Mexican Food

Mexican Food and Mexican Dish Recipes

Mexican recipes can be simple and complex, Mexican recipes are used to prepare both traditional Mexican cuisine and modern Mexican dishes, but all Mexican recipes have one thing in common – the unique flavor of Mexican cuisine, combining the products available in Central America with the traditions of indigenous peoples these territories and the great influence that Spanish cuisine has had on many Mexican dishes. Now Mexican food recipes are popular not only in Mexico itself and in other countries of the world. Mexican cuisine is popular both in the United States of America, having a significant impact on American cuisine in the southern states, but also on other continents – in many countries in Europe and Asia. This has been made possible in large part by the widespread availability of products for preparing Mexican dishes, and the popularization of Mexican food in cookbooks, magazines, television and many cooking websites.

Traditional Mexican Dishes

Mexican dishes, cooked according to traditional recipes, has a unique taste. Among the many Mexican dishes, there are recipes that use thin cornmeal tortillas such as tortilla and tamales. Often, Mexicans use tortilla instead of crockery, wrapping a filling of various ingredients in them, like Middle Eastern shawarma. There are many recipes for tortilla stuffed – among them quesadilla – tortilla with meat filling, burrito – stuffed with beans or a mixture of vegetables and minced meat, chilakiles – with chicken and cheese, chimichanga – a cheese-topped tortilla envelope with chicken, meat and beans, enchilada – tortilla tubes with cheese and tomatoes fried in boiling oil and many others. Tortilla is also used to make huevos rancheros, a country style scrambled eggs served with a hot sauce on a corn tortilla. Tortilla soup is a well-known and very spicy dish in Mexican cuisine. The tortilla soup is prepared in chicken broth, to which garlic and onion pre-fried in corn oil, finely chopped and peeled tomatoes and black pepper, chili, cilantro and cumin are added. Served with a tortilla soup with grated cheese and strips of tortilla about a centimeter wide, which are soaked in the broth and swell, becoming as spicy as the soup itself.

In Mexican cuisine, sauce plays an important role – an ingredient in almost all Mexican dishes. Various sauces are used to cook Mexican dishes. This is salsa – a Mexican sauce made from finely chopped tomatoes or tomatillo, onions, garlic, chili and other ingredients, and guacamole – a Mexican sauce made from avocado pulp with the addition of lime juice, serrano pepper and salt, sometimes with tomatoes, various varieties of peppers, onions, herbs and various spices. In Mexican cuisine, there are quite original recipes for sauces – for example, molé poblano – a chocolate Mexican sauce, or adobado – a Mexican sauce, the ingredients of which are tomatoes, cumin, garlic, onions, cinnamon, vinegar.

Products in Mexican Recipes

Mexican cuisine uses a fairly wide range of products for cooking. These are corn (maize), many varieties of potatoes and legumes, pumpkin, seafood, cheeses, tomatoes, avocados, cacti, aki, chayote, pork, beef, turkey meat and many varieties of chili peppers – it's not for nothing that chili has long been considered a symbol of Mexico. Various types of spices are used in Mexican recipes, garlic, cloves, cinnamon, cilantro and other spices are widely used. In Mexican recipes, beans occupy an important place – legumes are included in many recipes of Mexican cuisine, more than two dozen varieties of beans are used, the most popular are black "tojo" and pink "pinto" beans, each of the beans has an individual taste. Due to their high calorie content and high vitamin content, beans occupy a well-deserved place among the staples of Mexican cuisine. The most important ingredient in Mexican dishes is a variety of seafood. Many varieties of fish and other seafood are used in Mexican recipes, especially the round white fish, corvina and shrimp. Corvina is used to prepare the national dish ceviche – fish marinated in chili and lime juice.

Traditional Mexican Drinks

Speaking of Mexican food, one cannot but recall its world-famous drinks. World-famous cocoa, or hot chocolate, is a drink of Mexican origin, brought to Europe by the Spanish conquistadors. It is also impossible not to mention the national Mexican spirits – mescal and tequila. Mescal is a traditional Mexican alcoholic drink made from fermented agave juice. All spirits made from agave have the name mescal, except for tequila, which is the most a well-known variety of mescal. Often times, a bottle of mescal holds a Hypopta agavis caterpillar, and comes with a bag of salt and crushed Bombix agavis caterpillars that live on agave. Mescal has a strength of up to 38-43% and is made by double distillation. Tequila is the most famous strong Mexican alcoholic drink made from blue agave juice, which is a type of mescal. Tequila has a strength of at least 55%, but before bottling it is diluted up to 40% with water. A common misconception is the widespread belief that there must be a worm in a tequila bottle. This is not the case – tequila producers are prohibited from adding caterpillars to it, this is used as a publicity stunt in the manufacture of some mescal varieties. Tequila itself is bottled without any extraneous additives.

Mexican Cuisine – the National Cuisine of Mexico

Mexican cuisine is a national cuisine influenced by very different cultures. Mexican cuisine is a combination of both the cuisines of the most ancient civilizations of America – the Aztecs and Mayans, and European cuisines – Spanish cuisine had the greatest influence on the formation of Mexican cuisine. Thanks to this unusual combination, Mexican cuisine has become famous for its recipes with original combinations of products and spices that make it completely different from other cuisines of the peoples of the world. Mexican cuisine has rightfully earned the attention of many gourmets from different countries, and not trying Mexican dishes means depriving yourself of great pleasure. But in order to feel the taste of Mexican cuisine, you do not have to go to Mexico – our site contains the most popular Mexican food and their recipes.