It’s that time of year here in Chicago when the supermarkets seem to be overflowing with ripe mangoes. I bought some mango de manila over the weekend (a yellow-skinned variety) and ate it for breakfast with a little squeeze of lime juice.

• How do you like to incorporate fresh mangoes into your diet?

I’ve been buying thinly sliced rib eye and grilling it to serve as tacos for years, but the truth is that it can get kind of boring. I recently came up with a flavorful and easy fix that is literally only one ingredient but makes a world of difference: ponzu sauce. Yes, you read that correctly, I said ponzu sauce! I knew I had to share this recipe when my husband and chief taste-tester raved about this dish, even days after I served it.

No, ponzu sauce isn’t a Mexican ingredient, but it bears some striking similarities to the popular seasoning sauce known as Maggi that is widely consumed in Mexico. You may remember reading about Maggi here before in my cebollitas recipe, which is basically just grilled spring onions, lime juice and Maggi—a succulent side dish that also pairs well with these tacos.

What’s great about ponzu sauce is that it’s similar to Maggi in taste, already has a hint of citrus so adding lime juice isn’t necessary (but you still can, if you want), and ponzu is much lower in sodium per tablespoon than Maggi.

If it’s any indication how good it is, I’ve whipped this recipe up for dinner three times in the last two weeks and gotten no complaints about repeating the same dish. I’ve served it each time with a different salsa to make it just a little different. With grilling season right around the corner, this dish is definitely going to be my secret weapon for summer barbecues. Let me know how you like it!

RECETA | RECIPE

TACOS DE RIB EYE

• 1 lb. thinly sliced rib eye (about 1/4 inch thick)
• 1/2 cup Mitsukan ponzu sauce for the meat plus 1/8 cup for cebollitas
• 1 bunch of cebollitas (in English they’re called spring onions; they look like scallions but with a bulbous end instead of straight and skinny)

Directions:
FOR THE MEAT
Marinade the meat with 1/2 cup ponzu sauce for 30 minutes in a zippered plastic bag. Discard the liquid and bag, and grill meat over medium-high heat just long enough for each side to get grill marks and cook through.

FOR THE CEBOLLITAS
Use as much or as little ponzu as you’d like. You can choose whether to use the ponzu to soak the onions in advance, or pour over them or use as a dipping sauce after grilling. If you choose to soak them, you can put them in a shallow bowl and use about 1/8 cup-1/4 cup of ponzu sauce. Reserve the sauce if you’d like to use it again as a garnish or dip after grilling.

Serve meat with cebollitas and corn tortillas. These tacos also go great with guacamole or a fresh green salsa.

Yields 2 servings or about 6-8 tacos.

• How do you dress up your basic rib eye tacos?

Disclosure: This post is part of a sponsored series to promote Mizkan cooking wines, vinegars, sauces and marinades. We also received product samples and promotional material from Mizkan to assist in preparing this post. All opinions and recipes in this series are our own.

If you follow the news, you’ve probably heard a lot of fuss about a volcano in central Mexico that’s been spewing ash, rumbling and causing concern lately.

That volcano, which stretches into parts of three bordering states (Mexico, Puebla and Morelos) is Popocatépetl—also known affectionately as Don Goyo.

Here’s a photo I took of the volcano when we flew over it on our way to Acapulco in December 2011. I’ve flown over it many times but have never actually visited it while on the ground—but I’d definitely like to get up close to check it out someday. On a very clear day you can sometimes see Popocatépetl from different vantage points in Mexico City, including a spot near where my suegros live.

• Have you visited Popocatépetl?

On any trip to Mexico City, I look forward to my first visit to any of my usual taquerías. Not only because I need to satiate my appetite for tacos (read: stuff myself to practically the point of no return), but also because I get an order of chicharrón de queso while I wait.

It’s a delicate, crunchy salty treat—the name basically translates to cheese cracklings.

For years, I never considered making my own chicharrón de queso. Not because I thought it was too hard, but because I don’t have a flat top griddle like the taquerías do. I thought the hot griddle was the key to the texture and the high heat was responsible for the ability to mold it; but one day I had a nagging craving that forced me to experiment and I discovered it can be done at home in an easy way that doesn’t sacrifice any of the things that you’d expect from a good chicharrón de queso.

Some notes: this recipe is for large individual sized portions (two people can easily share one). To make them larger to share with a group, just use additional cheese.

You need to use Gouda cheese for this recipe; choose an economically priced piece that is soft enough to grate but not hard enough that it crumbles. Gouda is a semi-hard cheese and the more aged it gets, the harder it gets, and the more the flavor is intensified. So you want something kind of in the middle. The one I used here was an inexpensive double cream Gouda from Trader Joe’s. You’ll want to keep a paper towel handy so that if it gets a little too greasy during or after baking, you can just absorb the grease by lightly dabbing.

RECETA | RECIPE
CHICHARRON DE QUESO

• 1/2 cup finely grated Gouda cheese per person
• Parchment paper
• Toaster oven or oven broiler
• A drinking glass for forming the shape

Spread the grated Gouda loosely over the parchment paper in the shape of a circle or a rectangle with rounded edges. Put it on a stable cookie sheet or other flat surface for baking. If you’re cooking it in a toaster oven, put it on the lowest rack; if you’re using an oven broiler, put it on a high rack if using the low broiler setting or middle rack if using the high setting. You don’t want it to be too close to the heat source because as the cheese bakes under the heat, it’ll get a bit greasy and may splatter a little. If you notice that happening, it’s a good time to remove the cookie sheet and dab with a paper towel.

The cheese should all melt together and bake until the edges are crispy looking and slightly browned. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and while it’s still hot, gently bend the parchment paper into a cylinder and put it in the drinking glass to let the shape dry and set for a few minutes. Then, gently peel away the parchment paper and serve.

• Do you have any memories of your first time eating chicharrón de queso? Have you ever made it at home? If not, will you now?

I posted this photo on Instagram last week as I was eating leftover guacamole in the form of tacos, also known in my household as guaca-tacos.

You can find my guacamole recipe here. Sometimes I like to substitute red onion for white onion (like I did here, though it’s difficult to tell from the photo). It’s a substitution I picked up from my mom since she normally makes her guacamole with red onions.

• Do you ever eat guacamole tacos?

We all have a kitchen tool or gadget that makes our lives simpler or easier.

I wanted to share some of the kitchen tools that I love best, starting with this one: a box grater with storage.

This is a great tool that I often use several times per week. It’s a box grater that has a storage tupperware under it, and you can pop the grater top off and seal it with a lid that comes with the set. I love this because it makes grating cheese easy, but I’ve used it for prepping other foods too.

I try to get creative and use one item for multiple tasks, and I’ve discovered this box grater is also good for zesting citrus on the side that has the small graters, and grating cheese and onions on the large side. I’ve also used the large side for grating apples, zucchini and cucumbers.

When I pop the grater top off, I just wash it in the dishwasher. I seal up the top with the lid and store the contents in the refrigerator. This tool is not one that I might have bought on my own; it was a gift from my mom several years ago and probably one of the best kitchen gifts I’ve ever received.

• What’s one of your favorite kitchen tools or gadgets that makes food prep easier for you?

Who doesn’t love a quesadilla? It can be a perfect breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack.

Especially if it has chorizo in it. This one has queso Oaxaca, chorizo and salsa verde. So simple, yet it made me so happy when I ate it!

• What’s your favorite filling for a quesadilla?