When the winter chills set in, this colorful tangerine hued salad, with its bright splashes of pomegranate, feta, and cilantro is a full flavored pick you up. This is a long-standing recipe in our repertoire, with a captivating citrus and spice vinaigrette. 

complex base, potent marinade, or vibrant accent flavor. Mayan Red Spice Paste, Recado Colorado, is popular, both for its beautiful vibrant red hue, and warm tangy flavor. Rich in color, and fall flavors, our non-traditional take on Recado Colorado streamlines the preparation process. Recado Colorado is excellent for making red rice, a great base for barbecue sauces, a go-to rub for meats, on burgers, and a potent flavor boost for chilis and other soups. Stay tuned for two fantastic recipes using our Mayan Red Spice Paste coming up in the weeks ahead.

You may have noticed that we have a fondness for spice pastes here at The Hungry Hounds. If you too have caught the flavor paste obsession, check out our two other potent pastes: Smokey Mexican Chile Paste, Chilmole, and Garlic Ancho Chile Paste. 

Today marks Madeline's first full week outside the womb, and most aspects of our life have irreversibly changed. Cooking and eating together has been the one constant in this topsy turvy new world since we arrived home from the hospital. A food focus persisted during labor as I panted out a list of food requests in between contractions. Paul, both remembered every request and has been cheerfully cooking up a storm this last week. Yesterdays' creation was a yeasty sugar rush of homemade cinnamon rolls, but the vast majority of my requests have been for roasted aromatic meats like this Slow Roasted Mayan Pork with Garlic Salsa. This dish is a Paul invention, which means making use of some extraordinary homemade condiments (Xac spice mix and charred garlic salsa), the end result is transcendent.

Sometimes in the dead of winter, cooking needs a little extra oomph. Yucatán Dry Spice Rub, Xak, fits the bill. With a few minutes of work, your kitchen will soon be filled with warm, sweetly spiced, and earthy flavors. This easy and versatile spice rub stores well and provides a unique flavor boost to pork, poultry, fish, soups, veggies, or even garlic butter. Stay tuned for great new recipes in the next two weeks featuring Yucatán Dry Spice Rub to get you started. This spice rub recipe was inspired by Daniel Hoyer's book of Mayan cuisine. 

Our sister-in-law made this deliciously comforting West African Peanut Stew with Kale on a recent visit to New Haven, and I have been craving it non-stop ever since. The taste and smell of garlic, ginger and peanuts will warm you on these crisp fall days. This simple and hearty vegetarian take on the classic West African peanut stew uses pantry ingredients and works well with whatever greens you happen to have on hand. 

In high school while browsing for recipes for a Mother’s Day brunch, I was struck by a colorful sounding 'Stoplight Salad' in my Mom’s copy of Simply in Season. My sister and I added it to our Mother’s Day menu that year, and it became a family staple. Through the years, I have created my own version with a bit more of a Southwest flair, swapping in a potent lime-cumin vinaigrette and handfuls of herbs and fruit for contrast. In college, when I needed a dish for a potluck with some Amish friends, I didn’t think twice before whipping up my Southwest Black Bean Salad…what had seemed like a good idea in my dorm room started making me nervous when I saw my garishly bright salad sitting amidst a table of creamy noodle casseroles. Before I could withdraw my food offering, the head cook stuck her spoon in my salad, and I was given a nod of approval, I quietly let out my breath and tried to act nonchalant. Southwest Black Bean Salad is a pungent, bright, and refreshing salad with corn, tomatoes, herbs, and a customizable base of seasonal vegetables and fruit. It has been my most requested recipe over the years, and is an infinity adaptable salad that will be devoured every time. I’d love to hear your favorite combinations! To read more about Simply in Season and our other favorite cookbooks, check out our Bookshelf.

Without AC in the summer, our small Pittsburgh kitchen is not a place you want to be cooking with high heat. For us, summer eating often revolves around the grill, where our current go-to protein is North African Grilled Chicken. Inspired by the flavors of the famous North African spice mix known as Ras Al-Hanout (or "best of the shop"), our marinade uses a blend of warming spices, cinnamon, black pepper, turmeric, cumin, nutmeg, and cloves, balanced with punchy lemon. This fragrant combination is intoxicating. North African Grilled Chicken is a crowd pleaser on its own and an excellent light addition to sandwiches, salads, or tacos.

It’s grilling season, and these cumin and oregano scented quick pickled red onions are the wonderfully vibrant Mexican condiment that recently took our household by storm, summarily ousting ketchup and mustard from first-shelf-fridge-status.  Since the weather is warming up, we like to keep a jar of these delicious Yucatán Quick Pickled Red Onions on hand to top burgers, hot dogs, tacos, even salads get piled with a handful of these fuchsia gems. Whip up a quick batch, and try these pickled red onions out with our Turkey Feta Burgers With Yogurt Curry Sauce, Smokey Ancho Cheddar Burgers,  Citrus Pulled Pork, Portobello Burger, or with Baked Tofu Rice Bowl.

In a holiday season notorious for sweet potato casseroles topped with marshmallows and candied nuts, we play it unconventional. We love the warm spices and fresh herbs of this Moroccan Roasted Sweet Potato Salad. A fragrant dish with a nod towards North African seasonings, the sweet potatoes are roasted until they are lightly crisped, flavored with an aromatic, garlic, and lemon infused Charmoula vinaigrette, and topped with feta, cilantro and pomegranate. Charmoula is a traditional Moroccan, Tunisian, and Algerian marinade that  is traditionally used in fish and vegetable dishes. Moroccan Roasted Sweet Potato Salad is a winner with guests and an unusual twist on the seasonal sweet potato.

Roasted Eggplant and Chickpea Spread is the result of a food fight, one which resulted in this delicious hybrid dish somewhere between Baba Ganoush and Hummus. Our food disagreement started with a vague plan for a Mediterranean inspired meal, but quickly morphed into a debate about the true king of dips. On the one hand, the dusky sweet flavors of Baba Ganoush  appealed to Paul, whereas I had a strong inclination towards classic hummus,  a creamy chickpea puree, perked up with garlic and lemon.  In the end, we were pretty pleased with our compromise dish, Roasted Eggplant and Chickpea Spread, a transcendent dip with an eggplant and chickpea base, infused with roasted garlic and onions, and the smoky spiciness of charred jalapeno.

It is peach season in Western Pennsylvania, and nothing shouts summer like Smoked Wings with Rye Whiskey Peach Sauce. These wings are slow roasted  to tender perfection with a rich pecan smoke flavor and finished on the grill to crisp the skin. Oak-aged spirits pair beautifully with peaches (see our Salted Rum Caramel with Grilled Peaches & Ice Cream), and we find that Wigle's Aged Rye Whiskey is the perfect foil to sweet summer peaches and smokey wings. This Carolina inspired barbecue sauce is quick, easy, and versatile -- delicious on everything from these wings to ribs to burgers. 

Creamy cumin lime coleslaw is a dynamic coleslaw: intensely flavored by garlic, mellowed by a base of mayonnaise and buttermilk, perked up with a strong jolt of lime, with aromatics of cumin and cilantro perfuming each bite. This coleslaw came into my life when I was 16, my Mom made it for dinner one night and our whole family quickly became obsessed with it.  At one barbecue, I even went so far as to earnestly tell every single guest, what an outstanding coleslaw this was, noting, with the only the gravity a 16 year old can muster, that it was the best coleslaw they would ever eat. I recall one guest stopped me as he was leaving to thank me for my pointed food recommendation noting that I had indeed been correct and that it was the best coleslaw he had ever eaten.  This, slightly tweaked version of my mothers’ coleslaw, is certainly on our favorites list and may just be the best coleslaw you will ever eat!

Hummus is an infinitely adaptable dish, for some it is a nod towards ethnic cuisine, for others, a protein packed essential in a meat free diet.  I like hummus for its ability to transform with color, from carrot stained orange to pea tinted green.  Of all the variations on hummus, beet horseradish hummus is my favorite. It is hard not be captivated by this ruby toned riff on hummus.  Try walking by a plate of beet horseradish smeared crackers and not eating them.  To make this hummus, I paired walnuts and beets, two complementary flavors evoking earthy tones and fresh spring days, horseradish added the right amount of bite to the otherwise creamy scarlet hummus.  Beware, once you make beet horseradish hummus, your view of its' beige sister will forever be skewed.

Masala Rubbed Halibut with Mango Salsa is perfect for fish-lovers and fish-skeptics alike. It has a balanced mix of warming spices adding depth to the clean buttery firmness of the halibut. The mango salsa contrasts with a strong acid brightness and fruity sweetness. Masala Rubbed Halibut with Mango Salsa is the culmination of my 10 year quest to make a fish main course that Rebecca loves. Success! This is Rebecca's gateway fish!

A pastel-hued Cuban diner in Philadelphia was the site of my last fragrant bowl of Ropa Vieja, and I have been plotting to recreate this succulent dish ever since.  For me, nothing compares to a slow braised, big flavored, meat dish swimming in a pungent, aromatic sauce. This is my protein paradise!