Tex-Mex food is such a flavorful and approachable cuisine. This book does not disappoint. A far superior offering to his first book, I have enjoyed each recipe we have cooked so far - they have all been easy to follow, simple and produce tasty and amazing plates. Thank you - this will have a spot on my shelf, to be visited again and again!

This cookbook had some really great recipes. The recipes were easy to understand and not too complicated for the average cook. I enjoyed the illustrations and look forward to making these recipes for years to come.

Excellent tex-mex cookbook all around. The recipes were tasty and the pictures made me want to try them all.

Wow.. what a fantastic book! After a somewhat hard to approach, but the amazing first book, Baco,.. Ama is incredibly accessible to most cooks. All of the recipes I have tried so far have been amazing! It was also a featured book in a cookbook club, and it was one of the most popular books of all time! If I had one small nitpick.. it that the actual book is a bit taller than some others so that can make it not fit on certain shelves of mine.

Highly Recommended!

Lovely cookbook filled with colorful images and great recipes. Would recommend to anyone looking to build their cookbook collections. Especially if you are looking to expand your Tex-Mex meals.

Love cooking and love Mexican cuisine after travelling their in my teens. So many different flavours to explore in this book.

I received a copy of this arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I love love love tex mex and can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy of this book.

What a treasure we have been given with this book! The description says it all, and it truly lives up to its description! Send yourself on the wonderful journey of cooking your way through this book! That is exactly what I am going to do!
Description:
Tex-Mex is diverse. B ÁmaBar Áma finds inspiration from regional Mexican cuisine and beyond, with influences from the American South, Ger­many, Poland, and Morocco.
Tex- Mex isn't authentic. The only thing authentic about Tex-Mex is that it isn’t authentic: It evolves and adapts.
Tex-Mex is delicious. Think meaty stews, breakfast tacos, and tres leches cake.

Being fairly familiar with Tex-Mex food, Ama kinda blew my mind. The book came across as a labor of love, an ode to family and to the passion of culture and food (all in my sweet spot!). The photos are beautiful, the book well laid-out and above all the recipes (though some a bit more time consuming than I'd prefer) are so different than my go-to dinners; exactly what I needed.

To choose one cookbook over all the others, it needs to have photos that are beautiful enough to inspire me to cook but also look simple enough that I won't be in the kitchen for several hours after a long work day. This book meets both criteria. The instructions are easy to follow, and I look forward to trying out many of the recipes.

AMÁ: A Modern Tex-Mex Kitchen by Josef Centeno and Betty Hallock is not your typical Mexican cookbook where the authors profess that their recipes are authentic. In fact, Centeno says, “The only thing authentic about Tex-Mex is that it isn’t authentic: It evolves and adapts.” That’s one of the reasons that this cookbook will appeal to almost everyone and make it possible for them to prepare fabulous Tex-Mex dishes at home. In addition, the author includes vignettes of his childhood and family memories, which make the book and recipes interesting. In fact, this is one cookbook that is fun to just sit down and read, even if one isn’t cooking.

Joseph Centeno owns Bar AMÁ (along with some other restaurants), a popular Tex-Mex restaurant located in Los Angeles. Centeno’s upbringing and the food prepared by family members, especially grandmothers, are the main influences on his cooking and the food served at his restaurant. His family also owned several Mexican markets, so ingredients were at his fingertips. He has used the ingredients to advantage in the recipes. For most of us that means a trip to a special grocery, but it is well-worth the trip.

This excellent cookbook includes mouthwatering recipes, which are beautifully photographed, and make it difficult to decide what to make. There is an excellent recipe for homemade flour tortillas, with step-by-step photos to insure that ours will turn out perfectly at home. The chapters are a bit different than standard cookbooks, and include Larder (pickled foods, condiments and basics), Tex-Mex Breakfast (Migas, Huevos Rancheros, etc.), Super Nacho Hour (what else? Nachos, some very unique, but all incredible), and Dulces and Desserts (Cookies, cakes, and other sweets), to name a few.

The recipes are written so that anyone can easily follow them; some have long lists of ingredients, but others are quick and easy for busy cooks. Several call for special ingredients, so hopefully readers of this cookbook have a Mexican grocery nearby. This is one cookbook everyone who loves Tex-Mex food will love. It will keep them busy cooking for months.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book

Amá
A Modern Tex-Mex Kitchen
by Josef Centeno and Betty Hallock

I miss Mexican food and do my best to make it here in Lebanon. I learned to make authentic tortillas from a woman in Saudi Arabia, learned to make salsa from a Mexican cookbook to serve to an embassy friend missing home and I have enjoyed reading and eating food from south of the border for years. I have more than one Mexican and Tex-Mex cookbook in my collection but NONE of them have the varied recipes using so many tasty ingredients as this one does. In fact, as I began reading I immediately wrote to my daughter (a foodie) to tell her about this book suggesting that she should see if she can find it. Sadly I won’t be able to find all of the ingredients where I live BUT I might be able to find substitutions and approximate the recipes. I certainly hope so. In addition to the recipes there is a great deal of family history that enriches this book. We learn of generations past that the author remembers fondly while sharing their recipes and history.

What I liked:
* The history of the author, his restaurants and family’s
* The ease of reading the recipes and feeling I could recreate the recipes if the ingredients were available
* The flavors that popped in my mind as I read through the book
* Being reminded of home and eating out decades ago in Los Angeles
* Seeing twists on recipes I make now or have made in the past using Centeno’s family seasonings and recipes

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I buy it for myself or others? Yes
Which recipes would I want to try first? Perhaps some of the salsas, desserts and mixed drinks and I have to say I am fascinated by the idea of using beer in cooking beans.

Thank you to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

A good Tex Mex cookbook with some delicious recipes. I wish more of the recipes had accompanying pictures as I am much more likely to try those that do.

A great addition to my cookbook library. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance copy of this title in exchange for an unbiased review.

Fideo

Borracho beans

Mexican Sriracha

Cobjini

Cornmeal pancakes

The serving containers hve a character. the one with the lobster is a narrow one. The spoons handles are cut-out.

Roasted caulfilower with cotija cheese

Sauteed corn with mushrooms

Rice with v8 vegetable juice

haha.. kale slaw

Super nachos is high tower

Tex Leches

Capirotada - mexican bread pudding

Many new kinds of chiles and sauces.

Can we all take a moment to appreciate how ridiculously gorgeous this book is?! The cover of this book immediately grabbed my attention and it’s just as stunning on the inside. The food photography is so well done, everything looks appetizing. Plus, it’s honestly designed really well, too. The pages are super clean and consistent.

The recipes themselves are very straightforward. And none of them seemed overly complicated, even the desserts. Which I greatly appreciated. As far as ingredients go, there are definitely some that are a bit difficult to find in my local tiny grocery store. But the majority of them were easy to grab. Definitely recommend this cook book.

Stunning book with fun and tasty recipes. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys cooking and loves tex-mex. The recipes are clearly written and the photographs are a beautiful accompaniment.

This is a solid...meh! It was ok but not much in the original.

**OMG! I cannot believe that these reviews haven't been done! I am so sorry they are so late!!!**

Amazing cookbook. The photography is fantastic and I enjoyed the introduction by the author. My sister in law is Mexican and our family has been lucky enough to eat some excellent Tex-Mex food. I would like to make some of the dishes I feel a little more comfortable with like Dad’s fajitas but the Tex-Leche chocolate-coconut cake is calling to me. Ground cherries are available in our local farmers market so I am going to try to make the pickled gooseberries. Some of the ingredients may be difficult to find locally. Star anise is one of the spices which is cool as a dear friend just told me he bought online a lifetime supply of star anise. We have several really good Mexican grocery stores near us which I will check out first. Thank you for allowing me to review an advanced copy.

Gorgeous cookbook with some great recipes. Made the carne guisada and was enchanted with the result. It occasionally asks for hard to find ingredients (especially where I live in Canada), but some little substitutions never hurt nobody.

The recipes look to die for in the photographs, which are bright, colorful and can make you drool puddles. The recipes, however, for me, are too much. They call for so many ingredients that for one, I don't keep in the house and if I did, I would waste so much money because I would never use them again. This was not for me, but I am sure someone else would enjoy it.
#Texmex #Netgalley