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 I travel to New Mexico twice a year for the Khalsa Council, of which I am a member, which meets about an hour from Santa Fe. It's a magical place, 180 degrees round the globe from Punjab. New Mexico has parts of wet forest and parts of dry forest but large parts of it are desert, just desert. It has the same light as Punjab and what seems like non-stop blue skies. A cloud passing by is an event. I feel naturally good there. Espanola's also been declared as having the second highest air quality in the US, being pipped at the post by some very ozone-friendly outback village where no one goes. It's also quite high and the altitude takes me a while to adjust too as does the aridity.
Most of all though, New Mexico feels to me like a place where humans are passing visitors in time, admittedly nearly all of them car contained. There's a timeless to it, a feeling of being at one with the earth (there's a lot of it visible), full of promise (when the rain does come the earth delivers a carpet of flowers), and full of humanity.
One night a few years ago I was there for the Autumn Equinox Full Moon. I was staying in a small house in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, with some young girls who'd gone out to a party. The house overlooked - no, it was overlooked by - the Black Mesa, a huge slab of black rock which sits in a valley majestically surrounded by hills. It's like a punctuation mark on the landscape, a full stop in the middle of silence, a towering temple beyond any definition.
The nights here in the desert are pitch black, the blue skies of the day now are wrapped up in an all enveloping black shawl embroidered with pearls. The ground feels cold to walk on. As the moon rose very low it was as bright as the sun. Only the light behind the long shadows was devoid of any hue other than those out in the grey/blue end of the spectrum. Unlike in England, when the grey nights sometimes carry an eerie fear to their void, here, under the Black Mesa, the clarity of the air, the perfect stillness of the breeze and the rich tapestry overhead, brought a peace and tranquillity. It was time to move my meditation mat outside.
Swaddling myself in several layers of blankets I sat through most of the night meditating on the moon, in her fecund glory, as she slowly, gracefully, continued on her own way, never travelling the same orbit in 18 years. I was not alone. That night I was simply joining in the countless generations of women who have come to pray at this sacred rock of Mother Earth, a place where those, who inhabited this land long before "Westernised Man" came to these parts, came to worship, celebrate and find ecstasy since time immemorial.
 It was at Khalsa Council that I first ate a Tamale, cooked a Mexican. It's very sensuous to peel open the corn husk to reveal the plump tamale inside, rich with hidden treasures packed inside. It had an earthy, home made texture, rough and loved. Yes, it had that processed cheese which has invaded America, and yes it had tough chillies, and yes it lacked finesse. That though was a small price to pay for eating something which just took me back centuries. If you're reading this and you're English, think of it as an Aztec Cornish Pasty, portable,versatile sustaining food.
Alberquerque has rebranded its airport as a sunport, which always seems very appropriate (although I have arrived there in the middle of a snow storm). There's nothing exceptional about it other than the vista of space, miles and miles of space, with the hills of this plateau visible on the horizon. It does though have some very well stocked gift shops which sell New Mexico paraphernalia, definitely one up from the tourist tat that proliferates in so many of the States' airports. I like to bring back something from each trip which is relevant to our lives and also part of the place I'm leaving from. I've bought a beautiful mobile of hot air balloons from here. It reminds me both of the day that we drove back to Alberquerque sunport and came over a ridge to see a myriad of hot air balloons (I stopped counting them at 160 - this is the place of one of the world's top hot air balloon fiestas) and the day that I went up in one.
 This time though I nonchalantly asked what the best selling item was at the moment. The rotund woman who had that homely air of a woman who knows what's what, put a book in my hand, Tamales, saying that they simply sold out of it every time it came in. That would be a great gift for our home.
Only when we read the recipe we realised that Tamales need special ingredients: masa harina and dried corn husks. Masa harina is ground cornmeal of a type which is typically used for Tamales. Reading the recipe we were all enthralled. This book by Mark Miller, Stephan Pyles, and John Sedlar has updated this emblems of antiquity to whet the modern appetite. And so our hunt for these specialist ingredients began.
 As luck would have it, a new stall opened a few months later at Borough Market selling fine Mexican produce, including everything we needed for Tamales. This opened up a whole new culinary experience. If I were investing now in what the next new food trend will be then I would not look further than Tamales. They meet every culinary and dietary delight. My favourites are the Black Chocolate Tamales stuffed with prunes and raisins, warmed with dried smoked ancho chillies, and the savoury Feta and Chilli Tamale with a Tomato Sauce we make as a variation of several in the book.
 We had Chocolate Tamales for my birthday. They are the ambrosia of goddesses and I can't help but thinking that all those women who've come to the Black Mesa feasted and enjoyed them too.
PS Thank you to those who've emailed me asking about the delightful pink plates and bowls which so beautifully compliments the rich chocolate. It is from Linda Bloomfield. We have lots of her porcelain here and I love it. If pink's not your thing, don't panic, she does them in lots of colours from lavender to turquoise, pale blue to tea green. Linda was also a guest on our Regally Graceful™ Teleseminar when we talked about Beauty in Your Hands. You can listen to it here. |
