Poblano Chile

Authentic, fiery mole sauces from the southern region of Mexico take days to prepare. This is a relatively quick version of the chunky, spicy, and chocolatey, mole negro or “black sauce.” To experience the full flavors of peppers, native spices, and fresh chocolate, book a culinary vacation to Oaxaca, Mexico, the Land of Seven Moles, where you can explore a district known as the Trail of Chocolate. In the meantime, get fresh ingredients from your local farmers’ market. You can substitute jalepeños for the poblano chiles, but the dark dried ancho and mulato chiles are important to bring the sauce to its characteristic deep chocolate brown. This will make a large batch of sauce designed to thin and use for a meal, then freeze and thaw as needed.

If you want to, you can stretch this hearty southwestern stew by serving it over brown rice. Put about a half-cup of cooked rice in each bowl, then top with the stew.

Serve the soup in shallow bowls and pass crusty bread for mopping.

Little Tunis and the multicultural and bustling Belleville market in Paris are populated with French farmers and merchants from North Africa. In the restaurants and stores bordering the market, you feel as if you are in North Africa, as Tunisians and others congregate at kosher and halal restaurants, bars, and bakeries. You also feel the influence of the Italian tenure in Tunisia: Italian bread, beignets shaped like the Italian manicotti, and canned tuna in olive oil. An everyday snack that Jews and Muslims make from the ingredients found in this market is a large brik filled with parsley, tuna, and a raw egg, then quickly deep-fried and served with a salad called mechouia. The word mechouia, which means “grilled” in Arabic, can be applied to grilling an entire lamb or just the vegetables that go with it. Some sprinkle salt on the grill to keep away the evil eye. The trick to making a good mechouia is grilling more tomatoes than peppers. To retain the flavor of both vegetables, sprinkle them with salt after they are grilled and peeled, and let them drain overnight, to help the water seep out. In the market, Tunisians use corne-de-boeuf peppers, the ones they grew up with in Tunisia, but you can substitute Anaheim peppers, which are very similar, or others.

Letting the hot steak rest over a platter of frisée serves to gently wilt the greens.

Skewering and grilling whole garlic cloves gives this vibrant sauce its smoky sweetness. Make the salsa as chunky or as smooth as you like.

If you've got a handful of eggs in your fridge, you're halfway to making one of our favorite weeknight dishes, the versatile frittata. We like the earthy combination of peppers and mushrooms, though any combination of sautéed vegetables, herbs, and cheese will work.

I love a good corn muffin, and nobody makes one better than Loic Feillet of Panorama Baking in Alexandria, Virginia. The muffin is so good, in fact—moist and studded with chewy little bits of corn—that as soon as I tasted it, I knew I’d incorporate it into an egg dish. The muffin reminded me of an artisanal English muffin, and I just happened to be working on a Mexican variation of eggs Benedict. How perfect! The corn muffin would replace the traditional corn tortilla in huevos rancheros, and I’d poach instead of fry the eggs. Immediately, I had a dish worthy of the muffin, but best of all, even a lesser muffin tastes great when capped off with these ingredients.

A little taste of the Southwest to get you in the mood for a rowdy game of Texas Hold'em!

The fillets are cooked in foil packets with a mix of herbs, citrus, beer, and wine, then served with maque choux, a Cajun succotash.

An homage to the prehistoric pitmasters: giant steaks cooked directly on hot coals. This method gives you a steak that's moist on the inside and pleasantly charred on the outside. Be sure to use hardwood lump charcoal (not briquettes) for this recipe. It will burn cleaner, hotter, and faster than traditional charcoal.

The heat of poblano chiles can vary dramatically. Season to taste by adjusting the amount of crushed red pepper before adding the clams.

The earliest Mexican cuisine was vegetable-based, so in times past, before Spanish beef, chicken, and pork worked their way into every taco, there were no doubt plenty of satisfying vegetable taco recipes. Today most vegetables are consumed as salsas, in soups, or stuffed into quesadillas and empanadas, but there's no reason why a vegetable taco shouldn't be every bit as tasty and unusual as any other. This sumptuous vegetarian feast is based on the classic combination of roasted poblano chiles and mushrooms, with the addition of corn and mild-flavored, soft queso fresco. This taco is often favored by even the most committed carnivores. In other seasons, bits of diced cooked sweet potato, zucchini, chayote, squash blossoms, or golden winter squash would be welcome additions. Fresh epazote, used as a flavoring in this taco, has a minty-oregano taste and is often available at Mexican markets. (It is also hardy and easy to grow.) Fresh or dried mint or Mexican oregano may be substituted, but do not substitute dried epazote.

The luscious purple color of this drink is a stunner! Taste a berry first to check for sweetness. If it's not supersweet, add a tablespoon of sugar when muddling the berries.

My idea of party perfection is a backyard fajita fest. I have the guys roast the peppers until blistery and browned, then I send them into the kitchen to seed and slice them. Next they grill up the steaks and cut them into nice, thin strips. Meanwhile I've already set out bowls of guacamole, sour cream, salsa, and chips. We all gather around my outdoor table, each of us making our dream fajita with just the right balance of steak and peppers, sour cream and guacamole.

I fell for this soup on a trip to the Yucatan Peninsula, where it is a mainstay. It’s light and refreshing—a tasty first course that whets the appetite without ruining it for the main event. It’s a smart way to go if you’re serving heavier fare, such as Cheese Enchiladas with Chile Gravy (page 152) or Fiesta Chiles Rellenos (page 145) for a main course.