Mexican Light: Exciting, Healthy Dishes From The Border And Beyond [Paperback]

Martha R. Shulman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 5, 2000

Cilantro and chiles, mole and salsa, succulent sweet shrimp and red snapper, zesty tacos, nachos, and quesadillas--no cuisine in the world is more fun than that of Mexico. In Mexican Light, first published in hardcover in 1996, Martha Rose Shulman takes the fat out of America's favorite good-time food, creating mouthwatering and healthy adaptations of Mexican classics. Mexican Light lets you eat all the irresistible foods from south of the border without any of the guilt.

Savor creamy Chipotle Dip; luscious Refried Black Beans with Plantain Pancakes; delicious Soft Tacos with Chicken, Corn, and Avocado; smoky Pan-Cooked Salmon Fillets with Tomatillo Salsa; and homey Green Hominy Stew with Chicken. Desserts include delectable fruits and ices, and traditional Mexican rice pudding and flan, adapted for lower fat content. Even snacks are healthier versions of our favorite indulgences: crisp nachos and toppings, soft tacos, green enchiladas, and fabulous quesadillas with wild mushrooms and smoked jalapenos.

Each recipe is accompanied by a complete nutritional breakdown, including calories, sodium, and fat. Mexican Light captures the essence of one of the world's greatest cuisines in healthful versions so good you'll never miss the fat!  Cilantro and chiles, mole and salsa, succulent sweet shrimp and red snapper, zesty tacos, nachos, and quesadillas--no cuisine in the world is more fun than that of Mexico.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rife with lard and cheese, Mexican food (at least as it's often served in the U.S.) has always seemed the least reformable of high-fat cuisines. Shulman (Mediterranean Light) has managed, however, to reconstruct it successfully. With its focus mainly on the food of border towns and from the southern states of Oaxaca and Veracruz, this is not a comprehensive Mexican cookbook, but Shulman has a knack for spotting fresh foods and unique combinations. The chapter on salsas features such variations as Cooked Tomato and Black Bean Salsa and Green Tomatillo Mole with pumpkin seeds and ground toasted corn tortilla that are surely good enough to eat with a spoon. Each recipe includes nutritional information, as well as helpful tips for advance preparation and quick alternatives when appropriate (usually replacing dried beans with canned). There are some clever low-fat alternative methods such as cooking lard-free Refried Beans in a broth reduction and crisping tortilla chips in the microwave rather than frying them. The latter appear often, and the author, or her editor, courteously repeats the instructions in small-type footnotes rather than constantly sending the reader back to an index. An extensive list of suggested menus is offered in a final chapter.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Shulman is the author of Provencal Light (LJ 3/15/94) and Mediterranean Light (LJ 4/15/89), both of which she wrote while living in France. But long before French cooking, Mexican food was her passion (she lived just across the border from Mexico for more than a decade and studied with many Mexican home cooks and chefs), and now she's returned to it. Although she doesn't claim that all these recipes are authentic, Shulman has a gift for lightening her favorite cuisines while staying true to their origins. She starts with an excellent technique section, followed by dozens of recipes, from drinks and salsas to beans and rice to tortilla dishes to desserts. The recipe notes are informative and readable, the instructions are clear, and the recipes delicious. Highly recommended.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks (January 5, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688174663
• ISBN-13: 978-0688174668
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #287,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #85 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > Mexican

More About the Author

For over 30 years I have been writing cookbooks devoted to eating well. A pioneer in vegetarian cooking, I began my career in 1973 at the age of 23. This was long before well-educated people from upper middle class backgrounds fantasized about becoming the next Food Network star or owning a successful restaurant. I was then a student at The University of Texas at Austin. I changed my major every semester, but my passion for cooking and for giving dinner parties was unwavering. I also had an interest in health, and combined the two in my approach to food, drawing upon many of the world's cuisines to create vegetarian dishes that were much better than the standard brown rice fare of the early 1970s. Culturally I was very much a product of my era, but as far as my cooking was concerned, I have always been way ahead of my time.
Once I'd had my epiphany about my calling, I developed a series of vegetarian cooking classes that I taught through the University of Texas Extension, and I opened a private "supper club" in my home. Every Thursday for two years I prepared a sit-down 3-course dinner for 30 people. My cozy "home restaurant" allowed me all the fun and few of the headaches of running a public restaurant, and at the same time gave me a place to experiment and develop a repertoire of dishes to showcase. I also learned to cook for a crowd. Soon I had a vegetarian catering service; I catered everything from breakfasts in bed and dinners for two to wedding receptions and conferences for two hundred.
I had also been, all along, a writer in search of a subject. I knew that I would write a cookbook, and when The Vegetarian Feast came out in 1979, my career had evolved from cook/caterer to food writer and cookbook author. The Vegetarian Feast won a 1979 Tastemaker Award (a precursor of the prestigious James Beard Awards) for Best Book, Health and Special Diets category, and remains in print.
I was never doctrinaire about vegetarian cooking; I just felt that I'd had my quota of meat by the time I reached the age of 21. I admired all good cooks, especially Julia Child, with whom I corresponded. In my first letter to her, a fan letter dated September 2, 1976 in which I described my cooking classes and my supper club, my catering service and the book I was trying to get published, I told her I was "trying to shed a new light on vegetarianism, to present it as an unmysterious, classical, and memorable cuisine. The art of cooking with an emphasis on nutrition as well as flavor is my interest, and because I am a vegetarian my cuisine is a meatless one."
Two years after the publication of The Vegetarian Feast I moved to Paris, where I continued to write cookbooks and articles, revived my Supper Club, and became a much better cook. During the twelve years I lived in France I traveled extensively in the Mediterranean to research its many cuisines. My book Mediterranean Light was published in 1989, just as the benefits of the Mediterranean diet were coming to light in the United States. The region continues to be my richest source of culinary inspiration.
To date, I have 27 cookbooks to my name. My work has been of a piece; not all of my books are vegetarian, but they all have a healthy focus. Several of my books have been nominated for cookbook awards and three have won them. In addition to the 1979 Tastemaker Award for The Vegetarian Feast, I've received the following nominations and prizes for my work:
*2001: International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), The Best Vegetarian Recipes, Nominee, Single Subject category
*1995 James Beard Awards, Great Breads, Nominee, Bread and Pastry category
*1994 Bertolli Olive Oil Award, Provençal Light, First Prize, Health and Special Diets category, Julia Child Awards
*1991 International Association of Culinary Professionals, Entertaining Light, First Prize, Health and Diet category
*1991 James Beard Awards, Entertaining Light, Nominee, Entertaining category
*1989 Tastemaker, Mediterranean Light, Nominee, Health and Special Diets category
*1988 Tastemaker, Supper Club chez Martha Rose, Nominee, Entertaining category

My cooking continues to evolve, as I hone and simplify my recipes to make them accessible to a wide range of cooks. I feel that I have played a role in improving the eating habits of many Americans, particularly since I began writing a daily recipe feature called Recipes for Health for the health section of The New York Times on the Web, in 2008. Its purpose is to empower people to cook healthy meals every day by giving them straightforward, delicious recipes. Each week's column is themed around a fresh ingredient from the market, a pantry item or a type of dish, with a new recipe posted every day. The reader response has been enthusiastic; my recipes regularly appear in the "10 Most Emailed" list on the health page. It has been extremely satisfying to know that I am reaching so many people and having an impact on their cooking.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great set of tasty, healthy, but not authentic recipes, July 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Mexican Light: Exciting, Healthy Recipes from the Border and Beyond (Hardcover)

Most of the dishes I've cooked in the last few months have been recipes from this excellent book. If you've used Shulman's other cookbooks, you'll recognize the style: chatty writing, bold flavors (e.g., lots of garlic and cilantro), a mixture of vegetarian and meat dishes, careful instructions in the recipes, a nutritional summary for each recipe, and a separate chapter on unusual ingredients. Many of the dishes in this book can be made in 30 minutes to an hour, though some are more complex. And while the food may be good for you, it tastes terrific.

Don't expect this book to be an authoritative survey of Mexican cooking. There's no mole poblano, or even a burrito recipe. Some recipes are fairly authentic, others merely "inspired" by Mexican ingredients. Since the recipes she concocts are often as good as the classics she leaves out, that's a minor drawback.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Mexican, August 1, 2001

By 

disco75 "disco75" (State College, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mexican Light: Exciting, Healthy Dishes From The Border And Beyond (Paperback)

This is one of the best of the Mexican cookbooks for people who want to incorporate food more authentic than "Tex-Mex," cheese-smothered dishes into a health-conscious lifestyle. While the dishes aren't meant to be historically and culturally precise, they do in my opinion represent the progression in Mexican cooking that has been overdue. A vegetarian-friendly cookbook, "Mexican Light" was written by a woman who clearly has eaten what she cooks, and has tinkered extensively with her creations to come up with just the right textures, flavors, and spices. The recipes run the gamut and can be made every day or for special occasions. Her approaches for fat-free chips have eliminated store-bought kinds in my household. The tostadas, blackbean-and-tomato soup, quesadillas, and pureed fruit desserts are wonderful. The potato-and-chicken soup with lime is fantastic and simple, easily converted to vegetarian by substituting seitan for the chicken. The chayote-and-yam stew is a favorite amongst my friends, as is the potato-and corn salad. The corn soup dish, while time consuming, is spectacular and makes the best of sweet corn in August. The most-made dish in my house is the green chilaquiles, totally unique and better in her recipe than any I've had in a restaurant.

7 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flavorful recipes that give "light" a good name., September 7, 1998

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mexican Light: Exciting, Healthy Recipes from the Border and Beyond (Hardcover)

This is a very useful book filled with delicious recipes that my picky husband and our guests love. Try the chipotle chicken salad! The instructions are simple to follow and most recipes are not too time consuming.