Cinco de Mayo

TS:
Quite unexpectedly, JS and I have a number of Mexican (and other Latin) dishes on our blog. Who would've thunk it.

So, since today is the fifth of May, here is a list of some of our favorite Mexican dishes on eatingclub.


Tacos of Carnitas with Pineapple, with Roasted Salsa and Sweet Potato



Enchiladas Verdes



Mexican Ancho Guajillo Chicken



Blueberry Tres Leches Cake



Torta (Mexican Sandwich)



Tacos al Pastor with Chipotle Peanut Salsa



Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese with Pipían Verde



Quickie Turkey Tortilla Soup



Cilantro Horchata



Homemade Mexican Chorizo Sausage



Shredded Beef and Tripe Tacos



Last, but not least, this first taco night was probably what opened the floodgates, in terms of us cooking Mexican food. Read all about how we converted people to Mexican cuisine.
Tacos... then


All eatingclub vancouver Mexican posts
Tacos... then
Tacos... now
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Semi-Lime-cooked, Semi-Yucatecan Shrimp with Garlic Chips
Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese with Pipían Verde
Quickie Turkey Tortilla Soup
Tacos of Carnitas with Pineapple, with Roasted Salsa and Sweet Potato
Shrimp a la Mexicana (Camarones a la Plancha)
Enchiladas Verdes
Cilantro Horchata
Strawberry Cilantro Salsa, on Grilled Flank Steak
Mexican Ancho Guajillo Chicken
Chipotle Ground Turkey on Flour Tortilla
Tacos... again (July 2009)
Tacos al Pastor with Chipotle Peanut Salsa
Tacos with Beer-braised Carnitas Filling
Shredded Beef and Tripe Tacos
Duck Enchiladas with Chipotle Peanut Salsa
Blueberry Tres Leches Cake
Crab Tostada
Homemade Mexican Chorizo Sausage
Torta (Mexican Sandwich)

Torta (Mexican Sandwich)

telera bun + pinto beans + roast pork shoulder + tomatoes + queso fresco + pickled jalapeño + avocado + fried egg + lettuce

[js]
I love me a good sandwich and the Mexican torta certainly qualifies as a darn good sandwich.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torta

I had been craving a torta lately and the easiest way to get a torta was to go to our torta place in town. However, it seemed that, for some reason or other, this torta place has fallen out of TS's favour.

Well then, it seems that I have no choice but to make our own!



Bollilo/Telera Buns


[js]
We headed to a Latin bakery to get some bollilo/telera buns.

Panaderia Latino Bakery



[ts]
It was a large bun, so we cut it in half to make each sandwich.

Pinto Beans


[js]
Of course, we needed some beans. I cooked some pinto beans to the point of mashing consistency.

Queso Freso, Avocado, Pickled Jalapeño, Fried Egg


[js]
While at Panaderia, we spied a chunk of queso fresco, which we thought would go perfectly for the torta we had planned.

[ts]
All other supporting players were at home waiting for their moment to shine: avocado, pickled jalapeños and eggs.


Roast Pork Shoulder


[ts]
One mustn't forget the meat! We had our less-than-ideal (by virtue of being cooked in too hot an oven) Cuban pork shoulder, so this was a great way to use that up.



[js]
Okay, the meat portion of this torta is not strictly Mexican, but that was all we had.

[ts]
We had actually planned to make Cubano sandwiches, but we never got around to buying ham and Swiss cheese and all that.

Assembly
[js]
Now, it's just a matter of assembly.


telera bun + pinto beans + roast pork shoulder


+ tomatoes + queso fresco


+ pickled jalapeño + avocado


+ fried egg


+ lettuce, and the bun top.



Try to get your mouth around that!

[js]
I say, what a sandwich!

I happily devoured my torta for lunch and had a smile pasted on my face for the rest of the day.



eatingclub vancouver Mexican
Tacos... then
Tacos... now
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Semi-Lime-cooked, Semi-Yucatecan Shrimp with Garlic Chips
Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese with Pipían Verde
Quickie Turkey Tortilla Soup
Tacos of Carnitas with Pineapple, with Roasted Salsa and Sweet Potato
Shrimp a la Mexicana (Camarones a la Plancha)
Enchiladas Verdes
Cilantro Horchata
Strawberry Cilantro Salsa, on Grilled Flank Steak
Mexican Ancho Guajillo Chicken
Chipotle Ground Turkey on Flour Tortilla
Tacos... again (July 2009)
Tacos al Pastor with Chipotle Peanut Salsa
Tacos with Beer-braised Carnitas Filling
Shredded Beef and Tripe Tacos
Duck Enchiladas with Chipotle Peanut Salsa
Blueberry Tres Leches Cake
Crab Tostada
Homemade Mexican Chorizo Sausage
Torta (Mexican Sandwich)

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Some eggy eatingclub dishes
Tarragon-Carrot Deviled Eggs
Golden Egg Torta
Hunanese Stir-fried Eggs with Green Peppers
Tortilla de Patatas (Spanish "Omelette")
Piedmont Marinated Eggs
Asparagus and Crab Egg Crêpes
Stir-fried Egg and Tomato
Oyster Torta
Torta with Pork and Kecap Manis
Curried (Easter) Egg Salad
Taiwanese Stewed Eggs (滷蛋) with Stewed Minced Pork (魯肉 or 肉燥)
Longsilog (Longganisa + Sinangag + Itlog)
Torta (Mexican Sandwich)
Mr. Zheng's Soupy Tomatoes and Eggs with Tofu
Nasi Lemak (Malaysian Coconut Rice Meal with Sambal)
Home-style Chinese Steamed Egg with Pork
Golden Shrimp Torta (Philippine Shrimp Omelette)

Homemade Mexican Chorizo Sausage

Mexican chorizo and eggs, with queso fresco & Tapatío hot sauce; served with jalapeño cornbread

[js]
Before making my lion cubby head meatballs, I made a decision to set aside about a pound of ground pork.

Reason? I wanted to try my hand -- that is, TS's hand -- at making Mexican chorizo. Seems like whenever I get stuck into a I-don't-know-what-I-want-to-eat rut, the surest quick-fire way to get myself out of that rut is to have myself some Mexican cuisine.

[ts]
We looked to the Homesick Texan for our Mexican chorizo recipe.


salt, cinnamon, paprika, cumin, dried Mexican oregano and cayenne pepper

[ts]
Before everything else, the chiles!


left: toasting guajillos;
right: guajillos & the rest of the ingredients in the blender

[ts]
I toasted some guajillo chiles, then removed the stems and seeds. After a bit of a soak in water to soften them, they went into the blender, along with the spices and herb pictured above, onions, garlic, and apple cider vinegar.



[ts]
The resulting purée joined some ground pork.



[ts]
Done. Our Mexican chorizo is ready for some cookin'.



[ts]
I think I may made my Mexican chorizo a bit too wet. But, cooking the mixture with some huevos (eggs) seemed to solve that problem.

We had some bolillo/telera buns (for some other diabolically delicious purpose) and piled on the chorizo con huevos. We finished it with some Tapatío hot sauce.



[ts]
And yes, this was why we made jalapeño cornbread!

We realized that we also had queso fresco in the fridge and proceeded to top our chorizo con huevos with that as well!



[js]
I absolutely loved this Mexican chorizo: the spicing was very balanced and all the flavours worked great together. Drizzled with Tapatío hot sauce, I happily devoured bits and morsels.

I ate it with our jalapeño cornbread, I ate it with bolillo/telera buns, I even ate it with white rice.

In all these pairings, it was delicious!



We show our Tapatío hot sauce love here:
Fried Oyster Quesadilla
Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese with Pipián Verde
Homemade Mexican Chorizo Sausage

RECIPE: Homesick Texan Mexican Chorizo
http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2009/01/making-my-own-mexican-chorizo.html

[eatingclub] vancouver Mexican
Tacos... then
Tacos... now
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Semi-Lime-cooked, Semi-Yucatecan Shrimp with Garlic Chips
Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese with Pipían Verde
Quickie Turkey Tortilla Soup
Tacos of Carnitas with Pineapple, with Roasted Salsa and Sweet Potato
Shrimp a la Mexicana (Camarones a la Plancha)
Enchiladas Verdes
Cilantro Horchata
Strawberry Cilantro Salsa, on Grilled Flank Steak
Mexican Ancho Guajillo Chicken
Chipotle Ground Turkey on Flour Tortilla
Tacos... again (July 2009)
Tacos al Pastor with Chipotle Peanut Salsa
Tacos with Beer-braised Carnitas Filling
Shredded Beef and Tripe Tacos
Duck Enchiladas with Chipotle Peanut Salsa
Blueberry Tres Leches Cake
Crab Tostada
Homemade Mexican Chorizo Sausage
Torta (Mexican Sandwich)

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Crab Tostada

[js]
During one of my Costco runs, I saw that they were offering a discount on crab meat. Normally, I wouldn't even give this a second look, not used to buying and eating any sort of already-processed, already-shelled crustacean meat. It must be the cheapskate in me that was lured by the two-buck discount that decided to give it a try.


left: pasteurized crab meat!
right: tortillas fried one by one by TS

[js]
We had some corn tortillas in the freezer and I thought we could finally try a tostada. I've seen tostadas on menus before but have never ordered them, always being tempted by tacos instead.



[js]
Now for the verdict, the good and the not-so-good. Unfortunately, nothing beats meat from a live-from-the-tank-before-you-eat-it-crab and there is a big, big qualitative difference between that and this processed and pasteurized crab meat.

We made our crab meat better by squeezing lime juice all over it. That seemed to restore the meat to some semblance of live-before-you-eat-it-crab freshness.

[ts]
Our "winging-it" crab tostada consisted of fried tortilla, avocados for the "creamy" component (because we didn't have beans, refried or otherwise), lime-spiked crab meat, pico de gallo (tomato salsa), shredded cabbage and jalapeños.





[js]
The crab tostada, on the whole, was very good. What's not to love? Crispy corn tortilla, sweet-briny-salty crab meat, creamy avocado slices, and a piquant pico de gallo with juicy tomato chunks, crunchy cabbage slivers. . . the whole tostada is definitely more than the sum of its parts.

[ts]
We'll just need to use actual fresh crab meat next time. But, knowing us and our lack of industry ("What, we need to cook crab then pick out all the flesh?!!"), we'll just choose a different filling next time. =)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tostada



[eatingclub] vancouver Mexican
Tacos... then
Tacos... now
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Semi-Lime-cooked, Semi-Yucatecan Shrimp with Garlic Chips
Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese with Pipían Verde
Quickie Turkey Tortilla Soup
Tacos of Carnitas with Pineapple, with Roasted Salsa and Sweet Potato
Shrimp a la Mexicana (Camarones a la Plancha)
Enchiladas Verdes
Cilantro Horchata
Strawberry Cilantro Salsa, on Grilled Flank Steak
Mexican Ancho Guajillo Chicken
Chipotle Ground Turkey on Flour Tortilla
Tacos... again (July 2009)
Tacos al Pastor with Chipotle Peanut Salsa
Tacos with Beer-braised Carnitas Filling
Shredded Beef and Tripe Tacos
Duck Enchiladas with Chipotle Peanut Salsa
Blueberry Tres Leches Cake
Crab Tostada
Homemade Mexican Chorizo Sausage
Torta (Mexican Sandwich)

Enjoyed this post? Why not subscribe to our blog? Subscribe via reader or subscribe via email. Thank you!