Product Description

FROM AMERICA'S LEADING AUTHORITY ON DEFINITIVE MEXICAN COOKING COMES A BRAND-NEW COLLECTION OF RECIPES BASED ON SIX CLASSIC, VERSATILE SALSAS, EACH FEATURING THE FLAVOR OF A DIFFERENT CHILE.

Salsas That Cook is a breakthrough in contemporary American cooking. Here, Mexico's classic salsas get put to work in our kitchens in the same way we use a variety of international condiments, from teriyaki sauce to balsamic vinegar, to enliven and redefine the flavor of many American favorites. While most of us have enjoyed salsas as chip dips, salsas show great versatility when weaving complex flavor into simple dishes, from pasta to potatoes to meats, fish and vegetables.

Salsas embody the essence of Mexican flavor: the lusciousness of slow-roasted tomatoes, the full-flavored spice of chiles, the fragrance of cilantro and the mellow sweetness of garlic. Rick Bayless, the country's leading progenitor of real Mexican cooking, writes the six salsa recipes with such detail and personality that even beginning cooks will turn out masterful creations.

The uniqueness of this book, though, is in the way these six salsas are used. Here they give their pizzazz to chile-glazed roast chicken, grilled pork tenderloin and seared sea scallops with jalapeño cream. Familiar Mexican favorites have always used salsas for vitality, and many are here, from tangy guacamole to tortilla soup and grilled chicken tacos. In Salsas That Cook, the magic of Mexico transcends all borders.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62904 in Books
• Published on: 1998-11-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Amazon.com Review
There's a lot more going on with salsa than its traditional role as a dip or dunk for corn chips. Rick Bayless, author of the bestselling Mexican Kitchen, is on a mission to prove to home cooks everywhere that this spicy sauce adds oomph to pasta, zest to meats, passion to potatoes, and invigoration to vegetables. Bayless takes six salsas (which can be made in the comfort of your own home or bought via mail order) and then uses them in more than 50 recipes, including a fiery tequila chaser! His Layered Tortilla Lasagna with Greens and Cheese captures a piece of both Italy and Mexico for one tasty little number. Chipolte-Cascabel Salsa is the key ingredient, which is combined with tortillas, three cheeses, heavy cream, corn, spinach, and mushrooms. Following the simple step-by-step instructions, you can concoct this as a main course for 8 or as appetizers for 16 in less than an hour. Even salad benefits from a brush with salsa. Particularly captivating is Bayless's Poblano Roasted Vegetable Salad with Peppery Watercress. Here a colorful combination of beets, fennel, watercress, potatoes, salted farmer cheese, and the Roasted Poblano Tomato salsa make for a wild and wonderful salad. Even desserts put in an appearance, although they are salsa-free!

Full-color photographs and many innovative ideas for spicing up mealtimes make Salsas That Cook a flavorsome addition to the home kitchen. --Naomi Gesinger

From Publishers Weekly
Bayless (Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen, winner of the 1997 Julia Child Cookbook of the Year Award) courts the many cooks short on time with recipes that incorporate six salsas (such as the Roasted Jalape?o-Tomato Salsa or Chipotle-Cascabel Salsa with Roasted Tomatoes and Tomatillos), which can be prepared either in advance and refrigerated or purchased (Bayless recommends his own brand). Mexican-inspired dishes like Open-Face Quesadillas with Mushrooms, Olives, Salsa and Greens and Chilaquiles (tortilla casserole) with Spinach, Zucchini and Aged Cheese naturally work well. Also particularly successful are more familiar dishes to which salsa adds zip: Chipotle Mashed Potatoes, Slow-Grilled Turkey Breast with Mediterranean Salsa, Smoky Glazed Ham for a Crowd. The inclusion of salsa in every dish is usually a harmless gimmick; although in the introduction Bayless claims these dishes are quickly assembled by those who have salsa on hand, some entrees like Robust Beef Brisket with Red Chile and Winter Vegetables require long periods in the oven. Bayless offers sweet desserts that complement the spicy entrees like Frontera's Chocolate Pecan Bars and Texas Sheet Cake. Good Cook alternate.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Bayless, chef/owner of Chicago's Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, is also the author of Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen (LJ 11/15/96) and the now-classic Authentic Mexican (LJ 12/86). His latest book is less ambitious than either of these but more conducive to spur-of-the-moment cooking, for here are 60 easy recipes that get their bold flavors from prepared salsa?preferably prepared ahead at home, using one of the six recipes Bayless provides, but in most cases, high-quality store-bought will also do the trick. He encourages readers to think of salsa as a flavoring ingredient, not just a condiment, and he adds it to Green Chili Crab Cakes, Peppery Pan-Seared Steaks, and even Macaroni and Cheese. Bayless says these are the kind of dishes he cooks for casual entertaining, and his inviting recipes should inspire others to do the same. For most collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Less Than Expected
Rick Bayless is probably the biggest inspiration toward the popularity of "REAL" or traditional Mexican cooking in the U.S. He has several very popular shows on PBS and is quite active in promoting PBS with live appearances and tours showing how to prepare delicious Mexican food. I was disappointed as I mentioned in my first review of this book, because almost it's entire content including most of the recipes were previously included in his past cook books. The recipes are delicious. Granted.

The other problem is the poor binding of this edition. The pages are falling out.

If you own Mr Bayless' previous books, you have the contents of this book. I am a fan of Mr Bayless, but I have been disappointed in this endeavor. I used to purchase any item with his byline sight unseen. I will at least thumb through any future cookbooks before future purchase.

An important essay on salsas. Very useful for entertaining
`Salsas that Cook' by renowned Chicagoan and Mexican cuisine expert, Rick Bayless is not your mama's ordinary salsa cookbook. If that is all you want, go to Mark Miller's very good `The Great Salsa Book' in the noisome Ten Speed Press tall and skinny format. Bayless' book is much more than that, and, in a sense, much less.

Bayless' agenda is very much like Ming Tsai's programme in Tsai's book, `Simply Ming' in that Bayless gives us recipes for six (6) classic Mexican salsas and then shows us how to use each of these salsas as an ingredient in several other classic Mexican dishes. While Tsai's objective was to simplify cooking by making it modular by doing intermediate preparations in advance. Each intermediate can then be used in several different dishes. While Bayless' technique is very similar, his object is rather to make authentic Mexican dishes more accessible to the average American cook.

Since this book was published in 1998, I suspect many of the Mexican ingredients Bayless says may be difficult to find have become much more common throughout the United States. In these brief seven years, I have seen a great growth of Latin American ingredients in even the most provincial of supermarkets. And, Bayless himself has contributed to this change with his own line of salsas under the `Frontera' trademark. In fact, this book may in some small way be considered a promotion for that product line, except that the book is so good in its own right that this does not concern me. Bayless, in a very gentlemanly voice, says his brand of salsas may serve in these recipes, but encourages us all to make them ourselves.

The recipes in this book are presented with a very novel and genuinely useful feature in that the quantities of ingredients are given for three different amounts of final product. I simply have never seen this outside professional baking recipes. At the very least, this is a useful feature when you just want to try out a recipe and may wish to make no more than a cup or two. If it pleases your palate, you can make the eight-cup amount for your next party.

A second major `surprise' is that none of these recipes follow the familiar chunky `pico de gallo' style. This is the first of three salsa archetypes Bayless identifies. The second is the vinegary, hot, and spicy cousin to our Louisiana hot sauces. The third is based on cooked tomatoes and tomatillos and fresh or dried chiles. All six recipes in this book belong to the third class, which Bayless considers the most versatile and is based on the widest range of flavors.

Bayless also gives some thumbnail advice on preserving and canning the salsas, but I suggest you get some expert advice on the subject before plopping this goodness into your hardware store Ball jars. Even the `Good Eats' episode on preserving and canning is scary enough about bacterial diseases to make you want to be especially careful. I would be especially careful as Bayless specifically states that he uses less than the usual amount of vinegar, which makes the recipes a bit less bug resistant. While Bayless speaks often of the now famous molcajeta, the heavy mortar of Mexican cooking, he is quite happy to see you use a blender or food processor to make these recipes.

The six salsa recipes are:

Roasted Jalapeno-Tomato Salsa with Fresh Cilantro used in seven recipes.
Roasted Poblano-Tomato Salsa with Fresh Thyme used in six recipes.
Roasted Tomatillo Salsa with serranos, roasted onions and cilantro used in eight recipes.
Mellow Red Chile Salsa with sweet garlic and roasted tomatoes used in ten recipes.
Roasty Red Guajillo Salsa with tangy tomatillos and sweet garlic used in six recipes.
Chipotle-Cascabel Salsa with roasted tomatoes and tomatillos used in nine recipes.

Each recipe is enhanced with alternatives for the main chile ingredients (although I suggest you be very careful in subbing an habanero for any other chile species.) In addition to the three different columns of ingredient amounts, the procedures for all these recipes are fairly long as Bayless writes them, as his descriptions are very detailed with lots of little hints for scraping down, spreading out, and checking the taste. Even so, the procedures are pretty long even without Bayless' frequent hints. One thing I do notice is that I am certain it is Bayless who is writing these recipes, as I recognize his `chunky', slightly ungrammatical use of adjectives and adverbs I have seen in his other books.

The forty-six `used in' recipes cover Starters; Soups, Salads and Side Dishes; Egg, Vegetable and Tortilla Main Courses; and Poultry, Meat and Fish Main Courses. I certainly can't judge how authentic these recipes are, as Bayless himself is, hands down, the best expert we have for what is authentic and what is not. I also believe that if you follow Senor Bayless' instructions closely, you will be happy with the results, assuming you don't have the anti-cilantro gene or an aversion to mild to high levels of capsicum.

Almost as if there is a cookbook writer's union regulation that every cookbook must have dessert recipes; Bayless includes four desserts and two drink recipes in the last chapter. This is not quite as gratuitous as it may seem, as the recipes are specifically oriented and sized for entertaining a crowd large enough to fill your house. This fits the central point of the book that includes both small and large numbers of servings.

When I opened this book, I had the suspicion that it may have been extracted from one of Mr. Bayless' other books, but I was wrong. It does compliment his `Mexico One Plate at a Time' book in that salsas play only a very small part of that book.

This may be Bayless' most useful volume. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys cooking. Only warning is that if you want easy recipes, see Miller's book cited above.

Great Salsa Recipes that are easy to make
I really like Chips and Salsa. This book has 6 cooked Salsa recipes and about 30-40 more that use the salsas. It's easy to make: wash the stuff, cook it in the oven and throw it in the food processor. The roasting is mainly done under the broiler and gives the salsa a great roasted/chared flavor. The onions and garlic roasted have a milder, sweeter flavor. The book has some good pictures to show you what the stuff should look like, it would be nice if it had more. To make this snack lower in fat use the new baked chips. Some say they taste like cardboard, but I think if you heat them in the oven or microwave first they taste fine. If you like salsa, and don't mind cooking, this book will let you make it as good as the resturants and better than any bottled stuff.