When I was 18, I went on a mission trip to Mexico.  While there, the ladies at our host church graciously prepared all of our meals, including the lunches we took with us “on the road” each day.  These lunches typically consisted of delicious burritos.  Dinners were fantastic, too!  The real surprise to me was that nothing we ate was super-spicy.  Well-seasoned, but not spicy.  That was my first introduction to real Mexican food, and the fact that there’s more to it than the handful of foods we think of as “Mexican food.” And so began my quest to find recipes for authentic Mexican meals.

200 Easy Mexican Recipes

I was eager, then, to take a look at 200 Easy Mexican Recipes: Authentic Recipes from Burritos to Enchiladas, when Robert Rose offered it for review.  (The author also has a previous book, 300 Best Taco Recipes.)  I think most of the recipes here are of the spicier variety (I think that’s a regional thing), but they are authentic – with a handful of exceptions, where the notes indicate that they are Tex-Mex or other, newer cultural blends or adaptations.

As is the case with many of Robert Rose’s recipe books, this one is largely in black-and-white.  There are a couple sections of color photographs, but not nearly all of the recipes are pictured.  Some of the picture pages consist of non-recipe photos.  In many cases, I find this disappointing, as it seems like it doesn’t take full advantage of the space to be able to show as many of the recipes as possible.  In this case, though, I really enjoyed the “extra” images, as they did an excellent job providing a cultural “flavor” (no pun intended) of Mexico.  (They are very colorful – fun to look at!)

The Information

In typical style, the first section of the book is primarily information.  Beyond introducing the purpose of the book, it addresses the equipment and ingredients frequently used in Mexican cooking.  Traditional Mexican cuisine doesn’t require a lot of fancy equipment, but one or two “specialty” items – like a tortilla press – might be a useful investment if you plan to prepare these recipes regularly.  The ingredients section was especially helpful for differentiating between chile varieties.

The Recipes

The recipes, of course, comprise the bulk of the book.  They are divided into chapters for appetizers; salsas, relishes, and sauces; tortillas and breads; soups and stews; vegetables, beans, and salads; tacos, tostadas, burritos, tortas, and tamales; Mexican grill; enchiladas, fajitas, and other favorites; beverages and cocktails; and desserts.

If you’ve looked at other Robert Rose cookbooks, the format of this one is likely to be familiar.  Each recipe entry includes the title, number of servings, ingredients, instructions, and an introductory note about it.  Many include tips and/or variations.  Most also have a couple of bulleted items at the top, letting you know if you need to preheat the oven, and if you need special equipment.  This is helpful, to know at a glance if you have what you need on hand and to get the oven (or grill, or whatever) ready.

The majority of the recipes in the beverages chapter are alcoholic, so if you don’t drink alcohol, keep in mind that that particular chapter will not be of great use to you.  (There are a few exceptions, but it’s largely cocktails, etc.)

Many of the recipes in the book are inherently gluten-free.  A number of them aren’t, only because they use flour tortillas, so they can be adapted to be gluten-free simply by swapping out the tortillas.  And some will be particularly useful for GF eaters, even if they aren’t gluten-free.  For instance, having from-scratch recipes for enchilada sauces makes it much easier to adapt the recipes to use GF flours!

The Mexican Chocolate Cakes that follow may be readily adaptable to a gluten-free diet, as well, given that it doesn’t use a large quantity of flour.

Mexican Chocolate Cakes

Kelley Cleary Coffeen

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Course Dessert

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

• 4 oz. semisweet chocolate coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ancho chile powder
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• vanilla or coffee ice cream for serving

Instructions

 

• In a small saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate and butter. Set aside.
• In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat eggs, egg yolks, sugar, cinnamon and chile until well blended, about 3 minutes. On low speed, gradually beat in the chocolate mixture until well blended. Increase speed to medium and beat until mixture is light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, stir in flour until blended.
• Divide chocolate mixture equally among six greased 4- to 6-oz ramekins. Place ramekins on a baking sheet and bake in preheated oven until firm on top and cakes pull away from the sides of ramekins, 16 to 18 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of each ramekin. Invert on individual plates and serve hot with a scoop of vanilla or coffee ice cream.

Disclosure: I was provided by Robert Rose with a copy of this book to facilitate my review.  As always, all opinions expressed here are entirely my own.  The recipe for Mexican Chocolate Cakes is reprinted with permission.