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🇲🇽 Block 35–36: Mexican

← Block 33–34: Chinese | Block 37–38: Indian →

"Mexican cooking is not what you find at most restaurants north of the border. It's a cuisine of extraordinary depth — complex moles that take two days, fresh salsas that cook in ten minutes, braises that turn into sandwiches, soups that become street food. Understanding it properly changes how you think about heat, acid, and corn."

Before You Start Block 35

Mexican cuisine is a UNESCO-recognized cultural heritage — one of only three cuisines with that distinction (alongside French and Japanese). It is built on a triad that predates European contact by millennia: corn, chiles, and beans. The dried chile system alone — guajillo, ancho, pasilla, chipotle, morita, chile de árbol — is a vocabulary that takes years to master. This block gives you the working foundation.

Stock your pantry before starting:

Ingredient Notes
Dried chiles (guajillo, ancho, chipotle in adobo) The essential trio for sauces and marinades
Masa harina (or good-quality corn tortillas) The foundation of Mexican cooking
Tomatillos (fresh) For salsa verde — not the same as green tomatoes
Lard (or good neutral oil) For tamale masa and refried beans — lard is traditional and better
Mexican oregano Different species from Mediterranean oregano; more floral, more citrusy
Cumin (whole seeds) Toast and grind fresh for marinades and sauces
Cotija cheese The salty, crumbly finishing cheese
Limes (a bag) Mexican cooking uses lime where French uses lemon
Dried corn husks (for tamales in Block 36) Soak 2 hours before use
Hominy (canned or dried) For pozole — large white corn kernels treated with lime

Block 35 — Pozole, Tacos al Pastor, and Carne Asada

Mexican cuisine covers centuries of indigenous technique layered with colonial influence and regional variation. This week focuses on the key dry-heat and braising techniques from Mexico's northern and central traditions. You've already done carnitas (Block 20) and al pastor-adjacent work — this week goes deeper.

⏰ Planning Ahead

  • Session 166 (Birria de Res): marinade and braise: plan 3–4 hrs; best if marinated overnight
  • Session 167 (Mole Negro): simplified mole still takes 2–3 hrs; start early in the session
  • Session 168 (Tamales): soak corn husks 2 hrs ahead; have filling and chile sauce fully prepped before spreading masa

Block 36 — Deeper Mexico: Birria, Mole, and Tamales

Optional: Go Deeper

These aren't required reading — but if something from this block sparked a question, here's where to go.

The Chile Framework

Mexican cooking is a chile curriculum. Guajillo, ancho, pasilla, chipotle — each dried chile has a distinct flavor profile, heat level, and application. Learning to distinguish them by taste is the single biggest skill jump in Mexican cooking.

  • 📖 Carne Asada — Pati Jinich — Chile de árbol marinade with Worcestershire and lime — a traditional approach to the grill.
  • 📖 Red Pozole — Pati Jinich — The full technique for a multi-chile pozole with ancho and guajillo. Understanding how the dried chiles are toasted, soaked, and blended is the core skill of Mexican sauce-making.

Mole: One of the Most Complex Sauces in the World

Mole negro is typically a multi-day project in its native context. Understanding why each ingredient — chocolate, dried chiles, charred onion, toasted sesame, plantain — is there turns an intimidating recipe into a logical sequence.

  • 📖 A Comprehensive Guide to Mexican Chiles — The full vocabulary of dried chiles used in mole: ancho, mulato, pasilla, chipotle, guajillo, and more. Knowing the flavor profile of each one before you cook is how mole stops being frightening and starts being navigable.
  • 📖 Mole Poblano — Pati Jinich — Pati's full mole with 4 dried chiles, Mexican chocolate, seeds, and spices. The canonical reference for this block's mole session.

Watching a Pro Do It

  • 📺 Rick Bayless: Oaxacan Black Mole — 45 minutes of the foremost authority on Mexican cuisine walking through a complete mole negro from toasting chiles to final assembly. The clearest explanation of mole logic available in English.

A Book Worth Having

← Block 33–34: Chinese | Block 37–38: Indian →