Article & photos by Lenora A. Hayman.
On Nov.16, 2010, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) added the cuisines of Mexico to the Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Ancestral recipes have been protected and are unique to the cultural identity of Mexican communities.
The Mexico Tourism Board in Vancouver in association with UBC Continuing Studies invited our group to the UBC Vancouver Campus Food, Nutrition and Health Building for a Cooking Appreciation Night with Chef Rossana Ascencio. We would be cooking a couple of courses and observing other meals being created from the sacred trilogy of corn, beans and chiles. Remember; don’t call a chile a pepper!
Chef Rossana explained that many foods have originated in Mexico such as tomatoes, which are a fruit and not a vegetable, and pumpkins. In the 1520’s the Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortes introduced to Europe, vanilla derived from orchids and chocolate, from the beans in the cacao pod. Our popular Thanksgiving and Christmas bird when imported from Mexico into Turkey, took its name from that country.
Sixty indigenous groups, descendants of the Maya, Aztec, Olmec and others, and also “Mestizos” with Indigenous and European ancestry, Afro-Mexicans, Jewish, Middle Eastern, Asian and Mennonites have all enriched the cuisine.
Our groups of four overseeing each kitchen station, had fun cooking for our supper.
Our cream corn soup with shreds of poblano chile required roasting the poblano over an open fire, or under the broiler, until the skin blackened to add a smoky flavour and finishing with freshly, fried, crispy, julienned tortilla chips.
We accompanied this with tostaditas de chorizo con papas and salsa verde- fried, open-faced corn tortillas, spread with refried black beans, a mixture of Mexican chorizo sausage, yellow potatoes, topped with chiffonade(thinly sliced crosswise) Romaine lettuce, crème fraiche, cheese, green tomatillos, jalapenos and cilantro topping.
Mole originated from the Nahuatle word “mole” meaning concoction. On a previous trip to Puebla, Mexico, I had learned that according to legend, Mother Superior Sr. Andrea of Santa Rosa Convent in Puebla had wished to honour the Archbishop who
commanded the convent be built for her Order. In her haste to create his meal, chocolate was mixed with the chile spices and mole poblano was born.
Our spicy, mole rojo, drizzled over a chicken breast, had both Pasillo and Ancho chiles and Mexican oregano. Mexican oregano is more savory than the rosemary/pine flavour of our oregano. There was a side of the Mexican vegetable chayote, a member of the gourd family and known in Australia and New Zealand, as choko or vegetable pear. Wee chochoyotas, the masa dumpling with a dimple in each centre garnished the meal.
We concluded with a fresh, strawberry mousse-like dessert, topped with golden brown fried tortilla chips tossed in cinnamon and sugar.
Check Chef Rossano Ascencio’s website: www.culinaryencanto.com for happy, Mexican Culinary Classes paired of course with a drop of wine.