Celebrating the Foods of New Mexico by Susan D. Curtis

My rating: 5 of 5 spoons

ggggg

Classic Southwest cuisine at its best. This book made me want to visit New Mexico as soon as possible!! My daughters and I could just sit and make a meal of the homemade flour tortillas...they're that good! I need to get a tortilla press as I really want to try the corn tortillas, as well.

I grew up on the Southern version of chicken enchiladas--cream of chicken and cream of celery soup formed the base of the sauce. Now, I knew this wasn't authentic, but it's what I'd had and what I had been taught to make. It wasn't something we had very often and there were so very many new things to try that I hadn't gotten around to getting a good, southwest recipe. Well, look no further! The Green Chile and Chicken Enchiladas in this lovely book are amazing!! I made the homemade green chile sauce from the recipe in the book, though I used store bought corn tortillas (see above). I was a little concerned when putting it together as there didn't seem to be a lot of sauce for the amount of tortillas and chicken. No worries. It was perfection! My youngest can't handle spice of any kind, so I made her something else (this is NOT a hot dish, but green chiles of any kind get to her), but everyone else in the family absolutely loved it. This recipe alone puts this book on my favorites shelf!! Don't limit yourself, though. There are so many more lovely recipes to cook! I really want to try the Goat Cheese Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce, Lamb-Stuffed Green Chiles with Fresh Tomato Puree, Glazed Shrimp and Chorizo Skewers....I could go on and on.

From your basic tortillas to salsas & sauces, salads, tamales, desserts and more, there is definitely something for about everyone here. Not every recipe has a photo by any means, but the photos that are included are very nice. There's a great little section in the beginning on the history of the Santa Fe Cooking School as well. Give it a try. It's a great cookbook that I'm delighted to recommend!

I received a copy of this book from Gibbs Smith Publishing for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.