Cooking in
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Mexican
Empanadas de Hongos — Jamiltepec, Oaxaca
A deeply savory wild mushroom filling from the Costa Chica region of Oaxaca, built around foraged hongos, dried chiles, and hoja santa. Diana Kennedy recorded this preparation from Jamiltepec, where it fills masa empanadas for market days and home cooking alike. The combination of toasted costeño chiles and the anise-forward perfume of hoja santa (Piper auritum) gives the mushrooms a character that is earthy, herbaceous, and gently fiery all at once. A finish of finely grated salty cheese — Romano or pecorino — cuts through the richness and ties everything together.
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I
The Market List
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450 g (1 lb)
wild mushrooms — field mushrooms, chanterelles, or a mixture — cleaned and finely chopped by hand
10
costeño chiles (or 8 chiles de árbol), toasted, deseeded, and torn into pieces
2 large
hoja santa leaves (Piper auritum), wiped clean and roughly torn
63 ml (1/4 cup)
water
Your own market
6 small
garlic cloves, roughly chopped
Your own market
2 tablespoons
vegetable oil
Your own market
Salt to taste
Your own market
63 ml
/ approximately 55 g (1/2 cup) finely grated salty cheese — Romano (Pecorino Romano) or pecorino
Your own market
II
The Method
1
Toast the chiles. In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast the costeño or árbol chiles for about 30 seconds per side, pressing lightly, until fragrant and just beginning to darken. Remove from heat, deseed and devein, then tear into smaller pieces.
2
Wipe — do not wash — the hoja santa leaves with a barely damp cloth. Tear roughly.
From the canon — Hoja santa (Piper auritum) is one of the great aromatic leaves of southern Mexican cooking — large, heart-shaped, velvety on the underside, and possessed of … Hoja Santa →
3
Combine the finely chopped mushrooms, torn chiles, hoja santa, water, and roughly chopped garlic in a bowl. Stir to mix.
4
Heat the vegetable oil in a wide, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushroom mixture and fry, stirring frequently, until the liquid released by the mushrooms has evaporated and the mixture smells fragrant and cohesive — approximately 5–7 minutes.
5
Season with salt. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely before using as a filling.
6
At assembly: spoon filling into empanadas, tacos, or quesadillas and add a generous pinch of finely grated salty cheese before sealing or folding.
From the canon — Quesadillas are one of the most misrepresented dishes in Mexican cooking outside Mexico — internationally assumed to always contain cheese, but in Mexico Cit… Quesadillas — comal vs. pan technique →
III
Sensory Tests
◇Press the finished empanada gently along its seam — the masa should yield slightly but spring back without cracking, indicating it was neither overworked nor too wet; a seam that gaps open signals a dough that was too dry or pressed too thin at the fold.
◇Tear the empanada open immediately after it leaves the comal and inhale: the first vapour should carry a clear anise note from the hoja santa before the earth of the mushrooms asserts itself — if only mushroom comes through, the hoja santa was added too early and cooked off its volatile oils.
◇The filling, scraped onto a spoon, should hold its shape loosely without weeping liquid — if it pools water, the mushrooms were insufficiently reduced and the masa base will turn sodden within minutes of filling.
◇Where it lives or dies. The dish lives or dies on how completely the mushroom filling is reduced before it meets the masa: undercooked, it releases steam inside the sealed empanada, turning the interior gummy and the masa shell pale and soft rather than lightly freckled and set. Kennedy's own preference — cook the filling first, contrary to the Jamiltepec market-stand method — exists precisely to control this moment.
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V
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