I have wanted to purchase a Rick Bayless cookbook for years, but for some reason, haven't yet picked one up (actually, I do know the reason -- my continuing guilt about not using the cookbooks I already have!). Thankfully, as I was recently searching the internet for a good chile de arbol salsa, I found that Bayless has a lot of free recipes from his PBS cooking show on his website. I decided to give a few of them a try to figure out if I would actually use a Bayless cookbook.
The first recipe -- the Arbol Chile Salsa -- turned out wonderfully. It was incredibly spicy, had a nice consistency, and was pretty easy to make. I ended up snacking on it all week and used it to liven up some of my meals as well.
The second recipe -- the Salsa Mac and Cheese -- was unfortunately pretty bland and unexciting. I was really looking forward to the dish being a slightly healthier and considerably more flavorful version of standard macaroni and cheese, but it tasted a bit like plain mac and cheese with watered-down tomato sauce. Unfortunately, I don't think adding more hot peppers to the salsa would make it that much more of an interesting dish. I do think though that the Salsa Mac and Cheese would be a fun dish for children who love mac and cheese because it would be different and children generally don't need/like spice or complex flavors to enjoy their food.
Despite this "miss" though, I am looking forward to trying out some of the other recipes on Bayless' site, and will probably buy one of his cookbooks over the next few months. Living on the East Coast again has really made me long for real Mexican food, and I don't think I'll be able to survive on my own for much longer!
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