Best ever Mexican cookbook?

November 19, 2014 9:39 PM

My impossible-to-buy-for boyfriend has requested a Mexican cookbook for Christmas. We've had very little experience with Mexican food (and I'm pretty sure Old El Paso doesn't count) but what we've had, we loved.

I really have no idea where to start - an added complication is that he is gluten intolerant, although he is pretty good at adjusting recipes so that he can eat them. I would prefer something that is on Book Depository, as we are in Australia, and that isn't overly complex, as we have a toddler. Ta muchly for your help!

posted by Wantok to Food & Drink (18 answers total)

Rick Bayless is the go to option here (unless either of you speaks Spanish). Two options
posted by Admira at 10:04 PM on November 19, 2014 [13 favorites]

Diana Kennedy is supposed to be the authority on Mexican cooking. I've not looked at any of her cookbooks yet, but been meaning to.
posted by Blitz at 10:11 PM on November 19, 2014 [7 favorites]

I have heard good things about "Mexico: the Cookbook"
posted by Vibrissae at 10:12 PM on November 19, 2014

Haven't tried others but Diana Kennedy was my first Mexican cookbook. She did a pretty good job of recognizing not all ingredients available in Mexico are available elsewhere and often offered several similar recipes with varying levels of difficulty.
posted by beaning at 10:46 PM on November 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

Patti's Mexican Table has been recommended to me, although I haven't used it myself. Also, maybe browse the cookbooks that Lisa Fain recommends, which are a mix of Mexican (such as Diana Kennedy's) and TexMex styles.
posted by neushoorn at 10:50 PM on November 19, 2014

Given that you are in oz I would try and do an Australian cook book. Foreign cook books tend to have lots of unobtainable ingredients, or at least annoying-to-obtain ingredients, ime. This is prob esp true of Mexicna food, given its relative newness as a thing for australian restaurants, in comparison to the U.S.

Movida (if your are a melburnian you may know the restaurant?) does a book. Not sure how fancy the recipes are though.
posted by jojobobo at 11:42 PM on November 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

I have one of Diana Kennedy's, The Essential Cuisines of Mexico, and it's great. Very descriptive, especially of things like what the food should look like at various stages of preparation, which is great when you have never seen it being made before. She also includes some good information about substitutions for ingredients that are hard to find outside Mexico (in Melbourne, you can get a fair bit of this stuff at Casa Iberica). Also the stories about the recipes are lovely.
posted by robcorr at 11:45 PM on November 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

Seconding Kennedy's Essential Cuisines. Her From My Mexican Kitchen—Techniques and Ingredients is also first rate.
posted by trip and a half at 12:35 AM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

You may want to check out some of the responses when I asked this some time ago. I went with the Diana Kennedy books.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:35 AM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

I don't have a specific recommendation but in my experience Diana Kennedy is very regional, and Mexico has a lot of regions.

Mexican food is very easy to do gluten free as long as you are cooking from a region where corn based doughs are dominant.
posted by Infernarl at 5:42 AM on November 20, 2014

Seconding Ms. Kennedy's books. I own two of her books (1 & 2) and love them.
posted by MansRiot at 6:32 AM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

I favorited all the Kennedy recs.
posted by Room 641-A at 6:59 AM on November 20, 2014

The problem with recommending Mexican cuisine is that depending on who's asking, there's a great deal of possible variation. Mexico is a big county with a pretty complex cuisine that's been adapted in pretty much every place it's been adopted. It can be meat, it can be veggies, it can be seafood, grilled, stewed, roasted, light or rich, spicy or fruity. Multitudes.

Diana Kennedy is an amazing collector of this cuisine, as is Rick Bayless. But it's quite likely that you won't recognize a lot of what they make as particularly Mexican. You're also likely to run into issues in getting certain ingredients. I personally had trouble finding epazote for beans a la Kennedy in Texas - one imagines it would be even tougher in Australia. Likewise hoja santa, chile piquin, Mexican chorizo, or any number of other more traditional ingredients.

Looking above, I see that someone recommended Patt's Mexican table, which I'm seconding if only for the relative ease of adapting the recipes. I've had pozole made according to one of her recipes, and she knows what she's doing, but adapts enough for most people to be able to produce her recipes. It's authentic cooking, but it's also contemporary enough for you to possibly recognize as Mexican food, which is not something you can say for all of the Kennedy books.
posted by Gilbert at 7:17 AM on November 20, 2014

I really like Truly Mexican by Roberto Santibanez. What I like about this book is that it's almost entirely about sauces (the main chapters are: salsa, guacamole, adobo sauces (chile purees), and moles...then there's a chapter of simple recipes that use the sauces + a chapter of sides). What I like about this approach is that you can prepare meat or veggies however you usually do it, and then add the sauce for awesome Mexican flavor. Makes it very easy to do gluten free. I've made several of the recipes and I don't think any have involved gluten (although there might be some I haven't tried that do...but overall it's not a huge component of the book).
posted by rainbowbrite at 7:26 AM on November 20, 2014 [2 favorites]

Sunset Magazine put out a Mexican Cookbook in 1977 and it's a slim volume, but filled with amazing recipes you can do at home. (There's a copy for dirt cheap at Abebooks.com)

Try the Chile Relleno recipe. Everyone I make it for LOVES it, and it's so light and fluffy and airy. Can you get Poblano Chiles in Australia? You can get whole canned Poblanos, they're on the small side, but still tasty.

Sunset Magazine was the bible of households in the American Southwest. The recipes are always delicious and the photos are great. I also find that the recipes are more authentic than most cookbooks. There's also a Mole recipe. Mole is easy to do, and takes a lifetime to perfect.

There are also different areas of Mexico, so there are different regional specialties. Sonora is the typical Mexican food most people think of (and it's what I grew up on, so don't get me wrong,) but there is also Veracruzano food, which is heavy on fish, Oaxacan cuisine and tons of other variations.

This is a fun rabbit hole.

¡Buen Provecho!
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 8:01 AM on November 20, 2014 [2 favorites]

Thomasina Miers's Mexican Food at Home has served me well for the last couple years. Good recipes, and good explanations of how and why to prep the ingredients correctly.
posted by Kreiger at 8:04 AM on November 20, 2014

I went through a Mexican cooking phase, and the one that I found that was reliable, easy, and authentic was Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless. If I were going to do it again, though, I think I would go with Patti's Mexican Kitchen. Patti's reminds me of my favorite Mexican restaurants in Texas; maybe Americanized the tiniest bit but only where appropriate. Bayless' book is older so he will suggest substitutions for 'hard to find' ingredients that might not be that hard to find at all now.

Bayless himself recommends the Kennedy books, for what it's worth.
posted by tofu_crouton at 10:23 AM on November 20, 2014

Response by poster: Thanks for the advice everyone. Now I'm really hungry!
posted by Wantok at 4:08 PM on November 20, 2014