Cooking with Diana

[kalypso]

8 of us were quiet in the van as it slowly crept over heavily cobbled streets up the side of a small mountain on the way to our first cooking class with Diana Kennedy. None of us knew quite what to expect other than we'd be doing a lot of cooking and to kind of expect the unexpected. The van finally found it's target - Diana's driveway (if you could call it that), and we hopped out and began the trek up the path to her house.

Diana went green long before it was trendy or poltically correct when she purchased several acres of wild, undeveloped and waterless land in Zitacuaro, Mexico. What she has created over the last 30 years is an self-sufficient, eco-friendly compound replete with umpteen varieites of plants, flowers and foliage accumulated from all over Mexico.

Since the 8 of us covered the spectrum in terms of knowledge and skill with the cuisine of Mexico the first day was devoted to covering some basics, like seasoning a comal

Rendering lard

from assorted pieces of pork fat, which looked something like this as it began the process of melting down

It was eventually transferred to a small cast iron skillet to speed up and finish the process

It was strained into an earthen crock

Diana wastes nothing. The remaining chicharrones were used to top sopes

By the end of our 3 1/2 days of classes with Diana we had also used that entire crock of lard...and then some.

But, lordy. did we cook...

(To be continued since I'm at work and will have to post as I have time)

[Chris Amirault]

Looks fantastic. What was she using to season that comal? And was the pork fat somehow blended before being rendered?

[kalypso]

Looks fantastic. What was she using to season that comal? And was the pork fat somehow blended before being rendered?

←

She was using cal (calcium oxide) which was a little thick and had a few too many lumps by her own admission; but as Diana says "ni modo", not to worry if the slurry of cal is too lumpy of thick, it won't hurt anything

There was nothing added to the fat. It was a combination of purchased fat and trim fat. We ran it through a food processor to break the fat into smaller pieces so that it would rener quicker than the large hunks with which we started. The rendered lard was incredibly rich and really amazing. We never used a whole bunch in anything, but it added some incredible depth to those dishes to which it was added.

I'm currently on day 66 of a major kitchen remodel and as soon as I get a kitchen back one of the first things I'm doing is rendering some lard. The process is ridiculously simple for such a flavorful payoff.

[Chris Amirault]

That's cool! I've been fiddling with a method for rendering lard that way for a while; the recipe is here.

[kalypso]

Diana grows much of her own corn, and we used some of it for our classes. She had already slaked out corn and sent it to her molinario to be ground for tortillas and other masa based products. And she wasn't expecially happy with the batch that got sent back...too lumpy. One of the most interesting demonstrations was grinding corn for masa.

One of the things that I've always found rather amazing is that - without the need or use of modern technology - ancient MesoAmericans figured out that if they used cal (chemically pure calcium oxide) they could soften up dried corn and make it pilable, palatable and digestable. And the process remains remarkably unchanged over the course of several millenia. Cal looks like stark white rocks and can be found in most markets and tianguis in Mexico.

First Diana broke a piece of cal into an earthenware bowl and sprinkled it with water. Since her cal was older, not much happened at first. A little more cal and a little more water got the chemical reaction going. Sizzle and steam were soon erupting from the little dish and as we put our hands over it we could feel the heat of the chemical reaction. And since it is a chemical reaction, using a non-corrosive pot, pan or cazuela is pretty important. Dried corn went into an enamelware pot alogn with some water. The cal quickly followed and within a very few minutes the skin on the corn kernels had turned bright yellow. We cooked it a bit and, IIRC, finished it using a pressure steamer to save on time. And Diana is all about doing things in a way that saves time, steps and energy. In other words, efficient and econonical, she wanted us to think about what we were doing a work smart.

I don't have photos of the cal treatment of the corn, but I did take some of the next step...grinding the corn for masa, which was probably one of the more interesting demonstrations. This is a great upper body work out and there is no way to do it very quickly or in very large quantity.

The corn grinder was attached (via "C" clamp) to a rail above a stump. In went some of the corn

And we each got a turn, if we wanted it, turning the crank and grinding the corn.

But once is never enough and the corn had to be ground a second time.

The first grind corn, though lighter in weight and texture, was much finer and wetter than the whole corn kernels. This had a tendency to jam up the grinding gear. But as I've discovered time and again, Mexicans usually have a simple, logical and effective solution to problems like this. And, of course, they do.

Inserting a finger down to the screw mechanism aerates the ground corn and can also clear any corn stuck to the grinding mechanism. And this is what the grinding mechanism looks like

It's certainly not fancy, but it works. The corn we ground ended up being used to make the bases for the sopes.

The chicharron from the lard rendering was used as garnish on the sopes, but really the high point of the sopes were the unctous, savory and utterly heavenly beans underneath the chicarron. Once again to save time we used the pressure cooker for the beans, but once done we really went to work on them. We heated a large cast iron skillet and tossed in some lard, the beans and a little liquid and went to work with a bean masher, ending up with combination of creamy and whole beans. We charred a few serrano chiles and then sauteed them in a little oil, slit them open and drug them through the beans to infuse them with some spicy heat and bite. Those beans were so good we even ate them straight and they were quite satisfying.

Edited October 11, 2007 by kalypso (log)

[gfron1]

Fantastic demo - thanks! I've heard about that process and have tried to mimick, but its never quite the same.

[kalypso]

I was delighted to learn that we'd be making chorizo from scratch, both red and green varieties, since I am very fond of Mexican chorizo. For the chorizo rojo, Diana chose Chorizo de Huetamo from The Art of Mexican Cooking (pg. 266). Huetamo is a small town in the hot coutnry of Michoacan. The chorizo was deceptively simple and once we got everything measured out and processed to Diana's satisfaction the recipe went together in a flash. The primary ingredients were pork, pork fat, guajillos and pulya chiles. The herbs and spices included fresh garlic, bay leaf, marjoram, thyme, dried Mexican oregano, whole peppercorns, cloves, whole allspice and salt. We added mild and strong vinegar and ended up with a soupy concoction

Normally, Diana recommends letting the meat mixture rest for 3 days before stuffing the casings. Since time was of the essence, and we didn't have 3 days to wait, we stuffed the casings and then hung the finished chorizo for 2 days before using it. We did, of course, use natural casings...and a sausage stuffing tool Diana had acquired years ago in the Yucatan. It looks much like a large funnel with a wide exit tube, but a thrid of one side was missing.

Strips of dried corn husk were used to tie off the chorizo at various points to create links.

Both meat mixtures were pretty soupy so we placed bowls underneath the links to collect the excess liquid as it oozed out.

We began the Wednesday class with a tour of the local market in Zitacuaro. I have yet to meet a Mexican market I didn't like and the one in Zitacuaro proved to be no different. Unforutnately, my camera chose this excursion to malfunction Spilling over several blocks and multiple buildings the market was the typical cornucopia of colors, aromas and organized chaos. We visited many of Diana's favorite vendors, watched 2 female butchers manhandle large primal cuts of pork while deftly wielding enormous and razor sharp knives. We learned that Mexican pork seems to be going the way of American pork, overly lean and flavorless. We purchased chickens, cheese and pickled figs and then we headed to the streets. It was summer, it was rainy and it was the growing season for corn. That can only mean one thing...huitlacoche.

Historically, one of the Mexican ingredients that I have been much less fond of than chorizo has been huitlacoche. Pretty much I think it tastes like dirt. I've had it a number of different ways, fresh, canned, made by home cooks and skilled restaruant chefs. But still, it has always reminded me of mud.

Nearly every vendor selling corn had grotesquely beautiful (not to mention photo-op worthy) ears of corn loaded down with the infamous corn smut. We loaded up on it and my dread level increase as well. Not only was I going to have to work wtih this stuff, I was, once again, going to have to eat it too. Oh, well, ni modo.

Whether she trusted us or not with the goods I can't say, but Diana decided she would do the honors of getting the huitlacoche off the cob (and my camera decide to work once again). It's hard to see, but the cob is in there

We sauteed up some white onion and added the huitlacoche and epazote leaves

we'd made some rajas earlier and those went into the pan as well

The huitlacoche was served simply as a taco

It's not much to look at, but that taco may have been the single best thing I put in my mouth the entire week. It didn't taste like dirt or mud. The combination of flavors was light, ethereal, completely seductive and captivating. If I could have huitlacoche like this every time it might just become my new favorite food.

[Chris Amirault]

This is really wonderful! I'm very grateful to your generosity.

Can you say a bit about the corn she used above? Was it green dent corn? I'm having a devil of a time finding good corn to lime and grind.

[docsconz]

Wow, kalypso, great report so far. Between this and Caroline's foodblog, memories are pouring back. Diana Kennedy is certainly a legend. I am quite jealous.

Edited October 12, 2007 by docsconz (log)

[mukki]

Ahh... I was wondering how the huitlacoche story was going to turn out!

Speaking of green corn, I planted some Oaxacan green dent corn (from Seeds of Change) this summer to make green corn tamales, but the plants didn't get enough sun. I'll have to try again next year.

Kalypso, thanks so much for doing this ~ it's been great so far and I look forward to the rest.

[kalypso]

In answer to the question about corn, I don't think it was green dent corn that we processed for masa. But, it could have been a variety of yellow dent corn since field corn is farm more common in Mexico than the overyly hyrbidized corn here NOB. This is probably as good a spot as any to share a little about Diana's land as it really is an impressive accomplishment.

During the mid-50s Diana was taking a rather circuitious path home to England when she landed at the airport in Haiti. What she didn't know at the time was that she landed just ahead of a major coup. Her taxi deposited her at the Olafsson Hotel where she and the other guests ended up sequestered for the next few weeks as the city erupted into warfare and the bullets flew, sometimes even over the grounds of the hotel! It was here that she first met Paul Kennedy a Times reporter. She eventually returned to England and he to California. He was reassigned to Mexico City and invited Diana to visit. She hoped a freighter, stopped off in (pre-Castro) Cuba and then set sail for Mexico. The year was 1957.

So what does this have to do with her land in Zitacuaro? Paul and Diana married but he died (cancer I think) in 1963 and Diana left Mexico for New York City. But as too many of us have found out, once Mexico has gotten under your skin there is no way out, the lure of the siren is too great. So she moved back to Mexico City. It was through ex-pat friends in D.F. that she first became acquainted with the area around Zitacuaro and eventually found and purchased her property. It took several years to find an architect and contractor who shared her vision of an ecologically friendly and self-contained compound, not to mention having to raise the money and negotiate water rights.

Each morning promptly at 10 am we passed through the patio with the shady palapa dining area

and entered directly into the kitchen through the back door

There were numerous boulders on the property in it's raw state, some that would need to be blasted out of the ground, something she was not allowed to do. So, they built the house around them. The boulders dominate a landing that is between the kitchen, dining room, living room a stairs that lead up to a couple of bedrooms and greenhouse.

Diana's beat up old pick-up truck has logged many miles on Mexican highways and ferried back numerous plants, trees, shrubs, flower, herbs and other botanicals from her explorations. Many of those ended up in her greenhouse or property as growing experiments. Some thrived in Michoacan, some didn't. IIRC she has about 7 acres of property and one the last day we got a tour.

There was corn under cultivation, perhaps those of you that are more knowledgable than about as to variety can identify what is beign gorwn

And in true Mesoamerican fashion Diana even grows corn and beans together

An agricultrual experiment that really worked was coffee

And no property in Mexico would really be complete without chiles. These may have been fresh chile de arbols, but I'm really not sure right now.

I am more certain that these were poblanos

Good soil and adequate irrigation seems to make just about anything grow in Michoacan

And most of her property is lush with greenery, mature trees, foliage and flowers

Not to mention the resident source of fresh eggs

And new chickens

Since water resources have been scarce Diana has several collection cisterns in place around her property. This one happens to be just off the patio

Rainwater is collected and feeds into the house. Grey and waste waters are recycled and used throughout the property for various functions, making her water a continuous loop of collection, use, recovery, use and eventually back to the land.

Also part of the patio is a really cool outdoor cooking set-up. Who wouldn't want to try cooking or baking in these wood burning babies

Additional cooking options and storage for kindling and wood

We used the adobe ovens to slow roast, as in over night, cochinta pibil. The marinade for the cochinita we made from scartch beginning with achiote seeds. No photo of that, but here are the panuchos that were the dish in which we used the cochinita pibil

The land that Diana owns and developed is wildly beautiful but still in harmony with it's original intent and function. She may be a diminutive woman with a proper British accent, but she's also a fiesty lady determined to achieve her vision of sustainable living in a modern world. By all accounts she has succeed quite well.

[kalypso]

The trip to Diana's actually began in Mexico City and was one of the trips offered by Marilyn Tausend's Culinary Adventures. On every trip Marilyn arranges an educaitonal, fun and highly entertaining market day and this trip was no exception. We were to stop at the market in Metepec just outside of Toluca on our way to Zitacuaro.

In order to have enough stamina for the market we stopped at the new Polanco lcoation of El Bajio for breakfast on our way out of town. It's quite a lovely restaurant, though they do seem to have a lot of flat screen TVs scattered around. Luckily, however, the TVs were far outnumbered by lots of interesting folk art

A playful 2-story wall of woven baskets

As good as the folk art was, the food was even better. Fresh juices and hot pan dulces quickly arrived at our table. They were soon followed by a sublime tamal rilled with black beans and fragrant herbs

and a plate of addictive soft cheese in a light and equally addictive broth

finaly ending with one of the house egg specials

The sauce was seed based and finished with avocado leaves and when mixed with the runny yolk from the eggs was really good. A never ending supply of fresh, warm corn tortillas accompanied the meal and were the perfect mop for the egg sauce.

Sufficiently fortified we drove an hour (or so) northwest to Metepec. Marilyn spent some time at breakfast going over the lists of items one could expect to find in a Mexican street market and broke us up into smaller groups of 2 or 3, pairing those with market experience or Spanish skills with others who didn't. I was paired with a woman from San Francisco and another from New York City, neither had ever been in a Mexican market. As I hopped out of the van Marilyn handed me $200 pesos, pointed us in the direction of the market and told us we had 2 hours to find everything on our list.

The 2 market virgins and I plunged in, they visibly blanched when less than 100' into the market I accepted the first food sample offered to me. Perhaps not the safetst thing to do, but it was hot and cooked through and I figured the odds were on my side. First stop was the vendor selling mesh bags. Having been on previous tours with Marilyn I knew we'd need it. Mexican markets, especially large and busy ones like this, are an assault on very sense, sight, smell, touch and sound. They're loud, they're colorful, they smell good in some places and stink in others and everythign has a texture to it. And each market has it's own particular vibe created by the sellers and their customers who come to meet and transact a little business. The vibe in theis market was very good and a very good place for novice market excursions. My two cohorts were, at first, somewhat repelled by the chaos but quickly adapted and got into it. Theyw ere captivated by the unusual fruits and vegetables, the many varieties of bananas, the care with which many displays were set up. My marekt Spanish is pretty good so we were able to find what we needed without too much difficulty (and you can never find everything on one of Marilyn's lists because some of it is seasonal and not available). My companions were impressed and touched by how nice everyone was to us and by how good the quality of the produce was and how inexpensive it was. We were the first group back tot he van with 15 mintues and $18 pesos to spare. Provisions safely stowed we piled back into the van for the remainder of the trip.

The tour was headquartered at Rancho San Cayetano. Dinner there was our first encounter wiht Diana and we were asked to display our purchases and Diana would talk about each of the different items.

One group laid out their dried chiles, gorgeous (but cultivated) mushrooms and in the back you can see was were some glorious squash blossoms

Another group managed to find jamacia, yet even more chiles, fresh favas, and, IIRC that round thing in the center is a chichayote (if my memory is faulty, someone please post to correct)

My group took a little different approach to our display. The woman from NYC happened to be a display artist by trade, sow we chose to focus our efforts on highlighting the sheer bounty avaiable

The long skinny pods are guajes and you open them up and eat the seeds. The bushy green stuff in the back are - and oh, god I'm going to spell this wrong - huazontles. They have a flavor reminiscent of broccoli and are often served sort of like a fritter, i.e. dipped in a capeado similar to chile relleno, fried and served with a light tomato broth.

Most of the produce made it up to Diana's house and augmented what she already had on hand or purchased at the Zitacuaro market. There are lots of weird and wonderful fruits and vegetables in Mexico and we encountered one of the oddest at Diana's. Behold the pitaya

I believe these are also called dragon fruit. Dragon fRuit or pitaya, they are swet and refreshing and as Alton Brown would say - Good Eats.

Edited October 12, 2007 by kalypso (log)

[Panosmex]

Great report, Kalypso, and one I've been waiting to read for some time.

Did your group have any meals at Rancho San Cayetano?

[kalypso]

Great report, Kalypso, and one I've been waiting to read for some time.

Did your group have any meals at Rancho San Cayetano?

←

We had one meal at Rancho San Cayetano and breakfast several mornings. Diana has worked with them and done a lot of training with their kitchen staff. Even with that she referred to their queso fundido as dreadful. Here it is

None of us really thought it was dreadful. In fact, my table had absolutely no difficulty polishing off the entire bowl. And rather quickly at that

The queso fundido was part of the welcome meal we were served. It also included a very respectable and delicious Posole Rojo

A refreshing ensalada de nopales

And a choice of desserts

The posole and the nopales salad were really quite good. The desserts I thought a bit weak. I think we all enjoyed breakfast there very much. I think I tried several of their egg dishes and found them to be light and well made. I think most of us also discovered we were very fond of their house made jams and honey. Even though it was rainy season when we were there, with the exception of 1 morning, the rest were all warm and dry enough that we could enjoy breakfast outside on the terrace. Rancho San Cayetano grows much of their own produce as well as actively farming stands of fruit bearing trees and bushes. I brought far too many jars of jam and honey home as gifts...some of which never made it to the giftee

Here is a list of all the food we prepared in our classes with Diana

Render lard

Rich (very rich) chicken stock

pork stock

Slake corn and grind for masa

Salsa de Cascabel

Rice

Beans

Beans Yucateco style

Sopes with the beans and chicharron from the rendered lard and the salsa de cascabel

Panuchos

Pickled Red Onions for the panuchos

Red Chorizo

Green Chorizo

Mole Amarillo (am not a huge fan of mole amarillo and I think this is the single best version of mole amarillo I've ever eaten)

Mole Verde

Carnitas (which didn't turn out very well, and with which Diana was not happy)

Guacamole with fruit from Guanajuato

Tacos de Huitlacoche

Tacos de flor de calabasa

Uchepos Moreliense (fresh corn tamales)

Prepared hominy for posole from scratch

Posole Verde de Guerrero

Cochinita Pibil

Blackberry Atole

And I'm sure I'm forgeting at least 7 or 8 other things we made

We prepped chiles, we toasted, we charred, we ground ingredients, we blended, we fried, we pressure cooked, we played with our food, but most of all we simply ate...and ate well.

This is not necessarily an experience that I'd recommend for everyone. It certainly helps to have a basic understanding of Mexican cooking and perhaps some experience with the techniques. If it's important that classes have a defined beginning, middle and end, this might not be the class for you. Small groups of us would be assigned to begin work on a dish only to be interrupted to come and watch a demonstration about something else, taste an interesting sample, observe an important technique, or listen to an explanation or short lecture about a different dish, techinque or ingredient than we were already involved in preparing. There's a huge amount of information provided, a huge amount of visual and sensory stimulation and things didn't always proceed from step 1 to step 2 to step 3 in an orderly manner. But, in the words of Diana Kennedy...ni modo. Everything worked out in the end and it all tastes good.

Flexibility and the ability to kind of roll with the punches is helpful. Diana is particular about the way she wants things done and not exactly shy about telling you if you're not doing it just right It's also a fairly physical series of classes in that participants are on their feet most of the time and there is very little time to sit - and - it's all done at altitutde.

For me it was the chance of a lifetime to meet an icon. I got confirmation that after(20+ years of serious study) I really do know as much as I thought I did and that my technique is pretty good. I was thrilled and delighted to have the chance to take classes with Diana and I do it again in a heart beat if I had the opportunity.

Edited October 19, 2007 by kalypso (log)

[Domestic Goddess]

I really enjoyed reading this thread and about your description/reversal of the corn smut (don't know how to spell it).

[Lindacakes]

Thank you very much! Your photographs are wonderful. I love Diana Kennedy, I love huitlacoche, I love Mexico. I can imagine how thrilling this must have been.

Very inspirational -- maybe I'll do the classes, too.

[barbhealy]

What a fascinating travelog! I enjoyed every word of it and have just ordered 2 of Diana's cookbooks (no, I'm ashamed to admit, I didn't have them).

Thank you so much for the inspiraton!

Edited October 25, 2007 by barbhealy (log)

[foodways]

hi there, do you know if Diana does cooking classes that you can book independently or directly through her rather than as part of a tour? I've been trying to email her at some old website of hers but never get any replies.

thanks

joanna