Historic Cookery, 1956
This is a cookbooklet of foods from New Mexico, which is where I was born & raised & still live. So, New Mexican food is really its own creature--i.e., it is Mexican food, but not exactly--there's a difference between Mexican and New Mexican food, in terms of some of the ingredients and methods of preparation. But when we say, "Hey, let's eat Mexican food for dinner", what we usually mean is New Mexican. And it is not Tex-Mex, though it shares similarities there too. And it ain't Taco Bell, though of course there's tacos and burritos too.
Anyway, this booklet was published by what would become New Mexico State University (my alma mater!) a few years later. One thing to note is that not only is New Mexican food different than Mexican food, there's also a subtle difference between food from Northern NM and Southern NM. I grew up and currently live in Northern NM, but went to university in Southern NM and lived there for 7 years. I definitely noticed a difference in the way New Mexican food was prepared. Both ways are delicious, of course.
I've scanned in a few recipes:
Red Chile
I make red chile (chile, pronounced the same as chili, but spelled with an "e", not an "i"), either with dried chile powder or the pods, as described in the recipe for Chile Sauce I (a and b), though usually I'll add a little flour as a thickening agent. A friend of mine showed me how to make it with the pods years ago. Usually if I'm making it I'll do it with the dry, though, as it's less time consuming. If I want to really do it up, I'll make it with the pods. The chile sauce with tomatoes and the sweet sauce is unfamiliar to me. In restaurants here, what you will usually find is the first variant. I think I'd like to try the sweet chile recipe and see how it turns out.
Calabacitas con Chile Verde
Calabacitas is so yummy. It's not quite as common on restaurant menus as beans and rice. I've noticed that in restaurants that serve this, if corn is included, usually the chile is also included. I've never tried making it myself. Maybe when the new crop of green chile comes in this fall, I'll try this recipe out.
Chiles Rellenos
Now this is a very unusual way of preparing rellenos--to me, anyway. I've never had rellenos with raisins in them, and usually, they are stuffed only with cheese, though I have had them with meat as well. Everyone has their own way of making them and of making the batter. Sometimes it's really fluffy and eggy, sometimes it's thinner and crunchier. Sometimes rellenos are sublime, heavenly creatures, and sometimes they're flabby things that you wish you hadn't gotten.
The sauce that is to go over the rellenos is also different from my experience--usually (up here, anyway) when you order rellenos, it comes with either red or green chile sauce (or both, Christmas style), poured over them, and then sprinkled with cheese and either baked in an oven or under the salamander for a few moments to get it bubbly, not a tomato sauce. I'm wondering if this is a Southern NM thing (although I don't remember having rellenos like this when I lived down south) or if it's a 1950s NM thing that went out of style. One thing about Southern NM cookery is that it is not as heavy on the cheese as Northern. So maybe that's why this recipe doesn't mention cheese.
In most restaurants that serve New Mexican food, sopaipillas (or, sopas, or, if you're being silly, sofa pillows (because that's what they look like and it's a funny play on words, except that "pillas" are pronounced "pee-yahs", not "pill-as"), are served as a matter of course after the meal or with the meal. So this notion of being cakes to serve with chocolate or tea is a bit unusual to me (although it sounds like a great idea).
Here, if you eat at a place that serves homemade sopas, you're either just given a basket of them as part of your meal, or, sometimes you're given a choice between a tortilla or a sopaipilla. You eat them with honey, or honey-butter. Sometimes there's a dessert sopaipilla on the menu, or they're used as an entree, as something that is stuffed full of meat, beans, cheese and chile.
God, I'm getting hungry now. I think I have an idea of what I'm having for lunch today!