Our Favorite Wintertime Recipes

Picture this: You wake up Monday morning, a mere few days after Thanksgiving, and you discover that you set your alarm for pm rather than am, and now you’re awake two hours later than you wanted to be. You’ve got about 40 texts and 20 missed calls. You were supposed to do something at some point, but you’re so groggy you can’t quite remember what that was. You’re panicking. It’s cold. There are wolves after you. Now, we’re not saying that’s what happened to us, but we are saying that such an experience comes with a general vibe that we all know and dread. So what does one do when they’re all freaked out and feel behind? They get to dropping one of their favorite Fork traditions—recipes from previous years’ Forks through which we might share the holiday feels, because sometimes the smooth jazz versions of Xmas songs piping in from outside your office just don’t get you all the way there.

That was a lot of words, so allow us to summarize: Over the years we’ve collected and/or developed a number of recipes that we feel are super-appropriate for this time of year. We’ve heard from a number of readers who’ve made some of these, too, and they’re definitely reader-approved. So while we’re not for sure saying that this Fork is a little bit about a time crunch, we’re not not saying that’s not what we’re not going to not do. Is that so hard to understand?!? Behold, dead readers—our favorite wintertime recipes!

Biscochitos

So you might have heard about the Santa Fe Biscochito Company in the pages of SFR recently, and that’s because it’s the only all-biscochito shop in the city (and that we can recall ever existing, actually). That means owner Richard Perea takes it seriously, and that has cookies are great. But for folks looking to make holiday memories and/or make stuff at home, we’ve got a goooooood recipe here. Enjoy!

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
Zest of one orange
1 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 tablespoons brandy or whiskey
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons anise extract

Topping

¼ cup granulated sugar
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in orange zest.
Combine cinnamon and sugar for topping in a small bowl and set aside.
In a separate bowl, beat vegetable shortening with a mixer, gradually adding sugar, until light and fluffy. Add egg, brandy, orange juice, vanilla extract and anise extract and beat well.
Add dry ingredients to the shortening mixture gradually, stopping when mixture is combined. Do not overwork—dough will have consistency similar to pie crust.
Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon dough into cookie press, and press shapes onto lined baking sheets. *Alternately: roll out dough to ¼-inch thickness between two sheets of parchment paper, using about 1/2 to 1/3 of the dough at a time. Cut out cookies and place on lined baking sheets.
Bake cookies 10 to 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.
Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture immediately. Cool one minute and loosen cookies from parchment paper. Allow to cool completely.

Coffee Liqueur

We know this time of year can be tough, and while we wouldn’t ever be like, “You should drink about that,” if you’re looking for a cozy wintertime drinky-drink to quaff, we like this coffee liqueur, and you can even put it in warm drinks (like regular coffee or, like, certain teas if you’re a maniac). The best part? It’s so easy. The worst part? It’s a lot of sugar. But isn’t that what the holidays are actually about? Too much sugar?

Ingredients:

8 cups sugar
4 cups water
1 1/2 cups instant coffee crystals
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon extract to taste (optional)
4 cups vodka

Directions:

In a large saucepan, combine sugar and water over medium heat. Stir until dissolved and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Remove from heat, stir in coffee crystals and allow to cool.
When cool, stir in vanilla extract and vodka. Bottle and store in a cool, dark place.

Our Friend’s Mom’s Green Chile Stew Recipe

Regular readers might remember this one, because they’ve often written in to ask, “Where’s that one recipe that your friend’s mom made? The green chile stew one?” It’s right here, baby, and it’s not only kind of fun to make, it remains the best we’ve ever had outside of our one buddy’s grandma’s recipe, and she said, and we quote, “I will never give you the recipe, Fork, because I don’t like you or your stupid face.” Jeeze. Naw, just playing. But seriously, though, we love a good green chile stew and this is our favorite.

You’ll Need:

15-20 whole green chiles (failing that, two or three tubs of Bueno in any spiciness you like and in whatever amount you like). This one can be personal, as in, if you like more chile, do that.
2.5 or 3 pounds of pork—shoulder works, but just know you want it to be firmer than tenderloin so it doesn’t fall apart during the process, unless you want it to do that, then do whatever you want. Chop ‘em up into whatever shape or size you like, though bear in mind that big ol’ chunky pork pieces are quite good in stew. We’ve heard the term “cubed” bandied about in stew conversations.
5 or 6 cups chicken broth, though mushroom or veggie stock might work—but then, there’s already pork in there, so...we say 5 or 6 because we know some people like their stew a little less brothy.
2-ish Tbsp. veggie oil, though we’ve learned that walnut oil will work fine
1 chopped onion (you can do half if you don’t like onion or skip altogether if you don’t like onion), but, like, chop it into those small-ass pieces—you know the ones we mean.
2.5 or 3 cloves garlic depending on your taste preference; or, if you don’t want to mince it yourself, one of those containers of minced garlic.
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cumin
4 russet potatoes chopped into cubes, though you can do more or less if that’s what you like; if you use a smaller-sized potato, like a Yukon gold, adjust accordingly, ya buncha maniacs.
2 cups diced tomatoes (canned is fine if you want)
3 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. flour
A pot big enough to put all that stuff in and cook with, plus its lid
A smaller pot you’ll use for doing meat stuff

The Steps

Broil them green chiles as hot as you like in your oven, but keep turning them regularly until they look kind of darkened to the point you believe you can peel the skin off with ease. If you’re skipping this step because you got Bueno in a tub, that’s fine and you can just hit step 3.
Pull ‘em out of the oven and stick’ em in that pot of yours, though not on the stove yet, then cover it with the lid so they can steam in their own just-out-of-the-broiler heat.
Toss that chopped-up (or cubed!) pork into that other pot on medium and season with plenty of salt and pepper (to taste, dammit!), then pop in much of your onion and much of your garlic and all of your veggie oil and brown the meat for five minutes or so—you’re not cooking it all the way!
In your big pot, throw in the broth and the rest of your onion and garlic. Add the cumin, too, and whatever spices you think sound good...like, we’re not realizing a little bit of brown sugar would probably be good. Bring it to a nice, slow simmer.
By this point, you can probably peel your chile easily, so go ahead and do that, then throw ‘em in with the broth (or dump in the bueno) and leave ‘em in there forever. Bring everything back up to a simmer and let it do that for a good 40 minutes or so.
When you come back in, smell the pot and say something like, “Damn, we’re really on the way!” Then add your meat and potatoes and bring back to a simmer for another 10 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and bring back to a simmer again. You can add a little more broth if you like, it depends on your viscosity desires.
Melt that butter with your flour while stirring a whole bunch, then add to the stew. Let it simmer until you think it’s all pretty much working well together and you can’t stand not eating it anymore.
Heat up your tortillas (or don’t) and serve that stew, baby!

Making the Optional Honey Butter

We love this one because it’s so easy! Like, you just need butter and honey and salt. The End. Why isn’t this a staple?!
Soften as much salted or unsalted butter as you think you want by taking it out of the fridge for 30-45 minutes.
Whip that butter in a mixing bowl with one of those electric beater things.
Add as much honey as you think you want, though go slowly and experiment if you’re the type who has thickness concerns.
Add a pinch of salt.
Voila! You can chill it a bit if you like, which we do because then it gets a chance to melt on the warm tortillas. In tandem with the earthy, spicy flavor of the green chile stew? Magic.

Mid-Recipe Break Point!!!

So how’s it going with you all? We know there have been a lot of words all up in here so far and that it can be hard to do recipes while on the internet. Are you reading this on your phone? Did you make sure to check out the whole recipe before you started? Sometimes we’ve started a first step only to delve deeper into a recipe that’s like, “You definitely should have known this sixth step before you did that first step.” Maybe we could take a break with a song about how we’re feeling about recipes?

As far as we know, this is the best version of this song that exists.

Fast Cinnamon Rolls

Sadly, our grandmother died last year, but we’ll always have this cinnamon roll recipe by which to remember her (plus all that stuff we did and times we talked). Anyway, at the time, grandma said, “I like this one because it only takes a little bit of time and I don’t have to knead the dough.” We told her that was pretty lazy, but she told us, and we quote, “Shut up, Fork, we don’t like you or your stupid face.” Dang, was there some kind of grandma gathering wherein they voted that our face is stupid? Anyway, here’s the final recipe this week and we hope you like it if you make it.

The Dough

3 tbsps. softened butter
2 cups flour
2 tsps. baking powder
As much salt as you like, though about a tsp. should do it
1 cup milk
1 egg

The Cinnamony Inside Stuff

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 and 1/2 tbsp. cinnamon

The Icing

“This part might be the easiest,” says grandma.

1 cup powdered sugar
3 tbsps. heavy cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

In a bowl, mix those things together until you get the consistency you want.

The Steps for the Main Event

“Just remember to move at your own pace and not rush, even if it seems easy,” advises grandma.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees and grease one of those square baking pans (“I don’t know how big they are, darling, but they’re a perfect square,” grandma explains. We did some research, and 9x9-inch pans seem to be the norm).
Setting the sugars and the cinnamon aside, get your other dry ingredients all mixed up together in a bowl, then carefully and sensually hand-mix the softened butter in while making sounds like “Ungggggggh,” all soft, like a whisper. In a separate bowl, beat the milk and egg. Combine and stir until you get dough—it’ll be kind of soft.
In another bowl, mix the sugars and the cinnamon until they’re kinda uniform, then sprinkle some of that combo onto the bottom of the pan, knowing you’ll need to still have some set aside for later.
Pour that dough straight from the bowl onto your floured cutting board or whatever surface you make stuff on. “If you want, you can melt a little butter in a dish and pour or brush it on the dough,” grandma explains. “I haven’t had a brush in a long time, though, and mine still turn out fine.” Sprinkle the rest of the sugar and cinnamon on top.
Give it just about two minutes, then roll the whole thing into a long dough tube, cut into smaller rolls and pop them into that pan we were talking about before. “I want to say you’ll get 12, but it might be 18,” grandma tells us. “Oh, I’d remember better if I could remember the size of the pan. Well, just eyeball it, darling, it will be fine.”
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until they look pretty good to you—you know, all golden brown.
Let cool a little then ice those fools.
Eat those fools.

Also

Oh, man, we lost another local eatery, this time Dulce Capital, FKA Dulce (which had different owners and also the best freaking banana tarts we’ve ever tasted), a bakery that really tried hard to make it work and was awesome, but which has ultimately moved on to greener pastures in Rio Rancho with Dulce River and Turquoise Desert Restaurant. Recent social media photos show the Santa Fe location is already emptied out. Remember to go to places you love, Santa Fe.

We know that $135 is a big ask for a lot of people, but if you have $135 burning a hole in your pocket, maybe check out Alkemē’s Dec. 13 Holiday Table Workshop, during which participants will learn to make savory wintertime tamales and also sweet empanadas. Apparently the price of admission comes with a green chile bisque, too, so that rules. You can learn more about the restaurant chefs Hue-Chan Karels and Erica Tai built through the Alkemē website (which is also where you can figure out how to take that class).

Looks like local commercial kitchen/food biz The Kitchen Table has joined forces with food hall CHOMP for a rotating pop-up thing dubbed Culinary Night, during which people who do their food stuff at The Kitchen Table will bring their food stuff to CHOMP. We know that sentence was a nightmare, but here it is again in even-Fork-readers-can-understand form: Chefs from one place do chef stuff at other place. Good? Good. The first, tragically, is the same night this Fork drops (Tuesday, Dec. 2) and will include Joana’s Sparkling Sweets, Out of the World Bagels and Tia Zia (a baker from what we can tell). Don’t forget the other stuff in CHOMP if you’re there, like 2 Floyds Southern Kitchen and Picnic NM and the pizza counter from the folks behind New Mexico Hard Cider and Time Travelers Gastropub and Santa Fe BBQ and Nath’s Inspired Khmer Cuisine. REMEMBER THOSE THINGS!

Lastly this week in local info (there’d be more, but we just realized how long this newsletter is becoming), we wanted to give a shoutout to the New Mexico Hard Cider Taproom, and specifically its bartender Dex Valdez. Not only did we learn recently that you can play pool in there for free, Dex was kind enough to let us bring our Ohori’s coffee in there because we were driving that night but our hot date wanted a tasty cider. The music was bangin’ and the pool we was slangin’ and the vibe in there is quite nice, actually, and we think we might wanna hang out there more often. We’re just saying!

Of course, there are pitfalls when you get the notoriety that comes from creating the best version of a Pointer Sisters song…

Oh, God, no! Food and/or Wine-dot-com reports that there’s a freaking cheese crisis going down thanks in part to growing heatwaves and also because nothing feels good anymore and everything hurts! Turns out the shape of the world is impacting our cheesiness, with studies in Italy and Israel and beyond showing steep drops in dairy production. How so? Well, the broad strokes are that cows are producing milk that curdles weirdly and sets all weird and everything about it is weird. This could mean higher pizza prices, which is honestly the saddest sentence we’ve ever written (and this week’s missive includes a mention that our grandma died!)

Speaking of recipes….even though the name Pinch of Yum-dot-com made us so furious that we built a small shed out of drywall just so we could punch through the drywall like we’re some asshole named Kyle who wears backwards hats and shorts outside even though he’s 47, and who still listens to Sublime and who thinks they don’t play Red Hot Chili Peppers on the radio too much and who also still listens to radio, we must admit that finding the recipe blog Pinch of Yum-dot-com has us intrigued. Here, take a look through this link. Did you go look? That’s a lot of cool recipes, right? Like, none of them are gonna compare to our friend’s mom’s green chile stew or our grandma’s cinnamon rolls, but we love how it’s all laid out and easy-to-follow and categorized so you can find salads or cookies or savory dishes or whatever. Bookmark it. We have.

OK, so this isn’t capital-F FOOD-related, but US News-dot-com has a really worthwhile piece about reducing your exposure to microplastics. In case you hadn’t heard, those terrible-ass microplastics are in damn near everything now, and that includes food you eat and drinks you drink. What’s to be done? Well, according to this US News piece, there’s stuff you totally can do. 10 stuffs you can do. That’s what the piece is about. Those stuffs. Those 10 stuffs. We’re so sorry it’s in slide format, but we know firsthand that people don’t want to pay for journalism, not that that’s what The Fork is, but, like, at SFR they’ve been known to do that sometimes. Anyway, here’s the link.

Lastly in not-just-local news, CNN-dot-com has a heartbreaking piece about the oldest continually operating Italian coffee shop in all of Italy and its legal battles and why a spot that has been open for more than 200 years is now a whole lot of sad nothing. We salute the Italians for their very civilized take on coffee and how often one should drink it. There’s also all that stuff they do with tomatoes, so that’s cool, too. Anyway, it’s sad to hear that Antico Caffè Grecco is dealing with the feelings, as it were.

In Summation

Our editor told us the tale of a post he saw online about a local woman who donated a bunch of expired seafood and snacks to a local shelter, and we’re here to say that you should not do that shit. We’ve long been proponents of food banks and have done our best to drum up donations for them, and we’ve always made it a point to say that you should never donate condensed milk or pumpkin pie mix to said places. It is especially egregious to donate expired foods or to act like these nonprofits are some kind of trash can. Did you learn nothing from the muffin stumps episode of Seinfeld?! What really gets our goat here is that we can think of two outcomes for this lady—that she dusted her hands off like she actually did a good thing, OR she knowingly did that in a real jerk move. In either case, we’re mad as hell. And seriously, you need to know that most shelters and food banks and the like can do much more when you donate money rather than food. They know what they have too much of, or what people do or don’t want to eat or drink. They have deals in place that make their bucks go further than yours. Plus, it’s that time of the year when gluttony sets in and people get weird, so don’t get weird. If you’re going to try and help, actually help and give money, but only if you’re actually able. We’ve included some links below for easy donating. Each link goes to a place we know to be real and donation-worthy and in the business of helping folks eat (or helping them stay alive and warm). Enjoy your winter, rich lady, even if we all think you’re trash.