Dave DeWitt - Dishing Up New Mexico 145 Recipes from the Land of Enchantment

First and foremost, a big abrazo to the members of Delicious New Mexico who helped develop this book by supplying stories, recipes, and even opinions. Specifically, four individuals who run the show at Delicious were particularly helpful in the creation of Dishing Up New Mexico: Tim Nisly, who developed the concept and plan for the Delicious organization and found the funding to make it happen; and Vicki Pozzebon, who took Tims plan, ran with it as director, and of course added her own enhancements as the organization grew. Next were my unofficial coauthors, Brandon Stam and Hans Wressnigg, who together did fully half the research and writing for the book. Thanks, guys I couldnt have done it without you!

Stephanie Cameron of Edible Santa Fe and Kevin Hopper of Local iQ provided some exciting recipes, and I appreciate it.

by Vicki Pozzebon director of Delicious New Mexico

I am not a native New Mexican. I am a transplant from Canada, via Vermont with a few stops in between. But I think its safe to say that New Mexico has adopted me and I, it. It is home. It is the place that most resembles my own upbringing of family gatherings around enormous bowls of freshly picked salad greens, locally raised and butchered meats, dairy, and melt-in-your-mouth vegetables laced with rich flavors that transport you directly back to the soil from whence they grew.

I come from a long line of Italian immigrant farmers, ranchers, dairy producers, and entrepreneurs. Its no wonder I feel so at home in New Mexico, where the entrepreneurial culture is steeped in agricultural tradition mixed with creative new business ideas. And its no wonder that my local economic development work has led me to create sustainable food systems and to support local food businesses. I am a foodie, a localist, and a proud adopted New Mexican.

What has always struck me about New Mexicos food culture is its inherent creativity. I once asked a chef why he thought Santa Fe had so many chef-owned restaurants (more than 200 at last count!) and the answer was simply, Because like an artist, a chef must create. Passion, creativity, and a penchant for risk-taking drive New Mexicos food culture. It is not a rare occurrence to meet a New Mexican with a family-tested, mother-approved recipe for a new food idea that they absolutely must get to market, put on a menu, pour into a jar. This is the spirit of New Mexicans at their finest. We are still the Wild West Frontier, where the adventurous gather, the risk-takers succeed, and the land calls our name.

Dishing Up New Mexico brings together those pushing the New Mexico food frontier food entrepreneurs, farmers, chefs with a focus on creativity, local food, and great stories. Thats the New Mexican way. The culture of food in New Mexico is so strong that just about everything we do involves food: meetings, community gatherings, family time, all revolve around food. Its how we get things done.

And at Delicious New Mexico we get things done by helping our local food businesses grow their products into larger markets and engage consumers in the story of those local food products so that we all make it work together. We dream of New Mexicos rich cultural heritage being experienced through the amazing food products our members grow and create.

We can create greater community wealth for New Mexico farmers and the entrepreneurs who are using their products. We can elevate those food businesses to be the best of the locally owned businesses because their passion for food, culture, and community will shine through in their products. We can create a New Mexico that gets back to our food roots, employs hundreds of people in small, locally owned businesses that contribute to happier, healthier employees, and thereby create happier, healthier communities. All of this coming from the food movement? You bet.

Just when we thought that the fast foodies had won the food wars with their mantras of convenience and eating on the run, a grassroots rebellion began among small farmers, owners of specialty markets, restaurateurs, and concerned consumers who rejected fast food and instead embraced the concept of slow food. That is, buying locally grown food as much as possible and cooking it at home.

Food is in season for a reason, chef Kimberley Calvo told me when I interviewed her. Kimberley is a member of Delicious New Mexico, my support group for this book. Members pledge the following: that they are locally owned New Mexico businesses, that they source from in-state farmers and food producers to the greatest extent possible, that they practice waste reduction by reusing and recycling, and that they use green products whenever possible.

Delicious New Mexico is a nonprofit organization thats part of the South Valley Economic Development Center in Albuquerque, which provides a commercial community kitchen for its members to use to pack specialty products. It is appropriately named The Mixing Bowl.

Another example of the importance of the locally grown movement is the way we protect our signature crop, the legendary chile pepper. In Spain, Pimentn de la Vera was the first chile pepper product to be granted a Denominacin de Origen, or controlled name status. In France, piment dEspelette, was granted a French Appellation dOrigine Contrle (AOC). This designation means that other varieties of pimientos cannot be called pimentn, and other French chile peppers cannot be called Espelette. Unfortunately, the United States does not give controlled name status to agricultural products such as chile peppers.

The problem in New Mexico was that the states shrinking chile pepper acreage could not meet consumer demand, and chile peppers not grown in the state were being labeled as New Mexican. Most of these imports came from Texas, Arizona, Mexico, and China. The legislature attacked the problem by passing a labeling law that forbade the use of the words New Mexican if the chiles were grown out of state, even if the growers had bought or acquired seed of the NuMex varieties developed by New Mexico State University.

The law includes brand names and trademarks in existence before the Chile Advertising Acts inception and foreign chiles must be labeled as Not Grown in New Mexico. The law does allow state restaurants that use imported chile to use the term New Mexicostyle Chile in their advertisements and menus. Well, its a start.

In other words, this state as a whole is on top of the farm-to-table concept even to the point that both McDonalds and Blakes Lotta Burger buy locally grown New Mexican green chiles for their burgers. Thats because their locally grown customers demand it. Another small victory.

Since many traditional New Mexican recipes are instantly available on your computer from my SuperSite, Fiery-Foods.com, it made sense for this book to emphasize the most innovative recipes that screamed, Im a little different, but Im great! The recipes come from a wide variety of local sources with one common theme: the evolution of New Mexican cuisine using both traditional and new ingredients. Restaurant chefs, culinary experts, food writers, and home cooks all contributed. Some of the recipes were created by writers in various magazines I edited, especially Nancy Gerlach, a good friend and brilliant recipe developer, now retired, who co-wrote ten cookbooks with me. Our media supporters,