Notes about Recipes in this book

• Quesadillas with sweet potatoes, chorizo & sweetcorn (Quesadillas de chorizo, elote y camote)

  • joneshayley on January 05, 2019

    Very good- better with corn tortillas, worth the challenge frying for the extra taste. Sweet potato and chorizo take a while to properly brown.

• Chicken burritos with pico de gallo salsa (Burritos de pollo)

  • joneshayley on January 05, 2019

    Great recipe-fast (after marinade) and the flavours really penetrate the chicken.

  • sarahj22 on September 21, 2019

    I adore this recipe and it's now on my regular rotation. The marinade for the chicken is delicious and doesn't suffer much from using bottled lime juice to save time. I pop the chicken and marinade under a hot grill rather than pan-frying as you still get a lovely colour. With the accompaniments of little gem, salsa and guacamole it feels very fresh and healthy. I swap the sour cream / mayo combination in the chipotle crema for low fat Greek yogurt to make it a little less indulgent, and have also had success making it veggie by swapping the chicken for cauliflower. It's always a hit with guests and I've been asked for the recipe at least three times.

  • Ro_ on January 26, 2020

    This was delicious, went down really well with the family. Not too complicated to make, just need to go through all the components methodically. I used 700g boned chicken thigh, which was more than enough (a little too much) for 9 burritos, since there is so much other stuff to fit in there as well, and doubled the quanities for the guac/salsa/crema/rice/mozza. Omitted the sour cream, don't think it's necessary with the guac/crema/mozza. Actually I don't think all the rice was necessary, next time I'd reduce or else possibly do dirty rice or add some flavour to it. Note to self: would be good to keep the chicken and rice warm somehow, as they ended up very cold towards the end of the meal.

• Tortilla soup with chipotle chilli, tomato & avocado (Sopa Azteca)

  • joneshayley on January 05, 2019

    Brilliant soup- such depth of flavour and made great by the garnishes.

• Butterflied grilled bass with green and red salsas (Pescado a la talla)

  • joneshayley on May 26, 2019

    The red salsa is brilliant, the green is nice but not as punchy. A very eye catching beautiful dish

• Turkey breast with pasilla & chipotle chilli & butter sauce

  • joneshayley on January 05, 2019

    This is absolutely beautiful- scaled down and made with chicken, the sauce has such a rounded balanced flavour- spicy, sweet, depth that penetrates the meat. I’ll make this again and again, and will definitely try it with a whole turkey breast next time

• Clementine, almond & olive oil cake

  • joneshayley on January 05, 2019

    Moist easy and aromatic. One of my favourite cakes for dinner parties

• Pico de gallo salsa

  • joneshayley on January 05, 2019

    A nice basic salsa, made better by blackening the garlic and tomatoes before chopping. Goes well with the sweet potato and Chorizo quesadilla from the same book

• Char-grilled beef tacos with spring onions & guacamole (Tacos de carne asado)

  • Ro_ on June 30, 2020

    Delicious flavours, especially the char-grill on the beef. I also served with some grated cheese. I used basse cote steaks, which in retrospect were not quite tender enough so made the tacos a little chewy and hard to eat: next time I'd use a more tender cut.

• Roasted red tomato & chilli salsa

  • Ro_ on May 31, 2020

    Very good salsa recipe, I mostly make this for using with the various recipes in the book rather than as a standalone dip. I've tried both blitzing it up in a food processor and using a pestle and mortar, and the latter method is by far superior. It ends up too watery in the food processor and loses all its lovely texture.

• Ranch-style eggs (Huevos rancheros)

  • Ro_ on May 16, 2020

    Very nice huevos rancheros recipe. I can rarely get black beans here, so I used red kidney beans to make the refried beans, which is fine. The salsa sauce has a nice texture and consistency but maybe isn't the best-tasting sauce ever, there was a slightly bitter edge to it. However, it does come together quickly, which is a plus.

• Divorced eggs (Huevos divorciados)

  • Ro_ on June 05, 2020

    I love huevos rancheros but had been putting off making huevos divorciados because a) tomatillos are hard to source here and b) it's a bit of the faff in the morning making two different salsas. But I finally found tomatillos and just did it, and the results were great. Actually my salsa verde came out a little brown, probably because I used a red onion in it. But I loved the tangy, sour taste of it, in fact I preferred it to the salsa ranchero. I need to make a big batch of the refried beans and the two salsas and then freeze them in the portions required for the dish, so that I can make this breakfast more often with less faff.

• Beef barbacoa with chipotle, garlic & oregano (Barbacoa de res)

  • Ro_ on May 31, 2020

    I used a 1kg "paleron de bouef", which wasn't fully defrosted in the middle when I started the cooking process, but 3 and a bit hours in the oven at 140 fan was still fine - it could maybe have benefitted from the full four hours to get it even more falling-apart-and-tender. I loved the flavours of this, I served it exactly as suggested but skipped the pickled jalapenos as I didn't have any. Really popular with the family, and handy because it can all be prepped ahead of time.

• Mac 'n' cheese - macaroni cheese with smoky bacon

  • Ro_ on March 07, 2020

    Delicious recipe, I'll be making again. Don't skimp on the amount of bechamel/cheese sauce: more is definitely more here.

• Raw tuna tostadas (Tostadas de atún)

  • Ro_ on November 17, 2019

    These were so, so good. I couldn't get small corn tortillas, so I bought big ones and cut 3x tostadas out of each. Followed the recipe pretty much exactly, except I used chipotle paste instead of chipotles en adobo in the chipotle crema, and since we were eating these as finger food I drizzled the chipotle crema over the tostadas rather than serving it on the side. Everybody absolutely loved these, the balance of flavours was perfect. The meaty yet fresh tuna with the creamy guac, acid lime, crunchy tostada and spicy chipotle was a winning combination. I'll definitely be remaking.

• Chicken tinga - pulled chicken with a smoky tomato sauce (Tinga de pollo)

  • Ro_ on May 09, 2020

    This was pretty easy to make! It gave me very saucy, smoky, spicy pulled chicken which I used served with tortillas to make wraps. I added some sugar and quite a bit of extra salt at the end of cooking to get the seasoning right. I also found it needed to sit and cool for at least 10-15 minutes before serving. Overall this was a different type of Mexican dish than I would usually have (rather than grilling chicken/beef for fajitas) and while I wouldn't say it was world-changing I'd definitely make it again for a change. The fact that I got a pint of chicken stock out of it for future use is also a plus.

• Chopped salad from La Scala

  • Ro_ on May 20, 2020

    This was an absolutely delicious salad. I made pretty much the full quantity but with less salami, half the chickpeas and half the iceberg lettuce, to feed three hungry people as the sole dinner dish. I wouldnt tweak a thing, and will definitely make this again. A great dinner for a hot May evening.

• Char-grilled aubergine & feta rolls

  • Ro_ on October 02, 2019

    This was the second time I made these, and they weren't as great as I remembered. Last time I made them then served/ate them immediately, this time I prepared in advance and left them in the fridge for a few hours - I think probably they're best served slightly warm still. Also I think the nutmeg is too overpowering - it's a flavour I don't love at the best of times, so maybe next time I'd leave it out completely.