Mexico

Mexican Cooking at Home

Mexican dishes are very expansive and a large variety of Mexican foodstuffs ranging from stews, sauces to soups can be prepared. Most Mexican food recipes are prepared in a number of ways ranging from slow roasting to quick-fry. Some key elements can however be found in almost all Mexican dishes. Below are some of these main ingredients that one is likely to find.

One of these is corn. Commonly used in the preparation of tortillas, corn is also used to make tacos which is tortillas that has been stuffed with beef, fish, chicken or cheese. Corn is also used to prepare tamales which are cooked by steaming and having the tamales stuffed with vegetables or meat.

Chilies are also an important ingredient in any Mexican food recipe. Chilies are cooked in either their dried-up or in their fresh state. The hottest parts of the chilies are the white veins and the seed pods. Mexicans regard the hot taste as a distinguishing part of the flavor. As a result, they use a wide variety of chili varieties, from chipotle, jalapeno, cascabel to varieties like ancho and poblana.

Beans are also a common add-on to Mexican food recipes. Bean varieties run from lentils, fava beans to kidney beans and they can be found in many Mexican stews and soups. Some small bean types are served in light broths.

Tomatoes are also another key ingredient in Mexican dishes. Their common usage is in beef and fish servings as well as in salsa Mexican where they are used to spice up the food. Tomatillo salsa is also prepared by use of tomatillos, a type of small green tomato that has a rigid husk. Tomatillo salsa also includes a lot of chilies in it.

Fruits are another key element in Mexican dishes. Fruits are mostly used in desserts and fruit sauces. Common fruit types are papaya, coconut, pineapple and others. In most cases, they are eaten raw. Some fruit types like nopales are used as a vegetable of sorts and are used to add a sweet taste to desserts. Other ingredients in Mexican foods are squash blossoms, pungent herbs like romeritos and epazote, and pumpkin seeds.

Mexican food recipes require that chilies and spice ingredients be cooked in a certain way. Chilies are required to roast, be cleaned and then peeled along one side so that it can be easy to reconstruct them after stuffing them. Chilies are added to meat after the meat has first been boiled and spices and garlic are added 15 minutes later.

When preparing sauce, first boil the water and add garlic, onions, chilies and other spices as stipulated. After boiling for 30 minutes, drain the mixture and reserve the resulting liquid. From here, add the necessary ingredients following the recipe. Then season to taste. Both the red and green sauces are prepared using this method. It is therefore not a surprise that Mexican food recipes are preferred by a large majority of food enthusiasts.

© 2009 Travel Oversea.