Walk on the Wild Side of Tex-Mex Cooking
By Regina SchramblingRegina Schrambling was weaned on torillas in Arizona and now cooks and writes in New York City; she is the author of "Squash: A Country Garden Cookbook," published by Collins San Francisco.
DEAD MAN'S WALK CHILI
The wildest chili buffalo ever madeRATTLESNAKE TACOS
Tacos with a twist: Bites of rattlesnakeCACTUS SALAD
A succulent salad from the desert
A few thoughts on a hot topic
When I first started eating for a living, I had to go all the way to the Southwest to get a taco or an enchilada. Back then, tortillas came in a can like tamales, and ketchup still outsold salsa. But things are looking spicier: In one year not so long ago I ate my way through 14 states and found Tex-Mex in every one, from Vermont and Georgia to Oregon and Alaska. It's gotten so common, in fact, that the insult "one taco short of a combination plate" has nearly become a cliche.Biting into a breakfast burrito in Hawaii, it was easy to taste how this hybrid Mexican cooking has been able to sweep from the border towns of Texas to the farthest reaches of the rest of the country. Tex-Mex is the ultimate crossover cuisine: It originally evolved when sauces and ingredients from south of the border met the cowboy cooks and beef north of the Rio Grande, and the transmigration is continuing. Today this harmonious marriage is producing food that's spicy but not lethal, foreign but still familiar. A burrito or a taco, after all, is just a Spanish translation of that English invention, the sandwich.
What Larry McMurtry's characters would have encountered at the table in saloons and over campfires is not so distant from what's dished up in countless cafes across America today. Tex-Mex is generally simpler and much richer than classic Mexican cuisine. Lone Star cooks lay on the cheese and sour cream and meat; they rely mostly on one red chile sauce, and they treat the deep-fryer like a third arm. Their counterparts in Chihuahua and Sonora simmer more complex sauces, use much more variety meats and turn out their tacos in soft, not fried, corn tortillas.
Some Southwestern dishes Americans have learned to know and love are more Tex than Mex, particularly chili and fajitas and nachos and especially taco salads. But just as many would be at home on either side of the border, from tamales to quesadillas. As I've tasted in my travels, though, Tex-Mex is still evolving. For all the arguments over immigration, this new wave is changing the way America eats, and for the better. Supermarkets now sell not just a choice of tortillas and salsas, but also fresh cilantro and relatively authentic Mexican cheeses and all manner of chilies, fresh and dried. And while some of the cheesy staples of the Tex-Mex kitchens -- canned black olives, iceberg lettuce, processed cheese in chile con queso -- will always be inescapable, no one I've ever cooked for has complained at better grade touches like red-leaf or Romaine lettuce or true cheeses.
Ironically, though, many of the ingredients that McMurtry's characters might have resorted to out of desperation in Texas and New Mexico -- prickly pear cactus and rattlesnake and buffalo -- are considered gourmet today. But they do still make Tex-Mex the ultimate combination plate -- all tacos included.
Buffalo tastes like beef the way it used to -- and still does in Spain. A surprising number of butchers actually carry the meat on a regular basis, or it can be ordered from D'Artagnan (800-DAR-TAGN). If you don't want to spring for it, use beef chuck, or a combination of beef and pork butt.
6 tablespoons peanut oil
2 large onions, peeled and diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
4 fresh jalapenos, seeded and diced
2 teaspoons oregano, preferably Mexican, crumbled
3 pounds buffalo meat, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 cups beef broth
1 12-ounce bottle dark beer
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
3 tablespoons hot ground red chile
2 tablespoons mild ground red chile
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 bay leaf
2 15-ounce cans black or pinto beans, drained and rinsed
Garnishes: Sour cream, chopped scallions, chopped cilantro, grated Colby Longhorn cheese
Combine the onions, garlic, oregano and jalapenos in a bowl and set aside. Season the buffalo cubes well with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a Dutch oven or large heavy kettle over medium-high heat. Add 1/3 of the buffalo cubes to the pan along with 1/3 of the onion mixture. Cook until the meat is browned on all sides and the vegetables are wilted. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the mixture to a bowl and set aside. Heat 2 tablespoons more of the oil and brown 1/3 more of the meat and soften 1/3 more of the onion mixture. Repeat with the remaining meat and onion mixture.Return all the browned meat and vegetables to the kettle and stir in the beef broth, beer, tomatoes, chile powders, cumin, cayenne, Worcestershire sauce and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered and stirring occasionally, until the meat is very tender. This will take anywhere from 2 to 2 1/2 hours, so don't lose hope. Add additional stock if the chili starts to dry out too much.
When the meat is tender, stir in the pinto beans. Taste and add more chile powder or salt if you like; if you want it even hotter, add Tabasco. Cook 10 to 15 minutes longer. Ladle into bowls and pass the garnishes separately. Like any chili, though, this one is better the second day. Makes 6 to 8 servings.
Rattlesnake meat is available frozen from Czimer's Game and Sea Foods, inc. in Chicago (708-301-0500), where supplies are most plentiful in springtime. If you feel squeamish, substitute chicken -- everyone thinks that's what snake tastes like anyway.
1 pound rattlesnake meat
1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
Salt
1 bay leaf
Juice of 1 lime
1 large ripe tomato, finely diced
2 scallions, green part only, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 pickled jalapeno, finely chopped
4 taco shells, heated
Finely shredded Romaine or iceberg lettuce
1/2 cup grated Colby Longhorn cheesePlace the rattlesnake in a large saucepan and add cold water to cover by several inches. Add the pepper flakes, pepper, 1 teaspoon salt and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover the pan and simmer until the meat flakes easily off the bones, about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. Drain, then shred the meat off the bones. Season with salt and pepper to taste and squeeze the lime juice over.
While the snake is simmering, combine the tomato, scallions, cilantro and jalapeno to make a salsa. Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix well.
To assemble the tacos, divide the snake meat among the shells. Top with a handful of the shredded lettuce, then with a good spoonful of the salsa. Top with grated cheese and serve with additional salsa on the side. Makes 4 tacos.
Cactus salad is turning up on more and more Tex-Mex menus now that the main ingredient is relatively common in supermarket produce aisles. You can either start from scratch with the prickly fresh paddles or just empty a jar of cleaned, steamed and trimmed nopalitos from the supermarket or a specialty food shop. Or you can take the easiest way out and substitute green beans, which have a reminiscent flavor if crunchier texture.
4 fresh nopales, or 1 15oz jar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
6 tablespoons peanut oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
8 cups shredded red-leaf, Romaine or iceberg lettuce
1 small red onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
1 large ripe tomato
4 radishes, trimmed and julienned
1 small ripe Haas avocado, peeled, pitted and thinly sliced
1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack
6 to 8 pitted black olives
Using a very sharp paring knife, carefully cut away the stickers from the fresh nopales. Trim the ends. Cut the paddles into strips about the width of French string beans. Place in a steamer over simmering water and steam until just tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from the steamer and chill. (If using nopalitos from a jar, just drain and rinse.)
In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, garlic and salt and pepper to taste. Whisk in the peanut oil, then the cilantro. Toss the lettuce with a little of the dressing and arrange in a large salad bowl. Pour a little more of the dressing over the nopales strips and mix well, then arrange them over the lettuce. Arrange the onion, tomato, radish and avocado slices around the nopales. Strew the cheese over the top and garnish with the olives. Pass the remaining dressing on the side. Serves 4.
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