This flavor-packed shrimp soup, despite its ease of preparation and (mostly) ordinary ingredients, actually does full justice to the main ingredient. In Mexico it is considered one of a handful of dishes that are able to “bring the dead back to life”—which means easing the suffering caused by anything from a broken heart or just…
Main Dishes
Rustic Campfire-style Mexican Carne Asada
Robin: Though you’ll often see recipes for carne asada that call for skirt or flank steak that is grilled and then sliced against the grain of the meat into succulent strips of goodness, that´s not what this recipe is about. This is a little humbler—though no less delicious!—style of carne asada, made with thinly sliced…
American Goulash
Robin: Though they share a name, what’s commonly known as “goulash” in the United States has little resemblance to the dish of the same name in Central Europe. Both are stew-like and feature meat as a main ingredient, but that’s about where the similarity ends. Comparing American goulash to Hungarian goulash seems a bit like…
Easy Beef and Noodles
Midwestern comfort food at its best: chunks of tender,slow-cooked beef in thickened broth with pasta.
Chiles en Nogada (Stuffed Poblano Chiles in Creamy Walnut Sauce)
Robin: Some traditional, labor-intensive dishes seem almost not worth the effort to make, and we end up having them more for nostalgia’s sake than for the dishes themselves. The quintessential Mexican classic Chiles en Nogada is not like that; it definitely would be worth the work even if took twice the time to prepare. Chiles en Nogada…
Celebration Picadillo (Meat and Dried Fruits Hash)
Robin: Picadillo is made in slightly different versions all over Latin America, and usually it consists of ground or minced meat cooked with onions, tomatoes, and perhaps other vegetables. It is seasoned a little differently depending on the cook’s location and inclination. This particular version includes a variety of dried fruits and nuts that make…
Pork Chops a la Veracruzana
Robin: Veracruz port, on Mexico’s gulf coast, was for many decades the main hub through which people and goods passed on their way between the land of the Aztecs and other continents. It didn’t take long for resourceful cooks to adapt techniques and ingredients native to Mexico with those of Europe, Africa, and even the…
Peruvian Pumpkin Stew (Locro de zapallo)
Robin: Peru is a great country for comfort foods. It is, after all, the birthplace of the potato, a tuber that is high on most people’s list of soothing ingredients. Inhabitants of the Andes are also the creators of many one-pot, carb-rich meals, and what could be cozier than that? A locro is a warming,…
Sonoran Cheese and Potato Soup (Caldo de queso y papa)
Robin: This lovely dish from northern Mexico is delightfully different from most other soups with similar ingredients. It contains potatoes, but is not thick; it calls for milk, but is not a cream soup, there is cheese in it, but the cheese does not melt. In fact, a fresh, white queso panela or queso fresco…
Grandpa Foley Special (Smoked Sausage Dinner)
Robin: My grandmother, Grace, was the only grandparent I ever knew. She was my maternal grandfather’s second wife and not a biological relative, but that didn’t make any difference to her or to me—she was my Grammy! Looong before I came into the picture, Grammy’s dad, Grandpa Foley, worked at a factory in their small…