beyond tacos : Patricia Quintana has surprises from the Aztecs, Old Nogales is cooking up some birria . . . and have you tried HOT chocolate ice cream ?

Patricia Quintana hunts for Mexico’s ancient treasures with the doggedness of an archeologist excavating some prehistoric site.

But rather than looking for tangible relics such as pottery shards or golden ornaments, Quintana is digging out the recipes of vanished civilizations. It’s a personal passion with a patriotic motive. She wants the world to realize the scope of her country’s astonishing cuisine.

To achieve this goal, Quintana has become an author. Within four years, she has produced two monumental, lavishly photographed books: “The Taste of Mexico� (Stewart, Tabori & Chang) and “Mexico’s Feasts of Life� (Council Oaks Books). An earlier book, “La Cocina es un Juego� (“Cooking Is a Game�), is distributed only in Mexico.

Most of Quintana’s 43 years have been spent studying, preparing, teaching and writing about Mexican dishes. Trained in Europe and Mexico, she has developed into a chef of such caliber that many top American chefs want to work with her. When Quintana conducted a seminar at her family’s ranch in Veracruz last year, the students included such luminaries of Southwest cuisine as John Sedlar and Steve Garcia from Saint Estephe in Manhattan Beach, Dean Fearing of the Mansion at Turtle Creek and Mark Miller of Coyote Cafe.

Sedlar and Garcia will use some of her ideas for the menu at Bikini, the restaurant they plan to open in Santa Monica by the end of the year. And they brought Quintana to Los Angeles to cook one Sunday at St. Estephe, the only chef ever to receive such an invitation. “She’s influencing me tremendously,� Sedlar said.

For that dinner, Quintana produced dishes radically different from what one often gets north of the border. Think of American-style enchiladas coated with heavy red sauce that has crusted onto the plate or canned green chiles rolled around bland cheese and fried in egg coating as thick as an omelet.

Then visualize an ethereal broth flavored with pulque , a fruity beverage fermented from maguey sap, poured over slices of rare squab resting on a bed of rice. Imagine biting into one of the shreds of black pasilla chile floating in the soup and finding that it is sweet, not hot. The hotness of the broth, which in no way mars its delicacy, comes from little pieces of jalapeno. There is the strong, almost medicinal taste of the herb epazote too.

Before this dish arrived, there were tiny tortillas topped with the lightest imaginable scrambled eggs, a bit of tomatillo salsa and shreds of radicchio as fine as hair. After that came chiles rellenos as unlike the American dish as their name, chiles anchos curtidos rellenos de guacamole. The dried ancho chiles were filled with a well-seasoned avocado mixture and then marinated in an herbal vinaigrette sweetened with piloncillo (Mexican brown sugar). Sliced elephant garlic, whole allspice and peppercorns--seasonings employed in the marinade--were scattered on the plate along with sprigs of fresh herbs. The spicy bite of the chiles was smoothed by the coolness of the guacamole and the surprising mellow sweetness of the dressing.

But everything was a surprise in this menu. Shrimp appeared in a sauce heavily flavored with vanilla and sweetened with Mexican vanilla liqueur. The effect, somewhat like butterscotch, was odd but interesting.

Black mole-- one of the famous seven moles of Oaxaca--came with lamb chops, not the usual turkey or chicken. The lightly charred taste of the grilled chops was just the right foil for the slightly acrid flavor of dried chile. At first Quintana seemed to have gone off the track in adding ginger and nutmeg to the mole. Then she explained that the Spaniards introduced these spices to Mexico when they initiated trade with the Orient. A little corn cake-- torta de elote-- garnished the plate, and above it, the word Mexico appeared in a star-like design stenciled on in cocoa.

Finally, there was dessert, a burst of tropical flavors--cherimoya, guava, mango, banana and coconut--incorporated into a trio of ice creams and sherbet. Of these, the cherimoya-and-guava combination suggested the heady fruit smells of sun-baked Mexican markets. Under the mango ice cream was a circle of sesame-seed candy, and beside the icy sweets sat a little cake of fried plantain slices stuffed with prunes. Like sesame, prunes came to Mexico from Spain, Quintana said.

She thought the accompanying Mumm Champagnes, went well with the dishes. The yeastiness of the wine complemented the yeastiness of the pulque , and the sparkle suggested the fizz of beer, the beverage she would serve with mole in Mexico. The pulque came from Cuajimalpa, a town on the road from Mexico City to Toluca. Miraculously, Quintana got the three liters of pulque through customs without a problem. She also brought in ancho chiles from the big La Merced market in Mexico City, and piloncillo from the San Juan Market.

Although Quintana freshens Mexican dishes with contemporary techniques, she is careful to maintain the essence of the cuisine. In deference to health concerns she may reduce or eliminate lard, or toast ingredients rather than fry them. Although lard is considered essential to lighten tamale dough, Quintana has discovered that the Aztecs made tamales without it. And she has been able to produce fluffy tamales using corn masa lightened only with water, as they did.

When she works in the kitchen, Quintana wears chef’s whites, the jacket made to order in France and trimmed at the collar with Mexican flags. She is a small woman, with a strong, warm voice, hazel eyes and classic features that allow her to wear her hair severely pulled back. Her own heritage is a mixture of Spanish, English, Mexican and French, and she speaks four languages.

Quintana first came to Los Angeles in 1979 as a consultant for Van de Kamp’s line of frozen Mexican products. During that brief stint she also taught at La Bonne Cuisine, a cooking school then operated by Margaret Dennis.

Now Quintana is too busy to continue with her own cooking school in Mexico City, but will occasionally teach groups no larger than 10. She has also stopped writing for Mexican Vogue and for the newspapers El Heraldo de Mexico and Novedades. She continues as a consultant to the Mexican Ministry of Tourism and to CANIRAC, a Mexican restaurant association. And she travels constantly. “In the last year, I have not spent a month in Mexico,� she said. Divorced, she is the mother of two teen-age sons who stay with her mother when Quintana travels.

After the Saint Estephe dinner, Quintana returned to Mexico City, then took off for New York to discuss a cooking program in conjunction with a Mexican art exhibit that will open there in October. Then it was back to Mexico to cook for the 300 to 400 guests expected at a reception and signing for “Feasts of Life.� Her schedule in June includes a cooking class in New York, a dinner in San Francisco, another in Tijuana. And so it goes.

Now she has plunged into a new research project, which should result in another spectacular book. At this stage, the title is “The Essence of Mexico: Oaxaca.� The book will present the food of that state against a background of Oaxacan art and crafts. Quintana hopes that Ignacio Urquiza, the photographer who so effectively blended folklore with food in her other books, will tackle this one. “It is going to be really, really wonderful,� she said.

PICKLED CHILES STUFFED WITH GUACAMOLE

16 medium dried ancho chiles

2 cups white vinegar

2 cups red wine vinegar

4 cups water

4 to 5 (6 1/2-ounce) cones piloncillo or 3 to 4 cups brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup corn oil

1/3 cup olive oil

Salt

6 elephant garlic cloves, cut into strips

5 medium white onions, peeled and thinly sliced

20 bay leaves

20 sprigs thyme

2 tablespoons black pepper

2 tablespoons whole allspice

Avocado Filling

Wash chiles, slit open on one side and remove seeds and veins. Bring vinegars and water to boil in large saucepan. Add piloncillo, oils and salt to taste. Heat until piloncillo melts. Add garlic, onions, bay leaves, thyme, pepper and allspice. Cook about 8 minutes.

Remove from heat. Add chiles and marinate at least 3 hours but preferably one day at room temperature.

Prepare Avocado Filling just before serving. Drain chiles and stuff with filling. Arrange on serving platter and drench with lukewarm marinade. Decorate with onion and garlic drained from marinade, whole allspice, peppercorns and sprigs of thyme. Makes 16 servings.

Avocado Filling

5 avocados, peeled and finely chopped

2 medium white onions, peeled and finely chopped

1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped

3 small serrano chiles or 1 small jalapeno chile, finely chopped

Juice of 2 limes

1/4 cup olive oil

Salt

Mash avocados with fork and stir in onions, cilantro, chiles, lime juice and olive oil. Season to taste with salt.

VANILLA SHRIMP

4 dozen medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 medium white onion, peeled and finely chopped

3 to 4 tablespoons vanilla

Freshly ground black pepper

Salt

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup butter

6 tablespoons olive oil

3/4 cup dry white wine

Place shrimp in large bowl. Add garlic, onion, 2 tablespoons vanilla, 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper and salt to taste. Marinate in refrigerator 2 hours.

Place chicken broth in saucepan and boil, uncovered, until reduced to 3/4 cup. Heat butter and oil in large skillet. Add shrimp and saute, turning as needed. Season to taste with remaining vanilla, pepper and salt. Remove shrimp from skillet. Stir in wine and chicken broth and cook until sauce thickens. Return shrimp to pan and reheat. Serve with rice. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

PATRICIA QUINTANA’S BLACK MOLE

1/4 pound mulato chiles, washed, seeded and deveined

1/4 pound pasilla chiles, washed, seeded and deveined

7 to 8 cups chicken broth

2 1/2 medium white onions

3 1/2 large garlic heads

1/2 whole nutmeg

2 ounces ginger root

1 1/2 teaspoons whole cloves

10 whole allspice

6 sprigs marjoram

1 cup sesame seeds

3/4 cup pitted prunes

1 tortilla

5 tomatillos, husked

5 large tomatoes

2 to 3 Mexican avocado leaves

2 cups lard or vegetable oil

2 bay leaves

2 slices onion

12 ounces Mexican chocolate or semisweet baking chocolate

Salt

1/2 cup sugar or to taste

1 cup bread crumbs

7 to 8 cups chicken broth

Roast mulato and pasilla chiles on griddle. Do not allow to char or they will become bitter. Discard stems and seeds. Place chiles and 3 cups chicken broth in blender or food processor and puree. Set aside.

Roast onions and garlic heads on griddle until browned or charred. Remove. Roast nutmeg, ginger, cloves and allspice and remove. Roast marjoram lightly or it will become bitter. Roast sesame seeds until dark brown and remove. Lightly roast prunes and remove. Toast tortilla until charred and remove, then roast tomatillos, tomatoes and avocado leaves.

Heat 2 tablespoons lard in skillet. Add bay leaves and fry. Combine roasted ingredients and bay leaves in blender or food processor and puree. If necessary, add chicken broth sparingly to facilitate blending. Set mixture aside.

Heat remaining lard in large saucepan and add onion slices. Cook until rich dark brown. Remove from lard and discard. Add pureed vegetables and spices and cook over low heat 45 minutes, until fat separates. Stir in pureed chiles and cook 1 1/2 hours. Add chocolate and season to taste with salt and sugar. Add bread crumbs and cook until fat separates.

Check seasonings. Add chicken broth until mole is semi-thick. Strain so mixture will be smooth. Serve mole sauce with grilled lamb chops. Or poach chicken breasts, add to mole and simmer 20 to 25 minutes. Makes enough sauce for 20 servings.