Chef Lupita
Salsa de Chaya Tabasqueña
Tabasco's lowland green salsa, made with cooked chaya leaves and tiny chile amashito, sharp with lime and built for rice, plantain, beans, and fried fish.
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Recipes
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Chicatanas
From the Mixteca Oaxaqueña after the first June rains, toasted flying ants ground on the molcajete with chile costeño, garlic, and charred tomate. Earthy, deep, almost like truffle.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Chicharron Chiapaneca
Chiapas' central valleys put chicharron to work in a simmered guajillo-tomato salsa, thickened by pork rind and finished with momo, the hoja santa of the south.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Chilcuague de la Sierra Gorda
Guanajuato's Sierra Gorda salsa uses the golden Otomi root, roasted chile serrano, tomatillo, and sal de grano, ground in a molcajete until the heat tingles before it burns.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Chile Ancho y Leche para Enchiladas Queretanas
Querétaro's creamy enchilada salsa, chile ancho softened in milk, blended with egg, and fried in manteca until it coats warm corn tortillas in a quiet red sauce.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Chile Canario de la Sierra Mazateca
From Huautla de Jimenez in Oaxaca's Sierra Mazateca. Yellow chile canario ground in the molcajete with toasted garlic, onion, and lime. Fruity heat that creeps up on you, slow at first and then everywhere.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Chile Chocolate del Istmo
From the Istmo de Tehuantepec, a dark, earthy salsa built on the rare chile chocolate, charred tomato, and red onion ground on the metate and finished in pork lard. The Istmeñas of Juchitán made this their own.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Chile Costeño
From the Costa Chica of Oaxaca, dried chile costeño rojo toasted on the comal and ground with charred tomato and garlic. The salsa that lives on the table when there is grilled fish or a tlayuda in front of you.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Chile de Agua
An Oaxacan table salsa from the Valles Centrales, built on the heirloom chile de agua, charred on a comal with tomate verde and garlic, ground rough in the molcajete and eaten the same day.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Chile de Arbol para Guacamaya de Leon
Guanajuato's sharp red salsa for the guacamaya of Leon, built from toasted chile de arbol, garlic, salt, and vinegar, hot enough to wake up the chicharron inside the bolillo.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Chile Pasilla Oaxaqueño
From the Sierra Mixe of Oaxaca: the endemic chile pasilla oaxaqueño, smoke-dried over oak, ground in the molcajete with charred tomate and garlic. Raisiny, smoky, the soul of Oaxacan salsas.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Chile Perón con Naranja y Limón
Michoacán's Meseta P'urhépecha salsa, built from blistered chile perón, orange, lime, garlic, and sal de grano, ground rough in a molcajete until the skins stay visible.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Chile Perón Martajada
Michoacán's Meseta P'urhépecha table salsa, chile perón blistered on the comal, crushed rough with garlic, lime, and sal de grano in the molcajete, not beaten smooth.
Chef Lupita
Chiapas Simojovel Chile Paste (Salsa de Chile Simojovel)
Chiapas highland chile paste built from smoke-dried chile simojovel, toasted pepita, roasted garlic, and cane vinegar, ground thick in the molcajete until it bites clean and clings to a tortilla.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Chiltepín Fresco Sonorense
Sonora's raw chiltepín salsa, hand-ground in a molcajete with ajo, sal de mar, and limón. The desert chile in its purest form, built for the parrilla and the long Saturday carne asada.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Cuajada del Istmo
From Juchitan in the Istmo de Tehuantepec: fresh cuajada folded with sun-dried chile pasado and coarse salt, ground on the metate and spread on the great toasted corn discs the Zapotec call totopos del Istmo.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Gusanos de Maguey
Oaxaca's smoky salsa of toasted gusanos de maguey ground in the molcajete with chile pasilla oaxaqueño, charred garlic, and lime. The umami partner that makes mezcal taste like home.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Jitomate y Jalapeño para Enchiladas Potosinas
San Luis Potosí's weeknight salsa of ripe jitomate guaje and fresh jalapeño, cooked down in manteca until glossy enough to crown the red masa of enchiladas potosinas.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de los Piltes con Hoja Santa
The Papaloapan basin's working salsa, charred tomato, ancho, and guajillo cooked down with hoja santa and fried in lard, the sauce that goes inside piltes wrapped in banana leaf and steamed until the kitchen smells like the river.
Chef Lupita
Chiapas Hoja Santa Green Salsa (Salsa de Momo Chiapaneca)
Los Altos de Chiapas gives this salsa its sharp tomatillo body, tiny chile amashito heat, and the anise-green perfume of momo, the leaf outsiders call hoja santa.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Momo Tabasqueña
Tabasco's lowland salsa keeps momo bright and chile amashito sharp, a loose green spoonful made for grilled pejelagarto, white rice, and the humid river table.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Naranja Agria Yucateca
Yucatan's table acid, sour orange juice sharpened with charred garlic, toasted oregano yucateco, and a whole habanero perfuming the bowl. The drizzle that finishes poc chuc, grilled fish, and every honest plate in Merida.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Pepita Chiapaneca
Chiapas' Central Depression gives this salsa its grammar: toasted pepita, peanut, sesame, and chile simojovel ground into a thick seed paste for totopos, not a show of chile heat.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Soya y Chiltepín de la Chinesca
Mexicali's Chinese-Mexican dipping sauce, soy and chiltepín and lime, served beside fried wontons in La Chinesca since the 1920s. The taste of a city that built its own cuisine on the border.
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