Stuffed Plantains (Platanos Rellenos)
Last night I went to the screening of Harlem on a Plate featuring my buddy and Aaron’s, Marcus Samuelson, Alexander Smalls of Cecil, and the granddaughter of the legendary Sylvia, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in 1984. It’s a great documentary and I...
Pork Crackling Salad (Ensalada de chicharron)
Now that people eat lardo and pork belly, commercial chicharrones (pork cracklings) seem positively low fat. This salad is always very popular at my parties. Pork Crackling Salad (Ensalada de chicharron) People like to pick out the cracklings from this Pork Crackling...
Red Snapper Hash (Salpicon de huachinango)
This recipe for red snapper hash has become my signature dish, but actually I adapted it from one of the dishes my mother found when everyone was passing recipes on to me in El Paso. It was originally done with crab, but here the cost would be prohibitive for what was...
Crimped Corn Tartlets (Picadas)
“Picada,” literally “pinked” or “pricked,” refers to the way you’re supposed to crimp up the edges of a small tortilla so as to form a shallow tartlet shell for spreading with a few simple toppings and serving as either a breakfast or supper snack. You may have...
Ceviche en Chamoy
Ceviche en Chamoy When I was young, we used to go to Mexicali, Baja California, every summer on our way to visit my grandmother in La Jolla. It was also our yearly trip to Disneyland. We’d stock up on saladitos (Chinese plums cured in salt and sugar), and chamoys,...
The many lives of Zarela Martínez
Culinary legend Zarela Martínez introduced finely tuned, highly researched regional Mexican cuisine to a national stage, and has continued to blaze trails for more than three decades.