Notes about Recipes in this book

• Pescado a la Veracruzana

  • lorloff on November 17, 2019

    Delicious version of Pescado a la Veracruzana. I used fillets and seared the skin in a pan before adding it to the sauce. It came together rather quickly so could do on a weeknight and is also so good that it is great for a dinner party.

• Frijoles refritos

  • lorloff on November 17, 2019

    Wonderful quick and delicious recipe for retried beans. It worked beautifully, especially is you have a Mexican bean mashing tool. Will make again and again.

• Cochinita pibil

  • tges on April 19, 2021

    This recipe is outstanding; and like a lot of other Mexican recipes, it is a joy to put together. I brined my pork shoulder for a couple of nights and marinated for under twenty-four. Mena's recipe is the best I have ever thus far and it resulted in the juiciest, tastiest pulled pork that can be had in panuchos, tortas, tacos or on some garlic rice with frijoles refritos. The pickled onions are an absolute necessity; they just take this gorgeous pork to the next level.

• Huevos Motuleños

  • tges on April 08, 2021

    I really enjoyed this! A pretty standard recipe from what I have seen (it's pretty simple; it's just assembling the ingredients) but I love that Mena included it in his book. Also, I like David Sterling's (RIP) suggestion of grating Edam cheese as it is historically significant and goes so well with the dish.

• Frijoles charros

  • tges on April 08, 2021

    Fantastic with crushed chicharron as a garnish along with fresh coriander!

• Tamales

  • tges on April 15, 2021

    Quite a different recipe to the other tamal dough recipes I have but I chose this one to try as it had the least amount of lard and called for chicken stock so thought it would result in a tastier (and healthier) tamal. With a stand mixer with whisk, the dough comes together nicely and quickly and I used mole negro (Oaxaca: Home Cooking From The Heart by Bricia Lopez) with two pulled poached chicken breasts which is basically, tamales de mole negro to build my tamales. Couldn't find corn husks so used banana leaves and was very, very happy with how easy this recipe was and how tasty it is. Would happily use this recipe as a base with whatever other Mexican dishes I have going on, like cochinita pipil to fill add to the masa dough. Goat cheese and salsa rojo sounds really good too!

• Tortillas de maíz

  • foodgloriousfood on June 20, 2023

    Made 15 - 5.5” tortillas. Keeper recipe

• Sopa de tortilla

  • mekral on March 15, 2023

    Nice soup with nice flavours. My only issue is that the instructions are at a certain point a bit schematic. For example, it does not say how the garlic should be prepared (whole? sliced?). Does not affect much the end result but one needs to be careful.

• Birria

  • mekral on October 16, 2023

    Nice recipe and nice flavours. I did not have lamb belly or shoulder, and use lamb leg, but the recipe worked nonetheless. Perhaps the only thing to notice that the salsa did not come out as he said, it did not look like heavy cream. So I passed the salsa through a sieve and then it was closer to the recipe's description.

• Albóndigas en caldillo

  • Ishie1013 on July 12, 2024

    Absolutely delicious. More of a meatballs in sauce than the meatball soup I was more expecting. I really liked the bits of eggs tucked into the meatballs and that's not something I would have thought of. Very nice.

• Pollo en escabeche

  • Ishie1013 on July 12, 2024

    Very nice recipe that came together quickly.