Gastronomy
RECIPES
AND COCKTAILS
The traditional way to drink mezcal: a caballito, worm salt and citrus.
Food pairings
Recipes
Oaxacan green salad
Serves 2
Ingredients
1 cos lettuce
30 g baby spinach
½ avocado, in wedges
80 g Oaxacan queso fresco
¼ red onion, thinly sliced
2 tbsp toasted pumpkin seeds
Coriander and mint leaves
4 tbsp mezcal vinaigrette
Worm salt, to taste
Method
Wash and drain the leaves well, then dry them so the vinaigrette clings.
Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry frying pan, stirring until they start to pop. Take them off the heat straight away so they don’t turn bitter.
Toss the leaves with the onion and herbs. Add the avocado and crumbled cheese last, so they don’t break up.
Dress with the vinaigrette just before serving and finish with the pumpkin seeds and a pinch of worm salt around the edge of the plate.
Mezcal chicken
Serves 4
Ingredients
4 chicken breasts
120 ml Mezcal Monte Albán
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 onion, sliced
2 guajillo chillies, deseeded
240 ml chicken stock
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp Oaxacan oregano
Salt and pepper
Method
Marinate the chicken in half the mezcal with the garlic, oregano, salt and pepper. Leave to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.
Soak the chillies in hot water for 15 minutes, then blend them with the stock.
Sear the breasts in very hot oil until golden on both sides. Lift them out and soften the onion in the same fat until translucent.
Return the chicken to the pan and add the guajillo sauce and the rest of the mezcal. Cook over a low heat for 20 minutes, until the sauce thickens and the chicken is juicy.
Serve with white rice or mashed potato.
Vinaigrette
Makes about 240 ml
Ingredients
120 ml extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp pineapple vinegar
2 tbsp Mezcal Monte Albán
1 tbsp agave syrup
1 tsp mustard
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Method
Dissolve the salt in the vinegar before adding the oil: once the oil is in, it won’t blend in properly.
Add the mustard, agave syrup and garlic, and whisk until smooth.
Pour in the oil in a thin stream, whisking all the time, until it emulsifies. Stir in the mezcal last, cold, so it keeps its aroma.
It keeps for up to five days in the fridge. Shake before use, as it tends to separate.
With Monte Albán
Cocktails
Donaji cocktail
1 coupe
Ingredients
60 ml Mezcal Monte Albán
30 ml lime juice
20 ml sugar syrup
2 slices of red prickly pear
Worm salt, for the rim
Ice
Method
Rim the glass with worm salt, moistening the edge with lime first.
Muddle the prickly pear in the shaker until it releases its juice.
Add the mezcal, lime juice, syrup and ice. Shake hard for 12 seconds.
Double strain into the rimmed glass to keep the seeds out. Garnish with a slice of prickly pear.
Gusano Sunrise
1 glass
Ingredients
60 ml Mezcal Monte Albán
120 ml fresh orange juice
15 ml grenadine
Orange slice
Ice
Method
Fill the glass with ice and pour in the mezcal and orange juice. Stir gently.
Add the grenadine slowly, letting it slide down the inside of the glass: being denser, it sinks to the bottom and creates the gradient that gives the drink its name.
Don’t stir it afterwards. Garnish with the orange slice.
Traditional Gusano
1 caballito
Ingredients
60 ml Mezcal Monte Albán
1 orange, in segments
Worm salt
Ice (optional)
Method
Serve the mezcal at room temperature in a caballito (a traditional shot glass) or a clay jícara.
Serve with orange segments sprinkled with worm salt.
Sip it slowly, alternating with the orange: it is the traditional way to drink it in Oaxaca, and the one that best brings out the smokiness of the agave.
Mezcal Libre
1 glass
Ingredients
60 ml Mezcal Monte Albán
120 ml cola
½ lime
Ice
Method
Fill the glass to the brim with ice: the colder it is, the less it dilutes.
Squeeze the half lime straight over the ice and drop the shell in.
Add the mezcal and top up with cola, pouring slowly to keep the fizz.
Give it a quick stir and serve.