My Hatch Tres Leches Cupcakes

Every year, Bruce and I enter a recipe into the Central Market Hatch Recipe Contest. A variety of Anaheim pepper grown in southern New Mexico, a Hatch chile tastes robust and earthy. The aromas of charring pepper skins, as they roll around in the huge circular roasters, smell smoky and tickle the back of your throat with just a touch of heat. Either Bruce or I (only one entry per household, unfortunately) have qualified as a finalist every year since the contest started in 2007; we won in 2008 and 2009. We even drew a mention in the Taste section of the San Antonio Express-News on Sunday, August 21!

Throughout the year, I keep a notebook handy, and when I see something on Food Network or have an idea that could we potentially “Hatch-ify,” I jot it down. Each summer, we develop 5-6 recipes. Actually more than that….we’ve sent several subpar concoctions down the disposal. We invite our friends over and ask them to share very candid comments about what they like and don’t like. (While we enjoy hearing “I loved it!” that doesn’t help us improve the dish.) Their comments make our recipes better every year, and they always lead us to the best recipe to submit. Our feet ache and our backs throb at the end of the evening, but our hard work pays off with content friends.

The San Antonio judges have demonstrated favoritism towards desserts. A ceviche won in 2007, but that year, they presented the dessert (Bruce’s, actually) mid-meal, which hurt its chances; they now serve desserts at the end, a desirable presentation spot. Desserts have won every year since. Last year, I placed third with a Hatch Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich with a Hatch Tomato Bisque.

We developed four non-dessert recipes and two desserts this year. (No, I will not tell you the other recipes. We often refine and recycle for the following year.) I don’t know where the inspiration came from (those who know me will tell you I do not generally eat desserts), but I came up with a Hatch Tres Leches Cupcake. I have a video on my You Tube channel to show you how to make them.

The cupcake part was easy….can you think of a hotter (no pun intended) food trend? I researched tres leches cake and icing recipes and developed the recipe below.

Important tip: when peeling hot Hatch chiles, wear latex gloves, lest the capsaicin migrate from your hands into your eyes or other, um, sensitive parts. You only make that mistake once.

The recipe calls for a whopping 2 ½ cups of hot Hatch chile, plus 5 raw ones. This sounds like a powerful lot of hot. But remember, fat neutralizes the capsaicin that gives chiles their heat; any recipe (like tres leches) heavy in fatty ingredients needs a LOT of chile for the heat to break through.

My competition this year:
• Hatch meatballs
• Gluten-free Hatch chile stew
• Hatch lamb burgers
• Hatch pickled peaches
• Hatch apple pie

I always enjoy meeting and chatting with the other contestants. One, a native of Albuquerque, had a fiancé who flew him out some chiles that she picked up in Hatch.

Contestants prepare the recipes ahead of time and bring them to the contest ready to serve. (We’ve developed more than one recipe that we’ve tossed because it wouldn’t survive the transport to Central Market and the wait before judging.) We then each present our dish to the judges. As a repeat contender, they allowed my dessert to go last.

The judges’s reaction to a dish tells you a lot about the final result. Watering eyes, a flush face, and a quick grab for the milk means you’ve gotten their attention. After five years of competition, we’ve learned that it’s not enough for a dish to taste like Hatch; it must also pack a punch of heat.

This year, I placed fourth. The peaches won third, the stew second, and the apple pie won.

We truly enjoy our summers of Hatch recipe development and already have plans to enter next year!

Hatch Tres Leches Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
• 1 ¾ c cake flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 6 large eggs, separated
• 1 ½ c sugar
• ½ c whole milk
• ½ c hot Hatch puree
• 1 t vanilla

For the soak:
• 12 oz can evaporated milk
• 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 c heavy cream
• 1 ½ c hot Hatch puree

For the icing:
• 8 oz mascarpone
• 1 c ricotta
• 2 T hot New Mexico chile powder
• ½ c sugar
• ½ c hot Hatch puree

For the pecan topping:
• 2 c water
• 2 c sugar
• 5 raw hot Hatch chiles, roughly chopped
• 1 c crushed pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray. (Do NOT use muffin cups.) A silicon muffin pan is ideal; the cupcakes come out cleaner.

For the cupcakes: Sift together the flour and baking powder and set aside. In a clean mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar (with the mixer running) until stiff peaks form. Scrape the sides of the bowl mid-way through. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing each one in before adding the next.

Add the flour/powder mix, alternating with the milk and chile puree. Add the vanilla.

Fill each muffin cup about 2/3 full. Bake until golden, about 25 minutes. Allow to cool fully.
For the soak: mix all ingredients together. Pour into a 13x9 baking dish. When cupcakes have cooled, use a skewer to poke the cupcakes 4-5 times. Place them into the baking dish, cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Turn the cupcakes once.

For the icing: mix all ingredients together. Chill for at least an hour.

For the pecan topping: mix the sugar and water together and bring to a boil. Add the chopped chiles. Slightly reduce heat and keep on a low boil for about 30 minutes or until the chiles turn translucent. Strain, reserving the liquid (discard the chiles; they’ve given their all). Stir the chopped pecans into the syrup. Remove the pecans and lay them out on a silicon baking sheet. Bake until they just turn brown, about 10 minutes. (Watch carefully; it’s easy to burn them.) Cool thoroughly and remove from baking sheet.

To assemble: Remove the cupcakes from the soaking liquid and allow to drain on a rack for about 15 minutes. (Reserve some of the liquid for serving.) Ice each cupcake, then sprinkle the candied pecans on top. To serve, spoon a bit of the soaking liquid onto a dish and place cupcake atop.

I'm Back with a Report on the Hatch Chile Cookoff!

(Author's note: I'm back after a six-week burnout-induced absence. Unless and until I'm able to write full-time {still a dream of mine}, posting three times a week is probably a more reasonable goal than daily.......Laura)

The Brays have defended their Central Market Hatch Chile Ruler title! Bruce's "Nowhere Left to Hide Hatch Fudge Sundae" won the day at Sunday's Hatch Chile Taste-Off in San Antonio. One of the judges was Tanji Patton (pictured). Since I can't post a PDF using my blogging tool, you can find the recipe on Tanji's fabulous foodie site. The dish has five parts: a Hatch ice cream made with Young's Chocolate Stout, Hatch hot fudge, candied Hatch chiles, candied pinon, and a Hatch syrup (a reduction of the syrup that candied the Hatch and pinon).

Other dishes included a green chile stew, potato salad, a two-sided chile soup with ceviche, a flourless chocolate cake, and fried plantains with a raspberry coulis. The soup was easily the prettiest dish out there, and the competition between that dish and Bruce's was apparently very close. As defending champion, I got to crown (and kiss!) the winner. (OK, I wouldn't have kissed the soup guy.)

We had an amazing 13 friends and family in the tasting area, cheering us on. The fabulous crown was made by CM's floral department. Those are fresh chiles on there!

In addition to bragging rights, he won a $100 CM gift card, a nice gift basket, and a year's supply of roasted chiles. Our freezer is full to bursting.

Bruce was a finalist in the inaugural 2008 contest with a creme brulee, and I won last year with a key lime pie (sadly, only one entry per household). We've established a dynasty here! On to 2010!

Our Visit to Today's Hatch Chile Festival!

After an excellent breakfast of menudo (me) and eggs benedict (Bruce), we headed up Hwy 185 to Hatch (no boring interstates for us). We were very surprised to see so much agriculture in the desert of southern New Mexico (all driven by the Rio Grande, of course). We saw cotton, chiles, pecans, corn, and a bunch of stuff us city-folk couldn't identify. Field after field.

Came to a screeching halt in Hatch itself. Hatch is a teeny town, population less than 2,000. Their poor little village is completely overwhelmed on Labor Day weekend with cars. The fun part....the entire town joins the festitivies. Seemed like every other house or business on the way in had a chile roaster or gift shop or produce stand (or all three) out front. The festival is out at the airport, about a mile and a half outside town. Traffic jam the whole way.

Parking logistics did not appear to have been worked out in advance, so actual parking took a little time. Once settled, though, our first stop was the row of 8-10 local farmers, each one of which had a big roaster rolling out back. The smell of roasting chiles permeated the air throughout the festival. Not being in need of actual chiles (see previous post on Central Market's festival), we still found a lot to admire.

Ristras (upper right) were everywhere. For the uninitiated, a ristra is a braided collection of fresh or dried chiles. Some use it as decoration, but you can cook with the chiles. You can purchase fresh or dried; if fresh, the chiles will dry over time. We bought a beautiful tri-colored circular one for our kitchen.

We also visited several food and craft vendors and had green chile enchiladas (flat) for lunch. Very good flavors.

Unfortunately, we felt that the festival had grown too fast too quick, and it just didn't seem organized or well-planned. We are used to Fiesta (poor comparison, I know), but even the Becker Lavendar Festival is better organized than this one. Having said that, we are both glad we came. After all, the reigning San Antonio Hatch King and Queen can hardly say they've never been to the real Hatch festival.

Visited a late-1800s frontier fort (Ft Selden) on the way back. Douglas MacArthur spent a few years there as a young boy, when his father was posted there as a captain. There's very little left of it now, mostly snaggle-toothed walls. The ranger told us it will be gone in 40 years. It's not the rain. It's the erosion at the base of the walls from the moisture in the soil; it will completely undermine what's left at some point.

Made a bonus discovery today....the Southern NM Wine Festival is this weekend also! A blog from there tomorrow. FYI....I'm tweeting (with pictures) throughout the day. Follow me at www.twitter.com/laurabray.

Today's New Mexico Bounty

By happenstance, we discovered a Labor Day weekend wine festival just outside of town. We enjoyed a lazy Sunday morning (no alcohol sales before noon, don't you know) before sallying forth.

Had an unexpectedly difficult time finding somewhere for an early lunch. Those who know and love me understand that I am worse than a four-year-old when my tummy is grumbling and we can't find food. Bruce was ready to go into the fields to harvest anything he could find. Fortunately, we landed at El Comedor for a nice New Mexican repast.

The Southern New Mexico Wine Festival is held every Labor Day weekend at the Southern New Mexico Fairgrounds just outside of town. Surprisingly, no charge for parking and only $13/each for admission. We were surprised to find 13 southern NM vineyards represented. And all very reasonably priced. The most we paid for a bottle was $21.Our favorites:

• St. Clair's Mimosa: a Mimosa already in the champagne bottle. Tasty as well as pretty.
• DH Lescombes Royal Kir: flavors of black currant. Yum!
• Luna Rossa's Nini: a nice medium-bodied red

We first did a "circuit" tasting and made notes of the wines we wanted to come back for. Interspersed were food and craft (needed more) vendors, including a hat maker where I purchased a fabulous new shady hat. Sounds odd, but it's like wearing a parasol on my head....terrific for hot sunny days.

Three discoveries:

• New Mexico has a state cookie: Biscochitos. Really. Melt in your mouth yummy.
• Who knew New Mexico had so many good wines?
• Near-miss rain in SA just steams things up. Near-miss rain here cools things off quite nicely, thank you.

Overall, we found this festival much better organized than the Hatch one, and very laid back and enjoyable. Great salsa music, too. Lots of people, but all polite and just enjoying the wine. This plus Hatch makes for a good southern-NM destination weekend.

Cooking with Fresh Ingredients from the Pearl Farmers Market

When it comes to writing recipes, I need an outside inspiration before I'll make the effort. Take Central Market's Hatch Recipe contest, for example. There's a contest worth spending some time in the kitchen and taking the trouble to write down every blasted little thing you're putting into the concotion. (And scratching it out when it turns out to be a mistake.)

This weekend, I was inspired by a request from the Pearl Farmers Market for food blogs featuring recipes using ingredients from the market. I have never posted recipes on my blog before (not counting Hatch recipes, of course). So I decided, after our visit to the market this weekend, to come up with some recipes to share, based on what we found. Ingredients marked with a ** were sourced at the market.

I hope you enjoy!

Green Bean and Fennel Salad

Salad:

• ½ lb green beans, trimmed**
• ¼ c raw slivered almonds
• ¾ c fennel fronds (stems removed as much as possible), roughly chopped **

Dressing:

• 2 T champagne, cognac or wine vinegar (the better the vinegar, the better the dressing)
• 1 t Dijon mustard
• ¼ t salt
• 1 t sugar
• 7 T extra virgin olive oil (see note on vinegar)
• 1 T chopped fresh chives
• 1 T chopped fresh oregano
• 2 shallots, finely chopped

Blanch beans in boiling, salted water. Check after 8 minutes; they should be crisp/tender. Remove from water and place in an ice bath to stop cooking.

While beans are blanching, toast almonds in a skillet. (I don’t like toasting almonds in an oven; too easy too forget.) Remove from heat when they develop a little color and you start smelling the oil. If you’re across the kitchen and smell them, it’s too late.

Place blanched beans, almonds, and fennel in a large bowl.

To make the dressing, mix the first four ingredients together thoroughly. Slowly drizzle in the oil while whisking constantly. Stir in the herbs and shallots. Taste for seasoning.

Toss dressing with salad. (Do not overdress. If you have leftover dressing, put it on tomorrow’s green salad.) Chill for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Scalloped Potatoes with Fennel

• 3 slices bacon, chopped
• ¾ c onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 T sage, roughly chopped (divided)
• 1.5 c cream
• 1 T salt
• Several grinds fresh pepper
• ½ lb red potatoes, thinly sliced (a mandolin works well) **
• 1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced (mandolin again) **
• ¾ c parmesan cheese
• ¾ cup fennel fronds, roughly chopped (remove as much of the stems as possible) **

Preheat oven to 375. Spray a small casserole dish with cooking spray.

Render the bacon in a skillet. While the bacon is rendering, add the sage, salt, and pepper to the cream and slowly heat. (Do not let it boil.) Simmer gently until you’re ready to assemble the dish.

When bacon is fully rendered, remove to paper towel to drain. Sauté the onions in the bacon fat until soft, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté another minute. Add half the chopped sage and rendered bacon; remove from heat.

Place 1/3 of the potatoes in the casserole. Top with 1/3 of the fennel. Then layer 1/3 of the onion/bacon mixture and 1/3 of the parmesan. Repeat 3 times. Top with a little more parmesan.

Cover and place in oven until potatoes are tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed (one hour to one hour, 15 minutes). Remove foil and continue baking 15 minutes until the top is golden brown. Remove from oven and garnish the top with chopped fennel fronds.

Food, Friends, and Fun!

What a weekend! Friday evening and Saturday morning with amazing friends, and a Sunday cooking up Hatch ideas! I was in seventh heaven on Sunday night and didn't particularly look forward to returning to work on Monday.

How many of you can say you have a lifelong friend? I mean....really lifelong? Some of you, maybe, I'm sure, but not many. I am one of the lucky ones.

Lynn (pictured) and I have been friends since we were two years old. Our dads worked together at Humble Oil and Refining (now ExxonMobil), and our moms were pregnant with our younger siblings at the same time. Lynn and I were bestest, best friends; we were in the same first grade class.

Our families moved to Houston together, but they only stayed a year and moved to New Orleans. We kept in touch via snail mail (remember that?) over the next few years.

When my grandmother asked where I wanted to go on my seventh-grade trip, I hesitated not a bit. "New Orleans!" Grandmama looked somewhat surprised (not your typical seventh-grader's travel request, after all), so I explained why.

A few weeks before our trip, Lynn's father died in a tragic accident. The family moved to Scottsdale shortly thereafter; I never did get to see her. I enjoyed the trip, but the soul had gone out of it.

We saw each other a few times over the years, and I asked her to be a bridesmaid. The older we got, the longer it went between visits. She last visited over 15 years ago when we were in Virginia. Then we kinda lost touch.

When she found me a couple of years ago on Facebook, I cried and cried. We re-established contact and invited each other to visit when in town (she's in Colorado). And lo and behold, she visited San Antonio.

The best thing about lifelong friends is how easily you slip back into conversation, even after all the years. We had a great time catching up with each other.

We all enjoyed a fabulous dinner at Tre Trattoria (@tretrattoria). You definitely want to go with friends and order several dishes to share. They aren't "small plates" (like Bin555), but the dishes are meant to be passed around the table. The entrees come in both small (two servings) and large (four servings) sizes. We devoured a chef's market salad with black cherries, cannellini beans, asparagus, and wagyu meatballs with house-made pasta. The sweet onion sformato (sort of like a souffle, but not as airy) tasted smoky and fresh. We were simply all too full for dessert.

Lynn and I both promised each other that it won't be 15 years before our next visit!

The very next morning, our friends Shauna and Mike arrived bright and early at 7:30 am so we could enjoy watching a stage of the Tour de France. We had the TV, Mike's iPad, Shauna's iPhone, and my laptop all tuned into the action. Although the stage was not as decisive as expected, we still had a great time sharing all the hilarious comments on the various feeds. (From Twitter: "Confirmed: Jens Voight crashes on the descent; mountain suffers a broken collarbone." He was fine.)

Since he doesn't really care about the Tour, Bruce agreed to fix us a fabulous breakast (pictured). Cheesy grits with peppers, salmon croquettes, poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce, accompanied by an asparagus salad with vinaigrette and goat cheese toast. The acidity of the asparagus salad perfectly offset the richness of the salmon and eggs.

This is definitely another date next year!

And our Hatch experiments? Well, you'll just have to wait for a report on that one. :-) Everything is still top-secret.

I am truly blessed to have such great friends. They have made all the difference in getting through this challenging summer (see my other blog, Mighty Marine Mom), and I love them dearly.

A Weekend for Beer Lovers at Central Market

H-E-B's Central Market holds many weekend festivals (our favorite, of course, being the Hatch Chile Festival the last two weekends in August). They're having another fun one this weekend (June 26-29)....The Brewer's Tour.

All stores are hosting a rotating schedule of brew masters from around the country to share recipes, beer pairings, and "just plain ol' beer." They have an extensive selection of over 400 different beers.

This weekend in San Antonio, for example, the brewmasters from Alamo will visit Friday from 4:00-7:00pm; on Saturday, they welcome Alamo from 11:00am-2:00pm and Spaten from 2:00-5:00pm; and on Sunday, Alamo (noon-3:00pm) and Spaten (2:00-5:00pm) again. See the blog link for schedules for other stores.

Up Into the Mountains We Go/Final Comments

Today we planned a day-trip to Cloudcroft, about an hour and a half east of Las Cruces. After going up and over the mountains to the east of Cruces, we were down in the valley and quickly into the White Sands Missle Range.

The range still shuts down once or twice a week for an hour or two for missile tests. Fortunately, we missed that part. We did, however, get stopped at yet another border patrol checkpoint, where they just waved us through.

We had visited White Sands National Monument before, but it was worth a quick stop for facilities, a new pin for my collection, and fabulous photos.

After passing through (unremarkable) Alamogordo, we visited a winery we'd met the day before. Not only did Heart of the Desert have great wines (including a pistachio rose!), their large pistachio grove out back (the oldest and largest in NM) produces a huge crop of nuts. I forgot our notes on which wines we liked, so we were obliged to taste again.....darn. :-) Also found a fabulous new chile shirt.

Next we headed up the road to Cloudcroft. A sign at the beginning of the drive warned that we would gain 4,315 feet in 16 miles. Wow. The above photo is just outside the one tunnel. Look closely and you'll see White Sands in the background.

A nice drive up with many scenic vistas. The village is quite small, and we quickly found the best place in town to eat lunch....Rebecca's at The Lodge.

The Lodge was originally built in the late 1800s and rebuilt after a fire in 1909. The railroad owned the lodge; they had a line up here to transport timber. Rebecca's boasts fabulous views and terrific food. My blue corn chile rellenos with red chile hominy was delicious! Poor Bruce though...the altitude (about 9,000 feet) was really tearing him up.

We wanted to take advantage of the many surrounding hiking trails, but lightning moved in, and neither one of us wanted to be hiking on a mountain in lightning. So we headed back to Las Cruces.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our trip, and I hope you have enjoyed the travelogue. My favorite part is the bounty we're bringing back to share with friends:

• Roswell Alien Amber Ale
• >12 bottles of wine
• Chiles (yes more)
• Chile powder
• Hatch sweet onions
• Pistachios
• Cookies

The drive back is long and warrants an entry only the first time through, so I'll see you again soon with a post on a different topic.

Finalist Again! Central Market's Apple Recipe Contest

We interrupt our normally scheduled "get the house ready to sell" programming for a cooking update. In October, Central Market sponsored an apple recipe contest; once again, we entered, and once again, we were finalists. (8 contests, 8 finals appearances; not bad.)

We worked on recipes over a weekend. Bruce prepped a sweet recipe (saving the idea for next year), and I modified my Frannie's cornbread dressing recipe (thanks for the idea, Robyn!). I added apples and mild Italian sausage to the recipe, and substituted apple cider for some of the chicken broth. They have changed the rules, so we were able to submit both recipes.

After a longer-than-expected wait, an email informed me they selected the dressing recipe as a finalist. Finals scheduled for two days hence. Scramble to rearrange Friday/Saturday schedule. At least we weren't out of town.

I did the bulk of the work on Friday; all I had to do on Saturday was cut up the apple, stir everything together, and pop into the oven. I plated at the store.

Frannie's Cornbread Dressing with Apples and Sausage

During preparation, we were all surprised when the Spurs Coyote showed up! He wasn't going to do much eating in that costume, but he was fun to have around, very interactive, and very generous with photos. (Kids at the store went berzerk.)

From left: Apple Quince Tart, Apple Cilantro Slaw, Vietnamese Summer Rolls, and Apple Bundt Cake

Four other finalists presented the pictured dishes (two savory, two sweet). As usual, we each presented to the panel of three judges (none of whom I recognized).

After several minutes of deliberation, they selected the apple-quince tart as the winner. (We learned during the Hatch contest that the judges have a predeliction for sweet dishes, although Bruce won once with a savory recipe.)

He tried to abscond with it after the photo.

It's always fun to participate, and as corny as it sounds, it was a lot of fun to meet the Spurs Coyote. 

Watching carefully for their next contest.

Don't Miss Central Market's Citrus Fest

You've still got this weekend to make it to the Citrus Fest at
Central Market (twitter.com/@centralmarket).

As usual with their festivals, there are a number of sampling stations and recipes throughout the store. In the produce section, citrus of all kinds has been moved front and center. Also featured is a tasting bar with several varieties of oranges (pictured).

A large table holds several unusual varieties of citrus that CM doesn't normally carry. A vendor nearby is on hand to answer your questions about etrog citron, limequats, buddha hands, bergamots (a sour orange), pink lemons and rangpur limes, among others.

Don't miss stopping by the bakery to pick up a loaf of lemon bread, a variety I've never seen there before. It's a wonderfully light, egg-based bread that melts in the mouth. They have whole loaves at the table, but if you want it sliced, you can hand it behind the counter.

Naturally our favorite festival is the Hatch festival (end of August), but this is one of our other favorites. Don't miss it!

Note to San Antonio CM patrons: work on the parking lot has resumed, much to everyone's dismay. They've posted light-hearted signs in the store, trying to explain "why the heck are you doing this?!?" (Their lot is the roof of a postal sorting facility, and it leaks.) The main entrance is closed, and probably a third of the lot is closed off. To encourage you to use valet parking (free), they'll give you a $5 coupon, good on your next visit. Weather permitting, work should be done by March.

Welcome Back to New Mexico!

We arrived this afternoon in Las Cruces, a nine-hour drive from San Antonio. That's one L-O-N-G drive, but we stopped in a few places, and started off right with breakfast at Bear Moon Bakery in Boerne.

White-knuckle portion of drive was just outside of Fort Stockton, headed into mountains, when we ran into a torrential rainstorm. That's the most rain we've been in for two years. At times, it was difficult to see out the front windshield. Then we had to try and pass a yutz who kept floating into our lane. Fortunately it didn't last long.

Once we got settled into our hotel, we went looking for some authentic New Mexican food. You would think it's not much different from Tex Mex, but you would be wrong. The dishes sound the same (enchiladas, chile relleno), but the flavorings are totally different. Lots of red and green chile sauces. Plus their enchiladas are flat and served "pancake" style (most of the time).

We ate at La Posta de Mesilla (pictured). We knew we'd picked well; as early as 5:00 pm (6:00 for us Central-time people), there was already a waiting list. It's an old stagecoach stop in historic Mesilla, once the largest town in the southwest between San Diego and San Antonio. I nearly had to take the chips and salsa away from Bruce. They were that good. After some fabulous margaritas, I enjoyed two tostadas compuestas, filled with beans and pork in a flavorful red chile sauce. Bruce had a combination plate with a taco, chile relleno (it had quite a kick!), and an enchilada with a beef and green chile sauce.

After such a long drive, we're both pretty beat, so an early evening for us. We head to the Hatch Chile Festival tomorrow! We're taking the scenic route up the river road, rather than the boring interstate.

Our Most Recent Class at the CM Cooking School: Beef and Brews

I've blogged about the Central Market Cooking School before, but it's so good it's worth another post.

Our most recent class was led by one of our favorite instructors, Chef John Tamez. We really enjoy his expertise and teaching style.....and his favorite ingredient is bacon. Definitely a winner in my book!

Our menu last Friday evening included:

• Beef Stew Topped with Black Pepper Biscuit Crust (beer pairing: The Kaiser from Avery Brewing in Boulder, CO)
• Braised Veal with Olives and Herbed Rigatoni (beer: Sisyphus, a barleywine from Real Ale Brewing in Blanco)
• Seared Rib-Eye Steaks with Wilted Greens and Balsamic Vinegar (beer: St. Bernardus Abt 12 from Watou in Belgium)
• Braised Short Ribs (beer: Dogfish Head from Dogfish Brewery)

Oh, and Chocolate Stout ice cream for dessert. (Which should sound a little familiar to you if you've been paying attention to the Hatch thread.)

Everything was delicious, but we knew this would be a heavy meal going in. I brought home two doggie bags. (Two observations about classes featuring beer: 1) Bruce and I are totally mystified as to why non-beer-drinkers take this class; there are always more than a few who pour out their beer samples. 2) The percentage of males in beer classes is significantly higher than in others. :-) )

For most CM classes, you sit classroom-style and watch as the chef prepares the dish, explains all the steps, and provides cooking tips. (Usually all of the CM Cooking School chefs are there to assist, having prepared the meal for the entire class earlier in the day.) There are also hands-on classes, where you get to participate in making the dish; "learn at lunch" seminars, shorter classes during the lunch hour; and frequent classes from guest chefs.

Their new online reservation system makes it easy to see which classes are open and which have a waiting list. (Darn it....my "hands-on tamales" class is sold out.) Many hands-on classes (such as pasta making and tamales) sell out fast, as do classes by popular chefs like Chef Jason Dady (www.twitter.com/chefjasondady). So keep tabs on when they release the calendar and sign up early for these.

One caveat to the online reservation system....Bruce signed us up for four classes when the fall calendar opened, thinking we'd be charged for each one, one at a time. Nope....one big monster charge on the credit card. Just be prepared.

We are ardent foodies, but we learn something every single time we attend. Beginners will learn even more. Sign up today!