Cooking Workshop - Super Sauces of Mexico

This process-based workshop will focus on the unctuous, rich chili sauces that form an essential cornerstone of Mexican cuisine. Beginning with an introduction to several varieties of dried chilies and their origin stories, we will work together through the seven-step process of transforming them into concentrated, balanced sauces that transcend their humble ingredients. The flavors coaxed out of dried chilies as they simmer are not merely hot, but instead deliciously complex. We will discuss flavor in a way that is most often reserved for wine tasting. The end results are versatile, velvety sauces with myriad applications, easy to make in big batches and store, and Chef Erin will share her favorite recipes for their use. We will make a lunch of the results and send participants home with ample sauce!

ERIN CHAPLA currently serves as Ox-Bow’s Head Chef; she’s been spicing your food in the Ox-Bow kitchen for 15 years. Her enduring love of Asian cuisine has been nurtured by extensive travel, as she honed her skills cooking and eating across south & east Asia for several years. She now lives with her family on their 5-acre permaculture homestead in the Allegan woods, where she tends an ambitious garden, an unruly flock of chickens, and two wild little girls.