Mexican Food Made Simple - Season 1 (2011)

Tommi whips up a few fresh Mexican recipes to blow you away. There’s a guacamole full of fire, a Mexican chile with some surprising ingredients and a raspberry sorbet laced with tequila. Who knew pork scratchings were a huge hit in Mexico? Tommi finds some as big as bathmats and tests out the tiny British versions on some rather dubious moustachioed men. Plus she invites three armed policemen to lunch and meets a man who knows all there is to know about Mexico’s sacred spirit - mescal.

No Mexican worth their salt would ever sit down to eat without some salsa at hand, so this episode's first course is Tommi's roast tomato and chilli salsa. In Mexico City, Tommi visits a street-food stall that has been delivering the goods for over thirty years. Back in her kitchen, Tommi claims to have a recipe that will make the humble sardine sexy.

Tommi's quest to find the perfect quesadilla leads her from the ancient pyramids of Monte Alban to the mountain town of Santo Tomás Jalieza, where three generations of women have been following the same recipe since they were girls. Then, back at home in her kitchen, Tommi shows us her simple twists on the classic: a quesadilla with chorizo and good old-fashioned spud. After discovering why Mexicans take breakfast so seriously, Tommi makes her own spicy fried egg with hot chilli-tomato sauce, before later heading to a bustling market to seek inspiration for a punchy, tequila-laced dessert.

In search of the ideal spectator snack - a big meaty sandwich called a torta - Thomasina gets a ringside seat to Mexico's favourite sport, Luche Libre. Here the masked wrestlers leap on top of each other, catapulting from the ropes. Back home in her kitchen, Thomasina shows us how to make a torta packed with chorizo, avocado and refried beans. Plus there's a recipe for a pretty poached plum dessert with rose petal syrup.

Not a lot of people know that empanadas originally came from Cornwall, inspired by the humble pasty - a favourite dish of the tin miners who came to work in Mexico in the 19th century. Thomasina's hunt for the best empanadas in the country takes her to the Oaxacan valleys and a small village called Ocotlan, where a lady called Carmelita whips them up in her backyard. Plus Tommi shares the recipe for her all-time favourite spicy crab noodles, and an exotic and zesty passion-fruit jelly.