Lesley Téllez’s Vibrant Mexican Food Will Transform Your Weeknight Dinners
A lot of people tend to overthink Mexican cooking. There is serious depth of flavor in Mexican food, and stories abound of women spending all day in the kitchen churning out just one dish — which is sometimes true! Even some of the ingredients, such as dried chiles, might seem intimidating. I know I used to look at piles of chiles and wonder what you even do with them. (Answer: Soak them, blend them, salt them.)
Most nights, like many other people, I just need something that I can prep and cook between the shouts of “Mamaaaa!” and “She’s touching my toy!” I’m not whipping up a homemade enchilada sauce or making a from-scratch mole sauce. But I am someone who reaches for Mexican ingredients often, and longs for the flavors that I grew up with, the flavors of my culture.
I’m here to tell you: You don’t need to add 40 spices or a package of seasoning mix to make Mexican food well. You don’t need to spend all day in the kitchen. The simplest things often taste the best. You just need to know a little bit about how Mexican cuisine layers its flavors — salt on top of heat and warm spices, on top of a little texture or crunch, blitzed with a little acidity. And underneath everything, often, lies the earthiness of nixtamalized corn — a process of soaking and cooking that’s been done for thousands of years.
Seriously — much of this country used to be Mexico. Millions of Mexican-Americans, including me, still live here. How can we not learn even just a tiny bit about this cuisine?
First, though, we need to examine what Mexican home cooking even is. It’s not one thing: Many types exist in the United States alone, and not all of it is, to use a loaded word, “traditional.” Someone who recently immigrated from Mexico will cook differently than a third-generation Mexican-American like me. What you cook, and how you cook, depends on how long ago your family might have arrived here, where you live now (New York City Mexican grocery stores can have different items on the shelves than a Southern California Mexican grocery store, or one in Wisconsin, or Arkansas), and where specifically in Mexico your family is from. And that’s if you know your family history — that knowledge is often lost by the time the third generation rolls around.
So, with a goal to hopefully make home cooks feel less intimidated about Mexican food and Mexico in general, I’ve put together a Weeknight Mexican cooking guide here at Kitchn. It’s not intended to encompass every iteration of Mexican cuisine across the nation — I wouldn’t even try — but instead to share my story. I was born in Los Angeles, raised in the Inland Empire (where all my I.E.-ers at?), and I’m a proud Chicana. I’m also the mother of two small children and currently a stay-at-home mom.
Before I had children, I lived in Mexico City for four years. I went to cooking school there and studied Mexican food, and I wrote a blog devoted to Mexican cooking. I started a food tour company dedicated to showing travelers Mexico City’s street and market food scene — it still exists, almost 10 years later — and I wrote a cookbook, Eat Mexico, built around the Mexico City recipes I fell in love with, published in 2015.
In 2013, I moved to New York City. Currently, while my youngest naps, I squeeze in occasional work as a food journalist and recipe developer. At home, the Mexican dishes I make aren’t rigidly traditional. But they’re good, they’re easy, and they make my family happy. (My 4-year-old actually says: “Thank you mama for this delicious meal.” #momwin.) I pull from what I ate growing up in Southern California, and the flavors that have influenced me so heavily after living in Mexico. It’s a Mexican-American mash-up, which is entirely me — and it’s my children, too.
The dishes in this package — pozole, tamales, tacos, and migas (or as I grew up calling it, “Tortilla and Egg Thing”) — are ones I lean on. We eat tacos several times a week, simply because tortillas are on the table, and we put things in them. Our freezer has pre-made pozole and tamales for the evenings when I’m too frazzled and tired to cook. Tortilla and Egg Thing, meanwhile, has rescued me many times as dinnertime lurks closer, and I feel a pit of dread in my stomach. Fried tortillas, always. Kids love them. I love them.
I firmly believe you don’t need to own a dozen cookbooks or to have lived in Mexico to make delicious Mexican cuisine. You just need to be willing to try something new, venture into a Mexican grocery store, and see what happens. You may end up surprising yourself.
Lesley Téllez’s Weeknight Mexican Recipes & Guide
From a nudge to change your shopping habits with respect to corn tortillas, to the beginners’ guide to tamales you’ve always wanted, to a guided tour of the Mexican supermarket, here is Lesley’s rich trove of recipes and inspiration to making Mexican food part of your own weeknight cooking.
- Not All Corn Tortillas Are Equal. Here’s How to Find Truly Great Ones.
- 10 Items Worth Visiting a Mexican Supermarket to Buy
- The Simplest Mexican Chicken Tacos (The Kids Love Them Too)
- How To Make Pozole in the Instant Pot
- A Simple Way to Make Fresh Salsa — And Endless Upgrades
- For Better Scrambled Eggs, Make Them the Mexican Way
- Why Tamales Are the Most Amazing Weeknight Dinner (Yes, Really!)