My Mexican Cooking Adventure Begins

Today is the start of a new adventure.  Before I moved to Denver in the late 90s I hadn't eaten very much Mexican food.  What I'd had amounted to boxed taco dinners from the grocery store, for example.  I learned to love real Mexican and Southwest food.  When I knew that I'd be moving to Calgary I was afraid that I might not find too many Mexican food options, so I bought a few cookbooks and my plan was to learn to be a good cook.  My friends jokingly (I think!) said that I should open up a food truck.

This is the latest cookbook that I have and I'm going to start my adventure with a recipe from it.  The book is "Dos Caminos Mexican Street Food" by Ivy Stark with Joanna Pruess.  I was a little surprised when I started leafing through the pages.  I was expecting easy recipes with only a few ingredients but what I found were authentic recipes that require time and preparation.  Well, since I'm not making anything to sell out of a truck, and I am cooking at home, I'm up for the challenge!

The next challenge was to choose a recipe that I was fairly sure that I could get all the ingredients.  What I decided on was Meatballs in Chipotle Sauce, page 176 (Albondigas en salsa de chipotle).  I only got stuck on one ingredient for the salsa, "2 canned chipotles en adobo".  I'm not sure what that is.  I found out that there is a Mexican grocery store here in Calgary so I'm going to see if they can help me choose the right thing. 

Aside from the fact that I'm not sure about some of the ingredients for the recipes in the book, I'm very much looking forward to trying out several of the offerings.  There are breakfast foods, salsas, drinks, desserts as well as many main course meals.  I think that part of my problem is that I'm a newbie to Mexican cooking and learning about the ingredients, what they are, how to prepare them, will be part of my education. 

This book will certainly help to educate me.  There are lovely pictures, a Chile Glossary that explains all the different chiles, as well as sections on equipment and techniques. 

Okay, I'm off to Salsita.  I'll let you know how the meal turned out.