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    Abuela's Secrets: Mexican Recipes
    Abuela's Secrets: Mexican Recipes
    Abuela's Secrets: Mexican Recipes
    Ebook236 pages1 hour

    Abuela's Secrets: Mexican Recipes

    By Dr. Jay Polmar and Cecilia Gonzalez Garcia

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    About this ebook

    Researching the history of Authentic Mexican (Pre-Columbian) Cuisine arts is a challenge. There are so many different styles of cooking, from so many different regions, tribes and available ingredients, that people confuse Mexican Food with American Fast Food Mexican like Taco Bell. Sadly, there is so little similarity to American corporate restaurant cooking and the true flavors are rarely seen in English-speaking countries. We went on a search for recipes throughout all of Mexico. Recipes that were at least 200 years old, some going back over 500 years, and the result is Abuela's Secrets. Our team went straight to our grandmothers, in different regions to get recipes that were handed down, generation to generation to present day. Learn the natural way to cook, to prepare chile, make masa for tortillas, and make your own mole and other sauces. Cook beef, pork, shrimp, and others to their delicate and delightful flavors known only to families in Mexico. Time-honored recipes from every region will make your family believe that you have an authentic Mexican restaurant ... right in your own home. Recipes include: Rice, Sauces, Eggs, Beans, Breads, and regional dishes from every part of Mexico.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDr. Jay Polmar
    Release dateAug 30, 2014
    ISBN9781310797613
    Abuela's Secrets: Mexican Recipes
    Author

    Dr. Jay Polmar

    Dr. Jay Polmar has created a unique world of self-empowered thought to help you create the reality that you desire. Starting from the very first book that you read, you will realize your own power surfacing. Welcome to your own self-empowered world!

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    • 5/5
      The most complete book of mexican cuisine. All the history and specialty from every Mexican regions. Many traditional receipes, and there is a color picture of every dish. Also, a section about main ingredients, with color pictures.

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    Abuela's Secrets - Dr. Jay Polmar

    INTRODUCTION

    Mexico Cooking

    Living in the lower third of the North American Continent and learning the customs and culture of Mexico, has made a more interesting life for more than a million ex-pats from all over the world.

    This vibrant and spiritual country has been a melting pot of independent indigenous nations and their conquering masters, and visiting friends, creating amazing food delicacies, salsas, moles and more for centuries. It’s called mestizaje, (mess’tee’-sa-he) or mixture.

    Corn, has been the staple grain for well over 5,000 years, and is the most important food in the Mexican diet. Corn kernels are soaked in water and slaked lime, then ground up the old fashioned way.

    Then combined with water and cooked into tortillas in a comal, or cooked on sterile industrial tortilla cookers for retail sales and sales to restaurant who don’t make their own.

    Many types of beans cooked in an olla is just the thing for authenticity. The authentic olla is the best way to go for the greatest tasting beans. The traditional olla (clay) pots are actually the optimum for cooking all kinds of beans. The more you use the olla to prepare beans, the greater the mixture of flavors.

    The Mexican diet is rounded off with an almost infinite variety of chiles from different regions, providing an excellent choice of vitamins and nutrients for a healthy diet.

    When the Spanish arrived in 1521, they liked what they found in Mexico, and later then added their own food preparation items including domestic animals, other fruits and vegetables, plus sugar and cheeses.

    Mexican cuisine is further enhanced with an incredible selection of fruits and vegetables that seem to taste far better here than anywhere else in the world.

    Included in the vegetables and fruits are red tomatoes, green tomatoes, chayote, squash, sweet potatoes, avocado, nopali, coconut, pineapple, mango, guava, papaya and prickly pear cactus, to name only a few of the best.

    Herbs and spices also flavor the pot: cinnamon, clove, anise and cumin are all frequently- used spices, while coriander, thyme, marjoram and the pungent epazote are popular flavor enhancing herbs to create their fantastic cuisine. Great ingredients certainly make a difference, yet the Mexicans are fine cooks and seem to know how to give a dish that extra something that zaps life and flavor with your first and every taste.

    A simple Mexican salsa can be enhanced with a dash of Valentina™ sauce, or a bit of coriander and lemon.

    Mexico is famous for their varieties of mole, a complex sauce of chocolates, chiles, nuts, and more like 30 carefully-chosen herbs and spices, all mixed in and slowly simmered in the cazuela, are world famous.

    No matter whether you get hungry in the middle of the night for a taco de frilojes, or any time during the day, a quesadilla de pollo will hit the spot, tortilla with melted Oaxaca cheese and shredded chicken breast, or a sincronizada, melted ham and cheese on tortillas de harina (wheat flour tortilla), you’ll love the many incredible uses for the incredible tortilla.

    As you will learn, the Mexican kitchen always smells great. It creates amazingly incredible dishes, and is a process of loving the work of creating a variety of flavors, plus preparing and presenting in dozens of interesting ways.

    The Mexican Table

    The Mexican table is filled with an exciting display of foods from land, sea, and air, plus a full array of sauces, soups and stews are commonplace. While food preparations involve methods from quick-searing or stir fry to slow-roasting. The following is a list of elements in creating the Mexican table.

    Corn: Is most commonly used for tortillas. It’s the warm, round flat bread that comes with all meals in a Mexican home. Used for tacos (tortillas are filled with chicken, beef, pork, fish or cheese) and tamales (steamed and stuffed with chicken, pork, sweet fillings, cheese and chile, etc.)

    Corn is the most cultivated grain in Mexico and exists to feed the 42 races. The mature and dry corn is called maiz and is used in the tortilla preparation; the fresh corn is called elote. The ancients called it -- xilote, and it’s eaten in many forms.

    Chiles: Are the most diverse of vegetables/spices and are used both fresh and dried. The white part in the center and the seed pods are very hot, no matter what kind of chile you eat, they white center and the seed pods can knock you flat on your butt screaming for water. Mexicans who love chile like to evaluate them in two ways, picante y sabor, heat and flavor. These qualities may not be instantly recognizable by the untrained palate. Some of the varieties are jalapeño, serrano, poblano, chipotle, habanero, ancho, mulato and many more.

    Beans: Are a major choice of protein in the Mexican diet. They run varieties from lentils to kidney beans and fava beans. They are served at: desayuno (breakfast), comida (lunch) and cena (dinner) and they are found in soups, stews, and tacos. The small beans are often served as frijoles refritos (refried beans in lard, very tasty and a bit fattening) or de la Olla (boiled and served in a light broth).

    Other cereals: With the arrival of the Spanish, two grains of other importance were introduced in most of the Mexican homes: wheat and rice. Wheat competes with corn in bread preparation and production. Nevertheless rice has a greater presence on Mexican dinner tables. Rice is used as an extension of dinner, often when unexpected guests arrive. Portions are reduced, but the plate amplified with Mexican fried rice and beans, with salsas of tomato with onion and spices.

    Tomatoes and Onions: These are the essential ingredients for creating the delicious Mexican salsa and they are also used in creating sauces for beef, chicken, pork, and seafood. Tomatoes (red) or tomatillo (smaller green tomatoes in a stiff husk) are the available tomatoes species and they are both often combined with spicy chiles for a butt kicking 3,4, or 5 alarm sauce.

    Vegetables of all kinds: Since the arrivals of ancient Mayans from other lands long ago, Mexicans have fed themselves on a great varieties of different botanical plants including dishes prepared from amaranth, quelites, quintoniles, huauhzontles, verdolagas, watercress, and romeritos that are used frequently in stew and the well-known prickly pear cactus --- nopales.

    Fruits: Mango, papaya, guava, coconut, Limón (key lime), and oranges, mandarins, plus pineapple, are all available as fruits, or juices, or eaten fresh as well as used in sauces and desserts. Nopales (prickly pear cactus pieces) are sauteed and eaten as a vegetable, in tacos and other dishes. They are also used sweetened in desserts.

    Special Ingredients: These include flor de calabaza (squash blossoms). They are used in everything from soups to salads, tacos to tamales, and sauces.Huitlacoche is in the hungo family (fungus, mushrooms) and is a small, dark fungus that grows on corn stalks and is surprisingly creamy and delicious. Romeritos and epazote are two pungent herbs which can add a special zest to fish, beef and chicken dishes. Pepitas (pumpkin seeds) are used in sauces, often in Pipian, which tops many chicken dishes.

    Meats: Chicken, beef, calf, pig, lamb, goat, deer, plus an innumerable number of fishes and shellfish from the ocean and gulf.

    Fresh fruit drinks are made by simply grinding (use a blender it’s easier) water with fruit and sugar. It’s not only a delicious and beautiful color presentation at the Mexican dinner table, fruit waters have vitamins and minerals, taste great and are very healthy for you. We have an enormous variety that include those of pre-Hispanic origin like:

    • Chía Water

    • Root Water

    • Pinole Water

    • Tejocote Water

    And those of Creole or racially mixed origin:

    • Strawberry Water

    • Horchata Water

    • Mango Water

    • etc....

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