Mexican food - Recipe recommendations?

SideWinder

SideWinder

SideWinder

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So I would like to go 'above and beyond' the standard El Paso packets you can buy. I love, from my limited experience, Mexican flavours and I'd love to try to create new flavours and combos.

Any recommendations? Videos especially welcome!
 
I would suggest buying a load of different dried chilies as they're a common base to a lot of Mexican food and difficult to replicate. Also most meats are slow cooked, so if you haven't already got one a slow cooker or instant pot will help.

Elote - Roasted/Grilled corn with Cotija cheese and a spicy mayo/sour cream sauce. Sauce is usually dried chili powder, mayo, sour cream, coriander and lime juice or some variation.

Birria Tacos - Basically a slow cooked beef stew, pull the meat, put into the taco, dip the taco in the stew then fry it in a pan.

https://www.mylatinatable.com/authentic-mexican-birria-recipe/

Sauces/dips -

Roasted tomato and pepper salsa roja w/ mango and habanero - been making this as part of a dish at work and it's great. Roast 1-2 habanero, 3 red bell peppers, 5-6 medium tomatoes, let cool and remove the skins. Blitz with the juice of one lime, 2-3tsp salt and a handful of coriander. Then finely dice 1 red onion, one mango, 2-3 medium tomatoes (seeds removed), one green bell pepper and mix it all together.

Guac - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHVzFLtvbGQ&ab_channel=InspiredTaste

Salsa Verde - https://www.mylatinatable.com/authentic-mexican-salsa-verde/

Pico de gallo - https://cookieandkate.com/classic-pico-de-gallo-recipe/

Pipian - https://www.cauldronfoods.co.uk/recipes/pipian-verde-with-pan-fried-tofu


For supplies: https://www.souschef.co.uk/collections/mexico
 
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Raikiri said:
I would suggest buying a load of different dried chilies as they're a common base to a lot of Mexican food and difficult to replicate. Also most meats are slow cooked, so if you haven't already got one a slow cooker or instant pot will help.

Elote - Roasted/Grilled corn with Cotija cheese and a spicy mayo/sour cream sauce. Sauce is usually dried chili powder, mayo, sour cream, coriander and lime juice or some variation.

Birria Tacos - Basically a slow cooked beef stew, pull the meat, put into the taco, dip the taco in the stew then fry it in a pan.

https://www.mylatinatable.com/authentic-mexican-birria-recipe/

Sauces/dips -

Roasted tomato and pepper salsa roja w/ mango and habanero - been making this as part of a dish at work and it's great. Roast 1-2 habanero, 3 red bell peppers, 5-6 medium tomatoes, let cool and remove the skins. Blitz with the juice of one lime, 2-3tsp salt and a handful of coriander. Then finely dice 1 red onion, one mango, 2-3 medium tomatoes (seeds removed), one green bell pepper and mix it all together.

Guac - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHVzFLtvbGQ&ab_channel=InspiredTaste

Salsa Verde - https://www.mylatinatable.com/authentic-mexican-salsa-verde/

Pico de gallo - https://cookieandkate.com/classic-pico-de-gallo-recipe/

Pipian - https://www.cauldronfoods.co.uk/recipes/pipian-verde-with-pan-fried-tofu


For supplies: https://www.souschef.co.uk/collections/mexico
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Elote was done on 'the chef show' (Netflix). Outstanding. Hard to find the cheese in the UK though, any hard cheese will work though.
 
Please excuse the horrendous pics, the lighting in my kitchen is awful.

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Marinated and grilled chicken quesadilla w/ refried beans, manchego cheese, pickled red onions and the aforementioned habanero and mango salsa.
 
Rick Steins the road to Mexico is a pretty good book. As others have said, getting dried chillies is a big game changer for any Mexican dish, and don't think this is going to make it super spicy as it often doesn't. I will make my own chillie en adobo every few months (adapted from Ricks Chipotle en adobo recipe with a few different chillies and all blended down to give a nice paste) and store in the fridge then just add a few tablespoons to various different dishes and can make a quick mid week basic taco mix all that much better.

Will echo Scams comment, good corn tortilla are fantastic. If you can get some masa harina flour at a good price they are super simple to make. If you don't have a tortilla press (about £20 for a cheap one on Amazon) you can still get them nice an thin using a heavy based pan to flatten the dough out.

Lancashire cheese isn't a bad sub for Cotijo.

Need to try making some Birria, do a lot of Chicken tinga and achiote or slow cooker pork (in lard of course :D).

On the side/topping front, a decent pickled red onion is great for cutting through fattier dishes like pork. Again super easy to make and keeps fairly well in the fridge.
 
Itchytrigg said:
On the side/topping front, a decent pickled red onion is great for cutting through fattier dishes like pork. Again super easy to make and keeps fairly well in the fridge.
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Yeah we always have this in the fridge. I can vouch for Thomasina Miers books too, well at least the one I've got is great!

I usually buy supplies from www.mexgrocer.co.uk or www.souschef.com is also good if you want stuff for other cuisines too. I like to support Mex Grocer though :)
 
My wife is Mexican so I can probably get her to send over a few recipes if you have any particular requests. My personal favorites are:

Carnitas tacos (she uses the slow cooker and they come out really well).
Enchiladas verdes.
Enmoladas de pollo (we buy pre-made mole from a lady down the road but it doesn't look too hard to make yourself)
Quesadillas (these are so basic that even I can do them, but they're a great snack. I normally have them with salsa macha made with dried chillis, chilli oil and peanuts).
Flank steak burritos.
Chilaquiles verdes.
Cortadillo norteño.
Cabrito al ataud (this is a baby goat in a kind of big wood-heated oven, might be a bit difficult to do in the UK).

There's probably a load more that I've forgotten, but those are the ones that come to mind for the moment.

The tortillas are really important for me. Personally, even living in Mexico, I don't really like 95% of the maize tortillas I've eaten. In the south, in states like Oaxaca, you can find home made ones which are really nice, but all of the ones you can buy in the shops are pretty tasteless to me. As I live in the north, flour tortillas are more common, and I find they vastly improve any tortilla-based dish. I'm not sure which brands you can get in the UK though.
 
I find in the UK is a lot of people just warm their tortillas up in the microwave or the oven, when they taste much nice heated individually in a pan with a bit of colour on them.

As I'm lazy, I find the Wahaca kits quite good - the spice mixes are excellent and much more flavourful than any other 'ready' kits.
 
daz said:
I find in the UK is a lot of people just warm their tortillas up in the microwave or the oven, when they taste much nice heated individually in a pan with a bit of colour on them.
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^This. My other half does where as I just throw them in a ripping hot pan 1 at a time to warm through and add a bit of char to them. Makes even the cheapest tortillas miles better!
 
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