Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico [Hardcover]

Rick Bayless (Author), Deann Groen Bayless (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1987

Americans have at last discovered Mexico's passion for exciting food. We've fallen in love with the great Mexican combination of rich, earthy flavors and casual, festive dining. But we don't begin to imagine how sumptuous and varied the cooking of Mexico really is.

After ten years of loving exploration, Rick Bayless, together with his wife, Deann, gives us Authentic Mexican, the only complete and easy-to-use compendium of our southern neighbor's cooking.

This all-embracing cookbook offers the full range of dishes, from poultry meat, fish, rice, beans, and vegetables to eggs, snacks made of corn masa, tacos, turnovers, enchiladas and their relatives, tamales, and moles, ending with desserts, sweets, and beverages. There are irresistible finger foods such as Yucatecan marinated shrimp tacos and crispy cheese-filled masa turnovers; spicy corn chowder and chorizo sausage with melted cheese will start off a special dinner; you will find mole poblano, charcoal-grilled pork in red-chile adobo, and marinated fish steamed in banana leaves for those times when you want to celebrate; and exotic ice creams, caramel custards, and pies top off any meal. There's even a section devoted to refreshing coolers, rich chocolate drinks, and a variety of tequila-laced cocktails.

The master recipes feature all the pointers you'll need for re-creating genuine Mexican textures and flavors in a North American kitchen. Menu suggestions and timing and advance-preparation tips make these dishes perfectly convenient for today's working families. And traditional and contemporary variations accompany each recipe, allowing the cook to substitute and be creative.

Rick and Deann Bayless traveled over thirty-five thousand miles investigating the six distinct regions of Mexico and learning to prepare what they found. From town to town, recipe by recipe, they personally introduce you to Mexico's cooks, their kitchens, their markets, and their feasts.

More than one hundred illustrations carefully detail special cooking techniques as well as bring Mexico and its food to life. An introductory chapter shares Mexican culinary history and modern regional tastes and customs. And an illustrated glossary contains all that hard-to-find information about locating and working with authentic Mexican ingredients and cooking equipment.

If, like the rest of us, you have a growing love for Mexican food, the reliable recipes in this book and the caring, personal presentation by Rick and Deann Bayless will provide meal after meal of pure pleasure for your family and friends.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rick Bayless (host of the PBS-TV series Cooking Mexican extensively explores Mexican cookery, analyzing particular national characteristics as well as regional variations of the complex cuisine. He traces the history of Mexican food from the humble squash and beans of thousands of years ago to a cuisine that came to include chiles, corn and the orchard bounties (coconut, pineapple, avocados) of the conquering Spanish. Mexican dishes familiar to Americansthe enchiladas, tamales and tacos that are more properly classified with North American Southwestern cookingare included, but the most interesting recipes are the more exotic: Native American-influenced, spice-sweetened food from the Oaxaca region and simple, European-influenced seafood and vegetable dishes of the Gulf states. The author explains how common flavors (tomatoes, chiles, coriander, lime, onion, garlic) are transformed by proportion and cooking method to produce the regional differences. The book is extremely thorough, with over 650 pages, 19 recipe chapters, a glossary, bibliography and ingredients source list (although most are commonplace). The recipes, which are frequently complicated and challenging, are made less intimidating by especially clear and well-organized instructions, and comprehensive, highly readable notes on techniques, ingredients, timing, advance preparation and variations. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Rick and Deann Bayless make their home in Chicago, where they teach Mexican cooking classes, do restaurant consulting, and run the Frontera Grill, a restaurant featuring authentic Mexican and southwestern specialties. Rick is the host of the public television series Cooking Mexican.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks; 1 edition (April 15, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688043941
• ISBN-13: 978-0688043940
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #148,913 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #53 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > Mexican

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

104 of 111 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is The Real Thing., April 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico (Hardcover)

I am of Mexican descent. I have avoided Restaurants and cookbooks that try to pass themselves off as "Mexican", for years. The recipes in this Tome so remind me of my childhood, that the book is falling apart. Rick truly knows his subject. Any one seriously interested in the cuisine must seek out this book.

119 of 129 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Resource for Authentic Mexican. Buy It!, May 3, 2005

By 

B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico (Hardcover)

`Authentic Mexican' by notable Chicago chef and Mexican cuisine expert, Rick Bayless and wife Deann Groen Bayless is easily one of the very best books on basic Mexican cuisine. For a subject which is so big that Bayless has devoted at least three other books to it, not to mention the five thick volumes from fellow Mexico culinarian Diana Kennedy, it is hard to describe this as a comprehensive treatment of Mexican cuisine, as it weights in at only 380 pages, compared to the over 450 pages Penelope Casas devotes to much smaller Spain and 480 pages Diana Kochilas devotes to even smaller Greece. But don't let any of this put you off. This is, I am certain, one of the very best sources of information on true Mexican food for us gringos. I am almost certain that Bayless' coverage of Mexico is much better for the state of Oaxaca than for many other regions. I see this name pop up far more than any others and I have read that this is one of his favorite parts of Mexico.

The stated impetus to Bayless' writing this book lies in the fact that in spite of the close contact between Mexico and the United States, Mexican food in the US has undergone the same kind of metamorphosis as we find in Italian-American food.

It is an interesting exercise to highlight what is distinctive about Mexican cooking to cite the differences between Mexican and Spanish cuisines.

While Spanish cuisine is all about olives and grapes, neither of these two products transplanted well to Mexico. Thus, Mexico did not acquire any taste for many of the things you can do with olive oil and vinegar. For these key tastes, they had animal fat and citrus juice. While Spain took to the tomato and the potato, they did not take to corn (maize). And, oddly, while Spain adopted sweet peppers like they were long lost sons, they did not take to the very picante hot chiles. And, while chocolate became very popular as a drink, it never pervaded Spanish dishes the way it runs through Mexican dishes.

Many cookbooks of this type include the seemingly obligatory chapters on ingredients, techniques, and equipment. And, many times these sections are a waste of time in that they are incomplete, and someone not familiar with the subject will not know they are incomplete. None of this is true of Bayless' appendices on ingredients and tools. The depth of Bayless' treatment of important subjects such as chilis is just short of magnificent.

Like every good cookbook on an ethnic cuisine, Bayless gives both the English and Spanish names for all dishes, and some naming contains little surprises. The very first recipe for `Salsa Mexicana' looks very familiar, yet I have never seen a recipe with that name before. It turns out that this is the authentic version of what we gringos call the `pico de gallo'.

Practically every recipe contains several important cooks' notes on techniques, ingredients, and planning ahead.

The book contains a chapter on practically every major subject in Mexican cuisine, including special chapters on Tortillas, Masa, Tacos, Turnovers and their Fillings, Enchiladas, Moles, and Drinks. The level of detail in the explanation of the recipes would make Julia Child proud. The one major subject on which Bayless does not seem to touch is bread baking. The easiest way to supplement this book with material on Mexican baking is to get Diana Kennedy's book `In My Mexican Kitchen'.

One odd aspect of this book for which I blame publisher Morrow's editors is the less than fluid prose. Bayless is much too good with his facts to state any errors of fact or even judgment, but his sentences have this vague feeling of clumsiness about them, as if he is using just a few too many words and he is trying to achieve an effect with an odd choice of words which doesn't work. As Senor Bayless is a masterful cook and interpreter of a major world cuisine, I write this off as the result of the author's first book being edited on a budget.

63 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Authentic Mexican Cookbook, May 3, 2006

By 

J. D. Perez (CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico (Hardcover)

I live in Southern California surrounded by countless Mexican Restaurants of all levels of quality. Sadly most are sub par greasy cheese and dry rice joints. The recipes I have prepared in this book make the countless combo-number-whatever's pale in comparison. The author explains the reasons for this in the books beginning introduction.

What consistently jumps at me in this book is the author's passion for Mexican cuisine. He hits at the heart of the real Mexican food culture and makes a clear distinction between Mexican "street food" (the informal more popular dishes prevalent across the US) and the traditional, authentic dishes of various regions in Mexico. There is a reason why the latter is not as popular in the US... it takes a lot of time and energy to create the elaborate authentic dishes. You need to find a restaurant that cares about quality dishes AND can pull it off in mass quantity... or you can make it yourself with some help from this book.

The author also puts the real star ingredient at the forefront of these traditional delights - Chiles. Chiles of all shapes, sizes and levels of spiciness can be found in many of the recipes. These different dried and fresh chilies complete the complexity of the recipes and should not be substituted... if they aren't available where you live and you want to do it right then find a way... order it online!

My favorite section has to be the Moles (pronounced like Mo-lay, not like the small mammal or skin growth). I love the history provided at the beginning of this chapter. I have personally made the Mole Verde and Mole Rojo multiple times. I have made the Mole Poblano only once... it takes about 6 hours... very good and worth it once in a while. If you want a mole that appeals to a wide range of palates then the Mole Verde is the way to go. This book is definitely not a be all end all for authentic Mexican cuisine but it definitely is an essential book for those people who are passionate about good authentic Mexican dishes... or simply food in general.