Authentic Mexican guacamole and taco recipes Karla Zazueta

The mother-of-two "grew up around a family that loved cooking," including her dad who was a chef.

So when her boys had grown enough to no longer need a playroom, she converted their garage into a teaching kitchen.

Karla set up a cooking school kitchen in the garage of her Hampstead Garden Suburb home (Image: Karla Zazueta)

Karla came to the UK on a teaching exchange and worked as a Spanish teacher, so combining teaching with her passion for food was a good fit when she wanted a career change.

"My dad was a keen cook. He used to work in a restaurant as a chef and loved cooking for us," she says.

"We are from a beautiful sea port city in Baja, California, about an hour south of San Diego, and grew up eating a lot of seafood like mussels, as well as barbecued meat, and of course iconic Mexican dishes like mole and guacamole."

Karla Zazueta's book features family dishes handed down through the generations (Image: Pavilion Books)

She says corn is very important in the Mexican diet and her recipes, handed down through generations, include Baja fish tacos, ‘piggy’ pinto beans, crab tostadas, sopes (corn patties) piled with fresh vegetables, and empanadas californianas with shredded beef, accompanied by spicy salsas and zingy salads.

"I always explain in my classes that the Mexican food we have here is not the food we eat at home. Our day to day food is not spicy in the slightest, what is spicy is the salsa, but of course you make your food as spicy as you want."

Karla was delighted to be asked to share 90 recipes in new book Norteña – meaning ‘northerner’.

Nortena includes dishes like Sopa Fria a pasta salad (Image: Joe Woodhouse)

"I was lucky, grateful pleased and happy to be asked," she says. "It was a lot of writing and testing, but a fun experience and I learned a lot."

Guacamole (serves 6)

Karla says: "A good guacamole is an essential element that brings a good carne asada taco together. This incredible salsa is a Mexican staple. Initially the name was first identified as ahuacamolli, which is a union of the Nahuatl words ahuacatl (avocado) and molli (sauce). The avocado had an erotic significance for the Aztecs and women were not allowed to collect them, since the avocado symbolized testicles.

"There are different ways to make guacamole; in Sonora, they add charred green pepper strips, while other states add chopped tomatoes, but this recipe is how we make it in my family. My mum doesn’t like the taste of raw onion so softens its flavour with lime juice before adding it to the mashed avocados. We always finish our guacamole with a splash of extra-virgin olive oil."

Ingredients:

5 perfectly ripe hass avocados
1 small onion
2 limes
20g fresh coriander
1 jalapeno
1 tsp sea salt
1 tbs olive oil

Method:

Open the avocados and scoop out the flesh with a tablespoon. Mash with a potato masher, leaving some texture. Chop the onion finely, squeeze some
lime juice over the top and leave to sit for a few minutes, while you finely chop the coriander and jalapeño.

Add the onion, coriander and jalapeño to the mashed avocados, squeeze over the rest of the lime juice, then add the salt and olive oil. Taste to check the seasoning. Serve in a bowl with some totopos (tortilla chips).

Tacos Gobernador (Image: Joe Woodhouse)

Tacos Gobernador Prawn and Cheese Tacos (makes 12)

Karla says: "The recipe for these tacos comes from Mazatlán, Sinaloa. The story goes that the owner of Los Arcos restaurant, Francisco Labastida, came up with this idea to impress the governor, who was visiting. That is why he called them governor tacos!"

Ingredients: 

1 tbsp vegetable oil
15g salted butter
½ onion finely diced
1 garlic clove finely chopped
1 celery stick finely diced
1 poblano or green pepper charred, deseeded and chopped
1 tomato finely chopped
400g prawns peeled, cleaned and chopped
1 tsp sea salt
Pinch of ground black pepper
Juice of ½ lime

To serve
12 corn tortillas
500g mixed grated mozzarella and cheddar cheese

Method:

In a large frying pan, heat the oil and butter over a low–medium heat. Once the butter has melted, add the onion and garlic and fry for 3 minutes until translucent.

Add the celery and poblano. Continue frying for 3 minutes, mixing from time to time to avoid burning. Add the chopped tomato and cook for a further 3 minutes.

Once the vegetables are fried, add the prawns. Season with the salt and pepper and cook for 10 minutes on a low–medium heat until the prawns are pink and properly cooked. Squeeze over the lime juice and set aside while you heat the tortillas.

Heat each tortilla in a pan over a medium heat, adding some cheese and letting it melt. Top with some of the prawn stew and serve.

Extract from Norteña: Authentic family recipes from the North of Mexico by Karla Zazueta (Pavilion Books)