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Delicious by Daisy

One of TV’s favorite Latina chefs, and one of its very first, Daisy Martinez brings her personal brand of pan-Latin goodies to Food Network.

By Idy Fernandez

After listening for only a few minutes, you’re already leaning in hugging your cup of coffee closer. You’re listening intently as if the two of you were sitting across the kitchen table together and though really you’re just leaning into the phone—you can’t help it—star chef Daisy Martinez is gushing about the new recipes she’s testing while in the same breath blending you into her morning as easy as a mango smoothie.
“My earliest food memories involve the period of time when I lived in my grandmother’s house ... The house was always bustling, there were always extended family members [there] and my grandmother would always say ‘if the door bell rings, the pot hits the stove,’ ” chuckles Martinez, her slight accent giving away both her Puerto Rican descent and Brooklyn upbringing. “I can be walking in Paris or Spain and the smell of sweet roasted peppers immediately transport me back to her house on Saturday afternoons, when she’d make my dad’s favorite peppers while he watched the ball game.”
You then ask her about the recipes she was testing earlier and you get a second helping of family anecdotes with a side of food facts.
“It’s a love note to my children,” says Martinez about her newest book Daisy: Morning, Noon and Night, due out the spring 2010. Martinez’s made her cookbook-author debut with her first tome, Daisy Cooks! Latin Flavors that Will Rock Your World in 2005 and won the “Best Latino Cuisine Cookbook in the World” by the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. “We love to travel as a family since my youngest daughter turned 8 and Santa stopped coming to the house. And when we do [travel], we eat our way from one end of town to another. What I try to do when we come home is recreate those experiences and memories that we shared, like the strong German and Italian influence we saw in Buenos Aires, Argentina.”
And like one of her trademark sofritos, Martinez has mixed and married the flavors of her memories, her deep sense of family and her infectious passion for food to catapult from Daisy Cooks!, the PBS show that launched her television chef career in 2005 to Viva Daisy!, the newest addition to the Food Network’s program lineup. The show premiered in January 2009 and has been picked up for six more episodes set to air in July.
“It’s a little livelier, more candid and a little less formal,” says Martinez of Viva Daisy!, which was pitched to Food Network honchos by its executive producer, star chef Rachel Ray. Ray concocted the idea to bring Martinez to the Food Network as a sort of “Ambassador to Latin America,” following a chance meeting between the two foodies at an event.
“I hold myself accountable to Latinos everywhere because the food is so diverse,” says the mother of four, who got her start in the culinary industry after her husband gave her a unique birthday gift: the chance to attend the French Culinary Institute. Shortly after graduating in 1998, Martinez worked as a prep-kitchen chef on the set of PBS’ Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen as well as a private chef and the owner of a small catering business. “My mission is to open mainstream America to something besides Tex-Mex food,” she says. “There are 38 different countries in Latin America not counting Spain. I feel impish springing the surprise that [the food is] not rice and beans, tacos and burritos. What there is, is colorful, bold and delicious.”

Choripan

Chef Daisy’s take on the popular South American choripan sandwich includes avocados and Jalapeños.

INGREDIENTS:
1 Haas avocado, diced
1/2 small red onion, diced small
1 clove garlic, minced
2 plum tomatos, seeded and diced small
2 tablespoons parsley, minced
1/2 jalapeño, minced
1 lime, juiced
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper
6 Italian sausages, no fennel (hot or sweet, as you prefer)
6 crusty rolls (ciabatta, Kaiser, Portuguese, etc.)

Instructions:
Prepare the salsa for your choripan by mixing the avocado, onion, tomato, parsley, jalapeno, lime juice, olive oil, and seasoning. Place in refrigerator while you grill your sausages.
Grill sausages away from direct flame.
Open the rolls just before sausages are ready and place on the grill to toast up.
When sausages are ready, slice open
lengthwise and lay flat on your open roll. Divide the avo-salsa among the rolls, and enjoy!
Note: In a perfect world this recipe would feed six, but chances are better than not that your guests will be back for seconds.