Getting Back to the Kitchen With Marisel Salazar

Creamy refried beans, fresh pico de gallo, or crispy plantains with chicken salad...it all sounds so good right now.

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Hi friends,

I’m writing this from under a blanket on the couch. It’s been seven days since I’ve cooked anything more than a toasted bagel. (Revision: I’m editing this from the couch. It’s now been thirteen days, and I’m somehow sicker than before.)

But instead of a sad week (two weeks?) of cancelled plans and rescheduled work, I’m trying to think of it as a hard reset.

Power off.

Rest.

Restart.

I actually want to miss cooking. And here, listening to this conversation with Latin-ish author Marisel Salazar is making me eager to get back into the kitchen.

I want to make Marisel’s molletes, the open-faced rolls topped with creamy refried beans, melty cheese, and whatever fresh toppings you’ve got.

So often breakfast-for-dinner actually ends up being surprisingly fussy and messy—every time I make pancakes it looks like my kitchen exploded—but this dish won’t do that to you. (You’ll find the recipe if you scroll down; I’ll be making it with canned refried beans this time around.)

I want to follow Marisel’s lead, prepping a stash of assorted homemade burritos to tuck away in the freezer for busy evenings.

I want to delight a table of family and friends with a meal of Chicago’s famous jibaritos—sandwiches that use garlicky, crispy plantains instead of bread. Marisel’s version gets a filling of chicken salad and bacon, plus tomato, avocado, and cilantro.

Wanting to cook again is a good place to start. A pause can be a shift.

Win a copy of Latin-ish

Marisel Salazar shares recipes and history from the many varied American Latino cuisines in this groundbreaking cookbook. You’ll find the stories behind Cuban pizza and Mission burritos, Arkansas Delta tamales, San Diego fish tacos, Dominican beach spaghetti, and so many other dishes that have been shaped by migration and adaptation, necessity and ingenuity.

To enter to win a copy of Latin-ish, make sure you’re subscribed to this newsletter and leave a comment below by Friday, March 7.

Winner will be alerted by DM and email—be sure to check your messages! U.S. addresses only, 18+, no purchase necessary. Giveaway not sponsored or administered by Substack or Instagram. Ends Friday, March 7, 2025.

Marisel recommends:

Mexican Cookbook Collection at UTSA
Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Greens (Bon Appétit)
Walnut Tofu Sloppy Joes (Bon Appétit)
Joy of Cooking
Masa by Jorge Gaviria

Maggie recommends:

Davocado Guy
Joy of Cooking Podcast—they’re on Substack too!

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Photo: Hipolito Torres

Molletes

Excerpted from Latin-ish: More Than 100 Recipes Celebrating American Latino Cuisines by Marisel Salazar, copyright © 2024, with permission from Countryman Press, an imprint of W. W. Norton & Co., Inc. All rights reserved.

Someone should tell the British about this even more delicious version of beans on toast. Relatively unknown in America before the 1980s, this dish hails from Mexico City. Long before avocado toast rose to popularity, people were eating these open-faced, toasted rolls topped with black beans and cheese for breakfast or an after-school snack. Today, molletes appear on the menus of many Texan restaurants and cafés.

Serves 8
Total Time: 15 minutes

4 bolillo rolls
1½ tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups Homemade Refried Beans or one 16-­ounce can, warmed (See below)
1 cup shredded Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
½ to 1 cup Pico de Gallo (See below)
1 avocado (optional)
Hot sauce of choice (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Halve the rolls lengthwise and spread a little more than ½ teaspoon of the butter evenly across each cut side of the bread.

3. Line a baking sheet with foil and place the bread on it, cut side up. Evenly spread ¼ cup of the refried beans onto each buttered roll, followed by 2 tablespoons of the cheese.

4. Bake until the cheese melts, bubbles, and browns, 8 to 10 minutes.

5. Remove from the oven and serve with pico de gallo. Top with avocado and hot sauce, if desired.

Variations

• You can replace the bolillo rolls with sub bread or a kaiser roll.
• Cheese swaps include provolone, mozzarella, Oaxaca, or Chihuahua.
• Add bacon or Mexican chorizo for a heartier take.

Homemade Refried Beans

Excerpted from Latin-ish: More Than 100 Recipes Celebrating American Latino Cuisines by Marisel Salazar, copyright © 2024, with permission from Countryman Press, an imprint of W. W. Norton & Co., Inc. All rights reserved.

About a century ago, this dish of seasoned beans cooked low and slow originated in northern Mexico before crossing the border to Texas, which heartily adopted it. Most recipes call for pinto beans, which result in an extra-­creamy texture, but some use black beans, which taste earthier. Also, the beans aren’t fried twice, they’re cooked twice. Now you know. If you eat this dish on its own, rather than making it as part of another recipe, serve it with Cotija cheese, lime juice, and fresh cilantro to taste.

Notes: Always sort through dried beans to ensure they don’t include any rocks. (It happens.) To save time, you can also buy three 15-­ounce cans of cooked whole pinto beans and start at Step 3.

Serves 6 to 8
Total Time: 9 hours 35 minutes

1 pound dried pinto beans (about 2 cups)
½ to 1 large white or yellow onion
2 to 3 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons salt, or more to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons lard, vegetable shortening, or oil
¾ teaspoon toasted and ground cumin
½ teaspoon dried Mexican oregano

1. Sort and rinse the beans.

2. In a large lidded pot, cover the beans with water and soak, covered, overnight.

3. Drain the beans, return them to the pot over medium-­high heat, and cover them with fresh water by 2 inches.

4. Quarter the onion, mince the garlic, and add both and the salt to the pot.

5. Bring the water to a boil, lower the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. If, after 1 hour, the beans haven’t cooked completely, let them simmer for a few more minutes until done.

6. Drain the beans, reserving the bean broth, onion, and garlic.

7. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the lard.

8. While the fat heats, use paper towels to pat the onion and garlic dry and then chop them.

9. Add the onion and garlic to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until they soften and become fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes.

10. Add the beans, cumin, oregano, and ¼ cup of bean broth and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. If, after 30 minutes, the beans haven’t cooked completely, continue to cook for 15 to 30 minutes, until they soften and become fork-­tender.

11. For a chunkier consistency, use a fork or masher to mash the beans. For a smooth texture, remove the beans from the heat, allow them to cool for 5 to 10 minutes, transfer them to a food processor, add a little bean broth, and process until smooth. For thicker consistency, use less bean broth; for thinner consistency, use more. If the beans dry out, add 1 tablespoon of bean broth at a time and stir until they rehydrate.

Tip: In Step 5, check for doneness by pressing 1 or 2 beans against the side of the pot with a fork. They should be plump and mash easily but not be mushy. Save the leftover bean broth to stir into any leftovers that dry out. As they chill in the refrigerator, they’ll thicken.

Pico de Gallo

Excerpted from Latin-ish: More Than 100 Recipes Celebrating American Latino Cuisines by Marisel Salazar, copyright © 2024, with permission from Countryman Press, an imprint of W. W. Norton & Co., Inc. All rights reserved.

In his General History of the Aspects of New Spain, Bernardino de Sahagún describes what we call pico de gallo in a survey of food sold in Aztec markets, and Alonso de Molina, another Franciscan friar, later identified it as a salsa. (All pico de gallo is salsa, but not all salsa is pico de gallo. Pico de gallo contains fresh, raw ingredients, whereas salsa mostly consists of blended, cooked, or mashed ingredients.)

In Spanish, the name means “rooster’s beak.” Explanations abound, but the most likely point to the Serrano pepper looking like a rooster’s beak and picar in Spanish meaning “to have bite.” It also goes by other names, including salsa bandera (for the colors of the Mexican flag), salsa cruda (raw), salsa fresca (fresh), and salsa Mexicana. Add it to anything that calls for a refreshing pop of crunch, tang, and zing.

Yields 2 to 3 cups
Total Time: 10 minutes

6 ripe Roma tomatoes
½ lime
2 cloves garlic
½ to 1 Jalapeño pepper
½ small to medium red onion
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 pinch ground cumin
1 pinch garlic powder
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Dice the tomatoes, juice the ½ lime, mince the garlic, seed and mince the Jalapeño pepper, and mince the onion. Combine all in a medium bowl.

2. Add the cilantro, cumin, garlic powder, and salt and black pepper to taste.

3. Taste, adjust any ingredients to preference, and serve.

Photo: Hipolito Torres

Chicken Jibarito BLT

Excerpted from Latin-ish: More Than 100 Recipes Celebrating American Latino Cuisines by Marisel Salazar, copyright © 2024, with permission from Countryman Press, an imprint of W. W. Norton & Co., Inc. All rights reserved.

The ways that food travels can prove fascinating, particularly reverse immigration. In Maracaibo, Venezuela, a sandwich with fried plantains (tostones) instead of bread is a patacón maracucho. In the Dominican Republic, it’s just a patacón. In Aguada, Puerto Rico, Jorge Muñoz and Coquí Feliciano served a similar dish at Plátano Loco, their restaurant, in 1991. Juan Figueroa, who owned the Borinquen Restaurant in Chicago, read about the Plátano Loco sandwich and created his own version in 1996, Americanizing it with lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, more mayonnaise than a patacón, and garlic oil. He called it a jibarito, which means “little bumpkin.” It instantly became an iconic dish. After New York City, Chicago has the second largest population of Puerto Ricans outside Puerto Rico, and word spread. Now islanders enjoy it, too, and with this recipe, so can you.

Notes: You need to fry the plantains twice, first to break down the starches so you can flatten them and then to give them that extra-crispy texture.

Yields 2 sandwiches
Total time: 40 minutes

For the Garlic Oil
¼ lime
½ head garlic
½ cup olive oil
½ tablespoon white vinegar
salt

For the Sandwich
2 unripe, green plantains
canola, corn, or vegetable oil for frying
2 slices American cheese
2 cups shredded roasted chicken or protein of choice
½ cup mayonnaise, plus more for smearing
4 slices bacon
1 tomato
4 sprigs cilantro
1 avocado
4 leaves romaine lettuce
Adobo seasoning, such as Loisa or Goya, or homemade (recipe in the book!)

1. First, make the garlic oil. Juice the lime and mince the garlic.

2. In a small saucepan over low heat, add all the garlic oil ingredients, including salt to taste, and cook for 5 minutes. Don’t let the garlic burn. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

3. Next, prepare the plantains. Cut off the ends and slit the thick skins lengthwise. Remove the peels and halve the plantains crosswise.

4. In a heavy-bottomed skillet, Dutch oven, or deep fryer, heat 1 inch of frying oil to 350°F and fry 2 plantain halves at a time until they turn golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. With a spider skimmer or slotted metal spoon, transfer them to a paper towel–lined plate to drain and cool.

5. On a flat surface, lay a sheet of plastic wrap or a large plastic storage bag and use a pastry brush to grease it lightly with oil.

6. When the plantains have cooled enough to handle, place 1 plantain half on one side of the plastic. Fold the other half of the plastic over the plantain. Working slowly, gently press the plantain with a flat bottomed plate until the fruit flattens to ¼-inch thick.

7. Repeat with the remaining plantain halves.

8. Return the flattened plantains to the skillet, Dutch oven, or deep fryer and fry until they turn golden brown and crisp, about 3 to 4 more minutes on each side. With a spider skimmer or slotted metal spoon, transfer them to a paper towel–lined plate to drain and cool.

9. Place the one cheese slice each on 2 of the plantain slices, allowing their residual heat to melt the cheese.

10. While the plantains cool, fry the bacon, 2 minutes per side.

11. While the bacon is frying, slice the tomato, chop the cilantro, and slice the avocado.

12. In a small bowl, combine the chicken and mayonnaise and halve the mixture.

13. Spread each half of chicken salad onto each of the plantain halves with melted cheese, then layer with half the sliced tomato, half the avocado, 2 bacon slices, and half the cilantro.

14. Smear the remaining plantain halves with a little mayonnaise.

15. Place the mayo-smeared plantain halves mayo side down on the corresponding filling halves, then brush the top of the sandwich with garlic oil and lightly sprinkle with adobo to taste.

16. Cut each sandwich in half (optional) and serve.

Variations:

• The jibarita (feminine spelling) uses sweet, ripe plantains.

• Instead of garlic oil, you can use garlic butter by combining 1 tablespoon melted butter with ¾ teaspoon roasted minced garlic. You also can mix the chicken with garlic mayonnaise (aioli) and omit the extra smear of mayo and garlic oil—or, better yet, amp it up. Mix ¾ cup mayonnaise, 3 minced cloves of garlic, 2½ tablespoons lemon juice, ¾ teaspoon salt, and a few cracks of black pepper.

• Instead of the chicken salad, you can use 10 ounces of sliced chicken breast, or roast pork, steak, tuna, or your protein of choice. For a vegetarian sandwich, omit the chicken and bacon.