A perennial cooking class favorite! Many foreigners don't realize how significant seafood is to Mexico's culinary culture.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

¾ kg fresh shrimp with heads removed
2 large heads of garlic
5 guajillo chiles
oil for frying
pinch of salt

Preparation:

Bring to a boil 1 litre of water with a pinch of salt. Rinse the shrimp and put them in the boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain the shrimp, removing the shells and de-veining but leaving the tails.

Peel the garlic and chop finely, either by hand, in a molcajete, or in a blender or food processor with 2-3 tablespoons of water.

Remove the seeds from the chiles and cut into small strips (see photo).

Heat the oil and add the chile strips, frying on low heat for 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and fry 3 minutes more, stirring constantly. Add the shrimp, mixing well and stirring constantly for another 5 minutes.

You'll have to forgive us for not updating the blog lately. August is always busy and the time just seems to have flown by and we're finally sorting out all these great Summer '08 pictures...

We tried something a little different for our weekly cooking class last week: making chocolate from scratch! Here in Oaxaca, there are many molinos, or chocolate "mills", where you can get your mix of cacao beans, sugar, etc., to make chocolate from scratch! We chose a slightly-less sweet mixture than you might find in regular Oaxacan chocolate de mesa.

The students had a great time making their own designs and, of course, we all enjoyed eating the artistic creations! Oaxaca is famous for its chocolate and the word "chocolate" itself is from the indigenous Nahuatl language: chocoatl.

The students really went all out for the cooking class this week. The main course was mole coloradito: one of Oaxaca's famous moles, made with chicken. They also made rajas con papas (slices of poblano chile with potatoes), which is always a big hit with our vegetarian students:

To drink, we made agua de jamaica (hibiscus flower drink).

¡Buen provecho!