A Mexican inspired feast
For the first lunch we hosted in our new home in Mallorca, I decided to create a feast inspired by Mexican flavours. Yes, it was a year ago and yes, I wrote most of this journal a while ago but - as I often do - I got cold feet about posting it. I’ve only been to Mexico once but found the food there to be so flavoursome and exciting. I am so desperate to go back. I’d love to spend some time in Mexico City as well as travel around and see some more of the villages and smaller towns and their culinary culture.
For this lunch, I wanted to make something that would be fun and casual, that everyone could just dig in and get a bit messy. I found these small corn tortillas and decided to build the lunch around those. Here’s what I made:
Slow cooked pork
I marinated a shoulder of pork and put it on the barbeque for around five hours. We have a Green Egg so it could just cook away in there from morning until we were ready to eat. Once cooked, I just pulled it apart with two forks and served it in a large bowl for people to help themselves.
Black beans
I confess that I did use pre-cooked black beans for this. I cooked down some leeks with a few chopped tomatoes and come cumin until really soft. I then added the beans, with their liquid, and cooked down for about half an hour. I seasoned them and added fresh lime juice, as well as a little chipotle paste. Very easy and simple but so delicious. I served with some cheese and chopped coriander sprinkled on top.
Guacamole
A little history… Guacamole was first made by the Aztecs in the 15th or early 16th century. The name ‘Āhuacamolli’ literally translates to ‘avocado sauce’ and it was originally made purely from avocados. It became an important staple of the Mesoamerican diet, due to its high fat and protein content - there was little fat and protein in their diets at this time. The later additions to the recipe, including onions, tomatoes, lime were largely a result of the Columbian exchange.
I always like to include a bowl of guacamole in lunches like these - it gives such a zesty coolness, especially when there’s a bit of spice flying around! To mine, I add avocado, lime juice, chopped coriander, finely sliced spring onions and salt & pepper.
Wild rice
I cooked a big pan of wild rice and, once it had cooled, added almonds, thinly sliced radishes, loads of chopped dill, coriander and mint. This was served in bowls alongside everything else.
So the deal was, grab a tortilla and load it up with all the components. The rice was more to eat alongside with a fork! I also had bowls of shredded lettuce, chipotle yoghurt and lime wedges to bring it all together. And a bottle of hot sauce to spice it all up even more. It was honestly such a fun meal - and pretty easy to bring together. We put the pork on really early and then had loads of time to prep everything else. The only tricky bit actually was realising that I still had to heat up the tortillas once everything was on the table - and not having a very big frying pan to do it with. Otherwise, all good!
I thought I’d mention some of my favourite, or recommended, Mexican cookbooks - these are all worth a look at…
‘Mexico from the inside out’ - Enrique Olvera
The Food of Oaxaca by Alejandro Ruiz
Mexico: The Cookbook by Margarita Carrillo Arronti
My Mexico City Kitchen by Gabriela Cámara
KR x