In the mean time I just couldn’t wait any longer to show you this recipe. My sister’s Mexicano BF makes this all the time and she made it up for us recently. It is the best salsa in the world (in my humble opinion!), and it’s made in a completely different way to what I expected!

Ingredients

3 tomatoes

2 red and 1 green chili (the long, mild thai ones)

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

Coriander

Butter (I know! I was surprised too!)

Method

Heat the oven to a moderate heat, wrap peel the onion and wrap it in alfoil. Chuck it in the oven until it is ‘not raw’

Meanwhile, grab a heavy-based frypan, put on medium-high heat and place the tomatoes and chili in the pan to blacken the skin. Move the tomatoes around and hold them in place (with fingers or tongs) until they stay there and get nice and black all over. You’ll need to take the chilis out first because they will blacken first. (Before and After shots!)

Take the tomatoes out, and put the whole cloves of garlic in to brown then add a bit of butter. Grab the onion from the oven, chop it roughly and put it in the pan to to caramelise for a short while.

Pull the green-plant part off the chilis and throw that away. Put all ingredients in a tall bowl (blackened skins and all!) and buzz with a stick blender.

Serve with all sorts of things. Mexican food, potato chips, poured over roasted vegetables. It’s got a pleasant kick to it, but dies down quickly after you’ve swallowed. The perfect heat!

COMPETITION REMINDER!! We have a mixed case of 24 bottles of Apple and Pear Cider to give away from Punt Road Wines. To enter, all you have to do is write a comment on ANY post on iatebrisbane. Open to Brisbane (and surrounds) entrants only (could you imagine the international shipping fees on a case of cider?!). Check out the details and the tricky little fine print here.

“Is it like a paella?”

“Uh, nah… it’s just how I do rice”

Brilliant.

And here it was step-by-step in a recipe book. I’ve now made this a few times, trying all sorts of ingredients and spices, including an indian-style one with tumeric. So this is my recipe, but play around with it and try different styles. It’s a great side dish for meat as it has the carbs and vegetables combined.

Ingredients:

1 cup long-grain rice

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic (I like garlic!)

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tin 4 bean mix, drained and rinsed

Vegetables – chopped. I just added capsicum to this one

1/2 tsp Paprika

Salt

Pepper

Method

1. Fry off the garlic and onion in a little olive oil until brown

2. Add the rice and fry for a few minutes

3. Add the can of tomatoes and a couple of cups of water, and all the other ingredients.

4. Pop a lid on it and stir INFREQUENTLY (easier than risotto!)

5. Add more water if the rice needs to cook for a little longer

6. Serve.

OH MAN and you KNOW I’m gonna say this is going to taste spectacular with Cholula! Because it does!

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’ve attempted crème caramels a few of times before trying a couple of different recipes. On one occasion I had trouble unmoulding them, on another I burned the caramel and in yet another failed attempt my custard didn’t set. I’m pleased to report that these crème caramels were delicious and from now on this will be my go-to recipe!

This recipe is from the book “Mexican Cantina Cooking” by Jean-Pierre Vincken.

Ingredients

• 10 tbsp granulated sugar
• 5 tbsp water
• 750mL milk
• 1 vanilla pod, split open lengthways
• 2 whole eggs
• 6 egg yolks
• 200g caster sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180^oC (I had to adjust this down to 160^OC in a fan forced oven because the tops started to brown)
2. For the caramel, gently heat the sugar with the water in a heavy-based pain. As soon as the sugar gets a bit of colour, pour it into the prepared moulds. Tip the moulds to spread the caramel around the sides too
3. Pour the milk into a separate pan, add the vanilla pod and heat gently for 15 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool for a little while
4. Whisk the eggs, yolks and sugar together in a bowl. Gradually add the milk, stirring continuously. Strain the mixture through a sieve and pour it into the caramel moulds
5. Put the moulds into a deep oven-proof dish. Fill the dish with boiling water up to two-thirds of the height of the moulds*
6. Check whether the flans are ready after 50 minutes. Prick the centre of a flan with a skewer: the skewer should be clean when it comes out. Remove the flans from the oven and leave to cool
7. To serve, turn the flans out onto small serving plates. It will help with unmoulding to run a knife around the edge of the moulds first. The moulds can also be dipped into hot water briefly to loosen them

*An interesting tip this book gave was to add a couple of egg shells to the baking dish filled with water to stop the water splashing into the crème caramels when it boiled. Just like adding marble chips to a school Science experiment!

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!

8tsps Sugar
1tsp Salt
1 Litre Water

Well – this recipe kinda follows the same path. Salty, Sugary, Sour. Perfect for quenching those hell-fires after a Mexican Fiesta.

(My husband – rehydrating after a hard day )

Ingredients

(have a play around with the amounts – it’s all about your own taste)

5 Limes
2 handfuls of Sugar (Maybe 1/4 – 1/3 cup?)
Pinch Salt (or more if you like)
2L Chilled Water
Ice cubes

Method

To get as much juice out of your limes, Pop them in the microwave on high for about 15 seconds.
Cut them in half and squeeze the juice into a 2L sized jug. I use my hands to squeeze and scrape the juice from the pith. Limes don’t have seeds and the little citrus cells look so pretty floating in the water.

Add the sugar and salt and mix until the sugar is dissolved

Fill to the brim with chilled water and ice cubes.

Serve immediately with a sprig of mint and extra thin slices of lime, if you like.

This would be perfect as a mixer with spirits too! Tequila, vodka, White Rum….

YUM!

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.