Smithy

I've had a bee in my bonnet about trying Hatch Chiles thanks to topics like Hatch Chili Peppers and Celebrating New Mexico: traditions surrounding a fall chile roast, not to mention the posts of avid fans of the pepper like @Shelby. My web surfing turned up no possibilities for finding the chiles in shops in Hatch this many months after the harvest season (see later note), but I found The Hatch Chile Store in Las Cruces. Its shipping expenses, while probably justified, were prohibitive for us. We decided to stop by. Maybe the direct-pickup prices would be lower. We made plans to stop for the night at a campground between Hatch and Las Cruces and drive in to Las Cruces without the trailer. Then, we looked at the map again. The most direct routes to the campground involved interstate freeway(s) through Las Cruces and possibly El Paso. Alternatively, we could go north through Deming, take a lesser highway toward Hatch, then follow yet another lesser highway southeastward along the Rio Grande to the park we'd chosen. We went north. Deming is the place we do most of our errand-running, but only on this trip did I notice a little park with benches and shade and a fun fountain. Once through town we turned northeast, along a highway that was in better condition than our road map had suggested. We skirted the edge of hills, looking down onto range land, until we saw this: Fellow campers had told us that Sparky's was THE best place to eat burgers - "their green chile burger is the very best!" they had said - but it was too early for lunch. On the other hand, this sight induced us to pull over to the curb: Why I didn't see places like this when I looked online I don't know. (Today, as I write, I DO see one or two .) We pulled over for a look. It looked promising. The gated courtyard at the side had the requisite equipment. I went in. The place was chock-a-block full of enticing pepper-related foods: spices, salsa, ground peppers, ristras, and the aromas to go with it all. An alarm sounded from an adjoining room. After a few unlikely shrieks I realized it was a macaw or parrot: never seen to identify, easily heard to categorize. It soon developed that the young woman's English was about as good as my Spanish. There ensued a lively pidgin conversation in which she said yes, they had chiles roasted, peeled and frozen. She took me to a back room and a chest freezer. There were 5-pound bags of roasted, peeled and chopped peppers (the choices were mild, hot and extra-hot) for $9 each. There were 5-pound bags of roasted, peeled and whole medium-hot peppers (perfect for stuffing) for $8 each. Which would I like? I dithered. I knew I didn't want extra hot. Would hot be too hot? Would mild be too bland? What the heck. I took a bag of each. Who knows when or whether we'll be back this way? By this time the dam of my self-restraint had burst. I perused the bags of finely ground and coarsely crushed peppers, and selected a variety. My darling perused the salsas, and chose two. I even fell for a ristra and a ceramic tile. She gave me a deal, unasked, on the last. We'd probably made her sales quota for the day. This was much, much, much more fun than finding a campsite, disconnecting the trailer and navigating our way into Las Cruces, even though Google Maps said it was would be easy to get to the Hatch Chile Store. It was a great deal of fun to work through linguistic difficulties with a charming person who couldn't help me much. I thanked her, we waved goodby, and resolutely went *past* the store next door. I do love pottery. I wasn't going to go there at the moment. Best of all, we were able to scope out the chosen park, reject it and continue on our way into the middle of New Mexico. We're going home by a different route than usual. We'll be sorry to miss Texas, but we're seeing new country.

I have never worked with date paste, so I wondered how bricklike the stuff might be. It sounds too malleable to chop, too stiff to mold like Play-DohTM and roll into a tube. What a shame! Scotch sounds like a good idea. Ants or squirrels may be even better...outside, of course.

There are date paste-filled cookies. Ma'amoul, as described in this topic, can be a labor-intensive cookie in which you make your own paste, but it can also be made with date paste. Linda Dalal Sawaya's cookbook, Alice's Kitchen, has a similar recipe for Date Cookies; she simplifies it by spreading the paste along one edge of a square of cookie dough, rolling it into a log, then slicing it crosswise into circles for baking. I imagine a pinwheel treatment would also work; Southern Living's a Date Pinwheel Cookie recipe uses whole chopped dates and walnuts...but you might be able to soften the paste, spread it over the dough, scatter the walnuts into the mix and roll the pinwheel log per the instructions.

Here's something to do with excess eggplant, onions and tomatoes, if they should come one's way. It should scale up or down nicely; it's easy to make; and although stew beef would make it better I think this would do very nicely with ground meat. The recipe is from @FoodMan's eGCI Course, Introduction to Lebanese Cuisine, right here on eGullet. If it looks like a candidate for the book, perhaps he'll give you permission to use it.

I wish I could show you a "before" picture. During our previous visits, this has been a wreck of a building. I don't know its entire history, but we've known it as a derelict-looking 'church' that might or might not still have held worship services. We never saw activity around it, and I never deemed it worthy of a picture. Now, this street corner has changed. Wow! A new restaurant! Kittycorner from the park where we stay, at that! One day when I was out strolling, the door was open. I peeked in to see what it was like, and was greeted by a friendly young man and a darling little girl. "Sorry, we aren't open yet," he said. "We'll be opening this weekend." "Ooh!" said I, "We'll be here for the grand opening!" He smiled and explained that no, they weren't going with the fanfare of a grand opening. They wanted to work out the kinks, see what else they needed to be doing. "A soft opening, then?" I said, fishing around in my brain for the right term. Yes, he said, that was it. It was scheduled for Friday. I forgot to ask the hours, but said we'd probably see him soon. On Friday we ran errands, then stopped by at the Borderland Cafe to see how things were going. There were several cars parked out front, and almost all the tables were occupied. The place was clean and bright: rich desert colors for the wall paint; large windows looking eastward along New Mexico's Highway 9; Mexican carvings adorning the wall. The kitchen is open to the cafe, and the man I'd spoken to a few days before was busy at the grill. A smiling young woman met us at the table we selected, offered us menus and asked what we'd like to drink. We were parched and asked for water, then perused the menu. (I had intended to show you the inside of the menu, but this was a draft for the soft opening. I don't want to immortalize it here.) The offerings weren't at all what I'd expected. This close to the border I'd expected a Mexican restaurant, but the Borderland Cafe offers a variety of burgers, pizza, wraps, salads, subs, and desserts such as a fruit parfait. There are quesadillas, and ready-made burritos, but there's also a chicken strip basket. We dithered. So many choices! Did my darling want the Pershing Burger (the basic All-American burger with lettuce, tomato, pickles and onion) or did he want the Spicy Italian Sub with salami, pepperoni, ham, spinach, tomato, red onions, provolone and Creamy Sriracha Sauce? I was ogling the Pancho Burger (topped with Mexican green chile, lettuce, tomato, onion and Mennonite cheese) but I was also taken with the idea of ordering a quesadilla. Then again, they offered gyros. Gyros? In southern New Mexico? I asked the waitress about it when she came back. "Oh yes," she said, "they're very good." She pointed to the cook: "He's from Jordan." Hmm. I looked at the description again: beef and lamb, cucumber, spinach, tomato, feta cheese, tzatziki sauce. I love a good gyro. I had to try that. My darling chose the Spicy Italian Sub. We shared an order of fries. We watched the action behind the counter and in the dining area. A single family group of at least three generations occupied as many tables. We also had the view out the window. Highway 9, a little 2-lane undivided highway that crosses the southern tip of New Mexico, is the designated route for oversized loads. (Why Interstate 10, 30 miles north, is closed to such traffic remains a mystery to us.) While we were there a Very Heavily Loaded truck, and its complement of pilot vehicles, parked nearby for an apparent lunch break. I'm not sure whether we or the children of the multi-generational family were more fascinated, but there was a lot of wandering over to look out the window at the heavy equipment. Our food arrived. These were excellent. The bread was fresh, the sauces well balanced, the cucumbers crisp. The tzadziki sauce for my gyro had just the right tang, and my darling loved the creamy sriracha sauce with his sub. The fries were a bit soggy - oil too cool? - and we said so later. Our 'waitress', who turned out to be the co-owner, thanked us for the feedback, with every indication of sincerity. We made a point of telling them also what was right, which was most of it. When she came back to ask about dessert, we demurred - but then to my darling's surprise, I ordered coffee. It too was excellent: smooth and rich. I thought I detected a slight cinnamon note, but forgot to ask what type of coffee it was. It certainly wasn't the Farmers Bros. or Arco stuff that's all too common in the cafes we visit. We paid our bill: $14 for the whole deal. Good food, at a good price. With a little more conversation we learned that Adriana is originally from Columbus but had moved away shortly after high school. She and Lawrence had met in Austin, Texas, where he had operated a food truck. Now here they are in Columbus, whither she'd never expected to return, opening their own restaurant. The darling little girl I'd seen is their daughter. I was surprised at first not to see a pronounced Mexican theme to the food, but after some thought I'm glad not to see it. The Borderland Cafe is right around the corner from Irma's Kitchen, about which I wrote two years ago. I want to see both places succeed: Columbus is a nice town, but struggling, and it needs more business. This way, the cafes fill different niches. The Borderland Cafe seems to have a good location, situated as it is at the intersection of two state highways with plenty of parking. Given the amount of truck traffic along this highway, they should do well when the truckers discover them. I enjoyed chatting with Adriana and Lawrence that day, and the next day when I went back to try their burritos. (Those also were good, and now I have a better idea of how to wrap mine.) I hope that next fall, when we come back through, we'll see their business flourishing.

There are some great ideas here! Thanks to the responses, I probably have more possibilities than wine. I especially like the compote and jelly ideas - thanks for those jelly recipes, @ElainaA. @JAZ, do you remember making any adjustments to the sorbet recipe? I can read up on it in the sorbet topic, if you don't have concise tips. It sounds like I can use it up pretty easily instead of throwing it away...and next time I'll read the label more carefully before I buy. There's nothing like expecting a nice, crisp, off-dry wine and getting syrup.

When you say you're running out of options, do you mean you'd like more categories then the four categories you've mentioned, or are you running out of ideas in those categories? For instance, there must be dozens of salads, many different types of puddings, and a wide variety of crackers. If you only have 2 salad recipes and would like more salad ideas, it would be helpful if you told what you've tried so far. It would also be helpful to know your clients' age group for this Sunday program. Are these also 5-year-old children as discussed in your soup topic in the Cooking forum?

That's an appealing thought. Cook it down, use pectin? I've never tried to make an alcohol-based jelly.

I took a small flyer on a bottle of Riesling from the San Felipe Winery (New Mexico) yesterday. I failed to notice the profile note on the label that says "Sweet". I hate sweet wines, with rare exceptions, and this is not one of them. I poured myself a glass last night, took a few sips, and switched to a sauvignon blanc. (*Ahhh!*) There's nothing wrong with the quality, that I can tell: it isn't corked, for instance, and there are no off flavors that I can detect. It's just too cloyingly sweet for me. Of course I can just shrug, write off the $10 I paid and pour it down the drain. Maybe I can find someone else who would appreciate it. I'd prefer to find a creative and flavorful use for it that we would appreciate in our household. Use it in a sauce for a savory dish? (What?) Save it until I'm baking a sweet dessert that would benefit from its notes? Ideas, anyone?

Those colors are gorgeous. More information on how you did this, please.

I've written before about Columbus, New Mexico. This small border town's claim to fame is that Pancho Villa and his men raided the town in the wee hours of March 9, 1916, killing some civilians and provoking a months-long pursuit into Mexico by General "Black Jack" Pershing and his men. Pershing later said that the work and tests his group did with machinery (early tanks, prototype 4-wheel-drive vehicles) on that expedition helped get our army ready for WWI. There are interesting museums here, both in the state park and across the street at the local Historical Society's Depot Museum. Today we went 3 miles to the border, then crossed into the town of Palomas. There's a good-sized parking lot for folks like us who don't want to drive across, and the town begins right on the other side of the fence. We noted that Villa is a bit more of a folk hero there than here. We went out of curiosity to see what this little village is like, but the main draw was a place called The Pink Store. (The name is self-explanatory, once you see the paint job.) If you want Mexican dishes, glassware, placemats, basketry, pottery, blankets, tiles, or - well, the list goes on - this is a good place to come. The prices may not be as low as one could arrange by bargaining at the sources, but they're much better than anything I've seen in the States. Best of all, you can sip a drink (margarita, coffee, beer, whatever) as you browse the store. Not a bad sales strategy! There's also a restaurant. With a bar. And mariachis who will play and sing at your table if you ask. They were fun to watch and hear. These photos don't fully do them justice; their facial expressions were quite mobile, and the overall impression was of them smiling although it doesn't show well in these pictures. Their voices and playing were wonderful. The menu showed a wide variety of foods. Prices were marked in both American dollars and Mexican pesos, and you could pay (and get change) with either currency. While we dithered over our selections and enjoyed the mariachis, the wait staff indulged us with appetizers. There was a seemingly endless supply of tortilla chips, with a nicely spicy salsa and - at our request - pico de gallo. Finally, we chose. He opted for burritos with a tomatillo sauce; we think it also had green chiles. I selected pollo soledad: grilled chicken breast with chocolate-chile mole. The mole was slightly bitter, very spicy, and a great compliment to the chicken. At the edge of the bottom photo you can just make out the tortilla-warming pouch. It was well insulated and held a generous supply of very soft, very warm flour tortillas. We rolled homeward, happy with food, and have been satisfied with a handful of peanuts for dinner.

Even with a 2" thick steak it sounds like too long at high heat to me. Can you set the BGE up so that there's a warm side in addition to the searing-hot side? And do you have a meat thermometer you can use? It would be a shame to see those lovely steaks overcooked, unless you want them well done.

Would salads using raw vegetables be welcome in the summer? I'm thinking, for example, of a salad of raw broccoli. There's a classic with chopped broccoli, chopped walnuts, a bit of onion, raisins (which I omit), and crumbled cooked bacon, all tossed with a slightly sweetened and thinned mayonnaise dressing. I don't know that it would lend itself to ground meats, but chopped cooked chicken would go well with it. I hesitate to post it because (1) it's hardly my recipe (don't most people have a version?) and (2) I have the idea you're looking more for main-course or one-course dishes. On the other hand, it makes a lot of salad with only a few heads of broccoli and it makes converts of some cooked-broccoli haters. If it would be useful, I'll be glad to post it.

Thank you for that warning. I wonder why the steel insert would take on an odor like that? Please let us know whether the soaking works, or what other steps had to be taken.

They have a lot of indoor and outdoor displays, including one with otters...very entertaining! The place has grown considerably since its inception in, oh, 1952 I think, and they keep coming up with new displays and programs. Getting back to food: I found a new area devoted to ethnobotany - what sorts of plants the native tribes used then, what the Spanish brought in later, and what grows now. One garden area had a Mission Fig and an Indian Fig (which seems to be a spineless variety of prickly pear), a young pomegranate tree, a quince tree, and other plants I've forgotten. Someday I'd like to spend time learning about the traditional harvests in the area. A docent told me about tagging along with the Tohono O'odham during the saguaro cactus fruit harvest and the subsequent syrup-making. It's done in June, at the peak of summer, and it's hard, hot, slow work. She said that after that experience she understood why saguaro syrup is so expensive.

Following up on that Iraqi bread (simply called "khoobz" in the store): it really does freeze and reheat well. After trying to griddle it without drying it, or heat it in the microwave between two plates, I decided to try a tortilla warmer (in the microwave) with a couple of pieces. Perfect! This has been breakfast several times over since then. I've been trying various ideas for an easy skillet dinner that can be scaled up or down and that uses a lot of peppers, onions and potatoes, with thoughts toward @Rebel Rose's Soup Kitchen Topic Cookbook Project topic. If you haven't checked that topic out yet, please do. Below is one of my attempts. We found it quite edible and filling, but not particularly appealing to look at, and I don't know how large a skillet or pot would be needed to make enough for 10 people. Back to the drawing board! We've moved on from Tucson, but made it (twice) to the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum while we were in town. Their food service group changed last year and the Ironwood Grill has been remodeled, and new items put on the menu. On our first visit we selected our old standby fave - pepperjack cheeseburger with green chile. It was excellent, but you've seen it before. The next time we went to another counter and ordered some of the specialties of the new Agave Grill. The bowls and salads allow for a LOT of flexibility and choices: multiple salsa, beans, corn, meats, greens, onions, pickled jalapeños, and so on. Agave Bowl for me: Taco salad for him. I sneaked a bit of the carnitas on his salad, and the pork was excellent - as was the carne asada on mine. Actually, all of the food in the bowls was good. I'd cheerfully eat either of these again.

@Josh71, what was wrong with the sous vide eggs? If you were to repeat the experiment, what would you do differently?

I love the name 'strawberry mess'! I might have to make that just so I can say we're having a strawberry mess.

Thanks for that information, folks. The clerk did describe adding it to fava beans. I have some lamb. I have cumin. Kebabs of some sort are on the schedule!

I recently purchased a package of an Iraqi herb that they call "butnig". The store clerks couldn't think of the English name for the herb, or whether there was one. Finally one of them opened the container to let me smell it. It has a cool smell, slightly reminiscent of eucalyptus but without the camphor note. It smells most like mint, but not at all like spearmint, peppermint or any of the other cultivated mints with which I'm familiar. I said, "it smells a little like mint. Na' na?" "Yes!" cried the clerk, "Mint! Except not quite." I left, befuddled, with my package. This blog post describes butnig as "Iraqi dried wild mint". So far that's all I can find. Can someone please tell me more about this herb? Is it a single herb, or is it a mixture like zaatar? Is it really a variety of mint? Is it foraged or cultivated? Is it known by other names? If so, what are they? Inquiring minds would like to know.

Another vague (for now) possibility for stuffed peppers is cooked rice, or leftover bread perhaps, with a bit of ground meat, and perhaps chopped onions, in them. @Thanks for the Crepes's dirty rice could be a good filling. I'm noodling around with the idea of a layered casserole of sliced potatoes, sliced peppers, onions, ground meat if it's available, and a bit of cheese for the top if available, all to be assembled, given a bit of broth for liquid to cook the potatoes, and baked until the filling is cooked and set. I've done things similar to this but never put it into recipe form, and it will be a while before I can articulate it more clearly. If someone else wants to jump in, please do so.

Those are very pretty! I don't think I've seen basil paired with chocolate or raspberry before. Is it just for looks, or do the flavors play well together?

Would stuffed bell peppers (green or ripe) or stuffed eggplant be too much work to be feasible?

Absolutely fabulous, @rarerollingobject. Thank you!

Welcome to eGullet, Debbers. I'm curious about the limequats, too - what they're like, and what you end up doing with them. I've never been to Portugal but would love to know more about the food there, as much as you wish to post. If you have any questions about how the forums work or where something should be posted, don't hesitate to ask a host (I am one) or ask in the Moderation and Policy Discussion forum.