Red Chile Chocolate Chip Cookies

Red Chile Harvest, Mesilla Valley, New Mexico
Photo by Bill Zarges

The red chile harvest is still going on all around us. The green chiles are left on the plants in the fields until they dry and turn red. We like to use chile in almost everything.

3/4 cup margarine or butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking soda
Dash of salt
1-1/2 tablespoons red chile powder
[I added 1/2 tsp. cinnamon]

1-1/2 cups chocolate chips

*****

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a couple of cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Mix first 5 ingredients well. Sift dry ingredients together, add to butter mixture and stir well. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop by tablespoonsful onto parchment paper. Bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool. Makes 2-3 dozen cookies, depending on size.

This recipe came from the book Wedding Cake, by Lynne Hinton. I have taken some liberties with the directions, substituting my own words.

Pie-O-Neer Pecan Oat Pie

This recipe comes from the novel, Pie Town, by Lynn Hinton (Morrow, 2011).

1/4 cup butter
1/4 sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup light Karo syrup
1/2 cup dark Karo syrup
3 eggs
3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup toasted pecan pieces
Pie shell

Cream together butter and sugar. Add cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Stir in syrups. Add eggs, one at a time, stirring after each addition until blended. Stir in rolled oats.

Cover bottom of uncooked pie shell with pecan pieces, reserving some to sprinkle on the top. Pour mixture into pie shell, sprinkle the rest of the pecan pieces on the top, and bake at 350 F. about an hour, until a knife inserted in the center of the pie comes out clean.

Lynn Hinton's note: [Recipe comes] from Kathy Knapp, Owner of Pie-O-Neer Cafe, Pie Town, New Mexico.

Barb's Biscochitos

This recipe comes from the novel, Pie Town, by Lynne Hinton (Morrow, 2011).

3 cups sugar
2 cups shortening* 
4 eggs
dash of salt
2 tsp. baking soda
4 tsp. cream of tartar
5 1/2 cups flour
1 tbl. anise seed
cinnamon and sugar mixture

Mix first four ingredients together until blended. Sift baking soda and cream of tartar with the flour, and stir into sugar mixture. Mix in the anise seed. 

Shape dough into balls and roll in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. 

Bake on greased cookie sheets at 350 F. for 12 to 16 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies. Be sure to take these cookies out of the oven before they are brown. They get crunchy when cooled, so if you like them soft, eat some a couple of minutes after they come out of the oven. 

Lynn Hinton's note: [Recipe comes] from Barb Hively, owner of Cravin' Cookies and More Bakery, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

*My note: Lard is traditionally used in New Mexico for these cookies.

Posole

This recipe comes from the novel, Pie Town, by Lynne Hinton (Morrow, 2011).

2-pound pork loin
1 vegetable bouillon cube
l large onion, diced
1 cup water
4 cans (4 oz. each) green chiles, diced
1 can (16 oz.) stewed tomatoes with juice
2 cans hominy (32 oz. each), drained
1 tsp. garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Boil the pork loin until tender and then cut into small cubes. Set aside. 

In another pan, dissolve bouillon in boiling water. Add onion, chile, tomatoes, hominy, garlic powder, salt and pepper, then pork. Simmer covered for three hours. Serves 10. 

Bea's Green Chile Stew

This recipe comes from the novel, Pie Town, by Lynn Hinton (Morrow, 2011).

2 pounds lean ground round, cubed
1 tbl. olive oil
1 large onion, chopped well
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 vegetable bouillon cubes
1 can (14 oz.) pinto beans
2 medium potatoes, diced
4 cans (14 oz. each) chopped tomatoes, with juice
4 cans (4 oz. each) chopped green chile
2 cups water

Brown the ground round over low heat in the olive oil. Add the onions and garlic. In another pan, dissolve the bouillon cubes in the water. In a larger pot, mix the remaining ingredients, then add the dissolved bouillon cubes and the cooked ground round. Bring to a boil and then simmer, covered, 2-1/2 to 3 hours. Serves 8.

My note: Taste before serving, adding salt and pepper as needed.

Hot Buttermilk Cornbread

It's a long road to Pie Town from our house. Along the way we always take photos of
the Very Large Array (in the far distance) on the Plains of San Agustin. 

This recipe comes from the novel, Pie Town, by Lynne Hinton (Morrow, 2011).

2 cups buttermilk
3 cups creamed corn
2 cups cornmeal
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 tbl. baking powder
4 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup olive oil
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
8 oz. diced green chiles

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Mix all the ingredients together except the cheese and chiles.

Pour half the batter into a greased 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Place the chiles on the batter then sprinkle on half the cheese. Pour in the remaining batter. Sprinkle on the rest of the cheese.

Bake about one hour. Serves 12.

My note: The part about this being Hot Buttermilk Cornbread? I can only guess that's because it should be served warm. In the book, it was especially good when served with Oris's Famous Cowboy Beans.

Oris's Famous Cowboy Beans

From the novel Pie Town, by Lynne Hinton (Morrow, 2011).

4 cups dry pinto beans
2 slices bacon, cooked and broken into small pieces
1 small can (4 oz.) diced green chile*
1 medium onion, diced
2 cans crushed tomatoes (14 oz. each)
1 bottle dark or amber beer
1 tsp. chopped garlic
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. salt
pepper to taste

Sort and rinse beans. Soak for 8 to 12 hours, drain and rinse. Place in a large pot on the stove, cover with water, and add all the rest of the ingredients. Bring beans to a boil and then simmer, covered, for about 2 hours. Serves 10.

My notes: These go well with Hot Buttermilk Cornbread.

*Canned chile is obviously meant for those of you who don't live in New Mexico. New Mexicans know to just grab a bag out of their chest freezer that is devoted to green chile storage.

Stay Home Pie (Tomato Pie)

This recipe comes from the novel, Welcome Back to Pie Town by Lynne Hinton (Morrow, 2013).

3 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese
4 or 5 medium ripe tomatoes, peeled and sliced
4 green onions, chopped
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tbl. dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. black pepper

9-inch deep dish pie shell (baked at 350 degrees F. for 10 to 12 minutes and cooled)

Sprinkle half a cup of the cheese on the bottom of the baked and cooled pie shell.Top with salted tomato slices, allowing them to overlap in a circular pattern. Mix the mayonnaise, basil, oregano, pepper, green onions, and one cup of the cheese and spread this mixture over the tomatoes. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and bake at 350 degrees F. for 35 to 40 minutes. Serve cool.

Dutch Oven Bread

I got a gift certificate for Christmas and used it to get a beautiful 5 quart cast iron Dutch oven with lid. The first thing I wanted to make was some artisan bread. 

The bread is mixed up in the afternoon and baked the following morning. I only had to work on it for a very few minutes; the rest of the time it was doing a long, slow rise of 12 to 18 hours. 

I was surprised that it only took 1/2 teaspoon of yeast and was tempted to throw in some more until I read more--the long rising time gives the yeast time to ferment and gives the bread a better flavor. 

And the flavor is absolutely delicious. The crust is just like the Italian bread we used to buy in Connecticut. I hope you'll try it--it takes just four ingredients (flour, salt, yeast, and water) and a few minutes of your time. 

6 cups flour

1/2 tsp. dry yeast

2 - 1/2 tsp. salt

2 - 2/3 cups cool water

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients, then add the water and mix well to make a rather sticky dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest on the counter top for 12 to 18 hours. 

Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Turn and fold it over a couple of times, then tuck the corners of the dough underneath to form a rough ball. 

Place a large sheet of parchment paper on a large clean dish towel and dust the paper with flour. Place the ball of dough on the paper, seam side down. Dust with more flour and pull the parchment corners up over the dough, then wrap the towel over. Let rise for two hours until doubled. 

After about 1 - 1/2 hours preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Place a heavy Dutch oven covered pot in the oven while it preheats. When the dough is risen, carefully remove the preheated pot from the oven and remove the cover. Remove the coverings from the dough, slide your hand carefully under the dough ball and flip it over into the hot pot, seam side up. Shake the pan a bit to sort things out. Don't worry about the appearance at this point. 

Put the cover on the pot and put the pot into the hot oven and bake for 40 minutes. Uncover and continue baking for 10 to 15 more minutes to brown the crust. Take pot out of the oven and remove the bread and let it cool on a wire rack. Best eaten in the first two days. 

I first saw this recipe on Frugal Living NW. Now that groceries are getting more expensive by the minute, I will be checking there more often for money-saving ideas.