From Mexico to Spain

Tapas are a great Friday night dinner when hanging out with friends and they go really well with beer and cider.

My tapas were seafood Tapas: Garlic prawns, squid with a garlic and lemon aioli, olives, and scallops with chorio. All served together with crusty fresh bread. People are always impressed with seafood, no matter how easy it was to prepare ;)

And for a special friends birthday, I whipped up a cake too - Caramel meringue layer cake. I like how I casually say I whipped it up, but it looked really impressive. Two caramel mud cakes, each topped with a merigue layer and sandwiched together with whipped cream and caramel sauce. Yummmm.

Mexicana

When I ventured into the idea of a Mexican dinner party, my aim was to disperse the idea of dishes overloaded with lashings of sour cream, grated cheese and store-bought salsa's.


The fact is, Mexican food, which gave the world the chilli and cocoa bean (which fuels my glorious chocolate addiction) is fun, vibrant, fresh and healthy and not at all like the dairy loaded dishes that supermarket products and takeaway places would have you believe.


My menu consisted of:

- Chillies Rellenos: chargrilled banana chillies stuffed and roasted with a sweet potato and goats cheese mix


- Fish tacos: crispy skin fish marinated in lime juice, chilli, coriander and garlic served with soft tortillas, crispy lettuce and a lime and coriander yoghurt sauce.


- Chicken mole: chicken braised in a spicy tomato and chocolate sauce (yes, chocolate in a savoury dish)


- Bunuelos: Mexico's version of the churro, traditionally eaten at Christmas time and served with a spiced syrup of cinnamon and fennel seeds

Wow! Who would have thought that chocolate would go so well in a savoury dish. Although, I must admit that patience is needed to cook Chicken mole, there are minimal steps but time is needed to cook down the sauce, but it's well worth the wait. 


Firstly a stock is made of coriander root, chicken pieces and onion. The stock is strained, discarding the onion with the stock used in the sauce base which is served with the chicken. The sauce consists of a dark 80% cocoa chocolate (if Mexican chocolate cannot be sourced) which is melted into a spicy tomato blend of tin tomatoes, dried chillies, sesame seeds, cumin, paprika, ground cloves and all spice. The dried chillies give this dish a kick, so it's not to be eaten by weaklings who can't handle a bit of spice ;)


All in all a fun and succesful dinner party that explored a new notion of Mexican food - time to sit back and enjoy a few Corona's I think ;)

An ode to Australia

Australia Day - celebrating being Aussie with football, meatpies, kangaroos and Holden cars (some song lyrics in case you're wondering).


Of course I celebrated with a BBQ, friends, and beer. Nothing like the taste of a charcoal burnt sausage.


Other must haves on Australia Day are cricket and the triple j hottest 100 countdown. If you not doing one or all of these thinhs you're simply not fair dinkum. Neither the BBQ, Australian cricket team nor the number one song by Gotye disappointed.


I also made a few other iconic Australian delicacies: Prawn cocktails and the Pavlova (New Zealand may try claim it but Australia's story behind the Pav is more believable - and I'm not biased at all).


Prawn Cocktails are cooked, peeled prawns mixed with cocktail sauce and served on a bed of shredded ice berg lettuce usually in a cocktail glass. For my cocktail sauce I mix a good egg mayonaise with a dash of tomato sauce, tobassco, and lemon juice. Easy peasy and very retro.

And I have to say it, I'm mighty proud of my pav, made from scratch and it held its shape. Served simply with whipped cream, strawberries, kiwi fruit and passionfruit.