Cooking from "Fiesta at Rick's" by Rick Bayless

If you compare this last photo to the one in the book, you will notice a difference in the texture of the pork...My guess here is that the way Bayless actually makes it is to cook the pork in larger chunks and then shreds it, rather than grinding it. I don't know why he doesn't call for that in the recipe.

Did Bayless do the cooking for the photos? If somebody else did, maybe he/she got a little creative with the recipe. Sometimes that happens inadvertently, sometimes it happens for a better food photo.

Chris, this is a wonderful thread. I'm enjoying it so much. Thanks!

I can get a really nice rendered lard at one of our main Mexican markets, of course I have to buy 3# at a time but thankfully it freezes well It's substantially different using that product than the commercial one. The rendered product truly imparts a layer and depth of flavor and meatiness that I find lacking in the commercially prepared lards.

Kalypso, you are a freaking genius. I had never thought to look for fresh-rendered lard until you mentioned this, but this morning after my usual supermarket run (it's just a big-box supermarket in a hispanic neighborhood), I went down the street to the mercado (after brushing up on my Spanish so I knew I was looking for "manteca"). There, in the back corner, were dozens, maybe hundreds of still-liquid two-pint deli containers of pure gold, rendered this morning, selling for $2 each. Holy crap. I hate rendering lard so much, this is a HUGE find. I owe you one!

Last night we tried a couple more drinks from the book: trying to trim back the mint from taking over the garden...

Mexican Mojito (p. 52)

A Mojito made with tequila: pretty good, actually. The recipe as given is quite sweet, but that's probably appropriate for a party. As my wife put it: "this is good, but I'm going to need another one in three seconds."

Sizzling Mojito (p. 53)

This is the same as the Mexican Mojito, but instead of using plain simple syrup (sugar water) to sweeten, you use a simple syrup that includes fresh ginger and habanero. I found the habanero to be too subtle to really "sizzle" here, and would probably increase the quantity next time. But again, for a party, the recipe as given is probably appropriate. You also muddle some ginger in with the mint: I didn't bother to peel the ginger first, and probably should have.

Kalypso, you are a freaking genius. I had never thought to look for fresh-rendered lard until you mentioned this, but this morning after my usual supermarket run (it's just a big-box supermarket in a hispanic neighborhood), I went down the street to the mercado (after brushing up on my Spanish so I knew I was looking for "manteca"). There, in the back corner, were dozens, maybe hundreds of still-liquid two-pint deli containers of pure gold, rendered this morning, selling for $2 each. Holy crap. I hate rendering lard so much, this is a HUGE find. I owe you one!

De Nada, glad the suggestion helped. I'm not so wild about rendering a bunch of lard either. I discovered the lard at my Mexican market by accident several years ago when I wasn't really looking for it. It was one of those "aha" moments. And it's dirt cheap.

Just out of curiosity, are you going to do every recipe in the book? If you are, that's pretty impressive

If you make the Mexican Snakebite please post about it.

For the tequila based drinks using simple syrup, try subbing it with agave nectar. I switched all my maragritas to agave nectar from simple syrup and am really pleased with the change.

A sipping cousin to your mojitos is my summer drink, the Margarita Spritzer. Half maggie, half club soda. It's refreshing and they go down even easier this way

I was sort of hoping someone else would start in on chapter 2, actually . I can only make so many ceviches before I've exhausted my political capital with my wife: she'll eat them, but she's not a big fan. Same goes for anything with shrimp in it. And the recipe that begins "dig a two foot deep fire pit in your backyard." (I'm not kidding, that's how the recipe starts). Someone else can have that one, too. Come on, who's in?

The chapter I am most willing to comprehensively analyze, perhaps several times, is the first: the one with the guacamole and booze. I like this chapter a lot...

Champagne Margarita (p. 46)

This is a really nice drink: the effervescence of the champagne (actually, I used prosecco...) is a great touch. The flavors are recognizable as a margarita, with that added bit of flair from the bubbly. I was skeptical at first that the drink as written would be too sweet again, but I used a quite dry prosecco, and I think the balance is quite good. If you have a sweet tooth you may need to ramp up the sugar a bit, either with a sweeter wine, or with a bit of sugar in the mix. One word of warning: this is not a shaken drink, it needs an hour in the fridge to chill. So if you need it RIGHT NOW, as I did, you need to find an alternate chilling method. I knew all those thermodynamics classes must have been good for something...

I was sort of hoping someone else would start in on chapter 2, actually . I can only make so many ceviches before I've exhausted my political capital with my wife: she'll eat them, but she's not a big fan. Same goes for anything with shrimp in it. And the recipe that begins "dig a two foot deep fire pit in your backyard." (I'm not kidding, that's how the recipe starts). Someone else can have that one, too. Come on, who's in?

Sorry, Chris, I'm not in for the doing, but I sure am in for the reading of your wonderful achievements. I don't have the book, and I don't have the time, energy, expertise, available consumers, ingredients, etc, etc.

Chris,

I just came from the bookstore where I had time for a very quick peek at the book. Looks like my kind of book in terms of its format etc., but I cannot justify it on the grounds of my complete lack of knowledge of most Mexican dishes and my dislike of some of the staples. Having said that I have never tried a tamale, or posole, or Mexican empanadas or many other truly Mexican dishes. I have never even sampled a margarita! I once made a very complicated mole and thought it was just magnificient but then I was the only one who liked it! I bought the ingredients for the mango guacamole and so far I not even had time to make it and it hasn't really shown promise to fit into any meal plan. I am almost afraid to check on the avocado and/or mango in case they have already gone far south. Please send me off to the eGullet Hall of Shame where I truly belong!

Anna, if you don't like the food, you don't like it, not much to be done there! I would not choose this book as an introduction to Mexican cuisine, personally. I think Bayless's "Mexico: One Plate at a Time" is great for that purpose.

Damn, it's hot here today. I'm barbecuing a pork shoulder, which calls for a beer. But that would be so boring, how about a beer with lime juice and hot sauce!

Michelada (p. 56)

I've never had one before, so I can't compare it to other recipes, but this is not my favorite drink in the world. It's OK, but I guess I just like a plain beer better. It's interesting to be sure, with the hot sauce adding a little zing, but probably not something I'll make again. (The photo is of the drink before stirring, but I stirred it up before drinking it)

Chris, I'd like to help you out on the cochinita pibil since that is one of my favorite dishes. Unfortunately, it would take a back-hoe to make a pit in my backyard. The soil is extremely dense with a very high clay content

Though not nearly as fun as tearing up half your backyard, it can be done in the oven.

kalypso, I have the same issue with the clay. But believe me, it's tempting to do anyway! Maybe it needs to be a two-day party: on the first day, guests dig the BBQ pit (tell them it's fun!), and on the second day you BBQ. Speaking of BBQ.... the great thing about it is the number of drinks you can sample while you are "tending the fire"

Coconut Horchata Colada (p. 67)

I made the coconut horchata a couple days ago, which was pretty easy with the new BlendTec blender. I should have strained it better, though, but I got lazy and decided to try to make this drink anyway. I'm not a fan of the texture, so I will be going back to strain it again after all. The drink tastes basically like a piña colada, but with the texture of horchata, and the barest hint of cinnamon. I used Rancho Gordo Canella (Mexican cinnamon), but it was probably two years old, so was a bit weak-tasting. I've put in an order for some fresh stuff, I may try this again when it arrives.

One annoying thing about these beverages is that he calls for ice in cups (a volume measure). I really wish he would include a weight for this as well, since ice varies wildly in volume depending on its shape. I found the recipe as written to contain too little ice, I personally would double it if using half-moon icemaker ice.

Sun-Dried Tomato Guacamole (p. 34)

Just your basic guacamole with the fresh tomato replaced by sun-dried. Bayless makes it clear in his intro that this is not his preferred guacamole, but rather a stopgap when good tomatoes are unavailable and none of the other options appeals. Of course, he also says he adds jicama to it, though jicama is not in this recipe. It would probably be good, though. Frankly, I don't see the point of the sun-dried tomatoes. They don't really bring anything beneficial to the bowl, and the guacamole would be better without them. But I guess if you're looking for a change... it's not bad, but I wouldn't make it again.

Atún en Escabeche de Chile Jalapeño (Tuna in Jalapeño Escabeche) (p. 129)

I made this for lunch today, thinking it would be sort of like a tuna salad with some pickled jalapeño in it, which sounded pretty good. But what it actually turns out to be is a jalapeño salad with a little tuna in it. Also good, but not what I was expecting. I personally found there to be too much onion, and the pieces of onion to be too large, but that's just a personal preference, I think. Also, make sure you use chunk light tuna here, not white: you need the added flavor in order to taste the tuna at all. I don't think I'd serve this at a party (it's probably a little too weird for most of my guests), but I'll probably make it for lunch again. I served it as a salad atop the dregs from a bag of tortilla chips.

I've been on a tamale-making tear from his other book, Authentic Mexican, for a bit now, but before I tackle the tamales in "Fiesta at Ricks" I figured I'd use up some leftover shrimp and avocado in his Avocado-Dressed Shrimp a la Mexicana (pg. 146) to fill some tacos with. I feel like more avocado would've been good to make it a little richer, but it was tasty overall.

The leftovers are about to go on tostadas for lunch.

Overall I'm liking the book, despite only having made a couple of the recipes. Maybe it's all the food porn...

Welcome to eGullet, cadmond! Glad to find another person trying out the book, the tacos look great.

Re: the food porn... actually, I have been a bit underwhelmed by the photography in the book itself: seems like half the photos are of Rick, not the food. Though looking at his photo on 147, I see why you wanted to make these shrimp tacos! Very nice.

Costillas de Res Guisadas con Chiles de Árbol, Alubias, Hongos, y Cerveza (Grill-Braised Short Ribs with Árbol Chiles, White Beans, Mushrooms, and Beer) (pp. 264–265)

It's hot here so I didn't want to turn the oven or stove on: it's strange to me that I wound up with a braise, which I generally think of as a winter dish. I really liked the flavor of the broth, and the beans (I used peruano) soaked up a lot of that liquid and were very flavorful. The broth, beans, and beef all tasted clearly of having been grilled, there was no mistaking the smoky charred flavor, so although he says you can make this in the oven, I really recommend firing up the Weber and having at it. Prep time was very minimal (not counting making the beef stock and cooking the beans), and it cooked in just over two hours unattended.

Atún en Escabeche de Chile Jalapeño (Tuna in Jalapeño Escabeche) (p. 129)

I made this for lunch today, thinking it would be sort of like a tuna salad with some pickled jalapeño in it, which sounded pretty good. But what it actually turns out to be is a jalapeño salad with a little tuna in it. Also good, but not what I was expecting. I personally found there to be too much onion, and the pieces of onion to be too large, but that's just a personal preference, I think. Also, make sure you use chunk light tuna here, not white: you need the added flavor in order to taste the tuna at all. I don't think I'd serve this at a party (it's probably a little too weird for most of my guests), but I'll probably make it for lunch again. I served it as a salad atop the dregs from a bag of tortilla chips.

Chris, I made this about 6 months ago, after having seen Bayless make it on his latest PBS show. I didn't love it as the soft taco filling he suggested, but the next day on tostada shells, drizzled with a little Tapatio hot sauce, was outstanding. Did you use some of the oil from the tuna in the dressing? That, to me, was the key. Water pack tuna would be way too bland. You were definately on the right track putting it on top of the chips. Something about the crispy, salty corn enhances the taste a lot.

I finally got my book!

The seafood section is making me drool. I so wish I had access to a fresh fish monger

Let's file this next experiment under "playing with your food." In general I don't care much for eating leftovers in their original incarnation: eating the same thing a bunch of days in a row is not appealing, at all. But that short rib dish left me with a pretty substantial portion of food, some of which I ate for lunch today in a new incarnation. To change this up a bit, I turned the leftover broth and beans into a puree. Why? Because I can.

This changes a couple things about the dynamics of the dish: first off, it is much spicier, since the arbol chiles got eaten around in the dish's original form, but are simply pureed with the rest in this version. Second, the plating needs some work: a big dollop of baby food is not the most photogenic of foods, so trying to serve it like this requires some tweaking (I should also have served less of it). Finally, it is much easier to get a fully-integrated flavor bite: you cut off a piece of beef and then scoop it up with a dollop of the puree, giving the full flavor profile all at once. This is a pro and a con, of course: it means that every bite tastes the same, but the same is delicious.

I reported previously on the Tlayudas recipe in the book. This is a simple riff on that that adds some cabbage, uses homemade chorizo, and swaps the cheese for an American sharp cheddar. I also discovered my last avocado had gone bad, so to get that creaminess in the sauce I used crema. A pretty nice change, I thought, that amped up the tanginess quite a bit: it plays well with the chorizo.

Ceviche Salpimentado (Salt-and-Pepper Ceviche) (p. 93)

This is a very simple ceviche, with only a few ingredients: besides the fish and lime, it's just salt, pepper, avocado, and cilantro. I used red snapper, and marinated for 45 minutes (texturally, rare to medium rare). It takes only a few minutes to make, but the flavors are excellent: among the best ceviches I've had. There is a lot of appeal in its simplicity.

Pescado Zarandeado (Wood-Grilled Fish Puerto Vallarta Style) (pp. 252–253)

Another relatively quick and simple dinner: basically a simple dried chile sauce on grilled fish. Bayless calls the sauce a "marinade" but since the fish doesn't spend any time marinating but rather goes straight on the grill, I think "sauce" is more appropriate. While the chiles were rehydrating and the charcoal heating up, I made some tortillas to serve the fish as tacos, as suggested by Bayless. I find it hard to nail the doneness of fish on the grill: I was targeting 140°F, but wound up closer to 150°F in most of the filet, which to my taste was a bit overcooked. The sauce was pretty good, though the flavor of Worcestershire sauce was a bit incongruous to someone not used to that taste in Mexican cuisine. This was not one of my favorites from the book so far, but there was nothing wrong with it, per se. It just wasn't amazing.

The main attraction:

Grilling the filet (I removed the skin, and only used half the fish to serve two people, the other half was used in the ceviche, above):

Served as a fish taco with red onions and lime:

The fish looks great Chris. And I see what you're saying about being underwhelmed about the photos, certainly compared to other cookbooks. But for a Bayless cookbook?

Anyways, I finally got around to making some tamales from this book. I decided to go with the Butternut Tamales with Chipotle Chicken (pg. 224-225) because they seemed like the best candidate from the corn-husk wrapped variety that would freeze well (better than the cheese ones anyways). I'm not sure what went wrong, if anything, with these, but when I opened up the steamer half way through, they had collapsed, almost like some sort of over-whipped souffle, and they were still super runny. I'm not sure if this is because of the double beating process incorporating too much liquid, or from a misstep on my part, but it was pretty alarming when I saw they had sunk like that. They eventually turned out fine and are really quite good, but I can't help but notice the distinct lack of butternut squash flavor. Maybe it's just there to make them more moist?

Either way, next time I think I'll try to make them skinnier and longer before they steam so that when they shrink down they'll look a little more normal, and not like fat, stubbly little cigars.

Little view of the cross section.

How did you like the final texture? I just made some tamales following his double-beating instructions a couple days ago (though not using his filling) and was blown away by how awesome they turned out. The texture was ethereal, very light and moist, almost genoise-like. It was a little difficult to work with, being thinner than I am used to, but wow, what results!

Well, like I said I think something went wrong in mine. The deflation part meant they weren't nearly as light as I think they could have been. I'm thinking I might have added too much liquid to the second beating, or maybe just butternut squash and double beating aren't meant to go together. That said, the texture was certainly quite good, but nothing so different from my experience with single-beaten tamales.

One of my problems with tamale recipes in Rick's books is they always seem to call for way way way too many corn husks. I only soaked 1/3rd of an 8 oz package for these (the recipe called for the whole bag), and I ended up using only half. Am I just in an area with awesome corn husks (not likely, Seattle...) or do others have similar experiences like this? I understand the better safe than sorry thing, but it seems like a waste at some point (I'm going to see if freezing the remainders works)