Good to Know: True Tamales
A cooking teacher serves up organic Mexican cuisine.
September/October 2004
By Laurel Kallenbach
 |
Photo by Michael Calderwood
|
Culinary crusader “In a quest to produce big, shiny, tasteless apples, we’ve forgotten about loquats, quince, and granadillas. That’s why I champion local produce.”
—Diana Kennedy
RELATED CONTENT
Of all the plants you can grow indoors, few are as gratifying as culinary herbs, whose scent will ...
The Rock Garden, a natural stone showcase garden in Colorado is known as "Colorado's Stonehenge."...
Spring marks the opening of farmers markets and an abundance of locally grown produce. But it only ...
Ten great ways to go green in your planting patches....
As much as half of household water use can be attributed to landscaping and garden uses, and a good...
From her ecological home in Michoacán, Mexico, cooking teacher Diana Kennedy writes about authentic Mexican cuisine—and is on a mission to raise awareness of regional food traditions.
COOKING A TO Z: Her books chronicle how local foods—from aguacate (avocado) to zacalapeño (a chile)—are traditionally used. Read My Mexico (1998), The Essential Cuisines of Mexico (2000), and From My Mexican Kitchen (2003), all published by Clarkson Potter.
SAVORY SLEUTH: Kennedy travels the country recording recipes and food folklore and asking people to recall their grandmother’s cooking. “I’m intrigued by the history of regional foods, how long a particular vegetable has been cultivated, and whether it’s changed in flavor over the years,” she says.
PET PEEVE: “Starchy messes of beans and tasteless corn mush blanketed in waxy cheese.”
FAVORITE LOCAL DISH: Uchepos, delicate fresh-corn tamales indigenous to Michoacán, served with fresh cheese and cream.
CASA KENNEDY: One wall in the kitchen is a rock face, appropriate because Kennedy’s naturally cool adobe home is built right into the land. A “big, old, clumsy solar heater” warms the house’s water, supplied by rainwater holding tanks.
GARDEN GALA: The organic garden is cause for celebration as plants come into season. She fertilizes with manure from a neighbor’s cow.
FOOD PHILOSOPHY: “It’s worth the money to get good organic ingredients. If you examine how cheap food is produced, there’s always something gone wrong—like underpaying workers, forcing the land, or using pesticides. We should be prepared to pay a decent price for food.”
For Diana Kennedy’s guacamole recipe, click here.