Corn

If you can’t eat just one totopo (tortilla chip), this is the salsa of your dreams. 

Masa is the essence of Mexico. It is the foundation of Mexican cooking. In Oaxaca, a lot of families still make their own nixtamal at home to supply their daily masa consumption. Nixtamal is the process of treating dried corn with an alkaline solution to make it more nutritious. Slaking lime—also known as pickling lime, a naturally occurring mineral compound—has been used for thousands of years for this process. After a night of soaking, the nixtamalized corn is ground and transformed into masa. This technique has been passed from generation to generation, especially in Oaxaca. Every night before my mom goes to bed, she nixtamalizes a batch of corn so she can make fresh masa the next morning. It’s part of her nightly routine.    The trickiest part of making masa might be grinding it, and for that I recommend a tabletop wet stone mill or a hand-cranked wet grinder. I like Premier’s Small Wonder 1.5-liter tabletop wet grinder.    Believe me, there is nothing more fulfilling than making your own masa at home.

I long for the flavor of tamales de elote, made with puréed fresh corn kernels. But our starchy, flavorful Mexican corn cannot be replaced with United States sweet corn, which creates a terribly insipid, watery effect. So I evolved something a little different using a regular masa mixture with fresh corn kernels and seasonings beaten in.

People always want bread to dip into their clam broth, so why not put the clams right on the bread from the get-go?

This brothy soup feels like coastal Oaxaca in a bowl. It has tons of herbs, buttery shrimp, a light spicy-smoky broth—and chochoyotes, dumplings made from fresh masa or masa harina.

The subtle aromatic flavor of azafrán (also known as safflower tea) is wonderful in this nutritious soup with fresh sweet vegetables.

In this riff on Singapore-style curry noodles, shawarma spice takes the place of curry powder. Cauliflower, corn, and peas add pops of texture and sweetness.

You only need one bowl to mix this easy, cheesy, savory-and-sweet corn muffins.