A Cook Book Review of Santa Fe and the Southwest.

Cook Books of Santa Fe…..a review of my three favorites.  Top of your TO DO agenda before visiting Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a list of the restaurants where you hope to enjoy the best Southwest cuisine.  Santa Feans take pride in their food culture and their restaurants and there are a long list of possibilities. When I travel I am always excited to try the local food of my destinations.  I leave my Southwest favorites behind. But at home, when we venture out to eat, we invariably stop at one of our favorite restaurants for New Mexico cuisine. In my own kitchen,  learning something new or preparing a favorite, I reach for three cook books of Santa Fe.  They include:  The Santa Fe School of Cooking Cookbook (https://santafeschoolofcooking.com/), Cafe Pascual’s Cookbook ( https://pasquals.com/)and The Pink Adobe (http://www.thepinkadobe.com/)

First of all a brief explanation of what exactly Southwest Cuisine is.  It started with the Anasazi and other Indian nations, 12,000 and even more years ago. They cultivated three basic ingredients:  beans, squash and corn. Add the tomato and other delicacies, brought by Mexicans who traveled north along the Camino Real de Tierra Aldentro.  The Spanish established themselves in 1607 and the New Mexico landscape  was introduced to domesticated animals and groves of apples and peaches. Anglos came from the East after the war of 1840 and we had new ingredients, a Cowboy scene, and a new way of cooking. But none of this would matter without one star ingredient: the New Mexico chili. The chili has been around for some 10,000 years,  cultivated 6,000 years ago in Mexico.  New Mexico is the perfect place for chilis due to the high altitudes and dry desert.  Coming to visit?  Be forewarned and prepared for HOT!

 

Cafe Pascuals Cookbook…..Spirited Recipes from Santa Fe

 

If you chance upon a corner in the center of Santa Fe with a long line of people queing up to enter a blue screen door, then you know you have found Pascual’s.  You might ask yourself how they will all fit into this tiny, hopping place. It must obviously be worth the wait.  And so it goes with the cookbook.  The difference with Cafe Pascual’s Cookbook is that the recipes, like the dishes in the restaurant itself, will take you one step further to creating some very special meals. Try pinon crust for your lemon tart, chili sauce for your grilled polenta.   If you set aside a day for you and your kitchen, to create something special , think Cafe Pascual’s Cookbook.   Make a meal that is a special affair, one that’s worth a wait in line.

The book itself is as creative as its recipes.  Pages are filled with tinted photographs and colorful Mexican illustrations.  There are also two pages of mail order sources for regional ingredients.  If you are a cookbook lover, this is a great addition to your library.

 

The Pink Adobe Cookbook

 

I picked this book up at an estate sale, fresh, with no signs of use.  This was when I first came to Santa Fe and so many things seemed fresh and new and untried.   It is not a book that I knew of or was looking for, but it stood out  I am glad to have it.  The reason, surprisingly, is not exclusively for the recipes. It has the basics, but I already had good Santa Fe basics in my other books. What I love is the long evolving history of the Pink Adobe.  It relates a history of  Santa Fe style and the creator behind its success, Rosalea Murphy.  She opened her restaurant in 1944 on the premise that she could make a living cooking to support her first love of art and painting. (Check out the painting of peppers above.  Done by Rosalea.) The book is filled with  favorite food creations. It takes you from hamburgers and apple pie when the restaurant opened (a great version of apple pie that is in the book). Then it continues down through the years of recipes in creating a true Santa Fe institution. The Pink Adobe Cookbook is a worthy and colorful addition to any cookbook collection

 

The Santa Fe School of Cooking Cookbook

 

Now to get down to some serious cooking.  Or not so serious. Either way, this is a great place to hone your skills in preparing the best of Southwest Cuisine.  For me, this is my favorite, my go to, my Southwest Joy of Cooking for the basic and best regional dishes. Some of the recipes can be prepared quickly; others require more dedication and time.  In the end, all are worth whatever effort it takes. They are what you might expect from a good school of cooking. A school which, by the way, you might enjoy visiting or enrolling in a class if you are in to town.  Last note: The school has its own online store where you can get, among other desirables, this cookbook.