Mexican Cooking

[Mardoo]

Hey Mardoo; You got any good tamale recipes?

I have links for a NYTimes one I've been working with, but I am no expert whatsoever. Probably most six-year old Mexican kids can make better ones than me!

It's all in getting the masa right, not too dry in particular. And lard. Use lard or other animal fat in the dough. Solidified bacon drippings or duck fat can be nice if you feel like messin' but go with lard your first few times 'til you start to get a sense of texture. It takes (me) time to get it close to right. Me not there yet.

For a nice variation toast about 15% of your masa harina flour (not the finished dough) in the oven 'til it's kind of barley-malt-husk colored, say Vienna. Not too dark though.

There are two links, one for technique, one the recipe. Read both for sure. As with all recipes, best adapted to your own tastes.

For instance I sub cassia leaves (called Indian Bay Leaves from any decent Indian shop, and used in southern Mexico) for the bay leaves and allspice/pimiento for the cumin in the meat, keeping the cumin in the sauce.

http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/1014426/Tamales-.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/dining/how-to-make-tamale-bundles-neat.html?ref=dining&_r=1&

 

[browndog]

Not being a Mexican food aficionado, would this book, Quick and easy mexican cooking by Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee be a good place to start for getting in to Mexican food? You guys have given me an urge to cook mexican.

cheers

Browndog

 

[manticle]

For guacamole, I used to take the coriander roots from one bunch of coriander (well washed), some good quality white wine vinegar and a touch of white wine, lime zest, crushed whole garlic clove, a few coriander seeds and a smidge of cumin (dry toasted briefly first) and bring it all to the boil. Once it hit the boil, I'd leave it covered to cool and add some fresh lime juice.

Allow to sit overnight, strain and discard the solids.

Then brunoise some small spanish onion and a clove of garlic. De-seed and brunoise some red capsicum and some fresh tomato. Wash and chop some fresh coriander leaves and fresh red chilli.

In a food processor, mash up some avocado with a touch of bland vegetable oil and sour cream till it's a nice smooth consistency. Season with salt and pepper then add the onion/tomato/coriander mix. Slowly add the infusion and mix through to taste. I have found you can never have too much fresh lime juice in this so add more if you like it at the final stages.

There are probably some things that purists would throw their hands up at but I've always preferred good flavour to purism and this has good flavour.

 

[brettprevans]

Chuck roast slow baked in mole sauce :drool:

 

[MashPaddler]

Thanks Manticle.

Pecan chipotle salsa

3 dried chipotle wiped clean and stemmed
1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons of olive or vegetable oil
1/2 cup finely chopped white onion
1 garlic clove finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt

Toast the chillies in a dry pan until they puff up and blister a bit - 3 -5 minutes.
Put them in the blender with 1/2 cup water.
toast the pecans in an oven until fragrant, 8 minutes give or take. Add them to the blender and blend. Add a bit more water if needed.
Using the pan you used for the chillies, add some oil, add the onion and garlic and sautee until the onion is translucent and soft.
Add the mix from the blender into the pan. Rinse the blender out with a very small amount of water to get as much out as you can.
add the salt and bring to a simmer. simmer for 5 more minutes and cool.

Makes 1 cup, which goes a long way. Great for tacos, tortillas, boiled eggs, really versatile.

 

[mrTbeer]

I've always liked tex-mex but discovered Mexican food about 6 years ago in London of all places.
What made a difference (for me) was seeing mexicans and hearing (Spanish) in the kitchen. Always been a chili nut so was keen to find out more and my wife was keen also.
It's hard to get ingredients in Qld but fireworks is good and stocked up at casa iberico last weekend.
Found some good recipes in men's health magazine at the doctors and
Thomasina Miers Mexican food at home
Deborah Schneider Amor Y Tacos

A lot of cookbooks are good but ingredients tend to favour those available in USA not Oz.
Mamasita would be my fave in Oz but I'm pretty happy to see more Guzman Y Gomez and MadMex opening up too. G y G seem to employ real Mexicans which is cool.

Locally a new Mexican place opened up near me but although the owners were full of energy it was disappointing to think I can cook better than that, they hadn't been to Mexico and didn't have fish tacos?

The US states of Colorado, NewMex, Arizona and California do it really well. Even the tex-mex places are much better than 95% of Oz.

I've got a good piss-easy salsa recipe that I can put up. My tip: the quality of salsa served at bar is directly proportional to quality of food. If its not fresh or bland enjoy your beer and move on to next joint.

 

[mrTbeer]

We got a tortilla press to make our own tortillas.
Those hard taco shells (old el paso) don't exist outside of Coles/Woolies.

 

[bum]

Taco Bell to crunchy tacos/

SWMBO's mother LOVES them (that the only real I know they exist).

Incidentally, if you ever decide you don't want to eat ever again, you may want to try Taco Bell's quesadillas.

 

[Phoney]

Taco Bell went bankrupt in oz didn't they?

Well I hope they did anyway.

 

[mrTbeer]

Yeah they did. Tried to get into Oz with Sydney2000. Abandoned business model and ended up serving hot chips and tomato sauce to bogans in 6 months???

 

[bum]

You may be thinking of Taco Bill. Totes different.

 

[Mardoo]

Taco Bell is the best stoner food on the planet!

 

[Mardoo]

Not being a Mexican food aficionado, would this book, Quick and easy mexican cooking by Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee be a good place to start for getting in to Mexican food? You guys have given me an urge to cook mexican.

cheers

Browndog

For what my opinion might be worth, the recipe list looks pretty good to me browndog. Hard to tell without looking at the recipes themselves, but then many cookbooks have recipes that are a bit skewif. I'd say give it a go if it looks good to you.

 

[Mardoo]

Someone in the American Cultural Exchange thread was looking for a chili recipe. It's not really something I make as I don't really cook much Tex-Mex but I'll post these links to chili recipes on a site I mentioned earlier. Homesick Texan is a great site. Her recipes are spot-on and way better than any Tex-Mex you'll find in a restaurant.

http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com.au/2006/10/how-to-make-pot-of-texas-red-part-one_15.html

http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com.au/2006/10/how-to-make-pot-of-texas-red-part-two_18.html

http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com.au/2009/02/more-precise-texas-chili-recipe.html

 

[jyo]

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

I have no clue whether it's traditional Mexican cooking or not, but I've had the sopapilas at Pancho's in Vic Park, Perth and man they are a delicious desert. The eldest daughter was asking me to learn to make them the other night.

Wikipedia makes corn smut sound so appealing:

Dear god, that looks and sounds so wrong.

 

[mrTbeer]

http://www.bookdepository.com/Wahaca-Mexican-Food-at-Home-Thomasina-Miers/9781444722390
http://www.bookdepository.com/Amor-Y-Tacos-Deborah-Schneider/9781584798248
http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/000344.php still unopened can of smut at home. Truffle? Cuitlacoche?

 

[Mardoo]

I have no clue whether it's traditional Mexican cooking or not, but I've had the sopapilas at Pancho's in Vic Park, Perth and man they are a delicious desert. The eldest daughter was asking me to learn to make them the other night.

If they're little pillows of fried bread served with honey the recipe I posted will do ya'.

 

[jyo]

If they're little pillows of fried bread served with honey the recipe I posted will do ya'.

Thanks, mate. Just checked the link and they look nothing like that. These are thin, crispy, almost chip-like coated with sugar, cinnamon and honey, served with icecream.

I might have a go at the recipe you posted. Cheers.

 

[browndog]

For what my opinion might be worth, the recipe list looks pretty good to me browndog. Hard to tell without looking at the recipes themselves, but then many cookbooks have recipes that are a bit skewif. I'd say give it a go if it looks good to you.

You can get the Ebook free if you know where to look me bucko.

 

[manticle]

Got me wanting to buy a couple of cookbooks now. A few years ago myself and my lady had a dinner party on the eve of the day of the dead and made various mexican dishes including homemade tortillas, mole sauce and various other things I've forgotten that involved chocolate.

Was ******* delicious - I couldn't get the mesa tortilla dough to hold together properly so that's a trick i need to work on but the flavour of proper cornbread is outstanding.

Anyway one more thing to get obsessed by.