A Santa Fe Journey

A woman making a chile ristra.

The Essence of New Mexican Cooking

New Mexican cooks have always made the best of what was available.  From Pueblo Indians came corn, potatoes, beans, squash, wild game, sheep, domestic poultry, nuts, spices and a mild chile pepper they may have acquired in trade with neighbors to the south.  Hot Aztec chile peppers, wheat flour, rice, garlic, citrus fruits, beef and pork were brought in by the Spanish Conquistadors (some from Spain and some picked up their travels through the Caribbean and territory that would become Mexico).  The opening of the Santa Fe Trail brought an influx of 'Anglo' products as well as the Anglos themselves to the then-Mexican territory.  This blending of Indian, Spanish, Mexican and Anglo cuisines is unique in New Mexico--not quite like Tex-Mex or Arizona or Californian.

The Spanish language of New Mexico reflects this mix, as does the food, with words not only from Mexican, Anglo and Native American dialects, but also from the dialect spoken in 16th-century Spain which survived, little-changed for four centuries, in isolated mountain villages.  Twentieth-century linguists have delighted in finding an antique form of a living language still being used.  Below are the ingredients used and some of the culture and history of southwest cooking, but if you are in a hurry to eat, you can get a list of recipes HERE.

Chile

Here the chile is king and queen.  As mature green pods or ripe red dried pods, chile peppers in many variations of flavor and heat are pervasive.  New Mexicans put green chiles on hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, pizza, in soup, stew or vegetables, or eat them alone.  Red chile sauce is used on anything.  The variations are literally endless--each cook, each restaurant, each commercial food processor has a favorite recipe, none quite alike.  For instance, a red sauce might be mild and tomato-like or hot, raw and chunky with lots of onion, or cooked sauce so dark with mild chile that it's an earthy rich flavor, with only moderate heat.

Here are some red and green chile sauces if you'd like to make your own, or you can try every bottled sauce on the market until you decide which ones you like best.  You're sure to enjoy the process of choosing. 

Not enough can be said of chiles.  New Mexicans--native or new--develop a craving for them.  Their cars sport bumper stickers warning 'Chile Addict."  The most addicted may eat chiles every day.  The newcomer may feel the need only once a week.  Once addicted there is no cure.  Late-summer visitors to New Mexico are begged to bring back fresh green chiles to former New Mexicans living in the Midwest.  And in every New Mexican town, the smell of green chiles being roasted by street-corner vendors makes passers-by breathe deeply and salivate.  Now, one could be analytical about how eating chile satisfies the mouth-hunger for stimulation, clears the sinuses, excites the digestion, soothes the stomach (to herbalists, chile is a carminative--stomach soother--in small doses!), and gives big qualities of vitamins A and C, but we who love them don't care.  We just don't feel like we've EATEN until we've had our regular dose of chile.

Red chile is available as 'ristras' (REE-strahs) -- decorative bunches and strands of the drying red pods, or as ground powder, usually labeled mild, medium or hot.  It is not the same as 'chili powder' in a can, which includes other herbs.  Red chile powder is simply the whole ripe red dried pods, ground up.  Like other spices, it loses its punch in about a year, so if you want real chile flavor and heat, be sure it is fresh.  You can even grind up your ristras in a blender, either dry or with a little water.  To be authentic, red chile should be an important ingredient in commercially available 'Taco Sauce', 'Chile Sauce', Picante Salsa' or whatever it's named.

If you hunger for the smell of green chiles roasting, you can roast and peel your own fresh green chiles.  If not, perfectly acceptable green chiles are available canned, frozen, or dehydrated.  They may be whole or chopped, mild, medium, or hot.  Green and red chiles do not taste the same, partly because different varieties are usually used for the two colors.  (Green chiles are harvested when full-sized, just before they turn red.)  Green chile appears in dishes as chunks or whole, while red chiles are used ground or powdered.

Tomatoes

Cousin of the chile peppers and green bell peppers, tomatoes blend so well with chile that some chile sauces have more tomatoes than chiles.  The best sources of tomatoes are home grown and vine ripened from a farmer's market.  Next best for flavor and consistency are canned tomatoes.  Many cooks feel that the 'fresh' tomatoes at the supermarkets lack flavor and have an unpleasant texture.

Beans

The next most important staple in New Mexican cuisine is Frijoles (free-HO-lays) beans: Pinto beans served in their own juices.  Pink or pinto beans mashed and fried in butter until almost crispy.  Beans and Spanish rice on every plate.  Black bean and chile soup.  Beans at every meal.  If you do not want to go to the trouble of boiling beans, a good selection of canned beans is available in supermarkets, as well as several varieties of refried beans.

Tortillas

Right up there with beans is the tortilla (tor-TEE-yah) in its many forms:  wheat flour tortillas served steamy with butter, flour tortillas wrapped around any number of fillings and steamed or fried; soft corn tortillas around fillings, corn tortillas fried into an envelope or cup to serve the main dish; tortilla wedges fried crispy and called taco chips, tortilla chips, or tostados.  The Spanish conquistadors called loaves of bread tortas, so when they saw the natives making their cornmeal and lime masa cakes, they called the the 'little breads'--tortillas. 

Flour tortillas vary from 6 to 10 inches across, regular or thick.  They can also be torn into chunks and folded into little spoons to scoop up soup or sauce.

Corn tortillas can be made of white, yellow or blue corn and are usually 6 inches in diameter.  They differ in color, but only slightly in taste.  Blue corn tortillas cook to blue-gray to black in color.  Blue corn products (tortillas, pancake mix, corn meal) are available in New Mexico and are becoming available across the country. 

Corn tortillas can be very hard and crispy or soft.  They become hard and crisp when fried or baked dry.  They are soft enough to cut with a fork when they are steamed or cooked with a liquid such as tomatoes or chile sauce.  They can be softened if dipped in hot oil briefly, but not cooked, then drained on paper towels. 

Posole

Posole (po-SO-lee) is specially cooked and dried hard corn.  Posole can be found canned, frozen, or dried.  Hominy is almost identical and can be substituted.

Pinon Nut

Pinon (PIN-yon) nuts are from a pine tree that grows in the Southwest.  Trees must be very old before they make nuts, so Pinon nuts are not grown commercially, but are gathered.  Pinon nuts are expensive, but they have a unique taste.

Typical Flavorings

Anise seed, basil, canela (coarse stick cinnamon), cominos (whole or ground cumin), cilantro (fresh coriander or Chinese parsley), chile peppers, sweet bell peppers, garlic, lemon and lime, manzanilla (chamomile flowers), onions, oregano, piloncillo (chunk brown sugar) and thyme. 

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