17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice Recipe Collection, August 14, 2006
This review is from: The Everything Mexican Cookbook: 300 Flavorful Recipes from South of the Border (Everything (Cooking)) (Paperback)
I appreciated this otherwise hard-to-find collection of recipes, but felt that the quality of the book could have been better.
The introductory information presented the basics of Mexican cooking, including descriptions of a few types of chili peppers and a list of American substitutes for Mexican cheeses. Unfortunately, the selection of chili peppers mentioned in the list was not as practical as it could have been. Several of the types mentioned did not seem to appear in a single recipe anywhere in the book. Other types, which are common enough that I was able to find them at my local supermarket, did not even make the list. I was disappointed that the more authentic Mexican cheeses were not listed in the recipes at all, having simply been replaced by American substitutions. (I would have liked to see both listed as options, since I am able to get certain Mexican cheeses at the supermarket.)
The instructions for the recipes were rather inconsistent, as well, and someone who is not already a fairly experienced cook probably would have trouble with some of them. In the three recipes on pages 172-173, I found several problems. The first recipe calls for simmering brown rice for 20 minutes. As this seems to be all the cooking this rice really gets, this is clearly not long enough. The directions seem to have been written for white rice. The following recipe calls for fresh jalapeños, but never gives instructions for preparing them. This is a casserole-type dish and the cook is not instructed to remove them, so I would guess they were intended to be seeded and cut up (as opposed to two individuals receiving whole jalapeños in their servings!). The third recipe calls for 6 cups of water to cook 1-1/2 cups of rice, and does not offer instructions for draining off excess water. This seems to be yet another error. (Six cups is sufficient to cook twice as much rice.)
I'm glad I read this book; I was able to glean some interesting recipes from it that I would not likely have found elsewhere. However, I would have been quite disappointed in it had I paid the full retail price for it. I recommend checking it out from the library before committing to it.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
OKAY, May 25, 2007
This review is from: The Everything Mexican Cookbook: 300 Flavorful Recipes from South of the Border (Everything (Cooking)) (Paperback)
This really wasn't what I expected. After buying "The Everything Chinese Cookbook", I was really disappointed in "The Everything Mexican Cookbook." I guess I was looking for some real authentic south of the border food and instead it appeared that some white woman was coming up with what she thought was great mexican food. Being a white woman who loves the real deal, this is definitely not it!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Somewhat misleading, September 17, 2008
This review is from: The Everything Mexican Cookbook: 300 Flavorful Recipes from South of the Border (Everything (Cooking)) (Paperback)
This is an ok cookbook, in that many of the recipes seem to work out fine and be tasty. My problem with it is that it looks like a beginner's cookbook, yet is misleading in areas. For example, right at the start it explains how to make the most basic staple - tortillas. By using cornmeal. That is either a seriously unlucky typo or a sign the writer doesn't cook tortillas themselves. I assume they meant corn flour, trying to make tortillas with corn meal is an exercise in futility.
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