In 2001, I was starting to cook more seriously, which meant more gadgets, of course. I was looking for a flat, cast-iron comal or griddle, and the traditional Mexican food grinder made of hollowed-out lava rock, the molcajete.
I found a lady’s site in McAllen Texas which was prepared to sell me the molcajete, but as it was solid rock, the shipping costs were more expensive than the molcajete itself! I sent an email to the webmaster of the site, and that’s how I *virtually* met Melissa Guerra.
She turned out to be garrulous, friendly, and informative, and told me to cross the border if I really wanted to get a good molcajete for a nice price. We had an irregular email exchange for a year or more. And her first cookbook is much like Melissa herself: hilarious, chatty, and chock full of good info.
I left my copy in the USA when I moved to Australia, like an idiot, and so immediately had to purchase another and get it shipped across the Pacific. It looks to be self-published, it’s not glossy or overly self-concerned – it’s just page after page of accessible, practical recipes. She approaches each topic like a craftsman, explaining how trial-and-error led to the best trick for success with the recipes, and there are plenty of sidebars and callouts for special topics. The dishes are border Texan… you’ll find Mexican traditional dishes alongside grilled quail, chicken-fried steak, and cornbread.
But the Mexican dishes are my favorites: I use both Melissa’s corn and flour tortilla recipes all the time, her Mexican rice recipe is a staple, and have made the achiote chicken and the Huachinango a la Veracruzana (Snapper Veracruz).
Melissa doesn’t ship overseas, but her website at http://www.melissaguerra.com is full of information and a funny, chatty blog from Melissa, which stays pretty current.