Let's get Corny

Sorry, dad jokes are sort of my jam.  Masa, as many of you who have ventured to our journal page likely probably already know, is a dough made from nixtamalized corn that is used to make tortillas. As with most things in life, all tortillas are not created equal, and the main differentiator is usually the masa. I would venture to say that over 95% of Mexican restaurants in Los Angeles either buy their masa or buy their tortillas. And don’t get me wrong, there are some great commercial tortillerias in LA. Making masa is a difficult and time intensive process and starts by nixtamalizing grains of field corn by cooking and soaking them in an alkaline liquid to soften the hard outer layer of the corn kernel. This process not only removes the undigestible pericarp layer of the field corn, but it also brings out the nutritional value of the corn by making calcium and niacin available to be digested. The process of nixtamalization has been around for thousands of years by way of cooking the corn in an alkaline solution made from ash. In modern times, calcium hydroxide or cal is often used in most nixtamalization processes.

The corn is then ground on a stone mill into dough and then pressed into tortillas.  It’s not a simple process that most restaurants tend to skip, instead opting for purchasing pre-made tortillas, pre-made masa or using the dreaded “maseca” to make their tortillas. Sadly, many people in the US and even in Mexico have been subjected to a deluge of corn tortillas made from maseca, a just add water instant corn “masa” flour invented in the ‘40s to simplify the process of making tortillas. I’m sure you’ve had the cardboard textured, bland, tasteless tortillas that this produces. Sure these tortillas act as a vessel for whatever deliciousness is inside of them, but that’s it. Flavor deserts.

At Mirame, we made the decision to create our masa from scratch. We partnered with Masienda, a business in Los Angeles who leads the charge in LA on importing quality heirloom corn sustainably and ethically sourced directly from farmers in Mexico.  We typically use a blend of ocotillo azul, blue cónico, and red cónico corn all imported from the State of Mexico and from Oaxaca. So why do we go through all of the hard work and effort? Because our tortillas are delicious and we believe in the process. We’re currently growing our own field corn on our farm in Agoura as a masa-experiment. we did a test crop this year to see what would happen, and results are looking promising! We planted later in the season than was ideal, but next year is going to be our year!

The Mirame Farm

We are, of course, a Mexican restaurant---but we are also a California restaurant, always inspired by the seasons and the amazing bounty that grows in this beautiful state. Our chefs go to farmer’s markets all the time to get produce directly from the source. But because we’re stubborn and always trying to push the limits of our bandwidth to the breaking point, we decided to take the farm to table concept one step further. Shortly after opening in 2020, and by taking a leap of faith on a 1.5 acre hillside in Agoura Hills, we began an experiment to see what would happen if we tried to grow our own produce for the restaurant. Knowing very little about gardening, let alone farming, we threw caution to the wind and with the assistance of some more experienced farmers, began to work the land into something that resembled a plantable farm. In a matter of weeks, a dry hillside transformed into a garden.

We planted a variety of crops ranging from corn, chilis of all sorts, tomatoes, tomatillos, squash, eggplant, and more and to our amazement, everything grew. The hillside quickly came alive, not only with our new sprouting crops, but also with bees, butterflies, and birds and before we knew it, we were swimming in produce. It was amazing and overwhelming because as fast as our plants grew, the native plants grew faster, quickly overtaking the newly irrigated hillside in weeds. And of course, once the cayotes caught wind of what we had going, we had nightly visitors checking out our all you can eat coyote buffet. I found my bandwidth stretched with the restaurant, the farm and life in general. Some weeks I was able to give the farm what it needed and some weeks it went neglected. Farm support has come and gone since we started this project, and balancing the expense of paying people for their help on the farm and how that farm labor translated to our food cost in the restaurant became a bit of a challenge.

This summer crop, I planted mostly by myself. I’ve installed drip irrigation to reduce water consumption given our current drought and I managed to seed a fairly large area with corn, tomatoes, melons, cucumbers, peppers, and more. Is the Mirame farm still a baby as farms go?  Yes, without a doubt.  But even at its current state, we’re able to supply a large amount of produce for the restaurant with very minimal labor and not much cost.

In the future we hope to find a way to bridge the gap in food production and consumption and to utilize our food waste from the restaurant to fertilize what we grow. We hope to build the farm operation to a point that it can supply a large portion of the produce for the restaurant. This summer, there will be a few select dishes that feature ingredients we grew ourselves. So when you come in, make sure you give them a try and take a moment to appreciate the amazing produce that grows in this beautiful state.

Matt

¡Mira!

Welcome to our journal. We’ll talk about all things Mírame, including food, drinks, and culture and more about what is inspiring us to do what we do.

I want to start what is Mírame’s first journal post by discussing our back bar…for those of you not in the biz, the backbar is exactly what it sounds like, the wall of booze that we keep on the back of the bar. At Mirame, our backbar is unique because it is comprised of only Mexican spirits—And I’m not just talking about the usual tequilas and mezcals, we have an amazing selection of Mexican whiskey, rum, and gin, but we’ll get into all of these things in future posts. So much to talk about…But first, Tequila! The tried and true spirit of Mexico.

We have so many people that walk into our restaurant and without opening our drink menu proceed to order one of the typical “popular” tequilas…There are a few that start with the letter “C” that seem to be the most frequently ordered.  There’s nothing blatantly wrong with these spirits. Do they taste like agave…sort of-ish, but not really. They taste like whatever flavors are added to the spirit to influence the flavor. I’m not reinventing the wheel by bringing this up, but 100% agave tequila can contain up to 1% of additives that manufacturers can introduce to the tequila according to the Consejo Regulador del Tequila, Tequila’s regulatory agency, and still call it 100% agave Tequila. These are chemicals or flavorings added to influence the sweetness, the mouthfeel, the color, or oak extract to add more barrel taste.  So at Mírame, we’ve made the decision to sell brands that only use 3 ingredients: Agave, water, and yeast. The rest of the flavor is determined by the plant, the cooking of the agave, the hand of the maker and any aging of the spirit.

Without additives, the real taste of the agave tends to come through and you get to taste the terroir from which it’s made. Agave spirits are some of the only to mature as they grow with some agave varieties taking up to 20 years before they’re used to make spirits. Blue Webber, the agave used in tequila, is typically harvested after 3-7 years, but compare that to a grain based spirit which matures in only a season.

When you add barrel aging into the mix, there’s a whole other rabbit hole of flavor influence. Sure, we love a good aged tequila just as much as the next spirit nerd, but we draw the line in the sand when it comes to how much that barrel impacts the flavor of the spirit. Do we lose the agave to the overwhelmingly powerful flavors of the barrel?  The añejo’s and extra añejos we sell tend to be softened by the barrels but they also pick up new nuances that only barrel age brings out, without crushing the agave’s subtleties out by contact with wood.

Congratulations, if you’re still reading this, you are one of us, you’re a food and drink nerd, a flavor seeker with the booziest of intentions, a curious palleted person on a ‘spirit’ual journey looking for the next flavor fix.  You’ve come to the right place because we are ‘spirit’ually curious too, and our backbar is full of bottles that we like to drink. Close your eyes and point at a bottle, and it’s guaranteed that it’ll be something delicious. Or get some guidance from our bartenders and drink your way across Mexico.

Here’s a little bonus video from our recent tasting dinner with Lalo of LALO tequila talking about his brand.

Stay tuned, we’ll get into more fun stuff next time.

Matt