There are two cooking schools in Santa Fe. One of them, the Santa Fe School of Cooking , invited me to sit in on a cooking class, and I accepted with alacrity. (Not to slight the Santa Fe Culinary Academy, but I hadn’t had time to contact them before I left. I still managed to take in a demo from Executive Chef Rocky Durham during my trip; that will be covered in Part 4 of this series.)
The SFSoC was conveniently located around the corner from my casita. I played hooky from my meeting one morning and walked over there. The adobe building holds a shop and a large kitchen, where the lessons are held.
Chef Mica Tells Us About A Chile
There were about a dozen of us there to learn about making tacos, Santa Fe style. But first, we sat at cafe tables while Chef Michelle (Mica) Roetzer gave us a lesson in the history and chemistry of taco ingredients (emphasizing tortillas and chile). It was a nice complement to the two days at FUZE SW. Here are some highlights:
And A Pineapple
Soaking dried corn in ash, which is a step in making masa flour, results in “nixtamalization,” which makes the corn easier to grind, the flour easier to mix with water, and unlocks niacin for use by the body.
Lard is the preferred fat for tortillas. “Praise the Lard!” (I reserve judgment.)
And lastly, green chiles are used fresh, while red ones are generally dried. This makes sense, as green chiles are picked unripe while red ones are ripe (equivalent to green and red sweet peppers).
Testing Tortilla Dough
Then we got down to the cooking. We divided up into stations for making corn and flour tortillas, and the various fillings. I volunteered for the corn tortilla station. I had fun using the tortilla press, but found that getting the cooking just right was trickier than it looked – my tortillas kept squinching up (this is a technical cooking term meaning “not lying flat!”)
Browning The Pork
After a while I moved to the al Pastor station. I had much better luck with browning the meat (Mica: Do Not Move It Around While Browning!) Yes, Chef!
Tim Hams It Up
Everyone Cooks
We all had a great time cooking and snapping pictures of each other.
Serving Up Shrimp
Then it was time to eat. The fillings were lined up in serving dishes and we helped ourselves, filling the tortillas (one or two of which I had actually made properly), with al Pastor (pork and pineapple); Hot and Smokey Shrimp; Potato, Poblano and Spinach; Chicken al Carbon; Chipotle Crema; and two salsas.
Say Queso!
Fillings and Tortillas
Mica had to leave to teach a class at the community college. She also caters. All her students are lucky to have her – our class certainly agreed she was terrific!
We stayed to eat as much of the feast as we could hold. The whole experience was a great exposure to local cuisine. It added immeasurably to my trip to the Land of Enchantment and Delicious Food.
Let’s Eat!
