaca, if not the most popular…for Oaxacans. About an hour is spent in the market, walking from stall to stall, where you learn, in various ways, about indigenous origins and history, and the current uses of fresh and dried chilies, nuts, tomatoes, cheeses, breads, a lot of herbs, and much more. You leave with an appreciation of how Oaxacan cuisine has made its way into the 21st century, as a result of the fusion of the use of pre-Hispanic produce and meats, with imports first brought from Spain during the conquest period.
Nora imparts an understanding of the difference between products found at permanent market stalls (most often bought by vendors from growers or wholesalers with large operations) and those sold primarily by women sitting on the ground who have grown fruits, vegetables and herbs. in their own towns and villages: “Now we use the term organic, for what we have traditionally called Creole, which is what these ladies sell. But some of the big stalls also have Creole products, so keep an eye out.”
Nora reveals here and several times later in the kitchen which ingredients, more easily available at home, can be substituted for what she buys at the market, such as local varieties of green and red tomatoes, specific herbs, chili peppers, and even dough: ” If you can only buy Maseca brand packaged cornmeal in Oregon, and you are making tamales, then add a bit of cornmeal to give it just the right texture.Feel the difference between the two types of masa found here at the market, one for tortillas and one for tamales, and as you may know, we use hoja santa a lot in our recipes, and it’s only available in a few states, like Florida, so if you can’t find it, try using….”
Instead of buying everything on this market visit, Nora has already bought most of it the day before, and what she buys during this short tour is dropped off at each stall and picked up when we’re ready to go. “Now I’m going back to some of the stalls to pick up what we bought, so we’ll meet you outside in 10 to 15 minutes. In the meantime, you can go and buy some of those rarer dried chilies to take home, that spicy paste that you I told you that I like to keep in my bag when I visit the States, and maybe even some worms that we’ll use to make a sauce later. You can buy a chain of 100 and wear it as a necklace for customs.” Nora passes on valuable advice about what ingredients you should be able to take across the border and what freezes well (ie quesillo and grasshoppers, Oaxacan cheese and grasshoppers).
We walk to his nearby house along a picturesque cobbled path, where the balance of the class will unfold. We will spend the rest of the morning and afternoon in your traditional painted tile (talavera) kitchen with center island, and your dining and living rooms that open onto a lushly landscaped courtyard with trees, vines, and flowering shrubs. A feeling of comfort surrounds you, as if you were at home, because in a certain sense you are, made to feel as welcome as possible. With only one assistant, Minerva, I marvel at the hard work that has gone into pre-preparing some dishes, and more importantly, how Nora has to be “on” 100% of the time and attentive to every single one of us. the ten apprentices with ages between twenty and sixty years, for more than six hours.
Effectively everything is Nora, teaching, directing, reassuring, remembering and correcting. With mostly newbies to this class today, making dessert tamales, one of the two most complex recipes of the day, isn’t as easy as simply mixing some masa with pineapple chunks and wrapping them in corn husks. Three mixes are prepared, placed in the shells, and then very carefully folded: “Sorry, but this is going to have to be another tile, so we’ll combine two into one, or better yet, how about using an extra shell.” to keep it all together.” There’s the dough mix, the coconut-milk mix, the pineapple-sugar-cinnamon fusion, plus raisins. “Now make sure that the water from boiling the pineapple doesn’t spill, because I can use it at another time instead of plain water, to make a fresh fruit juice (fresh water). It’s already sweet and tasty.”
When a component was prepared before our arrival, Nora instructs how it was made, for example, with the chicken and beef broth. When there are optional ingredients, Nora not only tells us what we can substitute based on personal preference, but she also explains the regional variations. And while we prepare the yellow mole, she teaches about the fallacy that there are seven moles: “Some think of seven moles because sometimes we refer to seven regions of the state. But if you stop to think, in Puerto Escondido for example, where shrimp are often used to create broth and as a protein in amarillo, shouldn’t we consider this mole a class or variety unto itself?”
While we prepare our yellow mole, we are testing how the flavor subtly changes, adding hoja santa, the mixture of spices, the dough that, explained, absorbs and reduces the itching a bit. A fiery sauce almost magically turns into a complex mole, a hard-to-find creation when prepared commercially. “How spicy does everyone like to eat? You know I don’t promise anything because peppers are like lottery tickets: you never know. I used to tell my grandmother, let me measure, but she said no, use your eyes, your nose and your mouth to measure”. Nora goes on to say that the same ingredient is often different in intensity, flavor, and how it’s absorbed, such as with chicken…it’s not always the same.
While she emphasizes historical and regional contextualization in the use of ingredients and the resulting variation in recipes, Nora also makes sure technique is properly emphasized in class. She draws participants into hands-on learning, encouraging each one to contribute to the creation of each dish.
Printed recipe sheets are distributed, but not until after the food has been served. Nora is of the opinion that it is better for students to watch, listen, participate and ask questions first, instead of reading and taking notes. When she finishes the meal, she reviews the recipes and answers questions about any questions.
Around 2 pm, we are ready to try some mezcal and then sit back and enjoy our creations:
1) An appetizer of fresh squash blossom stuffed with a mixture of cottage cheese,
ham, onion and nuts;
2) Consumed hoja santa, with pumpkin blossom, cheese, garlic, etc.;
3) Mint rice;
4) Mole amarillo with chicken and steamed vegetables;
5) A garnish of onion slices in a lime juice vinaigrette;
6) Green tomato sauce with maguey worms;
7) Juice of fresh fruits of orange, lime and cucumber;
8) For dessert tamales with pineapple, coconut and raisins.
Even Nora’s grandmother would be hard-pressed to produce such a diverse, delicious, and complete meal.
Cocina con Nora is located at Aldama 205, Barrio de Jalatlaco, in the center of Oaxaca. Maximum class size is 10. You can register for Nora’s classes by calling (951) 515-5645 or emailing her at: [email protected].
(Website: http://www.almademitierra.net )