Santa Fe in the Fall

Grilled Mahi Mahi with Mango Tomatillo Papaya Salsa

Day 1, Tuesday:  After a very long drive from Fort Worth we arrived in Santa Fe.  Our only food stop along the way was at Red Robin in Amarillo.  I happen to like their chili and there is not much to choose from in Amarillo, unless we wanted to stop by the Big Texan Steak Ranch and try the 72 ounce steak dinner.  When we arrived in Santa Fe we checked into our hotel, The Chimayo De Santa Fe Hotel on the Plaza.  Tune Up Café was our destination, a place we saw on a DDD episode a couple years ago.  Former Café Pasqual chef, Jesus Rivera, started it in an old gas station.  I love his papusas and chile rellenos, so that’s what we had for our appetizers.

Jesus and Charlotte Rivera, owners of Tune Up Cafe

We weren’t disappointed in our entrees either, mine the special, Chipotle Lime Mahi Mahi with Mango, Tomatillo, Papaya, Jalapeno Sauce with a bright green Cilantro Rice, and well-seasoned Black Beans.  My two glasses of wine, one ordered by mistake, didn’t hurt my mood.   Steve’s Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas were spicy, saucy, and just right. 

Day 2, Wednesday:  Tecolote Café was our choice for breakfast.  Steve is crazy about their Huevos Rancheros so that’s what we had.  Their green chile sauce has a spicy kick to it.  The bakery basket filled with blueberry muffins, chocolate chip muffins, and biscuits is a nice touch. 

Plaza was cool and sunny every day we were there.

We planned to skip lunch but I wanted to sample Roque’s Carnitas, from a food cart in the Plaza.  This guy is famous and has been featured on TV, in newspapers and magazines and was on the Food Truck Race episode filmed in Santa Fe.  Sorry to say it was not that great.  Bland meat, too raw onions and peppers in a tortilla.  My weeknight fajitas made after working all day are so much better, so we don’t know what all the fuss is about.  I also wanted to try the famous Fritos Pie at the Five and Dime.  Best Thing I Ever Ate featured it recently.  Lukewarm canned tasting chili on Fritos with raw onions and cheese served in the Fritos bag, is not the stuff of my dreams.  OK, we tried it, into the trash it went along with the half eaten carnita.

Galisteo Bistro and Wine Bar

Galisteo Bistro was my pick for dinner based on reading up on top restaurants in Santa Fe.  It was also my way to get a break from New Mexican chile food, but don’t tell Steve!  We were pleasantly surprised at the atmosphere, a quiet, cozy place with an open kitchen.  While waiting for our table I was watching the chefs prepare the food and I had flashbacks of working the line at culinary school.  Everything was ready to go, chopped and prepared, stored in little containers in a cart.  Each dish was made to order in hot skillets with fresh sauces and herbs.  We were seated right next to the kitchen so I could watch the chef prepare our orders.  We tried a small plate, the Chipotle Shrimp, spicy shrimp, seared and served with a couple very nice sauces, great for dunking the chewy bread.  Steve wasn’t interested in my Cheese Flight with Double Cream Brie, Chardonnay marinated raisins, dates, and toasted pinons, but I convinced him to try a bite.  It was a true taste bud teaser and he couldn’t stop eating the little crostinis.

Salad with Cajun Seared Tuna

Cheese Flight

Chicken Saltimbocca

Mud Puddle

With my glass of Paso Robles Cabernet, I was definitely enjoying this bistro.  My Citrus Dressed Field Green with Roasted Orzo Salad and Raspberry Vinaigrette and a Cajun Seared Yellowfin Tuna was light and satisfying.  The tuna was perfectly seared and the components of the salad were crunch, smooth, creamy and bright.  Steve’s Chicken Saltimbocca was pan roasted, layered with fresh sage, prosciutto, fontina, with a nice brown butter madeira sauce, served with some Vegetable Orzo Confetti.  It was hot, savory, and prepared just like the classic versions I’ve tasted, but the sauce added a deeper dimension to the dish.  We ended our meal with the Mud Puddle, a layered coffee ice cream, chocolate crumbs, and mocha mousse concoction, topped with whipped cream and toasted almonds.  I love that dessert.  I think I’ll copy it and make it myself sometime—isn’t that the greatest compliment?

We stopped at the Cantina, Casa Sena, to listen to music and enjoy an after dinner drink.  Seems the staff are all quite talented and they took turns singing show tunes while the piano player accompanied them.   Very nice.

Day 3, Thursday:

Café Pasqual is one of my all-time favorite restaurants.  A few years ago I was introduced to their Huevos Rancheros and chile sauces.  I bought their cookbooks and started making some really good food.  This time of year the crowds were gone and we were seated right away.  Our waiter said we looked familiar and asked if we were at Galisteo Bistro the night before.  He is a waiter there too!

Cafe Pasqual's Pappas Fritas

I had the Pappas Fritas, a dish I’ve never tried but one I had seen someone else eating and had plate envy last time we were there.  Red potatoes are sliced and sautéed until crispy around the edges.  They are placed in a bowl, on top of a corn tortilla, covered with green chile sauce, melted jack cheese, topped with two over easy eggs, some scallions and sour cream.  Yum, yum, yum.  Steve’s bacon, egg, and green chile quesadilla was sad in comparison so I shared my huge bowl of goodness with him.  Did I say I love Café Pasqual?

Breakfast Quesadilla

On our way to Taos for a day trip, we stopped at Chimayo.  Chimayo is known for Chimayo red chiles and weavers.  We stopped at Ortegas to pick up some more coasters (our German Shepherd ate most of the ones we bought before).  We were told the chile hook up was in the museum shop next door.  We spoke to the woman there and she told us that Chimayo chile powder was hard to get, very rare and very expensive.  $80.00 per pound!   We had promised to bring some back for Anthony at La Choza in Azle,  so we got 4 ounces for him, and 4 ounces for us.  Seems that the true Chimayo chile seed has been mixed with other seeds and there has been a recent effort to purify the seed.  The DNA of the Chimayo chile is used to verify the real thing.  Can’t wait to make something with this chile powder!

The real thing--Chimayo red chile

Taos is a quaint, mountain community, very artsy and nice to walk around in due to lots of streets closed to traffic.  The weather was perfect for strolling around and seeing the sights.  The Plaza was small, lots of shops and interesting characters.  One interesting character was the guy at the “great noodles” cart.

He had a small cart, a big wok on a gas burner fueled by a propane tank, ice chests filled with his ingredients, and a bunch of metal bins with vegetables, etc.  Sauces were in old Sriracha bottles on his cart.  Hmm, this was very interesting.  He had quite a selection of Asian noodle dishes.  Although we had lunch plans I had to try one of his dishes as part of my food research, right?  We order the Red Curry Coconut Rice Noodles with Vegetables.  I watched him make it and saw that he makes each order, one at a time, and it takes a while to cook all the vegetables and noodles.  He packs it all in a Chinese take-out container, tops it with chopped peanuts and scallions.  We shared a few bites of this research, but saved room for the real lunch.

Graham’s Grill with Lesley Fay

Lunch in Taos was at Graham’s Grill, a highly rated restaurant featuring Chef Leslie Fay, trained in the Napa area in California.  We sat in the patio with the sun warming us and ordered sandwiches.  Steve had his first Green Chile Cheeseburger of the trip and I had a Wild Salmon BLT with Chipotle Aioili.  Both were served on fresh bakery brioche buns, cooked just right with fresh vegetables, crispy sweet potato fries and handmade sauces.  We were ready to head back to Santa Fe. But first I purchased Lesley Fay’s cookbook. 

Jambo Café was our choice for dinner later.  The café was rated #1 in Santa Fe in numerous ratings and although it was out of the way, on Cerillos Rd., we decided to try it.  After all the new Mexican food a Caribbean African café sounded pretty good.  I had the special, Jamaican Jerk Pineapple Shrimp Skewers With Curry Basil Brown Coconut Brown Rice with Sauteed Spinach.  Steve had Hummus and Coconut Shrimp.  I also tried the Butternut Squash and Black Lentil Soup.  The shrimp skewers were spicy and exciting, if you can use that term for food.  The sauce was indescribable, full of spices and herbs with a range of tastes I could not even identify.  I wanted to keep eating that dish until everything on my plate was wiped clean, not my usual behavior.  The chef is very good at this unimposing strip center restaurant and I can see why the place gets such high ratings.  I think we need to come back for lunch tomorrow.

Chef/Owner Ahmed Obo

Jamaican Shrimp Skewers

Coconut Shrimp

Hummus

Day 4, Friday:  I sent Steve to Starbucks for a sandwich so I could skip breakfast and have an appetite for lunch at Jambo Café.  I wanted to try the Organic Jerk Chicken. 
We planned to continue on our Chocolate Trail before lunch and then go to Las Golindrinas Living History Museum after lunch.

Cooking ovens and well

After stopping at Kokowa Chocolates, Chocolate Smith, and HC Higgins Chocolates we had lunch at Jambo Café.  My Jerk Chicken was good, but not as good as last night’s shrimp skewers.  It was something I could easily make at home and was  bit of a let down after the fantastic meal last night. 

Our last dinner in Santa Fe was at Café Pasqual’s.  We had to wait a long time for our reserved table, about 25 minutes, but finally sat down.  We had the special salad, Field Greens with Buffalo Mozarella, Proscuitto, Fresh Dates, Tomatoes, and Honey Vinaigrette with Carta de Musica (a special thin flatbread on top).  It was an excellent salad.  My entrée was the Yellow Fin Tuna with Rice and Spinach, am altogether forgettable dish.  Steve’s Barbacoa Tacos, though, were outstanding, full of flavors, complex and interesting.  We got out of there and headed to La Casa Sena Cantina to have an after dinner drink and listen to some show tunes.

Grilled Yellowfin Tuna

Dos Tacos Barbeqoas

James Eustace, hand crafted bracelet, anniversary gift from Steve

Outside our hotel, Cuban band playing lively music, lots of dancing

Saturday morning, time to head back to Azle.  We went to Cafe Pasqual's for breakfast before heading to the Santa Fe farmers market. I wanted to try the Huevos Barbacoa Con Chile D'Arbol Salsa and it was really good!  Steve had pancakes--he was through with chiles for awhile.

Huevos Barbacoa con chile d'arbol salsa

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Santa Fe Chocolate Trail

Todos Santos, in the Casa Sena courtyard was our first stop on the Chocolate Trail, really nothing more than a list of a few chocolate places suggested on a card we picked up at our hotel.  We had already planned to go to Chocolate Smith for our favorite chile chocolates but trying some new places is always fun.  Todas Santos was small, packed with lots of "dark" items with skull themes and Day of The Dead items, from what I could tell.  I just wanted to hurry out of there, so we picked a few chocolates and left! 

Starting in Upper Left--Caramel Toffee, Black Pepper Truffle, Chipotle Orange Cone, Classic Dark, Pumpkin Buttercream

Chocolate Smith

Always my favorite place for spicy chocolate, and still fantastic.  My favorite is the red chile pistachio bark and this time I will try a couple new ones, the spicy caramel and orange chipotle and the unknown one too.

Red and Green Pistachio Bark, Sierra Blanca, Spicy Caramel, Orange Chipotle, and one I can't remember!

Kakawa



Atole hot chocolate, which we tried and loved, and my favorite Chile Caramels with Agave.  We also got a couple chile cherry trufles and a mole truffle.

CG Higgins is known for nuts, brittles, and fudge and chocolates.  We sampled several and selected the pumpkin fudge and some chile brittle.

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Key Lime Pie

I had a request to post my recipe for key lime pie.  I've made this pie many, many times and it always turns out great.  I adapted this recipe from one by Rebecca Rather.

Crust
1 cup Texas pecans
3 cups graham cracker crumbs (the whole box, 3 packages, made into crumbs in the food processor)
1 T sugar
1 cup salted butter, melted  (2 sticks)

Filling
3 large egg yolks
1 1/2 cups key lime juice (I buy a mesh bag of key limes and it takes the entire bag, very labor intensive but worth it.  Don't buy the bottled juice!)
3 1/2 cups sweetened condensed milk (2 cans)

Whipped Cream
2 cups cold heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar
limes for garnish

Crust:  Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Coat a 10 by 2 inch tart pan with a removable bottom with cooking spray.  Toast the pecans in the oven for 5-7 minutes.  Place pecans in food processor and process until coarsely chopped.  Combine with the graham cracker crumbs.  Add butter and sugar and mix well.
Press into the greased tart pan. 

Filling
Whisk the egg yolks, lime juice and condensed milk until thoroughly combined.  Let this mixture stand for 30 minutes to thicken.  Pour into the crust and bake for 30-35 minutes until the crust is light brown and the filling is partially set.  (Be sure to set the pan on a baking sheet before putting it in the oven so it won't leak butter all over your oven.)  Let cool, then refrigerate overnight.

Whipped Cream
Beat cream with electric mixer (whisk attachment).  Add the powdered sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.
Use a pastry bag to decorate top of pie by makiong large mounds with a star tip.
Garnish with slices of lime.

I've also made this in mini pie pans, 3 inch diameter.  Reduce the cooking time to 20 minutes.

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Farm & Fork: Think Globally, Eat locally Street Food Goes Gourmet

  

 

 
The second Farm & Fork event was held on September 25 at the Lightcatcher Winery. The announcement read:

"Join the winemaker, chefs, farmers, cooking school teachers, bakers and restauranteur for an evening of food, wine and entertainment at Lightcatcher Winery."

The Lightcatcher Winery is a unique, boutique winery owned by Caris and Terry Turpen. Caris is the lead chef and winemaker. They have produced award winning wines and the food created by Chef Caris Turpen and her staff is stellar. I loved the atmosphere--from the tasting room filled with unusual gifts and displays of their wine to the outdoor patio where a nice breeze was blowing and guitarist Adam Hull was playing classical music.

Stations were set up throughout the winery where interpretations of international street foods
were served. After selecting our glasses of wine, 2010 Texas Kiss Rose Merlot, a sweet, crisp and fruity wine, we found a table on the patio. I was excited to see some friends whom I had told about the event waving at us from their table, Jim and Peggy Davis and Jim and Mary Painter. Mindy and Mike Masters joined us later.

I visited the Culinary School of Fort Worth station first. They were serving grilled Mediterranean tenderloin kabob and Cowtown Farmers Market vegetable couscous. Chef Brad Waier was nearby. I always enjoy seeing him, but a part of me always gets a little anxious because he was one of my chef instructors when I attended culinary school. I made some pretty awful dishes then and I'm sure he remembers that. Seriously, he is a great guy, and is a gifted teacher. I enjoyed the tenderloin kabob, and by now I had a glass of the Lightcatcher 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, my favorite Lightcatcher wine, to enjoy with it. I especially enjoyed the Israeli couscous with vegetables. I didn't think I liked Israeli couscous because I had been served some that was prepared in a way that resulted in an off texture, however in one of my private cooking classes recently the student bought Israeli couscous instead of the fine ground type. We made the recipe and it was better than it had been when I made it with the other couscous. Now I really prefer the Israeli couscous. The tenderloin was grilled nicely and moist and tender.

I tried the Lightcatcher Winery dish next. Chef Turpen's sous chef was on hand to present a Beggar's Purse of puff pastry filled with abalone and scallops. From a previous dinner at Lightcatcher a few weeks ago I knew I was in for a treat. I tried the abalone appetizer and liked it so well we had it again the next week. The Beggar's Purse was flaky, creamy, rich and left you wanting more. Although tempted to have another one, I had to save room for the other 3 stations.

The Farm & Fork Banh Mi was next. This version of the French-Vietnamese poboy sandwich was made with an Artisan Baking Co. baguette, pate created by Chef Waier, roast pork, salad greens, pickled vegetables and cilantro. I am a big fan of the Banh Mi, having made them on a few occasions myself. I also experienced the Nom Nom food truck Banh Mi when it stopped in Fort Worth during the Food Network food truck race. The Farm & Fork Banh Mi was immediately superior to all other Banh Mi sandwiches because of the bread. Chef Grimes makes the best baguette, hands down. In fact, I plan to order about 40 loaves of it for something I'm making later this month. The pork was tender and the pate was well executed. My overall impression was that it lacked the heat and sharpness I expected, but then I have a taste for very spicy foods and would be the one throwing sliced jalapeños and sriracha all over it if they were available. Not saying that I didn't scarf down the entire sandwich, though.




I was ready for a little ice cream after the Banh Mi so I went over to the Wine Down Bistro stand. Chef Andrea Blair was there with her Savory Lemon-Thyme Buttermilk ice cream in Cracked Pepper Cones. The savory/sweet combination is very different so those who were expecting the usual super sweet ice cream had to adjust their palate. The peppery cone and lemon herb ice cream went together well. Chef Blair's Wine Down Bistro was the setting of the last Farm & Fork event and I can't wait to get over there again and try some of her creations.


The Artisan Baking Co. Interactive Dessert station was last. I watched the culinary students make the crepes and noticed the different fillings, including vanilla custard and lemon curd and then the sauces--a mixed berry fruit sauce made with locally grown strawberries, blueberries and blackberries. There was also a chocolate sauce. I sampled two variations, my husband's vanilla custard with chocolate sauce crepe and mine with vanilla custard, lemon curd and berry sauce. Both were delicious, rich, creamy, and addictive.


Chef Gwin Grimes



The dinner was so relaxing and enjoyable. The cool air and outdoor setting was such a pleasure after our long, hot summer. I loved talking to all the chefs at the various stations and hearing about how they prepared the food. The interactive style of this event was a definite plus. These are some talented, committed, energetic professionals and aspiring chefs. Attention to detail was evident all around, even the signs, hand painted blackboards on stands prominently displayed a detailed description of the dishes. Megan Waier did an outstanding job creating the lovely boards.

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