Did you see Bill and Cheryl Jamison on the
Today
show last week? Nobody did. I had lunch with them in New York last week (we were both there for the James Beard Foundation Awards) and they told me that their appearance on the show had been postponed until June. The Santa Fe couple is now traveling around the country promoting their new cookbook,
The Big Book of Outdoor Cooking and Entertaining
. They'll be doing several events in Santa Fe and Albuquerque over the next few months, so don't worry, you'll have plenty of opportunities to get a signed copy. In fact, the Santa Fe School of Cooking (116 W. San Francisco St., 983-4511), which has always been very supportive of local cookbook authors, has a supply of the books and you can call in your inscription request. They'll sign it and leave it at the store for you to pick up. Pretty cool, huh? Yeah, I should start doing that. Just call the paper and tell them you want an autographed copy of this column. I'll sign it and leave it at the front desk for you. (A small fee of $19.99 will be charged for this service.)
Despite the fierce wind that occasionally whips around during the spring, we're coming up on prime season for outdoor happy hour, so last week I met some lady friends for margaritas and snacks at the Coyote Cantina rooftop bar. I'm a total sucker, so I had to have one of the prickly pear margaritas. I have a gigantic prickly pear growing in my front yard (which my mom hates because she says it's "mean;" I say she should just keep her ass away from the thing if she doesn't want a pincushion tush) so I know a little something about tuna, as the cactus fruit is called. You know what I know? My plant's cactus fruits taste like shit. Or no, that's too harsh. They taste like a big old waste of time.
People say they taste like berries or melon, but I'll tell you what: The bright purple color of my tuna may look like
pureed raspberries, but it sure as hell doesn't taste anything like the sweet, tart fruit. And melon? Maybe, if you're talking about the white part of an underripe watermelon. You know, sort of mealy and watery with pretty much no flavor? Plus, picking and peeling and juicing the fruits is just way too much work for me.
So I was surprised that the Coyote's cactus fruit margarita (served frozen) was actually pretty good. The flavor was hard to describe, but a little sweet, a little tart and refreshing. And the bright color makes every one ask what you're drinking, so that's kinda fun.
Does Mark Miller pick cactus fruit from his own yard to make these? No way. The Coyote does what most restaurants do: They buy the puree from Perfect Puree of Napa Valley (
), a company that makes frozen purees from passion fruit, white peaches, lychees, pomegranates and other exotic and familiar fruits. Perfect Puree mostly sells their stuff by the case through foodservice distributors, but their Web site links to Amazon, where they sell 30-ounce bottles for $22.50 plus shipping. It's expensive, especially when you factor in the shipping, but one bottle will make 60 margaritas and it lasts for a long time in the freezer. (If any of you readers know where to buy passion fruit juice anywhere in Santa Fe, write in and let me know. I haven't seen it, but I haven't really been looking either.) Here's the recipe for Coyote's margarita:
The Coyote Café's Prickly Pear Margarita
Makes 1 (11-ounce) margarita
½ ounce Perfect Purée Prickly Pear Cactus Fruit puree, thawed
1½ ounces tequila
½ ounce Triple Sec or orange liqueur
2 ounces lime juice
7 ounces ice cubes
1 lime wedge
Coarse salt for the glass
In a blender, combine the prickly pear puree, tequila, Triple Sec and ice cubes; puree until smooth.
To serve, rub a lime wedge around rim of the margarita glass and dip the rim into coarse salt. Pour the puree into a chilled glass and serve immediately.
After the Coyote Cantina, we wandered over to Swig, which recently closed, changed hands and reopened. The boys from Geronimo and Lucky's are gone and, unfortunately, they seem to have taken their mojo with them. Granted, it was early on a Wednesday night-not exactly prime clubbing time-but the place was deserted, and that's a shame, because it's always been a great space. The new owner, Los Alamos National Labs employee Min Park, has made better use of the second-floor wraparound balcony and put a sushi bar in the pool table area, but otherwise the beautiful atmosphere is mostly unchanged.
What has changed is the food. Gone are the fun, funky, gorgeous Asian-themed tapas, replaced by straight-up sushi, including rolls, nigiri, sashimi and some tempura. Hey, I love sushi, but I somehow was hoping for more...fun, you know? There's no dessert either, but your sweet tooth will easily be sated by a long list of girly drinks like the White Rabbit; made with Skyy vanilla vodka, Godiva white chocolate liqueur and Frangelico, it tastes like a birthday cake, which is cool. If you're into that kind of thing.
Coyote Cantina
132 W. Water St. (upstairs)
983-1615
Open from 11:30 am-9 pm every day
Swig
135 W. Palace Ave.
955-0400
Open Wednesday through Saturday from 5 pm-2 am.
Tell me where to eat! I need your input. Send all of your tips, gripes and raves to
.
