Tex-Mex

For your next Tex-Mex dinner, opt for this colorful summer salsa that features seasonal ingredients such as avocado, green onions, and mango. Serve it with black beans and rice, or heap it on jerk chicken or grilled fish for a fresh and healthy lunch or dinner any night of the week.

Few comfort foods hit the spot like a good chili. Don’t forget the Cheddar shortcakes; the light, fluffy consistency of the dough pairs perfectly with this Tex-Mex staple.

The bell peppers in this dish work to keep your skin looking great. Their vitamin C helps build firming collagen and fends off damaging free radicals.

It’s the crunchy contrast of hard shell and moist filling that does it for fans of fried tacos. Throughout the book are traditional and innovative fillings that make perfect partners to crispy fried tortillas. Try the take-out standard updated and refined as Classic Ground Beef with Guajillo Chiles (page 92), the smoky Tex-Mex allure of Barbecued Brisket (page 99), the fusion appeal of Thai Shrimp (page 59), or the unexpected meatiness of Portobello Mushrooms with Chipotle (page 24). These are just a few of the recipes that let you bring home the crunch without a trip to the drive-through. You can purchase ready-to-fill crispy corn taco shells at most grocery stores. As the shells can quickly get stale and go rancid, buy them at a store with a very high turnover and buy just the amount you need for a meal, as they don’t keep well. Of the national brands that I’ve tasted, those made by Taco Bell were the best and most reliable. With not much effort, though, you can make taco shells that are tastier, fresher, and crisper than any you can buy and in just the size you need. And you don’t even have to use tortillas. Wonton skins and egg roll wrappers, available at almost any supermarket, fry up into delicious shells ready for filling.

This is the classic vegetable layer for the familiar ground beef taco. It adds freshness and crunch to the taco and absorbs some of the meat juices, but you can use it with any number of other fillings—up to you. The addition of salsa fresca to bland iceberg lettuce adds vibrant color and flavor.

These smoky, wonderfully juicy tacos mix two great culinary traditions—Mexican and Texas barbecue, both notable for their intense, but subtle seasoning. In the United States, the cooking of the Old West was heavily influenced by the charros (Mexican cowboys) who cooked over open fires that infused meat with a smoky essence that so many of us find addictive. In Texas, the wood both of choice and necessity is mesquite, usually mixed with oak to soften the hard green tones of the mesquite. This recipe is easy to do, but requires some advance planning, as the brisket must sit in its rub overnight, and a little patience during the slow cooking. But the results are some of the best tasting barbecue that you have ever eaten. Buy fresh, not prepackaged, brisket that isn’t overly fatty—the fat should cover no more than one-third of its surface. Or, you can buy the leaner, thinner end, if you prefer. A piquant cabbage slaw makes a good accompaniment.

This favorite of American households is the usual “starter” taco served at schools, airports, and drive-ins, and undoubtedly what most of us picture when we think of tacos. It’s the familiar fried folded corn tortilla shell layered with shredded iceberg or romaine lettuce, piquant fresh tomato salsa, and a cumin-flavored ground beef filling topped with grated cheese—but this one is so much tastier. As with any taco served in a crispy shell, fill and eat it right away or it will get soggy. Try to buy a high-quality ground beef, preferably pure ground chuck with a 25 to 30 percent fat content. Less expensive hamburger grinds will work fine, but they won’t be as flavorful or juicy.

These fried filled taco tubes are actually more Tex-Mex than Mex, but have become a popular Mexican street snack and restaurant favorite. Flautas (flutes) are larger, about the diameter of a cigar—about 4 to 5 inches long, and about 1 inch in diameter. Taquitos are smaller, more like a cigarillo—about 3 to 3 1/2 inches long and 1/2 to 3/4 inch in diameter. Both flautas and taquitos are great choices for entertaining. Serve either as finger food, figuring 2 to 3 per person as an appetizer, or include them as part of a main course combination plate. In Mexico, both flautas and taquitos are usually made with corn tortillas, rarely with flour. For taquitos especially, it’s very difficult to find flour tortillas thin enough to roll up into the proper tight little tubes and seal them securely. At the end of many of the recipes in the book is a feature called Tortillas that notes fillings that work well as flautas or taquitos. Among the many delicious choices are all-vegetable Squash Blossoms with Green Chiles and Cheese (page 23) or Wild Forest Mushrooms with Garlic (page 25) to meat-based Yucatán Chicken with Achiote (page 48), Turkey with Mole (page 52), Pork Carnitas (page 78), or Braised Beef Short Ribs (page 96). In general, the best fillings are cheese based as they hold together and cook evenly. Meat or chicken should be shredded, rather than in big chunks, which can take too long to heat up, causing the tortilla to overfry and burn.

Flour tortillas are a mainstay of Tex-Mex cooking. You can see them rolling hot off the tortilla machines into baskets at many of the Tex-Mex restaurant chains (a show that kids love to watch), perfect for fajitas and juicy meats. One of my favorite ways to enjoy a flour tortilla is possible in Santa Fe only in August and September during the chile harvest. I’ll peel and seed a fire-roasted fresh green chile, roll it, still steaming, in a warm fresh flour tortilla, and eat it up. Such a simple treat, yet so memorable. These tortillas are very easy to make and so much fresher and lighter than any you can buy at the store. I’ve used bleached all-purpose flour for this recipe rather than bread flour. All-purpose flour has less gluten, so the dough is easier to roll out into thin tortillas that stay flat without shrinking back. As an alternative to making the dough from scratch, you can try Quaker Harina Preparada para Tortillas, a mix that contains all the ingredients in dry form that you need to make flour tortillas, including the fat. Just add water to prepare the dough. Some Hispanic markets stock it, or look for an online source.

The ingredients can be prepared the day before and refrigerated.

To reduce the fat, we eliminated the cheese and toasted the corn tortillas in the oven rather than frying them in oil.

You can serve this chunky salsa in seashells as an hors d’oeuvre with cocktails, but it would also be ideal as a dip for Fried Plantain Chips (recipe follows).

When it’s time to put logs in the fireplace, it’s also time to fire up a big pot of this chili, flavored with lots of cumin and brightened with lemon juice.

No potluck meal or barbecue is complete without baked beans. These cook for a long time but need very little attention. The result is well worth the wait.

A popular dish in the Lone Star State, where it is called Texas Caviar, this flavorful salad is sure to become a favorite in your household, too.

For more than fifty years, Min’s two family branches, the Merrells and the Almys, have been eating at the Cortez Cafe in Carlsbad, New Mexico. The food is straightforward Tex-Mex and always finishes with a round of sopapillas and honey. Back in the ’70s, the family thought nothing odd about beginning meals with bowls of fiery green salsa scooped up with saltine crackers. The Cortez has since switched to tortilla chips and you may prefer them as well, but the Merrell-Almy clan retains its hot spot for salsa and crackers. Pining away in Nashville for that distinct Cortez flavor, Min thinks she’s figured it out—it’s mostly fresh jalapeños. Min’s cousin Eric, knighted Sir Cortez by the clan, now brings his version of Min’s Cortez Salsa recipe to every family dinner—with sleeves of only the freshest saltines, of course.