Tacos [Paperback]

Mark Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2009

¡Ay, que rico! Tacos—real tacos, with soft or crispy corn tortillas, succulent fillings, and snappy salsas—are a revered street food on both sides of the border. In TACOS, Mark Miller adds a chef's sensibility to this vibrant primer for building delicious and authentic tacos.
 
The heart of a great taco is its filling, and TACOS brims with filling recipes for chicken, fowl, pork, beef, lamb, game, seafood, vegetable, and breakfast tacos. Miller's recipes are a satisfying balance between impeccably rendered classics like Carnitas (crusty fried pork shoulder), Rajas and Cheese (strips of roasted poblano chiles with melting queso Oaxaca), and Beef Ranchero (with its smoky-spicy sauce), and fresh, sophisticated riffs like Chicken with Apples and Goat Cheese, Baja-Style Tempura Fish, and Roasted Tomatoes and Pumpkin Seed Pesto.
 
Rounding out the book are luscious photographs; thorough instructions for making soft tortillas from scratch and crafting them into crispy variations; recipes for salsas and accompaniments such as Guacamole and Refritos ("refried" beans); and a suite of essential techniques, like roasting chiles and blackening tomatoes. Each filling recipe provides suggestions for the best tortilla choices, salsas and sides, and beverages to complement the tacos—giving you all you need to make your next taco experience as authentic, inspired, and downright delicious as even the most well-seasoned taquero could make it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While one might think of the taco as a simple street snack, Miller, chef and founder of Santa Fe's Coyote Cafe, takes the Mexican favorite to a new level in this single-subject title comprising 75 recipes. Organized by protein (with additional chapters on breakfast, salsas, sides and drinks), recipes for taco fillings take center stage and are preceded by informative headnotes and paired with suggested tortillas, accompaniments and drinks; each is tagged with a handy heat level indicator. The selection of tacos range from classic (pork carnitas) to inventive (Thai shrimp) and include a good number of vegetarian options. While some might be intimidated by ingredients such as wild boar, buffalo, elk and tamarind paste, the author includes source suggestions and some substitutions. Prep times for some recipes can be up to six and a half hours and may discourage those who want to keep things fast and easy in the kitchen. Nonetheless, this well-designed title has an appealing sense of enthusiasm and authority. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“While one might think of the taco as a simple street snack, Miller, chef and founder of Santa Fe’s Coyote Café, takes the Mexican favorite to a new level in this single-subject title. . . . An appealing sense of enthusiasm and authority.”
—Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (April 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580089771
• ISBN-13: 978-1580089777
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.4 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #25 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > Mexican

More About the Author

MARK MILLER is the acclaimed chef-founder of Coyote Café in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the author of nine books with nearly 1 million copies in print, including THE GREAT CHILE BOOK, THE GREAT SALSA BOOK, and COYOTE CAFÉ. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Taco Extravaganza!, April 29, 2009

By 

rodboomboom (Dearborn, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tacos (Paperback)

Miller is an astute student of food and culture, witness his other cookbooks which so involve the anthropology of a region and its marriage with its cuisine, e.g. his Red Sage cookbook and my review here on amazon.

His intro to this work is fascinating and taco inspiring, e.g. "This food was alive, colorful, aromatic, tasty, crunchy, juicy, flavorful--as if I had crossed a new frontier of food experience." So his time in Mexico as child in summers and as continuing visitor and taco sampler as adult has inspired this very cookbook. His stated purpose is to excite the user of the cookbook about Mexico's street food, that they are as he states: "fast, fresh, economical and easy, a good match to the rapid pace of our modern lifestyle."

He thus provides authentic favorites from Mexico as well as adaptations such as Lobster and Avocado, as well as Chicken with Apples and Goat Cheese.

With each recipe there is suggestion for type of tortilla, accompaniment, usually a salsa, and a drink recommendation. I find this useful as well as on some recipes where difficult ingredients could be an issue, he provides alternatives, e.g. one of the wonderful few that I have made out of here so far, Baja-Style Tempura Fish, the recipe calls for shark, but he also mentions that mahi mahi or tilapia work as well. Likewise with Rabbit with Chiles and Tomatillos, he suggests that chicken thighs can substitute as well. Also, prepared the Tacos Al Pastor and served with his drink recommend of Coco Locos, which never tried before, and guests said it was knock out of dish! I agreed!

Each recipe also includes valuable amount of tacos the recipe yields as well as a Heat Level index and prep time estimate.

These are truly recipes to get excited and involved with new and exciting tacos, salsa, accompaniments to have fun making and serving. His idea of a taco party sounds mucho fun!

Well done with color photos and excellent directions and glossary of techniques, equipment, ingredients and sources for likes of bison, elk, chiles, etc.

This one is keeper!

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love this cookbook!, June 25, 2009

By 

P. R. Crandall (Fayetteville, NC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tacos (Paperback)

All the recipes I've tried so far are wonderful and very authentic. This cookbook is not for a beginner cook, though. Be prepared to spend some time with these recipes, but they are sooo worth it.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tacos offers great detail and breadth of recipes, October 16, 2009

By 

Chicago Book Addict (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Tacos (Paperback)

I've picked up other cookbooks devoted to a single food like The New Lasagna Cookbook: A Crowd-Pleasing Collection of Recipes from Around the World for the Perfect One-Dish Meal and Biscottiand they can sometimes feel like they just bring together the standard recipes you've seen elsewhere or include a lot of filler to round out the book. Tacos by Mark Miller is the exact opposite.

What I love about this book is that it's the perfect marriage of detail and great recipes. Miller gives you everything you need to succeed, especially when it comes to making homemade tortillas. I really loved the depth of the directions and it reminded me a lot of cookbooks by Rick Bayless.

The recipes are what really get me excited. There is such a breadth covered in this book. It was a perfect balance of more traditional recipes I would hope would be included and unique or fushion recipes that brought me new taco ideas I hadn't thought of. I'm especially captivated by the Braised Beef Short Rib Tacos, Baja Style Tempura Fish, Thai Shrimp, and especially the Chicken with Apple and Goat Cheese Taco. There are also many great photos within the book to give you an idea of what the finished recipe will look like.

I especially like that the cookbook clearly indicates not only how long each recipe will take to complete, but also the heat level. It's great because it makes it easy to adjust if you typically do not like spicy food or find your food is not spicy enough. It's worth noting that most of the recipes take an hour or more to prepare so this is definitely not a quick cookbook. However, I did find the skill level required to be reasonable. Yes, some of the recipes call for cooking meats that are not standard in the American diet, but other than that there are no techniques I saw that would be above the average home cook. The level was consistent with most average cookbooks I have used and magazines like Martha Stewart and Cooking Light.

Overall I think this book is fanastic and am excited ay all my taco making possibilities.