It’s harvest time for tomatoes and peppers in most North County gardens. Many gardeners hark back to preparing the traditional Italian tomato sauce that they learned from their grandmothers or the Ball Jar cookbook.
But I felt like trying something new this year, so I reached into my cookbook shelf and found Mark Miller’s “Coyote Cafe” cookbook from 1989. My dog-eared version is still intact, and the original book is still available online.
Although Miller is not a native Southwesterner, all of his recipes combine a deep understanding of the region’s cuisine. As a chef of over 30 years at numerous restaurants in California and New Mexico and owner of his own Fourth Street Grill in Berkeley and finally Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe, he has perfected the art of Southwestern cuisine.
His recipes bring together the indigenous regional cuisine of a variety of influences, including Native American, Hispanic, Mexican, Tex-Mex and neighboring Cajun and Creole cuisines.
HOW TO COOK LIKE A SOUTHWESTERNER
I was born in Milwaukee but lived most of my life in New York state, sampling European, Scandinavian, Asian, Latino and Italian cuisine. But it wasn’t until I moved to Arizona in 2010 that I began to sample the cuisines of the Southwest and Mexico. Now that I live in San Diego, I am constantly seeking out new dining genres, and collecting new recipes to try.
The techniques that I learned from “Coyote Cafe” are detailed in the following recipe, such as how to use dried chilies and how to cook with Southwestern spices. The dried chile technique is detailed below, and the secret of cooking with regional spices in a cast iron pan is new to many cooks.
When cooking a Southwestern recipe, you cook the herbs along with the aromatics at the beginning of the cooking process. In most “American” cuisine, we add our herbs to soups and stews at the end of the recipe, or sprinkle a few herbs on chicken or steak before grilling.
Here is just one of the innovative recipes from the “Coyote Cafe” cookbook.
RED CHILE SAUCE
(adapted from “Coyote Cafe,” by Mark Miller)
Ingredients (Makes four cups)
• ½ pound whole dried New Mexico or Red Ancho chilies (10 whole chilies)
• 2 quarts water, 2 cups additional chicken stock
• 1 pound Roma tomatoes (six large tomatoes), quartered
• ½ cup chopped yellow onion
• 5 large garlic cloves, chopped
• Spices: 1 teaspoon each of cumin, Mexican oregano, dried chili powder, kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
Process (Use heavy cast iron pan if available)
- Remove stems and seeds from chiles. Heat a heavy cast iron pan, roast chiles for 2-3 minutes, making sure not to burn. Add water to cover, simmer with lid for 20 minutes.
- Remove roasted chiles and liquid from pan, set aside in bowl.
- Using the same pan, reheat until hot, add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add onions to pan, coat with olive oil. Add garlic at the end so as not to burn. When onions begin to turn brown, add all spices and stir to coat thoroughly. Mixture should be quite dry.
- When spices are incorporated, add sliced tomatoes and cook until almost black.
- Place chiles, and tomato/onion mixture to blender. Add one cup water.
- Puree in a pulsing action until smooth and blended.
- Return entire mixture to cast iron pan, frying briefly in olive oil.
- Add 2 cups chicken stock, stir with a whisk to incorporate.
- Cook until all ingredients are incorporated. Taste for salt. Add dried chili powder to taste.
- Pour contents into one quart Mason jar, allow to sit overnight. Sauce will last for one week in refrigerator.
Uses: This red chile sauce can be used on enchiladas, grilled chicken, steak or tamales. Shop your local Latino grocery store to investigate the world of Mexican and Southwestern chiles.
Jano Nightingale is a Master Gardener and Horticulturist who teaches vegetable gardening at the Carlsbad Senior Center community garden. She also cooks all of her vegetables with recipes she has gathered over the years as a gardener. Contact her at [email protected] for upcoming classes and private consultations.
