Texas Heat

It’s hot. The yard needs mowing—the grass is so tall I have to wear rubber boots in the morning dew. And three lugs of tomatoes, getting riper by the minute in the heat, await canning.

But if Texas seems to have a few drawbacks this time of year, food is not one of them. After sporting Texas license plates for two years, perhaps I

can take a few minutes to contemplate the appeal of Tex-Mex cuisine, popular not only here, but in every corner of the United States, from the bustling blocks of New York City to the misty streets of small Northwest college towns. Despite the recent rap by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which reported that Mexican restaurants do Americans no favor in the fat and salt departments, I think this spicy cuisine will continue to satisfy a need for inexpensive yet interesting and filling food.

Living in the north most of my life, I thought the "Number 1 Combination Plate"—enchiladas, burritos, tacos—was something northern restaurants made up to imitate the spicy, fill-up-the-gut food of colorful countries south of the United States. So it has been very fun to see and taste and learn how these very authentic dishes came into being in Texas over the past 200 years.

Actually Tex-Mex has roots older than either Texas or Mexico. Long before Europeans arrived in the New World, ancient peoples settled both American continents, developing agricultural specialties quite different from those in the Old World. Four staples evolved—corn, beans, squash, and chili peppers—changing costume as contact with different conquerors and peoples occurred. The Spanish, for instance, brought pigs, cows, sheep, goats, wheat, and vegetables such as onions to Mexico, transforming local eating habits.

It must here be noted that "local" Mexican food has many manifestations, because the deserts, coasts, and mountain regions fostered numerous local cuisines. The food of northern Mexico, "the frontier," is hot. Although dozens of chile pepper varieties (poblanos, serranos, jalapeños, and many, many more) are grown and eaten all over Mexico, they are particularly evident in the cooking of Sonora, Chihuahua, and Coahuila, three of the states that border the United States. This is the heat that ended up just north of the border.

Combined with the beloved Texas beef (now usually ground, not shredded, for convenience), cheese, eggs, and sour cream, dishes emerged that captured the love of common cooks and feasters: huevos rancheros, tacos, enchiladas, burritos, chile rellenos, and fajitas.

Naive to the subtleties of warm- climate ingredients, I was surprised to learn that there is more to a chile pepper than just "hot." In fact, a distinct pepper flavor separate from hot is what adds so much richness to the foods and sauces of Tex-Mex cuisine.

Learning how to roast a pepper was a transforming experience in my cooking. I didn’t believe a friend who told me to stab it with a fork and toast it over the open flame of a gas stove; I preferred to spread the peppers on a pan in the oven like a civilized person. Then I saw precisely that open-flame technique in a scene from Like Water for Chocolate (a movie, by the way, whose central premise, whimsically portrayed, is that real and passionate cooking has powers of which we are unaware). The roasted peppers are sometimes left to steam 15 minutes in a paper bag, then de-seeded, chopped, and added to whatever dish you want to prepare.

Perhaps the most famous Tex-Mex creation is chili con carne, the official state dish of Texas. Most writers on the subject say chili did not originate in Mexico at all. Even Mexican citizens distance themselves. One Tex-Mex cookbook quotes a Mexican dictionary as saying that chili is "a detestable dish sold from Texas to New York City and erroneously described as Mexican."

However, in all fairness, similarities to the stewlike meat and chili concoction exist in Mexican cooking: "caldillos" (thick soups or stews), "moles" (meaning mixture), and "adobos" (thick sauces). All use similar ingredients—a variety of chilies, meat, onion, garlic, cumin, and occasionally tomatoes.

Which reminds me, I have tomatoes to can....

All in all, Tex-Mex is a unique regional food. It is not fancy, but therein lies its appeal. Its aura of robust living, outdoorsy flavors, and blending of cultures is part of the enticement. Best of all, you probably can partake wherever you happen to live.

CAREY BURKETT, former assistant to the editor at Sojourners, is now an organic vegetable farmer in Hallettsville, Texas.