Fajitas y salsa with post dinner cocktails

Tomato, Cucumber and Mint Salsa

Finding a balance between getting enough protein in your diet, getting your serves of fruit and vegetables whilst making something quick and yet tasty can some times seem a bit of a challenge. This is where modern variations on traditional Mexican food can come into play. Salsas of various types can allow for a wide variety of vegetables to be incorporated easily into one meal. This is my take on Fajitas.


Lime and chilli steak fajitas with Barbecued Peppers, and 2 salsas.


Lime and Chilli steak -  Rump steak was marinated for an hour or so in lime juice, chilli powder and smokey paprika. This was based on an idea that I got from the www.taste.com.au website with the addition of the smoked paprika to add a hint of that smokiness that is synonymous with steak Fajitas. The steaks were then barbecued on the grill plate until medium rare and sliced thinly for the Fajitas.

Peppers on the BBQ

Barbecued Peppers - Having worked in construction for several years I have attended many barbecues with our multicultural work crew. One thing that was ever present was a mix of red and green capsicums with wedges of onion all cooked up on the BBQ - this is an addition that I try to incorporate into many of my own BBQs these days. It is also a great accompaniment to Fajitas which are often served with Capsicum and onion sizzling on the hot plate along side the steak.


 Tomato, Cucumber and Mint Salsa - No Mexican meal would be complete with out a salsa and why stop at one I say. This salsa incorporates tomatoes probably one of the most common salsa ingredients. The combination with the cucumber and mint makes a spectacular looking fresh salsa of reds, whites and greens. Moving away from the more traditional salsa condiments I dressed the salsa in White wine vinegar, salt, pepper and a dash of sugar.

 

Corn, Avocado and Coriander Salsa

Corn, Avocado and Coriander Salsa -  This yellow and green salsa is a little more about taste than looks as a beautifully ripe avocado can only result in a degree so smushiness when mixed through a salsa. All the ingredients are pretty typical Mexican style ingredients - dressed with freshly squeezed lime juice, salt and pepper. 

The Fajitas were wrapped in flour tortillas in a make your own arrangement - that way people could add as much or as little of any of the ingredients to their fajitas as they liked. Now just need to talk my neighbour into making me tortillas with his new tortilla maker and reckon they will be perfect. My brother, sister and friend all gave these the thumbs up so will be making these again no doubt.  

Fajitas

Cucumber and Mint Martini

Mike's Bar - The evening was finished off beautifully with a trip to my brother's house where he and Mike the cocktail extraordinaire mixed up and made up a number of killer cocktails. Highlights included the Cucumber and Mint martini - amazing colour and fabulously refreshing flavour. Campari spritzers, espresso martinis, nectarine spritzers, old fashions, classic martinis and pear and elderflower martini were also on the menu. Definitely plans for a trip back to Mike's bar some time soon.  

Summer Salads and Stone Fruit

Summer Peach Salad (Delicious Dec 10)

With summer comes the inevitable and happily welcomed appearance of summer fruit into the markets and shops. No type more happily welcomed by me than stone fruit. The peaches at the moment have been sensational and have been inspiring a few peach based salads. In Ottelinghi the cookbook there is a great Peach and speck salad that is dressed with a dressing of orange blossom water.  Also recently in the December 2010 (my pick of the December food magazines that I brought) was a great peach salad with coriander and chilli - a great hit each time I have made it.  A variation of this recipe is pictured to the left - with added rocket.

Peach, Prosciutto and Buffalo Mozzarella Salad

Super Summer Salad - Peach Prosciutto and Buffalo Mozzarella. This salad was born through the inspiration of some of the other peach salads that I love and a trip to the shops to have a good look around at what produce looked good and what I felt like eating. Peach, prosciutto and torn buffalo mozzarella on a base of rocket with shredded basil to get in my serve of greens and add a peppery tang. I dressed the salad with a white balsamic and a tangy extra virgin olive oil, good grind of both salt and pepper and served it with a fresh Ciabatta. Perfect for a summer night!

Summer slaw

Variations on some old classics - Summer Slaw - The bright colours of red cabbage, carrot, spring onions and parsley along with regular cabbage make this variation of the classic coleslaw a feast for your eyes as well as your mouth. I have forgone the traditional mayonnaise based dressing and opted instead to dress it with white balsamic vinegar and a dash of olive oil. Seasoned with salt and pepper of course. Seasoned in this way this slaw is a lot lighter but doesn't compromise flavour and is full of crunch.

Lemon, chilli and mint potato salad

Lemon, Chilli and Mint Potato Salad - looking for a lighter healthier option to the traditional potato salad or just want to try something a bit different? This is a slightly different take on potato salad. I am a skins on the potato person as why waste time peeling the potatoes for potato salad simply to lose the nutrients and texture that the skins add. The dressing in this salad is made from a mix of light sour cream, yoghurt, lemon juice, lemon zest, finely chopped chilli, mint, chives and S&P. I love lemons and mint so it is no surprise to see these making an appearance in this salad.

Whether it is a casual BBQ with friends or a quick meal at home in there is no reason that salads should be boring or tasteless. Salads are one of my favourite things to experiment with - probably due to years of salad making for a job whilst going through uni.  It is amazing how successful something quite quick and simple but slightly different to normal can be - so go on live a little. Contrary to pop-culture beliefs You can make friends with salad!  

Eating in - Fresh Herbs

I have to say that if there is one thing that I think has significantly improved my cooking it is the use of fresh herbs. The flavour that they bring to dishes really can't be rivalled. That's not to say that dried herbs don't have their place many a stew has been improved by a sprinkling of dried herbs and in the Cooks Companion Stephanie Alexander calls for dried mint in her Tzatziki over fresh herbs. However when it comes to a great flavoursome salad - it is fresh herbs all the way. Sadly due to my ability to kill most of the herbs that I grown in the garden or in pots this can mean a bit of extra cash but the benefits to the flavour in my opinion are well worth it.
Also important to flavour is the crushing / grinding /pounding of spices and other ingredients - so it was with much excitement on Wednesday that I got to pull out and use my brand new mortar and pestle.

On the menu was something relatively light and simple to be made after sport - from the Tossed cookbook Crab and green mango salad. The dressing was made from dried shrimp pounded with chilli, garlic and salt mixed with fish sauce and palm sugar - a strong salty counter point to the fresh herbs coriander and mint.

Sticking by my call of how work much cracking crabs is. Used left over legs from Tuesdays dinner. This recipe has a large proportion of my favourite ingredients so I was surprised when I wasn't overly happy with the outcome however that may be more to do with still being thirsty from sport and tired by the time I ate it as much as any other reason. Would be great with a nice sharp Riesling.

This was the first time I had used green mangos in such a recipe and on reflection I think the mangos I used were slightly too ripe - the recipe called for the mangos to be shredded but I didn't feel that was an option with the ripe green mangos I had.

Still it was pretty tasty and would be keen to try it again perhaps with a different type of seafood - something less fiddly perhaps like squid or possibly would be good with some crunch skin on salmon.

Eating In - Picking crab meat

It is an unwritten rule between my cooking friends that if you are going to buy a food magazine then you really need to commit to making a minimum of three recipes to get your moneys worth. Having received a subscription to Australian Gourmet Traveller for my birthday I should get plenty of monthly inspiration for cooking and will be making sure I get my friends money's worth. Well tonight the aim was for a quick meal between sporting commitments so a flick through the Gourmet Traveller and I had come up with a potential dinner idea. Tuesday night is often pasta night at my Zia's so settled on Spaghettini with crab, garlic, chilli, lemon and parsley - don't you just love these explicit recipe titles - no mistaking what was going to go into this recipe. The recipe called for a live Hawkesbury mud crab but given this was unlike to meet my time restraints or my ability to pick up the ingredients I opted instead to substitute in Pre-cooked blue swimmer crabs - 4 crabs were 1kg in the shell.

Well there is nothing like having to pick the meat from a small 250gm swimmer crab to remind you just how good value it is to order crab dishes out - the 4 crabs yielded enough for the 4 serves that I made but it wasn't heavy on crab meat, that is for sure. I also went for the cheating option of serving the legs and claws separately for my Eatees to pick at. 

I always feel the key with dishes of this type is to embrace the flavours and and the simplicity - dishes like this really serve as a reminder of how simple can be just as tasty as something complex. This would be one of my favourite styles of pasta dishes. The olive oil infused with chilli, garlic, lemon rind and seasoned with salt and pepper was light but full of flavour. The toasted panko crumbs on the top added a delicious texture. The contrast of the sweet crab meat just delicious. The recipe calls for coriander cress for garnish though I am yet to find a place to source these - maybe I just need to raise my own corriander seedlings. Anyway instead I opted to garnish with picked coriander leaves just a few added a bit of extra zing to the flavour as well as improving the presentation.

The finished product 

Call of the day from my sister on arriving at sport after eating our meal  I knew that second bowl was going to be a bad idea but it was just so delicious I had to. This recipe gets the thumbs up from me (and the other eatees) if you want to try it you can get the recipe here: Spaghettini with Hawksbury Mud Crab Recipe

Getting Started

As I write this my first post I have just sat down with a delicious bowl of Kylie Kwong's Stir-Fried Pork Fillets with Honey and Ginger - Recipe from Simple Chinese Cooking. What a fitting thing to be doing while creating my first blog. I love this cookbook though possibly I should return the copy to my brother at some stage.

At Christmas time I was the excited recipient of David Thompson's Thai Food as well as Larousse Gastronomique. Some new exciting reading to add to my cooking inspirtation. So hopefully soon I will be posting on some amazing Thai recipes that I have tried. Fresh zesty tangy Thai - is there anything better on a warm summers night? Any tips on favourite recipes from Thai Food

Bare with me - I am a first time blogger - but hope that you will come on a culinary journey with me as I post on what I am Eating on Ox, where I am getting inspiration from and where I am eating and drinking out when it is not a night to cook in at home.