comfort food

I'm from New Mexico originally, and like most everywhere else the food there is specific in a way that people from there can easily see but people from other places think is the same as any old 'mex you can get. Belittling New Mexican food or comparing it to different mexican food (read inferior) will start an argument with a native New Mexican more easily than discussing how to properly chromatograph a compound will get a dry vs. wet pack argument going among organic chemists. I think it goes back to fond memories of childhood, and the things that go along with it. That and the desire to tell some shithead just how wrong he is.

In any case every locale has it's own comfort food, and when you are as far from a good source of your own comfort foods as I am, sometimes you have to break down and make it yourself. From scratch. Recently I went to the effort to make some carne adovada, and I used a lovely bag of ground red chile from Chimayo that my folks gave me a while back.

It was a pretty long and drawn out process, mostly due to the fact I couldn't work on it for the time needed several nights in a row. From start to finish took 3 periods in the kitchen for between 1 and 3 hours each, with breaks of course, over the course of about a week. My effort payed off with most of a gallon of carne, and a spare quart of extra thick red chile sauce for later.

I gotta say it rules, and was worth every bit of effort. Maybe next time I'll blow off breaking down a pork shoulder myself, and buy some pre-prepared pussy bullshit, but for this time it had to be right. It has made three or four of the best meals I've had in months. Awesome.

New Mexican food rules.