High Desert Table

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Grilled Pork & Pineapple Tacos with Ancho Chile Marinade

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Grill season is here, and I notice it changes how I think about meals for the week. What can we grill up on the Cowboy Cauldron so we don’t have to think about cooking for a while, is how it sounds in my head. This recipe for Grilled Pork and Pineapple Tacos will fly at any kind of party, but also last a few days for a single household. It takes a little time to make the ancho marinade, but it should be noted that this component can easily be doubled or even tripled (with very little extra time added) and then put in containers in the freezer for other cooking scenarios in the future, like rubbing over a whole chicken before roasting, or marinating beef or chicken.

The Inspiration: A Nod to Tacos Al Pastor

This recipe is completely inspired by my love of Tacos Al Pastor, a method of taco making that came to life in the 1930s in Puebla, Mexico, when Lebanese immigrants introduced their shwarma-making, vertical cooking spits to the area. Eventually, lamb turned to pork marinated in chiles and anchiote, the earthy, slightly peppery seed of the evergreen Bixa orellana shrub, which gives cheese, Cochinita Pibil Tacos, and Tacos Al Pastor their distinct orange color. 

chef-grilling-pork-pineapple-tacos

There is something magical that happens when cooking meat on a vertical spit. There is also something magical that happens when I cook anything on the Cowboy Cauldron. 

You’ll notice that you can either use thinly sliced pork shoulder (the classic choice) or pork tenderloin. The tenderloin is a leaner cut and holds the marinade well.

pork-on-the-cowboy-cauldron

The Power of Pineapple & Fire-Roasted Chiles

Here, I focus on dried ancho chiles as the base of the marinade and add fire-roasted green chile to the mix of grilled pork and pineapple. Feel free to add sour cream, cheese, or avocado if you want, but simply topping it with cilantro and onion gets the job done.

pineapple-on-the-grill

Old Plaza Cocktail: The High Desert Vieux Carré

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In 1938, Walter Bergeron, head bartender of the Carousel Bar in the Monteleone Hotel riffed on the Manhattan cocktail (rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, bitters), taking it to the next level in an homage to the romance of New Orleans. His changes were small but mighty. He added cognac (French Brandy) and Benedictine (a French herbal liquor made up of 27 plants and spices) and both Peychauds (light, candied cherry, orange) and Angostura (deep, spicy and savory) bitters. He named it “Vieux Carré”, French for “Old Square”, a nod to the French Quarter neighborhood in New Orleans which he saw as romantic, reminiscent of another time.

A High Desert Twist: Mezcal & Pine Liquor

I only know about the Vieux Carré because it happens to be my husband’s favorite cocktail. So I’ve learned to not only make it, but to also appreciate its mysterious and nuanced complexity. With the holidays approaching, I wanted to make a special version with notes of the high desert throughout that also acknowledges the magic of the historic plaza at the center of Santa Fe. To do this, I only make two main alterations to the classic— instead of rye whiskey, we add mezcal. And we swap out sweet vermouth for pine liquor.

Optional Infusion: Elevating the Flavors

If you want to take this version to the next level (which is impossible for me to resist) you can gently infuse the mezcal a few days in advance with dried red chiles, juniper berries and lavender. This is entirely optional but delightful. If you skip the infusion, you can make this cocktail in about five minutes.

Serving Suggestions: Straight Up or On the Rocks

This is a strong cocktail, so it’s important to know that you have options when it comes to serving. In the classic style, the cocktail is served straight, stirred with ice, strained into a cocktail glass and garnished with a lemon twist. But there is nothing wrong with serving it with ice or even ice and a splash of soda to lighten it up. I like to multiply this recipe by four and keep a jar in the fridge. Because there is no juice, it will keep for a long time in the fridge.

Easy Bearnaise Sauce

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Every recipe has a story. How I would have loved to be a bird in a tree outside of my great grandmother’s house in Queens, perched at the kitchen window with her cooking inside. What recipes does she remember? How did her cooking change because of her life as a single mom? What recipes came from Italy and what recipes came from newspaper clippings? How did her mother make tomato gravy? Who was the first person in my family to make our beloved “meat pie” or add a pinch of nutmeg to ricotta before adding it to lasagna? These are questions I will never have answers to, but this collection of breadcrumbs make a canon that I carry close to my heart. Each time I make one of these dishes, it’s like a photograph coming to life, carrying our history forward into the future.

A Brief History of Culinary History

According to scholars, the oldest written recipe is a method for brewing beer that was written on clay tablets in Ancient Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) around 1730 BCE. Since then, our understanding (and documentation) of culinary history has continued to grow across the globe. In 1651, a chef from Burgundy, François Pierre de la Varenne, wrote Le Cuisinier François, a book solidifying French cooking as an identity unto itself.

The Evolution of Mother Sauces

Fast forward to 1833 when another French chef, Marie-Antoine Carême, named four “mother sauces” as core components to French cookery: Velouté, Béchamel, Allemande, and Espagnole. Who could have imagined that just thirteen years later, in a little village on the outskirts of Nice, Georges-Auguste Escoffier would be born. At the age of 12, Escoffier was apprenticing at his uncle’s restaurant and by 1903 he had risen in the culinary world so much that when he adjusted the Mother Sauces by demoting Allemande (a version of Velouté) and adding Hollandaise and Tomato sauces, the culinary world listened.

Simplifying Bearnaise for Real Life

The recipe I’m sharing today is an easy approach to Bearnaise, a light and herby tarragon infused cousin of hollandaise sauce. Hollandaise is made by emulsifying egg yolks with lemon juice and clarified butter. Perfect for benedicts, eggs, vegetables, fish and savory crepes. Here, I take some steps that to some might seem blasphemous. I don’t clarify the butter or use a double boiler (although a double boiler is a great way to reheat if you’re like me and don’t have a microwave).

I don’t skip these steps out of disrespect. I make bearnaise like this because if I didn’t figure out a way to make it work for my real life, I don’t know if I would ever make it. There are times in life that you just need to make something a little bit easier so you can actually make it happen. And I think it’s especially important to note that no one ever complains when this luscious and delightful sauce hits the table. Sometimes when I make it, I press all the water out of a few fire roasted green chiles, dice them and fold them into the sauce right before serving, but that’s up to you.

Homemade Danish Apple Kringle

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This week’s recipe is a special one because I get to introduce you to the Pastry Bandit, aka my husband Hans, who comes from a Swedish family in Minnesota and has been enjoying kringles since he was a child. Being that flour makes him sneeze, he wears a bandana whenever baking and inevitably we all gather to see what creations this masked character is mixing, rolling, and shaping. The kringle he grew up eating the most is the one his mom still makes to this day, filled with an almond filling. Here, because we had exactly six granny smith apples in the fridge, we decided to try a fruit filling this year instead. It was a great decision!

What is a Kringle?

Kringles are known for their flakey, buttery pastry and almond or fruit fillings, often glazed and sprinkled with nuts or sugar. This classic Danish dough is incredibly easy to make (only four ingredients) and is a dream to work with, especially after resting in the fridge overnight. In this recipe, we skip the glaze but if you want to add a boost of sweetness, simply whisk together one cup of powdered sugar with two tablespoons of milk and you are ready to drizzle away until your heart’s content.

If you want to get creative with the fruit filling, go for it! You could add blueberries, dried fruits like cherries or currants, or chopped nuts. We love to make the dough and the filling the day before we plan on rolling it out and baking. This is perfect for breakfast, dessert, or a mid-day snack break and is wonderful with tea and coffee.

High Altitude Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Over the years I have made many cookies. In the pastry realm of recipes, I’ve always considered cookies to be one of the easiest and most straight forward. And in Santa Fe we are lucky enough to have pastry chefs who know their way around the kitchen when it comes to cookies. This week we picked up a cookie box from Momo + Co. for the holiday week and with each new cookie I taste out of the box, I am fairly sure it’s the best I have ever had. Not to mention the macarons at Chaine in Burro Alley which would give any Parisian macaron a run for its money. But there is also something about making a simple cookie at home. It’s one of my favorite things to do with my kids. I love how much fun they have measuring (and spilling) and waiting for the cookies to emerge from the oven.

The Quest for the Perfect High-Altitude Cookie

Around eight years ago when my family moved to New Mexico my cookies started coming out of the oven and were a little bit off. Sometimes they were too puffy and other times too dry. I was puzzled because I had always assumed that high altitude baking was primarily for cakes. So I set out to figure out how to make a chocolate chip cookie that was crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside. I also wanted the cookie to stay chewy over the next couple of days when stored at room temperature in an airtight container. After many attempts in the Santa Fe altitude, I’m happy to report that my family has declared this the best cookie I have ever made. This is a big win for me and I hope it will be a big win for you too.

Adapting a Classic Recipe

I found an old chocolate chip cookie recipe that had worked well for me years ago. I wish I could remember where it came from to give a proper thank you to its origins, probably a baking blog or back of a bag of chocolate chips. Then I adjusted it with some basic high-altitude techniques: I increased the temperature, decreased the cooking time, slightly decreased the leavening agents and sugars and increased the liquid (here I added an extra egg). Then for a bit of salty richness, I do what Snoop Dog does, which is add creamy peanut butter to his chocolate chip cookie dough. And to finish it off, right before the cookies go into the oven I sprinkle some flakey sea salt over the top. And since I always keep Stokli’s High Desert Salt by the stove, I use this which adds a hint of New Mexico red and green chiles and lavender too.

If you don’t have a hand mixer, don’t worry! You can use a handheld electric mixer, or make this the way everyone used to, with a wooden spoon and some elbow grease. It might take a little longer, but it will get the job done, resulting in the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made from sea level to the mountains.