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Recetas de familia Oaxaca de Juárez

La Cocina de Abuela Carmen

Recipes from my kitchen in Oaxaca, written down at last.

para Lucía, y para todos

Carmen Ruiz Méndez Volumen uno Est. 1979

La Cocina de Abuela Carmen Dedicatoria

Para mi nieta

Para Lucía,

You always asked how much salt, and I always said “enough.” Here it is now, in grams, because you are an engineer and you deserve numbers.

But the real measure is still your nose and your patience. Cook these on Sundays. Make too much. Feed whoever knocks on the door.

Con todo mi amor, tu Abuela

Oaxaca, 2026 Forty-seven years of a notebook kept on the shelf above the stove, typed out so that no one in this family ever has to guess again.

La Cocina de Abuela Carmen Índice

Lo que cocinamos

Contents · What we cook

★ The ones with stars are the ones your mamá fought over.— Abuela

Desayunos Mornings

• 01 Chilaquiles verdesFried tortillas in tomatillo salsa, crema, queso fresco 12

Sopas y arroces Soups & rice

• 02 Sopa de fideoToasted noodle soup in tomato broth 18
• 03 Arroz rojoRed rice with tomato, garlic and peas 22

Para las fiestas For feast days

• 04 Tamales de rajas con queso★ Poblano and Oaxaca cheese tamales 30
• 05 Mole negro★ The black mole of Oaxaca, with chocolate 38

Postres Sweets

• 06 Flan de cajeta★ Baked custard with goat’s-milk caramel 48

Índice 5

No. 04 · Para las fiestas

Tamales de rajas, the way they come out of the steamer every Nochebuena, in the blue bowl.

30

Para las fiestas Tamales de rajas con queso

Receta No. 04

Tamales de rajas con queso

Corn-husk tamales with roasted poblano strips, quesillo and salsa verde.

Makes 24 tamales

Hands-on 1 hr 30 min

Steam 1 hr 15 min

Ingredientes

Para la masa

• 225 g lard, chilled (1 cup)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp fine salt
• 900 g fresh masa for tamales (2 lb)
• 1–1½ cups warm chicken broth

Para el relleno

• 6 poblano chiles
• 1 white onion, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp oil
• 340 g quesillo, pulled into strips
• 1 cup salsa verde

Para armar

• 30 dried corn husks

Preparación

1. Soak the husks in very hot water for 30 minutes, weighed down with a plate, until soft and pliable.
2. Make the rajas. Char the poblanos over an open flame until black all over. Sweat them in a bag for 10 minutes, then peel, seed and cut into strips. Fry the onion in the oil until soft, add the chiles and a pinch of salt.
3. Beat the lard with the baking powder and salt for 3–4 minutes, until white and fluffy. Add the masa in pieces, alternating with the broth, and beat until it is as soft as thick cake batter. A small ball dropped in cold water must float.
4. Fill. Spread 2–3 tablespoons of masa on the smooth side of a husk, leaving a border. Lay on a few rajas, a strip of quesillo and a spoon of salsa.
5. Fold the sides over the filling, then fold the narrow tail up. Stand the tamales upright in a steamer lined with husks, open end up.
6. Steam, covered, over medium heat for 60–75 minutes. Add boiling water as needed. They are ready when the masa comes away cleanly from the husk. Rest 10 minutes.

Abuela’s note

If someone in the kitchen is angry, the tamales will not cook. So we sing while they steam. Your tío Beto was sent outside every year.

— Abuela

Beat the masa until your arm hurts, then two minutes more. — A.

La Cocina de Abuela Carmen 31

Para las fiestas Mole negro

Receta No. 05

Mole negro

The black mole of Oaxaca: four chiles, burnt seeds, chocolate and a whole Sunday.

Serves 12

Hands-on 3 hours

Simmer 1 hr 30 min

Ingredientes

Los chiles

• 6 chilhuacles negros (or mulatos)
• 6 mulato chiles
• 4 pasilla chiles
• 2 chipotles mecos

Lo asado

• 3 Roma tomatoes
• 5 tomatillos, husked
• ½ white onion
• 8 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 1 stale corn tortilla

Lo frito

• ¼ cup each: almonds, peanuts, raisins
• 3 tbsp sesame seeds, plus extra
• ½ very ripe plantain, sliced
• 2 slices day-old pan de yema

Especias y final

• 5 cm canela (Ceylon cinnamon)
• 4 whole cloves
• 6 black peppercorns
• ½ tsp each: dried oregano, thyme
• 2 dried avocado leaves
• 90 g Oaxacan chocolate
• 8 cups chicken broth · lard · salt

Preparación

1. Toast the chiles. Stem and seed them; keep the seeds. Toast on a dry comal, 20–30 seconds a side, then soak in hot water for 30 minutes.
2. Burn the seeds. In a dry pan, outdoors if you can, toast the chile seeds until fully black. Char the tortilla over the flame. Soak both in cold water, then drain. This is where the black comes from.
3. Roast the tomatoes, tomatillos, onion and garlic on the comal until blistered. Peel the garlic.
4. Fry one by one in a little lard: almonds, peanuts, raisins until they puff, plantain, bread. Toast the sesame dry, until golden.
5. Blend. Blend the chiles with some soaking water and strain. Blend everything else with the spices and 2 cups of broth, and strain.
6. Fry the mole. Heat 3 tablespoons of lard in a heavy cazuela until it smokes. Pour in the chile purée and stir for 15 minutes until thick and dark. Add the second purée and cook 30 minutes more.
7. Simmer. Add the chocolate and the rest of the broth, a little at a time. Cook low for 1–1½ hours, stirring often, until it coats the spoon. Pass the avocado leaves over the flame and add them for the last 10 minutes. Salt.

Abuela’s note

Toast the chiles until they smell sweet, not a second more. A burnt chile is bitter, and no chocolate in Oaxaca will save it.

— Abuela

Al servir Spoon over poached chicken, scatter with sesame, serve with arroz rojo and warm tortillas. It is better on the second day.

La Cocina de Abuela Carmen 38

Del cuaderno From the notebook

The page this came from

Mole negro, 1979

The first recipe in the notebook, written in blue fountain pen the week Carmen married and moved to the house on Calle de Abasolo. The stains are from the comal. The cempasúchil flower was pressed there in 1986 and nobody has dared to move it.

Every recipe in this book was copied from these pages, then cooked again, side by side, in the same kitchen.

I wrote it in pen so nobody could change it. They changed it anyway.— Abuela

Notebook No. 1 of 3

Pages 96, lined

Recipes 61

La Cocina de Abuela Carmen 41

Buen provecho

Cocina con amor,

y sin prisa.

Cook with love, and without hurry.

Ahora es tu cocina, mija. — Abuela

La Cocina de Abuela CarmenRecipes by Carmen Ruiz Méndez · Tested and typed by Lucía Morales Ruiz
First family printing, December 2026 · Twelve copies, one for every chair at the table