mexican food made easy

I recently discovered Thomasina Mier's fantastic cookbook, Mexican Food Made Easy, and we have been eating it up. We've tried the tortilla soup, mexican breakfast (eggs, tomato sauce on a tortilla) and mushroom quesadillas. From the a taco for all seasons  section we've been chowing on corn and courgette tacos and mushroom tacos. Black beans have been put into sweet corn and black bean salsas and eaten over baked potatoes. The spinach enchiladas are satisfying and so filling. Perhaps my favourite hot sauce ever is from this book: sweet chipotle paste. Hot, sweet with some lime for an added sour kick, I keep making it and put it on everything. My clothes now have chipotle stains on them but it is oh! so very tasty. Tonight we're trying grilled polenta with mushrooms and greens. 

Admittedly, C hasn't eaten everything I've made but he's eaten most things and loved it. The great thing about the recipes (and this style of cooking in general) is that it is family friendly: you can spice it up or  down without ever feeling like the food is being "dumbed down" or that you are losing any taste. It's written in the UK so the ingredients are easily found locally. There isn't a lot of technique needed and most recipes take around 30 minutes to prepare.

The most impressive recipe I've tried from this book is the grilled langoustines with coriander and pumpkin mole (see the photo, left) which I made substituting king prawns for the langoustines. The sauce is pretty easy to make and seems versatile (I actually forgot the percorino cheese, it was very good but I am curious and will add the cheese next time). Mier gives ideas of other uses and I will be putting it on grilled fish sometime soon. 

All in all this is an amazing cookbook. I had it from the library for an embarrassing amount of time and had to buy it from Amazon. It's already in high rotation in our meal schedule.