Alejandra Graf on the Mexico Inside Her Recipes

By Alejandra Graf

Cook the Book is COCINA’s series where we spotlight new Latin cookbook releases through the best person to talk about them: the author. They prepare a signature recipe, share the cultural inspiration behind the dish, and connect it back to the community.

For Alejandra Graf, a recipe can hold a lot more than ingredients. It can hold a memory, a place, a family tradition—or even an entire way of seeing the world. “That's how I learned a place can live inside a recipe,” she says, reflecting on growing up surrounded by the women in her family and the food of Sinaloa.

In this edition of Cook the Book, Graf takes us inside Comemos, her new cookbook celebrating plant-forward recipes and contemporary Mexican cuisine. The book brings together the Mexico she knows firsthand with the influences she's encountered since moving to the United States, proving that Mexican food is far too expansive to fit into a single definition—or, as she puts it, “Que México no cabe en un taco.”

Along the way, Graf shares why tomatillos deserve to be eaten raw, why recipes are meant to be adapted rather than followed to the letter, and how a halloumi tiradito brings Peru, the Mediterranean, Mexico, and Houston together on one plate.

Ready to bring Comemos into your kitchen? PRE ORDER IT HERE. Comemos will be released on September 15th.

If this dish could tell one story about you, what would it be?

Ale Graf: This dish is me on a good day. Grilled halloumi, bright citrus, everything fresh and fast. It's what happens when the beach shows up on my plate.

I grew up loving the ocean and the way food tastes near it: light, acidic, alive. Tiradito is Peru, halloumi is the Mediterranean, and I'm Mexican cooking in Houston. That crossing of cultures is not an accident. It's how I actually eat and how I actually think about food. Nothing is pure; everything talks to everything else, and the table is where those conversations happen.

It's also proof you don't need hours to eat well. Slice, sear, dress, done. Healthy without trying too hard, generous without a lot of fuss. Que la comida sea fácil y que a la vez te haga sentir bien.

If this dish told one story about me, it would be that one: fresh food, citrus, the sea, and the belief that good things happen when you let cultures meet on the same plate.

Who taught you to cook, or who first inspired your love of food?

Ale Graf: My mom, my aunts, my grandma. The women in my family were always talking about food: what they ate, what they were going to make, how to make it right. On vacations, they cooked the food of Sinaloa, where they're from, and that's how I learned a place can live inside a recipe.

I grew up in a foodie family before that was even a word. We sat down together every single day, lunch and dinner, at a beautifully set table, three courses, like a ceremony. Formal but not formal. It's where we talked about our day, how school went, and sometimes my dad's business partners were there, and we picked up things about business and politics without realizing it. It was the best part of the day, every day.

My parents hosted tons of parties, too. I grew up eating really good food, and I grew up understanding that food is how you gather people.

So nobody sat me down and taught me technique. What they taught me was why the table matters. When I got married, I wanted that same thing in my own home: food that brings everybody together. I love to eat. So I had to learn to cook.

Is there an ingredient you think deserves way more love than it gets?

Ale Graf: Tomatillos, hands down. Everybody thinks tomatillos have exactly one job: get cooked down into salsa verde, and that's it. But raw? They're a completely different thing. Crunchy, bright, acidic, so good. Most people have never tried one raw, and they have no idea what they're missing.

You can do so much with them. In the cookbook, I have a salad with fresh tomatoes, raw tomatillos, and fresh mozzarella that is to die for. That's the whole point: one little ingredient everybody thinks they know, and it turns out they only know half the story.

What story about your culture or family were you most determined to preserve in this cookbook?

Ale Graf: The Mexico I actually know. Born and raised there, not the Mexico of someone else's memory.

When I got to Austin, and then Houston, I heard a lot of stories about Mexican food that didn't resonate with me. A lot of them came from people a generation or two removed. The Mexican in the story was the grandmother, and the person telling it had never lived in Mexico, sometimes didn't even speak Spanish. Those stories are real, and they matter, but they weren't mine. What I kept noticing was the details that were missing.

So the whole perspective of this book is a Mexican who grew up in Mexico and now lives in the United States. It's a true Mexican book, and I mean that in the structure, not just the recipes. The chapters are organized the way we actually see food. There's everyday breakfast, and then there's the slow weekend breakfast, which is a completely different thing. At a party, you get coffee and pan dulce first, and the juice comes after, in that order, because that's how it's done. Those are the details I never heard in the stories people told me when I arrived here.

That's what I was determined to keep. Not abuela nostalgia. The real logic of how Mexicans eat, from someone who lived it.

What's one cooking "rule" you're perfectly happy to break?

Ale Graf: That you have to follow the recipe exactly. No. Use the ingredients you like. Swap what you want. Modify it, make it yours. A recipe is a starting point, not a rulebook. That's the whole spirit of Comemos, anyway. Every dish already comes with options so you can cook it your way. So take it further. Make it yours.

La receta es tuya. Hazla como más te guste.

Beyond the recipes, what's the biggest message or feeling you hope readers take away from your cookbook?

Ale Graf: That Mexican cuisine is enormous. It's not tacos and tamales and a shake of cumin. It's a huge range of ingredients, techniques, and dishes, and every single region has its own way of naming things and making things. Mexico is so rich, you can't reduce it to elotes and tacos and call it done.

So my hope is that people keep going. Keep trying things, keep traveling, keep cooking food that's real. Real Mexican food, with all its depth and difference. If the book makes someone realize how much more there is and go looking for it, that's the whole thing right there.

Que México no cabe en un taco. Hay muchísimo más, y vale la pena buscarlo.

If you could sit down and share one meal from this book with anyone—past or present—who would it be, and what would you serve them?

Ale Graf: Ina Garten. No question. I'd love to make her breakfast and share a table with her.

I'd start with Garibaldis, and then chilaquiles with a sunny-side-up egg and frijoles puercos on the side. A real, slow, joyful weekend breakfast, the kind that turns into sobremesa.

I love Ina. I love her knowledge, her warmth, her joie de vivre. She's joyous and generous and always having fun, and at the same time, she's so focused and so determined. That combination is everything to me. That's exactly the energy I'd want at my table.

Me encantaría sentarla a desayunar sin prisa. Puro gozo y sobremesa.

Tiradito de Halloumi

Halloumi Tiradito with Citrus Sauce

Tiradito de Halloumi is my fresh, meatless take on a dish that's surprisingly common in Mexico. While tiradito has Peruvian origins, the thin slices of raw fish dressed in a citrusy, spicy sauce have been embraced in many coastal regions of Mexico and adapted with local flavors and ingredients.

In this version, I skip the fish and use cold, thinly sliced halloumi as a substitute for queso panela; use panela if you can find a good, authentic one. It's briny, creamy, and holds up beautifully against the bright lime-chile dressing.

The result is a refreshing, bold botana that's somewhere between a ceviche and a cheese plate and perfect for hot days, gatherings, or when you want something unexpected yet familiar.

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
Pinch of kosher salt
1/4 cup finely sliced red onion
1 (8-ounce) pack of halloumi or queso panela
1 firm avocado
1 English cucumber or 3 Persian cucumbers
1 sliced jalapeño
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
Finishing salt
Tortilla chips or tostadas, for serving

Directions

In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, lime juice, orange juice, rice vinegar, and sesame oil. Stir until fully mixed, then add the kosher salt. Add the sliced red onion to the mix and let it marinate while you prepare the other ingredients.

Slice the halloumi, avocado, cucumber, and jalapeño into thin slices.

On a platter, layer one portion each of cucumber, halloumi, sesame seeds, cilantro, jalapeño slices, marinated red onion, and avocado. Repeat until all ingredients are used, finishing with cilantro, onions, and sesame seeds on top and a dash of finishing salt.

Let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes before serving with tortilla chips or tostadas so the flavors can come together.

Notes

If you want to make it vegan, replace the halloumi with palm hearts or sliced silken tofu.
If you wish to give this dish a twist, pan-fry the halloumi before building the tiradito.

Ready to Cook Your Way Through Comemos?

If this conversation has you thinking beyond tacos and wondering what else Mexican cuisine has to offer, Comemos is a pretty delicious place to start. Alejandra Graf's cookbook celebrates plant-forward recipes and contemporary Mexican cuisine, bringing together the flavors, ingredients, traditions, and everyday food culture that make Mexico impossible to fit into just one box.

Bring Comemos to your kitchen and start cooking your way through Graf's take on contemporary Mexican cuisine.

BUY COMEMOS

Disclosure: COCINA does not receive payment, commission, or any other compensation from purchases or clicks made through the book link in this article. This is not an affiliate link; we’re simply sharing where you can find Comemos if you’d like to add it to your kitchen bookshelf.

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Alejandra Graf on the Mexico Inside Her Recipes

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