Johnny Ortiz

Recipe

¬ A good margarita is one of the great joys of life on the / shed ranch. A hard days work moving hay, guiding water from the acequia, building adobes, picking rose fruit or any of the other countless activities we engage in is often rewarded with an ‘daily margarita’.  In my cooking I’m interested in a myriad of things that build up what makes it to the plate, or glass. The flavor really is just the reward, and is always greater the greater the quality of ingredients.  I whole heartedly believe that food that is good for us, if we are perceptive to it, will always taste better. The salt I find on every margarita rim from any restaurant is always either diamond kosher salt, or the margarita salt they seemingly sell to every restaurant, both mostly sodium chloride which is man made and in no way natural or very great for our health as a human, due mostly to the lack of trace minerals. Salt is something that helps keep us hydrated and aids in the delivery of trace minerals. If you are using a commercial salt try one that tastes amazing and is good for you!  We use Redmond ‘real salt’ mined from ancient sea beds in the desert of Utah. Living in the high desert I believe we should also be eating things from the desert. This is the salt we cook with daily and also the only salt we give to our livestock. <a href="https://redmond.life/products/real-salt-kosher-10-lb-bag?variant=40396921962544" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">REDMOND REAL SALT</a> This recipe is a glimpse into our idealogy that to make food + drink at its highest form - it’s not about the tricks or tweeks, but rather the identity of each component. All of this is found in our ‘everyday margarita’. RECIPE ↴ 
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<h1>DAILY MARGARITA </h1>
MAKES ONE SERVING  
↓ INGREDIENTS 50g Del Maguey Vida Mezcal ( or any of your favorite agave spirits ) 30g Cointreau ( best because it’s sweet enough but is soft on your palete )  16g Fresh squeezed lime juice ( definitely fresh squeezed as you also get the oils from the rind)  150g Ice  Redmond ‘Real Salt’ ( trust me on this one ) 
↓ NOTE  
Though this is a recipe, it is largely a launching point. Each of these ingredients can be swapped out for another, but this is our tried and true absolute favorite version.  
↓ PREP  Gather all of the ingredients and start cutting the limes. With one of the halfs, circle the rim of your glass twice and dip into the salt.  Using a handheld juicer juice limes until you have the desired amount.  In a 1 quart wide mouth glass mason jar add your ice, then add the rest of the ingredients.  Once everything is weighed out close lid and shake vigorously 20 times.  Remove the lid and pour the entire contents of the jar into your glass over ice.   <img src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1184/q/75/i/84f781783111fc04ca0ec5debe533c71224e1f81497af362cd35ad95edf8cd56/everyday_margarita_topview.jpg" alt="" width="1184" height="1776" border="0" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/84f781783111fc04ca0ec5debe533c71224e1f81497af362cd35ad95edf8cd56/everyday_margarita_topview.jpg" data-mid="172543113">

DAILY MARGARITA

¬  I often times refer to living in the high desert of NM as living within a dehydrator. With something close to 25% percent relative humidity we really do. Carna seca, perhaps present in most cultures, is a vernacular food to NM that is a way of preserving meat in way of drying with the power of the sun. It may look and taste reminiscent of jerky, however the sun-drying maintains that raw bloody flavor and nutrients of the meat in a way a dehydrator could not. If you’ve had the pleasure of making or having sundried Carne seca, you know what I’m talking about. 
Within the ethos of / shed there is a quest to honor and learn from our terrain, the ingredients are the connection point, and the food becomes the fruit of the quest. In so it is also a way for me to connect to not only the terrain I come from for generations on both maternal and paternal sides, but with those that I come from. My paternal linage comes from the Conchas from Taos Pueblo where I spent my formative years in my grandfathers adobe house with a dirt roof and beautiful orchard. Unfortunately these formative years were at the end of his and I was only able to glean a glimpse of such a life. To this day the trees still threaten to produce fruit and tangled in their overgrowth are remnants of farming implements. At Taos Pueblo there is no written culture, everything is taught and passed down through participation. With this you can imagine a lot can be lost overtime. One thing that seems to me to be fading is the traditional foods, and I’m not talking about the fry bread or prune pies which are delicious in their own regards, that have replaced the food of the ancient ones, but the foods that they ate before this shift in culture. For me, cooking, and eating endemic foods that can only be found in our terrain is a way for me to connect to my ancient ones. The dish that expresses this the most is our Carne Seca. 
Carne seca is made at the Pueblo, but as you can tell by the name it is also a sSpanish thing. My maternal lineage is mostly Spanish ( mother spain ) Martinez and Chavez and so this is also a way for me to connect also with those lineages. We are currently fixing up a old adobe that will soon house / shed that was built by a Chavez and in the attic was a string loosely tied to the rafters going north to south between two little doors that let in the sunlight and created airflow that once hung meat to dry for winter. It’s sweet to witness and participate in living with my terrain and all that it teaches me, as long as I am willing to listen. It’s a portal to the past, but also the deepest way to be present, and what becomes the future. The work we put in today will remain long past us. While I love cooking things that tell a story of who we are and where we come from, I also realize and love the idea that we are forging a new set of terrain practices. 
Sun dried carne seca is a / shed staple and always evolves with the year and seasons. Some of our favorites are made with elk or bison, a little NM lakebed salt, and a sun-dried endemic herb like Fetid marigold ( Dyssodia papposa ) or Crow-weed ( Monarda fistulosa ). This is a very simple seeming dish, but simplicity is deceiving. With only three ingredients nothing can be hidden, you taste everything, and it is important that each component is it’s fullest expression of itself. Below is a guide on how me make Carne seca, and perhaps a launching point for you to do so yourself. If you never embark on that quest, perhaps at least, it can provide an insight into a seemingly simple dish. 
 
<h3 class="p1">CARNE SECA </h3>
Meat
Salt
Dried herb 
Sunlight
 
 
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↴ NOTES
 
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↓ MEAT
The meat needs to raised or hunted in a way the animal had utmost ability to enjoy and sustain itself, then killed in a way that induces minimal stress. Then the meat needs to be processed properly, if done so the meat will not have that gamey taste people often attribute negatively to meats more wild.
When the time comes a chuck of meat is frozen to the point that it stays solid but can be sliced with a knife. The freezing process also helps kill bacteria et cetera if you are worried at all about that. 
 
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↓  SALT
We travel down to southern New Mexico during hot months of summer and collect salt from ancient lake beds that no longer hold water, but produce mineral rich salt. With the heat of summer the salt forms a layer on the surface that we gently peel away. 
 
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↓  HERB
When working with wild plants you realize they grow at their own pace. You have no control other than your own participation in their process. Fetid marigold for instance in our terrain will shoot up after monsoon rains and when the heat has reduced it’s intensity. There is a week maybe two where the plant is bright green and full of life and energy while bursting with aroma, so much so that when you are driving this time of year and pull off the side of the road you will often smell a burst of fetid marigold. The plants will continue it’s process longer than that week but we want it in this state so that it holds all of it’s energy, flavor, and aroma, just before the flowers start producing seed. We collect as much as we can/need and dry in the sun with airflow just long enough to dry out the plant, but so that the color doesn’t start to fade and store in bins that block out any light. When needed we pull out what we need and grind on a matate ( grinding stone ). 
 
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↓ PROCESS
We slice the meat and put on a cutting board or wax paper. As soon as the the meat has thawed out and the myoglobin becomes dark red full of oxygen we thin out the meat a little with the back of the knife and sprinkle salt and ground marigold.
We then put the carne into full sunlight, and in a matter of minutes you will see the meat drying out and the oils from the fat melding with the salt and marigold. Once dry to touch and before the meat sticks to which ever surface we used then we flip the meat over allowing the second side to dry out. Once dry we’ll pile all the pieces together until we need them, if we intend to hold them over a period of time we will allow them to dry further together. You can’t really over dry them, but you can under dry them ( for preserving ). If preserving they can be kept away from humidity, we use paper bags and bins but you could use ziplocks et cetera. 
 
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↓ PHOTOS
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carne seca ( dry meat )

¬ In case you’ve never had a biscochito it is the official cookie of New Mexico and one of the best cookies on this planet. It is found around the holidays at the homes of most New Mexicans, of all the varieties of cultures. At the pueblo in Taos they tend to be thicker and to have colored sprinkles and no cinnamon. Some recipes have no flour at all making them incredibly thin. This cookie has the same name in most households, but each family has their own method to making theirs. Our recipe includes our favorites aspects of biscochitos all into one cookie with one main difference is the inclusion of oshá root in place of cinnamon. 
 
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↓ LINKS:
→ <a href="https://shed-project.com/Recuerdos-videos">OSHÁ harvest ( process video )</a>
→ <a href="https://shed-project.com/OSHA-thoughts">OSHÁ ( thoughts )</a>
 
↓ RECIPE
 
<h3 class="p1">OSHÁ BISCOCHITOS</h3>
/ shed variation 
 
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↓ INGREDIENTS
200g whole wheat flour
2.5g baking powder
2g grey salt 
 
120g pasture raised manteca / butter
80g white raw cane sugar 
1 medium pasture raised egg
14g crushed fennel seed ( or anise )
zest of one orange, meyer lemon, or lime
 
50g organic unrefined cane sugar ( we use ‘just panela’ ) 
5g micro-planed osha root ( or cinnamon )  
 
 
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↓ METHOD
 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a separate bowl, combine the sugar and lard. Using an electric mixer, beat the lard and sugar until light and fluffy - about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat to combine. Add orange zest and anise seed.
Remove bowl from the mixer and add the flour mixture. With your hands mix until combined. Dough should be fairly thick and similar in consistency to pie crust dough. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes.
Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon for topping.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to ¼ inch thickness, or thicker if you’d like ( we like ours thin ). Cut out cookies with a cutter of your choice. ( I use one from my great grandmother )
Place cookies on lined baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar mixture to cover the cookie. Bake for 4-5 minutes and then rotate for another 4-5 minutes until just barely golden and set (be careful not to overcook!). Remove cookies to rest on a cool surface and sprinkle a little more sugar mixture on the warm cookie as it’s cooling.

OSHÁ BISCOCHITO ( recipe )

Honey soda

I grew up in my grandfather, Lupe Concha's, house at Taos Pueblo and as the oldest child I was lucky to spend some time with him before he passed away. I was still young and don't remember much but he definitely imprinted many things on to me. I can't remember if apricot jam reminds me of him because of the amazing apricot tree he had in his fading orchard, or because he would make jam of said apricots. Regardless apricot jam is my favorite and always has been and is always the first thing I make sure to make when I get my hands on apricots. 
 
As fate may have it the land I first bought has two giant apricot trees that produce fruit here and there but this year seem to have infinite little red fruits that are different than any other apricot I can remember ever trying, sharing more similarities with a peach than most apricots. They are getting more red each day and we'll soon be picking and making jam.
 
Here's the recipe we use ↴
 
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<meta charset="utf-8">↴  RECIPE 
500g apricot  
200g sugar ( good quality pure cane sugar ) 
1 lemon, juiced  
 
 
↴ METHOD 
Pit apricots and toss in sugar, then add lemon juice and let sit covered at room temperature for 12-48 hours
( trust me, the longer you let them sit the better ) 
 
Put mixture into a pot and put on high heat. 
( Micaceous pot if you have one you're willing to use ) 
 
Stir with a wooden spoon until it had reduced enough for your liking, or until temperature reached 217f. 
( It will thicken a little as it cools so stop it just before where you actually want it ) 
 
If you like the apricots smashed up more smash them before transferring to jars. 
 
Fill your clean mason jars with hot jam leaving 1/4 in at the top and screw on the cap and transfer to boiling water for 10 min. 
 
Remove after 10 min, screw the cap completely and let cool at room temp.

Apricot jam

Daily coffee

¬ Each year as summer starts to wean and the apple trees are full of ripe and juicy apples we begin apple picking season. This is a practice I have been participating in since 2016, that with each year grows both in our interests and production. Apple season is always a nice reprieve for us these days because it marks a break from hot days spent on hay and fencing among many other things into cool days shaking trees with friends drinking thick golden apple nectar like bears. It is always a reminder of the abundance around us.
 
Throughout the rest of autumn we will be pressing the apples we've collected and stored in our underground cellar to ferment using wild yeasts and bottle for the following year. This is the time of year when this cocktail is best, especially with cider straight from the press.
 
↓ NOTE  
Though this is a recipe, it is largely a launching point. Each of these ingredients can be swapped out for another, this is however our tried and true absolute favorite version. Each of the ingredients listed though fairly common will vary in flavor and intensities, so feel free to adjust to your taste.  
 
 RECIPE ↴.                                                                    MAKES ONE SERVING 
 
↓ INGREDIENTS .5oz Fresh squeezed lime juice  2oz  Del Maguey Vida Mezcal ( or any of your favorite agave spirits ) 3oz Fresh pressed apple cider  1 pt Chimayo heirloom sun dried red chile powder  4 pt Redmond ‘Real Salt’ or celtic grey salt
Smokey quartz as ice cubes or regular ice
Ice for mixing 
 
↓ PREP 
The day before you want to make the cocktail put washed smoky quartz rocks into the freezer. 
 
Gather all of the ingredients and mix the chile powder with the salt. The chile powder you use will probably vary in spice so don't worry too much about proportions, just find the balance you'd like best.
 
Cut  limes and with one of the halves, circle the rim of each glass and dip into the chile salt. 
 Using a handheld juicer juice limes until you have the desired amount. 
 Fill each glass with desired amount of smoky quartz rocks, we use 5 or so. (alternatively use normal ice cubes)  
 
Lastly measure out each ingredient into a glass with ice cubes and stir for a few seconds, strain into the glass and drink.

SOMBRA

Growing up in Northern New Mexico one of the most nostalgic smells is a pot of beans and chile cooking on the stove.
 
I grew up as an extremely picky eater so this with bread was one of my most consumed foods, and most of the time it was ate at paternal grandmother Mary's, while my uncles watched football or after church. Grandma Mary lived in a mobile home with her brother and her sisters lived next door. Every night the whole family was around. Mary and her siblings were poor, though I never realized it. They never had a drivers license, walked to work, ate the same thing almost every night and worked at the same restaurant for 40+ years.
 
I wish I could say we ate beans they grew, in a clay pot they made, but it couldn't be any further from the truth. Despite this truth, it is traditional for a reason. Most 'norteno' families still make this dish. A quiet ode to the '<meta charset="utf-8">los viejos'.
 
Now that I've moved back from a few years of travels working in restaurants, I appreciate those I come from and what built traditions. We serve at dinners, and eat at home, beans and chile like I was raised on at my grandmothers, but now from beans <meta charset="utf-8">we grow, clay we dig and a pot we make. It's an honor to be from families that have been from this terrain for generations and to be able to have a chance to build off that. 
 
Here's the recipe for my favorite dish / side dish of all time. 
 
 
↓ RECIPE                                                                               <meta charset="utf-8">SERVES 4-6 
                                                                                              10 minutes prep time 
                                                                                              8+ hours cook time 
 
↓ INGREDIENTS
120g dried beans ( tuah-tah, pinto, anazazi, bolita ) 
30g chicos
2 small garlic cloves 
salt ( celtic or any unprocessed salt with trace minerals) 
120g fat - tallow, lard, olive oil or sunflower oil ( highest quality to avoid an oxidized oil) 
1,400g cold water 
20 - 40g red chile powder ( depending on desired spice level )  
 
<meta charset="utf-8">↓ METHOD
Sort through the dry beans for little debris or rocks then add to your micaceous bean pot or pot of choice. Add chicos to the same pot.
 
Fill the pot with water and soak over night. Cook the next day in the same water.
 
Place pot on the stove and bring to a light boil. 
 
Once at a simmer add a pinch of salt, and turn down to a slow gentle simmer. 
 
Once at a slow simmer add fat, chile, and both cloves of garlic lightly smashed and shelled. 
 
Season with little amounts of salt through the entire process, doing so will give you depth of flavor you cannot get otherwise. Add every 30 minutes or so, taste and add accordingly.
 
Cook for roughly 8-10 hours, or until the beans are soft through. ( it will vary with each bean variety. salt is important for human health, as for all things we consume, celtic salt is an unprocessed salt that still contains trace minerals unlike most that are pure sodium chloride.)
 
These beans can cook all day, but are ready once tender all the way through. Beans are great brothy with bread, or less brothy as a side. 
 
* I have found that beans that are rapidly cooked, in a pressure cooker, or from a can, negatively affect my stomach and never taste nearly as good. I recommend trying a nice quality heirloom bean, soaked over night, cooked for a long period. I believe slow cooking beans this way also makes them more nutritious and less toxic due to the lectins.

BEANS + CHILE

As a kid born and raised in the 90's I have high nostalgic love for commercial foods like an egg mcmuffin or a box of cheese-its, though I seldomly got them growing up but on special occasions as my parents were very young and lacked monetary comforts. These textural masterpieces were saved for special occasions like road trips or birthday parties. Now that I'm older and practicing creating and capturing the energy within food I still seldomly partake but on special occasions. 
 
These crackers to me taste like the best parts of a cheese-it, but made with ingredients that are good for us. They were made out of a desire to utilize the excess sourdough starter that gets thrown out each morning. I can honestly say they’re better then a cheese-it. 
 
They are great by themselves or with any topping you can imagine. 
 
 
↴  RECIPE 
100g sourdough discard ( 50/50 water and flour fermented for 24 hours ) 
20g flour ( mountain mama winter red whole wheat ) 
15g olive oil ( use good stuff ) 
1.5g salt ( celtic or redmond real salt ) 
 
 
↴ METHOD 
Gather all ingredients and a bowl. 
Start by adding the oil to the bowl and then the rest of the ingredients. ( Avoid using the dry bits of spent starter )  
Mix and then kneed until the dough is all smooth. 
Cover and let sit at room temp for a few hours, around 2-4. The longer you let it sit the more sour it will get. Sometimes the starter is already sour and the dough can be baked right after making the dough. 
Roll the dough in two batches between baking parchment. Roll to your desired thickness, we roll it thin enough to see though it when lifted to the light.
Take off the top sheet and rub olive oil over the whole cracker and sprinkle more salt.
Bake for 8 min at 350 turning half way through, or until a golden brown color. This will vary depending on the desired thickness. 
Let it cool and it's ready to eat right away or saved for later. In NM we live in a dehydrator so they can stay out indefinitely.

Sourdough cracker

If you have spent any time in northern NM during this time of the year you have probably smelt the unavoidable smell of the native plum blossoms. They are one of my favorite aromas of all time, that vary with the terrain. Their smell reminds me of sweet milky white corn and their blossoming reminds me of the beginning of the tradition of flooding of our pastures via the acequias ( diverted river water ). The blossoms with raw milk from our cow Dolores, and eggs from our chickens is very hard to beat. 
 
While the native plum blossoms are my favorite, any plum blossoms should work in place in this recipe.
 
↓ INGREDIENTS
250g heavy cream 
125g whole milk 
30g sugar
30g honey
1 pinch salt 
3 egg yolks
25g plum blossoms 
10g pink corn (ground and sifted fine)
 
 
↴ METHOD
Using scissors cut plum blossoms off the stem, avoiding as much of the green part as possible without doing each flower individually. Ultimately the more green the more of a bitter favor that will be imparted. 
 
In a small pot, we use a Staub, warm up heavy cream, milk, sugar, honey and salt while stirring constantly to avoid scorching until the sugar completely dissolves and the mixture reaches 125f.
 
Take mixture off the stove and add the blossoms. Cover and steep for 30min. 
 
<meta charset="utf-8">In a separate bowl, whisk yolks.
 
After the steeping period strain the base and warm back up until a light steam.
 
Whisking constantly, slowly whisk about a third of the hot milk base into the yolks, then whisk the yolk mixture back into the pot with the remaining mixture. Return pot to medium-low heat and gently cook while stirring until mixture reaches 180f. 
 
Remove from the heat and pour the mixture into the bowl used for yolks and submerge in an ice bath. When the mixture has cooled completely cure it in the fridge for a couple hours and then add it to your ice-cream maker.  (alternatively you can put it into your freezer covered and stir every 15 minutes until solid ) 
 
Once it is ready remove the ice cream and place it into a cold container and store covered in the freezer. If the ice cream is too cold to scoop let it sit in the fridge 10-20 minutes before eating. 
 
 
 
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PLUM BLOSSOM ICE CREAM

General guidelines for harvesting and processing fruit from the fruiting cactus of Northern NM Opuntia engelmannii 
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Northern NM being high desert is full of piñon pine and cactus. If we are lucky, both will produce in abundance many gifts. This year is one of those years and we're excited to share with you our method of picking and producing one of the sweetest gifts the high desert has to offer, 'desert cactus fruit juice'.
The nights in Northern NM are now getting cold and the cactus fruits are concentrating their sugars and are ripe for picking. 
 
HARVESTING 
↓
Watch where you step, the desert is full of sharp hard things.
Pick as late as possible, usually around the first cold spells. This will result in a ripe fruit. Just be sure you don’t wait too long or the coyotes will beat you to them.
Use tongs to harvest and harvest into a container that won’t hold the glochids (small spikes) that may find you later.  
 
PROCESSING 
↓
Fill a pot with the fresh picked fruit and then fill with cold water just to cover.
Drain the water removing any dirt or debris and fill the pot again.
Bring the pot to a light simmer ~200f and turn off the heat. 
Let cool for a few minutes and then smash all fruit. We do ours in a conical colander with a bowl underneath it, but any means of smashing will do. 
If you have a press you can transfer all the pulp to the press, if not add solids in a clean cotton towel and press or squeeze out all excess liquid.
Strain all juice through a fine mesh strainer into glass jars and freeze if storing for later use. 
 
It’s worth noting that somethings are best enjoyed in their most natural state. The juice from cactus fruit is one of those things and is great as just a juice, by itself or mixed with alcohol, especially mezcal. We love to use it as a granita because it usually has exactly enough natural sugars to create the perfect ice crystals. This like many of the recipes we share here is just a launching point so make some juice and explore the possibilities. 
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Processing cactus fruit

Cow liver spread

This isn't a Northern New Mexican classic nor has it made it to the / shed table yet, but it is a recent addition to our table at the ranch that is made with mostly local ingredients that feel like a perfect expression of the land, culture and flavors of Northern New Mexico.  
It is a simple recipe that gets its character from the attention you give to the ingredients and process. Make this an excuse to slow down and get lost in the smell every step of the way. 
 
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↴  RECIPE 
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200g olive oil - we use California Olive Ranch
50g mild chimayo sun dried red chile, de-seeded - we get ours from the Santa Fe farmers market (email us if you want us to send you some) 
45g local garlic cloves, lightly smashed - local is best 
100g southern NM pecans - we buy these from the Santa Fe farmers market
/ shed apple vinegar, to taste - available in our 'Mercado'
Salt, to taste - we use redmonds desert salt
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↴ METHOD 
Weigh out all ingredients, weighing out the olive oil into a heavy bottomed pot. We use a Staub.  
Lightly smash garlic and peel off all the skins and add to pot of oil. 
Turn the heat on low and cook until the garlic is a golden brown and smells amazing. (the heat should be low the whole time, if you see smoke the heat is too high)
Once the garlic feels perfect strain the mixture and add the oil back to the pot and then add pecans. 
Cook until the pecans turn a light dark brown and start smelling fragrant and are a light brown. (if unsure when to stop this process pull a pecan out, let it cool and taste it.) 
Add the oil back to the pot again but this time off the heat and add the chile and stir for a few seconds, about 20 seconds. Strain once the chiles turn a vibrant translucent color and you think they smell good. (don't go too long or they will get bitter) 
Let everything cool down keeping solids together. 
Once cooled a little add everything to a blender and add a little salt and pulse blend to chop but not puree. Once everything is broken up taste the mixture and season with salt and vinegar until its where you like it. 
Store in a jar and enjoy until it's gone. If you wish to keep this more shelf stable wait to add vinegar until you're ready to use it or each time you use it.

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