Pati's Mexican Table: The Secrets of Real Mexican Home Cooking

I picked this up when it was on special as a friend has recommended Pati Jinich's cookbooks to me and this was a great purchase! I haven't watched Pati on PBS yet, but I'm going to seek out her show.The cookbook is extremely approachable and well-organized. Worth the purchase just for the sauces and salsas section. All the recipes I've looked through so far look very do-able and realistic. Not loaded down with a million ingredients each or with items that will send me to 5 different stores looking for them. I like her approach that you can do it all from scratch but there's nothing wrong in using some pre-made ingredients when it makes sense to do so.I made the pickled carrots and jalapenos and the salsa verde the first weekend I had the book and they were both great and easy to follow and made nice additions to a Mexican-themed party. I look forward to cooking more from this book.

I first saw Patti's show on public television. I was immediately hooked. I then went on her web page and saw she had a cookbook and I had to order it off Amazon. The recipes look wonderful. I have tried several recipes and been very, very pleased. Love it.

I preordered this book the day Amazon offered it, expecting a collection of recipes from Pati's PBS programs. When I started reading it, the recipes were the third thing I admired -- right after the numerous Mexican Cook's Tricks and the extensive descriptions of Mexican ingredients. This is my third Mexican cookbook (after Diana Kennedy and Roberto Santibanez), but it should be everyone's introduction to Mexican flavors, techniques, and gusto because it works so well on four levels, each of which is worth the price of the book:1. Mexican Cook's Tricks -- There is a "trick" at the end of most of the recipes. They are short and most apply more broadly than just the subject recipe: how to cook an egg, prepare enchiladas, marinate meats, prepare chiles. These are as addicting as nachos (or Margaritas): You can't eat just one. After you finish one, you poke around to find more.2. Mexican Ingredients -- What stops you from reading the "cook's tricks?" There are about 60 green-highlighted sidebars, most of which describe a Mexican ingredient and how it is prepared and enjoyed: tamarind, corn versus flour tortillas, several varieties of chiles, hibiscus flowers, cinnamon, and buying avocados. A few succinctly describe cooking processes for rice and beans. By the time you've read eight or ten of these sidebars you want to cook.3. Recipes -- The recipes are for home cooking. This is the food that Pati, a busier-than-we-are soccer mom, serves her family. They are not the traditional servant-prepared recipes that Diana Kennedy features. They are contemporary flavors that use ingredients you can find in a large supermarket with a broad selection of Latin products or, better still, one of the small stores that serve Mexican/Central American immigrants you can find even in small towns. I've made several recipes (and others on her website) and have always had good results. The recipes are flexible and you can substitute pork for beef or adjust the chiles and other flavors to taste. One tip: It's efficient to prepare meals from the book over consecutive nights so you can re-purpose the food as Pati does -- salsas, beans, meats, tortillas.4. Gusto -- What draws these three elements together is Pati herself. Her culinary philosophy and approach to cooking are lively, fresh, and magnetic. The introductions to each recipe are informative and personal and her advice and judgements are level-headed. You can benefit from adapting her style, regardless of what you cook -- Mexican, Chinese, or American.If you want to cook Mexican for your family, order this book and buy an avocado and a few chiles. But read the book first to learn how to buy the avocado and handle the chiles.

Very good recipes and easy to follow instructions

First off, I love Pati's PBS series and it has inspired me to be a better cook. I purchased the cookbook so that I would have all the ingredient and instructions available while cooking. The end result is delicious food! The book itself needs more pictures of the dishes so that I have an idea of what I am attempting, and to inspire me to try something that looks appealing. I'd give the book 5 stars if it satisfied my visual needs!

A very fun and useful book.I've been cooking extensively out of Rick Bayless' excellent books for several years and hadn't planned on buying this one because at first glance it seemed like it might simply be a 'dumbed down' version of recipes I already knew.But it's totally not. While Jinich's recipes tend to be more casual and less labor/time intensive compared to a typical Bayless dish, they are nevertheless fantastic and fresh and fun. Jinich has the palate, the native fluency with the cuisine, and the cooking chops to offer simple, casual recipes that are delicious and taste authentically Mexican.I'm kind of obsessed with her sauteed zucchini recipe these late summer days. It's just diced zucchini, roasted poblanos, onion, garlic, salt and pepper cooked in a little butter and oil. Whenever I make it I wonder if I should maybe add some chilis or lime juice or cumin or cilantro or crema to 'improve' it. But no, it's simple and clean tasting and perfect as is. I respect a recipe that knows when to stop.If you want to learn the classic dishes of Mexican cuisine, the books of Bayless and Kennedy are great. But Jinich lets you see how a talented and resourceful Mexican home cook living in America feeds herself and her family, making this book a treasured and very practical addition to my Mexican cookbook library.I checked this book out of the library last month and, because my cookbook shelf is overflowing, ended up purchasing the Kindle version -- my first Kindle cookbook! The physical book is lovely, but the Kindle version is a bit awkward to navigate.

Recetas muy ricas y muy bien explicadas aunque estén en inglés

Love this cook book. Pati's recipes are authentic and easy to follow.

This is a great book with inspiring and easy to follow recipes.

So I have read through the book and cooked two meals from it. My first impression of the book is very high. The recipes worked as anticipated. The book is a good read just as a read. The anecdotes are interesting. The tips and hints are helpful. I am going to use this book often.For the beginner this book will give you the basics. For the more experienced Mexican cook it is still a nice book to have but expect family recipes not the cuisine of Mexico's finer restaurants.

Great cookbook. Have been following Pati's daily tv shows now for 7 months and loving it. Recipes are easy and turn out great!