Salsas and Moles: Fresh and Authentic Recipes for Pico de Gallo, Mole Poblano, Chimichurri, Guacamole, and More [A Cookbook] Hardcover – April 14, 2015

I learned about chef-author Deborah Schneider while watching a cooking series called In the Kitchen with Craftsy (available to check out and watch free using BingePass on my Hoopla library app). Her recipes looked delicious, authentic, and simple. You can Google her creds. She's for real.So far I've made the Salsa Quemada, a roasted tomato and tomatillo salsa, and the Salsa Taquero, a spicy avocado sauce. If I don't make another recipe from this book, these two were enough to make the book worth buying for me.To my family's delight, I've made both recipes several times over the last couple of months. I don't even look at the recipes anymore, they're that simple. And they call for ingredients that can be found year-round at any basic grocery store.The recipes I tried were very forgiving, and I've adjusted a few ingredients and ratios to kick up the heat level for my chile-loving family, but you can also tone it down if you'd like. Schneider includes a chapter called A Guide to Chiles that is helpful for that.Bottom line: I'm happy happy to have this cookbook on my shelf.

Fantastic! I have to admit to some bias: I'm an online student in Deborah's craftsy class called Mexican Street Food (you can easily find her class through an online search), which is terrific as well. She is a confident instructor and very thorough and personable. You really feel like you can actually make real, authentic Mexican salsas, tacos, and other "street food" once you've watched her in action, and in fact I've learned to pan-roast tomatillos and tomatoes for the first time by following her videos in class. This is the best way to learn a new skill, in my opinion. I've made several delicious salsas already. So I decided to look her up here on amazon to see if she had any books, and immediately purchased Salsas and Moles (kindle edition). I wanted MORE of her delicious recipes, you see! I haven't tried the moles yet, but I've had great success with her salsas. Perhaps that's because I'm in her class, I don't know, but so far my salsas taste amazing and I'll never purchase bottled salsas again! Incredible how easy and quick it is to make your own, once you know how, and also how economical it is, too. I think this book is a fantastic value.

Each chapter is arranged from easy to hard so you can gain skills and experience with new ingredients. Many are make-again and becoming family favorites.

First, I must clarify that I haven't made any salsas or moles from this book yet. I just received it this past weekend--I was very excited. Upon arrival, I immediately began skimming through the book--looking at beautiful photos and ingredients. As I began reading the intro and the author's chile guide, I stumbled upon Schneider's definition of a "chile morita." This took me by surprise. I almost put the book down out of frustration.Back story: I bought Alex Stupak's "Taco" book last year--a fantastic book! In it, he has a salsa negra recipe that is hands down one of the best salsas I've ever had. It's a show stopper too. My friends are constantly asking me when I'm making the next batch so they can buy some. As you might guess (due to context), the key ingredient in his salsa negra is this "chile morita.” The morita was the genesis for my obsession with chiles.Chile morita, according to Alex Stupak (and the rest of the entire internet), is a dried and smoked red jalapeño. “Morita” means “little blackberry” in Spanish. And, it is one of three “chipotle” peppers (to my knowledge). “Chipotle” derives from “chilpoctli” the Nahuatl word for “smoked chile." The third chipotle is the “capones,” which translates to “castrated ones” since they are de-seeded before smoking.In American markets, apparently, some moritas are being sold as “meco”—the morita's sister chile. There is a difference, though. The chipotle "meco" (or sometimes called “típico” which means “typical” or “traditional") is smoked longer, resulting in a tanish-brown colored cigar-like pepper (Google it). Mecos are hard to find in the USA (as far as I know). But, the morita is far easier to find (I can find it rather easily at any Hispanic market in NC).Schneider, however, refers to the "morita" as a dried serrano pepper. Dried serrano chiles are just known as "dried serrano chiles.”While the book looks like it has some great salsas and moles (following what seems to be a rather traditional processes), it’s disheartening to stumble across this misinformation/misunderstanding/oversight as it’s rather fundamental to Mexican cuisine IMO. In other words, if you go to the store looking for a “morita,” you will not get the same pepper according to Schneider’s definition (and photo on page 9).

Fun book to try new things with and get fresh ideas

I’ve only made a handful of recipes from this book so far, but they’ve all turned out great. And I enjoy just reading through the book and learning about the other recipes and traditional ingredients

Got this for my brother who grows his own peppers and makes salsa. He’s always trying to get it just right and I think this will help a lot! Has lots of details and recipes that I think he’ll find interesting. The book itself was in great condition and is great quality!

I've got a pretty decent salsa repertoire but was hoping to learn more about moles. This book only has 18 pages (15 pages with text) about moles, and didn't really teach me anything new. Seems like a decent book for anyone starting out, but it isn't a deep dive into salsas and moles.