RECIPES
Three Sisters Sauté with Sage Pesto
LORETTA BARRETT ODEN, FROM COOKING LIVE, “WILD WILD WEST: NATIVE AMERICAN CUISINE”
For the sauté:
1 lb zucchini squash, cut bite-size or thinly julienned
3 T olive oil
1 cup heirloom beans, cooked
2 ears frozen sweet corn, thawed and drained
1 cup chopped ripe Roma tomatoes
salt and pepper
1/3 cup sage pesto, recipe follows For the pesto:
1 cup pine nuts
1 1/2 cups fresh sage leaves, firmly packed
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup garlic, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 lemon, juiced
1 T fresh, mild goat cheese, optional
To make pesto, toast pine nuts in a dry sauté pan or in a
350-degree oven on a sheet pan. Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and process until smooth.
Rinse and trim squashes, julienne on a mandoline using the skins for a pasta effect or cut into bite-sized chunks, or use whole baby squashes.
Heat oil in a large sauté pan. Add squash and sauté for
1 minute, then in succession, tossing and stirring with
each addition, add beans, corn, and tomatoes, then add the sage pesto, stirring gently to distribute evenly.
Salt, only if needed, and serve immediately. Serves 6.
Carmella’s Baked Chicken Flautas
CARMELLA PADILLA
These are very easy and very yummy. I always make them with my own cooked chicken, but you can use store-bought roasted chicken in a pinch. Much of it is according to taste and preference — how much chile you want to include, how creamy or not you want them to be, how full you want them to be.
1 whole chicken
1 pint sour cream (use more if want creamier flautas)
1 small onion, chopped small
1 cup chopped fresh roasted green chile (use more or less according to taste)
2 dozen blue corn tortillas
grated Monterey jack cheese (optional) garlic salt (to taste)
olive oil or canola oil for frying tortillas
Boil chicken until cooked. Drain and cool. Discard skins and shred chicken. (Store-bought roasted chicken, skinned and boned, can also work if you’re in a hurry.)
Place shredded chicken in bowl, add sour cream, onion, chopped chile, and garlic salt. Mix well to achieve a moist consistency.
Fry tortillas very lightly in oil (do not let get crisp) so they can be easily rolled. Place tortillas individually between paper towels to drain excess oil and cool.
Fill each tortilla with heaping spoonful of chicken mixture and roll to approximately 1 1/2-inch diameter. (Use less mixture if you want less-fat flautas. Fuller flautas may require more chicken mixture.)
Place flautas seam side down, side by side, into glass baking dish. Spread thin layer of sour cream and light dusting of grated cheese on top.
Bake flautas at 350 degrees until warmed through, approximately 20 minutes. Serve individually in whole portions for best presentation. Makes about 2 dozen.
Ranney Ranch Grass-fed Brisket
NANCY RANNEY
3 lb brisk et 2–3 onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves, crushed
1 tsp freshly ground coffee
2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp thyme
2 tomatoes, quartered
1 cup (or more!) red wine
Sear brisket on all sides in hot Dutch oven. Remove
and sauté onions and garlic. Add the brisket with the
remaining ingredients, cover, and simmer for 3 hours. Turn brisket occasionally. After 1 1/2 hours add some carrots, potatoes, turnips, or other root vegetables.
Homegrown Greens
SCOTT CANNING
My favorite food in the world is fresh, homegrown greens: I peel a clove of garlic, split it into two halves, and rub a large salad bowl with the garlic, crushing the clove as I rub to release the essential oils. Toss the garlic pieces or reserve for another recipe. Pour into the prepared bowl enough extra virgin olive oil for the size of the salad, drizzle it down the sides of the bowl to catch the fresh-squeezed garlic juice. Whisk in seasoned rice wine vinegar to make a nice, creamy emulsion. Toss this simple dressing with your fresh greens, and enjoy. The dressing can be played with, adding toasted sesame oil or ume plum vinegar for a more complicated flavor.
Wonderful additions include chopped fresh or dried cherries or apricots; walnuts, pecans, or pine nuts can be sprinkled over the greens. Especially indulgent is topping the greens with coarsely grated ParmigianoReggiano cheese; or feta, blue, or goat cheese crumbles.
Chard, Ricotta, and Saffron Cakes with Basil
DEBORAH MADISON, FROM VEGETABLE LITERACY: TWELVE PLANT FAMILIES IN OUR KITCHENS
These cakes can serve as a tidy little nibble for a pass-around, made slightly larger for a first course, or larger still for a main course. They’re light enough that you can still serve them with a dollop of crème fraiche or creamy yogurt cheese and a cluster of micro greens or small basil leaves. A mixture of chard and beet greens works well too. If you prefer spinach, you’ll need at least two pounds.
12 cups chard leaves, minus the stems
2 pinches saffron threads
2 T boiled water
1 cup white whole-wheat or spelt flour
1 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 large farm eggs
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 T slivered basil leaves
3/4 cup milk
3 T olive oil or ghee for frying
To Finish: Thick yogurt or crème fraiche, basil leaves or microgreens
Wash the chard leaves and cook them in a covered pot in a little water until they are wilted and tender. Chard will take longer than spinach and possibly beet greens and you want them tender, but not overcooked, about 5 minutes. Keep an eye on them and taste them frequently once they’ve wilted. Also make sure the pot doesn’t dry out. When they’re done, put them in a colander and set them aside to cool and drain. Cover the saffron threads with 2 tablespoons boiling water.
Mix the flour with the salt and baking powder in one bowl. In another bowl, mix together the ricotta, cheese, eggs and milk. Add the steeped saffron threads and the water, then whisk in the flour mixture. Returning to the greens, squeeze out as much water as possible, then chop the greens finely and stir them into the batter.
Coat a non-stick skillet with olive oil, ghee or butter.
To taste for salt, cook a spoonful of the batter on both sides, then taste. If it needs more salt, now is the time to add it. Then make your cakes, small or larger cakes as you wish. (There should be about 4 cups of batter.) Cook over moderate heat until golden on the bottom, about 2 minutes, then turn the cakes once, resisting any urge to pat them down, and cook until the second side is also well-colored, two minutes more. Serve each cake with a spoonful of yogurt cheese and a garnish of basil or micro greens. Makes 12 3-inch cakes.
Made-to-Order Summer Sweet Corn Soup with Farmers Market Vegetable Relish
MARK KIFFIN
3 ear s sweet corn, shucked and cut off the cob
2 scallions, white part only, thinly sliced
1–1 1/2 qt light vegetable stock
kosher salt and
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup cream, optional
Bring vegetable stock to a simmer, add corn and scallion, season. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and return to a simmer for 5 minutes. Add cream now if using. The corn should be tender but still sweet and not starchy. Place in blender and puree at high speed until completely smooth and slightly foamy. For a thinner consistency, strain. Adjust seasoning and serve hot.
For the vegetable relish: I like to see what looks the best at the market: zucchini, yellow squash, peas, green beans, or baby onions. Then pan roast with a little whole butter and a touch of vegetable stock and finish with freshly chopped basil or parsley. Serves 4.
Zucchini, Corn, and Green Chile Fritters with Pimentón Cream
ROB DEWALT
For the fritters:
2 medium zucchini, coarsely shredded kosher salt (to season)
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 ears’ worth fresh corn kernels
1/2 cup roasted green chile, chopped
1/2 cup dry masa harina
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 large egg, beaten
vegetable oil, for frying
Edamame Wild Rice Salad
THOMAS ANTONIO
For the cream:
wild rice
1 tsp pimentón, red chile powder, green chile powder, or chipotle powder
1 can black olives (quartered)
1 cup shelled edamame beans
1 1/2 cup sour cream, yogurt, or Mexican crema Preheat a cast-iron skillet filled 1/3 with oil to 350 degrees. Toss the zucchini with 1/2 tsp salt in a bowl; let stand 20 minutes. Wrap the zucchini in a kitchen towel and squeeze dry. Blend dried-out zucchini with corn, chile, garlic, buttermilk, and egg.
1 1/2–2 cups cherry/grape tomatoes (cut in half on a bias)
1–2 cups cashews (whole or slightly chopped, whichever you prefer)
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 bunch kale (lacinato preferred), destemmed and sliced in thin strips
Mix the flour with baking soda and masa harina.
Add in batches to wet ingredients.
Bragg’s amino acid
Scoop the batter 1/4 cup at a time into the oil and cook until the fritters are golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Be careful not to crowd the pan. Drain fritters on paper towels and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve warm immediately or keep warm in a 250-degree oven. Cooled fritters can be frozen for up to a week. Reheat in a 300-degree oven after defrosting.
Super easy and cheap to make. Cook 1 cup wild rice in
4 cups of water to your liking. Slice olives and tomatoes and place in a large mixing bowl. Add edamame beans.
Sauté onion and place in bowl with olives, tomatoes, and edamame. Sauté kale. When done add about
1 teaspoon Bragg’s to kale and stir in. Add kale to
bowl. Strain cooked wild rice and add to bowl. Add the cashews last and gently mix all ingredients together.
For the cream: Add pimentón to sour cream and stir well. Let sit for an hour in the fridge before serving with hot fritters.
Last step is to arrange avocados, pinwheel-style, around the top of the salad.
Matt’s Meatballs, Beans, and Peaches
MATTHEW BARBOUR
1 lb hamburger
1 large can of pork and beans
2 cans of peaches 1 egg
1 chopped onion mustard
catsup
garlic
oregano
brown sugar
salt and pepper
Mix hamburger with some mustard, catsup, garlic, onion, egg, salt, and pepper. Form into balls and brown. You can also use store-bought, precooked meatballs for the authentic twenty-first-century experience.
In a pot, combine meatballs along with canned peaches and pork and beans. Set on range top and cook on low heat. Simmer for at least 1 hour, adding brown sugar, mustard, salt, and pepper as desired. For the best product, put it in a crockpot and let it cook all day. Serves 6 to 8.
Southwest Corn Chowder
FREDDIE BITSOIE
5 ear s fresh corn, kernels removed, or 1/2 lb frozen
1 small onion, small dice
3 russet potatoes, small dice 1 garlic clove, minced parsley, chopped
2 bacon strips, diced
4 ounces heavy cream salt and pepper fresh thyme bay leaf
1 red bell pepper, small dice
1 Hatch green chile, small dice
32 oz chicken or vegetable stock
Place bacon in pot and render fat.
Sweat onion, thyme, bay leaf, chili, red pepper, and green chile in bacon for 30 minutes slowly. Do not burn.
Add corn and garlic into pot and sweat for about 10 more minutes. Add stock and bring to boil, then add potato. They should cook in about 10 to 15 minutes.
Remove thyme and bay leaf, then take 1/3 of the soup and place in blender (try to get as much potato as possible, but not all). Puree until smooth and the starch of the potato thickens puree. Combine back into soup. Add cream only to smooth out color of the soup. Makes one gallon.
Grandma Catherine’s Tepary Bean, Roasted Corn and Wheat Berry ‘Boshol’
TERROL DEW JOHNSON
My grandma would make this stew for family gatherings and feast and festivals when they would kill a cow. It was a rare thing to have it. I really like the wheat berries in the stew because they puff up and get chewy and I love the texture. The meat from a freshly slaughtered cow also adds a really rich flavor to the stew.
My grandma, Catherine Pancho and her husband,
Alexander, were traditional farmers from the village of Cowlic on the Tohono O’odham Nation. They grew traditional tepary beans, 60-day corn and squash watered only by the monsoon rains. This stew uses not only traditional foods, but also beef and wheat that were introduced by the Spanish in the 1700’s and were quickly adopted by the indigenous ranchers and farmers. Both of these ingredients find their way into this stew — the wheat in the form of wheat berries. There are many variations of this bean and roasted corn stew — referred to locally as posole, posol and boshol — and everyone has their favorite. This one is mine.
4 quarts water
3 tsp salt
1 cup dried, roasted, whole corn kernels
1 cup brown tepary beans
1 cup white tepary beans
1/2 cup whole-wheat berries
1 lb beef short ribs or oxtails
For stove top: Put water, salt, corn, beans and wheat in a large pot. Bring to a boil, cover. Reduce heat and simmer anywhere from 2 to 5 hours or until corn and beans are tender. If using meat, add after the stew has been cooking for one hour.
For crockpot: Put water, salt, corn, beans and wheat in a large crock pot. Cover and cook on high for 6 to 8 hours. If using meat, add 1 hour before end of cooking time. Serves 6 to 8.
Torrejas de Quinoa (Quinoa Griddle Cakes)
BEVERLY COX, FROM SPIRIT OF THE EARTH:
NATIVE COOKING FROM LATIN AMERICA
Torrejas are often served for breakfast or sent along with schoolchildren to eat as a midmorning snack. Though they are often made with leftover quinoa, they are so good that it’s worth preparing quinoa just to have torrejas!
2 cups cooked quinoa
1 cup grated carrot
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4–1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 to 4 tablespoons canola or other mild oil
In a mixing bowl combine quinoa, carrot, onion, parsley,
eggs, salt, pepper and 1/4 cup of the flour. Toss together to combine thoroughly. Add more flour if needed to hold the mixture together.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a nonstick or well-seasoned skillet or griddle over medium-high heat. In batches, spoon heaping tablespoons of the quinoa mixture onto the preheated skillet. Using a spatula, flatten each spoonful to form a 3 1/2 to 4-inch patty. Fry the torrejas for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Brush skillet with more oil as needed. Serve hot or at room temperature. Serves 4 to 6.
Western Apache Seed Mix
NEPHI CRAIG
This is a mix of seeds from the Pre-Reservation
Ancestral Apache Diet. It is a critical piece of our identity and speaks to health and resiliency as we continue to forge de-colonial culinary pathways toward solutions in health and wellness in Western Apacheria.
1 cup dried white corn
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup pine nuts (piñons)
1 cup pumpkin seeds kosher salt to taste
Each ingredient must be prepared separately and combined.
Parch the corn in a heavy skillet over high heat, stirring constantly until the corn cracks and is golden brown. Do not burn. Toast the sunflower seeds for 10 minutes at 350 degrees or until golden brown. Toast the pine nuts in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Do not burn. Toast pumpkin seeds in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove and allow the seeds to cool. Combine all seeds and season with salt to taste if desired. Place the cooled mixture in a tall Mason jar and place in a high place of honor to display.
There are many variations of this seed mix. This recipe is basic and easy to replicate with seeds readily available in markets. Independent study will allow the eater to discover more combinations of this protein-packed combination of seeds that revitalize Ancestral Taste and health.
As you snack on this seed mix, please think about Pre
Reservation Indigenous Health and regional dominant flavors. Although this mix can be made year round, historically, spring, summer, and autumn were spent gathering and cultivating these seeds to be consumed in winter time while telling stories and playing string games with the family at home. We share this recipe in the hopes that we Re-Member our ancestral taste and food relatives.
Authentic Chaco Canyon Exfoliating Treatment
PATRICIA CROWN
I’m an archaeologist, not a chef, so I thought I’d share my professional secret for keeping that youthful glow you so often see on archaeologists. For a truly authentic experience, be sure to turn off any air conditioning at least three days in advance — room temperature should be around 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
5 lb block of sandstone
1/2 cup small twigs of your choice
1/2 cup pollen — should include herbes de Chaco (sage, amaranth, chenopodium) — don’t be afraid to experiment!
1/4 cup ants — seed harvester or fire ants
provide the most authentic experience
Optional: add minced crockery to taste.
For a tropical experience, add a pinch of chocolate and a soupçon of finely ground macaw feathers.
Grate block of sandstone into large mixing bowl. Do not use pregrated sand as this is too rounded to have the proper effect. Make sure all grated sand is equivalent in size. Alternatively, you may put sandstone in sieve under running faucet and wait 200–300 years for erosion to do the work for you! Be sure sand is completely dry before proceeding to next step.
Add all other dry ingredients to mixing bowl and mix well with your hands. Spread completely combined mixture onto flat surface and allow to rest for at least one hour at room temperature. Try not to let the ants escape.
Place a chair on one side of mixture and a strong fan on the other. Face the fan so that you are looking straight into it and turn it on to roughly the speed of canyon winds in spring (50 mph is a good starting point for the novice). Close your eyes and breathe deeply! The ants may bite, but that’s an important part of the experience — those itchy red welts will fade in a week or so, leaving your skin clean and clear. Rinse. Repeat for up to 10 hours.
Enjoy! Your friends will want to know how you got that archaeologist’s glow.
Dried Apple Pie
GLENNA DEAN
Best with home-grown, home-dried apples.
For the pie:
1/2 pound dried apples
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 T lemon juice
1 T flour
Single pie crust
10-inch deep-dish pie plate
For the topping:
1 stick butter
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
Almost cover apples with water in pan, simmer until soft (about 30 minutes). Fish out apples and transfer to large bowl. Add remaining ingredients to the water in the pan, bring to boil while stirring continually. Mix thickened sauce with apples in bowl.
Cut butter into oats with pastry cutter; mix in flour and sugar. If the mixture makes a single mass, add more oats until the mixture breaks up into pieces.
Roll out the single pie crust and fit to the deep-dish pie plate; bring up edges and flute to help keep topping in place. Spoon apples and sauce onto the crust and cover with crumbled topping. Bake 40 minutes at 425 degrees (6,000 feet elevation) or until pie begins to bubble.
Chocolate and Piñon Torte
LOIS ELLEN FRANK
The Feast Day is one of the biggest celebrations of the year among the Indian pueblos of New Mexico. To honor their patron saints, the people of each pueblo gather together. They attend mass in the morning and hold a procession into the plaza, where an altar houses their patron saint. After Mass, dressed in ceremonial clothing, ancient traditional dances begin and are offered at various times throughout the day. Members of the pueblos, relatives, visitors, and tourists often view these dances. Each pueblo has different rules, and I suggest that you check with the specific pueblo you are visiting for guidelines on dress and ethics.
After Mass, many of the women return home to set up for the day’s feast, which they have been preparing for, in most cases, for days and set the special dishes up on their tables with chairs crowded around them. On each table is a variety of salads, stews, meats, homemade breads, and of course desserts, both traditional and modern dishes.
During the afternoon, as the dances are going on in the plaza, relatives and visitors drop in and enjoy what foods each household has to offer, express their thanks, and leave to go back to the dances. People drop in throughout the day to taste the fine foods at many different houses. It is a festive day filled with warmth and friendliness.
This recipe is my adaptation of some of the tortes I sampled at different pueblos, and I serve it a lot in my catering company, Red Mesa Cuisine. I like to serve it with two sauces: a peach sauce from locally grown farmer’s market peaches from the Velarde Family’s farm, and a hand-harvested prickly pear fruit syrup. You can decorate the entire torte and set it out with the sauces for a buffet, or you can slice it and plate it individually for your guests. Either way, it’s a wonderful dessert.
1 cup raw piñon nuts (walnuts or pecans may be substituted)
2 T blue cornmeal
2 T unsalted butter
9 oz semisweet chocolate 6 egg yolks
3/4 cup granulated sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar and
2 T blue cornmeal for decoration, optional
Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a food processor, grind the piñon nuts to a very moist nut butter. Add the blue cornmeal and blend again for about 30 seconds, just long enough to combine.
In a double boiler over medium-high heat, melt the butter and chocolate together, stirring occasionally so that they melt and blend together evenly. Add to the piñon mixture in the food processor and blend about 1 minute until smooth.
Beat the egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla together in a bowl, and add to the other ingredients in the food processor. Blend again until smooth. Always add the egg mixture last. Otherwise the eggs will curdle from the heated chocolate.
Pour the batter into the prepared greased pan and pat down with your fingers until evenly spread in the baking pan. This is a thick batter, and you will be able to handle it. Bake approximately 10 to 12 minutes, depending on your oven (convection works well for this torte) or until the cake springs back when the center is touched. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool before decorating. This is a dense torte, and to me it resembles dense, very moist brownies. I like it very moist, which is why I only cook it for 10 to 12 minutes; if you desire a crisper torte you can cook it slightly longer.
When the torte has cooled, after 20 to 30 minutes, remove it from the pan, and then be creative for the decorating process. You can do individual stencils on each slice or decorate the entire torte. To make the southwestern motif pictured, cut a stencil out of cardboard. First dust the cake with confectioner’s sugar using a medium sieve, lightly tapping the sides and moving it in a circular motion around the surface of the torte. Then, carefully holding the stencil as close to the torte’s surface as possible without touching it, sprinkle the blue cornmeal through a sieve over the exposed areas. Carefully remove the stencil without disrupting the design. For a finishing touch, place a few piñon nuts at the corner of each stenciled triangle. Serves 12 for dessert.
Carne Adovada
BILL AND CHERYL ALTERS JAMISON, FROM THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY RANCHO DE CHIMAYÓ COOKBOOK
We love the Jaramillo family’s version of this fiery northern New Mexican specialty.
8 oz (about 25) whole dried New Mexican red chile pods
4 cups water
1 T canola or vegetable oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 T diced yellow onion
1 T crushed chile pequin (dried hot New Mexican red chile flakes)
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp crumbled dried Mexico oregano
3 lb thick boneless shoulder pork chops,
trimmed of fat and cut into 1- to 2-inch cubes (if you plan to use the meat in burritos, cut it into the smaller size pieces.)
Shredded romaine or iceberg lettuce and — in season — diced tomato
Warm the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
Add the garlic and sauté until just golden. Immediately remove from the heat.
Break the stems off the chile pods and discard the seeds. It isn’t necessary to get rid of every seed, but most should be removed. Place the chiles in a sink or large bowl, rinse them carefully, and drain.
Place the damp pods in one layer on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 5 minutes, watching carefully to avoid burning them. The chiles can have a little remaining moisture. Remove them from the oven and let cool. Break each chile into 2 or 3 pieces.
Purée in a blender half of the pods with 2 cups of the water. You will still be able to see tiny pieces of chile pulp, but they should be bound in a smooth thick liquid. Pour into the saucepan with the garlic. Repeat with the remaining pods and water.
Stir the remaining sauce ingredients into the chile sauce and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce will thicken, but should remain a little soupy. Remove from the heat. Cool to room temperature. Stir the pork into the chile sauce and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, preheat the oven to 300° F. Oil a large, covered baking dish.
Spoon carne adovada into the baking dish. Cover the dish and bake until the meat is completely tender and sauce has cooked down, about 3 hours. Stir once about half-way through. If the sauce remains watery after 3 hours, stir well again and cook uncovered for about 15 minutes more.
Serve hot, garnished with lettuce and tomato if you wish. Serves 6 to 8.
Calabacitas Rancheras
DODY FUGATE
5 small summer squash, sliced or cubed
1 medium onion, diced
garlic, diced
3 ears of fresh sweet corn
2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped coarsely
1–2 cups cooked red or pinto beans
2 roasted, peeled, and chopped green chiles or
1/2 small can of Hatch green chiles. Remove seeds.
1 cup grated sharp cheese
Cut the kernels off of the corn and sauté a few seconds in whatever grease you like. Butter is best. Add and sauté the onion until soft. Add squash and continue until it is also softening. Add chiles and lower the flame, cook slowly a few minutes. Add the beans and stir lightly to warm. Add the tomatoes and cook until soft and warm but not mushy. Add cheese and mix lightly until melting but not stringy.
Spicy Hot Jerky Bites
BETTY FUSSELL
Of course men have preserved meat by drying or smoking for as long as men have fashioned stone and bone into weapons for stripping flesh from animals in order to eat them. Using salt to additionally flavor and preserve was easily accomplished by men on the run, whether in the Old World or the New. Even our English word “jerky” resonates with the ancient Quechuan word charqui after Spanish conquistadors discovered and ate the jerked llama meat natively prepared in the Andes of Peru. Jamaican “jerk” suggests a melding of Old and New since today their jerk is made with a mix of European spices like cinnamon and nutmeg added to native super-hot chiles, then smoked over a barbacoa of green branches of wood from the Jamaican pimento tree, which resembles allspice.
But most of us city folk, wherever we are, buy our jerky — beef, venison, buffalo, bear, alligator — nicely bagged for us in stores. As convenience-store jerky has become ever more available, however, quality varies. It’s sold as snack food, but it’s a lot more costly than a candy bar. Now that hard times have come, we might take another look at how easy it is to make jerky at home, even though it is a truly slow food, requiring nature’s time if we live in a high sun belt, or a low oven’s time if we don’t.
Few of us will be able to follow Edward Abbey’s advice to marinate thin strips of beef in chili and beer and pin them to a line in the hot sun for 24 hours before you pack them in your bag and march into the wilderness to eat. Gone are the days of chuckwagon jerky in the mid-nineteenth century, when the cook cut a killed steer into 1-by-3-inch strips to hang on ropes stretched from posts, with a smudge fire beneath to keep off the flies. And gone are the Spanish fiestas at California missions, where beef strips were dipped in hot brine flamed with red peppers, then hung over rawhide lines to make what they called carne seca.
But just how dry (how seca) do you want that meat?
There are infinite degrees of dry — brittle, chewy, leathery—not to mention hot, sweet, salty, sour, and smoky, depending on what you use for a marinade and how long you choose to dry. What you want is heat low enough to evaporate moisture but not high enough to cook the meat, plus good air flow around each piece. An Arizona desert at noontime is about right, but lacking that, or a dehydrator, simply set the heat as low as you can in your oven; you can even prop the oven door open if needed with a wooden spoon. Which also helps air circulation. A temperature around 130 to 140 degrees is good. You’ll get the best air circulation by spacing strips 1/2 inch apart directly on the oven racks, with a piece of foil on the bottom for drips. How long? If you cut those slices as thin as you can (1/8–1/4 inch) by freezing the meat before slicing, and if you marinate those slices 8 to 12 hours in the refrigerator, they should dry well in your oven for about 5 hours. Every oven is different. If you want the strips still a bit bendable rather than brittle crisp, check after 4 1/2 hours. I happen to like them crisper, so I leave them in longer. Try it out and see what you like. You’ll want to cool the meat thoroughly before putting it in freezer bags and keeping it either in the freezer or refrigerator, where it should keep a number of weeks.
Use a really lean cut of meat, like flank steak, or some part of the round — top, eye, or bottom. I used an inexpensive 2 1/2-pound eye of the round roast. My two oven racks would have accommodated a 3-pounder cut in slices, but no more. Cut off any external fat and freeze the meat before slicing in order to cut it as thin as possible across the grain. Then cut the slices in 1-inch wide strips. 2 1/2 lb lean beef, cut in strips
For the marinade:*
3 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 small onion, chopped (1/3 cup)
2 T sea salt
2 tsp black pepper, ground
1 T cumin, ground
1/4 teaspoon hot chile pepper (like cayenne or chiltepin), ground
1 T chipotle chile pepper, ground
1 T ancho chile pepper, ground
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 cup stout or other dark beer (Brooklyn Brewery’s Black Chocolate Stout was perfect)
Put all the marinade ingredients in a blender and process until relatively smooth.
Put the sliced meat in a bowl and pour on the marinade. Mix well with your hands so that each slice is glazed with the marinade. Cover the bowl tightly (plastic wrap is good) and refrigerate for about 8 hours or overnight.
Turn on the oven to its lowest heat (130 degrees is good). Place slices 1/2 inch or so apart on both oven racks. Place foil on the bottom of the oven to catch any drips. Prop oven open with handle of wooden spoon. Let slices dry in the warm oven about 5 hours. Remove and let slices cool thoroughly before storing them in baggies and refrigerating.
* This is a very hot and spicy marinade, good for people who love their buffalo chicken wings hot and spicy. That’s the way I like them — as a thirst provocative for beer. If you want to turn down the flavorful heat, just use less pepper of all kinds, but particularly the hot kind like cayenne. Think of this as snack food instead of trail food, and visions of a frosty cold one will soon dance in your head.
Fried Green Tomatoes
TRACEY RYDER
This is a great recipe in the early fall, especially in Santa
Fe, where our growing season can be shortened by an
early frost. Having a delicious use for all of the unripe
tomatoes left on the vine makes the coming of winter
all that much easier to take!
2–3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal or polenta
2 T turbinado sugar
1 T sea salt (or bacon salt,or any other smoked salt you have on hand)
1 T freshly ground black pepper
1 T hot smoked paprika
First, set up a dredging station of three pans:
Pan 1: The all-purpose flour;
Pan 2: The buttermilk with two large eggs whisked in;
Pan 3: The remaining ingredients: self-rising flour, yellow cornmeal or polenta, turbinado sugar, sea salt (or other salt), freshly ground black pepper, and hot smoked paprika.
Then slice the green tomatoes about 1/2 inch thick. This thickness allows for a crispy crust and tender interior.
Heat peanut, grapeseed, or other high-heat oil to 350 degrees in a frying pan, about 1 1/2 inches deep.
Dredge the tomato slices in the flour, then the buttermilk mixture, making sure that the entire slice is covered in liquid. Finally, dredge the slices in the seasoned flour, making sure that all surfaces are covered. Place in the frying pan, taking care not to crowd. Fry till crispy and golden brown on each side and remove to a rack to drain. Repeat.
I love using them on BLTs, but they are great eaten cold as well.
Street Food Institute Pork Tacos
DAVID SELLERS
24 oz pork shoulder, roasted and shredded from the bone
6 oz red cabbage sliced thin
12 oz chile arbol salsa (recipe follows)
6 oz queso fresco or Cotija cheese, grated
2 limes sliced into wedges
12 cilantro sprigs for garnish
12 fresh, 6-inch corn tortillas For the salsa:
10 tomatillos, husked and rinsed
8 dried arbol chiles
5 cloves garlic
juice of 3 limes
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 scallions
2 T canola oil salt and pepper to taste
3 T granulated sugar
Toss the tomatillos and scallions in the canola oil and
season with salt and pepper. Grill on a hot grill until well blackened. The tomatillos will just be starting to break down and look like they are going to pop. Transfer to a bowl and reserve. Toast the arbol chiles and the garlic in a dry sauté pan until starting to blacken but not burned; they should be very fragrant. Transfer the arbol chiles to a bowl of warm water and let stand for 10 minutes. Remove the chiles from the water and puree in a food processor with the garlic until it forms a paste. Combine the other ingredients and season to taste. If it is too thick, thin it out with a little bit of the water the chiles were rehydrating in. It should be pretty spicy.
Warm the tortillas on a flat top grill or dry sauté pan.
Sauté the pork until crispy. Garnish the tacos with the pork, arbol salsa, cheese, and shredded cabbage. Top with a cilantro sprig and a slice of lime. Serves 6.
Parmesan Asparagus
PATRICIA SHARPE
1 bunch or more fresh asparagus,as needed, fibrous ends cut off
good olive oil
Parmesan cheese (the real stuff, not in a box) or
Pecorino Romano, grated
kosher or sea salt
coarse-ground black pepper
This is a quick, easy recipe for a potluck.
Everybody loves it.
Grill, steam, or quickly boil asparagus until barely al dente. Remove from heat and immediately plunge into a cold- or ice-water bath to stop cooking. Pat dry. Put on a large platter and drizzle with oil and sprinkle with other ingredients to taste (don’t be stingy with the salt and cheese). Toss (I use my hands; distributes the seasonings more evenly). Serve.
Tzirita de Cilantro o Yerbabuena (Spearmint)
LOIS STANFORD
Makes a fresh salsa. A recipe from the Purépecha (Tarascan) communities of Michoacán, Mexico.
2 lb dry chile seeds (guajillo, ancho, and / or mulato)
1 large onion
2 bunches fresh cilantro or spearmint
2 1/2 oz tomatillos
1 lb chilacayote (Malabar gourd) seeds (may substitute pumpkin seeds)
coarse kosher salt
Toast the chile and chilacayote seeds on a hot comal or griddle. Grind the onion, tomatillo, toasted seeds, and fresh cilantro or spearmint with salt (to taste). Traditionally ground on a metate, or use a blender for ease.
Serve with fresh, hot tortillas and fresh white cheese.
Chicken with Spinach Sauce
LYNN WALTERS
I learned to make it from my dear friend and teacher whose method for teaching cooking is to lay out ingredients in proper proportion, then to work together to prepare and share the food.
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken, washed and cut into 1-inch pieces
5 cloves garlic, minced 2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 T sesame oil
1 tsp black mustard seed
1 T peeled and minced fresh ginger
Kale Salad
SARAH WENTZEL-FISHER
My two favorite ways to prepare kale are in a smoothie with a banana and yogurt, or in a salad, raw. This kale salad recipe also works deliciously with chard or another sweet, leafy brassica of your choosing.
1 large bunch kale (10 to 12 big leaves), stemmed and roughly chopped
2–3 cups boiling water
1 apple, cored and diced
1 carrot, grated
1/2 cup sunflower seeds (sesame seeds will do in a pinch), lightly roasted
1/4 cup dried currants juice of one lemon
1/4 caup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sugar pinch of salt and pepper
Rinse the kale and remove the leaves from the stalks by running a sharp knife up the stalk where it meets the leaf. Lay the leaves one on top of the other, then roll them up together — this will make them easier to chop. Slice the roll into 1/4-inch or smaller slices. Put the kale into a pot and pour the hot water over it, then put a lid on the pot and let the leaves wilt for about a minute. This procedure will soften the kale and remove some of the bitterness, while keeping a fresh texture and taste.
Cube the apple into 1/2-inch pieces. Grate the carrot.
Toast the sesame seeds in about 1 T of olive oil in a frying pan over low heat. Drain the water from the kale.
In a salad bowl combine the veggies, fruit, and seeds.
In a Mason jar combine lemon, sugar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Put a lid on it and shake vigorously to emulsify. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss. Add a little additional grated carrot or sunflower seeds to the top to garnish.
2–3 jalapeños, seeded and minced 1 chile piquin, optional
2 bunches spinach, washed well and chopped 1 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
1/4 cup heavy cream, optional
Put the chicken in a stainless steel bowl. Add the garlic, lemon juice, spices, and salt. Mix to coat the chicken. Cover and refrigerate at least 60 minutes, or overnight.
Pour the oil into a large, heavy-bottomed pan and put over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the black mustard seeds and sauté just until they pop and turn gray. Add the ginger, jalapeños, and chile piquin, if using, with 1/2 tsp salt. Sauté until fragrant and lightly browned. Add the spinach, cover, and cook until it has wilted. Remove from heat and blend with the remaining 1 tsp salt and a little water until smooth.
Using the same pan, sauté the marinated chicken until lightly browned and tender. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Stir in the cream, if using. Taste for salt and spice. Serve over basmati rice. Serves 4.
Locally Raised Organic Lamb-Stuffed Green Chiles with Garden Fresh Tomato Purée
WALTER WHITEWATER, © LOIS ELLEN FRANK
This recipe, an adaptation of stuffed green bell peppers, combines many southwestern regional ingredients. It is a favorite of my cooking classes here in Santa Fe, as well as many guests for whom I have prepared this dish. What makes this dish so delicious is the locally raised lamb I buy at the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market from Antonio and Molly Manzanares of Shepherd’s Lamb. I also use fresh tomatoes in the puree, which I grow myself or buy at my local farmer’s market when they are in season. You can use a variety of fresh tomatoes. I’ve made this tomato puree with fresh Roma tomatoes, red plum tomatoes, little yellow pear tomatoes, and green and red zebra tomatoes, all of which taste wonderful. See what is available in your own area. For a spicier flavor, cook the stuffed chiles a bit longer in the oven, since the longer they cook, the more spiciness from the chiles goes into the lamb stuffing. For the chiles:
12 firm New Mexico green chiles (mild), or if you want no heat, use an Italian red sweet pepper
1 T cooking oil
2/3 cup finely chopped sweet white onions
1 1/2 lb ground lamb
1 cup adobe bread crumbs (see note)
2 ripe tomatoes, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1/2 tsp dried thyme or 1 tsp fresh
2 bay leaves
2 T chopped fresh tarragon
For the purée:
1 T olive oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 small sweet white onion, chopped
1 1/4 lb local organic tomatoes, coarsely chopped
To make the stuffed chiles, fire roast, peel, and seed the chiles, keeping them whole for stuffing. Set aside.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat and
sauté the onions about 4 minutes, until translucent.
Add the ground lamb and brown for approximately 10
to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning and mashing it into small pieces with a slotted spoon or potato masher. Drain off any excess fat and add the tomatoes, garlic, salt, pepper, and herbs. Stir. Add the breadcrumbs. Stir again. Decrease the heat and simmer another 5 minutes. If the mixture is too dry, you may need to add homemade stock or water so that it is moist and able to be nicely stuffed inside each chile. Remove from the heat and let cool.
Slice the chiles lengthwise, spread them open on a work surface, and generously stuff each chile with the lamb mixture. Place the stuffed chiles on an oiled baking pan with the open side down and set aside. The chiles will be reheated right before they are served.
To make the tomato puree, heat the oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the onions and sauté until clear, approximately 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and
sauté for another 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning, until the excess liquid evaporates. The sauce will reduce and thicken. At this point you can place the sauce into the blender and blend until smooth. Then run the sauce through a fine sieve to remove any of the skins that are not blended, or you can serve the sauce as it is (some of the students in my cooking classes preferred this sauce in its more rustic state). Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the stuffed chiles in the baking dish in the oven and heat until hot, about 10 to 15 minutes. Serve immediately with the tomato puree. Garnish with sour cream, if desired.
Serves 6 as an entrée or 12 as an appetizer.
Note: Adobe bread is yeasted oven bread made in New Mexico at many of the Indian pueblos. If you cannot get adobe bread, you can use any nonsourdough yeasted bread to make these breadcrumbs. To make the crumbs, use day-old bread that is hard or fresh bread that has been toasted in the oven. Place into a food processor and process until the breadcrumbs are finely ground without being completely ground into a powder. I like to make the chunks of bread small (approximately 1/4 inch) because the peppers are not large and I don’t want bread crumbs too large for the chiles. My rule is, the smaller the object to be stuffed, the smaller the breadcrumbs. Use as instructed in the recipe.
Green Chile and Pork Stew
KATHARINE KAGEL, FROM COOKING WITH CAFÉ PASQUAL’S: RECIPES FROM SANTA FE’S
RENOWNED CORNER CAFÉ
This is the classic thick stew of northern New Mexico, but of course there are as many recipes as there are Norteños (northerners). This recipe is from my dear friend Greg Powell. a native son of Santa Fe, whose palate is unsurpassed. Lamb, chicken, or game may be used for the meat—whatever is on hand is fine to use. There is a lot of chopping and dicing, as well as a long cooking process, so be prepared for about a 4-hour commitment that will give you a delicious and nourishing reward for your effort, not to mention the sweet cooking aromas that will fill your kitchen. The quantity given is large, because the cooking time is long and it only seems flair to create extra. It freezes well and may be kept for up to
2 months. Use the best quality pork butt you can find.
1/4 cup olive oil
2 yellow onions, diced
4 carrots, peeled and diced
4 stalks celery, diced
4 cloves garlic, pressed 1 tsp dried oregano
1 T ground cumin
2 lb pork butt
5 quarts chicken stock (you can get low-sodium, organic stock in quart cartons from the grocery)
1 cup fresh corn kernels, cut from 1 to 2 ears of corn
3 lb russet potatoes, cut into 1-inch chunks (no need to peel)
16 fresh New Mexican or Anaheim chiles, fire-roasted, stemmed, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch squares (2 cups), or 1 ounce dried green chiles, rehydrated and chopped
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
12 corn or whole-wheat tortillas, warmed
In a lidded, 8-quart, heavy pot, over medium heat, add the olive oil and let it heat For a moment. To the pot add the onion, carrots, celery. garlic, and oregano. Sauté the vegetables, uncovered, until the onions are translucent. Put the cumin into a dry pan over low heat and toast it for 1 minute, stirring frequently until it is fragrant, and then add it to the stew pot. Cut the pork in half and add it to the pot, followed by 3 quarts of the stock. Cover the pot, bring to a boil, uncover, skim oFf any foam, and then turn down the heat to medium-low. Simmer gently, uncovered, over medium-low heat until the meat is tender, about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. (You may need to add 1 quart of the remaining stock at this point if too much has evaporated.)
Transfer the pork to a bowl, leaving the stock in the pot. Skim any oil from the top of the stock and discard. When the meat is cool enough to handle, shred the meat, then coarsely chop it with a cleaver so the shreds are no more than 2 inches long. Return the meat to the stockpot and add the corn, potatoes, chiles, and the remaining 1 quart of stock. Cook until the potatoes are Fork-tender, about 30 minutes. Add the salt and pepper. Always serve this stew with warmed tortillas. Serves 12.
LEADERS IN THE NATIVE AMERICAN FOOD INDUSTRY
Thomas Antonio is a botanist and science coordinator at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma studying tropical plants and has a B.S. and M.S. in botany from Miami University in Ohio. Antonio is active in the Native Plant Society of New Mexico and is the author of the book The Sunflower Family in the Upper Midwest.
Gustavo Arellano is the editor of OC Weekly, an alternative newspaper in Orange County, California; author of Orange County: A Personal History and Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America; and lecturer with the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department at California State University, Fullerton. He writes “¡Ask a Mexican!,” an award-winning, nationally syndicated column. Arellano is a lifelong resident of Orange County and is the proud son of two Mexican immigrants, one of whom was illegal.
Emigdio Ballon, of Quechua decent, was born in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He earned his B.S. in agriculture at the University of Saint Simon in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and his M.S. in plant genetics in Colombia. He studied for his doctorate at Colorado State University. As a plant geneticist he has specialized in research on quinoa and amaranth grains and has published many articles about his work in South and North America. Ballon is currently the director of agriculture at the Pueblo of Tesuque, where he manages Tesuque Farms, for which he received a Piñon Award in 2010. He is also involved with indigenous organizations that stress the importance of seed saving and promote the revival and continuation of traditional crops, both nutritional and medicinal.
Matthew J. Barbour is the manager of Jemez Historic Site (Giusewa Pueblo / San José de los Jémez Mission), in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. He obtained his B.A. and M.A. in anthropology from the University of New Mexico. Barbour is a regular contributor to the Red Rocks Reporter and Sandoval Signpost newspapers. He has published more than 100 nonfiction articles and monographs on the archaeology and history of the American Southwest. In 2012 and again in 2014, Barbour was awarded the City of Santa Fe Heritage Preservation Award for Excellence in Archaeology.
Diane Bird (Santo Domingo Pueblo) is currently employed as an archivist at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture Laboratory of Anthropologyin Santa Fe. She has served as head archivist with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the
American Indian Cultural Resources Center Archives in Suitland, Maryland; adjunct instructor at the Institute of American Indian Arts; and archival workshop instructor for the Falmouth Institute. Bird is a member of the New Mexico Historical Records Advisory Board and the New Mexico Humanities Council.
Freddie Bitsoie (Diné), is the owner of FJBits Concepts,
a firm that specializes in Native American food ways. He has traveled the country, making presentations for organizations and companies such as Kraft Foods, the College of Holy Cross, Yale University, and the Heard Museum, in Phoenix. Bitsoie has been featured in and also contributes to Indian Country Today. He also has been featured in Native Peoples Magazine and Arizona Highways. He hosts his own show, Rezervations Not Required; and made a guest appearance on famous Italian chef Lidia Bastianich’s show, Lidia Celebrates America. He won the Native Chef Competition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in 2013. Bitsoie attended the University of New Mexico, majoring in cultural anthropology with a minor in art history before attending culinary school. Today, he is one of the most sought-after and renowned Native American chefs and Native foods educators in the country. In the words of Cheryl Alters Jamison, Argentina-born
Juan José Bochenski arrived at the Inn of the Anasazi
in late 2011 as Executive Chef with “global sophistication and
a great résumé,” where he has embraced contemporary Southwesternfare, fusing Spanish and European with a mix of New Mexican.
James W Buel after working 20 years in Asian food industry including Dole, Far East Molasses and Hyatt Hotels returned to the United States in 1980 and joined his family restaurant business. He worked subsequently for Ramada Hotels, Greyhound Food Service, Service America and Newport Diversified. He with his family opened a destination restaurant Burning Tree Native Grill which they closed after ten years to allow Mr Buel to retire. He continued to help his sons run the San Diego Dinner Train until a rail accident sent that into retirement. He gave back to his Native community by teaching Native American Culinary Arts at Sherman Native High School.
Scott Canning hasbeenworkinginbotanicalgardenssince 1989, first at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in sales and marketing from 1989 until 1992, when he moved to Albuquerque to take over a small landscaping business from a friend. He also worked at Plants of the Southwest until 1994, when he moved back to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden as a curator of the greenhouses, specializing in Mediterranean-climate plants of the world. In 1998 Canning became the rosarian for the BBG’s Cranford Rose Garden, comprising 5,000 plants of some 1,500 varieties. In 2001 he moved to Wave Hill, a public garden and cultural center in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, famous for its fantastic variety of plants and gardens. He was director of horticulture there for thirteen years before moving back to New Mexico, where he became the horticulture and special projects director for the Santa Fe Botanical Garden in April 2014. Canning is passionate about ornamental horticulture, vegetable gardening, New Mexico’s native plants, and restoring old houses.
James Campbell Caruso has been nominated five times for the prestigious James Beard Award for “Best Chef
of the Southwest.” He is the chef and owner of La Boca and Taberna La Boca restaurants in Santa Fe, acclaimed by the New York Times, Food Network, Travel and Leisure, and Esquire. Caruso is the author of España: Exploring the Flavors of Spain and El Farol: Tapas and Spanish Cuisine. His recently opened outpost in Albuquerque’s historic Hotel Andaluz is MÁS, offering fresh reinventions of traditional Spanish cuisine.
With more than twenty years of experience around the world, Andrew Cooper’s résumé pays tribute to everything from the classic to the avant-garde. A graduate of the esteemed Culinary Institute of America, Cooper brings more than twelve years of Four Seasons experience to his role as executive chef at Four Seasons Resort Rancho Encantado Santa Fe. As the executive sous-chef at Four Seasons Resort Hualalai,
in Hawaii, he recognized the importance of sustainable cooking, and as senior sous-chef at Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village, in southern California, he mastered the nuances of healthy cooking.
Beverly Cox is the food editor of Native Peoples Magazine and a former food editor and director of food styling for Cook’s Magazine. She holds a Grand Diplôme from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and apprenticed with Gaston LeNôtre. Cox has written thirteen cookbooks, including Spirit of the Harvest: North American Indian Cooking, winner of the James Beard and International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) cookbook awards in 1992; and Spirit of the West: Cooking from Ranch House and Range, winner of the Julia Child IACP award in 1996. Her books Spirit of the Earth: Native Cooking from Latin America and Eating Cuban: 120 Authentic Recipes from the Streets of Havana to American Shores were IACP cookbook award finalists.
Nephi Craig (White Mountain Apache) is the executive chef at the Sunrise Park Resort Hotel with fifteen years culinary experience in America and around the world. He worked at The Country Club at DC Ranch and Mary Elaine’s at The Phoenician, among many other renowned restaurants and hotels. Craig is also the founder of the Native American Culinary Association, an organization/network that is dedicated to the research, refinement, and development of Native American cuisine. For two years he helped prepare a Native American–themed menu for the James Beard Foundation at the James Beard House in New York City and has served as head chef in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for the United States Consulate and for four international tasting dinners in London, UK; Cologne, Germany; and Osaka, Japan. Craig is an enrolled member of the White Mountain Apache Tribe and is half Navajo.
Patricia L. Crown, A.B., University of Pennsylvania;
and Ph.D. in anthropology, University of Arizona, is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. She identified the first prehispanic cacao (chocolate) north of the Mexican border in ceramics from Chaco Canyon. Crown was awarded the Excellence in Ceramic Research Award by the Society for American Archaeology and (jointly with Suzanne K. Fish) the Gordon Willey Award by the American Anthropological Association.
Glenna Dean former New Mexico state archaeologist, holds graduate degrees in archaeology and botany, and trained as an archaeobotanist, someone who studies the interactions of people with plants as preserved in archaeological sites: charred seeds, broken plant parts, pollen grains, basketry, sandals, and other textiles made of plant fibers. Working with soil samples from prehistoric agricultural fields, she made the first identification of pollen grains from cotton plants in the Abiquiu area, certain evidence that cotton was grown at high elevations 800 years ago without visible means of irrigation. Later, Dean became associate director and then executive director of the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area, Inc., where she worked to continue area traditions and heritage through community development and sustainable tourism.
Rob DeWalt, a long time Santa Fe resident, began writing professionally after eighteen years as a cook, chef, and restaurant consultant. For eight years he served as a writer and food editor for Pasatiempo, the award-winning weekly arts and culture magazine published by the Santa Fe New Mexican. A 2013 Edible Santa Fe Local Hero Award nominee for his food writing, DeWalt participated in the inaugural FUZE.SW festival as a panel moderator. He is currently working as a freelance writer and editor for local and national print and web publications, including a monthly food column for the Santa Fe Reporter.
Richard Ford had a long and distinguished teaching career at the University of Michigan in anthropology and botany. His research interests include ethnobotany from an ethnoecological perspective, paleoethnobotany, subsistence patterns, plant-management techniques, origins of domesticated plants, prehistoric agricultural systems in Mexico and the southwestern United States, archaeology of the Archaic, and rock art. Ford engages in applied ethnobotany through work with various Indian Pueblo nations in the Southwest. As one of the preeminent ethnobotanists working today, he has contributed significantly to the understanding of how Native peoples in North American managed and utilized medicines, plants, foods, and cultural symbols.
Lois Ellen Frank (Kiowa) is a Santa Fe–based chef, author, Native foods historian, culinary anthropologist, and photographer. Her book Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations, featuring traditional and contemporary Native American recipes, won the James Beard Award in the Americana category. Frank received her B.A. with honors from the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California; her M.A. in cultural anthropology from the University of New Mexico; and her Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico. Frank is a featured instructor at the Santa Fe School of Cooking, an adjunct professor of ethnobotany at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and has taught classes on diabetes at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and the Institute of American Indian Arts. Frank is widely published, her cookbook The Taco Table won the Arizona Glyph Book Award in 2010 for best new cookbook and has written for Native Foodways, New Mexico Magazine, Guest Life New Mexico, and Edible Santa Fe. In 2008 she started a Native American cuisine catering company, Red Mesa.
Jennifer Fresquez’s love and interest in food and agriculture began with her family business, Monte Vista Organic Farm, in Española. She is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and the University of New Mexico. Fresquez has worked as a personal chef, food marketer, works in her family business as a farmer, and — among her many volunteer pursuits — serves on the board of Cooking with Kids.
Dody Fugate is a researcher and curator at the Museum
of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe. She has an M.A. in archaeology from the University of Arizona as well as one in museum management. Fugate is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. She has been a longtime member of Native Seed SEARCH and has done research in ethnobotany. Fugate was born into a southwestern family and has spent her life researching and writing about the people and history of the region.
Betty Fussell is the author of eleven books, ranging from biography to cookbooks, food history, and memoir. Over the last fifty years, her essays on food, travel, and the arts have appeared in scholarly journals, popular magazines, and newspapers as varied as the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, Saveur, Vogue, Food & Wine, Metropolitan Home, and Gastronomica. Fussell’s memoir, My Kitchen Wars, was performed in Hollywood and New York as a one-woman show by actress Dorothy Lyman. Her most recent book is Raising Steaks: The Life and Times of American Beef, and she is now working on How to Cook a Coyote: A Manual of Survival in NYC.
Louie Hena (Tesuque Pueblo) is a renowned permaculture design consultant, Rio Grande and Rio Chama river guide, and an educator on traditional land management systems. He helped organize the Traditional Native American Farmer
Association, the New Mexico Acequia Association, and the Indigenous Food and Seed Sovereignty Alliance. Hena has developed tribal environmental programs in several communities, represented New Mexico’s tribes to the EPA, developed the Native Cultures Feast and Float, and is the coauthor of A Tradition of Farming: Northern Rio Grande Pueblo Lessons of Land Stewardship and Sustainable Agriculture. He is adept at making the connection between local food and local energy, and as a member
of the tribal council for the Pueblo of Tesuque, he led initiatives that resulted in a solar system at the Taytsugeh Oweengeh Intergenerational Center at the Pueblo of Tesuque.
Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison are among the nation’s most lauded writers, with four James Beard Awards, an International Association of Culinary Professionals award,
and numerous others. Often called “America’s outdoor cooking experts,” they are among the country’s foremost authorities on barbecue and grilling. The Jamisons also have written extensively about southwestern foods in books, including The Border Cookbook: Authentic Home Cooking of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico. Their Tasting New Mexico: Recipes Celebrating 100 Years of Distinctive Home Cooking was an official project of New Mexico’s centennial year. Cheryl is contributing culinary editor for New Mexico Magazine and writes a monthly column and regular blog called “Tasting NM.”
Terrol Dew Johnson is a Tohono O’odham basketweaver and health advocate. He co-founded Tohono O’odham Community Action (TOCA) in 1996, a nonprofit community-development organization that operates a basketry cooperative and farms and sells Native foods. The Tohono O’odham tribe has the highest rate of adult-onset diabetes of any ethnic group in the world. TOCA’s Tohono O’odham Community Food System provides traditional desert foods to tribal members as a way of combating the disease and promoting health and sustainability. Johnson is the publisher of Native Foodways magazine which covers the community organizing, culinary innovation, and cultural significance of Native foods.
He is also a founding board member of the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance.
Katharine Kagel is the founder, owner, and executive chef of Café Pasqual’s. She has authored two cookbooks: Cooking with Café Pasqual’s and Spirited Recipes from Café Pasqual’s and was nominated by the James Beard Foundation as Best Chef: Southwest. Kagel was the guiding founder of the Food Depot, Santa Fe’s food bank, and she is involved with Kitchen Angels, the group that delivers free hot meals to Santa Fe’s homebound. Café Pasqual’s received the James Beard Foundation America’s Classics Award. Café Pasqual’s Gallery features handmade mica cookpots in the Jicarilla Apache style from New Mexico potter Felipe Ortega and others.
Mark Kiffin James Beard Foundation Best Chef of the Southwest, 2005, owns The Compound Restaurant, whose menu features seasonal, regional ingredients that combine New World influences with the style and flavors of the Mediterranean. He opened Zacatecas Tacos+Tequila in 2012, a real taquería, featuring Mexican recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation. Beginning in 1990, Kiffin partnered with owner Mark Miller at the famed Santa Fe–based flagship Coyote Café. During his eight-year tenure at Coyote Café, he coauthored three books with Miller: Coyote’s Pantry, The Great Salsa Book, and The Indian Market Cookbook. Kiffin cowrote his fourth cookbook, The Steak Lover’s Companion (HarperCollins), with Fred Simon, president and CEO of Omaha Steak International.
Deborah Madison, chef and author, was the founding chef of Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, a former cook at Chez Panisse, and pastry chef at Café Escalera in Santa Fe. She is the author of twelve cookbooks, including Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and most recently Vegetable Literacy: Twelve Plant Families in our Kitchens. Madison’s books have garnered both national and international awards, including a James Beard Award. She has lived in the Santa Fe area for the past twenty-three years, where she writes and gardens and offers small dinners and classes at her Galisteo home.
WenonaNutima(TesuquePueblo) learnedtofarm from her parents. She watched her mother cook various recipes and observed her dad process corncobs into posole. Nutima received her B.A. from New Mexico State University in hotel, restaurant, and tourism management. Recently, her focus is on becoming proficient in piki making, an artisanal blue corn bread, called buwa yaweh (“bread peeled away”) in Tewa, that is applied by hand to a hot cooking stone. In 2011 she collaborated with New Mexico State University’s College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences. The NMSU Extension for family and consumer sciences also sought traditional recipes for MyPlate, the USDA’s nutritional resource guides. Nutima attended Terra Madre, a gathering of food communities, three times as a “Slow Food” delegate with the US and indigenous delegations.
Loretta Barrett Oden (Potawatomi Nation) is a nationally known chef who began her passionate relationship with food as a small child at the side of her mother, grandmothers, and aunts and partnered with her son, the late chef Clayton Oden,
to open the Corn Dance Café — the first restaurant to showcase food indigenous to the Americas. She has been featured nationally on programs including Good Morning America and The Today Show, and in the New York Times and National Geographic Traveler.
Oden served as a guest chef in the Robert Mondavi Great Chefs Series and the 2006 Taste Celebration in Napa and on Barbara Pool Fenzl’s PBS series, Savor the Southwest. She was the host of an Emmy Award–winning five-part PBS series, Seasoned with Spirit, a culinary celebration of America’s bounty combining Native American history
and culture with delicious, healthy recipes inspired by indigenous foods.
Felipe Ortega is a traditional yet innovative micaceous clay cookpot potter from the Ollero band of Jicarilla Apaches. Ortega, credited for resurrecting the Jicarilla Apache mica utility ware tradition, believes the Jicarilla Apaches first taught the coil-and-scrape method of pot making to the Pueblos of New Mexico. Because of him, micaceous clay utility ware making and use is alive and thriving today. He has taught around the world and locally, and at his own pottery, Owl Peak Pottery. Ortega is a devoted mica-ware cook and bread baker for many of the northern New Mexico Pueblos’ feast days. He holds a degree in linguistics and classical languages from Duns Scotus College and a M.A. in biblical theology ministry from Oblate College. Café Pasqual’s Gallery exclusively represents Ortega (as well as many other potters he has taught).
Michele Padberg was born and raised in Taos, New Mexico and now resides in Dixon, New Mexico. She is one of the owners of Vivác Winery and Creative Director for Red Hot Mama Wines. An Executive Sommelier, Padberg teaches wine classes and is the host of Great Grape TV and Wine Revolution Media. Her wine education and certifications come from the International Wine Guild. With her extensive knowledge of fermentation and taste profiles, Padberg created her own cheese company — Kissable Cheeses — and is now Vivác’s in-house fromagère.
Carmella Padilla Santa Fe native is an award-winning journalist and author who has written numerous books, articles and essays exploring intersections in art, culture and historyin New Mexico and beyond. Her books include: The Chile Chronicles Tales of a New Mexico Harvest; The Work of Art: Folk Artists in the 21st Century; El Rancho de las Golondrinas: Living History in New Mexico’s La Cíenega Valley; and Low ‘n Slow: Lowriding in New Mexico. Padilla is editor and co-author of Conexiones: Connections in Spanish Colonial Art and a contributor to Spanish New Mexico: The Spanish Colonial Arts Society Collection. She is a recipient of the 2009 New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence
in the Arts and the City of Santa Fe’s 1996 Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.
Archaeologist Theresa Pasqual (Acoma Pueblo) is the director of Acoma Pueblo’s Historic Preservation Office. Acoma is known as the oldest continuously inhabited community in North America and, because of its elevation, is often referred to as “Sky City.” A tireless advocate, Pasqual has dedicated her career to protecting what matters most to the people of the pueblo, including Mount Taylor, a cherished resource that rises into the piercing blue of the desert sky right outside her office.
Earl Potter Shortly after arriving in Santa Fe forty-three years ago, Earl Potter ate his first Frito pie at Woolworth’s lunch counter. In 1997 Woolworth’s closed. Potter’s wife, Deborah, insisted that they could save the dish and its location. They joined Woolworth’s manager, Mike Collins, to create Five & Dime General Stores. The company now has nine stores in seven states. Lorraine Chavez, who cooks more than 30,000 of F&D’s world-famous Frito pies each year, would not dream of letting Potter near the stove!
Lynda Prim has worked in the Southwest as an anthropologist, farmer, educator, farm advisor, and advocate in sustainable organic agriculture for over thirty years. Her efforts in agriculture are dedicated to promoting and advancing the values and keys to sustainability found in traditional, organic, and small-scale farming. Prim’s work
to conserve and distribute the endangered genetic diversity of crop plants for high-altitude, arid lands began when she was farm manager at the High Desert Research Farm at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico, from 1986 to 1993. That work has come full circle to her current work as farm manager of the Native Seeds / SEARCH Conservation Farm in Patagonia, Arizona.
The Ranney Ranch, owned and operated by the Ranney family since 1968, is a cow-calf operation in the high mesa country of central New Mexico. In 2003 the ranch introduced intensive rotational grazing and water harvesting techniques and has witnessed a remarkable regenerative response on the land even during the recent drought. Nancy Ranney has developed the AGA (American Grassfed Association) and AWA (Animal Welfare Approved) certified grassfed program for the Ranney Ranch. She is a board member
of the Quivira Coalition and president of the Southwest Grassfed Livestock Alliance.
Tracey Ryder cofounded Edible Communities, Inc., the nation’s largest publishing company dedicated to the local foods movement, in 2002 with her partner, Carole Topalian. Currently publishing eighty-five magazines across North America, each title is region-specific and focuses on the farmers, fishermen, chefs, and food artisans from each area. The company’s first book, Edible: A Celebration of Local Foods, was published in 2010, and four community-based Edible Communities cookbooks were published in 2012 and 2013. Ryder has worked as a journalist, marketer, and graphic designer for the culinary, tourism, and agriculture industries for nearly thirty years. She is a regular speaker at conferences and events in the culinary and publishing fields.
John Rivera Sedler. Growing up in Santa Fe, John Rivera Sedlar’s first taste of Latin cooking was in the kitchens of his mother, aunts, and beloved Grandma Eloisa, fueling his drive to become a chef. His quest for “something more” led him to apprentice with legendary chef Jean
Bertranou at L’Ermitage in Los Angeles. Acclaimed for his inventive twist on the foods served at his restaurants, Chef Sedlar has taken his knowledge of and passion for Latin food history and traditions to develop the concept for Museum Tamal, the first-ever museum to be devoted to the history and culture of food in the Latin world. In 2011 he was named “Chef of the Year” by Esquire magazine. In 2012 and in 2013, he was nominated for “Best Chef Pacific” by the James Beard Foundation..
David Sellers, Street Food Institute program director, began his culinary career twenty years ago while living in New Hampshire and completing a B.A. in philosophy from Plymouth State University. Sellers started as a baker in an all-organic bakery, where he developed a deep appreciation for sustainable, local, from-scratch cooking. These pillars became the basis of his cooking philosophy. He moved on to cook in San Francisco and then Santa Fe, where he spent ten years as chef of the venerable Santacafé. He then opened his own restaurant, Amavi, to critical acclaim, where both the cuisine and the wine focused on the Mediterranean region. Most recently Sellers turned his culinary exploration to New England, where he spent four years as the chef of Maxfish, delving deeply into the world of fish and farm-to-table dining. Regional cuisine and teaching have always been his top priority. He has traveled extensively
in Europe and the Far East researching local cuisines..
Patricia Sharpe grew up in Austin and earned her M.A. degree in English from the University of Texas at Austin. She taught English and Spanish and written historical markers at the Texas Historical Commission, before joining Texas Monthly in 1974. Initially, she edited the magazine’s cultural and restaurant listings and wrote a consumer feature called “Touts.” Eventually she focused exclusively on food. Her humorous story, “War Fare,” an account of living for forty-eight hours on military MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat), was included in the anthology Best Food Writing 2002. Many of her stories appear in the 2008 University of Texas Press collection, Texas Monthly on Food. In 2006 her story about being a restaurant critic, “Confessions of a Skinny Bitch,” won a James Beard Foundation Award for magazine food writing. She coordinates all the magazine’s stories on iconic Texas foods, including barbecue, Mexican food, tacos, steaks, and dishes from small town cafés. Sharpe has contributed to Gourmet, Bon Appétit, Saveur, and the New York Times. She writes a regular restaurant column, “Pat’s Pick,” for Texas Monthly.
Lois Stanford is associate professor of cultural anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at New Mexico State University. She earned her B.A. in anthropology at the University of Oregon and her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology at the University of Florida. Her research in Mexico has focused on food production and social change. She is the author of two forthcoming books: La Cocina Abierta: A Culinary History of Mexico; and The Avocado’s Tale: Binational Integration of the Avocado Industries of Michoacán and California. In southern New Mexico, she conducts applied research on food security, food sovereignty, and food justice in the colonias of Doña Ana County and serves as president of the Board of Directors for La Semilla Food Center, a nonprofit organization that works to build a healthy, self-reliant, fair, and sustainable food system in the Paso del Norte region of southern New Mexico and El Paso, Texas.
Roxanne Swentzell (Santa Clara Pueblo), sculptor and contemporary Pueblo artist, comes from a family
of renowned potters and sculptors. After building her own house, she was inspired to create Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute, using the house site to test and showcase sustainable living systems. Flowering Tree teaches classes on: farming and gardening in the high desert climate with low water use; understanding micro-climates; composting and seed saving; animal husbandry; how to butcher, store and cook meats; sheep shearing and wool spinning and weaving; cheese making; harvesting honey; creating ecosystems of ponds with fish and plants; adobe and straw-bale construction; mud plastering; solar energy; and water catchments. Swentzell loves to find new / old ways to do things. She participates in her Cultural Pueblo Dances and community, loves being a grandmother, but privately wishes that she had three more of herself so that she could get more done in a day.
Tina Ujlaki began her career at Food & Wine in 1985 as an assistant editor, and she was named Executive Food Editor in 1999. In her many years at the magazine, she has worked with some of the most respected food writers and chefs, including Julia Child, Jacques
Pépin, Marcella Hazan, Paula Wolfert, Daniel Boulud and Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Ujlaki oversees the Test Kitchen and all the other food editors, as well as the recipe content for the magazine, books and the website. She’s a longtime member and cookbook awards judge of the International Association of Culinary Professionals.
A graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Ujlaki holds a Grand Diplome d’Etudes Culinaire from La Varenne in Paris, where she worked as a stagiaire.
Lynn Walters is the founder and executive director of Cooking with Kids, Inc., an award-winning nonprofit organization that works to improve child nutrition by engaging elementary school children in hands-on learning with fresh, affordable foods from diverse cultural traditions. Prior to founding Cooking with Kids, Walters was a restaurateur in Santa Fe for seventeen years. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in health communication at the University of New Mexico.
Sarah Wentzel-Fisher is the editor of Edible Santa Fe, the assistant director of membership and community outreach at La Montañita Co-op, and the New Mexico field organizer for the National Young Farmers Coalition. Twice a week she works at the Alvarado Urban Farm in downtown Albuquerque with the Veteran Farmer Project. In her free time Wentzel-Fisher visits farms and ranches (she highly recommends this activity), experiments in her kitchen, and keeps chickens in her backyard.
Walter Whitewater (Diné), born in Piñon, Arizona, teaches with Chef Lois Ellen Frank (Kiowa), at the Santa Fe School of Cooking and is the chef de cuisine at Red Mesa Cuisine, LLC,
a Native American catering company ancestral foods with a modern twist. Whitewater has appeared on numerous TV cooking shows, including Bobby Flay’s Southwest Cuisine and The Secret Life of Southwestern Food. In 2009 he was the first Native American chef awarded the James Lewis Award by the BCA in New York to honor cultural awareness in the kitchen. Whitewater has taught widely about the recipes and foods based on the ancestral Native American diet. In 2011 he was the first Native American chef to cook at the James Beard House. Whitewater has just started the reintroduction of Navajo-Churro sheep into his family’s flock.
