Mexican Cooking

[Not For Horses]

I've bought chillis from http://www.herbies.com.au/shop/search.php?mode=search&page=1
Great selection of spices for loads of other cooking as well.

 

[shaunous]

Looks awesome punkin, one of my next builds is a permanent pig pen. So I can get home pork, currently only now doing cattle and sheep, odd deer after hunting, pigs are more of a pain in the arse to keep, but can be made a lot easier by buildin an industructable pig pen. The only meat I buy now is cheap silverside for jerky, that and pig.

 

[sp0rk]

Hmmm, I might have to pay you a visit for some pig meats once they're raised...

 

[shaunous]

Hmmm, I might have to pay you a visit for some pig meats once they're raised...

Handy on a knife?

 

[punkin]

Looks awesome punkin, one of my next builds is a permanent pig pen. So I can get home pork, currently only now doing cattle and sheep, odd deer after hunting, pigs are more of a pain in the arse to keep, but can be made a lot easier by buildin an industructable pig pen. The only meat I buy now is cheap silverside for jerky, that and pig.

I can highly recommend the Large Blacks;
http://www.largeblackpigs.com.au/

As far as flavour goes it's like a home grown tomato versus a supermarket one, we just never knew pork could have so much flavour. Other heritage breeds may be just as good, but this was the one we tried.

 

[shaunous]

They are some massive looking pigs Punkin. I can get the saddle back pigs from a pig breeder I work with, they look cool, and probably yummy. I'll rotate the breed like our cattle.
I hope there isn't a version of the Brahman in pigs though, *** they wreck ****. Spent the last 2 days doing cattle work, a quarter of which was repairing every post and rail they smashed through. Lots of swearing.

 

[Snowdog]

Decided to order some things from Fireworks Foods, including a tortilla press. I got some corn flour from USA Foods a while back but they didn't send me the tortilla press. Said they were out of stock an refunded my $

Sent the link for Spice Wagon to a friend in Perth

Found some good websites trekking the Ring of Fire.

 

[browndog]

New show starting on SBS at 7:30pm tonight with Peter Kuruvita travelling around Mexico checking out the cuisine. Should be great going off his last effort.

 

[OzPaleAle]

New show starting on SBS at 7:30pm tonight with Peter Kuruvita travelling around Mexico checking out the cuisine. Should be great going off his last effort.

Saw the ad for that, thanks for the reminder, should be interesting. Bet we don't see any nachos or hard shell tacos!

 

[Mardoo]

Or fajitas. Or chimichangas. Or Margaritas for that matter, but Im not sure on that one. Let's just say my tours there didn't involve any nasty Bagginses in my tequila or mezcal.

 

[neal32]

Mexican food, super overrated I think. I just got back from travelling around that part of the world for 10-11 months, was more a fan of the chicken, rice and beans down Nicaragua way. El Salvador Papusas (spelling?) where cheap and delicious though. Got well over anything corn based after a few months and to think of the price that you would pay for Mexican in Australia....forget about it. However, if you want to make your own tortillas, use this http://www.usafoods.com.au/Groceries/American-Groceries/Maseca-Masa-Flour-4-4lb Maseca is what we made them with in Guatemala.

 

[yankinoz]

I've never been into Mexican food for a simple reason:

Go to an Indian Restaurant and you will be greeted by Jarveesh, Pradeep and his staff
Go to a Chinese Restaurant and Lin Ho will welcome you with open arms
Japanese restaurant - even the local sushi stall - girls and guys look like they are straight out of Kobe
I will not even attempt to pronounce the surname of the lovely couple who own the Old Bar "Thai Tea and Table" restaurant here.

Mexican Restaurants all seem to be run by fat bogans called Sheila and Doug who will happily microwave you a takeaway container of something swimming in red crap with something that looks like rolled up pancakes lurking under the slop.

Mexican has always seemed too much of a learning curve. Might get onto it eventually as I live on garlic and chillies.

There are quite a few Mexicans in Australia now, and some reportedly run good restaurants. Shop around, because Mexican food at its best is way more varied than Aussified Tex-Mex, and one of the world'd great cuisines. But I warn you, not all the expats can cook; I know of one who started a restaurant in a town whose name I've conveniently forgotten. She says she got her recipes from her mom. Too bad mom couldn't cook. Would you believe evaporated milk in damn near every main?

I have spent time in Mexico, from Baja to The City and Yucatan, and years in the US. Here are some clues to look for to rule out Tex-Mex. In a Mexican restaurant some dishes contain cheese, but not most of them. A variety of soups such as the classic albondigas is a good sign. So are fish dishes and grilled meats. Not everything is fiery, though hot sauce is on the tables. Most of the tortillas should be corn. Flour tortillas used to be confined to northern Mexico and the US, though they are spreading south.

Once upon a time tacos and tortilla chips with salsa were strictly street or bar food that no good restaurant would offer. That has changed, and their presence is no longer a bad sign, but their absence together with a broad menu can signal that the owner is serious about both tradition and quality.

 

[yankinoz]

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.

They have fresh huitlacoche in Australia? Was corn smut already here? I can imagine opening a suitcase full of the stuff for the quarantine folks at the airport. I've only seen it here in cans.

 

[browndog]

I thought the show was pretty good, not that I know anything at all about Mexico.

 

[bconnery]

for people in Brisbane there is Villa Maria at Camp hill which seems to be pretty legit.
Mexican & Sth American.

EDIT sorry that was a bit off topic. Was just following up Bribies post.

It looks legit but the food wasn't that crash hot in my book.
It had all the right ingredients but just seemed to lack a little flavour.
I'd take the supposedly non authentic Montezumas over that place (admittedly based on one visit to Villa Maria)
Mind you I just love the beans in any form, black, refried, don't care, as long as it has beans.

I had a go at one variation of a mole sauce recently from a mexican book I have, inspired by Food Safari as mentioned by someone above.
It was a fair bit of work but gee it was tasty! Spicy, chocolatety and hot...
For those in Brisbane there's a deli next to Coles at Carindale that has a lot of the smoked chillis, tomatillos, (sp?) etc. that you need. Can't remember the name of it though...

 

[Mardoo]

They have fresh huitlacoche in Australia? Was corn smut already here? I can imagine opening a suitcase full of the stuff for the quarantine folks at the airport. I've only seen it here in cans.

Not that I've seen. Didn't mean to give that impression. But oh, if they did... :drool:

 

[Bribie G]

I am delighted to announce that Taree is a Mexican-free zone. Yippee

Just down the road at Forster we have Aztec's, doesn't look too promising but how does the menu look?

Would Beavis and Butthead eat there?

 

[OzPaleAle]

Was interesting they mentioned on the show that flour tortillas & burritos were actually something eaten in a northern region of mexico, I had always assumed it was a creation of the american market and it was all corn tortillas in mexico.

 

[Bribie G]

Quite common, according to Wikipedia, and have been since the Spanish introduced wheat. Also finding their way into Central America.

 

[OzPaleAle]

Interesting, I saw he got some cool wheat bread type product that was a rectangle slab that was very light and they pile all sorts of thing on top of it, a popular snack when you leave the pub apparently, I'd like to find out what that was.