la casa de los sabores: day 1

We headed over to the cooking school in the morning, a couple of us toting knife bags from home. But lo and behold, everything we might ever possibly need was already laid out for us on this table:



Since our group was so large, we were split in half so one group could go to the market (mainly to get corn ground up) and the rest would stay and help prep. Since I wasn't feeling that well after diarrheal episodes during the night, I opted to stay.

These cubed mangoes and pineapple were the only prep we did. It made me feel like a volunteer really, at least where I work the staff takes care of everything and we just come up with small tasks so volunteers have something to do and feel useful.



When the market group came back that's when the real prep began in earnest. Some of us (mainly the guys) made tamales filled with a savory corn mixture (mainly corn with some cream and a bit of sugar).



The corn husk tip was folden down and the sides folded in, and the bundle was tied with a corn husk string.



The wrapped tamales were set in the steamer to cook.



Meanwhile others (mainly the girls) made sweet tamales with a pineapple filling.



Chiles and tomatillos were grilled on the comal for green salsa.



Everything was ground up with mortar and pestle.



We also made tortillas. Lots of them. The masa was first rolled into balls.



Then flattened with the tortilla press and either grilled plain on the comal or filled and folded into empanadas.



The empanadas were fried in oil.



Sadly I felt too sick to help anymore so I went and laid down, and was out for pretty much the rest of the day.

Managed to make it outside to forage for dinner - got carrots and yogurt from the supermarket, rice and hard-boiled eggs from the lady outside the supermarket, and mangoes and cucumbers from another lady down the block.



Not bad for a foraged dinner.