El Paso Chile Company [Hardcover]

It may seem tired to talk of yet another form of regional American cooking, but the recipes of the Texas-New Mexico-Old Mexico hybrid known as New Southwestern cuisine are worth exploring for their natural mixing of the hearty and the exotic. A recipe for El Paso chile hamburgers, for example, combines standard ingredients like ground chuck and hamburger buns with chilies, jalapenos, and smoked jalapeno-lime mayonnaise. Native recipes like salpicon (shredded beef salad with chipotle dressing) and cream of green chile soup, along with a chapter on game cooking, set the book apart from other contenders in its Tex-Mex/Mexican/Chili Pepper cookbook subgenre. Less appealing, however, is the writing, which is sincere but at times cute and banal ("Opening a jar of one of our products is like taking a first bite; opening the pages of this book and heading for the kitchen we hope will make you really wnat to tuck in"). The Kerrs are founders of the specialty food company that gives the book its title; McLaughlin is the founding chef of the Manhattan Chili Company, a restaurant in New York City. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Many of the recent titles on the cooking of the American Southwest have offered increasingly exotic interpretations of that cuisine; this latest addition has more in common with Jane Butel's early Tex-Mex Cookbook ( LJ 8/80. o.p.), with recipes for nachos, chilis, burritos, and other dishes most Americans think of as Mexican food. The tone is folksy and, although some ingredients lists are long, few recipes, even the more innovative ones, call for unusual or hard-to-find items. Recommended.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Just a coyote's howl away from the point where three states and two countries come together lies the site of the El Paso Chile Company, a mother/son operation that grew out of Norma and Park Kerr's love of chilis and the unique cuisine of the Southwest. With the expertise of cookbook author Michael McLaughlin, the Kerrs present The El Paso Chile Company's Texas Border Cookbook, the cookbook that makes all the mouthwatering food of the borderland accessible to every home cook. Here you will find over 150 recipes -- including old favorites and innovative dishes -- guaranteed to please the most hot-headed "chile heads" and everyone else who loves Tex-Mex food.