Mexico

About Mexican cuisine

Mexican food is much older and much deeper than the version most of us grew up with. Beneath the tex-mex shortcuts sits one of the most varied cuisines in the Americas, built on corn, beans and chillies that have been cooked here for thousands of years. Each region has its own thing: the moles of Oaxaca, the seafood of the Yucatán, the grilled meats of the north, the masa-based street food of Mexico City.

The defining flavours come from dried chillies — ancho, guajillo, pasilla, chipotle — toasted and rehydrated until they go fragrant and almost fruity. Add fresh lime, coriander, raw white onion, cumin, oregano, garlic, ripe avocado and a salsa with real bite, and you have the backbone of nearly every dish. The technique that matters most is toasting the chillies and spices properly — a minute too long and they’re bitter; done well, they’re transformative.

It comes together at home more easily than the long ingredient lists suggest. A pot of properly cooked beans, a stack of warm corn tortillas, a sharp green salsa and something grilled is a full meal. Build a small Mexican pantry — dried chillies, masa harina, decent corn tortillas, good lime — and the cuisine opens up fast.