This brings back many memories of good friends, Lupe and Nayo Chavez, whom I knew since I was a small child, when Nayo worked for my grandfather. He told me he first met me in the corral when I was two or three years old. My first words to him were, “Cojeme el mayate!” — catch that bug for me! (One of the beautiful iridescent green bugs that like to hide in cow patties. We loved to tie a thread under their wings, twirl them around, and let them try to fly. Not a very humane amusement, but we were not so enlightened then!)
Eventually, my parents hired Nayo as the foreman of our ranch, San Pedro de Ojitos. One afternoon, he arrived in a dust-covered ¾-ton truck loaded with all their possessios, totally covered with a blue tarp. Out of the passenger side stepped a luminously beautiful, willowy, very tall young woman. They settled in the whitewashed adobe house about a city block from our fort-like stone ranch house.
I practically lived at their house. I would go over there after lunch and Lupe, “la de Nayo” (in Mexico, we often refer to a married woman by calling her “la de” so-and-so), would tell us the story of their courtship and elopement. I insisted on hearing it at least once a week. At Lupe’s I would do all the things they couldn’t get me to do at home. We used to do embroidery on all sorts of things in bright Mexican colors. She also taught me to iron using heavy cast-iron irons that we heated on the wood-burning stove. ( I loved the smell of clothes being ironed.) Or in late afternoons during the summer we would walk around the rolling hills looking for pitayas (the fruit of a ground-hugging thorny cactus) or manzanitas (a berry that grows on shrubs and is mostly pit but, oh, so delicious). When the capulines (a sort of wild cherry) ripened we would ride out on horses and pick them. We kids used to eat so many we really got sick. Acorns were another favorite — we enjoyed eating even the worms, which you feel making this squeeching sound when you bite into them!
Anyway, I probably never had better friends. Lupe and Nayo were my Rock of Gibraltar when I was going through the obligatory 1960s adolescence. By then they were living on an ejido — a type of government-allotted parcel of land that is a loaded political subject in modern Mexico. The ejidos were meant as a land-reform measure. The government expropriates plots of land from large landowners and turns them over to rural families to farm as they wish. It was always a sore point with my family and every other rancher who had had land taken for ejidos. So my parents were less than thrilled when, during one stormy patch, I went to live with Lupe and Nayo on the ejido which used to be family land.
Lupe and Nayo listened to me moan, groan, and be miserable, but they never complained. They pulled me through my depression and I can never thank them enough.
Lupe is also a great ranch cook, and I learned her recipes. She was giving me instructions once on how dark to toast the flour for a roux we were making and she said, “Hasta que este del color de una cucaracha!” — until it is the color of a cockroach! I think about it every time I toast the flour and always strive to get that particular color.
Lupe used to make this simple but irresistible dish with potatoes and fresh green chiles. It’s a good filling for burritos with freshly made flour tortillas — a form in which I met it years later when I was working as a social worker in El Paso. Every morning a woman would come to our offices at morning break time, bringing a batch of burritos with eggs and chorizo and another batch filled with these potatoes. This version makes a great portable lunch.
Potatoes with Green Chile and Cheese (Papas con chile verde)
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boiling potatoes Red Bliss or other thin-skinned variety; about 5-6 large potatoes
- ¼ cup lard, preferably
home-rendered or vegetable oil - 1 small white onion sliced or chopped (about ½ cup chopped onion)
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 Anaheim chiles roasted, peeled, seeded and chopped (use more or fewer to taste)
- ½ cup shredded white cheddar or mozzarella cheese optional
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Peel potatoes and cut into medium-sized (about ½-inch) cubes. In a large saucepan, bring to a boil enough salted water to cover potatoes. Drop in potatoes and cook until almost done but still a little crunchy, about 5 minutes. Drain in colander.
- Heat lard or vegetable oil in large skillet until hot but not quite smoking. Add onion, garlic, and chiles and sauté on medium heat until onion is golden, 2-3 minutes. Add drained potatoes and lower heat.
- Cook, tossing occasionally, 5 minutes or until potatoes are golden. They should be just tender, not mushy. Add optional cheese and stir thoroughly to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Serve immediately as a vegetable or filling for burritos.
