Cinco de Mayo

I like any excuse to make a mexican meal so every fifth of May, we have mexican food. Just like every St Patrick's Day, we have colcannan and Irish beer, although we are all at least half Irish. None of us are Mexican but we really, really like the food. I only celebrate holidays that involve tasty things to eat to be honest.

This year, I tried a new method for making pork carnitas but that recipe is going on no reEATS on Monday so I won't share that here but I will show you the other stuff we ate. To go with our carnitas, I made a simple chipotle crema but I used greek yogurt and mayo, a smooth, blended salsa, guacamole and pickled red onions (which I have shared on this blog before), and some baked corn tortilla chips.

Salsa

I usually make a rough pico de gallo but thought I would try a blended, restaurant style salsa for a change and I know that Little Shack likes it like this:

1 398ml can fire roasted chopped tomatoes

1/4 red onion, roughly chopped

1 handful cilantro, roughly chopped

1 large roasted garlic clove (you can use raw if you don't have roasted garlic on hand)

juice of 1 to 2 limes (depends on juicy they are and now tart you like it)

Kosher salt

jalepeno pepper, chopped fine and seeded if you want some heat

Put all of the ingredients in a food processor or blender - I use my handy, dandy bullet and it works perfectly. Puree to desired consistency, taste to make sure there is enough salt, lime, cilantro etc and that's it. Put aside for at least an hour for the flavours to blend.

Pickled Red Onions

chipotle cream 

1 heaping tbls greek yogurt

1 heaping tbls mayonnaise

juice of 1/2 lime

pinch smoked paprika

pinch chilli powder

pinch chipotle chilli powder

pinch kosher salt

mix all together in a small bowl.

Tilapia Ceviche

1 large tilapia fillet, about 250g  (make sure there are no bones)

juice of 2 or 3 limes

finely chopped red onion

handful of finely chopped cilantro

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1/2 cup finely chopped tomato
1 tsp olive oil
kosher salt
jalepeno if you want some heat

chop the tilapia into small chunks and put in a glass bowl. Cover them with lime juice and let them sit, covered, in the fridge for at least an hour and up to maybe 4 hrs.

About 20 minutes before serving, drain the fish and discard the lime juice it was soaking it. Press the fish lightly and make sure you get as much of that lime juice out as you can. Put the fish in a fresh bowl and add the chopped tomato, red onion, garlic and cilantro and drizzle just a tsp of olive oil over the top and mix well. Taste and adjust any seasonings at this point. You can add some chopped hot chilli if you like some heat too. This just makes a small bowl, enough for the three of us to eat as side dish with the chips.

Baked Tortilla Chips

preheat oven to 400F

cut desired amount of soft corn tortillas into 6ths so you have uniform triangles

spray a baking tray with some sort of spray oil or wipe it with a bit of oil

lay the tortilla triangles out on the tray

spray a bit more oil on top or you can just brush a bit on with a pastry brush but get spray oil (I use PC olive oil in a spray can)

sprinkle with kosher salt

bake in the oven until they start to get a bit brown and are nice and crispy. You should keep a close eye on them, especially the first time because everyone's oven seems to be different and they can burn quickly.