Puckett Susan - Turnip Greens & Tortillas

Copyright 2018 by Eddie Hernandez and Susan Puckett

Photographs 2018 by Placemat Productions, Inc.

All rights reserved.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

hmhco.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hernandez, Eddie, author. | Puckett, Susan, 1956 author. | Mosier, Angie, photographer.

Title: Turnip greens & tortillas : a Mexican chef spices up the southern kitchen / Eddie Hernandez and Susan Puckett ; photographs by Angie Mosier.

Description: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018. | Includes index. | A Rux Martin Book.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017052730 (print) | LCCN 2017051352 (ebook) | ISBN 9780544618848 (ebook) | ISBN 9780544618824 (hbk)

Subjects: LCSH: Cooking, Mexican. | LCGFT: Cookbooks.

Classification: LCC TX716.M4 (print) | LCC TX716.M4 H46 2018 (ebook) | DDC 641.5972dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017052730

Book and cover design by Anna Green, Siulen Design

Cover photography by Angie Mosier

Food styling by Eddie Hernandez, Thomas Driver, and Angie Mosier

Prop styling by Thomas Driver

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To my friend and mentor, Mike Klank, who took a chance on putting a burned-out Mexican rock n roll guy in charge of his restaurant kitchen thirty years ago, made me a business partner, and has stuck by me through thick and thin ever since.

Eddie Hernandez

From Eddie Hernandez

I would need many more pages to list all the people who have helped me get to where I am today. I am grateful to them all. Here are a few I would like to recognize by name.

First, my business partner, Mike Klank. Mike is the big guy with the heavy beard who can often be spotted on the restaurant floor or behind the bar mixing margaritas and chatting with customers at any of our Atlanta locations. He tends to keep a low profile, but make no mistake: If it werent for him, there would be no Taqueria del Sol, no cookbook, orfor that matterno Chef Eddie. No telling where I would be or what kind of trouble Id be getting myself into if we hadnt met.

Thanks, Mike, for letting me show you what I could do behind a stove and believing we could put our headsand our historiestogether to build something great.

The best is yet to come.

My uncle Jos Chaires; my mother, Juana Chaires; and my grandmother Consuela Palomares, may they rest in peace, for instilling in me the values of hard work, a desire to learn, and being creative with what you have.

Susan Puckett, who offered to tell my story and has stuck with it for all these years. Muchas gracias!

Our longtime managers, Steve Shields and George Trusler, and the staffs at each of our Taqueria del Sol locations, who work hard every day at keeping our customers happy and coming back for more.

David Waller, Steve Murrell, Dan Krinsky, and the other talented chefs of all our restaurants present and pastTaqueria del Sol, Sundown Caf, and Azteca Grillwho have contributed to my education as a chef and a born-again Southerner.

Jacques Ppin, Julia Child, and Rick Baylessthe chefs chefswho taught me things about cooking through their television shows and books that have made lasting impressions.

Christiane Lauterbach and Cliff Bostock, the first of many excellent food writers whose dining critiques, both positive and negative, helped me improve as a chef, especially early in my career.

John T. Edge and the members of the Southern Foodways Alliance, who do such great work bringing people of all backgrounds and cultures together to talk and share the foods of our heritage. We are proud to be part of this ongoing conversation.

Kate Medley, the documentarian who made my story part of a Southern Foodways oral history project about the diverse South, which inspired this book.

Kat Crawford and the rest of the Green Olive Media team, for getting our message out to an audience beyond our customers.

Most of all, I am thankful to God for my two beautiful children, Anna and Andrew, and for everything else He has done for me. I am a very blessed man.

From Susan Puckett

Mike Klank, words cant express my appreciation for your support, advice, and creative contributions to this project. Without your frequent reminders to stay on the straight line, we might still be testing recipes!

Ralph Ellis, thanks for maintaining your good humor through all the grocery runs, recipe tests and retests, and pro bono proofreading. Youve passed the great husband test with flying colors.

A shout-out to my mother, Nancy Puckett, for always being no more than a phone call away whenever I needed a listening ear.

I raise a margarita glass to my longtime journalist friendsEileen Drennen, Michelle Hiskey, Jim Auchmutey, Deborah Geering, John Kessler, Jerry Sealy, Liz Rahe, and Anne Byrnwhose wise and encouraging words have carried me to the finish line on this project and others.

Eddie Hernandez, it has been an honor being your trusted scribe, and I can honestly say there has never been a dull moment! Thank you for the stories, the one-on-one cooking lessons, and your great friendship. I hope we will have many more delicious Saturday breakfasts together with Mike and Ralph at the Taqto taste your latest kitchen experiments, catch up on life, and reminisce about the adventures of writing a book.

From Eddie Hernandez and Susan Puckett

We both wish to express our deep gratitude to those who contributed to the making of this book:

Our agent, Amy Hughes, for helping us shape our rough nugget of a book idea and match us with the dream team that would produce it.

Our editor, Rux Martin, for believing in us and allowing us to stay true to our vision.

Angie Mosier and Thomas Driver, for illustrating the story beautifully in pictures and props, and Susan Rowe, for lending her creativity to the photo sessions.

Tamie Cook, Deborah Geering, Jeanne Besser, and Wendy Allen, for helping us test and fine-tune the recipes.

Julia Ellis, for her editorial assistance.

Shelley Berg, for her expert fact-checking and copyediting.

And the staff at HMH, for pulling the pieces together into a beautiful package: designers Anna Green and Rachel Newborn, production editor Jamie Selzer, typist Jacinta Monniere, and editorial assistant Sarah Kwak.

It all started with a bag full of turnip greens.

In 1989 I was cooking at a Tex-Mex restaurant on the outskirts of Atlanta called Azteca Grill when a regular customer came in with turnip greens from his garden. He said, Eddie, if anybody can make these things good, its you.

I thanked him, but they went bad because I didnt know how to cook them. Turnip greens dont grow in Mexico where I come from. The next Friday, the customer brought me more greens.