Planning A Real Mexican Meal At Home

Cooking a real Mexican meal for your family sounds good, doesn’t it? However, where do you start? How do you know what kinds of side dishes are served and how many to make? Should everything be spicy? Is it okay to tone it down?

With all this confusion in your head, where do you turn? Most Mexican restaurants serve foods as part of a combo meal, so can you really rely on that to be an authentic representation? Before you begin, take a few deep breaths, and relax for a moment. You can cook your family an authentic Mexican meal without any problems.

Take a look outside as you begin your planning. If it is a hot summer night, you may want to choose something different than you might on a cold night in November. Seasonal foods are an important part of Mexican cuisine, so follow your seasons. For the sake of your meal, let us assume it is an average day that is neither too hot nor too cold, perhaps it is April.

First, you need a main dish. Two side dishes should be sufficient to accompany it. Finish it off with a dessert. This will make a nice meal that your family will probably talk about for at least a week. For a main dish, pick something relatively easy like a pan of cheese or chicken enchiladas or some chilies rellenos. There are many recipes for these dishes to choose from, so you can find one that fits your needs.

Your side dishes can simply be rice and beans, or you could make a fresh ensalada with black beans, lettuce, cilantro, chilies, and tomatoes, crushed corn chips and topped with sour cream and guacamole. If you want to keep it simple, homemade tortillas can take the place that bread would normally fill in one of your meals. Wrap the tortilla around a bite of the main dish, or use it to sop up that enchilada sauce. Fresh salsa makes a fast, fresh condiment that you can serve with anything.

Round out the evening with one of many good Mexican desserts. A classic flan topped with caramel sauce is always a good choice. It will cool down your mouth if you have a lot of spicy dishes. If you do not want to go to that much trouble, simply serve some vanilla ice cream topped with a Mexican chocolate sauce. You will never look at vanilla ice cream the same way again.

Make up your shopping list and finish your marketing the day before. Some recipes need to soak or marinate, so you want to give yourself time to do this. If you are fortunate enough to have a Mexican market in your city, you can find all the right chilies and other ingredients you may need. They may even feature a bakery where you can get authentic Mexican pastries for dessert.

Let your kids join in the fun and help decorate the table before your special meal. Perhaps they want to make some colorful placemats in the colors of the Mexican flag or help you set the table with colorful plates. Your family will love sitting down to a home cooked Mexican meal. You may be surprised when they request to have another.

Cinco de Mayo recipes for traditional foods like sopes can introduce your friends to real Mexican food. Sopes are made of fried masa dough. You can top them with meat sauce, vegetables, beans and cheese, or seafood. They are very delicious.