Simple Mexican food recipes easy to prepare in the UK

OK, here I am with a few standard, but important basic recipes for good homemade Mexican food. I looked at various websites on line and found that the ingredients I'll be using are available in the UK. This website was one of a few that I found and seems to suggest that UK dwellers can get the items I'll describe: http://www.mexicangrocer.co.uk/product.php?printable=Y&productid=16397&=US

I'll start out by explaining a few very important rules about cooking authentic Mexican, and the Spanish terms are 'sason' and 'sabor'. Mexican culture revolves around food, and it's a very important part of any Mexican experience to cook with love and without fear. My MIL explained all of this to me when she taught me, and it's proven to be very true. I think it's also important to relay that Mexican food requires more cooking time and I've found that since American, and possibly UK culture, is faster and all about quick food, it's better to try this on days off from work or days that are not pressure days. Patience is key here and becoming 'one' with your creations is paramount, hence the word 'sason', which really means each woman's (man's) own 'flavor' that she adds out of love.  Now, 'sabor' is achieved through lots of experimenting and figuring out what variations are preferable in what amounts and developing your own preferred 'flavor', such as hotness and spiciness.

There are loads of Mexican cookery, such as clay pots, stone hand grinders, and tortilla makers and 'comales', but these are easily substituted by more available cookery. The most important items necessary are going to be an electric blender, cast iron flat surface (flat frying pan is fine, but you'll need two, one large and another medium size). I suppose regular teflon or stainless steel works as well, but the medium one might be harder to clean and have a spiciness to the pan that stays a while, so it might be wise to have this pan just for Mexican cooking. You'll also need a medium size pot with a lid. I prefer stainless steel, but I'm sure teflon works as well. This will be for cooking rice.

I think I'll start with recipes for good ole' Mexican rice, beans and salsa. These are the staples in all the food, and once you make these items successfully, you can build any meal around it. I can add recipes for whatever food someone is interested in making. Tacos, fajitas, tacos dorados (taquitos), burritos, enchiladas, posole, seafood soup, arroz con leche, flan, pico de gallo, chiles rellenos... whatever... just request and I'll post.

I'll end this post, since it's so long, and begin my next post with recipes. Please understand that I learned to cook this way from a woman who never used a measuring cup in her entire life. She just 'knows' this and taught me the same way. I'll go in my kitchen and try to explain portioning as best I can, but really Mexican is about experimenting with amounts to develop your own 'sabor', so please be flexible and I'll do my best to make myself clear.
 

So, I think I'll start with salsa. There are many types of salsa, and I've seen that fresh tomatillos and jalapenos are available. I'll write recipes for both 'green' and 'red' salsas and start with the green.

First to make green salsa, you will need the medium flat pan and blender. The ingredients will be 4 fresh tomatillos,  5 fresh jalapeno or serrano peppers, garlic, onion, cilantro (if available), salt, and  1 avocado( if you like them).

The tomatillos come with a little covering on them and you must remove those to expose the 'green tomato'. Heat your medium flat pan on a medium heat and when it's hot, place the  green tomatoes on it without anything else- no oil, water, NOTHING. You will need to rotate the tomatoes as they will charr, bubble and get black on each side. This is normal and the tomatoes will get soft as the time progresses. There is no set time to take them off. You take them off when they are charred all over and very soft. Put them in a bowl to cool down and repeat this same thing with your peppers until the peppers are charred and softer and remove them and add them to your bowl with the tomatoes.

When they are cool enough to pick up, you then spend some time removing the charred skin off of the tomatoes and peppers. You won't get all the blackness off, but that's OK.
When you're done, put the tomatoes and peppers in your electric blender and add a half a clove of garlic (more if you LOVE garlic) and few slivers of onion (more if you LOVE onion) a few sprigs of cilantro (salsa is fine if you do not find this ingredient to add) add salt in the blender ( I'd say put enough in your hand to make the size of an American 25 cent piece or a little more). Then blend all ingredients until smooth. Pour into a bowl and add sliced avocados if it is something you like and serve.

Red salsa is the same as above, only substituting red tomatoes for green. This is a little less tangy salsa, but some prefer red to green or cannot find tomatillos.

If fresh chile peppers aren't available, the dried  peppers,'chile de arbol' being a good one, will work as well. You wouldn't charr those, but instead put them in boiling water for about 5 minutes and add them to your tomatoes in the blender.

To make a faster salsa (not quite as tasty, but great also), just don't do the charring step, and instead put tomatoes and peppers together in a little pot, boiling them until soft and then following the steps in the blender.

Great thread jtorres! I'm not much of a cook but I may try that salsa recipe!

I make rice as follows:

1 cup rice
1.5 cups of water
.5 cups of tomato passata
bit of oil
pinch of salt and pepper and a dash of cumin
half of green pepper and half of an onion

Heat oil in a saucepan.  Add rice and fry until golden.  Add in water, passata, spices, pepper and onion.

Lower heat, cover and cook till water is absorbed.

Voila, Spanish/Mexican rice!

If you are looking for a good 'comal' to make your tortillas, you can easily find one in the UK!

My mother uses the lid to the old wood-fired stove that was in her MIL's house.

I found teh same in an architectural salvage yard in Edinburgh for £4.

Mexican rice is a little tricky. I'll let you know that it's actually really difficult to get the consistency right, and there is a saying in Spanish that 'when a person can cook rice, they've arrived' or something like that. It's true. Do not be discouraged if your rice doesn't come out the first few times.

You will need white long grain rice, red tomatoes, vegetable oil, garlic, onion, salt, and chicken bullion. The 'knorr Swisse' boullion cubes are what I use, and that's the perfect amount needed. You will need your electric blender, a mixing bowl, and a medium sized pot with lid also. An Asian rice cooker can actually work as well, but I'll write the recipe for the pot.

First off take out your blender and slice 1 and a half red tomatoes and put in blender. Add a single garlic clove, and a few slices of onion and one chicken bullion. Fill the blender with enough water, mine goes up to around the 2 and a half to 3 cup mark when I have the ingredients and water in. Add salt into the mixture. I would say the amount should fill the bottom of your palm and blend until liquid. Leave in blender and begin the steps below.

Take around 2 and a half cups of rice and put it in a bowl. At the same time put your medium size pot on the stove and begin heating it at a little less than medium heat. Put enough cooking oil to coat the bottom, but not tons. While your pan and oil heat, begin washing your rice. Just fill the bowl and grind your hands through it and get up the powdery substance. Rinse it out and begin again until the water is clearer, but it doesn't have to be completely clear. When you are done, drain out as much water as possible from your rice, and put the rice in your already warm pot. It should make a sizzle noise and it will be very important to stir constantly for quite a few minutes. the wetness will evaporate and the rice will become harder and get a little yellowish as your stir. That's when you know it's almost ready to add the mixture in your blender.

Add the mixture from the blender and stir just for a moment. You will put more water in your blender and add to the pot until the liquid is maybe and inch and a half from the top of the pot. Cover the pot, leaving it ajar, not totally covered, but with a little room to let out the steam. If you have cookery that has a vent in the top, leave that open. Do not keep opening the pot and checking the rice. Let is go a good 20 minutes at medium heat. When you check the rice, there should be quite a lot of the tomato mixture at the top of the rice, and that's OK, DON'T mix it up yet. When you see that the liquid is gone down and there are little holes in the rice with bubbling water going down deep into the rice, turn off the heat and put the pot on a cold burner with the top on for at least a half and hour without taking off the lid. When you next check your rice it should be done, but I'd still wait about and hour to stir and serve it out.

Now on to 'frijoles' or good ole' beans. This is actually quite easy and the only thing required is time (a good 2 hours) and replenishing the evaporating water regularly. It you don't do that, they will burn and stink up your house for DAYS!!

You will need a cooking pot (size depends on the amount you want), dried pinto or black beans, onion, garlic, salt, a little cooking oil, and American bacon only if desired or available.

First, you need to put your dried beans in a bowl to wash. I've found that some bags of dried beans are very dusty or have stones in the bag, so it's a good idea to just wash them out.

Fill your pot with the amount of beans you want, and then add water to the pot. I'd put a lot of water, way over the beans since the cooking beans will absorb the water. Just set the cooking time to medium heat and add slices of fresh onion (only 2 or 3), a few slivers of fresh garlic, and a tad of cooking oil to the pot, and then take enough salt to cover your palm and add that as well. Let the beans cook without disturbing them, but check on them every 15 minutes or so once the bubbling starts to make sure there is plenty of water. As the water level goes down, add more to make up for it and keep it cooking for at least 2 hours. After that, just take a small scoop of beans to try and when they're soft, they're done.

To make 'beans a la charra', you would need to have American bacon and fry the bacon in a separate pan before chopping it up and adding it to the cooking beans. Save the drippings on the side.

Serve the whole beans in their own soup in a bowl plain, or you can make a quick 'pico de gallo' and just mix it into the beans.

Pico de gallo is just chopped tomatoes, cilantro and onions in equal measure. Put that into your beans and mix it up for a great flavor.

To refry your beans, just take a flat pan, heat it up with enough oil to coat the bottom ( but not too much), or use bacon drippings for really GREAT ( but not so healthy) refried beans.

When the pan is really hot, put in as much of your whole beans as you want (strain the whole beans you wish to refry, so they aren't so wet), and use a masher (like for mashing potatoes) until the beans are a smooth paste. Let them simmer on the stove until they have a nice thick consistency, but aren't all dried out.

You can top refried beans with melted cheese or not (shredded mozzarella works great).

Now that you have your rice, beans, and salsa, you can buy the corn tortillas, heat up a flat iron pan or any flat pan, and just flip them over when they get soft and flexible.  Take them off of the pan when they are hot, soft and flexible and place them in a dishtowel to keep warm.

Place your rice, beans and salsa inside your tortilla, add a little sour cream and avocado and dinner is served. Of course, you can make wonderful dishes to go along with all of this, and I'll happily share whatever recipes you'd like.

I used to use an old clay pot my mother gave me to cook beans.

Once it finally broke, it wasn't as simple as a quick trip to Fiesta for another one, so I got this:



Woolie's also sell large stone mortar & pestle, not those tiny ceramic thingies people think are mortar and pestles here - but they're not.

Thanks for the recipes! Maybe you can copy them into the UKY cookbook, they'll be easier for folks to find in there.

Thanks! How about some fajitas, burritos, and the seafood soup you mentioned?

Yum, now I'm having a major craving for Mexican food!

For the rice, what about using canned tomatoes? How much would you need? I pretty much don't bother with buying fresh tomatoes in the winter, as they're never very good.

I'm glad you say that Mexican rice is tricky, because I've really struggled with it. I'll try your method!

My method of making salsa is to put tomatoes, onions, and jalapenos through the food processor until they're coarsely pureed, then cook that down until it's nice and thick. At the end I add some chopped tomatoes and green onions for texture and fresh flavor. That's the closest I've ever got to the amazing salsa from my favorite New Mexican restaurant. I like the idea of charring the tomatoes first, though!

I would LOVE to see your recipe for chiles rellenos! I haven't found a recipe that I'm crazy about yet.

I'm glad you say that Mexican rice is tricky, because I've really struggled with it.

Me too  I learned to make rice while living in the South Pacific and make it beautifully but I just cannot make Mexican rice.

I would LOVE to see your recipe for chiles rellenos! I haven't found a recipe that I'm crazy about yet.

I second that!  I've tried a few recipes and wasn't too thrilled with them.  I attempted it on my own and they were really good, but, missing something.

And you made me homesick for San Antonio, where I grew up!  What I wouldn't give for a massive plate of proper enchiladas with mole sauce.  Mmmmmm!

Thanks jtorres and expat for your recipes and suggestions! 

Yum, now I'm having a major craving for Mexican food!

For the rice, what about using canned tomatoes? How much would you need? I pretty much don't bother with buying fresh tomatoes in the winter, as they're never very good.

I'm glad you say that Mexican rice is tricky, because I've really struggled with it. I'll try your method!

I would LOVE to see your recipe for chiles rellenos! I haven't found a recipe that I'm crazy about yet.

First off, I've not tried canned tomatoes for rice, but if you try it and like it, let me know. It's good to know those things.

Chile Rellenos are actually not so difficult to make, but they do take up a bit of time to prepare the good ones. BTW, charring is the key to the great flavors of the Southwest and Mexico. It's the real secret to great Mexican food.

Chile rellenos will require fresh poblano peppers, mozzarella cheese, toothpicks, flour, eggs, vegetable oil, tomatoes, onion, garlic, and chicken bouillon. There is a great Mexican cheese called 'queso casero' that is used to make chile rellenos, but I don't know the equivalent of the European cheeses and that's why I put mozzarella down for this recipe. I suppose that any good cheese could be used, and I know there are really good ones available in the UK.

First off in the preparations is to get out the flat iron pan and heat at medium until warm. Charring poblano peppers is very easy. Just put the peppers on the pan without anything else and char until blackened on each side until the peppers are soft. Place charred peppers in a bowl to cool down. When the peppers are cooled, cut them open with a slit down the middle. Clean out the contents of the peppers and peal the blackened charred skin to remove as much of the blackened portions as possible. They will usually just peal off. It's OK if some is left on. Next, fill the peppers with your cheese and close the slit with your toothpicks. One or two are sufficient to close up a pepper. When this step is done, leave them off to the side and begin to make your coating mixture.

The coating mixture is flour, salt and eggs. You will need an electric blender for this part. first separate your egg whites from yolks. I'd say around six eggs should be fine. Begin mixing the egg whites into a stiff, foamy mixture ( around 5 to 10 minutes). As you mix, add in  about a half cup of flour, salt that covers your palm, and the egg yolks. Add them in one at a time and keep the mixer going the whole time. Keep this up for around 10 minutes and that should be enough for a thick (like cake batter consistency) mixture. Set aside and get out a frying pan. Put your vegetable oil in the pan (fill it liberally) and heat at medium heat until hot. When the oil is ready, take your poblano peppers one by one and coat with egg mixture and set in your frying pan. It should take only around 5 minutes of frying on each side to get a nice golden color, then remove and place on a platter covered with paper towels to absorb excess oil (there's a lot).

Allow to cool and then begin cooking tomato sauce to compliment your chiles.

You will need a medium sized pan for this and electric blender for this portion. First, put 3 red tomatoes, a half clove of garlic, 2 slivers of onion, 2 'knorr Swisse' chicken bouillon cubes and maybe enough salt to fill your palm then a little extra in the blender with enough water to reach the 2 and a half to 3 cups on your blender and blend until smooth.

In your pan, heat with vegetable oil only enough to coat the bottom and add sliced onion and brown onions for a few minutes. Add mixture from blender and let boil down to a thicker consistency. Serve Chiles on a plate and cover with tomato sauce. Melt cheese on top if desired.