Job Discussion Forums

[MamaOaxaca]

Okay,
We've been talking alot about food lately. How to cook things like Nopal and what to use to replace ingrediates we miss from home.
I thought this merits it's own thread.
So come one everyone and share your secrets for cooking in Mexico with local ingrediates. It can be a subsitute or to turn someone one to a new local flavor.

My first tip is that jimaca makes and excellent sustitute for water chestnuts in asian dishes. I've raised a lot of Mexican eyebrows when they see that I'm about to through jicama into the wok. But it's perfect. If you are careful about the shape you cut them, no one would ever know that they weren't water chestnuts. I however like to julian them, it makes a very pretty stir fry with jimaca, green beens, red bell pepers and carrots, all julianed.

[cangringo]

great idea mamaoaxaca,

does everyone have chilorio/pibil or is it just us?? It's delicious in burritos!!! Here we can get it in cans but we do have friends that have it in plastic packages and I haven't tried homemade but it's really delish. It's shredded pork meat soaked in vinegar and spices I think. Very fatty but you can cook off most of the fat and have it in a delicious burrito with refried beans and salsa of course and whatever else you want.

Also if you can't for some reason find beef bouillon cubes or the like, mole makes a good substitute for things like stew. Don't know about soup though.

[samizinha]

My Mexican cooking secret is not letting my friends know that I went to the comercial to buy the tinga, nopales, pibil, jeje.
Something I love to do is get white fish filets and marinate them with Valentina sauce, lime, and a bit of salt. I bake them in the mixture, and mmmm, almost like getting it off the beach in Acauplco.

(Yeah, edited, to tired to get the italics to work).