Los Tuxtlas-Style Chile-Lime Sauce (Chile pastor)
Los Tuxtlas-Style Chile-Lime Sauce (Chile pastor) Sauces don’t get much simpler than this marriage of four or five flavors that accompanies many dishes in the Tuxtlas area. It is great with picadas or pellizcadas, but I also like it with fish and meat dishes. Chile...
Red Chile Sauce (Salsa de chile colorado)
This is probably the most versatile version of the red chile sauces. It also shows two important techniques. To develop the flavor of the dried chiles while softening them and taking away any bitterness, they are washed, quickly heated on a griddle, and soaked in hot...
Mole from Veracruz (Mole de Xico)
The mole de Xico or mole xiqueño is not as universally known outside of Mexico as the elegantly balanced mole poblano or as famous inside Mexico as the super-elaborate mole negro oaxaqueño (named for their cities of origin in neighboring Puebla and Oaxaca). But it’s...
Tablecloth Stainer Sauce (Manchamanteles)
Tablecloth Stainer Sauce (Manchamanteles) This marvelous spicy fruit sauce, whose name translates into “tablecloth stainer,” is the first homemade main-dish sauce that I ever ate from the southern Mexico state of Chiapas. It changed my whole perception of Mexican...
Yellow Mole (Mole Amarillo)
This is one of the seven major Oaxacan moles. There are two main kinds, each with infinite variations. (If you ask ten Oaxacan cooks about mole amarillo, you will probably get ten quite different recipes and also realize that no one bothers to use the full name...
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.