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I live in an area heavily populated by Mexicans and if you can find the brand "Herdez" near you, they make most of those sauces that take long cooking from scratch and sell them in jars. Honestly, they ruined me for anything like Old El Paso for life.
I made carnitas ONCE and that was enough. I found them labor intensive.
I make a large crockpot of chili verde or chili colorado with beans and freeze that in smaller containers. I can quickly make nachos, tacos, enchiladas, tostados, quesadillas, burritos or just a bowl of chili.
Enchiladas can be fairly quick if you layer them instead of wrapping each one individually.
I buy the giant packages of corn tortillas and fry them all up and then freeze in 10 tortilla packets. They freeze great after they have been cooked and do not freeze at all when they are raw. If you freeze raw corn tortillas, they fall apart when you try to cook them.
My son makes sausage and he will make 10 pound of chorizo and freeze it into patties. I can take out a couple of patties of chorizo, fry it up, add eggs, get some frozen cooked corn tortillas out of the freezer and we have chorizo and egg tacos for breakfast in no more time than it takes to fry the sausage.
By having smaller packages of frozen stuff, I can put together a combination plate with enchilada, tamale, taco, rice and beans, in the time it takes to cook the rice.
I buy the canned refried bens, Rosarita makes refried beans better than I do and the cans are relatively cheap and they are easy. Canned refried beans, purchased four tortillas, and I can fry up some burger with peppers and onion and have excellent burritos in as long as it takes to fry crumbled burger.
Sometimes we have a massive tamale making session. That's traditional at Christmas, but if I don't have tamales in the freezer, Costco sells a really good tamale in their deli section and those freeze really well and microwave just fine.
I can put cut up chicken into the crock pot with tomato, chili, and olives and have Mexican chicken dish. Make Spanish rice to go with it. About 30 minutes to make the rice from scratch,
The only secret is to have good chilies and don't try to get by with commercial "chili powder" blend.
Some of the stuff that "takes a long time" really only takes a few minutes. Carne asada marinates overnight, but a few minutes to make the marinade and then it sits in the fridge without my doing anything to it, and then a fast grill and served with warmed up frozen tortillas and a warmed up can of refried beans. The same with the pork adobo. I make the adobo paste, cover the meat, and then it sits in the refrigerator for a day until I grill it.
I always do a salad and a veggie, and that often takes more time than the Mexican dish.
This all sounds really good...I wish we lived closer lol.
I don't make posole often but when I do, I use corn nuts instead of dried hominy.
I agree, it does make a huge difference!
Can't rep you again but you always have interesting posts. Thanks.
I was reading some posts about making Navajo Tacos with Fry Bread but the people I learned to make Fry Bread from use bacon grease instead of lard or Crisco.
I have tried to make Chorizo many times but have not found a good recipe. Many end up tasting like vinegar...yuk. Does your son share?
I live in an area heavily populated by Mexicans and if you can find the brand "Herdez" near you, they make most of those sauces that take long cooking from scratch and sell them in jars.
I'm about as far from Mexico as one can get and we have that brand in the supermarkets here. Their salsa roja is pretty good for straight up chips & salsa, and their salsa verde is the one I use in the green chile soup recipe I posted upthread.
Yes, and they soften just right to be the perfect texture. They are a lot easier to find than dried hominy and available in smaller packages. Believe me, no one has ever complained about them in posole.
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I have tried to make Chorizo many times but have not found a good recipe. Many end up tasting like vinegar...yuk. Does your son share?........
Chorizo
5 pounds pork (2.27 kg)
1 1/2 ounces salt (43 grams) and my son reduces that to 20grams and for my family that is the right level of salt
1/2 ounces ancho chili powder (14 grams)
1/4 ounce paprika (7grams)
1/4 ounce cayenne (7 grams)
1/3 ounce cumin (9 grams)
pinch of freshly ground black pepper
5/8 ounce garlic (18 grams)
1/4 ounce fresh oregano (7 grams)
29-32 mm hog casings. optional
Cube the pork in one inch cubes
mix all ingredients together
grind two times on a medium die
after each run through the grinder mix the ingredients together again. The mixture will be sticky
Stuff into hog casings (optional) and process
A boneless pork shoulder, pork butt, has the correct amount of fat.
You can adjust the level of heat by adding or subtracting chili
My son makes this as bulk sausage because every recipe I use it in the sausage is crumbled and fried.
American taste runs to a lot of salt, so most recipes are too salty for us and we automatically cut the salt in recipes in half and that usually works perfectly. This sausage is quite good with the reduced amount of salt. I suggest that you try with the lower level first, because you can always salt at the table if it isn't enough salt. Five pounds of meat is a lot to waste if the original amount of salt called for is too salty for you.
My son divides this into patties, vacuum packs, and freezes. It freezes really well.
Last edited by oregonwoodsmoke; 12-04-2023 at 12:00 PM..
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I was reading some posts about making Navajo Tacos with Fry Bread but the people I learned to make Fry Bread from use bacon grease instead of lard or Crisco...........
When I make Fry bread, I fry the dough in vegetable oil. Get the oil good and hot, I use the recipe from Chef Paul Prudhomme's Seasoned America cook book. Perhaps not totally traditional but it makes an awfully good fry bread.
I often make a nice and simple ceviche as an api when we are entertaining.
Either served on a tostada or just with chips.
The deckhand on the boat we once were on showed me how to toss this together in a matter of minutes and if you drink a beer the flavors will have soaked in more or less enough .
We normally keep lemons /limes with the rest of the usual green subjects on hand and we have an easy access to fresh seafood.
Simple dish really.
My other favorite api is a simple oyster platter/bar.
These two api’s go well with any kind of Mexican food however I like simple so I’m gonna say fish taco’s or chili rellleno’s for the main dish.
I like watching Pati's Mexican Table every once in a while. I love Tacos, tostadas, tamales, - not a fan of Posole, but enchiladas are good green chili with chicken or beef or pork I don't care - love it all.
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