Mexican

These richly-spiced enchiladas are a totally worthwhile weekend cooking project.

Smoked pork hocks don’t just add meatiness and body; they release smoky, salty notes as they cook, seasoning the beans in the process.

Portobello mushrooms add hearty flavor to these creamy vegetarian enchiladas.

This light and brothy stew is just the thing for crisp autumn nights.

Ancho chilies are dried Poblano chilies, and have an earthy, sweet flavor and mild heat level. This classic tortilla soup is a creative way to use leftover turkey—substitute 1 1/2 cups finely chopped cooked turkey for the chicken.

To choose a fresh tomatillo, they should be firm and the husks mostly intact. A split is ok, but you want them looking pretty tight. Roast the onions here if you like a deeper, caramelized flavor, or add them in raw for a more authentic salsa.

In this classic dish, native to the Yucatàn peninsula, warm corn tortillas are dunked into a pumpkin seed salsa, rolled up with crumbled hard-boiled eggs, and topped with a duo of sauces: more pumpkin seed and tomato salsa to boot.

Typical Mexican enchiladas arrive rolled up and stuffed, but at my favorite enchilada street stand—the inspiration for this recipe—they're stacked in a messy, luxurious pile, with separate individual layers of corn tortillas, fresh cilantro and onion, green enchilada sauce, shredded cheese and chicken. The whole thing is topped with a blanket of crema and more cheese. It's almost like a deconstructed lasagna. The dish is enough to make you fall deeply in love with Mexico City—particularly when the corn tortillas are homemade, and the green sauce is prepared with a slow-simmering pot of fresh chicken stock.

Tacos al pastor—made from marinated pork that's been roasted on a vertical spit—are wildly popular in Mexico City, particularly at night. The best taqueros put on a show, slicing off bits of caramelized meat and catching it in one hand (or behind their back!), and then reaching above the meat to slice off a piece of warm, juicy pineapple. According to city folklore, these tacos were invented in the capital. The dish is a direct descendant of shawarma, brought by Lebanese immigrants who arrived in Mexico in the early twentieth century. The marinade in this recipe comes from Tacos Don Guero in the Cuauhtémoc neighborhood, whose taqueros were kind enough to explain their ingredients to me at six a.m. one weekday morning. Obviously very few people at home will have a vertical spit—part of what gives tacos al pastor its signature flavor—but a grill would work well, or a blazing-hot cast iron skillet or griddle greased with a little lard.