Since 1989, the Santa Fe School of Cooking (116 West San Francisco Street) has defined traditional New Mexican cooking and has set the tone for contemporary Southwest cuisine with dishes like Lime-Marinated Grilled Salmon with Ginger-Lime Butter. “We mirror Santa Fe,” says Susan Curtis, founder of the school. Many Santa Fe chefs have taught or studied here, and instruction is open to all.
Paul’s Restaurant of Santa Fe (72 West Marcy Street) is an intimate place that incorporates the best of all worlds, from its folksy yet modem atmosphere to its eclectic cuisine. “We don’t follow trends,” says owner Paul Hunsicker, who opened the restaurant in 1990. His menu combines flavours from around the world in dishes like Baked Salmon in a Pecan Herb Crust and Red Chilli Duck Wontons.
The many innovations of the new Southwestern chefs, while surprising, are fully in keeping with the past. In New Mexico, the traditional cuisine based on corn, beans, squash and chilli will probably be cooked for centuries to come. But this doesn’t mean that it has to be static. And today’s chefs are creating exciting new food by blending the ideas of other cultures with the fundamentals of Southwestern cookery and ingredients in wonderful new ways.
The kitchen of the Martinez Hacienda, a restored Spanish Colonial adobe house dating from circa 1804, which originally belonged to a mayor of Taos.
Part Two: The Santa Fe Kitchen
A guide to essential utensils, cooking methods and ingredients
Despite the food of Santa Fe seeming to be quite exotic, the equipment necessary to cook it is not strange at all. The traditional utensils, originally from Mexico, are all but obsolete in these days of premade tortillas and electrical appliances. In earlier times, a metlapil, a cylindrical stone, would be rolled on a metate, a flat, rectangular stone, to grind the corn kernels for tortillas. After the corn was ground and a masa (corn dough) made, corn tortillas would be prepared with a rolling pin, but the Spanish developed the first wooden tortilla presses to make the process easier. Presses were hand carved from mesquite or made of metal. Now more commonly made of cast aluminium or iron, a press consists of two plates, a hinge, and a handle that you press to flatten and shape the ball of masa. Wheat tortillas have always been prepared with a rolling pin and fingertips. After flattening, the tortillas would be cooked on a comal (griddle).
A molcajete y tejolote—a volcanic-rock mortar and pestle-would be used to grind spices or to make salsas for tortilla dishes. A molinillo, a short stick with indentations in the bulb at its tip, was used (and still is) to prepare frothy hot chocolate.
These dippers are examples of the exquisitely detailed pottery of the Mimbres (left) and Tanto (right) peoples, who lived in southern New Mexico and Arizona. The Mimbres vanished after about 1150 A.D.
In the modern Santa Fe kitchen, a food processor or blender has taken over the tasks of the metates and molcajetes, and a comal has been replaced by a griddle or cast-iron frying pan. Casseroles have replaced cazuelas, the glazed earthenware pots ubiquitious in Southwestern antique shops.
A spice mill is handy to have not only for grinding spices but for grinding chillies into powder. When you grind chillies, you may want to wear a paint mask to avoid breathing in the powder. You will need air-tight containers to store ground chilli powders.
For making chilli sauce, an eight-litre heavy saucepan is recommended. A steamer is useful for cooking tamales. A charcoal or gas grill is useful for roasting chillies and to grill meat, although chillies can be roasted in a conventional oven or toaster oven as well.
A deep fryer is ideal for making sopaipillas, the puffed-up bread. A heavy saucepan can be substituted if you do not have a deep fryer.
Making Corn Tortillas
Tlaxcallim (corn tortillas) were the principal food of both the Mayas and the Aztecs as early as 10,000 B.C. Both cultures worshipped corn, and the Mayas believed that humans were created from corn dough (masa). Corn tortillas are made in much the same way today as they have been for centuries. Dried corn kernels are briefly cooked in a solution of water and unslaked lime (calcium hydroxide) or “builder’s lime”, to remove their tough skin and soften them enough to grind. The resulting nixtamal is combined with water to form masa.
Tortillas can only be made from masa; cornmeal will not work. If you cannot purchase ready-to-use masa, masa harina, which is dehydrated nixtamal, is available in many grocery stores alongside the flour or from a number of mail-order sources.
There are a variety of ways to form corn tortillas. The most difficult method is by hand. A flattened ball of masa about 2.5 cm in diameter is worked between the hands in a rapid, smooth motion. Mastering this art is not as easy as it looks and takes a lot of practice!
Step 1: Cover the bottom plate with plastic wrap, position the ball of masa and cover it with another sheet of plastic wrap.
Step 2: Lower the handle of the press and apply firm pressure.
Step 3: Open the press, lift off the top plastic, pick up the tortilla and place it on your palm, plastic side up. Peel away the remaining sheet of plastic.
To use a tortilla press, make the dough using the recipe on page 106. Once your masa balls are ready, cover the bottom plate of the press with a piece of heavy plastic wrap or wax paper that is a little larger than the press. Place the ball on the press a little off centre, toward the hinge. Cover the dough with another piece of plastic, close the press, and push the handle down hard. Open the press, peel off the top piece of plastic, place the tortilla plastic side up on one hand, remove the remaining plastic, and gently roll the tortilla onto a heated comal or frying pan to cook. Don’t try to peel the tortilla off the plastic— trust us, it won’t work.
If you don’t have a press, you can roll out the masa between two pieces of plastic wrap with a rolling pin. Remove the plastic as described above.
Making Flour Tortillas
The Spanish name tortilla comes from the word torta, which means “round cake”, an apt description of this flat, unleavened bread. When the Spanish brought wheat to the Western Hemisphere, the flour tortilla (tortilla de harina) was born.
Flour tortillas are popular in the northern states of Mexico and in the southwestern United States, and they vary in size and thickness. Those made in California and Arizona are much thinner than those made in New Mexico. Unlike corn tortillas, flour tortillas contain fat. Lard is traditionally used, which tends to result in a crumbly tortilla, but those made with vegetable shortening can sometimes be bland. A combination of both produces a good tortilla.
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