Why the heck would someone take a cooking class while on vacation? Let’s face it..work is not work when you are having fun.Having done my research prior and stumbling across this find, I could not pass up what appeared to be a good opportunity to edjumacate myself about Mexican cooking. It was taught by a real Mexican, if that counts. Hey, he spoke perfect English. Bonus: the guy serving our drinks was Mexican too, could you believe that? No friggin way. Onwards…

Tortilla Press, Mini Huaraches

To prep the above, first to prepare your base for the huarache by flattening your Masa Dough with a Tortilla press. Place on griddle over medium heat until brown. Flip over and spread the refried beans over it. Sautee your chorizo with the diced potatoes sans oil since the chorizo packs oil. Season to taste. Add over Masa, top with crumbled Mexican white cheese, lettuce. Dress with heavy cream to taste.

Veracruz Style Fish Fillet

Next, prepare your main. Season your fish, butter your skillet and place your grouper fillet in the skillet. You want to keep shaking your skillet as not to make the fish stick to the bottom of the pan. Do this gently or you will tear the delicate fish. How do you know when your fish is ready? When the sides of the fish turn white. At that point, flip your fillet and wait for the same. Place over banana leaf which sits on your aluminum foil and let your fillet sit. Meanwhile, prepare to dress your fish by sauteeing your sliced onion and green bell peppers. Place over fish and top with sliced tomato,  olives. Fold in your aluminum foil where the banana leaf sides stick out. Seal the top by rolling inwards. and do the same with the other two sides, except for the last two sides, mark with your finger where the fillet ends so you can finish folding there. Seal and roll inwards once again to create a vacuum. Bake at 250 degrees for 45 minutes. Unfold your foil and eat. Serve with rice, salad, beans, veggies of choice.

Rice Pudding Tower

To make the cookie dough, always mix your dry ingredients first, then mix in your wet ingredients. In this case, mix your sugar and flour. Separately, mix the butter and milk. Then add your wet to your dry ingredients. Finally, add some lime peel and rum to taste. Refrigerate overnight. Roll your dough into half inch balls. Place dough ball in between wax paper between your Tortilla Press. Place your pointer finger over the handle to press down only with that one finger. When your ball turns into a 1/8″ thick cookie, put it aside and repeat. Place your cookies over griddle and wait til bottom hardens. Flip and repeat with your other cookies.

To make the rice pudding, in a small sauce pot, mix together your rice, milk, cinnamon sticks, and raisins. Then add the granulated sugar to taste. Remember, you can always add MORE sugar, but you can never take it away if you add too much. You can precook your rice if in a rush, in which case you would use a lot less milk. Allow to cool.

Techniques to dress your plate

To stack your tower, remove the cinnamon sticks from your rice pudding. Place one cookie on the bottom of your plate. Alternate cookie layers with copious amounts of rice pudding and enjoy your towered creation!

Recipes for your 3 course meal

More pics after the jump

DISCUSS: Have you ever taken a cooking class? What for? Did you learn anything from it?