Mexican Recipes

Mushroom turnovers in a cream cheese pastry with a sauteed mushroom-cream filling and optional sherry. An elegant make-ahead appetizer that freezes well before baking.

Cornmeal pie shell made with flour, cornmeal, and shortening. A sturdy, subtly sweet crust ideal for savory Southwest pies, quiches, or fruit tarts.

Yeast dough pinwheels filled with fruit preserves, shaped into a windmill pattern, and baked until golden. A European-style pastry with a soft, brioche-like dough and a jewel of jam in the center.

Pressure cooker chocolate cheesecake with dark chocolate, cream cheese, and a chocolate cookie crumb crust. Steams in 20 minutes with no cracking, no water bath fuss.

Pressure cooker ricotta cheesecake: a creamy Italian-style cheesecake with golden raisins and lemon zest, steamed to perfection in just 20 minutes under pressure. No cracks, no water bath fuss.

Radiant chicken bake layers floured browned chicken with green chilies, tomatoes, carrots, and lemon slices, then oven-braises for an hour. Southwest-style one-casserole family dinner.

A from-scratch red chile sauce: a lard-and-flour roux loosened with stock and built up with ground red chile and garlic. The foundation sauce for enchiladas, burritos, and huevos rancheros, with heat you control.

It is an interesting way to make pizza, more like Mexican and American combination, and quite tasty.

Sopa de Aguacate is a traditional Mexican avocado soup with mashed avocados stirred into a tomato-onion stock and finished with cream. Served with crispy fried tortilla croutons.

Quick Mexican-style chicken tortilla soup with crispy fried corn tortilla strips, bell peppers, chili powder, and mixed vegetables. A warming, hearty bowl from pantry staples in 40 minutes.

An old-fashioned Mexican beef chili: diced beef braised with garlic, cumin and oregano in a smooth purée of dried chiles, served with a border of fried refried beans. Real chiles, real depth.

Mexican wedding cakes are always a holiday favorite but this recipe takes it up a notch or two, writes Mary Wilhelm of Sparta.

Classic Tex-Mex beef enchiladas with homemade meat sauce and sharp cheddar, plus instructions for both rolled and New Mexico stacked styles.

Fluffy Spanish-style omelets filled with a simmered tomato and green pepper sauce, then rolled and drenched in the remaining salsa. A vibrant, satisfying egg dish ready in 30 minutes.

Tostada waffles: cornmeal waffles topped with taco meat, cheddar, lettuce, tomato, sour cream, and olives. A Tex-Mex dinner-meets-breakfast mashup built for the waffle iron.