Cookbook gives fresh take on Mexican fare

For anyone who has ever bemoaned the state of the chain restaurant chimichanga, behold, salvation.

Marcela Valladolid's "Fresh Mexico" offers a modern cuisine bursting with vegetables, queso fresco and a half-dozen different types of chilies.

Valladolid is judicious in her demands, and individual recipes require relatively few ingredients, shun complicated techniques and promise bold flavors with anchos and chipotles, lime, tomatillos, cilantro, rosemary and oregano.

Valladolid grew up in Tijuana on the U.S.-Mexico border, so think of her book as a kind of passport.