Mexican Cooking Methods

Mexican food is relished across the globe, no matter the location of the place, courtesy multi-cuisine restaurants. Salsas, tortillas, consommés, burritos,various caldos and quesadillas are a few to name! The traditional Mexican recipes are deeply influenced by the various cultures that crossed this beautiful country which were the native Mexican cultures of Aztec and Mayan people, the Spanish and French conquistadors and lastly the Americans. Mexican cooking has the essence of all these cultures.

Mexican Cooking

Mexican cooking is traditionally the cooking method of indigenous and down-to-earth pre-Hispanic native Mexican people. They found out various cooking methods without much help from the technology side. In the early days, Mexican food relied heavily on the corn and its various derivatives, mixed with various herbs and spices. They also used a large amount of beans, avocados, Nopal cactus that are now replaced by tomatoes. Chili pepper and maize formed the essential part of the traditional Mexican food. The maize and its various forms were an important part of the Mexican food. Hence, Masa de maíz has been a distinguishing feature of the Mexican cooking. In the Aztec era, a specific dough made of maize floor and lime water was included in cooking. The conquistadors then introduced rice, meat items like pork, beef and turkey, vegetables and fruits like tomato, sweet potato, garlic, onions, Jícama (yam) etc. to the traditional Mexican recipes.

Mexican Cooking Methods

Traditional Mexican cooking includes a lot of frying, grilling and steaming and hence all they knew about were the stoves or the open fire. The use an oven started later, only after the arrival of the American people.

Barbacoa
Barbacoa is actually a Mexican barbecue which is totally different from what we use today. It is a cooking method that consists of steaming and smoking the meat. Barbacoa adds certain aroma and moisture to the meat recipes. In this method, a cauldron filled with hot water is placed in a large pit, with coals at the bottom. Then at the top of the cauldron a grill is placed on which the meat is kept, wrapped in maguey leaves. The meat is cooked with beans, spices and various other vegetables which are then used for making the soup. Once Everything that is to be cooked is positioned the the pit head is closed with wet soil. Today, barbacoa is referred to as the 'slowly cooked meat'. The traditional barbacoa meat used to be the head of the cow. Most of the other meats that are an important part of the Mexican cooking today, were introduced by the Spanish people.

Guisar
Guisar means 'to stew' in Spanish language. Stewing has been popular throughout the Mexico, except for the northern region of the country where Mexican barbecues were more popular. Various food items are made using different forms of meat, poultry and vegetables, that are cooked separately and then added in the traditional sauces called mole and pipian. The traditional Mexican pottery form called cazuelas was used for the purpose of stewing. They have now been replaced by the modern day ovens and microwaves.

Asar
Asar or tostar, which means 'dry roasting' utilizes the traditional clay griddle called as comal. The Mexican recipes made by dry roasting methods involve no water or oil substance and high heated cooking. The best known recipe prepared using asar method are the tortillas. This baking or dry roasting processes were used to roast the spices, chilies and vegetables.

Pone a Sudar
The word Sudar means Sweating and hence the process literally means 'Sweating the Food'. In this method, the chilies are kept directly on the flame and charred totally. Then the skins are removed, once they dry out. The traditional Mexican method was to remove the skins of the poblanos (mild chili pepper) before using them in numerous Mexican recipes.There is one very tasty Mexican dish that is made using this method, it is known as rajas.

Sofreir/Sautéing
As we know, Mexican recipes are not prepared by deep frying the ingredients. It heavily relies upon Sautéing, which is a process of enhancing the flavor of the spices and softening their texture. Mexican Sautéing includes soft frying of the tortillas, enchiladas and the chilies. This helps them in absorbing the hot sauces that are poured on them, later on.

Molar
Molar is the Spanish word for 'grinding', which has been traditionally done by molcajetes, which gives extremely smooth textures to the salsas. Not all, but most of the herbs, spices, chilies and tomatoes are ground and then used for cooking advantages. The corns that are used for the traditional tortillas, are grounded by metate, which is another traditional Mexican grinder.

Desflemar
Desflemar means to 'neutralize' the chillies by soaking them in sauces. This is the most popular method in the Mexican cooking, as most of the Mexican dishes use a lot of chillies. The chilies and onions drawn out of heat are directly dipped in 'water+vinegar' or 'water+salt'. This process helps the spices to retain their flavor. The best example of desflemada dish is jalapeños

Famous Mexican cooking recipes
Botanas/Appetizer:

• Consommé
• Guacamole
• Calabaza
• Salsa verde and Salsa rosa
• Pambazos

El Plato Principal/Main Course:

• Burrito
• Barbacoa
• Cliles en nogada
• Tamales
• Pollo Mole poblano

Postre/Dessert:

• Churros
• Arroz con leche
• Flan
• Coyotas
• Rosca de reyes

Bebidas/Drinks:

• Atole
• Bacanora
• Chocolate
• Aztec Plaque
• Tequila

Talking about Mexican cooking can take days and still something would be left out, so I guess I better stop here. Go ahead and try making some Mexican delicacies. I can bet, it will make your meal a saucy affair.