The best Mexican Cooking, Food & Wine books: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

We did a local international market tour this weekend here locally!

Picked up some ingredients and then got out this moderately difficult taco cookbook last night. I picked up some guajillo peppers (really should have gotten serrano ones though) and am going to make the salsa and tacos al pastor from the cookbook. It's a very sophisticated cookbook with a lot of authentic ingredients so it's a challenge.

Indian Bazaar was AMAZING on University. We're going to make a pretty basic curry but Indian Bazaar had lots of pre-mixed dough blends and sauce blends which is great for trying small recipes for the first time. They had an extensive freezer section too. Picked up paneer nuggets and bread and chutney. So much goodness to choose from.

>In fact, you could probably consider vegan diet to be colonialist and imperialist since it was created with European climate in mind.

Decolonize Your Diet is a vegan Mexican food cookbook.

While not a straight out cookbook, LA Tacopedia has some really good recipes for the major taco specialties. It is also kind of the proto Taco Chronicles.

> authentic Mexican or Chinese or Indian cooking.

Mexican: <em>The Art of Mexican Cooking by Diana Kennedy</em>

Chinese: Any of Fuchsia Dunlop's books

Indian: <em>660 Curries by Raghaven Iyer</em>

If you haven't tried it yet, I highly recommend this book

https://www.amazon.com/Taco-Cleanse-Tortilla-Based-Proven-Change/dp/1615192727

I am being a little tongue-in-cheek, but I also followed it for a week and it expanded my taco palette considerably.

https://www.amazon.ca/Decolonize-Your-Diet-Plant-Based-Mexican-American/dp/1551525925 the most prominent one I can find is this. I've seen some other works on my social media but it doesn't seem like they're popular works so I'll have to re-find them again. I can dm you sources once I do!

Yeah, that's a great point as well.

If you haven't read it already, Robb Walsh's book on the history of Tex-Mex is a fantastic read. It's listed as a cookbook, and while it does have recipes, it's more of a history of Tex-Mex. https://www.amazon.com/Tex-Mex-Cookbook-History-Recipes-Photos/dp/0767914880

He dives into the Chili Queens of San Antonio and their history, as well as the history of a lot of Tex-Mex dishes. It's a neat book, and Walsh does a fantastic job of celebrating Tex-Mex as a cuisine in its own right.

You might like this book by Danny Trejo: https://www.amazon.com/Trejos-Tacos-Recipes-L-Cookbook/dp/1984826859. He has Trejo's Tacos in LA and it's California Mexican style food that would fit the bill.

Tacopedia is a great cookbook with quite a bit of history. It was released in Mexico first before being translated and released in the US, so it was written for a Mexican audience. It even has a few reviews of taquerias. Definitely worth checking out.

Tacopedia - Amazon

In addition to what people have already suggested, a good Mexican cookbook should have plenty of recipes that call for these chiles specifically. I have Diana Kennedy's The Essential Cuisines of Mexico and there are tons of different dishes that call for the chiles you've named in a variety of different contexts (stews/soups, egg dishes, vegetable preparations, you name it). If you prefer to look for a book from a Mexican author, I suspect that the same will be true. (I will note that, to Kennedy's credit, she generally cites her sources - she gives the impression of being a person who collected recipes rather than an expert or inventor, at least in this book.)

Diana Kennedy is probably the foremost (English-speaking) authority on traditional Mexican cuisine. Maybe start with "The Art of Mexican Cooking" She's in her nineties now, but spent the better part of four decades meticulously documenting historical recipes from Mexican home cooks. Equal parts cookbook and anthropology textbook.

I was recommended this, by Diana Kennedy Essential Cuisines of Mexico: Revised and Updated Throughout, with More Than 30 New Recipes: A Cookbook https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/030758772X/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_0F0HXJCSDPQAD3C9WJ7J

There's no pictures, and some of the text is quite dense. I won't lie, many of the recipes are less than ideal and called for ingredients that I couldn't find, but I started knowing very little about Mexican food and now I know... Well, slightly more. It's undoubtedly comprehensive though.

I use Robb Walsh's recipe from his Tex Mex Cookbook. He was a partner at El Real and put their recipe in the book.

Actually now that I think about it, it's in his Chili cookbook, which is also awesome. Both are good reads even if you don't want a recipe, but they'll probably make you hungry.

Going off memory, it's basically:

-1lb american cheese

-1lb sharp cheddar (grate both yourself, it makes a huge difference over the pre-shredded stuff)

• 1 (12oz?) can of rotel w/ green chiles (I usually drain and dice mine up smaller because I'm not big on chunks of tomato in queso)

• 1 diced jalapeno (optional, but mandatory)

I'll check when I get home but I'm pretty sure that's all there is to it.

I really like Danny Trejo's cookbook from the taco shops he started in LA. It's all chef developed recipes, from true Mexican style tacos to 'Gringo' tacos. https://www.amazon.com/Trejos-Tacos-Recipes-L-Cookbook/dp/1984826859/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&amp;keywords=trejo+tacos&amp;qid=1626009256&amp;sprefix=trejo+t&amp;sr=8-3

Diana Kennedy's Essential Cuisines of Mexico for regional Mexican.

For Tex-Mex, Lisa Fain's Homesick Texan

Crocheter/knitter here! Knit Picks has some good beginner kits for people who want to learn. I’ve bought one before for a friend; a dishcloth is an easier project and could build up her skills to the kit she already has.

Cookbooks are another good one; there are some great funny ones out there; I have one called The Taco Cleanse which someone gave to me last year.

If you want to go a little more off the wall, try Etsy for Stephen King or Neil Gaiman art prints.

Diana Kennedy's Essential Cuisines of Mexico

University of Texas @ San Antonio's Mexican Cookbook Collection

Malaysian. Indonesian. Singaporean. Cajun. Persian. Caribbean. Moroccan.

Mexican. Diana Kennedy's Essential Cuisines of Mexico

Diana Kennedy's The Essential Cuisines of Mexico She has donated all of the cookbooks she collected over the course of her 50 years of travelling across Mexico to the University of Texas San Antonio Mexican Cookbook Collection- some of which is digitised

This recipe was adapted from this cookbook.

• Make the epazote mayo first (if you can't find epazote leaves then regular mayo will still be great). Simply blend a shit ton of epazote leaves with some mayo (I did about a 1:1 ratio). Reserve in the fridge.
• For the filling, I shucked two 8-oz lobster tails, rinsed, bagged, and cooked sous vide at 140 F for 1 hour. Once done, I removed the lobster, patted dry, and cut into chunks.
• Next, I cut the kernels off of two sweet corn cobs.
• I heated a Tbsp of lard on high until smoking. Once smoking, I added four cloves of crushed garlic and four dried Arbol chiles. I cooked for about one minute, or until the garlic and pepper are browned.
• I reduced the heat to medium and added the corn, stirring to coat. I cooked this until the corn was browned, about two minutes. Next, I added about 2/3 cup of water to the skillet and let simmer until the water was dried.
• Remove the garlic and peppers and add the lobster chunks. Stir until warmed, season with salt.
• Prepare some fresh tortillas, then spread a spoonful of the mayo down the middle. Fill with the lobster-corn esquites, and top with some cotija crumbles and chile piquin powder (sub any other chile powder)

God damned amazing.

&#x200B;

Wish I could give 10 up votes to this comment! Gran Cocina Latina is my bible in the kitchen. I love Latin American cuisine from Central to South America and parts of the southwest US where there is a large Latino population. This cookbook as it all. I've given this cookbook as a gift to at least 4 friends and they love it as well.

If you like Tex-Mex, I recommend The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos by Robb Walsh. Interesting read, fun old photos, and really good recipes. I grew up in Houston, and moved across the country 16 years ago. These recipes take me right back to Texas.

This article by a Native American vegan might be relevant:

http://www.thescavenger.net/social-justice-sp-24912/animals/768-on-the-right-to-hunt-by-a-native-american-vegan.html

And I've come across Decolonize Your Diet but I haven't read it myself.

These tacos were made exactly as described in the book Tacos: Recipes and Provocations. However, you can also find the recipe here.

A bit nontraditional, but this dish essentially turns a NYC staple into taco form. It was quite delicious, if I say so myself.

This taco was quite unusual, but delicious. The recipe is from the book Tacos: Recipes and Provocations.

The general concept according to the book was to make a lamb barbacoa preparation, but raw. The tartare consists of finely minced lamb loin, salsa roja, and an avocado leaf infused oil.

While it isn't exclusively South American, https://www.amazon.com/Gran-Cocina-Latina-Latin-America/dp/0393050696 covers South America (as well as Central America and the Caribbean and Mexico). Nice book. I haven't cooked from it yet.

For Brazilian, I've cooked from https://www.amazon.com/Brazil-Culinary-Journey-Hippocrene-Cookbook-ebook/dp/B0030P1WBI/ with tasty success.

I am getting a book on tacos and a tortilla press for my family's cooking-themed white elephant. I might throw in a bottle of spice mix and/or masa harina to round it out.

Get you some vegan taco recipes.

The Thug Kitchen Books are also great.

This has been getting good reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Tacos-Recipes-Provocations-Alex-Stupak/dp/0553447297

A recipe I like:

Skirt steak: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/09/steak-tacos-charred-corn-sriracha-recipe.html

I have OP's book, and the dough is unleavened. You don't want to use warm water here, because you're going for a flaky texture.

OP just needs to add a bit more water. Stupak actually addresses this in the recipe.