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Real Mexican Food
Ben Fordham and Felipe Fuentes Cruz aim to deliver everything that is exciting and fresh about Mexican food to the people of Britain with their London-based restaurants, Benito's Hat. From the beaches of Baja and Cancun to the mountains of the Sierra Madre, Mexico has an incredible variety of vibrant flavours to offer. All of this rich culinary culture has inspired Benito's Hat's delicious burritos, tacos, soups and salads. In 'Real Mexican Food' you'll find Starters; Soups & Salads; Main Courses; Side Dishes; Salsas; Desserts; and Drinks. Mouth-watering recipes include guacamole with homemade corn tortilla chips, burritos with beef birria, pico de gallo and salsa brava, tacos with prawns and paprika, refried beans with chorizo, Mexican flan, margaritas and juices.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 31, 2018
A lovely, colourful book, with great photographs. The recipes are a little simple for what I was looking for. This book just grazes the surface of authentic Mexican cooking; if you’re looking for quick meal inspiration, this book has several taco ideas.
December 28, 2018
look interesting.
June 7, 2019
Really good recipes, easy to follow and delicious
June 7, 2015
Cruz and Fordham run Benito's Hat, a chain of Mexican restaurants in London which aims to serve up authentic, modern Mexican food.
This approach translates to the book. It feels AMAZINGLY authentic. This due to more than the use of the occasional vegetable I've never heard of (chayote, since you ask). The book is littered with little boxes explaining various ingredients' relevance to Mexican cuisine and each recipe has a little story attached to it, shedding light either on the history of the dish or the life of Cruz, the head chef.
The recipes themselves feel authentic. They feel timeless and unfussy, enduring classics, while there's a certain rugged, rustic quality to them too. The soups are chunky and the refried beans are mashed, as opposed to blitzed with some modern gadget which would looked laughably anachronistic in a Zorro movie.
The book is beautifully presented. Achingly so. The cover is a riot of green, magenta and gold and every pages is a different colour. The photography is fabulous, setting the food off with a careful selection of side dishes and Mexican-style tableware.
It's a perfect size, a little smaller and squarer than most recipe books, meaning it sits beautifully in the hand.
I would have to criticise the book on the number and complexity of its recipes. At under 150 pages and with plenty of photographs, it is hardly extensive. There is only one burrito and one quesadilla recipe and no recipes for red or green rice.
The recipes tend to be on the simple side. To call it bish-bash-bosh cooking would be unfair, particularly as Mexican food veers that way anyhow, but some of the dishes really did not require vast imagination to construct.
That said, they are still lovely and some of the spice mixes required skill to conceive.
To road test the book, I tried three recipes. I made scrambled eggs with chorizo, a chicken quesadilla and an oatmeal and cinnamon "drink" (this served very nicely as an evening meal!).
First, some caveats. I had to adapt all the recipes slightly to suit my specific purposes. I used taleggio for the eggs, because I was out of cheddar, used quorn instead of chicken for the quesadilla because I couldn't afford well-looked after chicken and used honey instead of agave syrup for the drink because I didn't want to shell out for a bottle of sweet stuff I was unlikely ever to use again. Oh, and I forgot to put garlic in my quesadilla's marinade.
However, if there is one thing the friendly style of the book's prose encourages it's a flexible attitude to ingredients so I don't feel too bad. Besides, quorn is awesome.
The recipes worked out great. Each one was full of flavour and deeply comforting. Nothing required a fire extinguisher to the mouth yet compromised nothing in terms of taste, especially the wonderful marinade for the chicken quorn.
Real Mexican Food is a lovely book. Authentic, attractive and friendly, it is a great guide to a fabulous world cuisine. However, the book could have done with more recipes to make it truly great.
Overall * * * * - A good introduction into Mexican cooking but not without a couple of flaws.
Presentation * * * * * - Absolutely fantastic photography, design and prose style.
Quality of Recipes * * * * - Delicious and comforting, the recipes work well in the kitchen and feel extremely authentic.
Range of Recipes * * * - The book covers most of the basics but is hardly a thorough and rigorous examination of Mexican food. Could have been longer and some of the recipes were really quite simple.
Price * * * * - At £18.99 RRP I don't feel cheated but neither to I feel like I found a bargain. A fair price.
Will I Take This Off The Shelf To Cook From? - Yes.
Published originally on my food blog, The Hungry Seagull my link text
This approach translates to the book. It feels AMAZINGLY authentic. This due to more than the use of the occasional vegetable I've never heard of (chayote, since you ask). The book is littered with little boxes explaining various ingredients' relevance to Mexican cuisine and each recipe has a little story attached to it, shedding light either on the history of the dish or the life of Cruz, the head chef.
The recipes themselves feel authentic. They feel timeless and unfussy, enduring classics, while there's a certain rugged, rustic quality to them too. The soups are chunky and the refried beans are mashed, as opposed to blitzed with some modern gadget which would looked laughably anachronistic in a Zorro movie.
The book is beautifully presented. Achingly so. The cover is a riot of green, magenta and gold and every pages is a different colour. The photography is fabulous, setting the food off with a careful selection of side dishes and Mexican-style tableware.
It's a perfect size, a little smaller and squarer than most recipe books, meaning it sits beautifully in the hand.
I would have to criticise the book on the number and complexity of its recipes. At under 150 pages and with plenty of photographs, it is hardly extensive. There is only one burrito and one quesadilla recipe and no recipes for red or green rice.
The recipes tend to be on the simple side. To call it bish-bash-bosh cooking would be unfair, particularly as Mexican food veers that way anyhow, but some of the dishes really did not require vast imagination to construct.
That said, they are still lovely and some of the spice mixes required skill to conceive.
To road test the book, I tried three recipes. I made scrambled eggs with chorizo, a chicken quesadilla and an oatmeal and cinnamon "drink" (this served very nicely as an evening meal!).
First, some caveats. I had to adapt all the recipes slightly to suit my specific purposes. I used taleggio for the eggs, because I was out of cheddar, used quorn instead of chicken for the quesadilla because I couldn't afford well-looked after chicken and used honey instead of agave syrup for the drink because I didn't want to shell out for a bottle of sweet stuff I was unlikely ever to use again. Oh, and I forgot to put garlic in my quesadilla's marinade.
However, if there is one thing the friendly style of the book's prose encourages it's a flexible attitude to ingredients so I don't feel too bad. Besides, quorn is awesome.
The recipes worked out great. Each one was full of flavour and deeply comforting. Nothing required a fire extinguisher to the mouth yet compromised nothing in terms of taste, especially the wonderful marinade for the chicken quorn.
Real Mexican Food is a lovely book. Authentic, attractive and friendly, it is a great guide to a fabulous world cuisine. However, the book could have done with more recipes to make it truly great.
Overall * * * * - A good introduction into Mexican cooking but not without a couple of flaws.
Presentation * * * * * - Absolutely fantastic photography, design and prose style.
Quality of Recipes * * * * - Delicious and comforting, the recipes work well in the kitchen and feel extremely authentic.
Range of Recipes * * * - The book covers most of the basics but is hardly a thorough and rigorous examination of Mexican food. Could have been longer and some of the recipes were really quite simple.
Price * * * * - At £18.99 RRP I don't feel cheated but neither to I feel like I found a bargain. A fair price.
Will I Take This Off The Shelf To Cook From? - Yes.
Published originally on my food blog, The Hungry Seagull my link text
February 8, 2018
Honestly, I've seen most of these recipes in other Mexican cook books or on the Web. And they offer substitutions for items that you can't normally find. The photography is pretty. Otherwise, I recommend finding other Mexican cookbooks that are much better and ingredients easier to find. (Your public library probably has a decent variety of cookbooks to choose from and you don't have to spend a dime.)
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews