Grill-Smoked Salmon with Chipotle Mayonnaise (Salmon ahumado al chipotle)
It’s grilling season and this is one of my favorite recipes for summer entertaining. I serve it on a fish platter whole with the chipotle mayonnaise on the side. The picture shows how the salmon was served at Zarela and how you could serve it individually. There is a...Jicama, Cucumber, Pineapple Soup/Salad (Gazpacho de bienvenida)
Jicama, Cucumber, Pineapple Soup/Salad (Gazpacho de bienvenida) The street version does not include the serrano chiles so I will retest this and add a new photo in the near future. At Zarela, we served this as a summer soup but it can also be a salad.Why this...
Octopus Carpaccio
Octopus Carpaccio with Black Olive Sauce I learned a fascinating thing today. I’ve been wanting to make an octopus carpaccio with a black olive sauce I once had from a Peruvian chef at a conference but could not figure out how to slice the octopus into a paper-thin...Lenten Bread Pudding (Mema’s Capirotada)
Lenten Bread Pudding (Mema’s Capirotada) No, this is not my mother’s recipe (she was also Mema) or mine but that of another Mema, my dear friend Elisa’s grandmother who is the reason I chose to have my grandchildren call me Mema too. I was very close to her at one...Mussels Margarita (Mejillones a la margarita)
Mussels Margarita (Mejillones a la margarita) No, no one named Margarita gave me this recipe. It’s just me doing what I have criticized in others: Using nontraditional combinations of ingredients, in this case white tequila, lime juice and orange juice instead...
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.