New Mexican Chiles

The new Pepper Pantry series being published now by Terra Nova Books continues Dave DeWitt’s decades of reading treats with a delightful look at New Mexican chiles. In this books, he wraps together in his unique style a lifetime of learning on their history and cultivation, combined with fascinating botanical and culinary information, and topped off with dozens of recipes bringing to the table the special taste of these special foods in a limitless variety of mouth-watering ways. It is New Mexico that has made the chile pepper the defining food of the local cuisine, the most important culinary import from south of the border. The long, green chile commonly grown there—formerly, and oddly, called the “Anaheim”—has now been standardized and enhanced to earn its honor as the official “state vegetable” (since politicians could hardly be expected to know it's a fruit). Whether you're making enchiladas, tamales, burritos, or countless other dishes, it's the intense use of chiles as a food, rather than a spice or condiment, that separates New Mexican cuisine from that of its neighboring states, and Dave DeWitt's outstanding recipes make clear the delectable reasons why.