What: The definitive bible on Mexican home-cooking by Mexico’s leading culinary authority Margarita Carrillo Arronte.
Who: Margarita Carrillo Aronte
Why: The book itself is absolutely beautiful, I love cooking and I wanted to discover what Mexican food was aside from fajitas (which I do love) -although the book is rather daunting in size.
Recipes:
Birria from the region of Jarisco
Slow-cooked lamb shoulder broth style soup with lots of fresh herbs, ginger and chilli. It has to be noted some of the ingredients you will have to go seeking out as they won’t be in your local supermarket and it’s definitely one to do at the weekend as the lamb needs 5hrs marinating and then 3-4hrs cooking. However, it’s bloody delicious and you can add lots of little bits and pieces to the top to season it to you own tastes.
Bean Stew from Oaxaca
Firstly I love the fact there is a whole section dedicated to simply rice and beans with each recipes simple and providing an amazingly tasty side dish alternative. This pretty much needs black beans and chorizo with a couple of sprinkles of store cupboard essentials -just remember to soak your beans overnight if they’re dried! I served mine with roasted chicken thighs, avocado and coriander. It also makes vast amounts for leftover lunches for the rest of the week.
Review:
This cookbook is amazing -it’s ridiculously large but it is described as the ‘definite guide to Mexican food’. I’m already happily working my way through the soup section and plan on working my way into the slow cooking meat section throughout winter and perhaps even invite some friends over for a Mexican buffet! It’s also interesting to see which region of the country the recipes comes from and highlights the diversity of one cuisine.
Rating: 8 out of 10 -buy it or put it on your Christmas list and then research where you can buy a range of dried chiles!
The Friendly Shelf 