How to make New Mexican chile sauce from scratch. Photograph by Douglas Merriam. SECRET SPICE BLENDS and special techniques may mark some cooks’ pots of divine goodness, but these two recipes will get…
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Above: Chantelle Wagner tends to the family's U-pick chile field. AT A NINE-ACRE FIELD in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, would-be farmers are on the hunt. Big Jim Farms offers the only U-Pick chile…
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Above: A Jemez Pueblo family with a chile ristra, ca. 1905. Courtesy of Simeon Schwemberger collection at the Center for Southwest Research, UNM Libraries. LOOKING AT HIS FIELD in early July, Jemez…
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Illustration by Chris Philpot. CAPSAICIN, THE ALKALOID that makes chiles taste hot, has been a healer since the ancient Inca and Aztec cultures. These days, super-hot chiles are bred specifically for…
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Above: José Gonzalez earned the Farmer All Star award from the Santa Fe Farmers' Market's Market Institute in 2015. IN A HUMID, tree-curtained corner of the Española Valley, José Gonzalez walks among…
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BEHIND AN INCONSPICUOUS DOOR in the unremarkable hallway of a standard university building lies a one-room wonder. There, a former classroom bursts with racks of colorful seed packets, shelves of…
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IN NEW MEXICO, chile is handed down in recipes and with seeds the same way some families pass along an heirloom watch. Such is the case with Matt Romero, reigning chile roaster at the Santa Fe…
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Above: Nick Maryol shares his passion for New Mexican cuisine at Tia Sophia's. Photo: Kate Russell. Nick Maryol started bussing tables at Tia Sophia’s when he was 6. It was as much family obligation…
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Illustration by Chris Philpot A MISSION TO MARS is still a decade away, but scientists at NASA already plan to stock it with green chile. Why? We could say because it tastes so good, but the answer is…
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IN THE EARLY 2000s, Mesilla Valley chile farmers brought a conundrum to Paul Bosland. “Our chile doesn’t taste right anymore,” they told him, “not like what we grew up with, not our chile.” Since…
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