“Simple ingredients prepared in a simple way – that’s the best way to take your everyday cooking to a higher level.” – José Andrés, chef, restaurateur, humanitarian

Simple best describes my first recipe taught to members of Operation Feed, a local 33-year-old charitable NGO (non-gov’t organization). It’s led by a group of dedicated ex-pats and locals benefiting the village of San Juan Cosalá; our home in México on Lake Chapala. Operation Feed provides food baskets or despensas to over 150 families weekly. The despensas are donated basic food staples, inexpensive and readily available, that are used daily in the Mexican home and diet.

Our dearly departed nonagenarian neighbors, John and Cleo, made us aware of this great organization through their fervent support of it. Every Thursday they made their way down to the kitchens to help pack up the provisions. For some time now, we’ve been financially supporting Operation Feed because I know where 100% of my money goes.

When the call for volunteers to restart the cooking program came in, I jumped at the chance to get more involved within the community. One staple food item is chosen for each class as the starting point in offering up creative ways to prepare it for their families. An important aspect to be aware of is that most of these families do not have ovens; relying instead on stovetops, gas burners or wood grills.

The basic item chosen from the despensa for my class was Chayote Squash. It’s an edible plant belonging to the gourd family. Chayote was indigenous to Mesoamerica; it’s plentiful, inexpensive, and ingrained in Mexican cuisine.

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The chayote fruit is best prepared cooked. When heated, it’s usually handled like summer squash; lightly cooked to retain its crisp consistency. Raw chayote may be added to salads or salsas, usually marinated with lemon or lime juice, but many find it to be unpalatable and tough in texture this way.

Chayote has healthy benefits: low in calories and an excellent source of fiber; its high water content makes it ideal to fight constipation; its lack of saturated fats helps to level and control cholesterol in the body, and it also contains a high level of vitamin B2 and iron that stimulate the production of red blood cells. It’s a “good egg.”

In the U.S., we see the common chayote – light green in color and mild flavor; the hedgehog chayote is dark green and its skin is covered with spines, and finally, there’s the white chayote – pale yellow in color and smaller than its two other siblings.

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Back in the kitchen … The recipe I chose for my class is Chayote con Jitomates y Green Chiles … you can find it listed under the recipe section of the “Musings de Mexico” web page.

The Chayote Squash is a blank canvas; its mild flavor absorbs whatever accompanies it (as tofu does, too), and with the tomato (jitomate) and green chili recipe, it made for a perfect harmony of flavors.

My class was taught, todo en Español, in a relaxed, easy-flowing style. I engaged the ladies to contribute by helping me chop, dice and cube the ingredients. We spent much of the time sharing stories about their daily food preparations and what it entails. After one of the ladies finished describing her rotation of recipes, my reply was, “Where do you live, and what time is dinner?!”

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It was so much fun to share one of my passions with the community. Their warm and receptive nature empowered me to look forward to the future; to search for and help them create easy, tasty recipes using everyday items. I can’t wait to teach my next class in two weeks!

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Operation Feed also offers a myriad of other great programs and services: Buckle My Shoe Project, Food Despensa Program, Egg Ladies, Christmas Dinner and Gift Needs, English Classes, Crochet Ladies, Sewing Team, Clothing Drive, Feminine Sanitary Products.

http://www.operationfeedsjc.org

David re-posted the cooking class highlights from Operation Feed’s Facebook page (thank you, Janine Kirkland!). The feedback was overwhelming. I feel fortunate and grateful to be able to contribute my time, energy, and money to such a worthy cause.

The need is great . . . if, perchance, you’d like to contribute to this worthwhile organization, knowing your money is directly benefiting a deserving group of people, you can send donations directly to:

http://www.operationfeedsjc.org/donate.html or through PAYPAL at

sergiobsuarez@yahoo.com (I will convert the donations).

*** Please look out for future recipes being uploaded to my web pages

¡Buen Provecho!