Taste The Flavors Of The Rio Grande with Minnesota Author’s New Book

HIGHLAND PARK (WJON News) -- A Minnesota author's latest book brings some southwestern flair to the table. Hank Shaw's new cookbook, "Borderlands: Recipes and Stories from the Rio Grande to the Pacific," is a mix of Tex-Mex standards as well as some original dishes. Shaw says the book has a good variety of recipes for everyone to enjoy:

"Then there's also dishes that are a little obscure that I just loved the flavors of them that I had to reproduce, and then there are a few that are 100 percent mine, but I really wanted to be faithful to the region so that I didn't do a whole lot of freelancing."

Shaw says people will be surprised by some of the recipes he included in the book.

He says he frequents the southern U.S. border area regularly to escape winters, and it was a no-brainer to do his 6th cookbook about the region:

"Year after year of that has given me this huge repertoire and real huge respect for that region's food, its people, and the landscape so after I finished my last book which was all about fish and seafood I was casting about for something to do and like what is my next thing and it really just occurred to me that this, this is it, this is such an amazing region."

Shaw says he had so much fun working on Borderlands, he has already started work on his 7th cookbook that will be all about the Grasslands and Great Plains region of the country.

He will be showcasing his new book at the annual Forest Fair in Chaska at Noon on Saturday, including his original Tarahumara Mushrooms with Roasted Green Chiles and Wild Greens dish. The fair takes place at Mustard Seed Landscaping and Garden Center and is free to attend.

Get our free mobile app

READ MORE FROM AUTHOR PAUL HABSTRITT