Cooking Mexican food in the UK - any recipes?

Hi people

I'm English / Spanish, but I'd like to cook a Mexican meal to surprise an American colleague - but I'm not entirely sure what would be the right dishes to cook. My husband and I are pretty good cooks (actually, we're damn good cooks ;-) ) so we're willing to take on anything. We once did a chili con carne from a recipe by Hugh F-W with some home-made tortillas, and that seemed pretty good to us, but I get the impression from Wikipedia that our colleague would be expecting some guacamole, sour cream, and maybe cheese on it. If you were cooking an american-style Mexican meal, what would you do? (It also has to taste good to my Spanish tastebuds!)

Thanks!

Chicken enchiladas. Tortilla soup. Fajitas. Nachos. All relatively easy to make.

Also take a look at and let your friend know about http://www.mexgrocer.co.uk/home.php which should also be the advert at the top of your page.

Yum!!

just a word of warning if you happen to buy taco, etc. seasonings from grocery stores here in the UK. While they appear to be the same brand that they carry in the US, they do not taste the same. They taste more like Indian flavoured food than Mexican. So if can find a real Mexican sort of grocery get ingredients there.

just a word of warning if you happen to buy taco, etc. seasonings from grocery stores here in the UK. While they appear to be the same brand that they carry in the US, they do not taste the same. They taste more like Indian flavoured food than Mexican. So if can find a real Mexican sort of grocery get ingredients there.

Really? I haven't found that to be the case. I don't buy them much, but I don't think Old El Paso's taco seasoning tastes like Indian at all!

I would do enchiladas of some sort with Mexican style rice & frijoles negros or frijoles charros.

I sometimes use the Discovery taco or fajita seasoning, doesn't taste Indian at all to me. 

If the person eats seafood, how about some ceviche?  (Mostly mentioning it as I could really go for some right now...)  Can't comment on the spice mixes... I make my own.  (Except for chili powder, and Sainsbury's tastes fine to me.)

Yeah, Chilli tastes good, but isn't Mexican as much as it is American.

A classic dish that I got all the time when I was living amongst Mexicans is carne asada (grilled beef) with sides of rice and beans. It isn't too spicy like some Mexican as you add whatever amount of spiciness you desire.  It's also a dish that Americans can really enjoy.  You can serve that with a guacamole and salsa and it can be eaten like fajitas or tacos.  If you like sour cream, that can be added too.    I prefer the carne asada marinated.  Here's a link to a recipe I found.  I haven't tried it yet, but it looks good.  I'm thinking I may try it tonight.

http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/002046carne_asada.php

Mexican rice is easy to make.  You cook it different than you would regular rice in that you have to fry the dry rice in oil before adding any liquid (around a cup of rice).  Otherwise it turns to mush. After it has browned some, sauté onions and then add garlic (don't cook the garlic for too long), some also add bell peppers; I don't usually.  add a couple cups (that's 16 oz here) of water or chicken stock.  If I just add water, I put in a cube of chicken bullion. Then add tomato paste and salt, cover, and let the water cook down.  I'm sorry I haven't given you more specific amounts.  I learned to cook amongst Mexicans, and they never use recipes.  There are plenty of them online though.  You don't want to add other spices to Mexican rice, it's meant to be a milder flavour and allows you to enjoy the spices of your other dishes.

Refried beans are always good.  I don't like the canned stuff, fresh tastes so much better.  I like them somewhat runny and then I can sop them up with my homemade tortillas.  Tortillas are so much better from scratch!!!  If you are in a hurry you can look for cans of pinto beans and mash them up with oil, garlic, salt, sautéed onions.  I've known some to add milk to cut down on the amount of oil you add to keep it a little runny.

Dang, now I'm really hungry.  Thanks a lot!  Good luck and let us know what you do.

Please tell me how to make tortillas!  I've tried a few times, they end up too hard.  Don't know if that's due to not having masa harina (just used regular corn flour) or me being a dingbat.

Corn flour won't work, you need cornmeal (masa harina). I've made them with MH a few times now, they usually come out a bit thicker than desired but never hard.

OK, that's exactly the opposite of what I've been told, but I'll try it out.

I agree with Smoothie that the taco seasoning mixes you buy here in the UK have a curry flavor and smell to them.  Just can't do curry with Mexican.  As for making a good mexican meal how about steak or chicken fajitas. the marinated meat is great cooked on the BBQ.

Here's info and a recipe for corn tortillas.  It tells you all about masa harina, which you can get from the earlier mentioned online store.  I've always seen them made with presses, which the online store is out of right now.  Maybe someone else has them online.  I think I'm going to pick one up next time I'm in Texas visiting family.  I like the wood or metal ones--a bit sturdier.

http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/004141how_to_make_corn_tortillas.php

If you are interested in flour tortillas (which taste totally different than the store-bought version) there are a couple of different kinds.  I prefer a Sonoran-style tortilla to the Texas style ones.  The Texas ones use baking powder and rise up more--they are closer to what you get in the store.  Sonoran ones (a northern region in Mexico) are much thinner and oh so good.  With very simple ingredients  (flour, vegetable fat or lard, salt, and very hot water).

I haven't used recipes for tortillas either (the women who taught me would say "add a half a bag of flour and about this much of a handful of lard. Then they'd scoop it out with their fingers )  I was looking around online and found a lot of recipes, but this one looked closest to good authentic tortillas.

 http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/flourtortillas.htm
notice there's a handy conversion link if you don't have measuring cups.

If you want tacos, a stew, or a mole I love corn tortillas (masa).  If I'm making burritos or carne asada, I adore a good homemade flour tortilla (tortilla harina).  Dangit!  I was all set to wait and now I really want some.  I think I'll have to go out to the local market butcher for some carne and make tortillas now!

By the way, question to the OP ... where in the US is your friend from? Only that might influence what kind of Mexican food they like/are used to.

I really liked the Old El Paso Enchilada Sauce in the UK.  It already had cheese in it.  I have not been able to find it in the States.

I made the carne asada, rice, and the tortillas today.  I ran out of time to get the pinto beans for good homemade refried beans.  The rest was so good though.  I'm really glad I did it!  It's been a long time since I've had a good carne asada, and I've never made it myself, but I enjoyed this a lot!

Just thought you all might like to know.  The recipes are worth trying!