Around the World #2 : In search of Authentic Mexican

Mexican

The decision to do Mexico after Spain was just a practical one. Our friends happened to visit us a couple weekends ago and since they are vegetarian, I thought why not do a ‘Mexican’ meal?. Plus ‘Cinco de Mayo’ is just around the corner ! Thus the destination choice for Around the world #2 was made!  I went and got all the different books on Mexican cuisine from our local library plus I already own a few books including the ones by Rick Bayless. So that’s how the journey to discover and make authentic Mexican has started.

DSC_1193Based on the enticing, spicy recipes that I have been reading about I think I will be exploring Mexico quite a bit. 🙂 The variety of techniques and ingredients – so many variety of cheeses and chillies!), regional variations etc make it very obvious that Mexican cuisine has so much to offer and has a special place in the global gastronomic world. And it is certainly not anything like the ‘americanized’, ‘full of cheese’ versions found here in fast food restaurants.  Don’t get me wrong – I don’t mean that I don’t like Tex Mex or other Mexican influenced dishes. – Nothing wrong with them. Its just that the increasing popularity of those may cause the authentic Mexican to fade away and that’s the piece I don’t like.

As I continue my exploration, I shall write more detailed posts talking about individual ingredients and techniques.  But for this introductory post, I have a simple yet fabulous vegetarian meal – Black Bean Enchiladas, Mexican Tomato Rice and easy sopaipillas for dessert! Although I have made chicken enchiladas in the past, I had never made black bean enchiladas even though that is the most common dish I order whenever we go Mexican! So now I was really motivated to make them.  I got the recipe from the book, “The Complete Mexican, South American and Carribean cookbook” that I had from a long time. I loved the recipe because there was not much cheese used and the enchilada sauce using chipotle chillies was spicy and so flavorful! Also I learned the technique of dipping the tortillas in the enchilada sauce first and toasting them slightly before rolling them with the filling. Now that makes perfect sense…why didn’t I think of that before!

The authentic tomato rice recipe I got from Tastesbetterfromscratch. What really intrigued me about this recipe is the use of whole halopenos while cooking the rice! I modified the recipe slightly but it ended up being indeed perfect and delicious!  I didn’t have too much time for making dessert and hence was looking for something quick and easy that I could make – Hence these easy version of Sopaipillas from Kitchenmeetsgirl seemed just perfect. A sopaipilla is traditionally made from leavened wheat dough (or a mixture of wheat flour and masa harina) to which some shortening or butter is added. After being allowed to rise, the dough is rolled into a sheet that is then cut into circular, square or triangular shapes. The shapes are then deep-fried in oil, sometimes after allowing them to rise further before frying: the frying causes the shapes to puff up, ideally forming a hollow pocket in the center. I made the easy version which uses frozen puff pastry dough but you could certainly make the dough from scratch too(I have the recipe and plan to do so one of these days!). For now, I was glad to be introduced to them 🙂 Oh my, they turned out just fabulous -warm, crunchy and sweet! Yum! Yum!

I am bringing all these Fiesta foods to a real (ahem..virtual) fiesta at Angie’s – Fiesta Friday! Have a happy weekend folks! 🙂

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  1. What a lovely meal you’ve prepared for your friends! And these recipes are a perfect introduction to Mexican cuisine. Thanks for sharing these lovely recipes with FF#65

  2. Since I live in New Mexico, Mexican food became my favorite. Your recipes sound totally great, I would make them immediately. Thanks for sharing and inspiring.

  3. How awesome, Indu! I just adore real Mexican food and have seen a number of really good cookbooks that focus on the authentic cuisine. I can’t wait to see more from this series! Very yummy! 😀

    • thanks Julianna. Please do let me know any famous Mexican authors that I need to know. – I did pick Diana Kennedy’s several books and I am learning so much. Also Rick Bayless. But pls lmk ur collection too! 🙂

  4. You’ve selected another favorite cuisine Indus, everything looks just amazing! I’d be interested to follow you up on what you post next. Thanks for bringing it to the Fiesta, just in time for Cinco de Mayo coming up 🙂

    • HI Loretta, thanks for co-hosting FF! Yes Mexican is one of my favorites too! I can eat Mexican anytime and when we visited Mexico last year, I was surprised how different the authentic foods were from what we get here in the US. So I am definitely going to focus on making some of those ‘unheard of’ kind of dishes. thanks for the encouragement! 🙂

  5. Spanish cuisine has been long loved in the Philippines. And as what I knew, Mexican and Spanish foods don’t differ that much from each other. I am excited to know that you are doing this around the world thing, Indu. This would be so great for those who want to explore international cuisine. This looks really good and yummy. Thanks for sharing and happy FF. 🙂 xx

    • You are welcome Jhuls. Mexican and Spanish cuisine do have some commonalities but Mexican definitely is different also because of the use of heat – oh boy I am amazed to learn about the different variety of chillies!

    • ha ha Yes actually as I typed Fiesta friday I had the same thought! That you love Mexican and hence the whole fiesta thing 🙂 yes I can eat Mexican every single day and every single meal – I must have been a Mexican in my previous life! LOL! 🙂

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