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

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).

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).

I have tried several of Deborah Schneider's salsa recipes and love them!! I have several other Mexican cookbooks and have to say that those salsa recipes I've tried are below average whereas Deborah Schneiders are all fantastic! If you enjoy Mexican food this book is a must. I was hesitant to buy it because I do have so many salsa recipes in the Mexican cookbooks I already own, well I'm happy I decided to get it :) Btw, her other cookbook: Mexican Slow cooker is my favorite cookbook so far, which I use the most frequently - that woman can do no wrong!

Very well made book with delicious recipes and serving suggestions.Beautiful photography. A must have for fresh salsa lovers( this book is about fresh salsas and moles, look elsewhere for canning recipes.) My personal favorite.

Have made about 8 of the salsas from the book thus far two/three times each. Very pleased with the recipes - I find most of the shop bought salsa too sweet for my taste. These are Delicious. Love the chipotle based recipes in particular. Have even started doubling up the recipes and canning some of it so we have fresh salsa over winter.

You will probably have to adjust the spice heat levels to taste for some recipes either by swapping a chilli for a hotter variety or increasing the amount, it covers all of that in the book, easy enough to experiment.
Some great cooks tips on rebalancing flavours if it’s not quite right.

Clearly this cookbook is for people who barely know how to get get around a kitchen. The recipes are complete no- brainers and when I say that I mean I could easily make almost all these "recipes" without this book. I will be returning this.

I've always liked what I called Mexican cooking. I guess it was Tex Mex at first. I've been buying cookbooks and looking for a certain flavor for years but it took this lady being explicit on how to add tomatoes into a chili sauce to temper it. Now I've got an authentic (to me) tasting Ancho cumin roasted garlic and tomato sauce thats great with chicken and pork and a tomato guajillo garlic hot sauce that is awesome.

Purchased for myself. Photos are great addition to book. I'm familiar w alot of the ingredients listed. There's a variety here and I feel this was well worth the money. Would recommend to friend, wo hesitation. Happy w purchase!!!

We are a salsa loving family. Seriously. Salsaholics! And it goes beyond the simple restaurant style red salsa too. We're willing to try just about anything, which makes Deborah Schneider's Salsas and Moles: Fresh and Authentic Recipes just about the perfect addition to our cookbook collection.

Don't mistake this for a book full of dips. Yes, there are plenty of those - red, green, fruit and everything in between - but there's much more than that too. Hot sauces, salsas that work as side dishes, sauces for stewing, and the moles of the title.

Schneider provides detailed instruction and ingredients - down to the number of sprigs of cilantro (and they're dead on!) - as well as a chile guide that includes dried and fresh varieties (to help you keep them straight).

This is greatly helpful throughout the book but with the moles in particular, something I've long been intimidated by based solely on the number of ingredients! Schneider breaks those recipes down into manageable steps, taking away some of the mysticism behind the different varieties and making them fairly easy for the home cook to execute.

One of the things that I loved about this book is how Schneider illustrates that the same basic set of ingredients can be transformed by tiny variations. Adding a bit of oregano to recipes like the Northern-Style Tomato Salsa makes it taste completely different from the Yucatecan Tomato Salsa, for example. Cooking the ingredients in the Salsa Verde versus leaving them raw as a base for the Spicy Avocado Salsa creates not only a different texture but also changes the flavors in subtle ways.

Each of the recipes comes with a bit of information on its history or heritage as well as recommendations for their uses - suggested meat pairings and such - which are both useful and incredibly inspiring.

If you love traditional Mexican food and salsa, this is the cookbook for you! It will open your eyes to a whole array of salsas and their potential uses and might even inspire you to begin making your own variations as well. I expect this is one book that will be getting much heavier use in my own house in the months to come. We've planted tomatoes, chiles, and herbs galore in our garden and I plan to put them to good use with even more of Schneider's recipes!

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.