OUR HISTORY
OAXACA LAND OF THE SUN
Our History
Oaxaca has over 200 known preparations for mole, a complicated sauce based on one or more chili peppers. However, seven are most notable, giving the state the nickname of “land of the seven moles.” Oaxacan moles require multiple ingredients and long cooking time, and for this reason are traditionally served only for special occasions. Ingredients for moles were traditionally prepared ground on a metate; however today, they are usually made with the help of blenders and food mills, which grind and mix many of the ingredients. Depending on the ingredients, they are toasted or fried then mixed with others to make a sauce that is then simmered. Recipes vary from cook to cook. While chocolate is used in two of the seven moles, it is not the most important ingredient. Oaxacan moles are served with chicken, pork and beef; however, the sauce is more important in a mole dish than the meat.
The name, color and ingredients distinguish the seven main moles of Oaxaca, called negro (black), amarillo (yellow), coloradito (colored), mancha manteles (tablecloth stainer), chichilo (named after the main pepper), rojo (red) and verde (green). All of the moles, except verde, can be kept as a paste and cooked later diluted with chicken broth. Mole negro is the best known and most complicated of the preparation, containing anywhere from twenty to thirty-plus ingredients, depending on the recipe. Mole negro is slightly sweet, black in color and contains six different types of chili peppers, plantains, onion, tomatoes, tomatillos, cloves, cinnamon, chocolate, nuts, tortillas, avocado leaves and more depending on the recipe.
Santa Gertrudis my HomeTown
Santa Gertrudis is a town, and the seat of municipality of the same name, Located in the region of the Valleys in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is approximately 41 km from the capital city of Oaxaca.
Regional cuisine consists of mole accompanied with white rice, beef stew, pork liver with scrambled egg (for breakfast)and typical drinks as chocolate, chocolate atole, tejate, and mescal.
400 years ago, when the Spanish conquerors arrived in Mexico, they taught distillation techniques to the native inhabitants and the first distilled spirit in the Americas was born: Mezcal.
Mezcal can be made from 11 different types of agave that are native to Oaxaca, which is where these are mostly made. These agave include quishe, pasmo, tepestate, tobala, espadin, largo, pulque, azul, blanco, ciereago and mexicano, but around 90 percent of mezcal is made from the agave espadin. Mezcal is native to the states of San Luis Potosi, Michoacan, Jalisco, Durango, Morelos, Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca, Tamaulipas and Zacatecas. Oaxaca is considered the official home of mezcal, as it produces 60 percent of the country’s mezcal.
Producers of mezcal in Oaxaca still use the same traditional method of roasting the agave in underground wood-fired pits and distilling in small-batch, copper pot stills. This important drink of rustic Oaxaca is the traditional toast of ceremonial occasions, such as baptisms and weddings.
Like a whiskey or scotch, mezcal has many variations and characteristics as a result of the different types of agave that are used to produce it
El MolcajetE
EL Molcajete Mexican Spanish, from Nahuatl molcaxitl is a stone tool, the traditional Mexican version of the mortar and pestle, similar to the South American batan, used for grinding various food product.
The molcajete was used by pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican cultures, including the Aztec and Maya, stretching back several thousand years. Traditionally carved out of a single block of vesicular basalt, molcajetes are typically round in shape and supported by three short legs. They are frequently decorated with the carved head of an animal on the outside edge of the bowl, giving the molcajete the appearance of a short, stout, three-legged animal. The pig is the most common animal head used for decoration of this type. The matching hand-held grinding tool, known as a tejolote (Mexican Spanish, from Nahuatl texolotl), is also made of the same basalt material.
Molcajetes are used to crush and grind spices, and to prepare salsas and guacamole. The rough surface of the basalt stone creates a superb grinding surface that maintains itself over time as tiny bubbles in the basalt are ground down, replenishing the textured surface.
From this concept we made original and home made sauces, we star making are 5 first salsas recipes:
* MOLE SAUCE
*. ESTOFADO SAUCE
* TOMATILLO SAUCE
* CHILI OIL
* YELLOW TORTILLA CHIPS
The recipes are original from Oaxaca like my mom Maria Ines used to made them every Sunday Families dinners.
The techniques what we use in the process to make our sauces are the same that the old peoples and small villages used to practice 100 of years ago and they are the same techniques the were passing from grandmas to mothers and mothers to daughters for generations.
And finally are here San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento and near Cities.
