Recipes and Ideas

Masa Harina Cornbread Muffins

These handy to grab, Masa Harina cornbread muffins are made mostly with masa harina with a little bit of flour to help them rise and a touch of cornmeal for grit. Perfect with carne con chile, ribs or mole de la olla. If you like your cornbread muffins a little sweet, we have a great glaze that uses butter, Nixta Corn Liqueur (which is made from nixtamalised corn for extra nixtamlised corn flavour) and golden syrup - just pour over when still warm and it makes a lovey sticky glaze.

Chamoy BBQ Sauce

Chamoy! Tart, sweet, salty and spicy, made into a smoky barbecue sauce with Chile Pasilla de Oaxaca, vinegar and garlic- perfect for ribs, chicken or fish.

Yucatan Michelada Ribs

Ribs rubbed with Yucatan Seasoning Paste and braised in beer, tomato juice and all the Michelada fixings, make for tasty, tender and moist ribs. As a party dish this is handy to cook the day before, then on the day, paint with BBQ sauce and throw on the barbecue or grill to re heat, get sticky and tasty. Continuing with the Michelada theme we have made a Chamoy BBQ Sauce - tart, sweet, salty and spicy.

Chocoflan with burnt sugar caramel

Chocoflan, also called 'el pastel imposible', has two layers - one a moist chocolate cake, the other a creamy flan - so it could also be called 2 in 1 cake as well! What makes it impossible is the fact the the cake and the flan swop places in the bundt tin when cooking. The cake rising to the top and the flan sinking to the bottom. It's a great dessert for a gathering and is appealing to all ages. The burnt sugar caramel is not essential but the bitter sweet taste compliments the sweet flan, an...

Baja Style Aubergine Tacos (vegan) by Jake Norman

Baja Style refers to the famous fish tacos of Baja California - where fish is battered, placed on a tortilla with cabbage and tangy chipotle mayonnaise. This recipe replaces the fish with aubergine and the mayo with Chipotle VEGAN Mayonnaise. What we love about this recipe is the addition of vodka to the batter which keeps it super crisp and is a great foil for the creamy aubergine within. ¡Que Rico! NB: If you want to keep the taco completely gluten free just sub out the flour for gluten fre...

Potato Tostones with Sour Cream and Tomatillo Salsa

Squished and fried baby potatoes serve with a little sour cream, diced onion and a dribble of Tomatillo Salsa. These are a great side to meat dishes such as Beef Barbacoa.

Beef Barbacoa

This recipe is so easy and so good. Meat and a marinade is baked in a casserole dish with a lid in the oven for about 3 hours until the meat is fall apart tender. The marinade couldn't be simpler to make, add everything to the blender and blend, no toasting or soaking of chillies! Serve as tacos with corn tortillas, diced onion, green chilli and lime or serve as a meal with Potato Tostones and seasonal greens.

Ancho, orange, cajeta flan

Flan is a favourite pudding in Mexico. It is light and refreshing after a meal. The addition of the ancho chilli is inspired by Ixta Belfrage's recipe in Ottolenghi Flavour. Genius! The flavour is light but compliments the orange and the bitter-sweet caramel so beautifully. Rather than making individual flans, making one large one is much easier to turn out and makes a family-sharing dish. The caramel floods off the top when you take your first scoop which is always a pleasure. nb, we have use...

Smoky Black Bean Dip by Daniela Villanueva

This Black Bean Dip with Pasilla de Oaxaca and Epazote is perfect as a dip for Totopos! It has a strong smoky taste and is perfect for chilli lovers!

Garbanzo - Chickpea salad with homemade vinaigrette

Delicious, nutritious and colourful salad. Great as a main dish, but same can be served as a side. Improvise and have any leftovers you may have lying around, extra veg, cheese, etc!

Green Pozole

This recipe uses the left overs from a duck, the fattiness replicating the traditional pork very nicely, however you can make this recipe with chicken or turkey leftovers too. In fact you don't need any meat at all, it is great with a good vegetable stock and enriched by toasted pumpkin seed paste. The garnishes are inspired by El Pozole de Moctezuma a famous pozoleria in Mexico City, where they add raw egg yolk, sardines and mezcal to your bowl. This recipe is made easier with a pressure co...

Chilli and Mezcal Chocolate Truffles

Rich, swarthy, decadent truffles with gentle spicy heat from fruity mulato chillies, a whiff of smoky mezcal and balanced with a touch of savoury Sal de Gusano (agave worm salt). A great accompaniment when sipping mezcal, a coffee or an Espresso Martini.

TOSTADAS DE TINGA DE POLLO (Chicken Tinga Tostadas)

Tinga is a beautiful sauce that built from layers of flavours, the sauce cooks very much like an Indian sauce. The frying of onions, the amount of oil, the rich tomato and tomatillo base with the smoky heat of chipotle and the perfume of bay make this a special sauce indeed. It can either be cooked saucy to serve with rice or reduce the sauce a bit and use as a tostada topping. We have used chicken but you could use prawns or for a vegetarian version green beans and small cubes of potatoes would...

Paloma with fresh pink grapefruit and pink himalayan salt rim

This is a refreshing drink that is easier to make and more refreshing than a margarita. The grapefruit and salt really work together, the tequila flavour just coming through and the soda water making it delightfully sparkling. You can either make it with fresh grapefruit juice and soda or use bottled soda like 3¢ Pink Grapefruit Soda or Jarritos Grapefruit Soda, both are delicious.

Tostadas with crema and cheese for pozole

Tostadas are a traditional accompaniment for pozole as they provide satisfying crunch between spoonful's of brothy pozole. Topping the tostada with cooling crema and a grating of rich hard sheep's cheese is a decadent way to embellish your tostada, a trick we learnt from the young Mexicans who worked in Taqueria. !Que rico!

Tacos de Tuetano (Bone Marrow Tacos)

Roasted bone marrow, often described as “meat butter” works a treat spread over a warm corn tortilla with a sprinkle of salt, you can add salsa but there is something delicious about the simplicity of the unctuous marrow, corn and salt.

Mexican Prawn Cocktail (Coctel de Camaron)

Refreshing, chilled Mexican prawn cocktail is a real crowd-pleaser. The seafood sauce is an oilless dressing and is a perfect balance of sour lime, sweet ketchup and spicy hot sauce. The cucumber and sweet white onion add crispness while the avocado adds richness. Serve with crunchy totopos and a lime wedge. This cocktail also works well with crayfish and langoustines. Prawns: we have considered the sustainability of prawns, and we think the small north Atlantic prawns have a fantastic flavour...

BARBACOA TACOS

Barbacoa is a Mexican term for BBQ, but it is different from the American style BBQ in that the meats are slow-roasted and steamed (overnight!) in an underground brick lined wood-fired pit until melting tender. Traditionally beef, goat or mutton is wrapped in maguey or banana leaves and placed over a pan of water and vegetables. The drippings from the meat flavour the broth, making a delicious hot drink to have before or with your barbacoa. Since most of us don’t have a pit, the alternatives ar...

Salsa Borracha

For a killer Salsa borracha (drunken salsa) we have turned to Alex Stupak who has an Oaxacan inspired recipe, which uses the smoky flavours of pasilla de Oaxaca and mezcal,

Yucatan Achiote Baked Fish - Tikin Xic

Achiote is a beautiful paste from the Yucatan. It is made with annatto seeds, spices and garlic and imparts an earthy flavour and cheerful bright red colour to anything it is cooked with. Here we have marinated a large piece fish with achiote diluted with fresh citrus juice and baked until burnished. Served with black beans, pickled pink onions, Mexican white rice, corn tortillas and a salad of little gem and avocado.

TRES LECHES CAKE

Tres Leches (three milk's) cake, is a super light sponge made by whipping egg whites into the batter mix. Once baked the sponge is soaked in sweet milk and topped with whipped cream and fresh seasonal fruit.

Mexican green rice

There are many ways to make green rice, but they all have something in common: the addition of plenty of fresh green ingredients. We have used roasted jalapenos, coriander, parsley, and spinach. Serve with fish, chicken or enchiladas.

Mexican red rice with vegetables

Hearty Mexican red rice made with tomatoes, onion, carrot, and peas. An easy to prepare, delicious side dish for anything from grilled meats to mole.

Roasted Green Jalapeno Emulsion