Mexican Cooking

[bum]

And I'd love to learn a bit about your lady's carnitas.

Meant to respond to this earlier but was using phone and quoting is a PITA.

I am not privvy to the details but I know she cooks a pork shoulder in orange juice (of all things) with more garlic cloves than seems reasonable really long for as long as possible, then pulls it, then gives it a quick crisp-up in a boiling hot cast pan. Bloody amazing.

I can't ask for the details - she'll think I'm planing to leave her.

 

[manticle]

Stupidly expensive and defeats the idea of mexican taco truck/street food somewhat but if you are feeling flush and want a treat, mamasitas in Melbourne does pretty amazing food with authentic mexican the driving force.

I've never been (to mexico that is - I have been to mamasitas) but I reckon I have a couple of nice recipes for guacamole and salsa, mainly from my days working in commercial kitchens (my recipes entirely - I used to have to make extra guacamole because the waitresses kept eating it all). Might not be traditional/authentic (though much more so than taco bill swill) but damn tasty, fresh ingredients only.

 

[MashPaddler]

I bought this book last month and have been hooked on quality Mexican since then. Our favourite guacamole recipe is in here, a simple mix of avocado, pineapple chunks, coriander, onion, chilli and fresh lime juice.

http://www.amazon.com/Truly-Mexican-Essential-Techniques-Authentic/dp/0470499559/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372333275&sr=1-3&keywords=Mexican+cooking

I bought my chillies from

http://www.chilemojo.com.au/

 

[Mardoo]

Stupidly expensive and defeats the idea of mexican taco truck/street food somewhat but if you are feeling flush and want a treat, mamasitas in Melbourne does pretty amazing food with authentic mexican the driving force.

I've never been (to mexico that is - I have been to mamasitas) but I reckon I have a couple of nice recipes for guacamole and salsa, mainly from my days working in commercial kitchens (my recipes entirely - I used to have to make extra guacamole because the waitresses kept eating it all). Might not be traditional/authentic (though much more so than taco bill swill) but damn tasty, fresh ingredients only.

You know, I miss authentic Mexican, but then there's just damn good food. Also the dearth of quality Mexican food here for so long has taught me to be grateful for "good". (Best business lesson I ever learned, "The perfect is the enemy of the good.") Sometimes you just need good, and damn I would like a good taco right now.

Mexican is a simple food. You could say it's peasant food, just like some of the best Italian. Making something brilliant from the simple things you have in front of you. That's skillful cooking. I'd rather see people make Mexican food they like from what they have rather than Mexican food I like, if that makes sense. I'm not very doctrinaire and have a hard time seeing how being that way is inspiring for anyone.

Chili sausage rolls anyone?

Oh, and Bum, actually cooking the pork in orange juice is pretty damn traditional in some parts of Mexico. Pineapple too, but then you're edging towards what is often called "al pastor", which is the bomb. Chicharrones too. Deep fried bits of pork belly or skin then (sometimes) cooked in a chile and garlic sauce, rolled up in a burrito. :icon_drool2: :icon_drool2: :icon_drool2:

 

[manticle]

My guacamole recipe involves making a vinegar infusion first.
My nickname at that place was 'mr infusion'. Didn't stop the jokers from wiping me out of guacamole ever dinner session.
Tomorrow when I'm near a pc rather than a phone, I will add it here.
Only way I can actually eat avocado.

 

[Mardoo]

Best Mexican food experience ever: Camping on the beach halfway down Baja for two weeks, buying slabs of beer and sharing them with the guy at the fish taco stand. We ended up hanging out with him for days on end drinking beers together while he made fish tacos (soft corn tortilla, deep fried fish, cabbage, mayonnaise-ish stuff, green salsa) with one giant fried prawn per taco, prawns he had caught a couple of hours ago.

Here's to you Basilio, wherever you are :beerbang: :beer: :beerbang:

 

[MashPaddler]

My guacamole recipe involves making a vinegar infusion first.
My nickname at that place was 'mr infusion'. Didn't stop the jokers from wiping me out of guacamole ever dinner session.
Tomorrow when I'm near a pc rather than a phone, I will add it here.
Only way I can actually eat avocado.

Hmmm vinegar infusion sounds the goods. Meant to put in previous post the chillies from chilli mojo were super fresh, recently dried and smoked and when dry roasted then soaked in water they add loads of flavour to dishes, more than I expected. There is a pecan and jalapeño sauce in the book I 'll dig out for you it is awesome on tortillas, eggs, BBQ meats etc

 

[chefsantos]

Holy crap! Fresh tortillas in Melbourne! Thanks OzPalAle. That's been the #1 huge problem for me - finding even passable tortillas. World of difference!

fireworks is good, it comes from sydney if you want anything spanish or south american in melb head to casa iberica http://casaibericadeli.com.au Fitroy it has almost every thing you will need and is a good place to practice your espanol . it not that cheap but still worth a look

 

[bum]

Stupidly expensive and defeats the idea of mexican taco truck/street food somewhat but if you are feeling flush and want a treat, mamasitas in Melbourne does pretty amazing food with authentic mexican the driving force.

Mamasitas is nice (if you can stand the crowd) and while I do not pretend to be an expert at all I'd have to say it is fairly far from being traditional. Too fiddly. Still canes every other Mexican place I've been to here (but that's not very hard - they all taste like spicy dogfood).

 

[Mardoo]

OK then, if folks are getting good chiles and probably some chipotles, here are directions (not so much a recipe) for a simple salsa I make:

Soak 5 to 15 Chipotle chiles overnight in about one cup of water, depending on how much you like the ring of fire.
Next day roast an entire head of garlic in the oven until soft. I use roasted garlic because it complements the smokiness of the chiles well and won't overwhelm it.
Take the chiles out of the soaking water and save the water. De-stem, seed and de-vein the chiles unless you like things really hot. If you like really hot then de-stem the chiles and grind the rest (seeds and all) in a mortar and pestle/molcajete or blender.
Squeeze the garlic into a blender or bowl you use a stick blender in, or into your mortar and pestle if you like a hand job.
Add the chiles.
Peel 4 ripe, medium-size tomatoes and put in blender/bowl/mortar/molcajete (bbm). You can use a container of cherry tomatoes if you rather, without peeling unless you're far more obsessive a gent/lady than I.
Add the juice of one lime or 1 tablespoon of cider or other non-balsamic vinegar to the bbm (preferably not "white" vinegar - taste is wrong). Lemon vs vinegar gives quite a different result, so find out which you like.
Do not roast the spices for this salsa. Grind 2 teaspoons of whole allspice/pimiento in a mortar or spice grinder. Grind 2 teaspoons of whole cumin seed. Add these to the bbm.
Add 1/8 teaspoon of salt, maximum. A pinch is fine. You can add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar if you like to bring out flavors.
Blend/grind this all well. Add the soaking liquid from the chiles bit by bit until you reach a consistency you like.

Tips:
1) Too much salt covers the flavor of chiles as it's quite delicate. Always go easy on the salt when making salsas and chile sauces. Salt the dish, not the sauce.
2) The simpler the food, the more important fresh herbs and spices are, and most Mexican is very simple food. If you can grind your own spices. It will make all the difference in the world.
3) Three things dampen the heat of chiles: alcohol, dairy and citric acid. If you use lime it will likely dampen the heat a bit so you may want to adjust upwards.
4) Many salsas, this one included, improve overnight.
5) Put this on everything and you will live a happy life.

 

[chefsantos]

also if you want fresh taco tortillas i have a taco press you can borrow

 

[manticle]

Mamasitas is nice (if you can stand the crowd) and while I do not pretend to be an expert at all I'd have to say it is fairly far from being traditional. Too fiddly. Still canes every other Mexican place I've been to here (but that's not very hard - they all taste like spicy dogfood).

Definitely not traditional - informed by tradition maybe (in terms of ingredient, etc), combined with modern cuisine and a fancy pants interpretation and a hefty bill to
match.

Good food, not somewhere I can afford to eat most days.

I work in a job I like that's really badly paid but two of the longer term staff with whom I work are part owners so I got to see the place when it was a bar (recorded music salon- good whisky, no people) and enjoy a coyple of work related dinners there

 

[bum]

Yeah, we can't afford it either but SWMBO was missing Mexican food pretty hard and she'd heard good things.

 

[djar007]

Does anyone ave an easy recipe for sopapillas ? I miss them .

 

[Mardoo]

Does anyone ave an easy recipe for sopapillas ? I miss them .

Define easy. If you mean the fried bread served in New Mexico and some other places instead of tortillas here's one I've used a few times. If you mean the biscuit I've never made them.

http://gingerbreadsnowflakes.com/node/123

 

[Mardoo]

Definitely not traditional - informed by tradition maybe (in terms of ingredient, etc), combined with modern cuisine and a fancy pants interpretation and a hefty bill to
match.

I have to agree with Manticle on this one, same as Blue Corn in St. Kilda. Informed by tradition. I think it would come off a bit closer to traditional if access to quality traditional ingredients was a bit easier. They make a huitlacoche (corn mushroom - ahem, OK, corn smut) taco and of course have to use canned huitlacoche. From what I've read, in parts of Mexico it's a pretty down-home thing. Hell, looking at it you'd never try it voluntarily without someone saying, "Hey man, that blue turd-looking thing is GOOOOOOOOOD to eat!"

Mamasita's taco is very meh, but fresh huitlacoche will blow your mind completely, and happens to be traditional. But then they're not trying to be traditional. Mamasita's food was great for a while and then seemed to take a serious drop down after a couple years.

One of the funny things I have noticed is that a lot of the nouveau Mex places in Melbourne often have a lot of Indian chefs in the kitchen. The range of spices in Mexican food is mostly contained within Indian cooking, but the proportions are different, sometimes just slightly. Blue Corn is one example of a place where the folks in the kitchen know very well how to use the spices, but I think habit takes over and some of the dishes veer in the curry direction. I might be upset getting that if I was in the States or Mexico and got that dish, but here I just notice it and say thanks for the blessing of something good and quite, if not wholly, Mexican. There you go, time for someone to open a Mexican/Indian fusion restaurant.

 

[Mardoo]

For real Tex-Mex recipes try this blog. She redeemed Tex-Mex for me:

http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com.au/

 

[bum]

Wikipedia makes corn smut sound so appealing:

Although it can infect any part of the plant, it usually enters the ovaries and replaces the normal kernels of the cobs with large, distorted tumors analogous to mushrooms. These tumors, or "galls", are made up of much-enlarged cells of the infected plant, fungal threads, and blue-black spores.

 

[Phoney]

Hey Mardoo; You got any good tamale recipes?

 

[Mardoo]

Wikipedia makes corn smut sound so appealing:

Surely there must be something we can work with in the infection photo thread.