Hongos a la Mexicana del Valle de Toluca

Estado de Mexico, the high forest belt around the Valle de Toluca, owns this version. When the rains come to the slopes near La Marquesa, Amanalco, and the Nevado de Toluca, baskets of hongos de monte appear in the markets before noon. If you do not know the mushroom seller, buy cultivated oyster mushrooms. Preguntale a las senoras del mercado. They know who picked what and where.

A la mexicana means tomato, white onion, and fresh green chile, the colors of the flag in the pan. Here the chile is serrano, not jalapeno from a jar, and the herb is epazote because mushrooms from the central highlands need that wild, resinous edge. The technique is quick but not careless. A wide pan, hot fat, no crowding. Let the mushrooms brown before the tomato goes in, or you will make soup.

I learned this method from a woman in the Toluca market who sold clavitos, escobetas, and blue-gray setas from enamel buckets lined with newspaper. She cooked them in a blackened clay cazuela with manteca de cerdo and said, without looking up, that oil was for people in a hurry. La manteca es el sabor. Cada estado, su propia cocina.