Mexican

xxdilemmaxx

Hi,

Having a mexican themed dinner saturday, doing steak fajitas with homemade salsa, guacamole etc for mains and have caiprinhas for drinks (not strictly mexican but what the hell).

can't think of a starter or dessert, anyone any ideas? Was thinking quesadillas but they're kinda like the main course?

Tree

tequila chocolate cake?

The Sweeper

Mojitos for starters... Ah, see you already have drinks...

Okay if I was doing a mexican night, I'd serve a light melon salad as a starter, or some cold fish (plated in advance) with a dressing of lime juice, fish sauce, a little sugar and some chopped chili.

Main course I'd have quesidillas layered with a blend of steak pieces, chorizo, onions, a couple of chopped tomatoes and some chili, all of which had been sweated down and cooked off in a pan before layering on the bottom tortilla before being covered in cheese and a top tortilla, then dry fried in a pan until the cheese melts. Cut into triangular wedges.

I'd also have a chili sauce that's on the dry side instead of the liquid side, which can be wrapped into tortillas with various other goodies, including salsa, guacamole, refried beans, grated cheese, chopped chilis, sour cream and a handful of green leaves as a nod to the heart attack that is the rest of mexican cooking.

Get people to build their own food. Supply some plain, steamed rice on the side for the piglets (like me).

Dessert, after that much chili, I'd have ice cream - or better yet a sorbet, which might be easier on the bulging waistline.

Also I'd provide lashings of ice cold beer, lime wedge in the top optional...

Spastafarian

A big bowl of Nachos!
Get some original flavour nachos, a jar of those sliced jalapenos (the jarred ones aren't too spicy and taste great), a thingy of guacamole (or make your own), a thingy of salsa, a thingy of sour cream and lots of grated cheddar.

Put the nachos in a casserole dish or similar, layer with blobs of salsa, jalapenos and cheese, put more nachos on top and repeat. Bake for a few minutes until the cheese is melted. Top with blobs of guac' and sour cream (if you bake sour cream it turns into some form of wierd cheese).

Great pre dinner party food and you don't need to make individual starters.

tulipandthistle

I found a mexican dessert on all recipes website, spread tortillas with butter/ marge. Mix sugar and cinnamon together, sprinkle over the tortilla, roll it up. Put it in microwave for 30 seconds on high. Mmmmm scrummy!

oblivious

Mexican day of the dead bread or Mexican Flan

Sparks

For a starter, the nicest I've ever had is really more tex-mex than mexican, it's the jalapeno poppers that acapulco do - jalapeno stuffed with cheese, deep fried in a light batter.
However, they can be a pain to do by hand and I'm more inclined to - gasp - buy in for that dish.
However, there's a really simple and downright fantastic starter you can make. Best to have individual ceramic cooking/serving dishes for this (I use the leftover ceramic dishes that came with a shepards pie meal thingy bought years ago, but if you want to use le creuset stonewear, that'd work too )
Take 1 can of black beans (has to be black beans, but they're easy to find - tesco do the Epicure label stuff now), drain, and divide between two of the cooking/serving dishes. Sprinkle with a teaspoon or two of cumin powder (if you have seeds and time, dry-roast them then mortar and pestle them until you have a find powder. The taste will reward the work...). Add a few jalapeno slices (easy to buy off the shelf these days), then a good handful of a sharp cheese (cheddar's fine, monteray jack was the original, but it's hard to get here for some reason). Now put in a 200 degree oven for about 10-12 minutes until the cheese is nicely browning, and serve with tortilla chips.
I mean, it's open can, drain, pour, sprinkle, arrange, cover, bake. Takes all of 15 minutes including cooking time.

As to dessert, mexican desserts tend to be mostly fruit and sorbets, there really isn't much of a dessert list in traditional mexican cooking.

Sparks

Bother. Must have hit submit once too often.

Faith

I tidied those up for you, Sparks.

Sparks

Thanks for that Faith!