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251 recipes

Bajan salt bread

Every rum shop and fish fry in Barbados sells "bread and two", and the bread is almost always salt bread: plain, crusty rolls with a soft, slightly chewy crumb and a split down the top, made for stuffing with fish cakes, a slice of cheese or fried flying fish as a cutter. Despite the name, they aren't especially salty; the name sets them apart from sweet bread. The usual mistake is pale rolls with a soft crust from too cool an oven. Chef's tip: put a tray of boiling water in the bottom of the oven for the first 10 minutes for a properly crisp crust.

50 min

Bajan Breads & Parathas

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Bajan pumpkin fritters

Barbadian grandmothers turn leftover boiled pumpkin into these little fritters for Sunday tea, frying spoonfuls of a soft, spiced batter until puffed and golden, then rolling them in sugar while still hot. Inside they are tender and custardy, with cinnamon, nutmeg and a hint of vanilla. They're best eaten warm, straight from the paper towel. The common mistake is a watery batter from wet pumpkin, which makes flat, greasy fritters: drain the cooked pumpkin well. Chef's tip: use the dense, orange West Indian pumpkin or butternut squash; watery jack-o'-lantern pumpkins don't work well.

30 min

Bajan Snacks & Starters

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Bajan fish cutter

Around Barbados a "cutter" is any sandwich in a salt bread roll, and the fish cutter is the lunch people queue for at beach bars from Oistins to Bathsheba: a piece of flying fish (or mahi-mahi, called dolphin locally) seasoned with Bajan seasoning, crumbed, fried crisp and stuffed into a split roll with lettuce, tomato and a dab of fiery yellow pepper sauce. The fish should be juicy and the crust shattering. The usual mistake is frying too cool, which makes the coating greasy; keep the oil hot and fry in small batches. Use flying fish fillets if you can find them frozen, or any thin white fish. Chef's tip: rub a little of the frying oil over the cut sides of the rolls and toast them in a dry pan, so the bread doesn't go soggy under the fish.

25 min

Bajan Fast Food

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Bajan coconut turnovers

Glass cases in Bridgetown bakeries hold rows of turnovers, soft golden half-moons of sweet yeasted dough with a sticky filling of grated coconut, brown sugar, almond essence and spice peeking out at the edges, often tinted red. Bajans eat them mid-morning with a mug of cocoa or a cold sweet drink. The mistake is overfilling, which bursts the seams in the oven; leave a clear border to seal. Chef's tip: cook the coconut filling until almost dry and cool it fully before using, as warm wet filling makes the dough soggy.

60 min

Bajan Baking

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Bajan jug jug

Jug jug belongs to Christmas in Barbados, served alongside baked ham and roast pork on the big lunch table: green pigeon peas and salted beef and salted pork, cooked tender and minced, then stirred with guinea corn (sorghum) flour, herbs and onion into a thick, savoury, mouldable mash. Its roots are often traced to Scottish settlers' haggis and West African grain cookery, and it tastes rich, salty and herby. The common mistake is not soaking the salt meats long enough, which makes the whole pot too salty to eat; soak them overnight in plenty of water. Cook until the minced meat mixture is piping hot (71 °C) throughout. Chef's tip: stir in the sorghum flour a spoonful at a time while the pot bubbles, like making polenta, so it never turns lumpy.

180 min

Bajan Meat

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Chalupas poblanas

On Sunday evenings in the old centre of Puebla, around the Barrio de San Francisco and the Paseo Bravo, stalls fry stacks of small, thin tortillas in shallow oil and paint them half red and half green with salsa. These are chalupas poblanas, sold by the half dozen on paper plates and eaten in a few bites. The Puebla version is usually topped with shredded pork; ours keeps the salsas, onion and cheese, which are the real flavour, and adds a few beans. The edges should be crisp, the middle still a little soft from the salsa. Cheese like queso fresco is often made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian fresh cheese if you prefer. Chef's tip: spoon the salsa on while the tortilla is still in the pan so it sizzles and soaks in.

25 min

Mexican Snacks & Starters

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Nicuatole

Nicuatole is a Zapotec sweet sold in little squares from glass cases at Oaxacan markets and at village fiestas, often with a bright pink top coloured with cochineal. It is made from corn masa cooked with water, sugar and cinnamon until it thickens enough to set when cool, a cousin of atole you can cut with a knife. The texture is soft, slightly bouncy and cool, and it is eaten as an afternoon treat. We give a coconut-milk option and use beetroot juice or a natural red food colouring instead of cochineal (which comes from insects) for the red layer. Chef's tip: cook it until the spoon leaves a clear path across the pan base for a full second; undercooked nicuatole never sets.

40 min

Mexican Desserts

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Rajas con crema

Rajas means strips, and in Puebla they mean poblano chillies, the dark green pepper the state is named after, charred, peeled and sliced, then simmered with onion, sweetcorn and cream. Poblanos are mild with a grassy, gently smoky bite, so the dish is rich rather than fiery. It turns up on Puebla tables as a side for rice, as a taco filling at fondas, or in a tamal for breakfast. Some cooks melt in Chihuahua or Oaxaca cheese, which may be made with animal rennet; use a vegetarian melting cheese if needed. Chef's tip: sweat the peeled chillies in a covered bowl for 10 minutes; the steam lifts the skins off cleanly without rinsing away the smoky flavour.

35 min

Mexican Sides

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Tlatlapas

In the villages of Tlaxcala, tlatlapas is the Lenten and rainy-season soup: dried beans, fava and peas are toasted on a comal, ground to a coarse flour and simmered into a thick, earthy purée seasoned with dried chilli, epazote and strips of cactus. It is a peasant dish with pre-Hispanic roots, cheap, filling and full of protein, eaten with corn tortillas and a squeeze of lime. Using split beans keeps the cooking under an hour. Chef's tip: toast the pulses until golden and nutty, not dark; burnt ones turn the whole pot bitter.

55 min

Mexican Soups

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Charamuscas

Around Day of the Dead in Guanajuato city, sweet sellers display charamuscas pulled and shaped into skulls, mummies (a nod to the town's famous museum) and simple twists, glossy amber and wrapped in cellophane. The everyday ones are rope-like spirals of pulled piloncillo, chewy then brittle, with a deep molasses taste. Pulling the hot sugar is a two-person job and great fun with older children; younger ones should watch. Chef's tip: wear clean rubber kitchen gloves rubbed with oil; you can handle the sugar sooner and much more comfortably.

40 min

Mexican Desserts

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Mole amarillo with vegetables

In Oaxaca's central valleys, the 'yellow' mole is the everyday one of the seven: lighter than mole negro, made on weekdays, sold at market fondas in Tlacolula and Ocotlán and folded into empanadas on the comal. Guajillo and costeño chillies give it a brick-orange colour, a few tomatillos make it tangy, and masa stirred in at the end thickens it to a soft, velvety sauce. Oaxacan cooks use chicken or beef broth; this version uses vegetable stock with chayote, green beans and potatoes, which is also how many homes make it during Lent. Serve it in deep bowls with corn tortillas. Chef's tip: the fresh hoja santa leaf (or a few fennel fronds) is what makes it taste Oaxacan, so add it for the last few minutes only.

75 min

Mexican Curries

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Salsa de chile pasilla oaxaqueño

The pasilla mixe is a small, wrinkled, red-brown chilli smoked in the Sierra Mixe mountains east of Oaxaca City, and it tastes of campfire, tobacco and dried fruit. Ground in a molcajete with roasted tomato and garlic, it becomes the salsa that sits on every table in Oaxacan fondas, spooned over memelas, eggs, beans and grilled vegetables. It keeps a week in the fridge and improves after a day. If you cannot find pasilla mixe, use chipotle mora plus one ancho. Chef's tip: grind the garlic and salt first, then the chillies, then the tomato; working in that order gives a rough, clinging texture rather than a watery purée.

20 min

Mexican Chutneys & Dips

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Enfrijoladas

Think of enfrijoladas as enchiladas that swap chilli sauce for beans: warm tortillas dipped in a silky black-bean purée, folded into quarters and scattered with fresh cheese and raw onion. In Oaxaca they are a breakfast and supper dish, made from yesterday's pot of beans, and the purée is perfumed with toasted avocado leaves, which taste faintly of anise. Serve two or three per person with a fried egg or a spoonful of salsa. Queso fresco is often made with animal rennet; use a vegetarian feta or paneer-style fresh cheese if that matters to you. Chef's tip: keep the bean sauce loose, like double cream; it thickens on the plate and a stiff sauce tears the tortillas.

30 min

Mexican Vegetarian

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Muéganos de Huamantla

Huamantla, in Tlaxcala, is known for its August fair, when the streets are carpeted with coloured sawdust and flowers, and for muéganos: little cubes of fried dough glued together with dark piloncillo syrup into a sticky cluster, often pressed onto a round wafer. Visitors buy them in stacks from sweet shops around the main square. The dough is crisp and light, the syrup spiced with cinnamon and clove. Chef's tip: cut the dough into small, even cubes so they all fry golden at the same time.

60 min

Mexican Desserts

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Jericalla

Jericalla belongs to Guadalajara: legend says a nun at the city's Hospicio Cabañas orphanage made it in the 19th century to feed the children something nourishing. It is a firm baked custard of milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon, between a flan and a crème brûlée, with no caramel underneath; the top is left in a hot oven until it blisters and darkens in patches. Tapatíos buy it in little glass pots from street carts and in the markets of Jalisco. Chef's tip: let the top darken properly under the grill at the end; those scorched spots are what makes it a jericalla rather than a plain custard.

60 min

Mexican Desserts

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Papadzules

Papadzules may be the oldest dish still eaten in the Yucatán: Maya cooks were rolling tortillas in ground squash seeds long before the Spanish brought chickens and their eggs. Today they are a lunch and Lent dish in Mérida, Valladolid and Campeche. Corn tortillas are dipped in a pale green sauce of toasted pumpkin seeds and epazote, rolled around chopped hard-boiled egg, then topped with a cooked habanero-tomato sauce and a few drops of green pumpkin-seed oil squeezed from the paste. The flavours are nutty, herbal and gently hot. Chef's tip: keep the seed sauce warm, never boiling; heat makes it split and turn grainy, and the oil that separates is meant to be drizzled on top, not stirred back in.

55 min

Mexican Vegetarian

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Camotes poblanos

Camotes are the sweet Puebla is most famous for: finger-long rolls of sweet-potato fondant, flavoured with pineapple, lemon, strawberry or orange and wrapped individually in paper. Like tortitas de Santa Clara, they come from the city's convent kitchens, and you will find them at every candy shop on Puebla's Calle de los Dulces. The texture is soft and smooth, like a firm marzipan, and very sweet, so one or two is plenty. Chef's tip: sieve the cooked sweet potato while it is hot; fibres caught in the sieve are what would make the candy stringy.

90 min

Mexican Desserts

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Corundas

Corundas come from the Purépecha people of Michoacán, around Lake Pátzcuaro and Morelia, and they look nothing like a usual tamal: small, plump and triangular or star-shaped, wrapped in the long green leaves of the corn plant rather than dried husks. The masa is soft and fluffy, usually plain or with a little cheese and poblano inside, and corundas are eaten with crema, salsa roja and crumbled cheese, often for breakfast or at fiestas. Traditional dough uses pork lard; we use vegetable shortening or butter. Cheese may be made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian one if needed. Chef's tip: beat the fat until it is white and fluffy before adding the masa; a spoonful of dough should float in water when it is light enough.

105 min

Mexican Snacks & Starters

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Sikil pak

In Yucatec Maya, sikil means squash seed and p'aak means tomato, and that is almost all there is to this pale, coarse dip from the Yucatán Peninsula. Cooks in Mérida and the villages around it toast the seeds on a comal until they pop, grind them with charred tomato, chives and a little habanero, and serve the dip with tostadas or crisp tortilla chips before a meal. It tastes nutty, smoky and fresh at the same time, and is naturally vegan. Chef's tip: roast the habanero whole and add it a little at a time; you can always grind in more, but you can't take the heat back out.

25 min

Mexican Chutneys & Dips

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Yucatán pickled red onions

No table in Mérida is complete without a bowl of these bright pink onions. They go on almost everything in the Yucatán, from panuchos and salbutes to bean tacos, eggs and grilled vegetables, and their sharp crunch is what cuts through rich, earthy food. The traditional pickle uses naranja agria, the sour Seville-type orange that grows all over the peninsula, with a little habanero and dried oregano. Chef's tip: pour boiling water over the sliced onions for 10 seconds first; it softens their raw bite and makes them turn pink much faster.

10 min

Mexican Chutneys & Dips

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Xnipec

The name comes from Maya: xni' pek means 'dog's nose', because the salsa is hot enough to make your nose run and stay wet like a dog's. It is the raw table salsa of the Yucatán, made in minutes from tomato, red onion, coriander and plenty of habanero, all soaked in sour orange juice. In Mérida it is spooned over black-bean dishes, eggs and rice, and it brightens anything rich. It is best on the day it is made. Chef's tip: chop everything by hand into small, even dice; a blender makes it watery and the habanero turns bitter.

10 min

Mexican Chutneys & Dips

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Glorias

Linares, a small town in Nuevo León, is famous across Mexico for glorias: soft, chewy balls of goat's milk caramel packed with pecans, each wrapped in a twist of red cellophane. They are bought by the box at roadside sweet shops on the way to Monterrey and handed out at weddings and Christmas. Goat's milk gives them a gentle tang; a mix of goat's and cow's milk is milder. Chef's tip: the last ten minutes need constant stirring, as the caramel thickens and catches fast.

80 min

Mexican Desserts

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Enchiladas mineras

Enchiladas mineras were the supper of Guanajuato's silver miners and are still sold every evening under the arches of the city's plazas and at the Mercado Hidalgo: tortillas dipped in guajillo sauce, fried briefly, rolled around fresh cheese and onion, and buried under fried diced potato and carrot, shredded lettuce, pickled jalapeños and crema. Stalls often add a piece of chicken on the side; this recipe leaves it out and the vegetables make it a full plate. Chef's tip: dip each tortilla in the sauce before frying, not after; that's what gives the slightly crisp, chilli-coated finish.

60 min

Mexican Vegetarian

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Marquesitas

Evening in Mérida's Plaza Grande means the smell of marquesitas: thin batter pressed in hot hinged irons until crisp, then rolled like a cigar around grated Edam cheese and a sweet filling such as cajeta, chocolate-hazelnut spread or jam. Edam came to the Yucatán through the port trade with the Netherlands and became part of the local cooking, and the salty-sweet combination is the whole point. At home you can cook them in a thin, wide frying pan. Edam is usually made with animal rennet, so check the label or use a vegetarian Gouda-style cheese. Chef's tip: roll while the crêpe is still in the pan and hot; within seconds it hardens and will crack.

30 min

Mexican Desserts

by KrazyBadal 1 views

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