Mexican cuisine saturated with intense colors owes its success to the richness of flavors and aromas and the fact that most dishes can be easily prepared from popular products. Mexican cuisine was created from the combination of local culinary traditions with Spanish cuisine.
Mexican cuisineis as diverse as the country's nature and culture. He skillfully combines s alty and saturated sour, pleasantly sweet and extremely spicy. It was created as a result of the fusion of local culinary experiences (shaped under the influence of the Aztec, Maya and Peruvian Inca civilizations) with the traditions of Spanish cuisine. The basis of the Mexican menu are native products: sun-filled, juicy fruits and vegetables, cocoa,vanilla , sweet potatoes, peanuts, as well as fish, seafood and poultry - turkeys, ducks, quails. Tomatoes,peppers , chocolate, beans and turkey also came to Europe from Mexico, while Spanish newcomers enriched Mexican cuisine, among others. in rice, wheat, olive oil, lettuce, grapes, oranges, wine, walnuts and hazelnuts, beef, pork and dairy products. Mexicans also learned how to fry from them.
Contemporary Mexican cuisine
The modern inhabitants of Mexico use culinary techniques and methods of cooking that have been known there for centuries. Although today a mixer is used more often than a mortar to grind spices, this does not reduce their spicy taste. Dishes prepared in a he althy way dominate: steamed, baked and cooked. Spices determine the taste of dishes. The most important of them are vanilla and chili, which can be felt even in sweet dishes. Mexicans are happy to use coriander, garlic, sesame, pumpkin seeds. The original addition is the mildew (corn mold) paste with chili and onions, available in some delicatessens, in an unappetizing gray-black color. Gourmets claim that it goes well with colorful vegetables, is a delicious filling for paprika and an addition to tortillas.
ImportantVanilla
The spice is the fruit of the white odorless orchid flower. It blooms at night for 6-14 hours and must be pollinated during this time. 7-8 months after flowering, the vanilla pods begin to turn yellow. Ripe fruit is harvested by hand before it bursts. For a distinctive vanillasmell, they are dried in the sun. In the afternoon it is wrapped, covered or closed in crates to keep the temperature high. It may take up to six months. During this time, the vanillin glycoside in the fruit breaks down into glucose and vanillin, which in the form of crystals is deposited on the surface and inside the fruit. Vanilla is sold in the form of sticks, flavored powdered sugar and essential oil. Good vanilla sticks are soft, almost black, shiny. Store the spice in a tightly closed container.
Mexican cuisine is characterized by an abundance of vegetables
Among them, tomatoes are in the forefront. They are the basic ingredient of many dishes, ranging from snacks, through soups, stews, ending with sauces. In addition to the red ones, the more rounder and smaller green tomatoes are also popular. Due to their burning taste, they are not eaten raw. They give the sauces a characteristic spicy and sour taste. Over 120 varieties of peppers with varying degrees of spiciness grow in Mexico. Like tomatoes, it is an ingredient in most dishes. Large pods are stuffed with meat or cheese. The local speci alty is the chocolate and paprika boca negra cake. Mexicans like to eat pumpkins. They choose small fruits, the diameter of which does not exceed 15 centimeters. They taste great when steamed, served with butter and a little pepper. From large varieties, sweet calabaza en tacha is prepared, i.e. a pumpkin cooked in a thick syrup of orange and guava (exotic
fruit) with brown sugar and cinnamon. It is served cold with round cakes resembling angel wings. For this, hot coffee or cold milk is served. Pumpkin flowers are used to make soups and puddings, and fillings for dumplings. The Mexican table must have beans (the main source of fiber and protein). More than 20 species of beans are known there. It is served with aromatic herbs, meat sauce or in the form of a paste. An important component of the daily menu of a Mexican resident. It is made into soups, stuffed, and added to meat and vegetable dishes. The young flasks with a little butter are baked in foil, and a wonderful dough is made from the fresh grains. Corn is also an important ingredient of atole - a popular refreshing drink with milk and chocolate.
There would be no Mexican cuisine without tortillas
Tortilla - a crispy pancake made of corn (or wheat) flour, fried on both sides on a hot hob or a fat-free pan. It is a must-have for the inhabitants of Mexico and it is the main ingredient in many dishes. The most popular are tacos - tortillas folded in half with filling, e.g. with minced meat, chicken,with a cerebellum, beans or lentils and the addition of hot sauces. There are also fajitas - wheat flour tortillas. Tortillas have different names depending on their shape and filling. Burritos are rolled tortillas with meat or vegetable filling, gortidas - quite thick pancakes sprinkled with s alty cheese and onions or filled chipotle (smoked jalapeño), and quesadillas are golden-colored dumplings with yellow cheese. The corn cake is also used to make nachos.
Essential sauces in Mexican cuisine - salsa and mole
They are served as an addition to a dish or as a dip for snacks, e.g. tacos, burritos or quesadillas. A large group are mushy sauces made of grated or crushed products (moths), e.g. tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, even chocolate. Good moths require the correct selection of ingredients and the right methods of grinding, which is the secret of every housewife. The most famous moths served as a dip are guacamole with avocado, tomatoes, and chili peppers. The most famous moths served as a sauce for the dish are moths poblano made of chili peppers (according to the original recipe, 6 kinds of peppers are needed to make the sauce), vegetables, peanuts, sesame, various spices and cocoa (possibly dark chocolate). The national Mexican dish is mole poblano with turkey. An indispensable attribute of Mexican cuisine is salsa - a tomato sauce that comes in various variants. Classic mexicana salsa is made of sweet tomatoes, green chili peppers and coriander. It gives character to dishes with tortillas. It can be salsa cruda (chopped vegetables), salsa de tomata verde (green tomatoes, coriander, hot peppers), salsa de jitomate (cooked tomatoes), salsa de chipotle (pickled green jalapeño peppers in tomato sauce). Other popular salsa are salsa roja (red sauce) and salsa verde (green sauce). Red tomatoes are used for red sauce, and green ones for green. Salsa tastes best with corn chips and meat dishes. Instead of frying pies, you can use ready-made ones. There are corn and wheat tortillas in our stores. Various ready-made sauces, mixes for guacamole, burritos, fajitas and other speci alties are also available.
According to an expertMichał Wójtowicz, manager of the Mexican restaurant El Popo in WarsawStreet eateries
Mexican residents like to eat out. They often reach for small snacks, but they do not eat them to their heart's content. A popular breakfast dish served in roadside bars is ceviche, i.e. raw fish and seafood marinated in a citrus marinade with the addition of chili, served with crispy nachos. You can only buy them up tonoon, then there are tacos stations. The most popular among them is tacos al pastor, a tortilla with appropriately marinated meat, grilled and sliced as for a kebab. Sprinkle them with finely chopped onion and coriander, or add a little pineapple and top with salsa. Even in the smallest village there is a place where you can buy this delicacy. Fabulously colored carts offer passers-by a whole range of fruit. Watermelons, papayas, pineapples, but also more exotic guanabanas, covered with a thorny skin, reminiscent of a strawberry-pineapple cream, and red bananas. Mexican orange juice, squeezed on the spot, is very popular. In the roadside "drink bar" you can drink tequila, Mexican agave vodka. No Mexican can drink her with s alt or lemon! This is an invention of Europeans who wanted to soothe the specific taste of the drink in this way.
Chili pepper - an important ingredient in Mexican cuisine
Enhances flavor, improves appetite and speeds up digestion. However, you have to be careful with chili, because using too much can irritate the gastrointestinal mucosa. There are plenty of varieties of this pepper: medium spicy, hot and burning. The degree of sharpness is best shown by the Scoville scale.
100,000 - 325,000: HABANERO is one of the sharpest. It is spherical in shape and red in color, almost black when dried. It is part of sauces, it is suitable for marinades, and when ground it is added to chili seasoning. Its special variety, red savina habanero, has a Scoville scale of 577,000,
30,000 - 50,000: TABASCO - small red or yellow pods are the most important ingredient in the hot sauce of the same name.
8,000 - 22,000: SERRANO is a green pepper with a sharp refreshing flavor and citrus aroma,
2,500 - 8,000: JALAPEÑO can have red (more spicy) or green pods. Due to its delicate crust, it cannot be dried in the sun, so it is stewed in the oven. The most spicy is the smoked jalapeño (chipotle),
1,000 - 2,000: POBLANO is a fairly mild pepper. When fresh, it has a dark green color, becomes dark brown when dried, and brick red (ancho) when soaked. A variety that retains color after soaking is mulato.
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