Tacos, Mole, and Churros, Oh, My! Eating My Way Across Mexico City – Part 3

Cooking Class

There are many, many cooking classes on offer in Mexico City. So many classes, so little time. I chose a class with Aura Cocina Mexicana. After we returned to the kitchen from the market, we got to work with our instructor, Chef Lorena.

I’ve taken several cooking classes like this over the years, and as a student, you never cook everything. Some things the instructor has to make or prepare ahead of time, or prepare while the students watch. I prefer classes that are mostly hands on. I especially want to spend time on the technical aspects that one can’t get from a cookbook. I thought this class hit the right balance.

On the menu: sopes (a street food of thick, fried corn masa base with toppings), several salsas, chicken with white mole sauce, vegetable mextalpiques (veggies in corn husks, like tamales but without the masa) and corn bread (really a cake) for dessert.

Chef Lorena set the plan, giving clear instructions and demonstrations, then letting us students do the work, ensuring we took turns so everyone got to be hands-on for every aspect.  We measured ingredients and used a hand mixer for the corn cake. We toasted nuts for the mole.  We all got to fill corn husks with vegetables for the tamales. We peeled, cleaned, and cut various chiles that had already been roasted. I really appreciated the instruction here on seeds and veins and how they contributed to spice level. 

(Apparently, it’s the veins more than the seeds; new information for me.) We cooked the mole sauce, then ground the peppers in a molcajete. Next was perhaps my favorite part of class, we got to make the sopes! We used the tortilla press and Chef Lorena guided us on how grill the sope, when to fluff, when to turn, how to pick them up. This is the kind of hands-on instruction I want in a cooking class! We cooked the  mextalpiques, dessert was out of the oven, and we were ready to eat. I think the biggest thing we students didn’t do ourselves was make the chicken for the mole or the beans for the sopes, but Chef Lorena showed us the pot and described the process. Of course, everything we made was an absolute hit. I loved tasting the different salsas and seeing how the spice level turned out.  After class, we all received recipes of what we made. I really want to make the salsa and mole at home. Even if I do everything right, I suspect the ingredients just won’t taste the same.

I loved this class and I loved the corn dessert, but I really wanted to make churros.  So I managed to squeeze in one more class in my week. The churro making class was a much different vibe. This class was taught by an individual pastry chef in her home. Chef Andrea had done much of the prep work ahead of time. She guided our group of seven through the mixing and blending, but the instructions were definitely a little loose. No measuring cup in sight. But the key learning, and the most fun, was the actual frying of the churro. Of course, when Chef Andrea did it, it looked easy and her churro came out beautiful. We had two stations going with us students taking turns using the pastry bag to make the churro, frying, or coating. I think each student may have made four churros. That’s a lot of churros! All of us students laughed at what our churros looked like as they came out of the fryer. But they all tasted wonderful. We didn’t get a written recipe, but the ingredients are few and recipes are easy to find. Again, it’s the technique that I wanted to learn and that was fun.

Cooking classes are a lot of fun, you get to meet and chat with other tourists, learn a little about all the food you’re eating. And hopefully, I have some ideas for my next dinner party!