New Mexican cookbook gathers well-loved traditions
By Amy Boaz
“When cooking New Mexican food,” cautiously presents the compiler of these recipes, “not only do you want a particular dish, but often you want the dish as it was prepared by your mother, grandmother or uncle.” Art Pollard’s cookbook is rather a compendium of recipes gathered from beloved cookbooks over the ages and the long memories of abuelas. It serves as a fantastic historical document.
Having grown up “in part” in Los Alamos, now residing in Utah (he runs the Amano Artisan Chocolate company), Pollard’s earliest memories are savoring meals at Philomena’s in Los Alamos and Río Grande Café in Española. Hankering for his childhood comfort food, Pollard has culled from a dozen well-worn cookbooks over the last decades and grouped hundreds of recipes by kinds of vegetables, salads, appetizers, dips, breakfast offerings, soups and stews, main dishes (e.g., meat-heavy flautas), salsas, breads and desserts, among others.
The cookbook sources (listed in the bibliography at the back) move from the earliest, classic Alice Stevens’ “New Mexican Cookery” (New Mexico Land Office, 1916) to former Taos News Food Editor Fayne Lutz’s “Cooking Northern New Mexico Traditional Foods” (Taos News, 1989). Lutz also documented recipes from the Taos Plaza mainstay La Cocina de Taos (closed in 1991) in her “Recipes for Authentic Northern New Mexico Food from La Cocina de Taos” (1976). Other sources include books from legendary restaurant owners and chefs like Philomena Romero, J.C. Griggs (“A Family Affair,” 1968), Della Montoya, Dona Eloise Delgado de Stewart and Fabiola Cebeza de Baca Gilbert (“Historic Cookery,” 1931).
Compiled by Art Pollard
Let’s dig in. What do New Mexicans eat? “Enchiladas” cover a good 13 pages, divided into green chile and red sections, and offering wildly different sauce styles, with a preponderance of canned cream of mushroom or chicken soup (“Green Chile Recipe Fiesta,” New Mexico State Alumni Association, 1973). Chicken, beef, meatloaf, liver, tongue, goat, venison and veal — all à la New Mexican. How about spicy beef with nectarines (“Finalist”) from the “Great Southwest Cooking Classic” (1977)? Or nine different versions of arroz con pollo?
There are only a couple moles, one from the “Fiesta Fare” cookbook (1956), featuring raisins, pumpkin seeds and Mexican chocolate. However, under the heading “Sauces,” we move from chile caribe to BBQ sauces to chile sauces from everyone’s mother: I would try each one for variety. Also, the 33 ways to make chile rellenos! Numerous tamale tips and savory chile pies abound, and how about that dazzling Chilizza Pie (sautéed peppers and pepperoni, stewed tomatoes and Parmesan), created by Mrs. Barney Gardner of Albuquerque in “Great Southwest Cooking Classic”?
“Breads” cover a vast swath of yeasty delights, such as empanaditas, biscuits, buñuelos, fritters, sopaipillas and fry bread. For the last item, Mrs. Pappan, “cherished cook at the Albuquerque Indian School,” and of Pawnee heritage, offers her Navajo fried bread from “Fiesta Fare.” Everything corn dominates the bread section, naturally, boasting a dozen kinds of cornbread and tortillas (also blue corn). Varieties of biscochitos mark the “Desserts” section, crammed with other beloved concoctions that carry their luscious original Spanish names: almendrado (nutty almond), capirotada (bread pudding), sopa de borracho (you can guess), chongos (custards), jericalla (like a flan), natillas (boiled custard), panocha (sprouted wheat pudding) and marquesote (sponge cake), among many others. There’s even a “Pickled” chapter to keep us weeping.
Charmingly, if somewhat frustratingly, the recipes are not edited for consistency or currentness. For example, Chile Verde Tomas is still gunning for an addition of “2 tablespoons monosodium glutamate” (“Green Chile Recipe Fiesta,” 1973). But these recipes are precious throwbacks to Nana’s kitchen, and who can resist trying John Sena’s Balloon Rally Posole or even — gulp — Bowl of the Wife of Kit Carson?