Deborah Schneider lives in San Diego very close to Tijuana and is the Executive Chef of Cocina Restaurant Group. She has authored five cookbooks which chronicle her love of Mexican cuisine. In Salsas and Moles Fresh and Authentic Recipes for Pico de Gallo, Mole Poblano, Chimichurri, Guacamole, and More, she gives us everything we need to up our salsa and mole game.
She starts with an essential guide to chiles — fresh and dried — and provides us a tutorial on working with chiles which I found very helpful. I must confess, even with all the cooking I do, I’m not as familiar as I should be with chiles.
Chapters One and Two cover Table Salsas and Hot Salsas– forty four pages of salsa recipes from mild to hot, from Salsa Quemada (roasted tomato and tomatillo salsa) to Volcano Salsa (roasted green chile salsa). Schneider includes heat levels for each of her salsa recipes which can be helpful to those of who fear the chile. Schneider also offers some suggestions for using salsa in more ways than a chip enhancer — stirring salsa into rice or beans, soup seasoning and others.
Chapter 3 is all about mole and enchilada sauces from the simplest enchilada sauce to mole negro which covers three full pages and seven steps to fulfilling the recipe.
Chapter 4 is Salsa for Tacos — including spicy avocado sauce, basic guacamole, pico de gallo, spicy slaw for fish tacos, chimichurri and more. This chapter includes recipes for taco stand onions, pickled jalapenos and carrots, and grilled jalapenos and green onions.
The final chapter covers chunky salsas and botanas. The peanut and chile de arbol salsa looks wonderful as does the roasted corn and black bean salsa, pineapple-cucumber salsa and green apple and jicama salsa.
I will be using this book as my go to for salsa, it is an excellent resource for anyone that wishes to expand their knowledge of this facet of Mexican cuisine. I’m sharing a link to a Denver Post article with three of the author’s recipes from a Craftsy course, here to give you an idea of her recipe style.
Thank you Blogging for Books for this review copy.
In the next few days, I will be posting a great giveaway which will include a copy of Soul Food Love as well as a custom cookbook! Stay tuned.
Sounds good. We love salsa!