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Questions for those of you who cook Mexican dishes

Posted : 4/22/2007 7:11:50 PM

I have some questions for those of you out there that cook Mexican food. DH and I are really addicted to Mexican food, but don#%92t cook it that often because in Southern California there are SO MANY FANTASTIC Mexican restaurants. Unfortunately, we don#%92t like the ambience at any of the local places and they are so damn crowded all the time. We have given up on going very often but that means we are starting to feel “deprived” and DH is asking if we can make more stuff at home so we can get our “fix”. I am NOT good at cooking Mexican food.. it doesn#%92t come naturally to me the way other types of cuisine do, but I do cook a few things.

Every week we currently make at least 1 of the following:

Fish Tacos, shredded beef tacos, tostadas, grilled veggie quesadillas and occasionally chili Colorado. Also, during the summer months we buy local carne or pollo asada for the BBQ and make that every week.

One or both of us doesn#%92t like: tamales, chili relleno#%92s, enchiladas- so we do NOT make those.

So here are my questions:

1) What other good, quick options do you make that maybe we can add into the rotation (with the exception of Mexican casseroles.. DH is not a fan of casseroles… and we are also looking for more “authentic” type Mexican food).

2) I want to make Tacos Al Carbon and most the recipes call for VERY few ingredients. The meat always seems far more flavorful than what these recipes show. Does this look right to anyone who makes this or do you have other stuff you marinate the meat in?
white onions, [linkhttp://www.recipezaar.com/library/getentry.zsp?id=165]garlic cloves[/link] [linkhttp://www.recipezaar.com/library/getentry.zsp?id=260]fresh lime juice[/link] [linkhttp://www.recipezaar.com/library/getentry.zsp?id=20]cumin[/link] skirt steaks

3) What about meats cooked all day in the slow cooker.. if you brown the pork roast first, can you make carnitas? What about other meats or roasts and what kind of spices would you use?

4) I have never made anything with Chipotle in Adobo sauce but I REALLY want to try something since I love using chipotle chili powder in stuff I cook. How spicy are these peppers and does anyone have a recipe they use them in that might be good for us to try?

5) any suggestions for mexican recipes that use fish?

GRACIAS![

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espencer

Posted : 4/22/2007 7:25:02 PM

Mexican food? who said mexican? [

]

I wrote in the other thread about a guy who goes to Mexico (he is an American Cheff from Chicago) and brings the best Mexican recipes, you can see his TV show on PBS

This is the Cheff's TV show website, if you go to "cooking and entertaining" you will found really good recepies [

]

[linkhttp://www.fronterakitchens.com/]http://www.fronterakitchens.com/[/link]

Xebby

Posted : 4/22/2007 7:31:03 PM

I can tell you how to cook New Mexican food since that seems to be the only thing my family has ever know how to cook, every night for dinner when I lived with my parents dinner was always a combo of something with chili, cheese meat and tortilla.

I always use fresh roasted green chili to make anything. I get the largest chilies I can get, usably from my grandpa's garden but Mexican fruit markets sell some nice green chili as well. I roast it on the gill then when it's done roasting I put the chilies in a plastic bag to steam for about 20 mins so that it's easier to peel the skin off. Once they are cooled I remove the skin. I don't like too many seeds in my chili so I dunk it in water to remove most the seeds. From there I can use the chili for anything or freeze it for later.

For chili renenos I stuff the chilies with cheese then roll it in flower and dip it in wiped egg whites to cover it completely. Then normally it's fried in oil or lard but I prefer to cook them in the over for 20mins at 350.

Also making your own tortillas come out so much nicer than store bought ones. The instructions are usually on the bag of masa so you really can't go wrong if you follow that.

jjsmom06

Posted : 4/22/2007 7:43:21 PM

This is the Cheff's TV show website, if you go to "cooking and entertaining" you will found really good recepies

http://www.fronterakitchens.com/

Espence - GREAT recipes.. thanks so much for this link! I am going to make the grilled skirt steak tacos this week (it actually IS the same reciep that I have been seeing on other websites.. so I am gonna go for it!)[

]

ALSO, I think in the next week I need to make the "salsa baked goat cheese" [

]

LOTS of great stuff to try so thanks for the link!

jjsmom06

Posted : 4/22/2007 7:49:04 PM

Also making your own tortillas come out so much nicer than store bought ones. The instructions are usually on the bag of masa so you really can't go wrong if you follow that.

Xebby.. I always thought that it was rather a pain in the butt to make homemade tortillas and very messy.. is this the case or is it easier than I think? Also, how time consuming is it? Since I work full time and have to walk the dogs at night, take care of the house AND cook dinner.. I don't have a whole lot of time to cook stuff, so I always look for easy stuff.. Could this be a "week night" thing?

I LOVE homeade corn tortillas.. infact I like any kind of corn tortilla.. even just the packages ones grilled with a little butter on top...YUMMY![

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Ixas_girl

Posted : 4/22/2007 7:54:46 PM

Look up Dianne Kennedy - delicioso Mexican recipes.

Yes, the recipe you described sounds right - surprisingly simple! I'm not sure, but I'm guessing long marinating helps? Get meats that are more fatty than you normally would choose.

The best Mexican food I've had, in Mexico, was very pure and simple stuff: grilled fish and lobster with lemon and garlic, chicken soup with fresh cilantro and onions on top, fresh tortilla with Oaxacan cheese, ceviche. The only places I can find this wonderful food in LA are hole in the wall dives that have plastic chairs and paper plates [

]

A fun drink is: beer with a bunch of lemon, some chile powder, and a dash of worchestershire sauce, I think it's called a chelado.

Some goovy ingredients:

epazote leaves for black beans (actually Cuban)

avocado and yellow onion slices with lime and salt for salad (also Cuban, heh)

achuete (red spicy chunks, great with pork very distinctive)

throw some banana leaf in with that pork (yucatan style -yuuum!)

try pozole, be sure to use chicken neck, sounds gross but yumm! (its a hominy/pork stew, the hominy being big and crisp like oversized corn kernels)

use mexican cheeses like cotijo, queso seco

I love shrimp with an intense cilantro sauce, don't have a recipe, but it's not spicy and is almost pure green, probably has some queso crema in it.

For chips I break up toasted home made torlillas, yummm!

Xebby

Posted : 4/22/2007 8:00:53 PM

Making tortillas is easy but you are right it can take some time. You have to let the masa (dough) set for a while before rolling it out and no one ever can make perfectly round tortillas without a tortilla press. It really is a skill that you have to work on. As far as being messy that just depends, it's like mixing a cake but much thicker so flower can get splattered around if your not careful.

My grandma make a whole lot at a time and then freezes them. My grandma does this a lot with most of the food she makes, she has a giant freezer in the garage for that kind of stuff with everything from meat to cheese in it. By doing that it really doesn't take away from the taste since everything is mostly fried anyway. She also uses real lard to cook, I don't really like that so I always change the cooking slightly so the food isn't too oily. I have found that most recipes can changed to be baked instead of fried and still taste just as good.

Xebby

Posted : 4/22/2007 8:05:41 PM

try pozole, be sure to use chicken neck, sounds gross but yumm! (its a hominy/pork stew, the hominy being big and crisp like oversized corn kernels)

The pozole here is made with pigs feet[

] Then we pore red chili over it when it's ready to serve and use tortilla to scoop it out and eat the tortilla with the pozole, you just fold the tortilla ino a spoon shape.

Everything is eaten with chili and tortilla here[

]

jennie_c_d

Posted : 4/22/2007 8:10:07 PM

I made corn bread with chipotles in adobo. It was DELICIOUS! Of course, I served it with chili, not Mexican food, and it's not really Mexican food, at all. It was YUMMY, though. I used two peppers, and it was quite spicy. I had a whole bunch left.

jjsmom06

Posted : 4/22/2007 8:10:38 PM

Ixas girl-

I looked Diane up and she has some fantastic Cookbooks.. I might need to get one (although I need 1 more cookbook like a freaking hole in my head.. but oh well!).[8D]

I agree that I really prefer the “simple” flavors in Mexican food and although I REALLY do like the heavier Mexican dishes, my preference is actually the lighter foods… stuff that is grilled or cooked in the pan with very little oil and just a handful of simple ingredients that bring out the taste in the food.

Part of my problem is that DH and I both are total gringos so we don#%92t like spicy stuff and one of my “angry foods” is actually cilantro.. I HATE cilantro and it is used in so many things.[&o]

Cotija cheese is the BEST… now I can get preshredded at the grocery store so that is all I use for Mexican dishes.[

]

XEBBY- so grandma cooks the tortillas before she freezes them right? DO they taste much different after being frozen? That might be a good option for me so I can just make some on a weekend once a month or so…

jjsmom06

Posted : 4/22/2007 8:12:26 PM

I made corn bread with chipotles in adobo. It was DELICIOUS! Of course, I served it with chili, not Mexican food, and it's not really Mexican food, at all.

Jennie-
My DH ADORES chili with cornbread[

]... so you just diced up the peppers then and stirred it into the batter?

jennie_c_d

Posted : 4/22/2007 8:35:10 PM

I made it from my Vegan Planet cookbook.

1 1/4 c yellow cornmeal
1 c AP flour
2 1/2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 c (it says soy, use whatever you want

milk
3 T pure maple syrup
1 c fresh, canned, or frozen corn kernels, cooked and drained
1/4 c corn oil
2 T finely chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce

Preheat to 400°. Combine dry. Combine wet. Heat a well-oiled cast-iron skillet over medium heat, until hot. while heating, add wet to dry and mix well with a few quick strokes. Transfer batter to hot skillet and bake on center rack until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 20-25 min.

I cooked it a little longer, because my skillet was small (so it was thicker). It was very moist, and VERY good. I'm a baking feind. It has to be moist, or I won't eat it. I'm a serious cake snob[

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espencer

Posted : 4/22/2007 9:35:53 PM

ORIGINAL: Xebby

Making tortillas is easy but you are right it can take some time. You have to let the masa (dough) set for a while before rolling it out and no one ever can make perfectly round tortillas without a tortilla press. It really is a skill that you have to work on. As far as being messy that just depends, it's like mixing a cake but much thicker so flower can get splattered around if your not careful.

Are you talking about flour tortillas? Its really weird seen Mexicans eating something with flour tortillas, i would say 99% of them rather corn tortillas and in Mexico if you dont ask specificially for flour they will always bring you corn

My grandmother used to make her own corn tortillas, i always helped her with the tortilla press, i'm sure you can find the dough ready just to press them and cook them

ORIGINAL: Ixas_girl

A fun drink is: beer with a bunch of lemon, some chile powder, and a dash of worchestershire sauce, I think it's called a chelado.

Actually if you just put lime and salt to the beer thats "Chelada", when you add chile powder and worchestershire sauce thats "Michelada" [

]

jjsmom06

Posted : 4/22/2007 9:57:40 PM

i'm sure you can find the dough ready just to press them and cook them

Espence.. any ideas where one might find this?[

] I don't think I have seen in any of our regular grocery stores but I would LOVE to find it somewhere.. I can get a tortilla press for very cheap at cost plus imports...

Ixas_girl

Posted : 4/22/2007 10:28:36 PM

Xebby ... pigs feet, wow!

espencer ... oooh, you're goood! And speaking of drinks, I couldn't drink tequila for the life of me unless it was in a marguerita. But then I tried Don Julio Blanco ... mmmm, good! Oh, and that recipe site looks muy sabor.

Yeah, I do corn tortillas the easy way, buy the ready mixed masa, hand form ... kind of slap them back and forth between your hands, like making pizza dough. Easy, fun, yum.

jjsmom - what's a skirt steak? Does it go by another name? ... and "angry food", hehee, never heard that expression before! Cilantro's a funny one, I know lots of people who can't stand it!