Menudo Rojo, Menudo Blanco and Menudo Verde. We know three ways to cook Mexican soup, but there could be more! All are exceptionally delicious.  KEY TIP When making Menudo Verde, one key point to remember is to trim the fat off the tripe as much as possible and wash it well to remove the musky odor the tripe can otherwise have. WHAT CHILE PEPPERS TO USE? Our recipe below uses jalapeños or serrano chile peppers. We’ve also made the soup with Hatch green chiles. Be sure to serve it with chopped onions, cilantro, fresh limes, and sliced radishes. Art prefers bolillos (french rolls) with his ..read more

The holiday season is in full swing, and that means it’s time to share one of our absolute favorite recipes with you all – Camotes Enmielados. The kitchen is filled with the warm, comforting aroma of cinnamon, star anise, cloves, and the rich sweetness of piloncillo (brown sugar). INGREDIENTS 4 medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled and washed 2 piloncillo cones 2 star anise (whole) 3 whole cloves 2 cinnamon sticks 6 cups of water 1/2 teaspoon of salt DIRECTIONS In a medium pot, add all the ingredients except for the sweet potatoes and bring to a boil. Add the sweet potatoes, and bring the wate ..read more

A traditional Mexican dish, menudo rojo is a spicy soup made with beef tripe. I grew up loving the red menudo my mom would make.  Preparing homemade menudo in my family typically signifies a major celebration, whether it be a wedding, baptism, or ring in the New Year. To me, it also signified love. Did I mention it is also good medicine for the crudo (hangover)? Menudo’s origins are firmly planted in peasant food heritage and poverty. According to research,  in pre-revolution Mexico, poverty among the campesinos was chronic and little if anything that might be prepared as food was l ..read more

Sometimes I am just amazed at how the simplest ingredients come together so quickly to make such a delicious dish. That’s how I feel about Chuletas de Puerco en Salsa Tomate.  The thinly sliced pork chops are first seared and browned and later bathed in a spicy tomato salsa. The tomato salsa is basic – tomatoes, onion, garlic, serrano peppers. That’s it!  I’m a big fan of pork in chile sauces. When people ask me, “What’s your favorite dish to make?” I quickly respond, Chile Verde Pork.  The Chuletas de Puerco en Salsa Tomate reminds me of that dish. Make some rice and beans, w ..read more

I’ve been messing with this chili recipe now for many years. I’ve made it with turkey, chicken, ground beef, chorizo, but I’ve finally come to terms that it’s the Beef Chili that I prefer. This recipe for Chili Con Carne uses a beef round roast.  I wanted a chili that would permeate the entire house with a smokey aroma and have enough heat that even the walls would be crying. Well, that’s an exaggeration, but this one does sock a good punch when it comes to heat and flavor.  But don’t sweat too much because it’s enough heat, but it does not scorch your taste buds. We’ve balanced th ..read more

There’s nothing better than a big bowl of spicy guacamole at the Big Game, right? Luckily, I grew up with two avocado trees at my parents’ house in Pico Rivera, Calif. The tree in the front yard produced large, bumpy, green-skinned Hass avocados. It was a gorgeous tree of medium height. The backyard tree, which was much taller and where my brothers built a makeshift tree house, bore shiny, thin, black-skinned avocados. The meat was stringy and creamy, my mom rarely used these for her guacamole. So many fell to the floor and our dogs gobbled them up. Something about the avocado oil made their ..read more

While mainstream America is doing its best to make Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, a Mexican Halloween, it is not, and there are many essays, rants, posts and bitter tweets all over the internet that will set you straight once and for all. This, however, is not one of those posts. In our home we celebrate both: Halloween with bowls of sweets, cocktail face painting parties and costumes, and we observe Día de los Muertos with altar building, platters of sweet Mexican bread, champurrado, pan de muerto, marigolds and, yes, we still do the cocktail face-painting party. Día de los Muertos ..read more

Cinco de Mayo commemorates the historic Battle of Puebla when a small Mexican army defeated the well-financed French army. Please remember, that it does not mark Mexico’s independence. Although the holiday is mostly celebrated here in the United States, we think it is a good opportunity to take a deeper look at the city of Puebla’s most iconic dish -with our Mole Poblano recipe. This authentic preparation marries mulato, ancho/pasilla, and guajillo chiles with warm spices, and sweet Mexican chocolate to create a velvety smooth sauce ideal for spooning over chicken or smothering steamed veggie ..read more

My Grandma’s Capirotada recipe is simple with not a lot of ingredients. The flavor takes me to another place in time when life was good and my mom was in the kitchen making this dish for us on a Sunday evening during Lent.  Above all, the Mexican bread pudding has warm notes from a beautifully rich syrup of cinnamon, clove, and piloncillo (think brown sugar).   Why do I call this my “Grandma’s Recipe?” To clarify, there’s a bit of a story behind this recipe. My mom made it this way for my dad as it was his mother’s recipe. She did that quite often because according to her when ..read more

We live only two hours away from Baja California, where battered fish tacos hail from. I can still remember sitting on a street curb in Tijuana eating my first “authentic” Baja-style fish taco while in college. As I grew older, the scene changed from being curbside to sitting rooftop overlooking the beautiful Pacific Ocean with a plateful of fish tacos and a bucket of iced cold cerveza. Heaven. Simply heaven. When we can’t make the trek down south, we can easily find the ingredients needed to make the tacos right here in our own kitchen. Below you will find our version of Baja-Style Beer ..read more