Pan de Muerto

"Bread of the Dead"

This sweet bread, according to Alejandro's Tortilla Factory in Tucson, is made fresh by bakeries on or before the Day of the Dead on November 1. It is placed on altars for departed loved ones during the celebration. The bread is often shaped to resemble bones and sprinkled with colored sugar.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
5 to 5-1/2 cups flour
2 packages dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon whole anise seed
1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs

In a saucepan over medium flame, heat the butter, milk and water until very warm but not boiling.
Meanwhile, measure out 1-1/2 cups flour and set the rest aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine the 1-1/2 cups flour, yeast, salt, anise seed and sugar. Beat in the warm liquid until well combined. Add the eggs and beat in another 1 cup of flour. Continue adding more flour until dough is soft but not sticky. Knead on lightly floured board for ten minutes until smooth and elastic.
Lightly grease a bowl and place dough in it, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1-1/2 hours. Punch the dough down and shape into loaves resembling skulls, skeletons or round loaves with "bones" placed ornamentally around the top. Let these loaves rise for 1 hour.
Bake in a preheated 350 F degree oven for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and paint on glaze.

Glaze
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons grated orange zest

Bring to a boil for 2 minutes, then apply to bread with a pastry brush.
If desired, sprinkle on colored sugar while glaze is still damp.

This past Saturday morning I set out with my family to Patagonia, Arizona, about 50 miles southeast of Tucson, to visit the Native Seeds/SEARCH conservation farm. The drive is beautiful and the landscape of the Sonoita-Elgin-Patagonia area is very different from Tucson's desert, with rolling grassy hills and cooler temperatures.

The conservation farm is a 60-acre piece of land sown with native crops such as tepary beans, chili peppers, native varieties of corn and tomatoes, all grown organically.

The organization was having a Fall Harvest Celebration, with live bluegrass music, farm tours and a potluck lunch of foods made with native ingredients. I tried some squash cake, blue cornbread with cheese and chiles, and quinoa pasta.

I also spent some time talking with Benito Gutierrez, who works on the farm full-time. He can be seen in the slideshow roasting chiles. He lives in a travel trailer behind the farm's massive green barn. Gutierrez enjoys the peaceful surroundings.

"All I can hear at night is the coyotes," he says.

Here's a recipe using tepary beans, the variety grown by the Tohono O'odham Indians here in Southern Arizona. The beans can be found at the Native Seeds/SEARCH store on 4th Avenue.

Papago Tepary Soup

2 cups tepary beans, soaked overnight
6 cups water
4 slices bacon, diced or 1-2 tblsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
1 cup diced celery
1 clove garlic, diced
3 cups tomatoes w/juice
1 tsp mixed oregano and cumin
Dry red chile pepper (optional)

Drain soaked beans and bring to boil in big pot with the six cups of water. When the beans are tender, fry bacon until limp then remove it from pan. If not using bacon, heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil over medium heat; add onion, carrots, celery, and garlic and sauté until tender, about 8 minutes. Add bacon, tomatoes with their juice, and the oregano/cumin mix. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add vegetable mix to the beans. Cook another hour until beans are mealy-tender. Dried red chile pepper may be stirred into pot during the last 10 minutes. Serves 6. Serve with flour tortillas.

Indian Fry Bread

On Saturday night I attended Tucson's annual downtown music, art and food festival Tucson Meet Yourself, which of late has acquired the nickname Tucson Eat Yourself, because of the wide array of international food booths at the three-day event.

It was difficult to make a choice as to what to try, but we decided to brave the long Indian frybread line.

It's generally served either plain, with honey or powdered sugar as a sweet treat, or covered in beans, lettuce, beef, cheese and salsa as an "Indian taco" or "Navajo taco."
Here's a short history of the bread, courtesy of whatscookingamerica.net.

Although considered a "traditional food," Navajo fry bread actually evolved in the mid-19th century. Beginning in 1860, approximately 8,000 Navajos spent four years imprisoned at fort Summer, New Mexico and were given little more than white flour and lard to eat. American scout Kit Carson and his troops drove the Navajo people from their lands by destroying their means of survival. They killed sheep, goats, and horses; poisoned wells; burned orchards and crops; and destroyed shelters and anything else that was of value to the Navajo. Carson and his troops then rounded up thousands of starving Navajo and sent them on the "Long Walk" to Fort Sumner at Bosque Redondo, New Mexico. This was truly one of the saddest events in United States history.

The U.S. government provided those on the reservation with wheat flour as part of a commodities program. Because of this, lard and wheat flour became the main ingredients in the making of Navajo fry bread. The Navajo women had to make the best of what was often considered poor-quality rations in reservation camps and the varying availability of government-issued commodities. They thus created fry bread.

Here is a recipe from Tucsonan Amber Brandt

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon dry milk powder
Oil for deep frying

Combine first 4 ingredients; pour 3/4 cup warm water on top. Use hands to combine; knead on a lightly floured surface until dough is smooth and elastic. Divide dough into 1-1/2 inch rounds; roll each out into a flattened circle. Heat 1/4-inch depth oil to 365 degrees in a 10" skillet; add dough, heating until golden. Turn to heat other side; drain on paper towels.

Janos Wilder's Apple and Walnut Rellenos

Janos Wilder is a renowned Tucson chef who strives to use local ingredients in the dishes served at his restaurant at the Westin La Paloma Resort and J Bar, a more casual eatery, that serves Latin, Southwestern and Caribbean-inspired food.

Some of Wilder's sources for local foods in Tucson are Native Seeds/SEARCH and the Food Conspiracy Co-op on 4th Avenue, the 17th Street Farmers Market, and FlavorBank for local salts and spices.

This recipe, a holiday version of Chile Rellenos, is from Wilder's newest cookbook.

From the chef:

We created this recipe as a vegetarian variation of Chiles en Nogados found in Like Water for Chocolate. We use dried apples rather than fresh in stuffing because they have a more intense flavor and we find that with the juice from the grapes we don’t want any more liquid in the stuffing. This is a great Autumn and Holiday dish because the flavors are festive and bright and the walnuts and apples signal the change of seasons. The fig garnish reinforces the sweet fruitiness of the dish and is also a great little snack it its own right. Pomegranate seeds sprinkled over the rellenos and sauce look like beautiful little jewels on the dish and add great flavor and a little crunch.

For the Stuffing:

Yield: 4 Anaheim Chiles
Ingredients:
1/3 Cup yellow onions, finely diced
3 oz dried apples, cut into small pieces
1 ½ oz walnut pieces
4 oz queso casero (or queso fresco or panela)
2 oz cream cheese
15 green grapes, cut in half lengthwise
4 Anaheim Chiles prepared for rellenos

Procedure:
1. Saute the onions with the apples seasoning with salt and pepper so that the onions caramelize and the apples are soft.
2. Toast the walnuts so that their oils come out and the flavor is pronounced.
3. In the mixer, blend the cream cheese with the queso casero then fold in the yellow onions, apples and walnut pieces by hand
4. Gently fold in the grape halves by hand so as not to break them.
5. Stuff the prepared chilies and wipe them so they are clean on the outside.
6. Bake the peppers at 350 degrees about 5 minutes until hot throughout.

For the Walnut Sauce:

Yield: 2 Cups
Ingredients:

1/4 yellow onion, diced
3 oz toasted walnut pieces
2 oz dried apples
8 oz apple juice
2 oz cider vinegar
8 oz heavy cream

Procedure:
1. Saute the onions.
2. Add the walnuts, dried apples, apple juice and apple cider and reduce by half. Puree and strain.
3. Return the puree to the stove.
4. Wisk in the cream and reduce by 1/3.

For the Fig Garnish:
Figs Stuffed with Whole Roasted Walnuts, Queso Casero and Agave Nectar Glaze

Yield: 4 Mission figs
Ingredients:

4 whole roasted walnut halves
2 TBSP queso casero (or queso fresco or panela)
4 fresh Mission figs
1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp agave nectar
½ oz rosemary leaves

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

1. Slice each fit into quarters from the tip stem end towards the bottom, stopping a little before you reach the bottom so that the fig remains intact and you can open the quarters with your fingers
2. Stuff each fig with a walnut half and about a ½ TBSP of queso casero and secure them with toothpicks.
3. Drizzle with olive oil, agave nectar and the rosemary leaves and bake in oven for about 12 minutes as the cheese melts and the figs cook.

To Assemble the dish.
Ingredients:
¼ Cup Pomegranate seeds

1. Divide the sauce equally between four plates and and place relleno on the sauce on each plate
2. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds on the relleno and in the sauce.
3. Place each fig as a garnish for each relleno and drizzle a little bit of the agave nectar-olive oil glaze over each fig.