This past weekend I held my annual Cinco de Mayo party and I wanted to share a couple of my favorite recipies. Cinco is honestly one of my favorite holidays to celebrate ... not only to nod to my heritage, but it is such a fun and playful holiday. I think that if you add friends, drinks and good food you have a recipe for any occasion that will be one that everyone will remember. Cinco is something that I have fun with each year .. some years are more extravagant than others, and some years we simply go all out. This year was a mix between the best of both worlds - a little bit of this, a little bit of that - it all became one great time.
This year I enlisted the help of one of my best friends to come and prep and prepare before all the guests arrived. We had some cocktails and created some excellent dishes to present. One of the best was my homemade, roasted garlic salsa. It goes a little something like this ....
Take roma tomatoes and slice in half, (in quarters if they happen to be on the large side), quarter two white onions, take one or two jalepeno peppers and leave whole, and 8 - 10 cloves of garlic, (keep wrapped in their casings - when roasting garlic always leave the casing on, this prevents the garlic from becoming bitter and unedible). Place all your ingredients on your baking sheet and coat in canola or olive oil and sea salt. Mix with your hands so that everything is coated with the salt and oil mixture. Roast in the oven at 450 degrees for about 20-30 minutes. Once everything is roasted, allow to cool enough to handle. Cut the top of your peppers off, (at this point, remember, all the heat from a pepper is located within the seeds -- depending on how spicey you want your salsa you can choose to remove seeds completely or leave as much as you want). Remove all casings from your garlic and throw away. Add everything to your blender. Add a generous handful of cilantro, corsely chopped. Pulse blend to your desired texture. Presentation should be something dramatic, as this salsa has unbelievable flavor. This year, the presentation was in an extra large margarita glass from Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville in Orlando, Florida; courtesy of my father. Garnish with lime wedges and allow your guests to be blown away.
Along with various dips and sides we also prepared shredded chicken, ground beef and steak for corn and flour tacos. I had so many compliments from my guests about the steak ... I must confess ... this was only semi-homemade and I wish I could take credit for the entire thing, but alas, I cannot. I took 3 large cuts of flank steak and placed it in a shallow pan for marinating. The marinade mixture is in fact Lawry's marinade - the flavor is Chipolte Lime. In order to enhance the flavor however I added the zest of two limes. This shallow dish was placed in the fridge to marinate for approx 45 minutes. This was allowed to come to room tempature on the counter while the grill coals were getting hot. Simply grill the steak to a medium cooking temp, (flank steak is quite thin and cooks rather quickly, so don't allow for too long on the grill otherwise you end up with a tough bite). Once the steaks are cooked, allow to rest on your cutting board for about 10 minutes to retain all your yummy juices. Slice and serve.
We also prepared a simple, yet delicious side that the guests loved; black bean and corn salad. Take two cans of black beans and rinse thouroughly. Allow a package of sweet yellow frozen corn to dethaw. *Quck tip: rinse under warm water to quickly dethaw corn* Dice a large red onion and a handful of cilantro. Add all ingredients to a large bowl. Squeeze approximately two limes over the entire mixture and add salt to taste. Sit the bowl in the fridge for about an hour -- this allows all your flavors to marry. Serve.
I hope that you all have an excellent Cinco de Mayo this week ... remember, this holiday is one to be shared with friends and family -- enjoy yourselves and have fun with your food!
Tenga un 5 seguro y divertido de mayo. ¡Disfrute de todos los gran sabores que vienen de México y una porción buena de Tequila es algo que puede ser agregado también para diversión extra!
Cheers!
This year I enlisted the help of one of my best friends to come and prep and prepare before all the guests arrived. We had some cocktails and created some excellent dishes to present. One of the best was my homemade, roasted garlic salsa. It goes a little something like this ....
Take roma tomatoes and slice in half, (in quarters if they happen to be on the large side), quarter two white onions, take one or two jalepeno peppers and leave whole, and 8 - 10 cloves of garlic, (keep wrapped in their casings - when roasting garlic always leave the casing on, this prevents the garlic from becoming bitter and unedible). Place all your ingredients on your baking sheet and coat in canola or olive oil and sea salt. Mix with your hands so that everything is coated with the salt and oil mixture. Roast in the oven at 450 degrees for about 20-30 minutes. Once everything is roasted, allow to cool enough to handle. Cut the top of your peppers off, (at this point, remember, all the heat from a pepper is located within the seeds -- depending on how spicey you want your salsa you can choose to remove seeds completely or leave as much as you want). Remove all casings from your garlic and throw away. Add everything to your blender. Add a generous handful of cilantro, corsely chopped. Pulse blend to your desired texture. Presentation should be something dramatic, as this salsa has unbelievable flavor. This year, the presentation was in an extra large margarita glass from Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville in Orlando, Florida; courtesy of my father. Garnish with lime wedges and allow your guests to be blown away.
Along with various dips and sides we also prepared shredded chicken, ground beef and steak for corn and flour tacos. I had so many compliments from my guests about the steak ... I must confess ... this was only semi-homemade and I wish I could take credit for the entire thing, but alas, I cannot. I took 3 large cuts of flank steak and placed it in a shallow pan for marinating. The marinade mixture is in fact Lawry's marinade - the flavor is Chipolte Lime. In order to enhance the flavor however I added the zest of two limes. This shallow dish was placed in the fridge to marinate for approx 45 minutes. This was allowed to come to room tempature on the counter while the grill coals were getting hot. Simply grill the steak to a medium cooking temp, (flank steak is quite thin and cooks rather quickly, so don't allow for too long on the grill otherwise you end up with a tough bite). Once the steaks are cooked, allow to rest on your cutting board for about 10 minutes to retain all your yummy juices. Slice and serve.
We also prepared a simple, yet delicious side that the guests loved; black bean and corn salad. Take two cans of black beans and rinse thouroughly. Allow a package of sweet yellow frozen corn to dethaw. *Quck tip: rinse under warm water to quickly dethaw corn* Dice a large red onion and a handful of cilantro. Add all ingredients to a large bowl. Squeeze approximately two limes over the entire mixture and add salt to taste. Sit the bowl in the fridge for about an hour -- this allows all your flavors to marry. Serve.
I hope that you all have an excellent Cinco de Mayo this week ... remember, this holiday is one to be shared with friends and family -- enjoy yourselves and have fun with your food!
Tenga un 5 seguro y divertido de mayo. ¡Disfrute de todos los gran sabores que vienen de México y una porción buena de Tequila es algo que puede ser agregado también para diversión extra!
Cheers!
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