:quality(70)/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-sfr.s3.amazonaws.com/public/M3MP4NKLAFEYTCITRY37OJAWAM)
It was in 2008, while dining in the historic Piazza Santa Croce in the center of Florence, Italy, that author and local food writer Lynn Cline envisioned a new cookbook. Immersed in the art, culture and food of one of Western Europe's most beautiful cities, Cline couldn't help but also think about New Mexico and how unique its cuisine is to the rest of the world.
Cline was struck by the notion that behind every great regional artistic or culinary legacy exists a collection of mavericks—people who, regardless of circumstance, don't really have a problem breaking or changing the rules. Be it the Medicis, the itinerant cooks along the Santa Fe Trail or a pueblo grandmother turning her mind to the harvest, there is within each of us a unique relationship to food and the earth. In her new hardcover The Maverick Cookbook: Iconic Recipes & Tales from New Mexico (2015, Leaf Storm Press), Cline combines her loves of history and gastronomy with her passion for storytelling to deliver a New Mexico-themed cookbook unlike any other. Cline signs copies of the book after a Q&A session with Chef John Vollertsen starting at 6 pm Friday, July 24, at Collected Works.
:quality(70)/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-sfr.s3.amazonaws.com/public/MGPTUZOGAVAT3JAJCAOBLUAOCQ)
Each chapter represents an era in the evolution of New Mexican cuisine. The book spans chronologically from the farm-to-table realities of the dust-blown pueblo in the 1350s, to the more trendy farm-to-table restaurant and market movements of today. Recipes in each chapter are preceded by a short, history-based work of fiction by Cline, who assumes an observant role in the culinary lives of some of New Mexico's most recognizable mavericks, such as Georgia O'Keeffe, Billy the Kid, Fred Harvey, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Doña Tules and actor/photographer/Easy Rider badass Dennis Hopper.
The recipes included are, Cline notes, iconic in body, spirit or both. While there is an authenticity to technique and ingredients, she makes it clear that Fred Harvey French Toast is not as iconic as the Harvey House that made it a staple in their restaurants and dining cars beginning in the early 1900s, restaurants that included many in New Mexico, including La Fonda on the Plaza in Santa Fe, a former Harvey property.
"In a way I'm paying tribute to these mavericks by including recipes inspired by them and the circumstances they lived in," Cline says. "I researched the people first, and then went back and developed recipes for each chapter based on my findings." Take Edith Warner, for instance, a former railway-line worker ("the Chili Line") who lived in a house next to the Otowi Suspension Bridge near San Ildefonso Pueblo in the 1940s. In her home, Warner frequently cooked for and entertained Robert Oppenheimer and other prominent scientists during the Manhattan Project.
A recipe in the book inspired by an autumn visit to Warner's home by Oppenheimer and others? Pajarito Watermelon Pickle, a spiced version of a Southern staple inspired by the bounty of the nearby pueblo, as well as by Cline's long-ago procurement of a 1967 poetry anthology titled, appropriately enough, Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle.
EXTRA SAUCE
A Sonoran Odyssey
On Thursday, July 23, Santacafé (231 Washington Ave., 984-1788) pays tribute to the cuisine of Sonora, Mexico, with a prix-fixe five-course dinner, plus tequila and beer pairings, prepared by Santacafé chef Fernando Ruiz and guest chef Rafael Zamora Esquel of Vintage 423 restaurant in Albuquerque. The $70-per-person meal (before tax and gratuity) includes Baja oyster and clam ceviche; a “pork-three-ways” tostada with pork belly, housemade chorizo and crispy pork skin; braised oxtail stew; cabrito barbacoa with Sonoran mole and corn puree; and tres leches flan for dessert. Reservations are highly recommended.
Owl Say!
Rejoice, rejoice! As reported in last week’s issue, Tecolote Café has finally reopened in its new digs! They are open 7 am to 2 pm daily Tuesday-Sunday at 1616 St. Michael’s Drive, 988-1362. No toast, no reservations. Yes bakery basket, yes blue corn pancakes.
Book ’em, Rios
Chef Martín Rios of Restaurant Martín fame launches his restaurant’s eponymous cookbook with a signing and celebration from 3 to 5 pm on Saturday, July 25, at Restaurant Martín (526 Galisteo St., 820-0919). Swing by and purchase a book, have it signed and nosh on canapés and drink Champagne.
Cline brings things into the 21st century with a final chapter about Stanley Crawford, author and owner/operator of El Bosque Garlic Farm in Dixon, where some of New Mexico's most aromatic and flavorful garlic heads and other crops are grown. Partially inspired to move to New Mexico after watching Easy Rider in the late 1960s, Crawford embodies the timeless maverick spirit Cline hoped to capture through the lens of food and the passing of time: "And so," Cline writes, "though he came to New Mexico guided by ideas of self-sufficiency and rugged individualism, Stan found instead a community of like-minded individuals."
Small World
The mouth-watering recipe photographs in the 196-page book come courtesy of Guy Ambrosino, a former SFR photo staffer, and his wife/business partner/food stylist Kate Winslow, who now operate a photography and food-styling studio in New Jersey. Leaf Storm Press, based in Santa Fe, is run by former Reporter publisher Andy Dudzik.
THE MAVERICK COOKBOOK SIGNING
6 pm Friday, July 24
Collected Works Bookstore
202 Galisteo St.
988-4226
Santa Fe Reporter