North Mexican food: how to cook like a local

North Mexican cuisine

The northern part of Mexico is generally arid and hot, the majority of its landscape being covered with endless deserts, like the Vizcaíno Desert in Baja California or the Sonoran Desert in Sonora. Meat features prominently in the northern Mexican diet and so, besides being extremely friendly, people from the north of Mexico love grilling. Organising a carne asada (northern Mexican barbecue) isn’t reserved for special occasions but instead is something that they do all the time.

A good norteño (a person from the north of Mexico) loves eating steak tacos, machaca (dried beef, which is finely shredded) burritos, chilorio (pork marinated in chillies and spices), lamb barbacoa, birria and more. Pinto beans are also commonly served to accompany many dishes – they are usually just fried or sometimes prepared as frijoles puercos (pinto beans with chorizo, bacon and chipotle chilli) or frijoles charros (beans with bacon, pickled jalapeño and spices). People here tend to prefer flour tortillas over corn for making burritos, quesadillas or tacos, but corn tortillas are enjoyed as well. Seafood and fish also play an important role, especially for those living by the coast. I grew up in Ensenada, a coastal town in Baja California, the home state of Baja fish tacos, so we used to eat fish cooked in many different ways, such as fried or in the oven, as well as a lot of other seafood in the form of ceviche, seafood cocktails and broths.

There are 14 regions in Mexico that produce wine, with two of the most important ones located in the north – Valle de Guadalupe in Baja California and Valle de Parras in Coahuila. Wine is therefore the beverage of choice for us during a special occasion, but we also love drinking a cold beer, agua fresca (a drink made with fresh fruit) or tejuino (a fermented corn with lime juice drink) on a very hot day.

Six of the nine states that make up northern Mexico border the United States, so that has also greatly influenced the way of being, living and eating in the region. For instance, we enjoy having Mexicanized hot dogs after watching a good baseball game.

The cuisine of the north of Mexico that I grew up with is the combination of cultures brought by the immigrants that have settled here over the past two centuries as well as the natives indigenous to the region. The result is a versatile cuisine that is evolving and changing all the time.

North Mexican recipes

Chicken red hominy soup (Pozole rojo de pollo)

Popular all around Mexico and consumed long before the Spaniards arrived, pozole was often made as an offering to Xochiquetzal, the god of fertility. Nowadays, pozole is made for national celebrations, like Independence Day or Day of the Dead. However, its versatility means it’s also great to make on a sick day to clear a cold. There are three types of pozole: white, green and red. The red version is very common in the north of Mexico and the guajillo chillies used in the broth create a distinctive bright red colour.

Fish tacos (tacos de pescado baja)

I’m proud to say that these tacos are 100% native to Ensenada, even though everyone knows them as Baja tacos. This famous recipe was reportedly created by Don Mario in the 1960s, in a taqueria at Mercado Negro, the city’s fish market. He used to sell fried fish in the Bachigualato quarter of Sinaloa, and the fishermen started to ask him to serve the fish in tortillas. That is how the fish taco was born. The original recipe was made with pieces of angel shark fish, although nowadays it can be fried and served as a taco with any white, meaty fish. Later on, another taquero, Zeferino Mancilla Fortuna, added the batter to the fish, not knowing that this would make these tacos world-famous. Make Karla's salsa bandera to go with our Baja-California fish tacos or beer battered fish tacos.

Mexican flan (flan mexicano)

This recipe for super-creamy flan is easy to make and can be prepared a day in advance. There are different versions of this dessert – some add whole eggs (like this one), others only egg yolks, others use cream cheese. You can also add an extra punch of flavour by including some grated orange zest on top when serving.