Garbanzo soup with saffron: Garbanzos en amarillo
Garbanzos en amarillo, with chickpeas, orange sweet potatoes and saffron, is evocative of the hearty peasant dishes of central Spain. It is a traditional food for the DÃa de La Santa Cruz, celebrated throughout Mexico, and with particular fervor in Queretaro, on May 3.
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Shrimp and nopal tacos: Tacos de camaron y nopalitos
The chunky salsa recipe that goes with these tacos makes more than necessary for the tacos, and is a delicious dip for totopos (fried tortilla triangles). I get asked for the recipe every time I serve ...
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Enchiladas with buttermilk sauce: Enchiladas de jocoque
Enchiladas with cream sauces are popular in Querétaro, and these use the thick Mexican buttermilk called jocoque, introduced by Mexico's many Lebanese immigrants. A mixture of regular buttermilk (whic...
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Grilled chicken with orange, honey and chipotle glaze: Pollo a la parrilla con salsa de naranja, miel y chipotle
Honey and citrus fruits go well together, and here they are combined with chipotle chiles, garlic and spices for a flavorful take on grilled chicken. This dish may also be baked in the oven.
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Roast pork with ancho chile, honey and cilantro sauce: Puerco al horno con salsa de chile ancho, miel y cilantro
If you don't have the time or inclination to roast the pork, or you cook for only one or two people, try the sauce with pan fried or grilled pork chops.
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Enchiladas in red chile sauce: Enchiladas dobladas
"Dobladas" means folded, and these can either be left unfilled and folded in half twice, to make triangular wedges for garnishing chicken and meat dishes, or filled and rolled. The sauce is my favorite...
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Zacatecas style enchiladas: Enchiladas zacatecanos
The word "zacatecano" used to describe a dish quite often indicates that it contains the combination of poblano chiles and cream.
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Fish in Spicy Tomato Sauce: Pescado a la Veracruzana
This is one version of the Veracruz classic traditionally made with huachinango, red snapper. It has everything you could want in a healthy Mexican dish -- bright flavors and lean protein, without sacrificing regional authenticity.
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Picadillo estilo Cristina
A most delicious main course beef recipe for a classic Mexican meal.
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Some of the posts on the Kitchen Forum got me thinking about picadillo the other day. Since I didn't have any ground beef, I made something similar with the ingredients I had. You couldn't quite call i...
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Yucatán Style Baked Marinated Salmon: Salmón Pibil
Ingredients 2 banana leaves, passed over a flame to soften 2 pound piece salmon filet 1 brick achiote paste (100 grams, about 2 ounces) ¾ cup bitter orange juice (or use half sweet orange juice and ha...
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Chicken Salad with Chipotle Vinaigrette: Salpicón de Pollo
Flavored with smoky chipotles, this recipe is adapted from one by Vicki Cowal, who had adapted it herself, from Margaret Poore's 1,000 Mexican Recipes. Here in Cholula, the regional specialty calledÂ...
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Chicken Soup with Mint: Caldo de Pollo con Hierbabuena
While hierbabuena is primarily used for tea, it is perfectly delicious in chicken soup. The first time I tried it this way I was very skeptical indeed. A friend who grew up here in Puebla ran out to ...
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Stuffed Roast Loin of Pork: Lomo de Puerco Relleno
This dish is usually associated with festive occasions in Mexico. I have had it at weddings and New Year's celebrations, but it would be fine for any special dinner such as a birthday. Most butchers wi...
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Savory Pea Pudding: BudÃn de ChÃcharo
This is a Mexican classic, which can also be made by substituting corn or carrots for the peas. The recipe is adapted from The Essential Cuisines of Mexico by Diana Kennedy. Although it calls for sugar...
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Mushroom and Pumpkin Empanadas: Empanadas de Champinones y Calabazas
Empanadas are variously filled with meat, cheese, vegetables or fruit, and served as hors d'ouevres, main courses or desserts. These vegetable empanadas are filled with a combination of mushrooms and W...
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Chiles stuffed with vegetables: Chiles rellenos de verduras
This is a very versatile recipe, since any number of vegetables, such as chayote, potato, carrots and mushrooms can be substituted for the zucchini and corn. A cooked red salsa is a good accompaniment.
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Chicken in almond mole: Pollo en mole almendrado
This recipe uses more almonds than most and eliminates the chocolate. It is a Oaxaca style, rather than a Puebla style, almendrado.
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Pork in Green Pipian: Puerco en Pipián Verde
After poultry, pork is the most popular meat to serve in pipián sauces, and goes particularly well with green pipián, where the fresh green chiles and herbs counterbalance the richness of pork. Made ...
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Yucatecan Baked Fish: Tikin-Xic
This visually appealing dish calls for achiote paste, a classic Yucatan spice paste made from the hard, orange seed of the annatto tree, blended with cumin, cloves and pepper. The market in Merida has ...
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Beef short ribs with pumpkin: Costilla de res con calabaza
The combination of meat and squash is typically West African, combined here with tomatoes, an indigenous Mexican ingredient, and spices introduced by the Spaniards.
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Mashed plantains with pork rinds: Machuca de platano con chicharrones
This variation on traditional machuca uses crispy chicharrones (pork cracklings), which give a good texture to the dish and impart the taste of pork without having to use the traditional lard.
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Plantain empanadas with picadillo: Empanadas de platano
This recipe is adapted from AlquÃmias y Atmósferas del Sabor, by Doña Carmen Titita RamÃrez, proprietress of Mexico City's famed El BajÃo restaurant. The plantains should be cooked a day in advanc...
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Tortas Ahogadas: Tortas with Tomato Sauce
Ahogadas means "drowned", an apt word to describe these sandwiches on a French roll, filled with meat and bathed with tomato sauce. While some restaurants and food stalls automatically top the tortas w...
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Puebla style sandwiches: Cemitas:
A few years ago, I had a call from Rachel Wharton, a writer for the New York Daily News food section. She was writing an article on cemitas, the latest sandwich craze to hit New York at the time, thank...
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