The agricultural staples were: maíz, squash, chiles, tomato, and fungi, and mushrooms were inherent and present in foods like broths, soups, moles, and pipianes, she notes. “More than incorporating new ways, it would be worthwhile to go back to those Indigenous pre-Hispanic dishes that were so integral to gastronomy, and return to its roots,” Sada says. “But it’s like when you sear a piece of meat, what you’re doing is you’re retaining its flavorful juices, this is the same thing you achieve with mushrooms.”Īnd though it is techniques like hers that have opened up a cosmos of cuisine to people who were otherwise not fans of fungi, she says we need to let the pursuit of approximation to meat go, and just enjoy the mushrooms as they are. “I hate to use this as an example because I don’t like to eat meat anymore,” Sada smirks over Zoom as she explains her mushroom technique. Her trick, which she says has changed the lives of many who recreate her recipes at home, is a high-heat sear. Like her mouth-watering tacos al pastor, as a topping on her vegan chilaquiles, or in lieu of chicken for her vegan red pozole. Chef and food blogger, Sofia Teraño Sada, whose blog is dubbed Alcachofa y Fon, recognizes this and has developed a host of fungi-centered recipes that replicate nostalgic meat dishes. They are fleshy, earthy, can be pulled into stringy bits, flattened into a squish (a technique recently popularized by food writer Bettina Makalintal), braised, fried, or roasted, and are incredibly absorbent – which makes them nature’s perfect meat substitutes. In San Francisco, Andres Alulema of Micuna Kitchen lets their cooking be guided by what’s in season, creating delicacies like porcini mushroom chorizo.Ī post shared by Alcachofffa being neither plant nor animal, exist in their own kingdom. In Los Angeles, Stephanie Villegas, chef-owner of Xochitl Vegan –who is famous for her hibiscus flower asada – uses enoki mushrooms as carnitas. In Tijuana, chef Antonio Quintero’s Inspiración 9 serves an entree of a whole grilled oyster mushroom with guacamole, beans, and tortillas. In Ciudad Mexico’s neighborhood of Roma, Por Siempre Vegana Taqueria serves up setas encebolladas (setas are usually mushrooms that aren’t button or cimini encebolladas means cooked in onion). It was typically the only veggie offering next to nopales at taquerias if your pitter-pattering vegetarian heart craved a taquito – but no longer. You know the one, chewy, thinly sliced, slimy. Long gone are the days of the sad mushroom taco. Hence its English name: indigo milk cap, or blue milk mushroom.Īnd in today’s Vegan-Mexican cuisine, a mushroom is not only an after-thought, it’s its own universe, and an embrace of the land and cuisine that spawned from an indigenous culture that has widely embraced them for a millenia. Mexico, a fungivorous country, is home to over 200 varieties of hongos, like the fascinating Lactarius Indigo, who like the name suggests, dazzles in its shades of indigo and oozes a milky blue liquid when cut. Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members!īecause Mexico’s land is incredibly diverse in climate, it’s a fertile womb for not only a variety of vegetation, but mushrooms as well.
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