Julieta Pani Lugo, a Berkeley High School freshman, loves the spicy flavors of “sopa de hongos,” a warm mushroom soup. Pani Lugo described how the mushrooms themselves have a mild flavor, but when cooked with chile, cumin, and epazote, “the mushrooms soak up a lot of the flavor as it's being made.” According to Pani Lugo, the seasonality of this dish is what makes it special, because sopa de hongos is always eaten in the fall, her favorite season.
Pani Lugo’s mom, Dilsa Lugo, owner of local restaurant “Los Cilantros,” grew up eating oyster mushrooms from her family farm in Cuernavaca, Mexico, at the beginning of the rainy season. She will be serving it at her restaurant now that autumn has come.
After weeks of eating nothing but beans and tortillas on a trip, Pani Lugo’s dad tried mushrooms for the first time. “It changed the way he viewed food, and especially mushrooms," Pani Lugo said.
Ingredients:
1 clove of garlic
1/4 tsp cumin
2-3 epazote stems
Chicken bouillon
Salt to taste
4 tablespoons of olive oil
Boil the chiles in 4 cups of water until they turn a lighter red color. Blend them with the water and the rest of the ingredients, except the mushrooms and the olive oil. Heat the olive oil into a pot. Once it is hot, strain the broth into the hot oil, let it boil. Separate the mushrooms from their bunches and add them to the pot. Let them cook until they're soft, and serve with corn tortillas.
BHS sophomore Natalia Paz always looks forward to weekends when her family eats chilaquiles, a savory Mexican breakfast dish made with fried tortillas, eggs, beans, and sauce. Paz explained that there are two kinds of sauce with which you can eat chilaquiles, a red, tomato-based sauce that is milder, and a spicy green sauce.
Both of her parents grew up eating chilaquiles, but her dad is the one who usually cooks them. “He likes to cook it because his mom used to make it, and it kind of reminds him of his mom,” Paz said. Her fondest memories of chilaquiles are waking up late on weekend mornings to the sound of her dad blending tomatoes for the sauce.
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of Knorr chicken flavor bouillon
Tortillas
Canola oil
A pinch of salt
4 Roma tomatoes
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
A pinch of cumin
A pinch of thyme
Queso fresco
Avocado
Eggs
To make the tortilla chips, slice desired amount of tortillas into quarters. Fill a wide pan just over halfway with canola oil. Fry the tortillas until golden. Put chips in a bowl and sprinkle with salt.
To make the salsa, boil the tomatoes, onion, and garlic, until the tomato skin starts peeling. Transfer the sauce to a blender and add the cumin, thyme, and Knorr chicken flavor bouillon. Blend. Plate tortilla chips and pour sauce over them. Add queso fresco, avocado, and eggs.
BHS Spanish teacher Susi López makes all her tortillas from scratch. Making tortillas is nostalgic for López, because it reminds her of spending time in her grandmother’s kitchen in Mexico as a teen. “Sometimes when I burn the tortilla a little bit, it takes me back,” López said.
To avoid genetically modified corn from store bought tortillas, López gets all of her cornmeal from Masienda, a small company that grows organically and imports all of their corn from Mexico.
López voiced the importance of making tortillas from scratch.“To me, it feels like something ancestral, something so basic in our culture, but so important,” López said. López stressed that this is necessary now more than ever, amidst the current political turmoil and hard times for Latinos. “Something as simple as a tortilla can really make you feel okay and united … So I love tortillas, and I love making them for my family," she said.
Ingredients: 1 cup Masienda Heirloom Corn Masa Harina
1 cup warm water, salt and/or spices to taste (optional)
Slowly add warm water to masa, stirring by hand. Knead until water is incorporated. Masa should be moist but not tacky. Add optional salt/spices. Heat comal or nonstick skillet on stove to low-medium heat. Roll masa into ping pong sized balls. Once all masa is rolled, turn comal/skillet up to medium/medium-high heat. Open tortilla press and place a sheet of plastic down. Place one ball on plastic, and flatten slightly. Add a second piece of plastic on top of masa. Close tortilla press, applying pressure to flatten dough ~1/16 in thick. Open press and remove plastic. Gently lay tortilla on comal/pan, searing for 20-30 seconds. Flip tortilla and sear again. Flip again and let tortilla finish. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Store in clean dish towel once cooked. allowing them to steam.
Tamales are a Christmas staple for BHS freshman Soledad Rodriguez, who has heritage from the Dominican Republic, Panama, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Her family has a tradition of eating tamales for lunch on Christmas and the following days. “We make a lot and we freeze them. So, there's a lot to go around,” Rodriguez said. Rodriguez's family fills the tamales with beef and cheese, and wraps them in corn husks.
Rodriguez explained how all of her cousins work together to make them, led by her grandma. “It makes me feel very blessed that we're able to have these special moments that'll carry on forever," she said.
Ingredients:
24 cups of fresh masa (recipe not provided)
1/4 cup olive oil
4 to 5-pound boneless beef beef shoulder pot roast
7 large cloves garlic, sliced
2 (28-ounce) cans tomato puree
4 cups chicken stock (recipe not provided)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
36 to 48 dried corn husks, soaked, washed, and drained plus more for ties
2 pounds Jack or Cheddar cheese,
grated (8 cups)
Prepare the masa. In a large pot over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil. Brown the meat on all sides. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the tomato purée, chicken stock, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil and then decrease the heat to medium-low. Simmer, covered, for 3 1⁄2 hours, until tender.
Transfer the meat to a plate to cool, reserving the tomato mixture in the pot. When the meat is cool, pull apart in strips with a fork, discarding any fat. Return the shredded beef to the pot and fold into the sauce.
To assemble the tamales, spread 1 cup masa on the smooth side of a corn husk. Place 2 tablespoons of the beef mixture in the center of the masa and top with 1 heaping tablespoon of the cheese. Wrap and tie the tamale. Repeat for the remaining tamales. Steam the tamales for 1 hour.