The Enchilada Queen Cookbook

Starred review from September 5, 2016
Casares shares her culinary secrets for her signature enchiladas and many other popular Tex-Mex dishes in this outstanding resource. She began cooking at the age of 10 but it remained a hobby until she left the corporate world behind in her 40s and opened a small Mexican restaurant, which has since grown into three locations throughout the Houston metro area. Stating that Tex-Mex isn’t true Mexican food (though it’s often referred to as such), Casares makes a sound argument for its legitimacy, backing up her assertions with solid recipes for standards such as tortilla soup, basic tacos, fajitas, chile rellenos, and tres leches cake, in addition to showstopping enchiladas that range from simple cheese and beef to chicken with a creamy tomatillo sauce and stewed chicken breast with salsa mole puebla. The book’s real payoff is in the details: her simple secret chile sauce for tortillas that infuses extra flavor into those signature enchiladas, the mashup of pico de gallo and traditional guacamole that she calls Picamole, and the red wine garlic butter she applies to her grilled red snapper Veracruz. The closest Casares comes to cutting corners is employing Knorr chicken bouillon in soups and stews and Velveeta in chile con queso (both of which she happily defends). The book isn’t the easiest road to deeply satisfying a craving for real Tex-Mex, but it’s one of the best resources on the subject, and is sure to satisfy home cooks in any location. This is the only Tex-Mex cookbook you’ll ever need.

September 15, 2016

Known as the Enchilada Queen, Casares is the founder and chef of Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen in Houston. Writing with journalist and food critic Dotty Griffith (Celebrating Barbecue), the author traces her path from young home cook to successful chef and shares recipes for Tex-Mex favorites such as chile con queso, huevos rancheros, tortilla soup, and carnitas. Traditional enchiladas, sauces, and salsas are a highlight of this book, which also features seasoning blends, salads, snacks, tamales, cocktails, and desserts. Most recipes are easy to prepare and call for basic kitchen staples as well as other ingredients such as dried chiles and baby goat, for which Casares provides a list of sources. VERDICT A satisfying combination of autobiography and popular Mexican foods.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2016
Casares is one patient cookand teacher. After all, making enchiladas from scratch involves some heavy-duty work with a comal (cast-iron pan), nimble fingering of masa harina, and a good eye and nose to judge the exact time of doneness. She's got just the right background for instructing wisely and slowly: an undergraduate degree in biochemistry and more than enough experience in the food industry. Her breakout, in 1995, was the establishment of a home-style enchilada restaurant; the rest, as they say, is history. The culture at Casares' restaurant, Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen, completely debunks the notion of Tex-Mex food as an indistinguishable globby brown stew on a plate. Instead, Casares carefully and lovingly shows readers the how-to's of enchiladas and tamales (with photographs); shares the recipe for her Holy Trinity Spice Paste; and, in general, explains her 80 border-cuisine dishes, from the two-step secret to enchiladas to the glorious chocolate tres leches cake. Enchilada queen: a much-deserved accolade.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)