Mexican recipes

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

I've just been having a look at the mexican grocery site.
We like it spicy in our house -

https://www.mexgrocer.co.uk/home.php

Any ideas what to cook from Mexico. I see they have tamales corn flour, I wouldn't mind having a go at tamales.

[Alexandria Profile]

Trilingual Food Designer & Executive Chef, Susana Palazuelos, is the Julia Child of Mexico and has a Marvel of book in English and Spanish called: An inheritance of Flavors, Una herencia de Sabores. Her glossary of vocabulary for products, is a gold mine of information and historical references ..

Chef Susana, is the founder of SP Banquets in Acapulco, and has been at the Helm for forty years. She is now semi retired, and her cuisine holds Depth, textures, taste, is is ladened with impecable flavor.

Her pots and pans simmer for hours ( no Tex Mex, or fast food Mex common around the world ) .. She has prepared authentic traditional Mexican cuisine for embassies, royalty and the Westin Palace Hotels around the world for their weddings, and special international events which have been attended by the Ambassadors of Mexico ..


www.susanapalazuelos.com

Highly recommended.

Have a lovely day ..

[strictlysalsaclare Profile]

Hi Gill

I'm not an expert on Mexican food but please find below link to the good food website Mexican collection. I did tweak their Mexican chicken soup last weekend which went down very well. I am sure Karadekoolaid will give you plenty of ideas though!

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/mexican

[Badger's Mate Profile]

At this time of year we like chile verde. I generally do it with pork or turkey. My friend (married to an Ecuadorian chap) make a version with prawns, but I think she cooks the sauce separately. It can also be used as a dip, or poured over fried fish. Tomatillos are actually quite easy to grow in the UK. I got loads last year, they only really started to grow well this summer when it cooled down a bit. I don't know how nice the tinned ones are though.

I find Tommi Miers fairly reliable, you could check out a few recipes online.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

If you want to make tamales, great! Often they´re filled with pork crackling ( chicharrón), but good bacon chunks will do.
If you´re willing to do a bit extra, buy some MASECA tortilla flour and make your own fresh tortillas. A bit like making chapattis, but without having to rest the dough. Then with those same tortillas, you can fry them to make tostadas.
A salsa verde and a salsa roja: for the salsa verde, you´ll need some tomatillos and a few green chiles. A tin will do fine. For the salsa roja, you can go wild. I love mine with chilpotle chiles - nice bite, lovely smoky flavour.
A stuffed chile is a glorious thing, so you´d better get some chile ancho or some chile poblano. You soak them, stuff them with whatever you like ( ideas to follow) and bake them in a tomato-ey sauce.OR if you want to go the full 10,000 calories, you can make them " capeado" - you dip the stuffed chiles in an egg batter and deep fry them.
A quick stuffing could be minced pork, onions, garlic, a bit of tomato, and some chiles - preferably hot. Or you could use minced chicken or minced beef instead of pork. In the street in Mexico City, you´ll often find the taco sellers with a mixture of fried "chorizo" stuffing - ie. sausage without the skin - which they use for tacos, flautas, quesadillas, tostadas & enchiladas. if you want to go fishy, see if you can find some Marlin - or swordfish - or even dogfish. You cook it with onion, garlic and chiles until it falls apart. Then it´s good to go.
My absolute favourite is something called " Cochinito Pibíl". It ´s pork cooked in orange juice, annato seeds, chiles, onions and tomatoes, all wrapped in a plantain leaf and cooked, covered, until the pork literally falls apart. The pork is then pulled, and used for tacos, tostadas, etc. No plantain leaves? ok - you could probably achieve something similar in a tight-fitting pyrex in the oven. It´s divine.
No Mexican meal is over without a Mezcal. That´s the smoky version of Tequila, served with sal de gusano and a slice of orange. Órale!

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Thank you for the enthusiastic book recommendation, Member 461.
I can pop it onto my Christmas request list for Tony to contemplate buying me. I usually compile approx 20 books, and he'll buy 2.

Like you Stricters. I'm no mexican expert. I received a dry spice package for chili con carne made Arizona style from AZCook.
And the spicings were far superior to the Johnny Brit version we love over here.
I like the look of the tacos recipe, nice to see something with just beans: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spi ... bean-tacos

Chile verde.
That really sounds lovely, Badgers. Just the sort of thing I was looking for.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

ah-HA!
Clive's shown up.....................

Brilliant.
I was first thinking of buying the ready made tamales on the site, plus my other ingredients. That way, I'll know ruffly wot they taste like, as I've not got any idea of the flavours.
And a tortilla press. I'll have a lot of uses for it anyway.

Thank you so much for the comprehensive cooking ideas. I knew you'd have one or three!

[Alexandria Profile]

Gil, The Painter,

You are welcome ..

Truly, a masterpìece of fine regional Mexican with backgrounds, historical, amazing photography & fairly simple preparation techniques ..

Have a lovely weekend ..

[Alexandria Profile]

Karakoolaide,

Thank you for posting your delighting suggestions & the sauces !!

Have a lovely weekend ..

[karadekoolaid Profile]

" A Taste of México" ( Patricia Quintana)
"The Art of Mexican Cooking" ( Diana Kennedy)
" 500 Mexican Dishes" ( Judith Fertig)

These three books were all recommended to me whilst in DF. I only managed to buy the last one, but there´s time for everything!!
If you´ve never tried a tamale, probably better to buy the ready-made ones. Usually they´re cooked in corn husks, so trying to get (aforementioned corn husks) in Tesco´s might be a problem

[Joanbunting Profile]

M bought me this book last Christmas and I have used it quite a lot although it is sometimes hard to lay hands on ingredients here. The French have a horror of highly spiced food!

https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/books/rick ... california

I was lucky enought to spend a number of weeks in mexico in the 60s travelling right across the country form Acapulco on the pacific to the Caribbean coast. A memorable trip - which resulted in DD, She should have been called Conchita!

[Badger's Mate Profile]

One of the plus points for Tommi Miers' books is that she's writing for the UK market with an idea of what can reasonably be purchased here. Naturally the interweb has made anything possible but P&P can be an issue.

Dried Mexican chillies of different sorts can be bought from http://www.chillipepperpete.com

I have bought fresh chillies including poblanos in the past from Edible Ornamentals, who seem to have rebranded https://www.chilliranch.co.uk - availability peaks in late summer I guess

Sea Spring Seeds https://seaspringseeds.co.uk used to be Peppers by Post, they might still sell them in season.

My late MIL bought me a tortilla press many years ago, I'm afraid I have hardly used it.

[Lusciouslush Profile]

Deeply envious of your Tomatillos Badgers - I have used tined but nothing like the fresh - do you grow them in pots or straight in the ground? I haven't much room now for more plants in the garden except pots.

Chillipeperpete still has his original shop here in Brighton thank gawd, but not quite as good as it was when he was alive - that's the way of things I suppose.

[Amyw Profile]

I absolutely love Mexican food and have recently bought Rick Steins Mexican cookbook. It reads well but haven’t cooked anything from it yet

[mark111757 Profile]

I would agree with Tommi miners. I remember and downloaded Mexican food made simple series from channel 5. A go to recipe was her chili choc truffles. I did them for mum before she died. The chilli infused cream was too much for her. Future batches I left the chilli out and she liked them.

Give peter kuruvita a try. He did a series for SBS (australia) in mexico, more authentic.

As far as corn husks, when was working at the store, for a long time, when corn was in season, you could husk it in store. I don't recall anyone asking for husks. A customer convenience to be sure.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Tomasina Meyers is great. She lived in México; ate what the locals ate; helped them prepare it - magic.
I suppose I can´t NOT say positive things about Rick Bayless, either. The man is a Mexico-Maniac - and from what I´ve seen of his TV programmes, he stays authentic.
Rick Stein? Un pasajero. A visitor. No points.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Many thanks for the recommendations. They are all on my book list.
And I've taken the tortilla press off my shopping basket. I probably won't use it as much as I thought.

I grew peppers in our sunny garden in Kew.
They really are delightful to look at and use.
Are there winter ones you can grow if I get some now? I'll go have a look at the seed site.

I see peter kuruvita is sri lankan. Nice food from that part of the world too.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Rick Stein's fairly likeable.
But my husband always mutters "he's moody" when he's on the telly. He cannot get it out of his head.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

Lush

I generally grow them in the ground. I've tried in pots before - get plenty of growth but less produce than those in the soil. I grow them like toms, raise the seedlings in little pots or modules, pot on and plant out after frosts are finished. I also get quite a few turning up in the compost heap and springing up where the previous crop was, from fallen fruit. These are transplanted to where I want them.

There are two readily available varieties, green and violet. I have grown both, but in recent years have stuck with the latter. At least it can easily be seen when they're ripening. They didn't do so well in the very hot weather, it's now a race against time to get a crop. I have still got some in the freezer from last year though.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

Chillipeperpete still has his original shop here in Brighton thank gawd, but not quite as good as it was when he was alive

I think it was last year at the Benington chilli festival I noticed that the company was now being run by a guy from Sheffield, didn't appreciate the reason.