Mexican Fiesta!

In November my bestest bud from school, Rhiannon, came to visit. We organised a dinner party to celebrate the fact that she is getting married to the lovely Tom! I decided to cook Mexican food as it's easy for everyone to just dig in and eat what they like. Also my housemate is a vegetarian and allergic to wheat (troublemaker) so Mexican food is perfect for her as she can have corn tortillas and lots of beany goodness.

I made a chorizo & butternut squash taco filling and refried black beans from Thomasina Myers' excellent Mexican Food Made Simple. The refried beans or frijoles are perfect for dipping tortilla chips into or spreading on tacos. They are quite time intensive to make, as the beans need boiling for several hours, but it's well worth the effort. I also cooked my spicy bean chilli, one of my favourite vegetarian dishes.

For the meat eaters I cooked 'Starlit Chicken Wraps' from The Londoner blog (warning: do not look on this blog unless you are prepared to have some serious life envy). Lots of juicy, spicy, sweet chicken with whole cherry tomatoes, one of my new favourite things to cook.

And finally I made a huge vat of guacamole, which I'm slightly concerned I'm addicted to. I like my guac super chunky, with lots of coriander and lime to zing the avocado up. Here's my recipe:

Serves 4
2 ripe avocados
1 lime, juice only
Half a bunch coriander, finely chopped
Plenty of seasoning
Tobasco
2 spring onions, finely chopped
4 cherry tomatoes, finely chopped

1. Cut the avocados in half, remove but do not discard the stones and scoop the flesh into a bowl. Use a fork to mash the avocado, you want it to be nice and chunky so don't go too crazy
2. Next add the lime, coriander, spring onions, cherry tomatoes and LOTS of seasoning. Taste to check the seasoning, adding more if necessary. Now add a few drops of Tobasco to spice it up a little, you can leave this out if you like your guacamole cool
3. Apparently putting the stones back into the guacamole helps prevent the avocado from turning brown, I'm not sure if it actually works but it can't hurt to do so. If you're making this a few hours ahead of time, I find the best way to keep the avocado a nice bright green is to cover with cling film and press it down lightly so there's no air between the film and the guacamole

Black beans boiling away

Chicken with cherry tomatoes

Butternut squash & chorizo

Three bean chilli

Guacamole

Wrap and chilli

Smoked Mackerel Salad

On Saturday my old housemate Lucy came to stay for the weekend. I love being out on the balcony on the rare occasions when the weather permits, seeing as it was so beautiful I decided to make a salad for dinner - perfect for some al fresco dining.

Mackerel is both good for you and cheap; it cost just £2 for three fillets compared to £4.50 for two salmon fillets. It's an oily fish so it's high in omega 3, along with the avocado and olive oil the salad contains plenty of 'good' fats. The new potatoes bulked out the meal, but if you're having this for lunch you could leave them out.

Serves 4

4 peppered smoked mackerel fillets

1 bag rocket, spinach & watercress

1 avocado

4 spring onions

Cucumber

400g new potatoes

For the dressing:

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

3 tbsp olive oil

1. Put the potatoes in a pan of water and boil until tender, this normally takes around 20 minutes
2. Meanwhile chop the cucumber, spring onions and avocado. Place on 4 separate plates with the salad leaves
3. Once cooked through, slice the potatoes and add to the salad along with the mackerel
4. Drizzle with the dressing and serve with plenty of creamed horseradish

Tasty salad: