Eating Between the Lines

The Essential Cuisines of Mexico

Clarkson Potter Publishers, 526 pp., $35

The issue of authentic Mexican cuisine versus Tex-Mex is a particularly prevalent one here in Austin. With so many restaurants serving endless variations of salsas, enchiladas, tamales, and carnes, it's hard to isolate just what is the true Mexican from the Nuevo-Mexican, from the Tex-Mex. And in some ways, they are all authentic Mexican cuisines, since the ingredients they incorporate, and their basic preparations, emerge from one source. After all, one could argue that the very notion of authenticity is innately flawed, especially since cuisine is not something that is static, but that grows and evolves, just as a people change and adapt through time. Still, we in the food business nevertheless continue to make critical distinctions between the traditional cuisine of Mexico, and that which manifests itself on the northern side of the border.

For those who wish to learn about the gastronomy within the borders of Mexico, Diana Kennedy's new cookbook The Essential Cuisines of Mexico is indispensable. Combining the first three of her well-researched tomes -- The Cuisines of Mexico, The Tortilla Book, and Mexican Regional Cooking -- Kennedy has published this latest volume that contains over 300 traditional-style recipes she collected throughout 40 years of living and working in Mexico. In some cases she has clarified the directions for certain recipes that appeared in earlier cookbooks, making them more workable, or updating them to correspond to today's product availability. However, none of her recipes have been adapted to suit American tastes. As she insisted in a recent interview, "I never adapt, I modify them if I think they won't work, but all of my recipes remain true in spirit to the original."

I asked Ms. Kennedy what it was that she considered to be authentic Mexican cuisine. A bright-eyed and energetic woman in her 70s, Kennedy makes no attempt to hide her opinions. For her, an authentic Mexican cuisine exists but is quickly disappearing. "There are certain regional ingredients that are found nowhere else. I have seen chiles that no one even knows about, and that will be gone before long," she states. Ms. Kennedy is like a food ethnographer, indefatigably collecting disappearing recipes from cities, towns, and remote corners before they are lost forever. "We must respect our regional cuisines," she argues, "because they are the foundation of our kitchens." According to Ms. Kennedy, authentic Mexican cuisine involves foods that are prepared according to traditional methods, with locally available ingredients, in a domestic context. Authentic cooking is regionally specific, and enduring.

To people who continue to think about Mexican cuisine as an endless variation on the tortilla, meat, cheese, rice, and beans, The Essential Cuisines of Mexico may offer surprises. As this cookbook illustrates, Mexican cooking is highly diverse. "There is no one thing that truly defines it," according to Ms. Kennedy. Dishes such as the Pollo Almedrado from Coahuila, a savory chicken baked in a sauce of roasted tomatoes and pounded almonds, vibrate with the hybrid flavors of the old and new worlds. It is a dish that seems undeniably Spanish in origin and yet the addition of tomatoes and lime give it a New World provenance. The recipe for Puerco en Naranja -- pork cooked in orange juice -- is another such dish. Slow roasted with garlic and oregano, basted with fresh orange juice, it seems more suited to a Mediterranean kitchen than a Mexican one. However, served with the recommended fried poblano chile strips and onions, this dish becomes an homage to the complex balance of sweet and savory, spicy and hearty that highlight the flavors of Mexico.

Along with these recipes, one will also find instructions on how to make soups, tamales, salsas, moles, and a true Mexican quesadilla. Unlike the American version that consists of two pre-fab flour tortillas sandwiching gooey cheddar cheese, the authentic version is a crescent shaped turnover of fresh masa, rolled thin and then filled with any number of stuffings, from brains to chorizo and potatoes to cheese and squash flower blossoms.

The directions for each of the recipes are clear and specific. Ms. Kennedy argues that "there is a reason for every step in my recipes," and she encourages readers to follow them faithfully. In this comprehensive volume, she has not omitted any of her previously published recipes, but instead has added 33 new recipes. Dishes such as seasoned Yucatecan chicken cooked with oranges capers, olives, and chiles; pico de gallo with peaches; or potatoes escabechadas (potatoes marinated in lime, cilantro, and habanero), all represent what she considers to be examples of traditional recipes, developed through time and local context. She believes that to be truly knowledgeable about a cuisine, "there are certain foundational recipes that one must learn; what you do after that is your own affair." With The Essential Cuisines of Mexico, here at last are the foundational recipes of Diana Kennedy's kitchen and the many kitchens of Mexico, in one volume.