In her holiday themed cookbook, Daisy’s Holiday Cooking (Atria Books), Daisy Martinez offers both easy entertaining and meal preparation ideas with her signature Latin twist. Martinez, host of Food Network’s ¡Viva Daisy!, infuses her Puerto Rican heritage into her cooking and also brings a greater awareness to true Latin cuisine in the process.
Daisy Martinez Holiday Cooking and Planning Tips
The idea to create a cookbook and holiday entertaining guide came from the hectic modern lifestyles of many people, which impinges on having time to bring together friends and family for the season. “People today find holiday entertaining so daunting,” she says. “The thing is to come together around a table with people that you love and break bread. That’s what it’s about. But with the holidays, with so much more going on, today moms really don’t have the luxury of being at home just to take care of those things—decorating the house, buying the gifts and the other stuff that we [women] end up doing by default. After all is said and done, we have so many responsibilities put on us that entertaining is out of the question.”
To survive all of the demands of the holidays from meal making to event planning, Martinez, the mother of four children, offers several ideas. “You want a nice festive, appealing meal for you to come together with your friends and family. So one of the things that I do in the book is that each chapter is menu driven but the menus are such that you can swap out and mix and match so you can create your own menu. Then I have a prep schedule because I’m all about the do ahead. Anything that I can do ahead, I do.”
The important part of creating a less hectic holiday meal is in how to approach the overall tasks is breaking down everything into manageable tasks. “All of my vegetable prep I do the day before and store in Ziploc baggies with damp paper towels. So at the last minute all I have to do is blanch out the veggies or throw them in the oven by the turkey. If there was one lesson I learned in culinary school is if you’re cooking for six or six thousand, it’s all about organization, organization, organization.”
One of Martinez’s favorite recipes from the cookbook is a traditional Puerto Rican drink that she paired with a non-traditional ingredient. “The coquito, the Puerto Rican eggnog, in the book… I don’t know why nobody has thought of this before, I added chocolate… melted chocolate to it. Oh my God! it’s like drinking an Almond Joy bar.” Another recipe from the book she has great fondness for is the mushroom-plantain-stuffed chicken breasts with bacon mango gravy. Martinez enjoys this dish because she first served for Thanksgiving as a new mother and bride.
While the cookbook focuses on how to survive holiday meal planning, the recipes are also useful anytime. “The food is festive enough for the holidays but generic enough to enjoy year round,” Martinez says.
A Latin Cuisine Education
In addition to inspiring and assisting home cooks with holiday food, Martinez also wants people to know Latin food is not intimidating to create or the ingredients foreign. Many of the items can be found in the average American supermarket; those that can’t be located in the supermarket still maybe be found in other places. “You’d be surprised, you get a lot of these Latin ingredients in Asian markets,” she says.
“The reason why Latin food is experiencing such a great interest today is because Latin food is ethnic but it’s not alien. Most of the ingredients, the mainstream is familiar with. If there is an ingredient that isn’t mainstream I try to offer a mainstream substitute so that if you’re new to this line of cooking you’re not put off by it.”
Since Latin cuisine is Martinez’s area of comfort, knowledge and interest, she also serves as an ambassador to increase knowledge about what is in the Latin kitchen and the creations that come from it. “Here in the United States, the mainstream, when they hear Latin food the mindset immediately goes to Tex-Mex, which is fine but its not even authentic regional Mexican cooking. I think that’s the great misconception here in the United States. That’s one of the things that I try to bring awareness to is that Latin America is comprised of the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, South America and all that, of course, is influenced by the common denominator we have which is the history with Spain. So, there’s a lot to bring to the table. There’s a lot of diversity. Everyone thinks that Latin food is hot, spicy. No, that’s not the case at all.”
But above all, cooking and bringing together family and friends to celebrate is the goal of Martinez’s cookbook. She also wants home cooks to go through the cookbook and unleash their creativity. “The highest complement you can pay me is to take these recipes and make them yours. Go tweak them in a way that you find them interesting.”
Lisa Hechesky - With a background in communications and a passion for food and cooking, bringing together these two passions makes my heart sing. I ...
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