Liddie Martinez, author of Chile Line Cookbook and president of Los Alamos Region of Enterprise Bank & Trust, stands with David Moscow, creator and host of the TV show, ‘From Scratch’. Martinez and her Chile Line Farms in Española will be featured in an episode of ‘From Scratch’ scheduled to air Oct. 18. Courtesy photo
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
David Moscow, the creator and host of the TV show, “From Scratch” traveled in July to Bishop’s Lodge in Santa Fe for a meal. He dined on bison enchiladas, a green chile and peach salad and apricot soup. The meal was so delicious that Moscow spent the proceeding days re-creating it and documenting his efforts for his show.
“We are always looking for unique food cultures to jump in to and make meals out of,” Moscow said during an interview Thursday with the Los Alamos Daily Post.
Moscow’s efforts to cook this meal went well beyond pushing a cart through the grocery store and scanning aisles for various ingredients. Moscow hunted, foraged and harvested all the ingredients and in doing so experienced the myriad of New Mexican cultures and communities. He joined a bison hunt with the Pojoaque Pueblo, picked chile with farm workers in Hatch and received gardening advice from Liddie Martinez, author of the Chile Line Cookbook, co-owner of the Chile Line Farms and president of Los Alamos region of Enterprise Bank & Trust.
Moscow explained that his producers discovered Martinez. The show’s producers investigated farms that utilize sustainable practices and have a heart-felt story, which led them to Martinez who resides in Espanola.
“We knew Liddie was an accomplished chef as well,” Moscow added.
With Martinez, Moscow said he learned about chiles and peppers not to mention using acequias to water farms.
“It was such a transformative day with her,” he said. “I went in expecting to pick peppers and ended up meeting an eminent chef and learning history and recipes and eating an incredible Frito Pie.”
Martinez said it was a great visit for her, as well.
“It was a pleasure welcoming David Moscow and his crew to our farm and learning more about his cooking show, From Scratch,” she said. “I love food history as it tells an important part of our cultural story and sharing the special history of New Mexican cuisine was my pleasure as was teaching a new friend how to grow, preserve and process our famous chile. It was an honor sharing my kitchen with him and introducing him to our famous Chimayo Red and I am excited about our upcoming episode.”
In addition to meeting Martinez, Moscow rode along with a Pojoaque Pueblo hunting party to kill a buffalo.
“This was a super spiritual experience,” he said.
Moscow said one of the Pueblo’s elders invited him to take the killing shot, which he described as an honor and extremely difficult because there are only certain places you can aim for on the animal to avoid ruining the meat and any other parts of the buffalo that gets harvested.
Moscow also put his harvesting skills to the test when he and his crew traveled to Las Cruces and then Hatch to pick chile.
He recalled the work as being “super intense” considering the temperature rose above 105 degrees. It also gave him a lot of appreciation for the workers harvesting the chile.
“You are just struck by how incredible (these) workers are,” Moscow said.
His exploration into farming in New Mexico and the issues the industry faces continued with trips to Deming and Chimayo. At one stop, Moscow said he milked goats and produced his own cheese.
All of this helped him re-create that meal at Bishop’s Lodge. In comparing his meal to the one the chef created, Moscow said his bison enchiladas were pretty good and the chef said he liked the salad and soup, but Moscow said he suspects that was just said out of politeness.
Still, the entire experience made the meal worthwhile, he said.
“I’ll tell you when you harvest and make a meal yourself, it is incredible,” Moscow said.
New Mexico made a significant impression on Moscow.
“New Mexico was incredible,” he said, adding many places are striking in their history and cultures and “you can certainly see that in New Mexico.”
Moscow does not explore various destinations alone. His wife, 1-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son travel with him. In fact, his son helps him out. Moscow said at various locations his son has helped gather eggs and milk goats.
The episode featuring New Mexico will kick off the third season of From Scratch, which can be viewed on Amazon, AppleTV and DirectTV. It will air Oct. 18. Full episodes are also available on Moscow’s website, https://www.discoverfromscratch.com. Moscow authored a book, “From Scratch: Adventures in Harvesting, Hunting, Fishing and Forging on a Fragile Planet”, which is for sale on his website.
Moscow said he is pleased to have New Mexico featured first in his show’s new season.
“New Mexico is awesome and that’s why it is going to open the third season.”