Home
We're in the Final!
What started as a difficult day, ended up with very exciting news! My little blog has made it to the finals of the Blog Awards Ireland 2013 for Best Food/Drink Blog! In all honesty, I wasn't expecting that at all! I thought I would do well in the technical end of things, such as design and mobile compatability and although I was thrilled with being nominated and shortlisted for Best Food/Drink Blog, I never really thought I had a hope in hell with so many great food blogs out there! When I found out that I had made it to the finals, I was first surprised, then excited and now just plain terrified and super nervous!
I blog what I want to eat or what I am eating at the time. My photos are always real, never edited beyond the aul autofix and cropping bottons. There is always an impatient, hungry tummy behind the lense (either mine, Alan's or Daili's) waiting for the right shot to be taken before the plate can be snatched and the food can be eaten. Food is never altered, it is after all my dinner, so we never add anything unedible to it; what's more, I never waste food in the name of the blog. Sure this, more often than not, means that we might have to eat mole pie four times in one week, but I hear no one complaining as it is all for the sake of research.
The blog is a labour of love for me. When I sit down to write it, I feel excited and happy... in an odd sort of way, it helped me find my calling and when I went and found the blog a new home, I saw it as an opportunity to grow and to give it the TLC it needed.
It is often said that blogging is a lonely pastime... but that has never been my case. I have found that blogging is an incredibly social task; my social calendar has never been this busy! Blogging has provided me with plenty of fun adventures both in and out of the kitchen; It has taught me photography and food styling skills, it has given me an expensive addiction to pretty plates, it has allowed me to practice my writing, to learn about recipe writing and ingredients listing too. It has taught me to filter and edit my ramblings and with the number of failed recipes and drafts that never became posts in my inbox, it has kept me grounded... but above all, this blog has introduced me to a lot of like minded people, some have become pretty awesome friends. The past four years have seen some of the happiest and darkest days of my life so far. This blog has been my joy and my solace... and all through those four years you, my reader, have been there.
I have now learned that regardless of how much I fuss about a crappy photo, or my writing style, this little blog of mine is, in fact, a pretty cool thing. I set up this blog with the sole intention to show people what REAL, AUTHENTIC Mexican food is all about and how you can cook it in Ireland. Today I feel incredibly humbled and quite happy. It doesn't really matter what happens on the night of the awards and let's face it, I'm up against some pretty stiff competition, all that matters is knowing that all those late and cold dinners have paid off.
If you have read this far and you are sitting at a desk top, you surely found the little Mexican surprise hidden inside this post; it's just a silly, little thing to say thank you for all your support! We've had it from the beginning reserved for a special time to use it, so I felt today was a good day to do so! :)
Mexican Take on French Toast
I love Sundays; they are my favourite day of the week. Ever since we opened our business, we've been working every hour god sends: full-time jobs, plus the shop, the market and for me the blog on top of that, have left us with very little time to just relax. We have squeezed all our relaxation needs to Sundays, which explains why I love them so much.
I start the day around 9:30 a.m. (I like my sleep). I come down to the kitchen and do what I can't do any other day of the week: I cook a special breakfast! Wether it is chilaquiles, or huevos rancheros, pancakes, scones or anything else I feel like eating, I always make sure I cook a good breakfast. A few Sundays ago, I woke up with a huge craving for French Toast and it hasn't left me ever since! I've been experimenting with different breads and flavours.
I am extremely lucky to be able to source amazing bread at the market from Arun Bakery; Peter and Vlad lovingly produce some of the best sourdough in Dublin and having access to their creations every Saturday, I've been eating French Toast a lot! I am particuarly fond of their plaited brioche bread and been experimenting with it for a couple of recipes. It turns out the brioche worked out a treat in this recipe!
I wanted to add a Mexican twist to the traditional recipe, so I added some Mexican Piloncillo, which is made of crushed/juiced sugar canes that has been boiled and poured on a cone shaped mould to cooled. It has an incredibly smoky caramel flavour which is both earthy and sweet. Used in both savoury and sweet dishes, it is pure raw sugar heaven. Piloncillo is widely used in Mexican cooking and one of my Irish friends uses it in the making of his legendary home brewed nettle beer. If you are stuck, used dark demerara sugar, but be warned, it's not the same flavour.
Enchiladas Verdes
When it comes to enchiladas, this is by far, my favourite way to make them; not only are they delicious, but very easy to make. They are perfect for any leftovers of your Sunday Chicken roast and my Tomatillo Salsa Verde and with the adition of the Irish Mossfield Organic Cheese, they are incredibly good and practically half Irish (like me!). I made this enchiladas during my Theatre of Food demo Enchilada Wars at Electric Picnic this year and everybody loved them. The secret is in the home made salsa verde, so don't attempt this dish with shop bought salsas as the flavour will be completely different. If you are making more than eight, you can assemble the chicken tacos into a pirex dish and do the grilling all in one go, just beware that serving this might be a bit more tricky when they had to be lifted into a plate. Hope you enjoy them!
The recipe calls for cooked chicken, I used leftovers from the sunday roast, but if you're cooking the chicken from scratch, I suggest you follow the same method I do when making Chicken Mole Tacos. Easy and fast. If you are doing this, make cooking your chicken the first step and then follow the recipe as it is here.
Theatre of Food at Electric Picnic 2013
As you know, I got invited to take part in the Theatre of Food at Electric Picnic 2013 again. I was over the moon as it is one of my favourite food gigs of the year. I love doing the demo, but I also absolutely love hanging around the tent and attending demos and talks throughout the weekend. The line up this year was fab and I got to meet some amazing chefs and food producers, as well as meeting old friends and making new ones. If you are interested in any shape or form in food, this is an incredibly good stage for it.
My demo this year had a bit of a show biz flare. I enjoy doing interactive demonstrations and a lot of hands on cooking, so naturally when choosing my theme for this year, I went a bit mad and declared war on the packet 'enchilada' sold widely in most supermarkets. We had four blind tasters, made three different enchilada sauces from scratch while the packet was made and cook. I was incredibly fortunate to have the help of the super talented and one of Ireland's most wonderful chefs, Caitlin Ruth from Deasy's Harbour Bar and Restaurant in Clonakilty. Caitlin was so amazing and agreed to make the shop bought packet of enchiladas and one of the sauces from scratch. We made entomatadas, which went head to head with the 'enchiladas' from the packet, enmoladas (mole chicken tacos) and enchiladas verdes (Green Enchiladas) which will be posted in the blog in the next couple of days.
The demo went very well and the result was a resounding win for the authentic, made from scratch entomatada by a panel of four hungry festival goers. Three out of the four chose the real McCoy!! We had a great time, the audience was really lovely and thanks to our expert master of ceremonies and an experienced explorer of Mexican sea waters, Jim Kennedy, from Atlantic Sea Kayaking, the whole thing worked like clockwork! I want to take this opportunity to thank Sally and John McKenna from McKenna's Guides and to the whole team at VSC Events for making the Theater of Food possible.
Mexican Mole Pie
I first came across this Mexican dish about 10 years ago. I was visiting my friend Sandra and she offered me a slice of what she called 'Pastel Azteca' (Aztec Cake). Hers was very different, she was using a green tomatillo sauce and heavy cheddar cheese. I was fascinated by the concept and I fell in love with it. I did some research of my own and I came across loads of different version of it: some using red salsa, others with green salsa, some with dried chilies, some with poblano peppers and some with mole. Since I absolutely love Mexican Mole and it is now easily available in Ireland through our shop, I decided to do some experimenting with he recipe using mole flavour for the blog.
I had to do this four times; the first few times I did it, the flavour was perfect (no surprise there as mole and chicken is kind of a classic combination), but the texture was all wrong; first too soggy, then too dry. I was also using a lasagne dish, which is rectangular, but was making my layers with round corn tortillas, which made the whole thing more complicated than it should be; I was also cooking the tortillas in oil before placing them in the dish, which added unnecessary moisture. Eventually, I got it right. I switched to a pie dish, changed the way I was using the tortillas (Thanks to Sandra who suggested it) and I experimented with the ingredients a bit. I was left with the perfect Mole Pie, not exactly what we would called Aztec Cake, but just as delicious, and having experimented with it quite a few times, I feel this is really a pie as suppose to a cake. In any case, hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Note: I found that this pie is best eating on the day you cook it. You can prepare it a day in advance, but don't cook it until you're ready to eat it. I reheated leftovers in the microwave and the tortillas went too crispy and rubbery for my liking. If you make the pie in advance, cover it with clean film and refrigerate it overnight, but make sure to bring it to room temperature before you put it in the oven, or adjust your cooking times accordingly. There's nothing worse than a dish which is hot in the outside and cold in the middle. Since I wanted this recipe to be a quick dinner choice, I used the ready made mole sauce we sell in the shop, but you can make the mole sauce from scratch if you wish, this is entirely your choice.