High Desert Table

Your everyday guide to Southwestern cooking

Marianne Sundquist

Cochinita Pibil Chile Tacos

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This is a taco recipe that comes from our constant craving for the unequivocal Cochinita Pibil sandwich and our never-ending love for tacos. Cochinita Pibil is a traditional slow-roasted pork dish from the Yucatán Peninsula. Its genius lies in the marinade highs and lows; earthy achiote paste or annatto seed, bright orange and/or grapefruit juice, and rich and roasted flavors from roasted garlic. This taco recipe takes into account the spirit of the Pibil and travels to another galaxy in the form of tacos, made with New Mexican chile of course. 

These can be made vegetarian using all beans, cauliflower or potatoes in place of the meat. The last time I made these I used elk, but any meat you have a hankering for will work. Pork shoulder is wonderful, it just takes more time than a vegetable, ground beef or a picked cooked rotisserie chicken.

This would be a fabulous dish to put in the slow cooker overnight. If you cook it this way, you could easily use dry beans instead of cooked ones. This “taco” filling is just as tasty over nachos, in burritos, over rice, and yes, even salad.

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Cochinita Pibil Chile Tacos

Cochinita Pibil Chile Tacos
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  • Author: Marianne Sundquist
  • Prep Time: 1 hour
  • Cook Time: 1-3 hours
  • Total Time: 1-3 hours
  • Yield: serves 6-8
  • Category: Tacos
  • Method: Slow Cook
  • Cuisine: Southwest

Ingredients

Units

For the chile paste:

  • 8 dried red chiles, stemmed and seeded
  • 8 garlic cloves, peels left on
  • 1/2 t. black peppercorn
  • 1/2 t. whole cloves
  • 2 t. whole coriander
  • 1 t. whole cumin
  • 1 T. dried oregano
  • 2 T. maple syrup
  • 1 grapefruit, juiced
  • 1/2 c. water
  • Salt and pepper, to taste

For the tacos:

  • 2 T. olive oil
  • 2 # meat (beef chuck, brisket, ground beef, chicken, bison or elk)
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 2 green bell peppers, diced
  • 1 can (14.5 oz.) cooked beans OR 1 c. dried chicos
  • 1 can (14.5 oz.) diced fire-roasted tomatoes
  • 2 c. broth (veggie, chicken, or beef)

For serving (optional):

  • tortillas
  • Scallion, sliced
  • Jalapenos, sliced
  • greek yogurt or sour cream
  • Avocados
  • Cilantro leaves
  • Lime wedges
  • Cheddar cheese, shredded

Instructions

First, make the chile paste: Bring a medium saucepan of water to a simmer. While you’re waiting for the water to heat, In a separate cast iron or other heavy-bottomed skillets over medium heat, sear the red chiles pressing them in the pan until they soften and smell aromatic, but not too much that they burn. Turn them, gently cook on the other side and transfer them to the simmering water saucepan. Turn off the heat and let them sit for 15-30 minutes, then strain them and reserve. Add the garlic cloves to the hot cast iron pan (with their peels still on) and brown them on all sides, before removing them and peeling them once they are cool enough to handle. Once again the cast iron will be empty but still hot. Add the peppercorn, cloves, coriander, and cumin to the pan and gently cook until the spicy fragrance wafts up at you. Transfer these spices to a dry blender and blend until it forms a powder. Add the chiles, peeled garlic cloves, maple syrup, grapefruit juice, and water. Blend until smooth and reserve.

To make the tacos: heat oil in a large dutch oven over high heat. Season the meat with salt and pepper and sear on all sides, working in batches as necessary as to not overcrowd the pan. Reserve the cooked meat in a bowl and reduce the heat to medium.

Add to the hot pot the onion, and green bell peppers and let cook for around ten minutes. Add the beans, can of tomatoes, broth, prepared chile paste, and cooked meat back to the pot. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours depending on the type of meat used. Ground beef or already cooked meat will take around 30 minutes, whereas tougher cuts like brisket, stew meat or pork shoulder could take up to 3 hours to tenderize. Once the meat is fully cooked, serve it with tortillas and your favorite taco toppings. Enjoy!

Everyday Southwest Stew

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It’s no accident that our kitchens have long been considered the heart of our homes. They can — and should — be a place of comfort and relaxation. With many of us doing a lot more cooking and a lot more staying at home, I’m fairly sure the heartbeat of our home kitchens has never been louder, or more important than now. Even as a chef with two small kids, I’ll be the first to admit it can be a challenge. But cooking for ourselves and our families can also be grounding and deeply satisfying. 

With our high desert nights still cool and trips to the grocery store unpredictable, I can’t think of a better time to share one of my favorite recipes of all time — Everyday Southwest Stew.

You can follow this recipe exactly and you will undoubtedly notice smiles around your table, although I have to admit I never actually measure anything when making a stew, but offer the amounts more as a guide. You can also tinker with this recipe and make it work for the ingredients you have on hand. Who knows? Maybe your new version will become a family heirloom, passed to children, grandchildren, and neighbors, a culinary snapshot from this historic moment in time.  

Here’s the secret. You don’t have to go to the store for the perfect ingredient, because there are no specific ingredients that are going to make or break this stew. The only requirement is that you trust yourself and let the rest go. I’m considering this a time of invention and innovation in our home kitchens. To start, let’s take a big-picture look at this simple recipe which allows for almost endless variations: 

FAT

First, start with a big, heavy-bottomed pot. Add a splash of oil or other fat to the pan. This is a great way to use bacon fat (aka bacon butter) leftover from breakfast. In this recipe, I render bacon, remove it when it’s crispy and use the leftover fat to sear the meat. You could also use ghee. The only oil I would recommend not using is extra virgin olive oil, which is best used for salads and finishing dishes.

MEAT

Once the pan is hot, sear the meat. My favorite stew meat is local buffalo, but you could use almost any meat you have on hand; beef shoulder (aka chuck), beef round, ground beef, pork shoulder, pork tenderloin, sausage, boneless chicken breasts or thighs, and even bone-in chicken if you’re careful to remove the bones before adding the meat back to the pot after cooking. You could also leave out the meat altogether, use beans or grains instead, and skip to the next step.

MIREPOIX

Now it’s time to add the flavor bomb veggies, roots, and spices that are going to add loads of flavor to your stew, also referred to as mirepoix (meer-pwaa). What does this mean? This is where you choose what direction you want your stew adventure to go. In France, the classic mirepoix is a combination of celery, carrots, and onion. In Italy, cooks will often start with the French mirepoix and add parsley and garlic. Chinese mirepoix consists of green onions, ginger and garlic. If you have a hankering for Thai, try a combo of ginger, lemongrass, basil, and lime zest or leaves. In my house, we often go the Indian route and in addition to the carrots, celery and onion, add red chile, fresh ginger and turmeric, and curry powder or paste. This is the time to look around in your fridge, pantry or produce section of the market and get creative. What looks good, sounds good, and what do you have access to? Do you have any fire-roasted New Mexican chiles hiding in the freezer? I can promise you there has never been a better time to find them. In this recipe, I use herbes de provence because even though the blend originates in the southeastern region of France, it often includes New Mexico herbs like lavender, thyme, and oregano.  

DEGLAZE

After your mirepoix has been hanging out in your pot for a while, now is the time to deglaze! This means add a bit of liquid to get all the caramelly goodness off the bottom of the pot and into the stew. You could add a few glugs of wine. You could add a can of coconut milk or some crushed tomatoes or broth. Scrape the pot with a wooden spoon. 

HEFTY VEGETABLES & LIQUID

Now add your hefty vegetables to add texture and substance to the strew. You can add things like potato, cabbage, celery root, beet, squash, fennel, mushroom, radish, turnip, collard greens, daikon, etc. Then add more liquid to cover. This could be more broth or even water.

FINAL SEASONING & DELICATE GREENS

Depending on the meat and/or vegetables you’re using, you will want to simmer over low heat until everything is tender. This could be 40 minutes or four hours. Check the seasoning and see if you want to add salt, pepper, or other spices. For instance, sometimes when I go the Thai route, this is when I add juice from a lime or a splash of fish sauce. Just a bit to brighten it up. This is where tasting and trusting will get you where you want to go. Once everything is cooked and tender, now is the time to add greens and green vegetables. I like to add greens a few minutes (but not more) before ladling them into bowls.  You can add greens like spinach, kale, broccoli, peas, rapini, chard, asparagus, etc.

My hope is that by making this stew, you’ll create new scent memories of lavender and roasted chiles.

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Everyday Southwest Stew

Everyday Southwest Stew
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  • Author: Marianne Sundquist
  • Prep Time: 1 hour
  • Cook Time: 2-3 hours
  • Total Time: 4 hours
  • Yield: 3-4 quarts
  • Category: Soups
  • Cuisine: Southwest

Ingredients

Units
  • 4 slices of bacon, diced
  • 3 lb. beef or buffalo meat, excess fat removed and cut into 2” pieces
  • 4 carrots, peeled and sliced
  • 1 large red onion, diced
  • 1 celery root, peeled and diced
  • 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
  • 2 fire-roasted green or red chiles, peeled, seeded, and sliced
  • 1 T. herbes de provence (or a mix of thyme, oregano, dried lavender)
  • 3 T. tomato paste
  • 1/2 c. red wine
  • 3–4 yukon gold potatoes, diced
  • 1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, brushed with a dry towel or cloth and quartered
  • 8 cups beef broth
  • 1 c. green peas
  • 1 bunch kale, sliced

Instructions

 

  1. In a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-low heat, add bacon and cook until the fat is rendered and the bacon crispy. Remove the bacon and reserve to a medium bowl, leaving the fat in the pot.

  2. Turn the heat up to medium-high. Dry the meat with clean paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Working in batches so as not to overcrowd the pan, sear the meat on all sides until caramelized. Transfer the seared meat to a bowl.

  3. Once all the meat is seared and removed from the pot, add carrots, onion, celery root, garlic, green chile, and herbes de provence. Stir and let cook for around ten minutes.

  4. Add tomato paste, wine, and stir for another few minutes scraping all the caramelly goodness off the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon.

  5. Add potatoes, mushrooms, and broth. Bring to a simmer and turn heat to low. Let simmer for 2-3 hours until the meat is completely tender. Check seasoning, and add salt or pepper as needed.

  6. A few minutes before serving, add peas and kale to the stew. Ladle into bowls and enjoy.

Simple Cinnamon Rolls

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Is it frivolous to spend a morning cooking or baking when the world seems to be falling apart? Not one bit. One of my favorite things about cooking is its ability to ground us — to home, to people around us, to ourselves, to gratitude, to our senses. It gets us away from the computer and into the kitchen. It quiets our minds, even for a bit. Normally, cinnamon rolls in our house are reserved for holidays or birthdays. But these days, I’m looking for every excuse to celebrate. A couple of weeks ago we made Thanksgiving dinner just for fun (and of course to eat leftovers throughout the week). I knew cinnamon rolls for breakfast would be the perfect way to kick things off. Starting the day with a batch of these beauties is sure to turn an ordinary day into an extraordinary one.

Variations to consider if you want to get creative: Sometimes I poke a hole in the dough before baking and fill them with spiced pastry cream, or add finely chopped almonds or pecans to the filling to add more texture. I would suggest making the dough and shaping them the night before you want to bake them. Then all you have to do is wake up in the morning, let them warm up a bit, and throw them in the oven.

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Simple Cinnamon Rolls

Simple Cinnamon Rolls Plated
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These easy cream cheese frosted cinnamon rolls can be prepped the night before with an overnight rise or made the morning of for a delicious breakfast treat.

  • Author: Marianne Sundquist
  • Prep Time: 2 hours
  • Cook Time: 25 minutes
  • Total Time: 3
  • Yield: 12 rolls
  • Category: Breakfast
  • Method: Baking

Ingredients

Units

for the rolls:

  • 3/4 cup milk, warmed
  • 2 1/4 teaspoon active yeast (1/4-ounce package yeast)
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
  • 1/4 cup butter, melted
  • 3 cup flour

for the filling:

  • 2/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup butter, softened

for the cream cheese frosting:

  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons butter, softened, softened to room temperature
  • 4 tablespoons real maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Pinch of salt

Instructions

Make the dough: Add milk to the bowl and sprinkle yeast on top. The yeast will begin to foam in around five minutes. Add sugar, egg, egg yolk, and butter. Mix well. Add flour, salt, and stir with a wooden spoon until a dough begins to form. On a floured surface, knead the dough with your hands for 8-10 minutes. Transfer the dough ball to a buttered bowl, and cover it with a kitchen towel. Rise for one hour.

While the dough is rising make the filling: Mix together the butter, brown sugar & cinnamon in a small bowl. Reserve.

Make the frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk, beat the cream cheese and butter together on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the maple syrup, vanilla, and a pinch of salt. Beat for 2 minutes. You can also make this by hand with a wooden spoon and some elbow grease.

Shape and bake the rolls: Transfer dough to a well-floured clean surface and roll out into a 14-by-9-inch rectangle. Spread filling on the dough, leaving a ¼-inch border. Tightly roll the dough up, starting from the long side, and place the seam side down. Cut into 2-inch slices with a sharp knife. You should yield 12 rolls.

Simple Cinnamon Rolls - cutting the rolled dough

Line a large cast iron pan or 9” baking dish with parchment paper. Place rolls in the dish and cover with plastic wrap and let rise again for 30 minutes. (At this point you could also put them in the fridge overnight and then pull out the next day 30 minutes before baking.) Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes or until just slightly golden but cooked through. Allow them to cool for around five minutes before frosting.

Simple Cinnamon Rolls before baking

High Desert Everything Marinade

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This is a marinade that celebrates flavors of New Mexico and at the same time is highly versatile and can be used on all kinds of foods with equally delightful results: asparagus, bell peppers, mushrooms, cauliflower, zucchini, eggplant, tofu, shrimp, salmon, chicken, beef flank steak, hanger steak, skirt steak, sirloin steak, brisket, pork chops, buffalo, elk, etc.

The technique of marinating is twofold. At the end of the day, it’s about tenderizing and adding flavor. Each food falls on a spectrum of absorbability and toughness, some foods benefiting more from tenderizing like a tough skirt steak, and others from the addition of flavor like vegetables.

Marinating times depend on the acidity of the marinade itself and the burliness of the food you’re marinating. Some kind of acid is important, especially if you’re wanting your marinade to do some heavy lifting in the tenderizing department. As the acidity of your marinade increases, the time required decreases otherwise your fish could be at risk for turning into ceviche. Here’s a general guide for marinating times:

  • Vegetables: 20-30 minutes
  • Tofu: 20 minutes – 24 hours
  • Fish & Shellfish: 20 minutes – 1 hour
  • Chicken pieces: 30 minutes – 3 hours
  • Whole Chicken: 24 hours
  • Pork, Beef, Wild Game: 30 minutes – 24 hours

This recipe is so versatile because it’s medium acidity (from the yogurt) and loaded with flavor. After the marinating time is over, what you do next is up to you. You can grill, bake, roast or saute. My only suggestion? Call it a party, just because you can.

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High Desert Everything Marinade

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This is a marinade that celebrates the flavors of New Mexico and at the same time is highly versatile and can be used on all kinds of foods with equally delightful results.

  • Author: Marianne Sundquist
  • Prep Time: 30
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 1 cup
  • Category: spring

Ingredients

Units
  • 2 dried ancho chiles
  • 2–4 dried chipotle chiles depending on size
  • 4 garlic cloves, skin left on
  • 1 large lime, zest only
  • A handful of fresh cilantro, stems, and leaves roughly chopped
  • 2 t. honey
  • 1/2 t. Cumin, ground or seeds
  • 1/2 t. Coriander, ground or seeds
  • 1/4 c. plain yogurt
  • 1 T. olive oil
  • Salt and pepper

Instructions

  1. In a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, add the whole peel-on garlic cloves and both types of chile. In a separate kettle or pot bring around 2 cups of water to a boil. The garlic will take longer to brown on all sides, but keep your eye on the chiles. We want them to smell fragrant and slightly brown on all sides but not char. Remove the chiles and place them on a clean board or plate. Remove the stems and seeds (or leave the seeds if you like it hot) and place them in a heat-proof bowl and pour over hot water to cover them. Let the chiles relax in the hot water for around 20 minutes.
  2. While the chiles are soaking in their bath, prepare the rest of the marinade. Once the garlic is finished toasting on all sides, carefully remove the cloves from the pot and when cool enough to handle, the cloves should slip right out of their skins.  Add the garlic cloves to a blender or food processor (I use my nutri-bullet).
  3. Now add the lime zest, cilantro, honey, cumin, coriander, yogurt, olive oil, and a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Once the chiles are finished soaking, remove them from the water and add this to the blender as well. Blend until smooth. Viola! A marinade that shouldn’t be confused with the word serenade even though it’s sure to make whatever you’re cooking sing.

Simple Oven Roasted Whole Chicken

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I know that sometimes cooking a whole chicken can feel less convenient than just picking up chicken breasts at the store, but stick with me while I try to convince you it’s worth the little bit of extra effort and time.

This is the first step in making many meals out of a whole chicken. First comes roasting day which is a special meal in itself. The crackling chicken comes out of the oven making your entire house smell like Thanksgiving. I like to make a whole chicken on Sunday or Monday getting our weekly meals off to a great start.  The next day I pick any leftover meat for topping on salads or tacos, before throwing all the bones into a pot with carrots, onion, celery, herbs, and cold water. I bring it to a gentle simmer for 30 minutes and strain. Voila, chicken broth! 

Now I go through the strained bones again, and while they are still warm but cool enough to touch, I pick more meat off the bones to make a soup. When you chill the strained broth, the chicken fat will naturally rise and solidify on top of the stock. You can skim this off with a spoon and use this for sauteing potatoes or veggies. 

This utilization of the whole chicken is no small thing. When we roast a whole chicken it easily feeds us for 3-5 meals by doing the roasted chicken-picked chicken-some kind of chicken soup method. It makes meal planning easy for the week–Roasted chicken! Tacos! Soup! It’s also incredibly cost-effective. Let’s say I go to the farmers market or store and pay anywhere from $15-$30 for the whole chicken depending on the size and if it’s organic, pastured, etc. Even though we will add other ingredients to our meals, it’s still the star of the show. 

Let’s look at it conservatively though and say my family of four gets only three meals out of it  (we always get more if we make soup) and we pay $25 for the chicken. That comes to about $2.00 per meal worth of chicken and/or broth. Have I convinced you yet?

There are a million delicious recipes out there for roasted chicken. After many years of trying all kinds of methods, I found that the most simple method–dry cooking, is my favorite. It’s also the easiest. I came to this conclusion one night when I had run out of time for anything else aside from throwing the chicken in the oven as fast as humanly possible. Essentially it involves seasoning the chicken with just salt and pepper, resulting in a crispy skin and loads of flavor. Recently I fell in love with adding smoked paprika to this mix, but any dry spice or herbs will do.

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Simple Oven Roasted Whole Chicken

Whole Roasted Chicken
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The easiest dry cooking method for oven roasting a well-seasoned, juicy, crispy-skinned whole chicken.

  • Author: Marianne Sundquist
  • Prep Time: .5
  • Cook Time: 1
  • Total Time: 1.5
  • Yield: 1 chicken
  • Category: Dinner
  • Method: Roasting
  • Cuisine: meat

Ingredients

  • 1 whole chicken
  • 1 large red onion, peeled and sliced into 5 rounds (if you are not using a roasting rack pan)
  • kosher salt
  • freshly ground pepper
  • kitchen twine

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 450 F. If your oven has a convection setting, this is the perfect time to use it. The more air, the crispier the skin.
  2. Place the slices of onion in a large oven-safe dish if you are not using a roasting rack pan. I have roasted chickens in all kinds of oven-safe dishes, dutch ovens, and cast iron skillets. The slices of onion act as an edible “roasting rack”, lifting the chicken off the bottom of the pan and allowing for a bit more air circulation. The onion incorporates a little moisture, but it also results in the most flavorful morsels to eat alongside the chicken so in my opinion it’s worth it and the chicken still comes out crispy.
  3. On a clean surface dry chicken with paper towels, inside and out. Make sure to remove the bag of giblets before roasting. The neck is sometimes included in the bag and is a great addition to throw into the stock later put it off to the side in your roasting pan. It’s also important to note that whenever you are handling raw chicken, it’s important to clean all surfaces, utensils, and hands thoroughly with hot, soapy water.
  4. Sprinkle around one tablespoon of kosher salt inside the chicken. Place chicken on top of onions or roasting rack.
  5. Cut a piece of kitchen twine and slide it under the tail skin (found directly under the drumstick area). Bring the twine up and around the drumsticks, tying them together tightly. This is the abridged version, so I’d recommend watching a video if you want to learn the more comprehensive technique. Trussing a chicken helps it cook evenly and prevents the breasts from drying out. If you don’t have twine, don’t worry. It’s still going to be delicious.
  6. Generously season the outside of the chicken with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.
  7. Cook in the oven around an hour or until the chicken reads 165 F. The time completely depends upon the size of the chicken. Insert a kitchen thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh without touching the bone. If you don’t have a thermometer, you can also check to see if the chicken is done by making sure the juices run clear when pierced with a knife and if you twist one of the drumsticks, the bone should twist easily and feel loose. Keep in mind the chicken will continue to cook for a few minutes after it is removed from the oven.
  8. When it’s completely cooked, remove the chicken from the oven and let rest for 15 minutes before serving.