My traditional and playful takes on anything and everything Puerto Rican. 

Empanada dough is your blank canvas! Found in the freezer section of most Latin supermarkets, these handy disks can be filled with just about anything. Transform last night's leftovers into a whole new meal. Think roasted vegetables, shredded chicken, or even leftover chili. These chicken pot pie empanadas are a delicious example of how creative you can get. Fry or bake them until golden for a satisfying snack or meal. 

Chicken Pot Pie Empanadas

Arepas de coco may look a bit different from the Colombian or Venezuelan arepas most people are familiar with. Instead of being thick corn cakes, Puerto Rican arepas de coco are more like a slightly sweet coconut fry bread that are crispy on the outside, tender inside, and subtly fragrant from the coconut milk in the dough. You’ll often find them served along the coast with bright, acidic seafood salads like salpicón de jueyes (crab salad) or ensalada de bacalao (salted cod salad. Their rich, lightly sweet flavor perfectly balances the salty, citrusy dishes they accompany.

Arepas de Coco

Growing up in New York City, the flavors of Puerto Rico and the rest of Latin America were never too far away, and the hot weather always brought out ice cream trucks, Italian ice storefronts, piragua stands (frío frío to our Dominican cousins), and the famous Delicioso Coco Helado carts. The coco helado served from this cart is closer to an Italian ice/sorbet than an ice cream, with a creamy yet icy and gritty texture. Mango, cherry, piña, and "rainbow" are among the flavors, but coco is superior to them all! This recipe comes together faster than it takes to decide on a flavor at an ice cream shop, with the addition of ice to replicate its unique texture. This will surely become a new freezer staple.

Coco Helado 

If you ask any Caribbean person about their favorite fish, especially for a whole fish preparation, they'll almost certainly say snapper. With its mild, slightly sweet flavor and firm yet delicate texture, snapper is a versatile fish that's delicious fried, grilled, or baked. Cooking it in banana leaf imparts a subtle, earthy aroma, steams the fish to tender perfection, simplifies cleanup, and creates a visually striking presentation. Breadfruit, also known as pana or panapén in Puerto Rico, is double-fried into crispy tostones to serve alongside the fish. If you can't find fresh breadfruit, some Latin grocery stores carry pre-made breadfruit tostones in the freezer section. If all else fails, plantain tostones are just as delicious.

Banana Leaf-Wrapped Snapper & Breadfruit Tostones

Pasteles, a labor of love, are similar to Mexican tamales but made with a masa from either a combination of tropical root vegetables, like taro, pumpkin, and green bananas, or simply just yuca. This savory dough is carefully layered in banana leaves and filled with stewed pork. Some families also fill the pasteles with garbanzos, pimento-stuffed olives, and sometimes raisins. These bundles are tied with string, boiled, and shared generously. 

Pasteles de Yuca

This Arroz con Dulce is a love letter to my Abuela Nerida and a taste of Puerto Rican Christmas. It starts with a fragrant "té de especias" – a spiced tea of ginger, cinnamon, star anise, and cloves. The rice simmers until creamy and tender, then it's sweetened with cream of coconut and sugar. If you don't like raisins, I encourage you to give them a chance after having soaked them in rum.

Arroz con Dulce

Chicharrones de pollo are a common menu item at Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Cuban restaurants and casual eateries. This Latin Caribbean variation of fried chicken comes in various forms, including bone-in or boneless, breaded or unbreaded, and is made from the whole chicken or just the thighs or breasts. A common thread among all these variations is the generous seasoning that relies heavily on garlic, acid in either the form of lime or white vinegar, and a healthy dose of adobo, sazón, or both. These seasoning blends are easily found in most well-stocked grocery stores, but making them from scratch allows for personal preferences to truly shine through. While these are traditionally deep-fried in neutral oil, some variations also use lard. They also cook and crisp up wonderfully in an air fryer with a little help from some cooking oil spray. Serve with plenty of extra limes on the side, and pair it with white rice and stewed red beans for one of my all-time favorite comfort meals.

Chicharrones de Pollo

Puerto Rican Classics

I've always half-joked that baking terrifies me, so I only share recipes I can nail effortlessly. This clafoutis is one of those as one of my go-tos you can use with any fruit. It's a simple French baked custard, traditionally made with cherries, but any stone fruit or berries work. Think of it as a Dutch baby's cousin. Almond extract and toasted, sliced almonds pair perfectly with the fruit, and fresh tarragon adds a really nice licorice note. Like most of my baking recipes, it's more of a flexible technique than a strict formula so feel free to adapt it!

Stone Fruit Clafoutis 

Tarta de Santiago is a strikingly beautiful yet simple almond cake that originated in medieval Galicia, Spain. Named after St. James, the patron saint of Spain, it is traditionally adorned with his cross. Although it’s typically made entirely from almond flour, I took some creative liberties by mixing in equal parts hazelnut flour—don’t tell the Spanish. My first encounter with this dessert was in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where many local bakeries uphold Spanish baking traditions. Typically, the cooled cake is dusted with powdered sugar over a stencil of a St James cross. Once you remove the stencil, it reveals the cross shape (you can search for and download an image to use as a stencil). This is not a necessary step, though, and the cake is otherwise straightforward to make, requiring no special equipment other than a tart pan, which imparts beautiful ridged edges.

Tarta de Santiago

I firmly believe that everyone should have at least one really good from-scratch cookie recipe up their sleeve. While my pursuit for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe will most likely be a lifelong endeavor, I'm incredibly fond of this chocolate-dipped version I came up with while experimenting in the test kitchen. The browned butter adds a deep, nutty complexity, especially with the help of the extra caramelized milk solids from the milk powder. What truly sets these apart is the dip. Inspired by the black and white cookies I grew up eating in New York City. Of course, this recipe is incredibly versatile. If you're craving a more traditional chocolate chip cookie, simply fold the chocolate chips into the dough and skip the dipping step. The sprinkling of flaky salt at the end is a non-negotiable. 

Browned Butter Chocolate Dip Cookies

Easy Sweets

Introducing my Juicy Lucía: a fusion of Minneapolis’ favorite burger, where the cheese is cooked inside the meat, with the classic Cubano, a Cuban-American staple. First I seasoned ground pork with the citrusy and garlicky flavors of mojo marinade, traditionally used for slow-roasted pork shoulder. A slice of Swiss cheese, the Cubano's signature cheese, is nestled inside the patty before cooking. The burger is then paired with the iconic combination of ham, pickles, and Dijon mustard, and pressed in butter after assembly to achieve the Cubano's signature look and texture. While potato bread stands in for the traditional Cuban bread, its similarity to Medianoche bread—a sweet, enriched bread used for a Cubano variation—adds another layer of inspiration. I promise this Juicy Lucía will be one of the best burgers you've ever had!

Juicy Lucía

You really don't need a weekend in New England (unless you already live there) to enjoy a proper seafood boil. These surprisingly simple feasts are usually reserved for special occasions or large crowds, but they come together so easily that you can definitely enjoy one on a Tuesday night, just because. Feel free to swap out clams for mussels (or add both!), crab legs for lobster tails, and absolutely play with your seasonings and other additions. The most challenging part is the timing, ensuring everything is finished at the same time and all of your seafood is tender and perfectly cooked. But don't worry—I’ve pretty much made this foolproof. Keep lots of extra Old Bay on hand for sprinkling and maybe wear a bib to avoid garlic butter stains on your shirt.

Weeknight Seafood Boil

This salad delivers big flavors and a satisfying crunch that’ll complement any dish. Think of it as a palate cleanser and a refreshing counterpoint to heavier dishes. Crisp celery and julienned jicama are woken up with a simple dressing, accented by aromatic ginger and garlic, and the tingly heat of Sichuan pepper flakes. 

Celery & Jicama Salad

This dish is ridiculously simple and comes together with just a handful of ingredients. My version features a robust, chunky marinara that isn't fussy at all. The mussels steam right in the marinara itself and gets finished with a heavy dusting of garlicky fried breadcrumbs (because you better not let someone's Nonna catch you adding cheese to a seafood dish!) Linguini or bucatini would make a delicious bed for this marinara, but some good crusty bread on the side would do the trick as well.

Spicy Mussels Marinara with Garlicky Breadcrumbs

Ara’yes are meat-stuffed pitas originating from Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. They’re traditionally prepared with lamb, beef, or a combination of the two, and seasoned heavily with warm spices. After a quick marinade in the fridge, you fill the pita with the mixture, smash it, then grill the bread on both sides to create a crispy exterior and a savory, juicy filling. This turkey variation is a lighter but equally satisfying version of the classic, with a well-spiced mix that stays true to the dish’s roots. A bright, fresh, and slightly smoky yogurt dipping sauce rounds it all out.

Turkey Ara'yes

My first taste of aguachile was in Los Angeles a few years ago, and I was thrilled to rediscover it back in NYC's Jackson Heights at Mariscos El Submarino, a Mexican seafood restaurant specializing in aguachiles, cócteles, ceviche, and other freshly prepared dishes. Aguachile, meaning "chili water," is a dish from Sinaloa, México, is similar to ceviche but with a focus on spiciness. It typically consists of raw seafood, often shrimp (and here I'm using scallops as well), cured in lime juice, and then submerged in a broth made of the marinating liquid, soy sauce or Maggi liquid seasoning, jalapeños, Serranos, cilantro, and garlic. The broth's spiciness can range from mild to fiery, but it typically packs a punch, living up to the dish's name.

Scallop & Shrimp Aguachile

This refreshingly simple Greek lettuce and dill salad, though less known outside of Greece than its counterpart with cucumbers, tomatoes, kalamata olives, and feta, deserves a place on everyone’s table as often as possible. I first encountered it at an unassuming Greek restaurant in Astoria, Queens, a NYC neighborhood boasting one of the largest Greek communities outside of Greece. There, crisp romaine lettuce ribbons, chilled in an ice bath, were tossed with generous amounts of dill and scallions, and dressed simply with olive oil and vinegar (many purists insist on extra virgin olive oil and white vinegar alone). The maroulosalata technique, with its emphasis on freshness and simplicity, can be applied to almost any salad green. It may not look like much at first glance, but this salad is very addicting and you may find yourself going back for more than you expected! While feta cheese is a somewhat polarizing addition, I personally love the salty, creamy dimension it brings.

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César Ramón

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