McLaughlin - The Southwestern grill: 200 terrific recipes for big and bold backyard barbecue

The Harvard Common Press
535 Albany Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02118
www.harvardcommonpress.com

Copyright 2000 by Michael McLaughlin
Illustrations copyright 2000 by Sandra Bruce

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America
Printed on acid-free paper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McLaughlin, Michael, 1954

The Southwestern grill : 200 terrific recipes for big and bold backyard barbecue / Michael McLaughlin.

p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-55832-164-9 (pbk.)
1. Barbecuing. 2. Cooking, AmericanSouthwestern style. I. Title.
TX840.B3M438 2012
641.7'6dc23
2011039027

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Cover photographs by Joyce Oudkerk Pool; food styling
by Jason Wheeler; prop styling by Tableprop
Cover design by Night & Day Design
Text design by Kathleen Herlihy-Paoli, Inkstone Design
Text illustrations by Sandra Bruce

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

For Joan and Howard

Among the many very good things that have happened to American cooking over the last twenty years, two of the most important have also happened to be personally significant to me. First, grilling, formerly a casual backyard art form, evolved into an accepted and respected cooking method, far exceeding anything several generations of Kiss the Cook apron-wearers could have predicted. Second, the food of the Southwest escaped from its regional confines and swept like a mesquite brushfire across the country. Like grilling, southwestern ingredients and dishes found a warm welcome in the kitchens of fine restaurants from coast to coast, transforming previously European-derived menus with heat, spice, and savory smoke. In the hands of serious chefs, the two grew far beyond their weenie-and-burgers, taco-and-salsa origins, and frequently traveled in tandem. Now, home cooks are adventurous enough to grill almost anything edible (and have increasingly sophisticated equipment for doing so). And, thanks to a booming Latino population, grocery stores far from San Antonio, Albuquerque, and Tucson are well stocked with the ingredients necessary for reproducing the authentic flavors of the Southwest. For those who like it spicy, smoky, and fresh off of the grill, its a very good time to be cooking.

Im happy to have been along for most of the ride. Leaving college, I was fortunate enough to get a job, my first real one, waiting tables in a popular Tex-Mex restaurant. Some years later, following a stint at the seminal 1980s New York City gourmet shop, The Silver Palate, I again found myself working in a Tex-Mex restaurant, The Manhattan Chili Co., this time as chef and an owner. My co-authorship of The Silver Palate Cookbook soon led to my first solo writing project, based on my restaurants menu, celebrating chili (the dish) as well as chile (the ingredient). Together, those first two cookbooks launched a writing career that got me out of the restaurant kitchens heat for good, and brought about many opportunities to celebrate gourmet cookinggrilling includedand southwestern cuisine.

Six years ago I made a move as significant as the one that originally took me from Colorado to New York, heading back west this time to settle in the 400-year-old city of Santa Fe, historically and culturally the most significant in the Southwest. For Food & Wine, I wrote the lead story in an entire issue devoted to the Southwest. For Bon Apptit, I wrotestill writeabout grilling in all its many mouthwatering, not exclusively southwestern, forms. Among the twenty-plus books Ive written or co-written over the years, seven have dealt with southwestern cookery, one winning an award for the advancement of the cultural heritage of the Southwest. Two have covered grilling and smoking exclusively, while several more have featured grilling prominently among their coverage of how we cook and eat today.

All of which is why this book, when it was proposed to me, seemed like such a natural and necessary one to undertake. Grilling has grown up, while I have matured alongside it, liberally seasoned with a dose of the special magic that is the unique culinary contribution of the American Southwest. Here you will find authentic dishes of the region as well as more evolved farethe food of the modern Southwestauthentic, too, now that the winds of change have moved through the area, but fresh, lively, and appealing, also.

Not so long ago, grilling was simple, even primitive, and the southwestern kitchen was represented by greasy imitations of the real thing. Those times are gone forever, as I think you will come to appreciate as you cook your way through this book. Join me in a celebration of the new and exciting southwestern grill.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

January 2000

First and foremost I thank my agent, Deborah Krasner, who is as passionate about my food and writing as she is tireless on my behalf.

At The Harvard Common Press, I thank everyone (literally everyonethey are a small but dedicated bunch), most especially my editor, Dan Rosenberg, who remained calm and patient as well as keenly insightful throughout the process of producing this book. I also thank Publisher Bruce Shaw and Marketing Director Christine Alaimo, both of whom have worked and continue to work to get this book into as many hands as possible.

Andrea Chesman copyedited the manuscript with an attention to detail and an understanding of grilling that were inspiring, while Patricia Jalbert-Levine skillfully shepherded the book through its final editing stages.

I also thank Martin Jacobs for his vivid cover photograph and Sandra Bruce for her evocative illustrations.

At Bon Appetit, Bill Garry, Barbara Fairchild, and Kristine Kidd have long encouraged my interest in grilling, as did Barbara Fine at the late, lamented On the Grill magazine. My thanks to them all.

Thanks and gratitude also go to Marsh Heckel, who did the shopping for this book with good humor and a fierce determination to find the right ingredient in the best condition for the lowest price.

Finally, many tasters shared their opinions of my grill food with me. Among them I especially thank Joan and Howard Ellis, of course, my brother, David McLaughlin, and his wife, Dianne, Sandy MacGregor, Marilyn Abraham, Steve Lange, Michael Honstein, Martina Lorey, Park Kerr, Pamela Morgan, who doesnt come to Santa Fe often enough, and Anne Lower and Jack Gantos, who left Santa Fe all too soon.

No region of the United States, especially in these days of mesquite madness, is more closely identified with grilling than the Southwest. Year-round, indoors or outbut outdoors whenever possible, to take advantage of our abundance of dry, sunny dayssouthwesterners embrace the grill with a passion. Not only do we prefer the kind of casual entertaining that most grill meals seem automatically to inspire, we also love big, bold flavors and are never happier than when the seasoning smoke of an open flame blends successfully and vibrantly with the Southwests other assertive seasonings. Factor in a tradition of outdoor cookery that goes back centuries, and southwestern grilling begins to seem as natural and logical as salt and pepper on a T-bone steak.