Cooking Workshop: Gorditas, Memories, Ethics
In Chicago I presented a slide show about how cooking is memory, relationship and ethics. I also conducted a cooking workshop to demonstrate how to make gorditas, working with dried chiles, cactus, corn masa, and pinto beans.
No lard, thank you.
It was a 4-hour workshop and demo held at The Chopping Block and was titled: “Texas Mexican Cuisine: Cooking Is An Aesthetic Practice.” It was hosted by Catholic Extension. These notes are for the participants, a most friendly and enthusiastic group. I promised to post some of the main ideas of the workshop and also some of the resources.
Cooking Workshop: Agriculture Resource:
a 13-minute video, “Yo Trabajo La Tierra/I Work The Land.” It is a visual meditation about migrant farmworkers in Michigan, concluding with a Norteño corrido, “El Dios Campesino.”
Cooking Resources:
“Truly Texas Mexican: A Native Culinary Heritage In Recipes” by Adán Medrano, published by Texas Tech University Press
“Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food” by Jeffrey M. Pilcher, published by Oxford University Press
Slide Show Topics:
- Food has social meaning and significance beyond its nutritive function; it is also expressive and normative.
- Texas Mexican is one of several regional Mexican cuisines, including, Oaxaca Mexican, Puebla Mexican and Jalisco Mexican.
- Chiles are used for flavor, aroma and color and they add complexity, nuance.
- The difference between Texas Mexican Food and Tex-Mex is: History and Flavor Profile.
- Ours must be a culinary aesthetic based on economic justice, the only true context for peace.
Slides:
Recipes From The Cooking Demo:
Thanks to the Chef Emilio and the excellent staff at The Chopping Block. Thanks also to Chef Kat Alvarez Morelos who assisted during the demo.Finally, thanks to newly-made friends from Chicago and elsewhere. Keep cooking: make beauty and justice!
