Dear Debra:

If you mean 'chili powder' as in powder for making a big pot of chili, then I'll tell you that for every 1/4 cup of pure powdered chile (try a combination of ancho, New Mexico (or the spicier guajillo) and a little chipotle) add 4 teaspoons salt, 1 to 2 teaspoons sugar, 2 teaspoons crushed dried Mexican oregano, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, 1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground cumin and 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper. You can certainly play around with the herbs and spices to suit your own taste, but if you want mixture that carries the right amount of salt, use the "1/4 cup ground chile to 4 teaspoons salt" ratio. The sugar adds a nice balance to the natural bitterness in the ground chile. Without the cumin, I use this mixture as the dry rub on steaks and ribs, and to add to barbeque sauce. If I'm going to use it within a few weeks, I'll finely mince 2 cloves of garlic (I'm not a fan of dried garlic), mix them in and store the mixture in the refrigerator.


Sincerely,
Rick

Dear Ruben:

Making pozole is quite an endeavor ... though it's considerably easier if you use canned hominy (though the texture is mushier than that of home-cooked hominy).

To get a good pot of pozole, you'll have to make a lot. Start with cut-up pork shanks (3 1/2 pounds), pigs feet (1 1/2 pounds) and bone-in pork shoulder (1 1/2 pounds). Simmer then in 4 quarts of salted water with a little onion and garlic, for 2 hours. Remove the meat; pick the meat from the bones and set it aside. Add about 8 cups of cooked, drained hominy to the pot, along with a strained puree of ancho chile (use 8 anchos--stemmed, seeded, toasted and soaked to rehydrate). Let the whole thing simmer for another two hours, then serve the red chile pozole with the meat and all the garnishes (thinly sliced cabbage, radishes, Mexican oregano, raw onion, limes and tostadas.


Sincerely,
Rick

Dear Pam:

It's typical to use a good-quality Mexican chocolate for mole in Mexico, not a bittersweet eating or baking chocolate as would be common in the United States. While the quality of Abuelita and Ibarra chocolates is fine, I have to say both are mass produced and tend to be on the inexpensive and sweet side. One of the less sweet versions of Oaxaca's Mayordomo chocolate would be a better bet. It can be purchased at http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/chocolatemayordomo.htm or at http://www.melissaguerra.com/product.cfm/pid/1121. Better yet, plan a trip to Oaxaca, buy some of the artisanal chocolate in the market or visit any of the dozen or so Mayordomo shops around Oaxaca City.


Sincerely,
Rick

Dear Lisa:

Those who are drawn to the sweet kitchen are very different than those drawn to the savory kitchen, and you'll probably know pretty quick where you fit in. If you like following recipes and using food to create beautiful works of art, pastries might just be your calling. You see, when you're making pastries, you can focus on wonderous, architectural creations, but the parts are made by carefully calculated formulas. In the savory kitchen, it's all about flavor and nuance, working with ever-changing ingredients to create the perfect dish for the moment. Especially when you work with farmers market produce, where ingredients change constantly and every season's different. To tell the truth, though, I love both: I started out thinking I was going to be a pastry chef, but, after working as a pastry chef for quite a while, I decided to move over to the savory chef. As the executive chef of a restaurant, though, I get to do a little of both.


Sincerely,
Rick

Dear Oscar:

To avoid dryness in the turkey, you either have to cook it slowly (basting and basting it) or you need to brine it--which is what I do most often. I'm including my brine recipe here and a description of how to use it. For the very best flavor, roast the turkey in your charcoal grill (bank the coals to the sides, so that there is no heat directly under the bird) and keep the temperature at about 275 degrees by adding charcoal a little at a time; add a few mesquite or hickory chips to the fire shortly before the turkey is done (soak the chips in water for 30 minutes before adding).

Rick's Brine Recipe for a 12- to 14 pound turkey

2 gallons water
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup salt
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes

If the turkey has a metal clamp on its legs, remove it. Place two large food-safe plastic bags (we like Reynolds turkey roasting bags) in a large, clean, deep dishpan or plastic bucket. Add 1 gallon of the water, the sugar, salt and pepper flakes. Stir the mixture to dissolve the sugar and salt. Add the remaining gallon of water and mix. Place the turkey in the mixture breast side down making sure it is completely covered in brine. Squeeze the air out of the bag and tie it shut. Refrigerate 12 hours or overnight, then remove from the brine and dry inside and out with paper towels.


Sincerely,
Rick

Dear NL Milan:

I'm just an honorary hispanic. Or a hispanic in a past life. Or something like that. I went to Mexico in my early teens and felt, in some strange way, like I'd gone home. I've continuously travelled through the country since then, learning to cook from all the locals--mostly from the grandmas. And since I don't officially have a single Mexican grandmother to whose cooking I have to be totally devoted, I'm free to learn a little from each one of the grandmas I encounter.

I ended up living in Mexico for years, but decided that the most service I could offer to the vast and complex Mexican cuisine I'd come to love, would be to open a real Mexican restaurant in the United States, write cookbooks for North Americans and do a television show in English.

I'm glad you like the HD version of the show! Everything looks so wonderful in HD.


Sincerely,
Rick

Dear Deborah:

Of the seventy some shows I've done for Mexico--One Plate at a Time, the eating-like-a-local show in Puerto Vallarta was one of the most enjoyable I've ever done. I do hope you'll go exploring when you travel down south.


Mariscos Tino's Seafood Take a taxi
Avenida 333 & Revolucion
The locals go here for
El Pitillal
seafood-very good
(322) 224-5584 Also in
Nuevo & Punta Mita
(beautiful spot-worth the
trip for pescado
zarandeado)
Maria Candelaria tamales small
homey place for
Guadalupe Sanchez #851 very
good handmade tamales

Nikki Beach drinks & guacamole
pretty bar for the sunset on next to Westin Hotel
the beach



Sincerely,
Rick

Dear SeattleSue:

Here's my suggestion for trans fat-free, meat-free tamales: use either the green-label Crisco that has 0 grams of trans fats or the solid-at-room-temperature palm oil that's available at many of the natural foods groceries like Whole Foods Market. At our restaurant, we replaced Crisco a number of years ago with Spectrum brand shortening which is made from 100% organic expeller pressed palm oil; it makes wonderful pie (and empanada) crusts and it's great in vegetarian tamales.


Sincerely,
Rick

Dear Mike:

Yours is a question I get asked a lot. In a nutshell, here's my rules for eating on the road. First, I always choose places that locals have recommended to me. Second, they should always be busy (which, obviously, insures a good turnover of food, but also indicates that locals trust the cooking in the place--or that the place offers really cheap food). Third, the places should always look clean; if they don't look taken care of or run by organized, tidy people, the food probably may not be good or safe. And fourth, I typically eat well-done food; cooking will kill bacteria that may be a problem (especially for those who aren't use to the local microbes, which none of us will be if we haven't lived in the area). The only exception I make to my "well-done" rule is salsa: Because most salsas are made from chiles and cilantro (one of the most powerful antibiotics known to man), and they're seasoned with a good amount of salt (a well known preservative), they're safe territory for me. Hope this helps


Sincerely,
Rick

Dear Donna:

Typically in Mexico, dried epazote is only used to brew a medicinal tea ... not to cook with food. So I don't recommend it, especially since the dried is mostly flavorless stems (the important part for the medicinal tea). You could freeze sprigs of epazote and then use double the amount (they lose some flavor in freezing) and then simmer the frozen sprigs with your beans. The sprigs are typically removed before serving.


Sincerely,
Rick

Dear rjr:

Sure, I've had huitlacoche--in fact, there's hardly a week that goes by that we don't feature it in at least one of the dishes on our restaurant menu. But about that "good luck" comment--that's only in Mexico. In the United States, farmers have considered it a blight and geneticists have worked diligently for decades to breed corn that won't allow the huitlacoche (it's basically a fungus like all mushrooms) to grow in the ear of corn. That is, until a fellow at the Univerity of Illinois Champagne-Urbana started a project to learn how to innoculate corn so that it grows under controlled conditions. And now one of our farmers, Tracey Vowel, has learned the rather complex process so that she can grow the prized stuff for us. It freezes beautifully, and, since it's typically used as a filling, the cooked down, near-black huitlacoche is at our disposal year-round.


Sincerely,
Rick

Dear Earl:

Well, first and foremost, Chicago is my favorite city in our country. It's a wonderfully vibrant town--tons of cultural events, museums, theater, restaurants--but it's also eminently live-able. In fact, my wife and I live in the first neighborhood northwest of downtown--a ten-minute drive from our downtown restaurant--and we live on a beautiful old tree-lined street and have a huge garden (which I show a lot on our tv program).

Second, Chicago has the second largest Mexican population in the United States. Which means that we can easily get all the ingredients for the cuisine we do. Take for instance that I was looking for chipilin, an herb they use in Chiapas, for a dish the other day. Though no one knew of it through the normal commercial channels, it only took me an afternoon to secure some through a Mexican-Guatemalan grocery store on the near west side. That's another reason I love Chicago!

And third, my wife and I wanted to settle not only somewhere we knew we'd love living, but somewhere we had family. My wife, Deann, grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago and much of her family still lives here.



Sincerely,
Rick

Dear Beth:

My personal philosophy about eating is this: I try to eat moderate portions of a wide variety of foods (fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, meats, fish), keeping all categories in balance. And, typically, I stay away from processed foods.

When you read my recipes, I am reflecting that philosophy. Which means that you'll find a lot of dishes that offer a nice balance of protein, carbohydrates and fats; because the dishes are all made with natural ingredients, you'll get the vitamins and minerals that are essential for healthy living.

Certainly you can cull through my recipes looking for the ones that emphasize protein over carbohydrates, but, honestly, I think you'll be fine with practically any recipe in Mexican Everyday for everyday eating. None of the carbohydrates you come across in that book are refined carbohydrates; instead, they're the complex carbohydrates that the nutritionists now tell us are good for us.

Personally, I think we got so mired in low-fat, high-carb cooking in the 80s and 90s that we failed to look at the whole picture. We failed to see that less processed carbs and a balance of foods is essential for everyday living. Well, we've expunged ourselves from that sticky mess, only to plunge ourselves into low-carb ... which works for some people (especially when done in the really radical Atkins way), but not for everyone. My hope is that we'll finally realize that too much of any one thing isn't healthy, that we all have different nutritional needs, and that we're built to be omnivores.


Sincerely,
Rick

Dear Newportbeach:

I'm glad you had a great time at Topolobampo! I work with such an amazing team of people; they're incredibly talented and dedicated. It sounds like that all came out in your experience.

About the ceviche: one of the most traditional ways to serve ceviche in Mexico is on (or with) crispy corn tortillas. Or with store-bought soda crackers ... which isn't my cup of tea.

In the Yucatan, however, they make soft tacos, using soft corn tortillas, out of all kinds of tangy fish preparations, from ceviche to squid in its ink and what they call shrimp a la vinagreta. So feel free to follow the Yucatecan lead or the Veracruz one (with the crispy corn tortillas) or anything that suits your fancy, in my opinion. Though I thoroughly respect tradition (and when I'm in Rome, I do as the Romans do--not as the Romanians do, which is what President Bush recently said), all traditions once started as innovations. So experiment: you may start a whole movement.


Sincerely,
Rick

Dear Lis:

My favorite chilaquiles is the one from my book Mexico--One Plate at a Time, in which you blend a 28-ounce can of tomatoes (I prefer the fire-roasted Muir Glen organic tomatoes) with 2 or 3 canned chipotle chiles. In a 4-quart Dutch oven, brown 1/2 of a large onion (sliced), then add a little chopped garlic, then the tomato puree and cook everything down until it's thick. Add 2 1/2 cups chicken broth, then season the brothy sauce with salt. Turn the fire under the pot to high. Add 8 ounces (this needs to be exactly 8 ounces) of home-style (aka "thick") tortilla chips to the brothy sauce as it comes to a boil. When it hits the boil, turn off the pot, cover it and set the timer for 5 minutes (no longer). When the bell goes off, gently stir up the contents, immediately spoon it onto plates, top with shredded chicken (or chorizo or practically anything), a drizzling of Mexican crema or creme fraiche, and a dusting of Mexican queso anejo or Romano cheese. If you're a die-hard, you'll add a big sprig of epazote to the pot with the sauce. Good luck!


Sincerely,
Rick