Ilan Stavans and Margaret Boyle wrote “Sabor Judío: The Jewish Mexican Cookbook” as a way to share stories, recipes and their love of their two culinary cultures.

The award-winning, internationally known Jewish Mexican writers and foodies spent a decade gathering material for this book, which features 100 deeply personal recipes. Stavans, who is originally from Mexico, is the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College and the publisher of Restless Books. Boyle is director of Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies at Bowdoin College and associate professor of Romance Languages and Literatures.

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo, Stavans and Boyle offered a taste of what’s inside “Sabor Judío:” Pomegranate Margarita, Mango Jicama Salad and Pollo Luis de Santángel (named for Luis de Santángel, a prominent converso in Renaissance Spain).

“Cinco de Mayo is a joyful day of liberation for Mexicans — kind of Passover — when the invading French army was defeated in the Battle of Puebla in 1862,” Stavans told The Journal. “There’s palpable pride on the streets, a sense that the country resisted outside forces to forge its own destiny.”

Stavans explained that, among Latinos in the United States, the holiday is often decontextualized; an excuse to have a piñata party, eat guacamole and drink Coronitas (small, seven-ounce bottles of beer).

“It has lost its national background: people simply celebrate the celebration,” he said. “Still, a fiesta is a fiesta and Latinos, oh yes, know how to throw one.”

Added Boyle, “These dishes let us taste and celebrate Jewish-Mexican cultures.”

Learn more about Stavans, Boyle and “Sabor Judío” on episode 77 of Taste Buds with Deb.

Pomegranate Margarita

The cocktail has become a ubiquitous presence at fiestas and other occasions, not to say a best-selling drink at bars and restaurants. It is Mexican, Mexican American, and, thanks to Mexican Jews, a luscious combination of traditions.

One way for La Comunidad to prepare it is with pomegranate. In Sephardic households, pomegranate is enjoyed on the second day of Rosh Hashanah as a symbol of righteousness, knowledge and wisdom in the new year. Throwing in a handful of pomegranate seeds invokes the sense of new beginning that Rosh Hashanah invokes.

Other ways to prepare it include incorporating pineapple, peach, and watermelon. Another combination called mojarita, part margarita and part mojito, mixes tequila and mint. There are spicy margaritas that contain not only a halo of salt or sugar but chile piquín. Ilan has been present at parties where that piquant rim is described as “the trace of a yarmulke.”

Serves 2

Preparation time: 2 minutes

8 ounces unsweetened pomegranate juice

4 Tbsp fresh lime juice

3 ounces tequila

1 ounce orange liqueur

For Serving

Coarse salt

Ice

Lime wedges

Pomegranate seeds

1. Place some coarse salt on a small plate. Rub the rim of each glass with lime and dip in the salt.

2. Combine the drink ingredients in a cocktail shaker, add ice, and shake vigorously, then strain into the prepared glass. Garnish with pomegranate seeds and a lime wedge.

***

Mango Jicama Salad

The two stars of this salad are iconic of Margaret’s early food associations in Mexico City and across Los Angeles: peeled and sliced mango and jicama often sold on sticks or in plastic cups and covered in chile and lime. Heaping portions of this salad strike the perfect balance between casual and celebratory, sweet and spicy.

Serves 2

Preparation time: 10 minutes, plus 1 hour resting

2 medium yellow mangos, peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes

2 medium jicamas, peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes

2 small cucumbers, peeled, seeds removed, and cut into ½-inch cubes

½ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro

4 Tbsp fresh lime juice

¼ tsp chili powder or Tajín

½ teaspoon kosher salt

In a mixing bowl, combine the mangos, jicamas, cucumbers, cilantro, lime juice, chili powder, and salt. Toss well, cover, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving. Adjust salt and chili powder to taste.

***

Pollo Luis de Santángel

Little of the diet of Luis de Santángel is known. However, the chicken dish below is named in honor of him, as a sign of gratitude for his effort to open new doors in the Jewish Diaspora. Why chicken in particular isn’t known either. Fowl was a fixture of European food, but not necessarily of Jewish cuisine. Quail, pheasant, and partridge are common in the Spanish diet. Chicken and hen were favored by the nobility. Ilan tried the Pollo Luis de Santángel at the home of a Lebanese Jewish family in Mexico City with whom he learned Ladino in the early 1980s. This variation is likely a fusion produced by entrepreneurial immigrants. It includes annatto, a tropical orange-red condiment derived from the achiote tree that is believed to have originated in Mexico and Brazil. The flavor is sweet, peppery, and nutty.

Serves 4-6

Preparation time: 30 minutes, plus marinating

Cooking time: 35 minutes

⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil

⅓ cup fresh orange juice

2 Tbsp fresh lime juice

1 small white onion, roughly chopped 4 medium garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped

2 tablespoons ground annatto (achiote)

1 Tbsp kosher salt

1 Tbsp ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

2 teaspoons dried oregano

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½ teaspoon ground chipotle chile

4 pounds bone-in chicken thighs or drumsticks, trimmed of excess skin

Vegetable oil, for greasing

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, orange juice, lime juice, onion, garlic, annatto, salt, cumin, coriander, paprika, oregano, black pepper, and chipotle chile. Add the chicken pieces and turn to coat. Cover the bowl and refrigerate, turning the bowl once or twice, for at least 4 hours and up to overnight. Before cooking, allow the chicken to sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

2. Heat the oven to 400°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with aluminum foil, then brush with a little oil. Arrange the chicken pieces on the baking sheets in a single layer, removing and discarding the garlic and onion. Bake until the internal temperature reaches 165°F on a digital thermometer, 30–35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before serving.

3. Alternately, heat a grill to medium high and brush the grates with a little oil. Add the chicken to the grill, skin-side down, and grill, flipping once halfway through, until the internal temperature reaches 165°F on a digital thermometer, 10–15 minutes total. Remove from the grill and let cool slightly before serving.