Cooking Class in Oaxaca

By: Harper June

On Wednesday, Mom, Dodo, and I went to a cooking class in a small town outside of Oaxaca City. The host met us in Oaxaca City, and then we took taxis to the location, which was their home. We arrived there and met Mimi, our main instructor, and Charlie, our translator because Mimi only spoke spanish.

Here’s Dodo with Mimi! So cute!

I was the only person under 22. (That was kinda obvious, since the class was 13+, but Mom got special permission) Charlie told us that the town’s name was the same as their last name, and pretty much everyone in the town had that last name, meaning everyone was family. We washed our hands and headed over to a long table. We were given aprons, then picked a spot. Each spot had a small clay bowl and a tejolote (a chubby, round, and short clay stick).

This is our bowl for making fresh salsa. In Oaxaca, people often use this kind of small green pottery that is made in Santa Maria Atzompa. We also saw these on our market tour. It’s hard to tell here but the bowl has a cute pig face on it.

We added garlic, salt, and tomatoes (the adults added peppers) and mashed it with the tejolote. Now we had homemade salsa! We took our salsa and sat down at the table. Besides the salsa, the chefs had prepared memelas, bread, and hot chocolate. What’s interesting about the hot chocolate is that it’s made with water. 

Here’s me trying my memelas. That’s Charlie (Mimi’s son and our translator) in the background.

Besides my family, there were 6 other people in the class. When we were done eating, we got to work. My first job was to chop bananas and bread. After I was done, they were both fried for the mole. Mimi told me with hand motions to soak the corn husks in water for the tamales, then tap the water off, and put them in a bowl to dry.

Next we got to make the mole. Charlie put the ingredients on a tray thingy and we crushed it using a rolling pin type object. 

After that, we filled the tamales. We filled them with masa (Dried corn and water mixture), cheese, and salsa (Mine just had cheese and masa). You had to bless each tamale before you put it in the pot. While everyone finished making tamales, Mimi called me over to knead the tortilla dough and I gave everyone a piece.

It was my job to knead the masa, like a bread dough. Mimi said that the masa is what makes a tamale in Oaxaca special - it’s light and fluffy.

Charlie and Mimi took us to the tortilla presses. I went first. You take a sheet of plastic and place the dough, next, cover it with another sheet of plastic. You then put the lid down and use the handle to smash it down as far as you can. Lift it up off the plastic. You flip it in your hands, then place it on the heated stone. The tortillas cook really fast, and they get poofy in the process.

Finally, we sat down to eat. We had beautiful plates of food, and discussed Oaxacan culture. It truly was an incredible experience and I would love to do it again.

I got to finish my lunch with a chocolate banana! Yum.