Mexican

Camarones al mojo de ajo is a favorite Mexican dish. Here, instead of swimming in butter, it swims in a flavorful sauce.

Pipián is an earthy, pureed seed sauce that is traditional in Mexican cooking. Serve this dish with rice to soak up the sauce.

This salsa is excellent with grilled shrimp, fish, or chicken. This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

These superb tacos are from chef Alex Castro at the Old Mexico Grill in Santa Fe.

Make the components of this salad early in the day, then toss in the shrimp just before serving. (Buy cooked shrimp, if you like, to save a little time.) Offer cold Mexican beers and Margaritas alongside.

Salpicón de Res Not truly a salad but a dish of seasoned cold shredded meat, a salpicón is usually eaten folded into hot tortillas or piled onto crispy tostadas. It is a refreshing party dish ideal for a summer buffet.

Sorbete de Zarzamora Berries are cultivated near the small colonial town of Valle de Bravo, outside Mexico City. Sorbets and ice creams are enormously popular throughout Mexico.

Salsa de Chile Serrano Frito Serrano chiles give this Mexican sauce its bite and light green color. Use it on warm tortillas or grilled meats.

Juana Vázquez-Gómez of Redondo Beach, California, writes: "Growing up in Cuernavaca, just outside Mexico City, I remember my grandmother cooking elaborate Mexican meals every day. My mother continued that tradition, but not in such an all-consuming manner. For her it was a great joy to plan a menu and then invite people to help with the preparation. "The women in my life taught me the beauty of a good meal. I still use many of their recipes today, but unlike my grandmother I don't spend an entire day in the kitchen. Fortunately, my husband and kids like to cook, so I've found a balance between my grandmother's time-intensive recipes and my mother's practicality. " Juana serves these fritters for dessert, but they make a great breakfast dish, too.

The tortilla strips need to dry overnight, so begin making this one day ahead.

Enfrijoladas Enchiladas, entomatadas, and enfrijoladas are all different preparations that take a corn tortilla and bathe it in a sauce of chiles, tomatoes, thick cream, or — as they prefer in Oaxaca — long-simmered black beans. While it is traditional to fold them into quarters or thirds, you can also fold them over once. Wait to season the beans with salt until they are just soft.

Serve with jicama sticks, radish slices, peeled cooked shrimp, and corn tortilla chips.

The idea for this salad came from Carlos Conrique, who worked at Billy Cross's cooking school in Morelia, a beautiful 16th-century Mexican town. Today, Conrique is a chef at the Blue Door, in Miami's Delano Hotel, where his dishes are still influenced by his childhood in Guadalajara.

This quick and easy rendition of the classic is made with canned chilies.