Americans have at last discovered Mexico’s passion for exciting food. We’ve fallen in love with the great Mexican combination of rich, earthy flavors and casual, festive dining. But we don’t begin to imagine how sumptuous and varied the cooking of Mexico really is.

After ten years of loving exploration, Rick Bayless, together with his wife, Deann, gave us Authentic Mexican, this now classic, easy-to-use compendium of our southern neighbor’s cooking.

This all-embracing cookbook offers the full range of dishes, from poultry, meat, fish, rice, beans, and vegetables to eggs, snacks made of corn masa, tacos, turnovers, enchiladas and their relatives, tamales, and moles, ending with desserts, sweets, and beverages. There are irresistible finger foods such as Yucatecan marinated shrimp tacos and crispy cheese-filled masa turnovers; spicy corn chowder and chorizo sausage with melted cheese will start off a special dinner; you will find mole poblano, charcoal-grilled pork in red-chile adobo, and marinated fish steamed in banana leaves for those times when you want to celebrate; and exotic ice creams, caramel custards, and pies to top off any meal. There’s even a section devoted to refreshing coolers, rich chocolate drinks, and a variety of tequila-laced cocktails.

The master recipes feature all the pointers you’ll need for re-creating genuine Mexican textures and flavors in a North American kitchen. Menu suggestions and timing and advance-preparation tips make these dishes perfectly convenient for today’s working families. And traditional and contemporary variations accompany each recipe, allowing the cook to substitute and be creative.

Rick and Deann Bayless traveled more than thirty-five thousand miles investigating the six distinct regions of Mexico and learning to prepare what they found. From town to town, recipe by recipe, they personally introduce you to Mexico’s cooks, their kitchens, their markets, and their feasts.

If, like the rest of us, you have a growing love for Mexican food, the reliable recipes in this book and the caring, personal presentation by Rick and Deann Bayless will provide meal after meal of pure pleasure for your family and friends.

Bayless, popular Chicago chef and author (Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen, etc.), jumps on the “everyday food” wagon with this lively collection of recipes designed to take no more than 30 minutes to prepare. Known for his painstaking approach to recreating the classics of Mexican cuisine, Bayless moves in a new direction here, substituting easy-to-find ingredients for exotic ones, streamlining complex sauces into a few steps and emphasizing nutrition. Purists may balk when they encounter more boneless chicken breasts than lard—not to mention a cheerful reliance on canned beans and peppers and, in a pinch, prepared salsas—but any time-pressed home cook will welcome this pragmatic approach to the complexities of Mexican food. Bayless’s confident, step-by-step recipes lead even the novice through a variety of twists on tacos and enchiladas, staples like tortilla soup and guacamole, and more ambitious dishes such as Grilled Red Chile Steak with Sweet Plantains, Red Onion and Chipotle Salsa. Even the notoriously complex mole tradition is reinvented with the foolproof Chicken in Oaxacan Yellow Mole. This companion volume to the fourth season of Bayless’s PBS series Mexican One Plate at a Time will rescue any Mexican food fan who’s ever been daunted by the prospect of serving more than chips and salsa. Photos. (Nov. 7)
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From Booklist
His base of operations may be far north of the border, but Chicago’s Rick Bayless has earned his title as the country’s number-one apostle of Mexican cuisine. His newest book seeks to offer the home cook practical advice in serving authentic Mexican dishes quickly without having them delivered from a restaurant. The dishes Bayless presents generally use standard ingredients available in stores that serve Hispanic populations, now nearly universal in the U.S. A potato salad substitutes sweet potatoes and watercress for novel taste and texture. A large number of main-dish salads offer lighter alternatives to traditional entrees. Simple tacos, enchiladas, and tostadas bring familiar tastes to the table. Bayless offers one recipe for a torta, a Mexican sandwich. Desserts use fresh fruit as a base. Befitting the Mexican origins of these dishes, Bayless uses a wide variety of chiles, especially the deeply flavorful poblano. With virtually every recipe in the book, Bayless adds “riffs” that offer imaginative variations on the main recipe’s techniques. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen offers translations of authentic Mexican dishes that preserve their authenticity. The book opens with 14 salsas, sauces, and seasonings that Bayless calls “cornerstones of Mexican dishes.” Other than some chile peppers essential to certain dishes, most ingredients are found in any supermarket. For any less common ingredients, a mail-order source or an easy substitution is provided. This brilliant book is engaging, informative, and inspiring.

From Publishers Weekly
This definitive collection from Chicago chef and James Beard Award winner Bayless, in collaboration with his wife (and fellow restaurateur) and food journalist Brownson, proves comprehensively that the best Mexican food requires?and amply rewards?dedication and, often, time. Bayless begins with 15 Essential Recipes for salsas and sauces that work as “building blocks.” Substitutions are suggested for uncommon ingredients, and excellent descriptions identify fresh and dried peppers. Throughout the text, sidebars inform about such items as tortilla presses, cactus paddles, pumpkin seeds and the delicacy huitlacoche (black corn fungus). Bayless explains fat’s importance in the Mexican diet and tells how to make good lard at home. The chapter on salads includes two versions of guacamole, one given a fresh twist with roasted tomatillos; the chapter on soups offers Chilied Tortilla Soup with Shredded Chard and Oaxacan Black Bean Soup. An array of authentic Mexican fare is explored in “Tacos, Enchiladas and Other Casual Fare” (Simple Red Mole Enchiladas with Shredded Chicken) and “Vegetable, Bean, Rice and Egg Dishes” (e.g, Green Poblano Rice). “Fiesta Food” includes recipes for moles and tamales. Gringo cooks can relax with simpler main dishes?Red Chile-Braised Chicken wreathed in ancho and garlic sauce, smoky Chipotle Shrimp or zesty Chile-Glazed Country Ribs. Desserts are as delectable as Modern Mexican Chocolate Flan and as unusual as Crunchy Amaranth Tart and Creamy Lime Pie. Mail-order sources and a bibliography are included. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

1,000 Mexican Recipes A celebration of Mexican cuisine—traditional and new—written for today’s cook. Mexican foods excite and captivate the senses. Simple dishes like chile butter on fresh, juicy corn offer immediate gratification; dishes like burritos or poultry with mole sauces tantalize with layers of flavor. And the more you taste the more you want to try! So here’s the perfect book to help you savor the tremendous variety of dishes throughout Mexico—from Baja on the Pacific Ocean to Mexico City in the heart of the country to Yucatán at the tip of the Gulf of Mexico. The recipes represent a delicious taste tour of dishes found in home kitchens, at market food stalls (fondas), and in restaurants—from local taquerias to sophisticated hotspots featuring acclaimed chefs. There are dishes for every meal and for snacks in between, for a busy weekday or for special occasions. You’ll find traditional dishes common throughout Mexico, special regional fare, and modern dishes inspired by Mexican chefs that weave together native and new ingredients and techniques (nueva cocina).

There are also recipes that are perfect for when you want great Mexican food, but are short on time or ingredients. Here is just a sampling of what you’ll find: North-of-the-Border Favorites: Classic Guacamole; Fresh Salsa Mexicana; Chicken Quesadillas; Huevos Rancheros; Mexican Coffee Flan; Mexican Wedding Cookies Classic Mexican Dishes (with Several Variations): tamales; enchiladas; pozole; empanadas; chiles rellenos Regional Specialties: Shrimp, Puerta Vallarta Style; Red Snapper Veracruzana; Chicken in Mole Sauce from Puebla; Oven-Roasted Lamb, Monterrey Style; Oaxacan Bread Nueva Cocina (New-Style Cooking): Cornish Hens with Fiery Cilantro-Mint Sauce; Rolled Chicken Breasts with Poblano Chiles and Goat Cheese; Sautéed Salmon with Creamy Corn Sauce and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds; Potato and Chile Gratin; Watermelon Ice Cream Soon-to-be Favorites: Fried Potato Chips with Lime and Chili; Chicken with Chipotle Chiles and Tequila; Tijuana Pork Burritos; Shrimp in Garlic Sauce; Custard Bread Pudding; Mexican Chocolate Cake Modern Adaptations: Quick Refried Black Beans; Easy Mole from Prepared Paste; Chili Powder Enchilada Sauce; Black Bean Omelet With 1,000 Mexican Recipes, simply by learning about Mexican ingredients or techniques, you can add a kick to your everyday cooking. You can also choose a few recipes to add to your frequently made favorites, or you can have a traditional Mexican fiesta every night of the week, if you like. Browse, explore, experiment, and enjoy these recipes. Mexicans are passionate about good food—simple or special—and whether you are a novice or an experienced cook, you will appreciate and share their love for cooking with every dish you make.

Ranging from soups and starters to entrees, light meals, desserts, and drinks, the chapters present a wide range of dishes, from the simple (such as guacamole, updated with roasted poblanos, garlic, and tomatoes) to the more complex (a classic red mole with turkey, for one, followed by Roasted Cornish Game Hens with Apricot-Pine Nut Mole). Other winning recipes include Seafood in Mojo de Ajo (with toasted, slow-cooked garlic), Smoky Chipotle Beans with Wilted Spinach and Masa “Gnocchi,” and, for dessert, a definitive vanilla flan with instructions for preparing it in three versions: light, creamy, and rich. Throughout, recipes are followed by paragraph-long “postmortems” (is Mexican vanilla worth searching out, for instance) that further extend reader understanding. With 32 pages of color photos and an extensive glossary, the book is an inspired place to start or continue a Mexican cooking journey. –Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly
Rarely has a cuisine been so epically dissected, analyzed, pined over and exemplified in the name of a tasty dinner. Indeed, cookbook is perhaps too tame a description for this latest venture from Bayless, the popular chef and author (Salsas That Cook, etc.). Each recipe begins with a stream-of-consciousness consideration that at times runs a bit too jolly. “No food translates into more carefree fun than a singing dish of queso fundido,” declares the author. Following the lead-in, a paragraph provides the “Traditional Benchmark,” wherein the ideal version of the dish is captured. Thus, readers learn what makes the perfect flan or Pozole (Pork and Hominy Stew). Next come a few words on “When to Think of These Recipes”DChiles Rellenos when you’re pulling out the stops, Tamales for hanging out with the gang. A third paragraph offers “Advice for American Cooks,” such as what peppers you can substitute in your Adobado Chicken. Then, at last, come the recipes. Bayless provides both a traditional and contemporary version of most dishes. Among his many happy surprises are a relatively unknown “street-style” enchilada, which is dipped in chile sauce and quick fried, and a grilled Cactus Salad. Each recipe is followed by answers to Frequently Asked Questions. How saucy should the filling be for your taco? Or maybe just tune in and read along to the PBS version, with one of Bayless’s Mango Coolers in hand. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.