Welcome back! Sorry for the break in posts – I’ve been caught up in work and didn’t have the mind or creativity to keep up my blog posts. This week, however, was a very exciting for me. With my wife’s family being from Mexico I was a bit apprehensive with trying new things because I would be judged by someone with much more experience with this cuisine than myself. So – in order not to jump in totally head-first – and in the spirit of a deep dive, I didn’t start with Central Mexico – where her family is from, but with the southern states of Mexico: Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco and Chiapas. And it turned out great!
As for the cook day itself:
Figuring it out
Now it may not come as a surprise to you, I have cooked some mexican food before and actually also have a Mexican cookbook, namely Mexico: The Cookbook by Margarita Carrillo Arronte – which is often described as basically the bible of Mexican cooking. Which also helps, is that it describes in which states each of the recipes are considered to be from/most popular. This made the “Figuring it Out” part more of a picking and choosing which meals would make a whole dinner both flavorful and balanced.
This week’s menu (2025/07/06)
The Dishes:
Grilled Cilantro & Lemon Chicken: Chicken fillets – marinated in a mix of Cilantro, Lemon and aromatics – tossed on the grill – cut into strips – done and delicious! I definitely recommend this dish from the book.
Tortillas de Maiz: a staple.
Yucatan Taco Sauce: This sauce is both spicy and flavorful and basically only made of chopped tomatoes, chopped habanero and chopped onion – panfried together until the tomatoes break apart and form a chunky sauce. Honestly goes on everything!
Strained black beans: These beans are made with (in my case canned) black beans, that are covered in water and cooked with epazote until most of the water evaporated and the beans broke open. In the meantime, onions and habanero chili are fried in a bit of oil and mixed into the beans. Mash ’em up a bit and you’ve got a protein- and fiber packed topping for your tortillas or rice that is super flavorful!
Mango Agua Fresca: The easiest recipe on here. Put mango pulp or juice, ice cold water and sugar “al gusto” in a blender and blitz blitz blitz – serve iced.
De La Rosa Tres Leches: (Recipe for the cake)
This was a bit of an experiment on a very classic recipe! Tres Leches is known and loved far and wide for being probably the moist-est cake you can find since it is veritably drenched in evaporated, condensed and some regular milk. The twist on the recipe stated above is that I also crumbled up some De la Rosa Masapan – my wife’s favorite Mexican candy – into the milk mixture and blended it all together. Let it sit overnight, top it with whipped cream and enjoy!
My first culinary trip to Mexico was a full success. Happy wife happy life as they say. 🙂 It was also perfect for a hot summer day as it was this beginning of July. Hope you enjoy the menu and give the cookbook a look!
Cook Time: 2-3 hours, Budget: about 40 Euros, Research Time: 3-4 hours
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