Thursday, Nov 3 Cooking class in Erongaricaro
We enjoyed a leisurely start today. Some people toured the cathedral with Juan
and others just had some quiet reflection time.
It’s about an hour and a half drive to Erongaricaro (on Lake Patzcuaro)
where we have our cooking class. On the
way, we watch the movie “Coco.” After
seeing the cemetery yesterday, all of the decorations and offrendas the last
few days and the town that was used as the setting, we all enjoyed the
movie. Juan feels that it really does
portray the meaning and traditions of Dia de Muertos well. We didn’t quite get to the end of the movie
when we arrived at our cooking location.
Will have to wait for the conclusion until the drive back to
Morelia.
Our cooking class is with Dona Mari, in the restaurant named Dona Mari and owned by Dona Mari. The atmosphere in the restaurant is comfortable with a shaded patio with lots of plants, including coffee, avocado and lemon trees. Today we’re making corundas, a specialty of Michoacan, which are a lot like tomales but steamed in corn leaves and triangular in shape. We’re also making chiles rellenos. Dona Mari has the dough already made for the corundas so all we need to do is wrap them in the corn leaves. They make neat triangles with a corn leave steam to hold. First step is to break the center vein of the corn leaf all the way to the tip. Then put a big spoonful of the dough on one end. Starting the folding is the hardest part and DON’T squeeze it or the dough comes squirting out. Tuck the end of the corn leaf through the triangle to make the tail handle. These will then steam for about an hour. We watch as Dona Mari chars the peppers to get thetough outer skin off. After charring them, she puts them in a plastic bag which holds in the steam to make them easier to peel.
While the peppers and corundas are steaming, we take a walk around
the center of town. The buildings around
the square all have a covered area in which to walk. In the square, they are still set up for performances
for Dia de Muertos. We go to the church
which has a very large atria the way the older churches do. A working seminary is attached.
Back to Dona Mari’s to continue cooking. We are ready to put the outer coating on the chilies,
fry them and cook them in a tomato sauce.
The egg whites are beaten until they are so stiff that you can turn the
bowl upside down and they won’t slide out.
Then the yolks are slowly added and beaten in. A little salt and we’re ready to dip our stuffed
pepers. Using a spatula, the hot oil is splashed on the sides, when it is
golden, the peper is turned. A sauce has
been prepared of pureed tomatoes, onion, garlic and a little sinnamon. The peppers simmer for about 10 minutes. Time
to eat our creation. The batter is
really light and fluffy. We did a good
job with the help of our friends. Oh,
when placing the pepper in the oil, we were to ask for the good wishes of the
patron saint of chefs, San Pasqual Bailon.
It's our last night in Morelia. People take the opportunity to do a little shopping at the Mercado de Dulces and the artesian market. The streets are being cleaned of the Dia de Muertos festivities. I got a picture of this offrenda that honors people who have died at least partially due to their sexual orientation.
No comments:
Post a Comment