Lily Ramirez-Foran

Tortillas, Fillings and Salsas
Review of the Blasta Books hardcover edition (January 2022)

This is a very user-friendly mini-cook book (67 pages) with delicious recipes, family kitchen anecdotes, food preparation tips & warnings and the occasional passionate rant against such things as fake hard shell tacos and encouraging a boycott of avocados due to the toxic environmental and social impacts of its aggressive mono-culture in the growing regions of Mexico.

A generous amount of delightful illustrations by Nicky Hooper accompany the text throughout. I especially enjoyed the Frida Kahlo inspired presentation of 'Holding a Taco' seen below:
See illustration at https://www.nigella.com/assets/uploads/latest/public-full-size/holdtaco-62051f46...
Excerpt from "Tacos" by Lily Ramirez-Foran, illustration by Nicky Hooper. Image sourced from Nigella Lawson's Cookbook Corner.

The general format for most of the book can be seen below. The recipes start with the basics of corn tortilla preparation and then detail various traditional and / or newly adapted recipes for fillings and salsas.
See book excerpt at https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0559/1229/products/261DD58F-7068-4DB3-A79A-4D8...
A sample 2-page recipe and illustration in "Tacos". Image sourced from Picado Mexican Pantry, Dublin, Ireland.

As author and chef Lily Ramirez-Foran is based in Dublin, Ireland there is a focus on ingredients as are available in that country and also through her own Picado Mexican Pantry and Cooking School. You can of course work with substitutions from your own locality as encouraged by the author. As with any cooking the main ingredient available everywhere is love of food, family and company of course.

Trivia and Links
Tacos is the first book from the new imprint Blasta Books from Ireland. The imprint was initially funded by a 2021 Crowdfunder campaign (now closed) on Kickstarter which you can still view here. The second book from Blasta will be Russell Alford & Patrick Hanlon's Hot Fat (expected May 2022).

Food Guru Nigella Lawson featured Tacos in her #CookbookCorner in February 2022. The article includes excerpts from the book, including the key element of making corn tortillas, the chorizo & potato filling recipe and the de arbol salsa and refried bean recipes. See the article here.… (altro)