Jalapeño

This quick-cooking dish proves that you can make flavorful Indian curries entirely from scratch with just a handful of fresh (and easy to find) ingredients.

Turn leftover meat from Flank Steak with Parsley-Garlic Sauce (page 194) into one of these weeknight dinners. The steak for the salad can be served cold, while the steak in the fajitas will warm through as it gets cooked with the rest of the ingredients.

For true Southwestern flavor, squeeze lime juice over each portion of soup just before serving and place tortilla chips alongside. Buy the cooked ham from the deli counter, or leave it out altogether for a vegetarian version.

Salsa simply means “sauce” in Spanish. These three versions are delicious served with tortilla chips, or as condiments along-side grilled fish, chicken, or pork.

SLOPPY JOES, THE OLD CHILDHOOD FAVORITE, get a makeover in this weeknight dish. With turkey instead of beef and the addition of corn, cilantro, and jalapeño, this is no ordinary joe. Spoon this flavorful mixture into hamburger buns or warm tortillas for a kid-friendly main course, or try it over rice or in a lettuce cup.

The secret ingredient of this tangy, spicy dressing is fish sauce, or “nam pla.” Made from small, dried fish, nam pla is a staple in Southeast Asian cooking; its strong, distinctive flavor is mellowed by the lime. Adjust the level of spiciness by adding jalapeños or leaving them out entirely.

FLAVOR BOOSTER A ginger-and-lime yogurt marinade spiked with chopped jalapeños adds tang and a little heat to skinless chicken thighs. Peach chutney makes a tart-sweet, low-fat accompaniment. If using wooden skewers, soak them in water for thirty minutes before grilling.

For Bryant, shucking and eating freshly picked ears of corn reminds him how for generations his family was intimately connected with their food sources—they ate what they grew. When you eat juicy corn on the cob, served straight from the pot and slathered with butter, it’s easy to imagine such a connection. Freshness really matters with corn—as soon as it is picked, the sugars in the corn start converting to starch. Choose ears that feel plump and fat with tightly closed, bright green husks and golden brown silks. Look for stems that are moist and pale green, and check for tight, small, plump kernels. Kernels cut from the cob offer other possibilities: sautéed, with sweet peppers, chiles, tomatoes, squash, or beans; or used in cornbread and griddle cakes, and in numerous soups and salsas. To prepare kernels for cooking, pull off the husks and cornsilk from the ears of corn. Rub the ears with a clean dish towel to remove any clinging cornsilk, and snap off the stems. Cut the kernels from the cobs: Hold an ear by the tip, stand it up vertically with the stem end down, and use a sharp knife to cut down the length of the cob, cutting just deep enough to slice off the kernels. This is messy; to contain the kernels, it helps to work in a large bowl, or on a small cutting board set inside a roasting pan.

Thankfully, in Tijuana we don’t have to wait for summer to get the grill out. One of the benefits is that we can eat grilled corn on the cob any day of the year. Jalapeño butter is easy to make and adds the perfect finish to the slightly charred corn. If you have any left over, store it in the fridge for up to a week; it’s great on a baked potato or green beans.

There was always a roast chicken in our fridge when I was growing up—but I’d be lying if I said my mom cooked it. There was a wonderful rotisserie place a few blocks from my house and they would deliver a succulent roast chicken, fresh salsa, homemade tortillas, and frijoles charros (like the frijoles on page 155 but with tons of bacon in the mix). We’d all stand around the kitchen table and make soft tacos, adding a few slices of avocado. We used leftovers for chicken salad, flautas (rolled up and fried chicken tacos), or tostadas (fried tortillas spread with refried beans, topped with shredded chicken, shredded iceberg lettuce, crema, salsa, avocado slices, and, in my house, a drizzle of olive oil and red wine vinegar). This recipe is so easy and yields such a flavorful, succulent chicken that I doubt any rotisserie place in your neighborhood can rival it. And I doubt you’ll have leftovers. But if you do, go to town with tortillas, beans, avocado, and any of the salsas in this book and make tacos.

I have eaten more than my share of fish tacos while living in Baja. But the beach is a half-hour drive from my house, so I was on a mission to find a fish taco recipe that I could make at home—one that was as delicious and authentic as the taco they serve at my favorite Rosarito taco shack. This is what I came up with—and I’m happy to say it competes!

I borrowed a page from one of the masters, Martha Stewart, for the presentation of these chicken salad sandwiches, but the recipe is all mine. Mexican and Mediterranean ingredients put a spicy spin on a traditional lunchtime favorite. Think Martha—but with a kick.

This is one of those recipes where success relies on the freshness of the ingredients. Use the best-quality Gorgonzola you can find, be it a mild domestic version or the more pungent Italian variety. Either one will pair nicely with the chile oil, which enlivens this classic recipe. This makes for a beautiful presentation on a platter, but you can easily divide the beet slices among individual plates and serve it that way.

These guys are spicy! If you’re afraid of the heat, you can use güero chiles, but jalapeños are exactly the right size for an appetizer. Oaxaca cheese, like mozzarella, is a mild-flavored white cheese that is excellent for melting. It’s popular for quesadillas in Mexico.

There are several varieties of avocado, each with a slightly different flavor. For this recipe, I use Hass, the most common type sold in supermarkets in the U.S. Choose ripe avocados (slightly firm but yielding to gentle pressure), and be sure to remove any brown spots before you start. If you don’t have time to prepare the garlic-oregano crostini, this creamy and luxurious spread is great on any savory cracker.

I don’t cook with jalapeño peppers often because I’m not a huge fan of spicy food, but when I was served grilled fish topped with a spicy pesto at a beach-side restaurant near San Diego, I loved the way the heat woke up the flavor of the fish. I thought it could do the same for pasta, and sure enough, it’s a great combo. Packed with spinach and arugula, this pesto is more condiment and less sauce than the typical basil pesto, and a bit lighter thanks to the substitution of walnuts for oily pine nuts. Fusilli is the perfect partner for any kind of pesto because the sauce gets trapped in the ridges so you get flavor in every bite. Serve leftovers of the dressed pasta with roasted chicken, fish, or beef.

If you have had only the fast-food variety of tacos or made them using a mix, these will come as a revelation, yet they’re quite easy to make. Top them with sour cream, any salsa (pages 610–612), Guacamole (page 22), or a combination; they are also delicious on their own. There is a wealth of variations here; if you’re not interested in frying, see the soft taco version. The chicken can be cooked by any method you like; poaching with aromatic vegetables and spices will work, along with producing a decent stock.

A basic spicy braised dish (non-Indians might call it a curry) that can be varied as you like (a couple of ideas follow the main recipe) and can also be made with lamb, pork, or seafood. Though it is traditionally made quite hot in its northern India home (as much food there is), you can reduce the number of chiles to one for a much milder version or increase them if your tastes run that way. Because the chicken is not browned, the dish is relatively easy to make; you can remove its skin if you like, because without the browning it adds nothing. I love this with a Paratha (page 559) but that might be too much work; it’s delicious with any rice dish also.

You’ll need a nonstick skillet for this or at least a very well-seasoned cast-iron or steel pan (or cheat and start with a tablespoon or two of corn oil). Although this recipe will work with frozen corn kernels, it is far, far superior when you strip the kernels from fresh cobs. Corn cooked this way is terrific in salads—either green or bean—where you are looking for extra crunch and flavor.

Fish or shrimp in a powerful sauce is a common dish in India; this is a good example. If you’re comfortable in the kitchen, you can produce this dish far more quickly by beginning with the onion-tomato mixture and sautéing the fish in a separate skillet. Serve this with Coconut Rice (page 516) or Home-Fried Potatoes with Onion and Amchoor (page 477) or any Indian vegetable dish.