Mexican Food Boffin list - The 5 rules to makin’ Mexican.

1. It’s either gotta be fresh…straight from the ground right into your mouth. OR it must be stewed, fried and simmered for a minimum of 48 hours.

2. If you want something to look like Mexican food, follow the ’Mexican Flag Rule’ - red, green and white.

3. Loads of limes, bucketloads of chilis and lots of heart and soul

4. Cook with love and attentiveness

5. If in doubt, chuck some chocolate in it.

This jewel of a poached egg was gifted to me by my husband who kissed me on the cheek, banished me from the kitchen and 20 minutes later presented me with this yummy lunch. It sounds silly, but food surprises are my favourite kind of surprises, especially when Darren does it. When we’d first moved in together, Darren presented me with a piece of pavlova (he’s pretty darn good at them!) and my first ever taste of fresh raspberries. I savoured each one. 

Poached Eggs on Toast

Chop up tomatoes, avocado, red onion and mix together. Dress with olive oil and salt and pepper.

Heat  a couple of inches of water in a frying pan with a tablespoon of vinegar. Heat until there are bubbles clinging to the base of the pan. Swirl the water with a spoon to create a slow whirl-pool. Crack an egg and very gently slip it into the water. While this is happening toast some bread under the salamander. Once the bread is done, the egg should be done.

Cut a piece of garlic in half and rub it all over the bread. Put a couple of leaves of kale and spinach on top and finish with the salsa and poached egg. Crack some pepper over the top and some Cholula.

I don’t usually keep ready-made salad dressing in the house, I wish I did sometimes when I’m being lazy, but it forces me to be a bit creative instead of just reaching for the good ol’ french dressing.  Often it’ll just be Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar, but other times I’ll go nuts and use all sorts of condiments.

The best way to make a good dressing is use approximately equal parts of oil and an acid, perhaps lemon juice or a vinegar. Then just chuck in whatever you have in the cupboard. Maybe some grainy mustard, or some herbs or spices. As we’re all on a Mexican Kick this month, and I am going crazy for Cholula, I’ve gone down that road.

Ingredients

1 cup canned chickpeas
1/2 cooked chook (chicken), shredded roughly
10cm cucumber, sliced
handful of Baby roma tomatoes, quartered
1/2 red capsicum
Coriander
Parsley
1/3 red onion, sliced finely
Mixed salad leaves
Handful of snowpeas, cut into strips diagonally
1/2 avocado, diced

 
Dressing
1cm cube of fresh ginger, cut into very thin slithers
Juice of 1/2 a very juicy lime (or 1 lime)
1 tbsp Cholula Hot Sauce
1 tbsp Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
1/2 tsp Paprika

Chuck it all together in a big bowl and serve.

I used to rely on a particularly well-known brand (”what if it had a flat bottom?“) for creating my Mexican authenticity, until I stumbled across a recipe to make taco seasoning myself, only to discover it was dead easy!

My new favourite taco mix? Soft corn tortillas + home-seasoned beef + salsa cruda + gaucamole / sour cream / whatever tasty sauce you’re after!

But I hear you say, “Julia, that packet mix! It just makes everything so simple!” And I will parry you with, “NAY! AVAST! DON’T DO IT!” Here are three great reasons to ditch the Old El Paso ilk and DIY taco seasoning from scratch:

1. It’s healthier! Think of all the thickeners and other yuk that you’re avoiding!
2. Gosh darn, it’s quick! It takes no longer to DIY than it does to rip open that packet!
3. And heck! It just tastes sooooooooo good!

“And what of this salsa cruda stuff,” I hear you say? Only the awesomest taco salad you’ve ever made, and again– dead easy!  When the i8b girls came over recently for our Mexican cookoff, I decided to show ‘em how its done.

DIY Beef Tacos with Salsa Cruda

For the Taco Filling:

• 500g of thinly sliced beef fillet, or beef mince (I prefer fillet, but I was cooking 1.5kg of meat on this occasion so the mince is easier to handle!)
• 1/3 cup tomato paste
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp chilli powder (or mexican chilli spice mix if you can get it)
• 1 cup water

1. Brown the beef in a small amount of olive oil
2. Add the cumin, chilli powder, water and tomato paste (or you could use fresh tomatoes with some flour or corn starch to thicken). Season with salt and pepper.
3. Cook until the liquid is reduced.  Serve!

For the Salsa Cruda:

• 1/2 spanish onion
• 4 ripe tomatoes
• About half a bunch of coriander (at least a cup’s worth, I would imagine?)

1. Chop all ingredients finely and mix (if you have a Tupperware Quick Chef chopper, chuck it all in together and go crazy!).
   NB: If your tomatoes are extra-juicy, you may wish to strain off the liquid from this mix, to avoid your tortillas getting wet and mushy!

To assemble tacos:

• Grab a corn tortilla (I prefer Diego’s Corn Tortillas, just make sure you heat them before serving lest they crack on you!)
• Spoon in some of the beef
• Top with salsa cruda, and your choice of Sarah’s Guacamole, sour cream and tabasco.

See? How easy was that! And it’s such a quick, delicious and super-authentic flavour!  Now, the next step… trying my hand at tortilla-making!

This guac was made at iatebrisbane’s recent mexican food cookup. It’ll be the first of a number of recipes from that day. We served this guac with Julia’s Salsa Cruda and Burrito Mince. It went perfectly with my Lime Water and Catherine’s Caramel Flan for dessert. What a beautiful day. 

Ingredients

1 softish avocado
handful of grape tomatoes
1/4 red onion
2 cloves of garlic
juice of 1/4 lime
3 heaped tablespoons of no fat natural yoghourt
Salt
Pepper

Firstly, to make sure the avocado is soft, you can use an “Avocado ripening machine” Best invention ever! Avocados and bananas have compounds in each that ripen each other. You would usually pop them in a paper bag overnight, but since I didn’t have any paper bags I thought a banana-avocado sandwich would also do the trick.

Then, to soften the harsh flavour of raw garlic, pop unpeeled garlic cloves into either the oven or even a medium-heat frypan. drizzle a little oil over them so they don’t dry out, and heat for about 5-10 minutes. Just enough to take the raw edge off it.

Remove seeds from the tomatoes and very finely dice them and the red onion and cooked garlic. My absolute favourite thing to do in the kitchen is chop things. It’s really meditative for me and I like the fact that chopping fruits and vegetables in different ways can completely change the flavour and texture of a dish.  Chopping things finely like this is heaps of fun for me.  Julia took this photo of me chopping - I think mainly because she really didn’t understand why I didn’t just chuck it in a blender!

Mash the avocado, then chuck all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together.