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Santa Fe Foods

Photo copyright Berenguela/Spanish Santa Fe 2007

Santa Fe Red and Green Burritos

Sauté ground beef or shredded chicken with onion and red chile powder. Fill flour tortillas with the mixture, adding Monterey jack cheese to it.

Sauté the stuffed tortillas in olive, peanut oil or butter for a few seconds each side, and then top them with green chile gravy and shredded cheese--either cheddar or Monterey jack. To make green or red chile gravy (for this recipe I use green): heat a fourth-cup of oil, butter or lard in a frying pan or pot. Add a third-cup of flour and stir it till it begins to brown. Salt to taste. Add water or milk (milk if you are making green chile gravy), using a potato-masher on it till the sauce is smooth. Add your red or green New Mexico chile powder. I usually incorporate a small can of Hatch chopped green chiles into the green version. Keep at this with a potato-masher or wooden spoon till it is the consistency that you prefer. Cover your assembled burritos with the green chile gravy and cheese, then bake for ten minutes at 350F.

There are some people selling ristras (see architecture page) and dried green and red chile powders at the corner of St. Francis and Alameda in downtown Santa Fe. Look for the big truck with "Rachel's Corner" and some red chiles painted on its side. Their dried chile powders will enable you to eat well all winter.

Sopaipillas

3 tablespoons of baking powder
2 teaspoons of salt
3 tablespoons of lard (no substitutions--you are striving for authenticity here, not health-enhancement)

Mix all ingredients together until they are incorporated. Gradually, drop-by-drop, add enough cold water to make it into a stiff dough. Wrap the resultant ball of dough in plastic or put it in a bowl covered by a towel, and let it sit for one hour. Roll about 1/4 inch or thinner. Cut into squares. Fry in very hot oil. Eat with green chile stew, red chile pork, salsa picante, or drizzled with honey for a traditional Santafecino dessert. In other words, your sopaipilla is a platform for any edible New Mexican embellishment.

Recipes from Spain

New Mexican Food Terminology

BASIC INGREDIENTS in La Cocina de Nuevo Mexico

Heavily-Edited (by Berenguela) Information from VivaNewMexico.com (I cannot guarantee authenticity; some features on this list are strictly Mexican)

Chicos --: Dried sweet corn used whole or crushed in a seasoned stew.
Chile Caribe --: Red chile pods blended with water to a puree and seasoned. Used in such dishes as carne adovada.
Chiles, Green --: Found in a variety of sizes, shapes, and piquancies, they are an important part of New Mexican dishes. Before use, the skin is removed. Used in sauces, relishes, stews, and as chiles rellenos.
Chiles, Red --: Green chile that has ripened and dried. Usually used ground or crushed for added seasoning, cooking pork and tamales, or in making green chile gravy and a variety of sauces.
Chorizo --: Highly seasoned pork sausage.
Enchilada Sauce --: Red sauce made of mild-to-hot chile pulp or chile powder, spices, and beef or pork or both. Used for enchiladas. Also called red chile sauce.
Fresh Masa --: A moist dough of ground, dried corn that has been soaked in limewater, then cooked. Used in tamales.
Frijoles --: Beans. Most commonly used bean is the pinto bean. Black beans are not traditional in New Mexican cuisine.
Frijoles Refritos --: Refried beans. Pinto beans that have been boiled, mashed, fried in pork fat, and topped with longhorn or jack cheese.
Harina --: All-purpose flour.
Harina Azul --: Blue corn meal flour for tortillas.
Harina Para Atole --: Blue corn meal flour for gruel.
Harina Para Panocha --: Sprout wheat flour for Indian pudding (Panocha).
Masa Harina --: Masa in dehydrated form to which water is added to produce dough similar to fresh masa.
Piloncillo --: Brown, unrefined cane sugar found in cone-shaped pieces used to sweeten coffee and desserts.
Piñon --: Pine nuts or pignolia--seeds of large pine cones. Used in desserts, cookies and breads, or roasted, salted and enjoyed as nut meats.
Salsa Jalapeño --: A hot sauce or relish made of Jalapeño chiles, onions, either red or green tomatoes, and seasonings.
Tortillas de Harina --: Flour tortillas made from wheat flour. Tortilla means "little cake" (in Spain, a tortilla is an omelette with potatoes in it). Typically, flour tortillas are 7 - 10 inches in diameter and 1/4 inch thick. They remain mostly white after cooking on a griddle, but are flecked with brown and puffed in spots. Used for burritos and as an accompaniment to any Southwestern meal.
Tortillas de Mais --: Corn tortillas made from masa pressed into a thin pancake, then quickly singed or "blistered" on a hot griddle. Used for enchiladas, tacos, taquitos, chalupas, huevos rancheros, and tostadas compuestas.

SOUTHWESTERN DISHES

Albondigas --: Meatballs
Arroz a La Española --: Spanish rice.
Arroz Con Pollo --: Chicken with rice;.
Burrito --: Flour tortilla filled with refried beans and chile sauce, ground beef and chile sauce, or a combination of both, and rolled.
Caldillo --: Poor man's stew made of ground beef, raw potatoes, and seasonings.
Carne Adovada --: Pork steak marinated in chile sauce, then roasted or pan fried. Usually served with Spanish rice and refried beans.
Carne Asada --: Beef or pork cut in thin diagonal strips and cooked quickly over very hot coals, as in a brasero or Japanese hibachi.
Chalupas --: Meaning "little boats," is a fried corn tortilla topped with shredded chicken or beans, cheese, tomatoes, guacamole, and salsa.
Chauquehue --: Blue corn meal much thicker than atole. Served with red chile with pork or spareribs in place of potatoes or rice.
Chicharrones --: (Cracklings) Pieces of fat cooked slowly until lard is rendered out. Lightly salted, may be served as a warm or cold hors d'oeuvre.
Chilaquilas --: Called tortilla hash or poor man's dish. Includes leftover tortillas fried until crisp and combined with chile, eggs, jack or sharp cheddar cheese, and red chile sauce.
Chile con Queso --: Melted cheese dip seasoned with chile and served with tostados.
Chiles Rellenos --: Green chiles stuffed with cheese or meat, dipped in a cornmeal batter, and deep-fat fried.
Enchiladas --: Rolled or flat corn tortillas topped or stuffed with meat, cheese, onions, and red or green chile sauce.
Flautas --: Meaning "flute," a taco variation; two corn tortillas are overlapped, filled with meat, cheese, onion, and chile, rolled, then; fried.
Gazpacho --: A cold vegetable soup with a meat broth or tomato juice base containing a variety of raw vegetables.
Guacamole --: Avacado salad served as a dip or on lettuce as a salad, or ingredient in many other dishes.
Huevos Rancheros --: Served in several ways, but generally is a fried egg on a corn tortilla and topped with a special green chile sauce with onions and tomatoes. Sometimes served with red or green enchilada sauce and garnished with lettuce and cheese.
Menudo --: Tripe and hominy traditionally served on Christmas or New Year's Eve.
Mole --: Sauce made with red chiles, spices, and chocolate and served over meat or poultry. Crushed sesame seed, pumpkin seed, or nuts are often added for flavor and thickening. (sometimes called Pipian.)
Molletes --: Sweet anise seed rolls. Usaully accompanied by Mexican chocolate.
Nachos --: An hors d'oeuvre of tostados topped with jack cheese, sour cream, and jalapeño chile.
Paella --: A classic dish combining rice and a variety of both meat and seafood.
Posole --: Hominy stew made with dried lime-treated corn and combined with pork and seasonings.
Quesadillas --: Made in a number of different ways, buy always with cheese filling (named after "queso", the Spanish word for cheese). Usually a folded corn tortilla with a chile and jack cheese filling, fried quickly over high heat.
Queso Fresco --: (Native fresh cheese) Made with sweet milk and rennet tablets. It is allowed to set until whey can be separated from the curd. Served with sugar, syrup, or preserves as a dessert.
Sopaipillas --: Puffy, crisp, deep-fried bread. Accompanies many Southwestern meals, or may be stuffed with refritos or meat and topped with chile sauce, cheese, and lettuce.
Taco --: A corn tortilla folded in half and fried until crisp, stuffed with meat, or chicken, or refried beans. Before serving, it is topped with lettuce, onion, cheese, and taco sauce.
Tamale --: Red chile pork encased in fresh masa and wrapped in a corn shuck. Usually steamed and served with red chile sauce.
Taquitos --: (Rolled tacos) Same as tacos except filling is placed inside tortillas and rolled cigar-fashion, then deep-fat fried.
Torta --: Stiffly beaten eggs leavened with baking powder and seasoned with salt and herbs, then deep fried. Served during Lent with chile; or with a chile sauce as a meat substitute.
Tostadas --: Open-faced, flat tacos.
Tostadas Compuestas --: Corn tortilla cups filled with chile con carne topped with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, and grated cheese.
Tostados --: Corn tortillas cut in pieces and fried until crisp. Salted or sprinkled with chile powder. Served for dipping with salsa, guacamole, or chile con queso.

DESSERTS

Biscochitos --

Anise seed cookies.

Buñuelos --

Fried sweet puffs that can be glazed with brown sugar-maple syrup or sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar. Sometimes, hot buñuelos are stuffed with vanilla ice cream.

Capirotada --

(Bread Pudding) Toasted bread topped with caramelized-sugar corn syrup, sliced longhorn cheese, raisins and cinnamon, and baked until cheese melts.

Empanada --

Fried or baked turnovers with either dried fruit or sweet meat filling. The name derives from "enveloped in bread".

Flan --

Caramelized custard.

Natillas --

Soft custard topped with egg white and sprinkled with cinnamon.

Panocha --

Indian pudding made with panocha flour, brown sugar, and seasonings such as cinnamon and cloves.

Pastelitos --

Dried-fruit filled pies -- usually apricot or prune or both.

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Calabasa --: Baked pumpkin.
Garbanzos --: (Chick Peas) Cooked, mashed, and seasoned with salt, onion, red chile pulp, and cilantro.
Jicama --: A large gray-brown root vegetable, delicious raw. Has a white, crisp meat resembling that of a potato or chestnut.
Nopales --: Leaves or pads of prickly pear cactus. Taste and texture resemble green beans. Used alone as a vegetable or in soups, salads, and omelets.
Papas --: Potatoes
Quelites --: Spinach combined with pinto beans, seasoned with bacon and crushed chile pods.
Tuna --: Cactus fruit ranging in color from green to red or maroon. The moist, granular flesh is good served raw as a dessert with lemon and sugar, but is also candied or used in desserts.
Verdolagas --: A common garden weed served as a leafy vegetable. Also called purslane.

BEVERAGES

Atole --: A gruel-like blue corn-meal drink. Is either served with sugar, scalded milk, or both.
Chocolate--: Hot chocolate using Mexican chocolate as a main ingredient and seasoned with cinnamon, cloves and vanilla. At Christmas season, it is served with biscochitos.

SPICES USED IN THE SOUTHWEST

Anis -- Anise
Asafran -- Saffron
Chimaja -- Wild celery, root and leaf
Cilantro -- Coriander leaves or crushed seeds
Comino -- Cumin, powder or seeds
Mejorama -- Marjoram
Oregano -- Oregano dried leaves
Romero -- Rosemary
Tomillo -- Thyme
Yerba Buena -- Wild mint, fresh or dried

Biscochitos (Anise Seed Christmas Cookies)

Yield: 5 dozen. Baking Time: 10-12 minutes. Oven Temperature: 350°F

These cookies/"biscuits" freeze well.

Ingredients:

1 pound (16 ounces) of lard (manteca)--no substitution!

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons of ground anise seed

1/2 cup brandy*

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup of granulated white sugar

6 cups of white flour

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1. Cream together the lard, sugar, and anise seed in a large mixing bowl. Add eggs and beat well.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.

3. Alternately add flour and brandy to creamed mixture until stiff dough has been formed.

4. Knead dough slightly and pat or roll to a 1/4 inch to a 1/2 inch thickness. Cut dough into desired shapes.

5. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small mixing bowl. Dust the top of each cookie with a small amount of mixture.

6. Bake in a 350°F oven for 10 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned.

* Varied amounts may be used. Bourbon or sherry may be substituted.

NOTE: The fleur-de-lis shape is traditional for these cookies.

Chiles Rellenos

Chiles Rellenos (Stuffed Green Chiles)
Yield: 6 servings. Freezes well (May be frozen after frying).
12 large, peeled, whole green chiles with stems

Batter (see recipe below)

Red or Green Chile Sauce
1 pound sharp cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, cut into strips

1. Heat an amount 4 inches deep of shortening or lard (manteca) in a heavy pan on medium-high heat.
2. Slit chiles open crosswise below stems.
3. Insert strips of cheese into chiles.
4. Dip stuffed chile into batter and fry in hot fat until
golden brown. Drain on absorbent towels.
5. Serve with red or green chile sauce.

Batido para Chiles Rellenos (Batter for Stuffed Green Chiles)
Yield: Enough to coat 12 chiles
1 cup flour, 3/4 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 cup milk, approximately,
1/2 teaspoon salt more may be added for smooth
2 eggs, slightly beaten

Method: 1. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and cornmeal in a
medium-sized bowl.
2. Blend milk with eggs and add to dry ingredients. Mix well.
3. Proceed with step 4 of Chiles Rellenos recipe.

Capirotada (New Mexican Bread Pudding)

CAPIROTADA, a Santa Fe Dessert

1 loaf of French bread, sliced; or 8 slices of white bread

1/2 cup of melted butter

4 cups of water

11/2 cups brown sugar

1 cinnamon-stick

5 whole cloves

1/2 lb. grated Monterey jack cheese, or any mild, gratable cows' milk cheese

1 cup of chopped pecans

1 cup of golden sultanas or dark raisins

3/4 cup sour cream

Brush the bread slices w/ melted butter. Bake at 350* for 10 to 15 minutes until well dried but not browned. In a saucepan dissolve the sugar in the water, add cinnamon-stick and cloves. Bring to a boil, then barely simmer, uncovered, for about 20 minutes. Remove cinnamon and cloves. Reserve the cinnamon-stick.

Place half of the bread slices in a medium baking dish so they crowd or slightly overlap. Top bread with 1/3 of the raisins, cheese, nuts and sour cream. Repeat layers. Decorate top with the reserved cinnamon stick. Pour the sugar-and-spice syrup over the assembled ingredients.

Bake at 350* Fahrenheit for 20-30 minutes until the top is nicely browned.