Reddit mentions: The best mexican cooking, food & wine books

I think you are starting from the wrong place if you think it will be like Texan chili [con carne]. Mole negro and soft cheeses are the main culinary exports of Oaxaca and they are fantastic. This is one of my two favorite culinary regions in Mexico!

Mole negro
First off, the famous mole negro using the regional pasilla de Oaxaca pepper (aka "chile negro" when dried). There are many recipes for that; find one that has ingredients you can pick up at your local Mexican supermarket or order online. You can cook meat (often chicken) in it or use it to make enchiladas enmoladas. They're soft, cheesy, and the rich, black sauce has a great pepper flavor but also a complex mixture of spices that lend subtle notes to the flavor like a fine wine. Every abuelita in Oaxaca has her own special variation on the recipe.

Traditional meal: nopales + meat + oaxaqueño cheese + guajillo sauce
Another personal favorite coming straight out of restaurants in Oaxaca is often called the Conquista Plate. As you can see, a thin steak over grilled cactus, Oaxaca cheese and chile guajillo sauce. The cactus is nopales; learn to love it's mild flavor, as it's in tons of authentic Mexican dishes. Guajillos are a fairly mild chili with a distinct, tart taste. They're also used all over Mexico so you should be able to find them pretty easily. Oaxaca is famous for cheese, so you can also easily find that in most Mexican markets.

Recipe for the sauce (use only guajillos and ancho). You can find your own instructions on grilling nopales and the steak or whatever meat you want to go with it. That red sauce can basically go on anything.

Chile verde: more like a SW "chili"
Although it's not from further south than Chihuahua and Sonora and has become a staple in New Mexican cuisine, chile verde is probably going to be the best marriage of rich Mexican sauces and a more traditional southwestern US "chili" where chunks of tough meat are stewed or braised in the sauce until tender. I've tested and approve of this recipe as a basic starting point. However, in The Food Lab, Kenji goes into detail about why it's better to let this dish braise in the oven. Here is his final recipe, which is amazing and pretty simple once you get through it a couple times (and usually provides leftovers for days). I do believe he is a bit misinformed (in the book, in particular) about how unique Hatch chilies are; the exact same chilies are widely available as "Anaheim peppers" in addition to other sub-cultivars of the classic "No.9 chile". But I digress.

More about chile verde and SW food
I collected about a dozen cookbooks when living in NM trying to find more chile verde recipes to try. Two more recent ones I highly recommend are New Mexico Cuisine: Recipes from the Land of Enchantment and Red or Green: New Mexico Cuisine. For authentic Oaxaqueño recipes, I have only read Oaxaca al Gusto: An Infinite Gastronomy but it's very good and sub-divides the region to give you a sampling of coastal seafood, cheese from the mountains, and about a thousand mole recipes!

Finally, I want to say I agree with your friend: Tex-Mex is a mistake and traditional Mexican food is where the good eats are at!

> and you’d be surprised how many condiments are soybean oil based (mustard, ranch, bbq sauce, salad dressings and marinades etc)

Not really, no. Soy, corn, wheat, sugar, and misc. refined starches are everywhere, in shelf-stable packaged foods. You can find mustard with made with no oil or other oils if you look, and proper BBQ sauce without soybean oil (by that I mean savory mustard/turmeric sauces, not that sugar syrup junk that Yankees, and even Carolinians, think is worth eating ;)), but your choices get really limited, really quick. Given all that goes into typical BBQ, I've come to treating it like cake, or ice cream, rather than as an every day food.

> I’ve genuinely tried exploring in the grocery store but so many things have allergens!

Don't buy those. In fact, try to minimize going into the isles, without specific items that you already know you want to buy from them, and stick mostly to the periphery.

Start mostly from actual ingredients, and you will have plenty of variety. Most people don't even realize that I'm a picky eater, thanks to autoimmune issues, including but not limited to allergies, because I'm the one going to the exotic restaurants, and bringing in weird food for lunch at work, or to the pot lucks. I have to mentally strike out most of any restaurant's menu, anywhere I go, or pass on most most of what other people are making. I can't eat a hamburger and not get sick, but my local Korean places make kimchi jigae with all stuff I can eat in it, and it's tasty AF.

With a full kitchen, if you can do some basic cooking, IMO, go to the library or a book store, and check out some big comprehensive cookbooks. It's nice to have something you can just grab and look through (I find Pinterest is great for this, on the modern high-tech side, but good cookbooks tend to have been tested on people, and have little things that your average [b|v]logger will miss). Or, start learning those basics, if that's where you're at. While I've been cooking since I could physically reach everything, I've known a couple people that went from 99% frozen food and take-out to being good cooks within just a couple years, so...

Three come to my mind that are excellent, which I've had for many years now, cherish, that have plenty of easily adjustable recipes, plenty of them that should be just fine, lots of text on process (which matters a lot, and is often overlooked), and with minimal fancy foods:

https://www.amazon.com/Justin-Wilsons-Homegrown-Louisiana-Cookin/dp/0026301253

https://www.amazon.com/Cocina-Familia-Authentic-Mexican-American-Kitchens/dp/0684855259

https://www.amazon.com/Original-Boston-Cooking-School-100th-Anniversary/dp/0883631962

Plenty of taste bias, there, but that's life.

I'm not the person you're responding to, but I can provide some input. :)

This is an excellent (and authentic) tamale tutorial. Be sure to read both parts:
https://www.homesicktexan.com/2006/11/lets-make-tamales-part-1.html

If you want to get into making your own masa, then check out this cookbook which really does break down Mexican cooking into it's very basics. My cooking group has been cooking from it this month and it's all been amazing food:
https://www.amazon.com/Nopalito-Mexican-Kitchen-Gonzalo-Guzmán-ebook/dp/B01ILZPRK8/

Making vanilla extract is as simple as buying good quality vanilla beans and steeping them in some kind of alcohol for a while. I make several different varieties, but vodka is the main one since the alcohol is pretty much flavorless and so you get a pure vanilla. I also make a version with bourbon which I use a lot with chocolate recipes. So take your vanilla beans and split them lengthwise (exposes more of the inside to the liquid) and then put them in a bottle or a jar. Fill with the alcohol of your choice. Put in a cool dark place and let steep for at least 6 weeks (but the longer it sits, the better it gets).

It was delicious and perfect for Fall, but took forever, and i made a huge mess. I think i will stick with canned pumpkin in the future. ;)

Recipe came from this Mexican cookbook, which is awesome, I recommend it.

Soup recipe.

Spice blend. I love this stuff and make large quantities to keep around the house. There is another recipe in this book for mushrooms and onions in cast iron with this blend. It is so good; my favorite taco filling ever!

Chili paste. I got lazy here and used some chipotle chili puree that I keep in my freezer, with a blend of other chili powders I had on hand. I still added the vinegar for some bite.

Vegetable stock. Also lazy here, I bought this. I only used 8 cups. I had more than enough liquid. Actually, the soup was a little thin even with 2/3 the stock, so I reduced it for a while at the end; it thickened up nicely.

Pepitas recipe. Like I said, I love anything with that spice blend. I made these early and snacked through the rest of my cooking.

Cashew crema recipe.

EDIT: Roasting action shot. And don't worry, I've already been told I used the wrong type of pumpkin, but the results speak for themselves so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Learn from my mistakes, I guess!

hah, I know what you mean, and honestly, by even asking and being cognizant of it you are taking the right step. So good on you.


Firstly, keep in mind that moles in and of themselves have an amazing tradition that could fill as many, if not more tomes than we have on discussion of Auguste Escoffier and his impact. At it's most simplistic, it's a fantastic sauce, and at its deepest it's a secret knowledge made from fire, sweat, and history.



Books, well, shit man. So far there is only one I can vouch for and it's a good starting place for two mole recipes. IT's a cookbook called Nopalito. https://www.amazon.com/Nopalito-Mexican-Kitchen-Gonzalo-Guzm%C3%A1n/dp/0399578285


Unfortunately, there are few mexican voices in easy to access cookbooks. Diana Kennedy and Rick Bayless are the two "known authorities." A guy from Oklahoma, and a woman from the UK.



What I've been doing is hunting the recipe online, reading spanish recipes, and then watching youtube, but watching mexican cooks making it and talking it in spanish. Jauja Cocina Mexicana channel on youtube is a good place to start. She's very talented. https://www.youtube.com/user/JaujaCocinaMexicana


Her mole mancha manteles is excellent. I hope this helps some, it's helped me construct a few of my mole recipes and then build out from there. I think her mole verde is solid as well, and I built off that one.

I love my home country’s food! A cursory search in Amazon brought me to La Receta de la abuelita (Spanish Edition) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0615514251/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_QgD6AbCR23RWS

I would start by making a Mole Poblano (from Puebla). It can definitely be made vegetarian friendly and is one of the most delicious and rewarding meals that one can make.

Cochinilla Pibil is also amazing (this one is from the Yucatán). This one has pork.

Then look into some of the interesting northern Mexico recipes like Sonoran Hot Dogs. Oh also, Pambazos are a must do. These can also be made vegetarian.

I'm not familiar with the store but since Latin American, let alone Hispanic, cooking is so incredibly diverse I'm simply going to assume you are going to start with Mexican cuisine. "Hispanic" spans 20~ different countries with climates that range from the pampas to the sub-tropics, plus Spain.

The different cuisines of Mexico are divided by region and influenced by history -- what you find in coastal Veracruz is not what you get Oaxaca. This is a really old, basic, but comprehensive thread that covers a lot of the cuisine from the perspective of a native and might help along with simply reading the wiki page on Mexican cuisine which has terms in Spanish and English. Just don't pay attention to any of the peanut gallery comments or nonsense from Americans about burritos.

This book is a classic, and covers a pretty wide range of dishes and regions.

I'm personally very fond of Oaxacan cuisine and my favorite cookbook for it is this one by Zarela Martinez, which you might be able to find at your local library. Her book on Veracruz is good too.

I grew up with many Mexican friends, and they (and their abuelas) were always my best resources for learning to how to cook. If you have friends, ask them, the worst they can do is say no.

If you don't mean Mexican food, I can also give you some direction about Argentinean cuisine which is more directly influenced by German, French, and Italian cooking as well as Spanish, since that's what I grew up with at home.

Some avocados, some minced garlic (I often like to roast it first to mellow it out a bit), lime juice (usually just one), salt to taste, cilantro (if everyone eating it is a fan), and occasionally some chopped onions and tomatoes, but I'll usually leave them out.

But yeah, traditionally I think it's really just avocado, garlic, salt, lime juice, and cilantro (coriander in NZ?).

And also, I didn't mean to say anything bad about your guac, I'm sure it's tasty - I merely just wanted to point out that it's not authentic. :)

edit: also, if you really are interested in pretty authentic Mexican food, Rick Bayless has a couple of really good cook books. I have both of these and they are great. The Mexican Everyday book is especially awesome for tasty, quick, weekday-friendly options. Although I don't know how easy/hard it might be to obtain some of the weirder ingredients in NZ...

Just found your post, hope I'm not late to the party here.

I just picked up "Patti's Mexican Table", and am loving it. It was part of Amazon's editors picks of "best cookbooks for 2013" list.

I really like her focus on in-season and fresh ingredients, along with simplified cooking techniques. I think I've made 7 or so things in this book, and all of them have come out great - especially the salsa recipes.

profit motivated enough to ruin the enjoyment in watching a cooking competition. profit motivated enough to make competitor's efforts, creativity, and talent mean nothing. the funny thing is, they're so up their own asses and don't realize they would sell more books from genuinely awesome chefs who the people liked watching (for this season derrick, stephen).

case in point from season 4 : https://www.amazon.com/My-Italian-Kitchen-Favorite-MasterChef/dp/1617691038

to now: https://www.amazon.com/Claudias-Cocina-Mexico-Winner-MasterChef/dp/1617691895

/u/tragopanic is awesome because she makes this sub what it is supposed to be. She is fun and very generous. I wish I could be just like her.


She needs this from her kitchen list so she can make delicious things!

Tyara, I'm not used to the username yet.

I agree that "How To Cook Everything" is a good reference guide for complete beginners and those with gaps in cooking knowledge.

It might be a bit over your head at this point, but if you truly want to understand cooking and what's happening when you do it try "On Food And Cooking" by Harold McGee.

For Asian you might like...

"Every Grain Of Rice" by Fuchsia Dunlop (or any of her books)

"Japanese Soul Cooking" by Tadashi Ono

"Ivan Ramen..." by Ivan Orkin (Good for ramen and other japanese-ish food.)

"Momofuku" by David Chang (Really good mix of general Asian flavors)

Other books that might interest you:

"Irish Pantry" by Noel McMeel

"The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern" - Matt Lee and Ted Lee

"Real Cajun" by Donald Link

"Authentic Mexican" by Rick Bayless

"Fabio's Italian Kitchen" by Fabio Viviani

For Vegetarian try anything by Alice Waters or David Tanis.

I used Rick Bayless' apple tart recipe from his One Plate at a Time book.

The online link doesn't include his pastry recipe or the cajeta (goat's milk caramel sauce) that I used. Making the cajeta was interesting - it takes a little over an hour to coax the caramel sauce into where it needs to be, but I found it to be well worth the effort. Very smooth, cinnamon-y result. The pastry was delightfully flaky and I liked his addition of cream cheese to it.

Rick Bayless is a Mexican food fanatic and actually spent a lot of time traveling around Mexico and learned how to cook it properly. His cookbook Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico is a great starter book. I would highly recommend it.

Yucatán by David Sterling is really great! It has lots of old Maya recipes as well as modern Yucatec food! And it's a beautiful book. link

My favorite tacos are carne asada and carnitas. Here are some very detailed articles on them:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/09/food-lab-carne-asada-best.html

http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/07/the-food-lab-how-to-make-crisp-and-juicy-carnitas-without-a-bucket-of-lard.html

I'd also highly recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Eat-Mexico-Recipes-Streets-Markets/dp/1909487279

It's not tacos, but one of my favorite recipes from there that I've tried so far can be found here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/enchiladas-verdes-green-chicken-enchiladas-56389864

Edit:
A few other ideas:

• Make your own salsa verde: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/01/charred-salsa-verde-tomatillo-salsa.html
  
  
• Or, if you prefer tomato salsa: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/05/roasted-tomato-salsa.html
  
  
• Make fresh corn tortillas: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-corn-tortillas-from-scratch-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-85904

I cannot recommend Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen highly enough. It's my go to for authentic mexican cooking from all over mexico. It talks you through basic ingredients, base sauces, techniques, and recipes for 450 pages. All of the recipes have been collected by him on his travels around mexico. Probably the best $20 you'll spend if you love to make mexican food.

Instead of some of the generalist books already featured here, let me recommend you two books which are more narrowly focused:

• Oaxaca al Gusto: An Infinite Gastronomy by Dianna Kennedy
  
  
• Yucatan: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition by David Sterling
  
  If you are at all interested in learning about Oaxacan or Yucatan food, you can not go wrong with either one of these books.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.com

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amazon.com.au

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amazon.com.mx

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amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

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Makes 4 quarts of sauce.

Preheat an oven to 350° F.

Clean any dust and dirt from the dried chiles with a damp towel and dry them off thoroughly. If the chiles are moist during the dry sautéing, they will char and be bitter. Stem all the chiles but do not seed. Set aside.

Roast the red bell pepper, then stem and peel but do not seed. Set aside.

Place the sesame seeds in a dry 10-inch sauté pan over low heat. Stir the seeds or shake the pan constantly until the seeds are slightly brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Be careful not to burn them. Remove from the heat and empty into a good-sized bowl to cool. Reserve 3 tablespoons of the browed seeds for garnish.

In a large, dry sauté pan over low heat, place the chipotle, ancho or mulato, and pasilla negro chiles. Shake the pan constantly or stir the chiles until they are evenly toasted, 3 to 5 minutes. Do not char the dried chiles when toasting them or they will be bitter. Remove the toasted chiles from the pan and set aside.

Pour the peanut oil into the same pan and place over medium heat until hot. Carefully drop in the toasted chiles, a few at a time, and leave each batch in the oil for a few seconds. The chiles should soften, swell, and smell fragrant. Using a slotted utensil, remove the chiles and add them to the toasted sesame seeds. When all of the chiles have been fried, add the bell peppers to the bowl. Reserve the oil, keeping it in the sauté pan.

Place the bread and walnuts on a baking sheet in a single layer. Place in the oven until the bread is dry and the walnuts are lightly toasted, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir the walnuts occasionally so they do not burn.

Meanwhile, break the chocolate tablet and the cinnamon stick into 3 or 4 large pieces and place in the bottom of a large bowl. When the toasted walnuts and warm bread are ready, slide them atop the chocolate, to melt it. Set aside.

Reheat the reserved peanut oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the whole tomatoes, garlic cloves, tomatillos, banana chunks, ginger, and onion. Cook until the onion is translucent, the tomatoes begin to char and burst, and the tomatillos have turned a darker green, 7 to 10 minutes. Empty the contents into a colander to drain. Discard the oil.

Add the drained vegetable mixture to the large bowl containing the chocolate-bread mixture and stir well. Working in batches, transfer the mixture to a blender, and blend, adding enough water to make the resulting sauce smooth but still thick. The sauce should have the consistency of a milkshake, but not be as thick as tomato paste. A blender is easier to use than a food processor for this work. Continue to blend in batches until all of the water and vegetable mixture have been combined. Strain through a large-mesh strainer or china cup, using the back of a wooden spoon to push the purée through.

In a large stockpot, heat the olive oil until it just begins to smoke. Add the purée. Be careful! Protect yourself from hot splashes by wearing long sleeves and turning off the flame while adding the purée. Whisk the oil and purée together with a wire balloon whisk until well blended. Turn the heat back on to low and cook, stirring frequently so that the mole does not burn, for 20 minutes.

Taste the mole. If it is too piquant, slowly add brown sugar until a balance is achieved between piquant and sweet. If the chiles are quite hot, you may find yourself adding quite a lot of sugar! You may also want to add a bit more Mexican chocolate to deepen the flavor. Remove from the heat, but cover to keep hot.

Buy the book for more great recipes: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0811802930

A few from different regions:

Yucatán: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition for Yucatecan / Mayan food. It is the best one for this, period.

Sicilian Food

The Nordic Cookbook for Scandinavian food.

Cuisine of Hungary.

Churrasco: Grilling the Brazilian Way

I've been happy with Diana Kennedy's books, e.g., https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/290797.The_Essential_Cuisines_of_Mexico

No personal experience with these books but they look interesting:

https://www.amazon.com/%C2%A1Salud-Vegan-Mexican-Cookbook-Mouthwatering/dp/1623157781

https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Tacos-Authentic-Inspired-Favorite-ebook/dp/B00JKNMFP6

http://www.amazon.com/Mexico-Beautiful-Cookbook-Susanna-Palazuelos/dp/000215949X

This is an amazing cookbook. Check your library, online is expensive.

Go buy this book - http://www.amazon.com/Rick-Baylesss-Mexican-Kitchen-World-Class/dp/0684800063/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313691721&sr=8-1 It'll keep you busy w/ those things for a while. I've done the chipotle salsa out of it, amazing base for lots of stuff.

Voor degene geïnteresseerd in Mexicaans vegetarisch/vegan eten, ik hoor altijd goede verhalen over het Mexicaanse kookboek "Salud!". Bevat 150 vegan Mexicaanse recepten. 4.4/5 sterren met 135 reviews op de Amerikaans Amazon en bij Bol.com ook te verkrijgen voor iets van 15 euro. Enige nadeel is dat het volgensmij (heb het boek zelf ook nog niet, staat op m'n lijstje) geen foto's bevat. Dat maakt het boek wel echt weer een stuk goedkoper dan de meeste kookboeken.

Chicken skewers and corn?

What about Aaron Sanchez? There's also Gonzalo Guzman.

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https://www.amazon.com/Yucat%C3%A1n-Recipes-Culinary-Expedition-William/dp/0292735812/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1499695656&sr=1-2&keywords=yucatan
Yucatan by David Sterling. RIP