I received Mexican Food Made Simple just over a year ago after reading my
Sister-in-laws copy and loving it! Since I'm not particularly
familiar with Mexican cooking this definitely looked like a great
book to get me started. I know a lot of Mexican cookbooks can be
off-putting due to long lists of hard to find ingredients and
complicated, time consuming recipes, but this one really did look
straightforward so it was time to put the book to the test.
For
those of you unfamiliar with Thomasina Miers she was the winner of
Masterchef (UK) in 2005. Her first book 'Cook' was published in 2006
but her true calling definitely pointed towards Mexican food after
spending a lot of time living in Mexico and even opening a cocktail
bar there. Her time in the country allowed her to explore the regions
of Mexico learning about culture and of course food and even the
opportunity to cook with some of Mexico's top chefs. Returning to
live in the UK she since opened the cantina Wahaca (in various
locations) which focuses on Mexican street food and has published
Mexican Food Made Simple (2010) followed by Wahaca: Mexican Food at
Home, in 2012.
Mexican
Food Made Simple is packed full of recipes that are divided up into
Chapters including Salsas, sauces & relishes (a favourite of
mine!), Soups, Street food, Cheesy things, From the grill and Soul
food. The chapter on 'Basics' is a great guide for introducing you to
the way Mexican's eat, but more so is incredibly informative on
classic Mexican ingredients you will use throughout the book and on
ingredients you can substitute if you can't fend the authentic
ingredient suggested. In the introduction Miers states that she can
show how “easy, healthy and exciting Mexican food really is”
using ingredients that are easy to source so baring that in mind it
was time to put the book to the test!
The
Tested Recipes:
When I
pulled this book off the shelf I knew I was going to be in trouble
picking some recipes, since the book was literally full of my little
post-it stickers. When I first got this book I went to work straight
away marking recipes and although I did cook a little from it, it
wasn't much so I was delighted to finally be cooking from it
properly. However as I started re-reading it I was once again in the
same dilemma – literally every page had a recipe on it that I
wanted to try....some pages had 3! It was going to be a l-o-n-g list
of bookmarked recipes so in the end I decided my best option was to
pick some full meals as a lot of them used some of the initial
recipes as accompaniments. In the end I managed to try 12 recipes
from the book which were:
Autumn
Tacos with Onion Squash & Chorizo
Pink
Pickled Onions
Fresh
Tomato Salsa
~
Steak
Burritos
Black
Beans
Red
Rice
Roast
Chipotle Salsa
~
Hibiscus
Agua Fresca
Meatballs
de Mehico with Smoky Tomato Sauce
Layered
Passion Fruit & Flower Jellies
A
Blow-your-head-off Salsa
The
first recipe that I wanted to make was the Chipotles en Adobe
since they feature in a lot of subsequent recipes, however after a
trip to my local cook shop I realised this recipe was a no-go since I
couldn't buy the dried chipotles and I only had a few left in my
spice drawer.... I could have ordered them online but they were
expensive for the quantity and by the time they arrived it would have
been too late so I had to give in with this one (for the time being)
and use canned Chipotles in Adobe. (For those of you in the UK though
you can easily order them online for a very reasonable price and
larger quantity per packet.)
Hoping
that was going to be my only obstacle with regards to sourcing
ingredients for this book, I moved on to the next recipe which was
Autumn Tacos with Onion Squash & Chorizo served with Pink
Pickled Onions and Fresh Tomato Salsa.
I started by making the Pink Pickled Onions which was very
straightforward although I wanted to use gloves to “scrunch it up”
as instructed due to the addition of a Habanero (Scotch Bonnet)
chilli but I didn't have any! Thankfully the Habanero I used wasn't
too hot and so all was ok and I was left with the most amazingly puce
pink onions ever which had a lovely flavour to them and great crunch.
Next on the list was to make the Fresh Tomato Salsa which again was
very straightforward. I found it interesting that she includes some
sugar as this is the sort of tomato salsa I make all the time but
don't ever need to add sugar so in future I probably wouldn't bother
(unless I overdid the lime!). I halved the quantities and used less
than half the amount of the salt suggested and it was still a little
on the salty side so next time I would also use my own amounts of
seasoning and not what she instructs. Up next was the filling for the
Tacos – Squash and Chorizo which was really easy and simple and had
a good robust Autumnal flavour. To finish the meal off I had to of
course make some homemade tortillas. It was my first time making them
and I was happy that there was nothing complicated about them. I
didn't manage to get them quite as charred on the edges as I wanted
but they were delicious none-the-less and the whole meal was lovely
together.
Next
up and for a Friday night meal I made the Steak Burritos
with Black Beans, Red Rice & Roast Chipotle Salsa.
This dish had even more components than the first so it was a bit
time consuming to make but it was well worth the effort and nothing
was complicated. It was my first time making my own Black Beans (as
opposed to opening a can!) and they ended up taking less time than
the recipe suggested despite not having soaked them. From now on I
will always make my own as it was so simple and much more cost
effective. The Red Rice was also straightforward and absolutely
delicious and I would enjoy it happily on it's own or as a side dish
and the Chipotle Salsa was fantastic with just a nice amount of spice
to it to give the dish a bit of a kick! The Steak for the Burritos
was just a case of marinating and cooking although we opted to
barbecue it rather than using a griddle or frying pan. All in all
though it was another big success that everyone thoroughly enjoyed
and was worth the effort involved.
Having
recently bought a small bag of Hibiscus Flowers I was excited to see
a recipe for Hibiscus Agua Fresca
for a nice refreshing non-alcoholic drink. I opted to half the recipe
otherwise I would have used my entire bag of Hibiscus Flowers and I
wanted to make sure I liked it first! Made of just the flowers,
sugar, water and lime it was completely straightforward, it just took
a bit of time to make the cordial and then to to let it cool. The end
result was a stunning and vibrant cordial that was delicious served
as suggested over ice and topped up with sparkling water. With the
left over flowers I made a quick sugar syrup and popped everything
into a jar to keep for adding to drinks or drizzled over ice cream.
(If you would like to try this recipe click here.)
The
recipe to be put to the test next was the Meatballs
de Mehico with Smoky Tomato Sauce.
I found the recipe really interesting as it included capers, rice and
hard boiled eggs in the Meatballs but I continued on anyway, hoping
the interesting combination would taste good and be worth the effort!
I was definitely apprehensive as they were so soft as I put them in
the oven to cook but she did warn that they would be. The Smoky
Tomato Sauce was very straightforward and had a nice flavour to it. I
cooked it a little longer than she suggested as it was very runny
after 20 minutes but I didn't want to overdo it as I knew you need it
to be runny for the meatballs (to cook and be absorbed by the rice
I'm guessing). As it turned out after the suggested 45 minutes of
cooking, the meatballs weren't ready. The rice was still super
crunchy so I put them in for another 10 minutes after which time I
turned the oven off and left them for probably another 5 minutes
while I cooked the noodles which were suggested to accompany the
meatballs. Unfortunately though when I lifted the lid of the pan the
meatballs had almost exploded and there was virtually no sauce left –
I couldn't believe it! That being said they still tasted great, there
were just missing the extra sauce. I ended up serving them with some
sour cream and coriander to make up for the lack of sauce and it was
still delicious but for the leftovers we had (which was a lot) I made
an extra batch of sauce up and enjoyed them even more the next night.
I think I will make these again as the flavours were so good but I
would definitely have to keep a closer eye on them when cooking them
and I would be tempted to double the sauce quantities.
For
a sweet treat I couldn't resist trying the Layered
Passion Fruit & Flower Jellies
as they not only sounded delicious but looked stunning. It was
incredibly easy to make, all you need is time on your side as you
need to allow the Passion Fruit layer to set before adding the
hibiscus layer. I decided to make one large jelly in the mould I have
rather than individual cups but you could do either. The taste was
amazing – the passion fruit really shone through and although the
hibiscus layer was subtle, it complimented the passion and orange
layer perfectly. Scott even went so far as to say it was by far the
best jelly he had ever had!
Finally
I couldn't complete this book review without trying A
blow-your-head-off Salsa! Unfortunately though the day before I
used one too many carrots in my soup so only had 2 rather than the 3
the recipe called for. Since they were both big carrots however, I
decided to give it a go anyway since I had all the other ingredients
and was desperate to try it! It was really easy to make and didn't
take long at all. One thing I should note is that although this is
called a salsa it's actually a sauce which is why I had to try it
because I love all kinds of hot sauce and loved the idea of making my
own! The end result of this one was great! It had so much flavour and
a good kick to wake up your taste buds. To really put it to the test
I tried it with eggs since it's impossible for me to have an egg
without hot sauce of some sort and it was really delicious and
flavourful but definitely not as spicy as I was expecting. In fact by
the time I ate it with the eggs there was hardly any heat at all. To
be honest for some reason whenever I have bought Habaneros recently
from my supermarket they haven't been nearly as hot as I was
expecting and I don't think it's because I'm immume (far from it) so
if you make this do go carefully as I think it really does depend on
the chillies you happen to get. Another thing I have to say is that
for this recipe the books says it makes about 1 cup whereas I got
750ml/ 3 cups!! If I had known that I would have halved the recipe
for sure. I'm not quite sure how there was such a difference as other
than the missing carrot I followed the instructions and quantities
exactly. Anyway I certainly won't be running out of hot sauce any
time soon and may be giving some of it away!! Still it was a great
way to end the testing of this book and now I know I don't need to
buy Habanero hot sauce anymore.
As
well as the above tested recipes I have also made (in the past) the
Mexican Crudites (served at a
party and went down very well!), the Prawn coctel (see my Prawn Cocktail trio for a similar version of this) and her recipe for The
great Mexican breakfast was the inspiration behind my own Huevos Rancheros.
And of
course I'm only just getting started with this book so I have many
more recipes bookmarked to try next including:
Searingly
Hot Salsa
Chopped
chilli relish
An
easy-peasy peanut mole
Pickled
vegetables
Corn
& green chilli soup
Sweet
& spicy squash & chickpea soup
Tortilla
soup
Chipotle
vinaigrette
Sweet
& Spicy Pecan Nut & Goat's Cheese Salad
Spicy
Bird Tacos
Queso
Fundido
Chorizo,
Potato & Thyme Quesadillas
Grilled
Lamb Chops with Chilli Jam
Mexican
Scrambled Eggs with Chorizo
Mussel
Linguine with Smoky Chipotle Cream
Poached
Plums in Rose Syrup
Churros
y Chocolate
I have
to say that after testing the above recipes I really did feel that
she delivered with her statement that she can show readers how
healthy, easy and exciting Mexican food can be if you just watch what
you make, how you prepare it and of course by using the freshest
ingredients. In the last month I have tried so many different
flavours and love that I have made my own tortillas and hot sauce for
the first time! My only criticism to some of the recipes I tried was
that there is too much salt in them so I would suggest to go easy
with the salt, since you can always add but you can't take it away!
The methods she uses for cooking the dishes are really
straightforward and you don't need any fancy equipment which I love.
There is great information on making tortillas but also how to
properly eat a taco or fold a burrito which I think is a lovely
little touch to the book and ensures you aren't left with overfilled
tacos spilling everywhere or burritos that fall apart as soon as you
pick them up! For those of you living in the UK there is also a great
list of suppliers so you won't ever be without your essential
ingredients and for the rest of us a little research on the internet
should result in finding a supplier close to you. I really do love
this book. It is so bright and vibrant which to me is what Mexican
food and culture is all about and it really has opened the door to
cooking great tasting, authentic Mexican food at home which I'm
delighted about as well as my husband! (Even Wee One enjoyed a lot of
the dishes providing the spice levels weren't extreme!) Without doubt
Mexican Food Made Simple by Thomasina Miers gets the Vanilla Clouds and
Lemon Drops stamp of approval.
I love this book and have it in storage at the moment. I haven't actually used the suppliers listed but I will be looking at them afterwe move house and I have my books back!
ReplyDeleteIt's such a great book! I wish I could use the suppliers listed but perhaps I'll just have to bring an extra suitcase with me next time I'm back in Scotland!! ;)
DeleteAwesome book review, I love that you made so many recipes. I've been on the lookout for a good mexican cookbook, the few that I've tried have been very tex-mex or just flops over all. Those meatballs sound really interesting
ReplyDeleteThanks Stephanie! It was a great book to review and I definitely recommend it :)
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