Robin: Beans, both fresh and dried, are enjoyed in lots of different preparations in many parts of Latin America. Each country or region tends to have its favorite. Costa Rica is no exception. Although dried black beans are the most widely used in that country, a variety of large, fresh, yellowish-brownish-red beans known as cubaces…
Mexican Meatball Soup (Caldo de albóndigas)
Robin: If there were a Nobel Prize for the dish most likely to take the chill out of the body and heal the wounds of the soul, this hearty Mexican soup would definitely be a finalist. Albóndigas (Spanish for meatballs, and made here with rice rather than bread crumbs) and vegetables come together in good-for-what-ails-you…
Meatballs in Chipotle Sauce (Albóndigas en salsa de chipotle)
Robin: Practically any spicy cooking sauce is delicious with meatballs, but chipotle sauce is probably the one most widely used in Mexico itself for cooking and serving the delicious, traditional albóndigas. Chipotle chiles are a smoked and dried version of a particular sort of jalapeño pepper, and they do tend to be quite spicy. This…
Mexican Meatballs (Albóndigas)
Robin: If your experience of “taco meat” so far has been pretty much limited to a seasoned ground beef mixture, you can be excused for thinking that Mexican food in general calls for a lot of ground meat. The truth is, this ingredient is not overly abundant in traditional Mexican cooking; in fact, it’s used…
Lentil Soup
Robin: I learned to make this in Mexico, but very similar lentil dishes can be found all over Latin America, since it was the Spanish and Portuguese who brought this valuable, nutritious legume to our part of the world. In Mexico, lentil soup would probably be served in small portions as the first course to…
Preparing Mole 101
Robin: Google “easy mole” and you will get back a gajillion links to recipes for this traditional Mexican delicacy. While it certainly delights me that this exquisite sauce is well-known enough outside its native land to have a plethora of recipes published for it in English, I know enough to realize that not everything labeled…
Mole Sauce for Beginners
Robin: If you’re even just a little bit interested in authentic Mexican food, you’ve probably heard of mole or mole sauce. (I’ll use those terms interchangeably here.) You may even have ordered it at a Mexican restaurant at some point—unless you were put off by the unappetizing appearance of a dark-colored mole and still haven’t…
Caribbean Beef Patties
Ed: Though similar in many ways to South American beef empanadas, both the filling and the dough of these delicious patties have their own distinctive Caribbean ingredients. Ginger and curry powder are must-haves in the meat hash, while turmeric gives a lovely yellow color to the dough. Beef patties, also called meat pies, are very…
Cheese Cracklings (Chicharrón de queso)
Robin: You know that little bit of cheese that oozes out of a grilled cheese sandwich and drips down onto the surface of the pan, where it gets crispy and almost-but-not-quite burns before you scrape it off and pop it into your mouth? It’s sooooo delicious, the very best bite of the whole meal, to…
Gala Turkey Salad
Robin: Most of us don’t roast a turkey more than a couple of times a year at the most, so when we do, it’s a big deal and it’s important to use every last shred of the bird to the best advantage. What to do with all those itty bitty pieces of white and dark…