mexican food made easy

I recently discovered Thomasina Mier's fantastic cookbook, Mexican Food Made Easy, and we have been eating it up. We've tried the tortilla soup, mexican breakfast (eggs, tomato sauce on a tortilla) and mushroom quesadillas. From the a taco for all seasons  section we've been chowing on corn and courgette tacos and mushroom tacos. Black beans have been put into sweet corn and black bean salsas and eaten over baked potatoes. The spinach enchiladas are satisfying and so filling. Perhaps my favourite hot sauce ever is from this book: sweet chipotle paste. Hot, sweet with some lime for an added sour kick, I keep making it and put it on everything. My clothes now have chipotle stains on them but it is oh! so very tasty. Tonight we're trying grilled polenta with mushrooms and greens. 

Admittedly, C hasn't eaten everything I've made but he's eaten most things and loved it. The great thing about the recipes (and this style of cooking in general) is that it is family friendly: you can spice it up or  down without ever feeling like the food is being "dumbed down" or that you are losing any taste. It's written in the UK so the ingredients are easily found locally. There isn't a lot of technique needed and most recipes take around 30 minutes to prepare.

The most impressive recipe I've tried from this book is the grilled langoustines with coriander and pumpkin mole (see the photo, left) which I made substituting king prawns for the langoustines. The sauce is pretty easy to make and seems versatile (I actually forgot the percorino cheese, it was very good but I am curious and will add the cheese next time). Mier gives ideas of other uses and I will be putting it on grilled fish sometime soon. 

All in all this is an amazing cookbook. I had it from the library for an embarrassing amount of time and had to buy it from Amazon. It's already in high rotation in our meal schedule.

Home Made Fish Sticks

When I first moved to Scotland I watched Rosemary Shrager's School for Cooks regularly. The food was pretty traditional: racks of lamb, pork medallions and sole goujons. I wasn't entirely sure what a goujon was until I bought some at Waitrose and discovered that they are fancy fish sticks. But really good fish sticks, for grown ups, made with proper parts of fish in a light crust.

Calum loves fish sticks and Sainsbury's wasn't able to send me any in the last order. I had some raw fish I needed to use so I thought I'd give it a shot. They weren't difficult to make and I had all the ingredients in my pantry. The results were yummy - Calum ate them up in a flash and we enjoyed them too with a light cracker crumb crust. They can be made with chicken too and served with a variety of dipping sauces: a classic tarter sauce or something spicy would work. I made a yogurt dip with lemon and parsley.

Goujons

Goujons

• White fish (not sure what kind - I use whatever the people at Eddie's give me)
• Egg
• Cracker Crumbs (this time I used Jacob's Cracked Pepper Bakes)
• Corn Flour

Beat the egg, put to one side. Mix the cracker crumbs with some corn flour. I wasn't using any measures for this.

You'll want to heat oil in a frying pan enough to coat the bottom and give the fish a nice brown colour. Cut the fish into strips (they don't have to be perfectly shaped but you want to be able to handle them easily). So, I set up a little assembly line: dip fish in egg, coat it with the crumbs and place it in the hot oil. I fried it until both sides were a lovely golden brown. Any leftover can be used in a very tasty sandwich.

Supper Onion Pie

This recipe has been a favourite of ours since the first time I made it. Sweet Pea had been going on about the British foods he missed and I, still in the first flush of romance, thought I'd try this recipe from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess. Well, he loved it, I loved it and we've been making it in some form for years now.

The recipe is pretty simple: softened onions atop cheese scone dough. Variations can include a mashed potato crust (for those following the GF diet), leeks or other onion varieties, different cheeses and herbs. We've found that any variation is good, but with the original, brown sauce is an important condiment.

Supper Onion Pie

4 med red onions - cut into eighths 

1 T olive oil

1 T butter

salt and pepper to taste

3-4 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 cup + 2 T sharp Cheddar cheese or Gruyere, grated

1 2/3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

3 T butter, melted

1 tsp dry English mustard

1 lg egg, beaten

8 - 10 inch oven proof skillet, a 9 inch pie plate or casserole dish buttered 

set oven to 400F

in a large pan (or the skillet) heat the olive oil and butter and add the onions, cooking over medium heat for about 30 mins. Stir regularly - they should be soft and colourful. season with salt and pepper, add in the thyme. Turn into the pie dish and scatter about 1/3 of the cheese over.

Add flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl with the cheese.

In a measuring cup, measure milk, add the melted butter, mustard and egg. Mix well and add to the flour bowl. Mix up the dough - it should be sticky and I always add a little extra flour just so that I can roll it out.

Roll dough out on work surface, pressing into a circle that would fit over the pie dish. Transfer to the dish and seal the edges.

Put in oven for 15 mins, then lower the heat to 350F and bake for another 10 minutes, the top of the dough should be golden and crisp. Let it stand for a few minutes and then flip it onto a plate to serve.

Serves 4 people.

Still Life and Recipes

In an attempt to channel my deepening love of all things foodie, and to use up film prior to going to the Lifetime Commitment Ceremony, I took a bunch of photos. Most of them didn't turn out too well (aka the anchovy shots), but a couple did. Please note the beautiful herbs- my balcony garden is gorgeous. I'll try and post more pictures as time goes on- my tomato plant? fantastic.

Here's what we're eating

*Roasted Vegetable Salad*
~ I got a version of this recipe from the Fields of Greens cookbook years ago. The original called for a lot of ingredients (including Champagne vinegar) which seemed along way off many years ago in Halifax. None the less, I was addicted to roasted vegetables and have eaten variations of it over the years
roast a mixture of veggies: garlic,
onions, zucchini, eggplant, red peppers, mushrooms (or others). when done, slice, mix together & toss with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, pepper, fresh basil.
let it sit for awhile for all the flavors to mix and enjoy!

*Basil Sorbet*
~ I read about this recipe shortly after planting my herbs and fell in love with the idea. It's so wonderful, perfect after a meal, with fresh strawberries or on it's own. The one problem? It melts quickly in the heat!

1/2 c sugar * 1/2 c water * 1/2 c lime juice * 10-15 leaves of basil
make a simple syrup by boiling the water & sugar together for 5 mins. allow to cool & blender with the lime juice. When it's lovely & frothy add the basil juice and blend until it's a gorgeous green colour. Put in the freezer, allow to freeze and then blender again. Allow to freeze throughly before serving. yummy!

Today
The vegetables would like to be cut
By someone who is singing God's name.

Because
Once we were all tomatoes,
Potatoes, onions or
Zucchini. - Hafiz

Sweet Potato Salad

Inspired by DD, my foodie friend/ training partner, I made a Sweet Potato Salad with Honey Dijon Dressing.
After swim practice (warmup of 550+ 3*400), I sauteed some shrimp with garlic and chilli garlic sauce on top of the salad. Fantastic! next time I'm going to experiment with a Chipotle-Cilantro- Lime Dressing. Oh! how I love the sweet potato. and in my brave new GF world, I'm going to be eating a lot of them.

The past month has been slow. It's hot and I move slower anyway but then I've felt drifty, sleepy and not really clear of what's going on.

My tri has come and gone. It was the nastiest day I could have imagined and I loved it. So, that's something I'll be doing again.

Marks have come back and, while my legal genius has yet to be recognized I am happy with the results. that being said, I'm questioning what's next. I love this- but the parts I love aren't necessarily what's rewarded. I have to figure out how to get there. Hmmm...
I will definately be eating Sweet Potato Salad though. Here's the recipe:

Sweet Potato Salad
2-3 sweet potatoes- chopped, cooked but still maintaining their structure and consistency (not too soft, in other words)
red peppers- chopped into chunks
red onion- chopped fine
DD sugested celery (I'm not a big fan-seems a bit of a wasted vegetable), maybe lightly roasted corn, some black beans or carrot would also work

Honey Dijon Dressing
2 Tbsp honey
2 tsp dijon mustard
oil/ apple cidar vinegar/ salt & pepper

or, Chipotle-Cilantro & Lime Dressing
chipotle pepper- chopped fine
chopped cilantro
juice of 1-2 limes
oil - touch of mustard
salt & pepper

Cakes of Distinction, an occasional series part I

Here's a recipe for a lovely flour-less chocolate cake. Now, on Miss Nupur's blog I posted self-saucing chocolate cake as the food the I think of with the word saucy. Joanne has made it for me twice - it's a family recipe - and it's fantastic. Alas, I don't have the recipe, so... I present Laureline's Gooey Cake

Now, there's a story here. Laureline is a physicist friend Michael met while at RMC. She's so cool: one of those women who is competent, awesome and y'know French, but really nice. Her family own a patiserrie in France, and she taught me how to make this cake. Calling it Gooey Cake doesn't do it justice -unless you imagine Juliette Binoche, gazing deeply into the eyes of Johnny Depp and, while healing him with the magical powers of handmade chocolate, saying the word “gooey”. It's rich and unlike anything I had ever had. This is powerful stuff: Four simple ingredients that create something quite lovely.

1/3 Cup sugar
250 g good dark chocolate
1/3 Cup butter
6 eggs

preheat oven to 350F
melt butter & chocolate over double boiler
separate eggs- whisk whites until stiff.
Cream yolks and sugar
add the melted chocolate to the yolk mixture, fold in the whites
put 2/3 of the mix into a buttered springform pan (I cheat with this all the time & use a regular cake tin)
now-- put this into the oven in a water bath and bake for 40 minutes
the other 1/3 should be refrigerated until the baking is done-- use it as frosting.

I am not ashamed to say I have used this cake on two occasions to impress men. And it worked.

Creamy Lemon

I've had a very productive day! That almost never happens...
With hours to go before I sleep, I thought I'd waste a little time posting.
So, I was checking out one of my favorite sites, For the Fork and the Spoon
http://nupur-inthekitchen.blogspot.com/
(fabulous veggie Indian food- I was scared I'd lost her site forever but managed to track it down- thanks Google!) and she has a quiz. She names a word and you try to match the word to a food. She said creamy- i said Creamy Lemon Pudding. And have been craving the following recipe for the past day as a result:

Creamy Lemon Pudding
2 T butter
¼ C sugar
2 lemons
2 eggs
½ C flour
1 ¼ C milk
Cream butter. Add sugar, beat well. Grate the lemons, squeeze out the juice, strain, set aside. If you'd like it more lemon-y, add more rind and juice.
Separate the eggs, add one yolk at a time to the butter/ sugar mix, beating well in between. Stir in flour and gradually add the lemon juice and rind. Add milk
Whisk egg whites until stiff and fold gently into batter. this is actually quite important, it'll taste as good, but won't be as fluffy- so take the time and do it right
Place in a pie plate and bake in a 350° oven for about 40 mins. it'll be a bit golden and lovely smelling. I just use a casserole dish and it turns out fine

I got this recipe off a website awhile ago and just love it. The lemon is so creamy and yummy and the top is fluffy. Not a pudding as we in North America know it – this is a true English pudding and quite yummy. So- that's my helpful hint of the day. Sometimes, i eat it for supper.

ok- I'm off. Property Law won't read itself, darn it...

To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best. ~ Logan Elchols
(a little something for all the Veronica Mars fans out there)