HomeCookbooksMexican CookbooksTruly Mexican: Essential Recipes and Techniques for Authentic Mexican Cooking |
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41 of 41 found the following review helpful:
 I tackled the Black Mole from Oaxaca, and it was so worth it! Jul 15, 2011
By subrosa
I got this book because I love Fonda, Roberto Santibanez's restaurant in Brooklyn, and because I just moved to a college town in the midwest and was hurting REAL BAD for good mexican food. We don't get that here-- just things with sticky orange cheese sauce. So if I wanted good Mexican, i had to learn how to make it. And since Fonda was the restaurant that really opened my eyes to the endless, fresh, and elegant possibilities of Mexican food, this book seemed like a good choice.
My first time out, i did exactly what you are NOT supposed to do and tackled the most complicated recipe in the book, the black mole from Oaxaca. He suggests you start simpler and work up to that, but I was hungry and ambitious. I invited a friend over and we made an evening of it, taking turns with the roasting, seeding, and frying, and then we waited, while it burbled gently on the stove, and read People en Espanol. We poached chicken breasts and also made the fresh tomatillo salsa, and then we sat down to eat with our friends. You have never heard such amazement-- from us and from them. We made this?! We made this! We can;t believe we made this! It was worth every minute, and that is a recipe i would not have wanted to attempt in less capable hands.
Since then, I've made the Pistachio pipian, carnitas, a bunch of the salsas (try the cucumber!) and three adobos. And I am a Mexican cooking goddess, right here in the snowy midwest.
37 of 39 found the following review helpful:
 Very few recipes of actual meals Dec 20, 2011
By J. Catalano
I'm slightly scared to write this review, because another reviewer got flamed pretty bad for saying the same thing. But I have to reiterate. Regardless if it is forewarned in the description that - this is not much of a mexican meal cookbook. I bought this as a gift for someone to learn some mexican recipes, to cook actual mexican meals. But I have returned this book because it probably only contains maybe 2 dozen (if that) actual recipes for entrees (and thats pushing it too because there are seperate recipes for each one chicken with X sauce, pork with X sauce, fish with X sauce. There are roughly 160 pages dedicates to sauces, salsa, guacamole (this is not an exaggeration). Needless to say - without knowing any better - sauces must be important to mexican cooking - but this book would have been much better if titled "Mexican sauces, salsa, and guacamole... and a few things to put it on". I'm writing this review because I'm confident it will help someone else who might want to buy this book.
28 of 29 found the following review helpful:
Truly is Truly Mexican! May 15, 2011
By Joanne
"Gotta Eat, Gotta Cook"
I have Santibanez' first book and his Enchiladas Suizas are my go-to recipe. I've seen him occasionally on TV. He is not as well known as Rick Bayless, but he is the real deal. I love the way this book is organized--three notable chapters are (1) SALSAS: recipes using mostly fresh ingredients such as tomatoes, tomatillos, fresh peppers, onions, and sometimes mixed with dried chiles, etc. (2) GUACAMOLES: about a dozen variations to play with; (3) ADOBOS: recipes using dried chilies and very few pantry ingredients such as salt, vinegar, sugar, etc.. Another chapter on MOLES is there when feeling more adventurous to use more ingredients and when the time allows. I jumped in w/the Adobos. Used some guajillos I had stored. I got my feet wet with the dried guajillo adobo paste, then marinated and grilled a skirt steak with it. I am 'jumping ahead' today to a 3-chile blend adobo. Dried chilies are available most everywhere now and tons of places online so no excuse to not make these. Even the layout of each chapter shows thought and clear planning as well. The one-chili adobo recipes come first, then the two-, and 3-chili blend adobos. I find this so user friendly when entering a new domain of cooking with chilies. He explains that adobos can be used as a thicker paste to marinate and coat a meat/fish for grilling/frying, or using more of it with broth it can be used for slow cooking and braising. He gives specific recipes using all kinds of meats while recommending specific adobos for each. The only change I make is to add more sweetener by a tbs. or two (agave, honey, etc) than he lists and sometimes when he doesn't. Unless you're a 'Truly' Mexican chili head, you may agree with me. To my palate, it helps to balance out the heat. His adobos can be made ahead, refrigerated or frozen, and all that and more of what you need to know is clearly explained taking the novice as well as advanced cook into his domain.
But there is so much more here...how to make homemade tamales and tortillas for one...recipes ranging from the simple to the sublime. Even easy side dishes are here. Lots of pics, book makes a great gift, which is exactly my plan--will gift this book to my son and his wife along with a starter supply of dried chilies!
18 of 20 found the following review helpful:
A new look at an underrated cuisine May 26, 2011
By Brian Connors
One thing's for sure -- this is a rather beautiful cookbook. The graphic design seems drawn from the Culinary Institute of America's more recent cookbooks, appropriate since author Santibañez works with them on occasion. The usual (dare I say stereotypical) yellows and earth tones that seem to mark most Mexican cookbooks give way to food photography that would be the pride of any cuisine, and even the cover is dominated by pink more than anything else. If you want this book for nothing more than graphic design and food porn, it's a five-star book on that reason alone.
But that obscures something fundamentally different about this book -- while giving props to people like Rick Bayless for their work on Mexican regional cooking, Santibañez seeks to find what unifies Mexican food rather than differentiates it, and he does this by placing an emphasis on sauces, an approach that might come off as a bit heretical to the average grandmother but is directly inspired by Escoffier's work with French cuisine. As a result, the book frames much of its cooking in terms of characteristic flavors, and many of the pictures are recipes in their own right, foods cooked in and/or dressed with the sauces written up in the book. There's a few of the more popular basics like tacos and tamales, but they're really sideshows, things to make with the flavors the book explores.
All in all, I don't have a single bad thing to say about this book. It brings out some of the haute cuisine aspects of the cuisine that aren't really well known north of the border, as well as making improvisation in a Mexican style every bit as easy as Italian or French. There's no reason whatsoever to denigrate Rick Bayless or Diana Kennedy; they're as good as it gets. But Santibañez brings something new to the party, the roots of a nueva cocina mexicana that might just be the beginning of something big.
9 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Making Room for Truly Mexican on My Kitchen Bookshelf May 06, 2011
By LaurenS
So far I'm really loving this book. I've only cooked from it a couple times but I really like the way it's set up. It's one of the first cookbooks to remind me of culinary school because its based on the idea that if you learn (and master) a couple key techniques, you can make so many amazing dishes!
The carnitas are amazing--a recipe I know I'll use over and over again. And all the salsas--I love how many different options the chefs offer and the ones I've tried were v. yummy.
Truly Mexican also has terrific photography, and for me, that's essential--it's what makes me want to make a recipe.
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