An Unsolicited Book Review - Rick Bayless' Mexican Kitchen

I love Mexican foods. So when I came across this book which was being sold through my UK source for Mexican cooking supplies I decided to go ahead and purchase it. I was very much impressed with the range of Mexican foods and dishes that were included.


Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen: Capturing the Vibrant Flavors of a World-Class Cuisine contains so much more than just recipes though. Bayless provides a range of handy hints and background information on the recipes and the ingredients. He takes the mystery out of Mexican cooking, and helps readers to believe that creating these dishes is not out of their grasp. He also helps pull people away from the belief that Mexican food is nothing more than beef burritos, chillies, and lots of cheese.


Mexican Kitchen contains over 400 pages of recipes, hints, tips, and personal stories. It is divided into 9 chapters.

• Chapter 1: Essential Flavours of the Mexican Kitchen
• Chapter 2: Salads and Other Starters
• Chapter 3: Light and Hearty Soups
• Chapter 4: Tacos, Enchiladas, and Other Casual Fair
• Chapter 5: Vegetable, Bean, Rice, and Egg Dishes
• Chapter 6: Classic Fiesta Food
• Chapter 7: Main Dishes
• Chapter 8: Desserts
• Chapter 9: Wine and Margaritas 

In addition, this book provides resource list for commonly used Mexican ingredients that you might not be able to find in your local grocery store, and a section on alternative ingredients in case you can't find one particular ingredient and need to substitute.

It is a cookbook that I dip into time and time again. I would recommend it for anyone who enjoys cooking and eating Mexican foods.

I featured a recipe from this cookbook in an earlier blog post. Achiote-Roasted Pork Tacos with Pickled Red Onions.

About the Author

Rick Bayless is an award-winning chef from Chicago. He is a past winner of Top Chef Masters and has hosted Mexico-One Plate at a Time on PBS for over 9 series. He has written more than 8 cookbooks. His second book, Mexican Kitchen, won the Julia Child IACP cookbook of the year award in 1996, and his fourth book, Mexico-One Plate at a Time won James Beard Best International Cookbook of the Year award in 2001.

In addition, the Mexican government has awarded Bayless its Order of the Aztec Eagle, for work benefitting Mexico and the Mexican people.


Bayless his staff created Frontera Farmer Foundation in 2003 to support small farms in the American Midwest. Grants totally over $1.2 million have been awared since then to over 71 farms. This has enbled farmers to make capital improvements and increase their productivity and profitability. In addition, they have also created the Frontera Scholarship which sends a Mexican-American Chicago Public School student to Kendall College to study culinary arts.

Frijoles Refritos

(A recipe from Mexican Kitchen)


Every culture has as one of its staples a mashed pulse of some sort. In India you find dhal made from
lentils, around the Middle East and the Mediterranean countries you can find houmous made from chickpeas, and in Mexico you have Frijoles Refritos, or refried beans.

refried beans

Frijoles are traditionally made using pinto beans, but feel free to experiment with any other beans you might like. I think these are especially nice made with black beans.

I must admit for every day eating I am more likely to buy tinned refried beans and heat them up, but for special occasions I like to make my own using this recipe from Mexican Kitchen (page 237 in my edition).  
 
Image credit: Image from Wikimedia Commons and in the public domain. 

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons lard (omit or use a substitute such as a cold-pressed vegetable oil for vegetarian cooking, olive oil will have too strong a flavour however)
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 4 garlic cloves peeled and finely chopped
• 900gm undrained cooked beans slightly warm for easy mashing
• salt to taste
• about 55gm crumbled Mexican *queso fresco or other cheese as noted below
• handful of tortilla chips

Instructions  

Frying and mashing the beans

1. In a large frying pan heat the fat over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until deep golden, about 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic, cook for a minute or so, then use a slotted spoon to scoop in about 1/4 of the beans, leaving most of the liquid behind. With a masher or the back of a large spoon mash the beans into a coarse puree. Add another portion of beans, mash them in, and continue until all of the beans have been added and coarsely mashed.
2. Add about a cup of bean liquid (or water if you have no liquid) and stir frequently over the heat until the beans are a little soupier than you would like to serve them. They'll stiffen up as they cool. Taste and season with salt if needed. 

To serve
Spoon the beans into a warm serving platter or onto individual plates, sprinkled with crumbled cheese, and serve with tortilla chips.

*Cheese - If you can't find Mexican queso fresco try either a dry feta, or Parmesan cheese.

 

 

Cookbook Review: Cooking for Geeks

I am a cooking geek

When it comes to cooking, yes, I admit it. I am definitely a geek. I like knowing why you need to add salt to bread dough (keeps the yeast from acting too long), what the process of browning foods off is called (it's a Maillard reaction apparently), and at what temperature chocolate starts to melt (37c).

You can image my delight then when I was asked to read Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food by Jeff Potter. A book filled with the science behind cooking, a lot of good tips (hacks), and some rather nice recipes.

Using language any modern technological geek can understand, Jeff Potter sets out to explain the world of

Cooking for Geeks manages to do what is nearly impossible with most cookbooks. It is accessible to anyone, from the complete novice to the fully adept in the kitchen, providing step-by-step instructions which are easy to follow. For those who want further explanations as to why and what and how, notes provide details not only on what you should do, but the reasons behind why you should do it, and what should happen as well.

Maillard reaction

cooking.

Hello Kitchen

Each chapter explores a different aspect of cooking, from the basic kitchen tools and how to use them to chemical reactions of different key ingredients. Feel free to read the book from cover to cover, dip in and out where you like, or just flip to the list of recipes in the index to find something delicious to prepare.

The author has done something in Cooking for Geeks that almost appears to be anathema in most cookery books. He encourages you to explore the recipes for yourself. Explore, make mistakes, and if all else fails, throw the whole lot in the bin and order a pizza. Because what the TV chefs and the food stylists and so called food pornographers who pose those perfect dishes in other cookbooks, magazines, and on the TV neglect to tell you is that all cooks have disasters in the kitchen. Anyone who claims otherwise either hasn't been cooking for very long, or is a liar.

The appeal of Cooking for Geeks becomes clear in the very first chapter. Geeks want to know not just what to do, but why it is done that way.That is what this book does.

Cooking for Geeks

Once you are able to let do of the fear of failing in the kitchen (you will, but you can learn from it) a whole culinary world is opened up to you. This first chapter takes you back to the very beginning. It introduces you to you kitchen and teaches you how to read a whole new language - the recipe. 

A Cooking Recipe = Culinary Code
Always read through the entire code (recipe), top to bottom, before starting to cook.

Cooking for Geeks does a very good job in teaching you the unwritten rules of cooking. Jeff Potter has taken those things the experienced cook does almost instinctively and broken those processes down step-by-step for the novice.

What Type of Cook are You?

Knowing what type cook you are can help in knowing how you approach a recipe. Go ahead and take this brief quiz which was taken from Cooking for Geeks.

When I prepare a meal, I typically:

1. Rely on classic dishes my family has always enjoyed.

   

   Butterflied chicken under the grill

2. Substitute more healthful ingredients
3. Follow a recipe step-by-step
4. Rarely use recipes and like to experiment

Some of my favourite ingredients are:

1. Lots of bread, starches, and red meat
2. Fish and vegetables
3. Beef and chicken
4. Vegetables, spices, and unusual ingredients
5. A trendy ingredient I saw on the Food Network

In my free time I like to:

1. Visit with friends and family
2. Exercise or take a fitness class
3. Organise the house
4. Take part in creative or artistic pursuits
5. Be spontaneous and seek adventure

My favourite things to cook are:

1. Home-baked goodies
2. Foods with fresh ingredients and herbs
3. Casseroles
4. Ethnic foods and wok dishes
5. Anything that lets me fire up the grill

Other people describe me as :

1. Really friendly
2. Health-conscious
3. Diligent and methodical
4. Curious
5. Intense

There may be some overlap in the answers you give, but is there one letter that you picked out most often?

Here's what your answers say about your cooking style:

Mostly A: Giving - Friendly, well-liked, and enthusiastic, giving cooks seldom experiment, they love baking, and like to serve tried-and-true family favourites, although that sometimes means serving less healthful foods.

Mostly B : Healthy - Optimistic, book-loving, nature enthusiasts, healthy cooks experiment with fish, fresh produce, and herbs. Health comes first, even if it means sometimes sacrificing taste.

Mostly C: Methodical - Talented cooks who rely heavily on recipes. The methodical cook has refined tastes and manners. Their creations always look exactly like the picture in the cookbook.

Mostly D: Innovative - Creative and trend-setting, innovative cooks seldom use recipes and like to experiment with ingredients, cuisine styles, and cooking methods.

Mostly E: Competitive - The "Iron Chef" of the neighbourhood, competitive cooks have dominant personalities and are intense perfectionists who love to impress their guests.

Copied from Cooking for Geeks, used by permission of Brian Wansick, author of Mindless Eating.

According to the above quiz, I am an innovative cook. The description certainly holds true for me. I hardly ever follow a recipe exactly, and when I do my mind immediately thinks of ways I could add different flavours.

Tips for Newbie Cooks

1. Have fun. Learning is about curiosity, not work.
2. Know your cooking type.
3. Read the whole recipe.
4. Take the time to taste things.
5. Don't be afraid to burn dinner.

Taken from Cooking for Geeks

 

I think beyond these important tips for new cooks it is very important that you know what different ingredients taste and smell like, both raw and cooked. This will help when determining how to combine flavours. I also suggest when you first begin to experiment with flavours that you don't add more than 3 herbs or spices. Otherwise you lose control of the flavour interactions.

I was asked to review Cooking for Geeks and received a free copy of the book in exchange.