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I've been a fan of her show for years. The childlike enjoyment of what she does and her results are delightful. My difficulty (and I own it as mine) is that most of the Mexican and Mexican fusion dishes take an inordinate amount of time to prepare properly. I'm not talking about a basic taco or bean burrito, but dishes that involve various chilis, crema and cooked mixed sauces.
If you like Mexican at home, what do you find as simple or fast dishes that aren't clones of Taco Bell?
Quesadillas.
Pork with green Chile. (Red Chile takes a lot more ingredients).
Albondigos soup.
Carnitas (though I often skip the final step of crisping the meat under the broiler.)
The instant pot helps.
Last edited by Jkgourmet; 12-01-2023 at 08:43 AM..
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.
Last edited by oregonwoodsmoke; 12-01-2023 at 10:45 AM..
Time saver's, buy pre-grated cheese. I use Tillamook aged cheddar large farmstyle grate, but I also buy the Mex-blend cheese which is really good in the brand I use. Mostly I buy the 5 pound blocks of Tillamook and grate it all and freeze because my family likes that a lot better than the pre-grated stuff, but the pre-grated works just fine and tastes good.
I buy the dried peppers, although next spring I am going to try to grow my own in my brand new greenhouse. I buy whole dried peppers and grind my own, just as I need it; no pre-ground chili is used to maximize the flavor.
I buy hot sauce and don't make it from scratch. Tapatio is the family favorite, although I do make pico de gallo whenever I can get halfway decent tomatoes and cilantro that actually has some flavor.
Rosarita canned refried bans. I am having problems finding dried pintos with correct pinto flavor. I've switched to black beans if I am cooking beans,
Instead of stuffing the chiles, you just have to layer canned green chiles, a whisked/beaten mixture of half-and-half, eggs and flour, and whichever cheeses you like (I usually just use cheddar and Monterey jack).
You have to slice open the chiles and clean out the seeds, but it's still not that bad, especially since I bake it in an 8x8 size.
Pork with green Chile. (Red Chile takes a lot more ingredients).
If you're cooking New Mexico style, it's the opposite. Red chile can be made in ten minutes on the stove top - dried red chile powder, olive oil, flour, water, salt, maybe some oregano. Green chile is much more involved with chunky pieces of roasted green chile, maybe tomatillo, and chicken broth.
New Mexican cuisine differs a bit from old Mexico, mostly it's all about the sauces, no seafood, and not as much cheese. I've never heard of Pati but I peeked at her Youtube channel and the food looks delicioso!
I always make the crock pot version. I tried it once with fresh chopped tomatillos, but like it better with canned salsa verde. I also usually substitute potatoes for the chicken, it's just as yummy if you want a vegetarian version.
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