Revised Chiles Syllabus

EdTech 596 Course Syllabus Assignment
Designer: Millie Vilaplana
Course Title :"Haute Cuisine Mexicaine?"
Date: Sept.14, 2009/ Rev Sept. 20, 2009

Course Description:
"Chiles en Nogada" literally translates to hot peppers with nut sauce. Carefully roasted green poblano chiles (hot green peppers from the state of Puebla) are stuffed with an exquisite sweet meat dressing and topped with a white nut sauce sprinkled with pomegranate seeds. For centuries the Mexican elite have savored this lean and nutritious, exquisite, labor-intensive dish. In this course, students will learn to select ingredients, prepare the chile peppers, stuffing and sauce for Chiles en Nogada, as well as how to distribute work among several cooks in a kitchen and how to hold a party that revolves around this dish as the center theme.

Using the options offered on the course website, you will view a homemaker shopping for and preparing the dish. In contrast to the traditional TV cooking classes, you will be required to interact with the course materials by answering short animated self-check questions after a class demonstration. After full completion of the course you will receive a Certificate of Achievement or Completion depending on your results. You will be encouraged to practice the actual preparation of the dish, but the class basic requirement is only that you participate and pass all the on-line segments.

Course Goals:
This web-based on-line course will enable the learner to prepare a traditional recipe and some variations of Chiles en Nogada in an individual homemaker or social group setting for the purpose of simply enjoying a different meal with the family or entertaining a large groups of guests and friends.

At the end of this course the learner will be able to:
 Narrate to a group of people the history and legends behind Chiles en Nogada.
 Shop in appropriate food markets, identify, select or substitute the ingredients needed for the Mexican entrée.
 Safely roast and evenly peel chiles poblanos and other types of hot peppers so that they do not tear off and are easy to stuff.
 Prepare the traditional picadillo (ground meat dressing) and different varieties for Chiles en Nogada.
 Thoroughly peel walnut meat for the Nogada sauce and describe at least two workarounds for this laborious chore.
 Hold a group cooking party where recipe tasks are fairly distributed among small teams.
 Blend the nut sauce with appropriate ingredients until it reaches the right texture an appearance.
 Place and decorate each stuffed chile on a plate so that the three colors of the Mexican flag are displayed uniformly.
 Describe a full course traditional Mexican dinner menu with Chiles en Nogada as the main buffet entrée.
 Properly store prepared Chiles en Nogada for a future meal occasion.

Course Learning Materials:
Learners will view the following on-line live cooking and preparing demonstrations: I- The Recipe (presented in Session 1) II- Chef teams galore (Session 3) III- The Party (Session 5).

The course learning materials will be available on-line and distributed via the web. The cooking demonstration will also be available on CDROM or DVD format.

You will also have access to the following printable Job Aids for the team cooking session, for each workstation: a) Chile roasting, b) Nut skinning and blending, c) Prepping ingredients and spices, d) Stuffing the chiles, e) Artful placing.

Links to a variety of complimentary on-line reading sources will be offered via the website platform, for example an interesting article on ‘What is authentic Mexican cuisine?” and “Facts and legends about Chiles en Nogada”

Course Communication:
Learners will be able to communicate among themselves and with the instructor asynchronously via a blog they can readily access at any point in the lessons.

You will se a “Post a comment” popup caption as you finish sections of the lessons and you can go to the blog on the website for asking questions and discussing your experiences with other learners.

The clases, the materials and website forum are at www.millievilaplana.com

Assessments:
Several “Self Checks” will be interspersed during the lessons; Learners will be given the opportunity to correct their answers until they obtain a passing score. The course will will also track final scores. Each quiz addresses key lesson component objectives.

There will be two types of Self-Checks: 1) Quiz containing of five multiple choice questions and two true and false ones for a total of seven questions. 2) List of preparation steps the learner will be asked to place in correct order.

Learners who actually prepare the dish should post their comments and degree of satisfaction with their meal in the course group discussion forum located in the website. A pop-out message will also prompt learners to react to the lessons. Your answers will determine if you merit a Certificate of Achievement or Completion as described below.

Grading:
Exemplary- Learner reports on satisfactory production of the dish. They liked the flavor and had no major cooking hiccups during the cooking process. Learner obtained only one or no answer wrong in each of the Self-check quizzes.
Effective-Learner obtained only one or no answer wrong in each of the course quizzes. It is unknown whether the learner actually prepared the dish or not, although they did perform all on-line practice exercises satisfactorily.
No Certificate of Completion- The learner dropped out of the course, irrespective or motive(s).

Course Outline:
Day 1
Content History of Chiles en Nogada
 Discuss confluence of cultures: indigenous roots, introduction of French cuisine during occupation of Puebla and ingeniousness in Catholic monasteries.
 Discover how they have been served through the years and how it became a national and patriotic dish.
 Reflect: Does the mix and complexity of the peoples that converged in Mexico produce unique culinary expressions?

Day 2
Content Finding, Choosing or Substituting Ingredients
 Compare Mexican ingredients in your local markets, farmer’s markets and ethnic markets.
 What are chiles poblanos, how to differentiate them from similar chiles and selecting according to preferred spiciness.
 Shopping for seasonal fruits such as pomegranate and how to substitute when unavailable.
 Deciding factors on whether to buy fresh walnuts and almonds
 Buying and making your own lean ground meat (poultry, pork or beef)
 Nutritional content, calories and health
 Knowledge quiz
Day 3
Illustration Following the Basic Recipe (Live demonstration)
 Roast the chiles, removing skins and seeds
 Brown the meat with spices, add viznaga or substitute
 Stuffing the chiles artfully
 Peeling the walnuts, blending with Mexican cream and spices
 Presenting the colorful dish just right
 Review and self-check
Day 4 Preparing Chiles en Nogada with Friends
 Create a special announcement/ invitation
 Setting up the area and distributing work space appropriately
 Gather the group to watch the cooking video snacking on crisp jicama
 Place job aid at each work station
 To drink or not to drink (margaritas and tequila shots or fresh tamarind and hibiscus drinks!)

Day 5 Entertaining with Mexican Cuisine
 Full course buffet menu:
 For the daring: Pumpkin flower, and black fungus quesadillas
 For the dieters: Dry white cheese (cotija) sprinkled on tangerine wedges, crispy radishes, cilantro salad with light avocado dressing
 Can’t have a Mexican meal without tortillas, beans and rice? Try these!
 Sinful desserts: Cajeta (milk caramel), membrillo (fruit quince) and lemon meringues
 Table presentation
 Music and drink