From My Mexican Kitchen: Techniques and Ingredients

by Diana Kennedy

Book Overview

Diana Kennedy has been called the ultimate authority, the high priestess of Mexican cooking, and with good reason. For more than forty years she has traveled through her beloved adoptive country, researching and recording its truly extraordinary cuisine. Now Diana turns her attention to the book she readily admits should have been written years ago. Diana s objective in From My Mexican Kitchen: Techniques and Ingredients is simple: to provide a guide...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0609607006
• ISBN13: 9780609607008
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter Publishers
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 2.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.7" x 10.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Reference Book

This season, I decided to make tamales. Although I have had this cookbook on my shelf for a while, I hadn't bothered to read it . . . and then I made some tamales from a recipe from the internet . . . and suddenly, this book's value became very apparent. The chapters on fresh and dried chilies are worth every penny alone . . . what to look for, why, how to prepare, what NOT to do to them (and why) . . . fascinating late night reading! The section on tools is also handy. While I haven't tried any recipes from the book, I expect to refer to them frequently, to compare and contrast to others that have been recommended by friends . . . so many recipes out there on the internet are missing the subtleties of technique and why slight variations in preparation can make a big difference. This book explains clearly the hows and the whys for many ingredients and techniques, which helps greatly in figuring out how to make something better if it doesn't turn out as expected the first time. This is the kind of knowledge that desperately needs to be passed on and preserved, so I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning authentic Mexican cooking.

The Queen Speaks!

Diana Kennedy is the undisputed Queen of Mexican cuisine writing in English. I've been cooking from her books and giving them as gifts for years. This one is a wonderful companion to all the others, showing and discussing ingredients and techniques in patient detail.

The Doyenne of interior Mexican cuisine

This cookbook is an exceptional production by Diana Kennedy, winner of the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) Lifetime Achievement Award. The multitudinous photos (Michael Calderwood) use her hands as models of perfect techniques for most of the recipes. You can't read and view the book without knowing exactly what to do. Even if you know a great deal about Mexican and Southwest cooking, you will learn an immense amount from this well-illustrated book. She shares her secrets and knowledge with all, and you can choose just how complex to make a recipe, from toasted seeds (typical), to avocado leaves (traditional, but hard to find). I own a number of her cookbooks, including out of print books, and am utterly delighted to have this set of her experiences laid out before me. You will notice she is wearing a white apron and blouse, a great idea to deal with foods which stain easily, from peppers to tomatoes. I wish I had the address of her apron company; it would save me a lot of t-shirt stains. Seriously, this is the most explanatory of all her books so far. You would be remiss in not having it in your collection.

Ultimate Cooking-from-Scratch Resource for Mexican Cuisine!

Words cannot do justice to my high opinion of this outstanding cooking resource. Ms. Diana Kennedy (whom I already held in high esteem as the Julia Child of authentic Mexican cuisine) has outdone herself. She not only answered every unanswered question I had about ingredients and food preparation . . . she also taught me what I didn't know that I didn't know. Although my humble skills and impatience with scratch cooking will prohibit me from ever making more than a handful of these outstanding dishes in the proper manner, whatever I do make will be much better for what I learned From My Mexican Kitchen. I am especially indebted to the many photographs that portray the ingredients and the tricky steps of preparation. Although the book is encyclopedic in its coverage from my perspective, clearly Ms. Kennedy was just scratching the surface of her knowledge. I hope she will consider taking some of the sections here (such as Making Antojitos, Tamales and Utensils) and making them into full length books. To appreciate how detailed her knowledge is, you need to realize that she tells you about how the same dish is prepared in every part of Mexico . . . and how those practices differ among younger and older chefs. So there's an element of cultural anthropology here, too. I was especially grateful for her help in straightening out the various names applied to ingredients and dishes (which vary a lot from area to area) because they often contradict one another in meaning. If you just buy the book and learn about what she has to say about preparing fresh and dried chiles, you will feel more than rewarded. That section was a masterpiece!She also explains the many mysteries of lard . . . including how to prepare it, how it compares in flavor to vegetable oils, how the appearance of the dishes are helped, and what the health pros and cons are. The section on tamales was equally fascinating. I have never seen them made, and was reluctant to try. With this book, it should be a snap.If you are wondering how the book fits in with her many other books, Ms. Kennedy cross-references recipes and sections in those books. There are also a few basic recipes (many of them repeats from the other books) so you can start applying what you learn here. If you have read none of her books, you have a great series of treats (and taste treats, as well!) ahead of you. I suggest that you buy this one first and graduate to The Art of Mexican Cooking as your next resource. The book's sections cover:-- Cheeses and Cream-- Cooking Fats and Oils-- Fresh and Dried Chiles-- Fresh and Dried Herbs-- Vegetables, Beans, and Fruits-- Meat, Poultry, and Seafood-- Rice and Pasta-- Spices, Aromatics, and Sweeteners-- Making Antojitos-- Making Moles-- Making Table Sauces-- Making Tamales-- Making Tortillas-- Making Vinegar-- Making Yeast Breads-- UtensilsVia con Dios!

Mexican Cuisine Gets a Brilliant Presentation

Diana Kennedy's new book on Mexican cooking is the gold standard for books on country / regional cuisines. The credit to Ms. Kennedy is enhanced by the fact that the material in the book was quite plainly not written and produced by a team. The depth of the material is exceptional, considering the fact that Mexican cuisine is as broad and as regionally diverse as the more widely storied cuisines of Italy and France.The book is much more than a collection of recipes. In many ways, it is a Larousse Gastronomique for Mexico, with all of the weight of authority that name carries,including sections on:Menus - A small section, very informative for Mexican newbies, but not very deep.Ingredients - All sections are deep and rewarding.- Dairy- Fats- Chiles- Herbs- Vegetables and Fruits- Meats- Grains (Rice and Pasta)- SeasoningsTechniques - Exceptional, doubly so because it includes both weights and metric units of measure.- Antojitos- Moles- Table Sauces- Tamales- Tortillas- Vinegar- Yeast BreadsUtensils Native to Mexico - Some blemishes here. See belowMexican Food Terms - Some blemishes.Sources of Ingredients - By state in the US.Note that unlike the situation with French and Italian ingredients, Ms. Kennedy generally has a low opinion of the quality of Mexican ingredients available in the United States. This makes it doubly useful that she has provided the means of making several of these base ingredients in the home.As Diana points out in the introduction, she is both the food stylist and the hand model for all of the excellent photographs by Michael Calderwood. The photographs clearly enhance the value of the book.I am not very familiar with Mexican techniques myself, so, to evaluate the recipes, I concentrated on the baking sections and can say that they are worthy of the best presentations I have seen by baking specialists. In baking even more than with other techniques, measuring by weight, more especially measuring by the more precise metric scale, is essential to achieving consistant results, and Ms. Kennedy gives you the `full 9 meters' to good measuring, tempered by techniques to compensate for humidity. It even includes some tips I have not found in books dedicated to baking.One of the greatest and most unexpected pleasures to be found by reading this book is the sense Ms. Kennedy gives you of her belonging to a community of cookbook authors. She does not simply drop names. She cites and credits people like Julia Child and Paula Wolfert for their insights and facts uncovered. The thrill is not so much in acquiring this information as it is in seeing the author and her subject placed within a broader world of culinary ethnology.There are three sections to the book which could have benefited from some judicious copy editing. The first is the introduction where many Mexican terms and locations are used before they were explained. It would have been better to place this section after the section entitled `Mexico'. The second is the Mexican Food Te