I bought these pork ribs earlier in the week with a vague idea of what I was going to do with them but, having seen the weather report, Stephen suggested keeping them until tonight and barbecuing them. We don’t eat ribs often so I wasn’t really sure what to do with them, a quick flick through Rick Bayless’ “Mexican Kitchen” was all that was required and I found an easy marinade.

Part of the reason I liked this marinade so much was that half was used to marinate the ribs overnight and the other half reserved (with some honey added) for the cooking. A lot of recipes (including the one we used previously) seem to require both a dry rub and a wet marinade and while I’m sure this is worthwhile, the faff value is off-putting if you don’t have plenty of time to spare.

Despite a recent trip to Borough market to stock up on Mexican ingredients, we didn’t actually have any of the chillies required for this recipe (ancho and guajillo). I improvised and used what we did have: habanero and chile de arbol. These worked well and added both heat and depth, I’m not sure how the dish would have turned out had we had the chillies specified but we were both happy with what we had. Ordinary chillies would result in a different taste but still worthwhile if you don’t have access to the dried ones.

I can’t remember what type of ribs we used but there wasn’t a huge amount of meat on them, one of the reasons I can’t really be bothered with them. What meat was there was tasty but if we cook them on the barbecue again then I’ll do my research first and try to find some meatier ribs. The marinade was really good though and versatile too, I can imagine it working with any kind of barbecued meat. It keeps in the fridge for a couple of weeks too so worth making a large batch in advance if you’re planning a lot of barbecues this summer.

We also had some corn salsa, using this recipe from a couple of weeks ago. I boiled the corn this time with a fair amount of salt and it really seemed to enhance the sweetness of the kernels. I added chilli this time too which we would normally do, I didn’t last time because there was so much chilli in everything else.

Mexican Rib Marinade
Serves Two (enough for six ribs with a little left over)

2 garlic cloves, unpeeled
4 dried chillies
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Pinch of cloves
Pinch of cumin
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/4 cup beef stock
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3/4 tablespoon honey

Toast the garlic in a pan until it starts to blacken, remove and set aside to cool. Peel.

Toast the dried chillies for a few seconds each side. Remove from the frying pan and soak in hot water for 30 minutes. Drain and discard the water.

Blend all the ingredients together except from the honey.

Taking half of the marinade, coat the ribs and chill in the fridge overnight. Add the honey to the other half of the marinade and store in the fridge.

As I mentioned above, we don’t really cook ribs often and since all the recipes I found stated they should be cooked in the oven first, that’s what we did. In hindsight, I don’t think this was necessary and in future, I would put the whole lot on the barbecue and brush on the honey-marinade. As it was, we cooked our ribs first, for 20 minutes, at 180 degrees and then finished them on the barbecue for 15 minutes.

We’ve been eating sensibly and upping our gym attendance this week so felt like we deserved a treat on Friday night. We haven’t had burgers for a while and I wanted to play with the recipe, creating something spicy and different to the relatively plain beef burgers we usually eat.

I started off with a mixture of pork and beef mince which I intended to add some chilli and coriander to, then I remembered the chorizo in the freezer and decided to add that too. Some salt and pepper, a little extra paprika and some lime juice completed the ingredients.

My top tip when it comes to burgers is to fry a little of the mixture first, not only do you get something good to eat while you’re putting everything together but it also gives you the opportunity to adjust the seasoning if you need to. I definitely did this time and added some extra paprika and quite a lot more salt.

As we were using pork mince, we had to cook the burgers to well-done which did mean they were a little dryer than they would have been if we had only used beef mince. The chorizo added some brilliant little pockets of fatty, tasty good stuff though so this wasn’t too much of a problem.

Alongside the burgers we served some avocado topped with coriander, lime juice, chilli, tomatoes and red onion (which I’d soaked in lemon juice for a while to remove the bitterness). A lot like guacamole but not as good.

There was also a corn salsa which included more coriander, some spring onion and some lime juice. This was really good: the corn was sweet but still tasted like corn and the coriander, lime juice and spring onion added an extra zing to the whole thing.

I suppose I should point out that where I say “coriander”, what I actually mean is “parsley”. I bought coriander but when I got home I noticed half a large bunch in the fridge so decided to use that up first. Except it was parsley. And I didn’t realise until Stephen pointed it out halfway through eating. Coriander would have been better though so I’m going to add that to the recipe for next time.

Mexican Burgers
Serves Two

125g pork mince
125g beef mince
75g chorizo
Half a chopped, red chilli
Handful of chopped coriander
Salt and pepper
1.5 tsps paprika
Squeeze of lime juice

Combine all ingredients and shape into burgers. Don’t do this too far in advance of the cooking time because the salt will draw out all the moisture.

Fry for two minutes each side and then cook in the oven for 15 minutes on 180 degrees.

Corn Salsa
Serves Two

Two heads corn
Two spring onions, slices
Handful of chopped coriander
Salt
Squeeze of lime juice
Olive oil

Cook the corn for about six minutes, or until cooked through. Leave to cool.

Combine with the other ingredients and reserve until needed. This is best made a little way in advance so that the flavours have time to combine.

When paging through Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen, we found something which we initially thought was a bit odd but strangely interesting – a Mexican version of lasagne, layered up with tortillas instead of lasagne sheets. We became determined to try it and thought that it would be a good way to use up the left over chilli-roasted pork that we had in the freezer. We took the general concept and made a recipe up around it rather than following an actual recipe.

We had bought the ingredients for making tortillas and were half thinking about making it today, weighing it up against getting out and doing some healthy outdoor pursuits. However, the weather in the morning looked rather grey, dreary and blustery so we figured that outdoor pursuits were out of the question. It did brighten up later, but by that time we were already elbow-deep in tortillas, pork and beans.

So we defrosted the pork. We also cooked some pinto beans to make typical Mexican frijoles (recipe here) and some slightly Mexicanised tomato sauce, but we were a little lazy with this one and didn’t go to great lengths to toast, soak and liquidise chillies, etc. Then we made up some home made tortillas.

When these were all done, we layered it up with a layer of tortillas as a base, followed by the pork, some of the tomato sauce and a sprinkling of grated cheese, then another layer of tortillas and then the beans and some more tomato sauce. Topped off with a final layer of tortillas and some more sauce and a generous sprinkling of grated cheese. Baked in the oven for 30 minutes and it came out smelling really good.

The pork was really good, but we knew that already because we had had it before and the beans were good too, but then we knew that they would be beause that recipe makes nice beans. So it was tasty, but not necessarily any more tasty than if we had just used the pork and the beans and wrapped them up in tortillas as usual and saved ourselves a lot of work. One thing that you don’t get when doing that though it the toasted cheesy crust on top, which was really good. It seems that this sort of dish does have potential though – maybe next time we should follow a recipe properly rather than just making it up as we go along.

PS We added a dash of guacamole on top of it since we love guacamole so much…

We’ve cooked this before using tequila but when I saw Jen’s recipe using dark beer, I was interested to see what the difference was.

Knowing I would be home late from work tonight, Stephen and I cooked the beans yesterday with the intention of making the wraps when we got home and turning the whole lot into quesadillas. However, I wasn’t expecting to be home as late as 8pm and just couldn’t be bothered so intead we ate the beans on their own with some quickly made corn wraps.

Luckily, this worked out really well and we didn’t miss the extra frying required for quesadillas. It’s hard to know exactly how much of an impact the dark beer had without tasting the beans alongside a version made with tequila but we definitely noticed the addition of pickled chillies, something we didn’t use previously. When I tasted the beans last night, the chillies were almost over-powering in their brine-iness but they mellowed overnight to add a background warmth with no hint of vinegar.

The only other change I made was to add lots of freshly chopped corainder just before serving as we both enjoy the fragrant lift this gives to bean dishes.

Jen commented in her post that her husband had no idea this was a meat-free dish and I think it would have taken me a while to work it out if I hadn’t known, the paprika adds a real roundness that is (obviously) reminiscent of chorizo. It certainly smelt like there was chorizo in there and while it would have added something in the way of texture, so much of the flavour is lost in long cooking that I really think it’s worth leaving it out of this dish. Hang on, a dish just as good without meat? Surely not! That’s got to be a Dinner Diary first

In keeping with the Mexican theme, we started with some chilli popcorn. Pop your corn and, in a seperate pan, melt some butter with some chilli powder and salt. Add that to the corn and eat. And eat and eat if you made as much as I accidentally did.

Next we moved on to the “burgers”. I don’t think this is a particularly authentic dish and we certainly didn’t follow any of the suggested recipes online. Instead, we took the Mexican Bean recipe we’ve cooked a few times, shaped it into burger-shapes and grilled them. They didn’t really hold together very well which I suppose means they were a failure but they tasted good, especially with some guacamole and cheese.

The really exciting part of the post though is: I MADE BREAD! REALLY GOOD BREAD! I’m not a natural baker and wouldn’t normally attempt this kind of thing but, the combination of reading about bread lately and a general lack of enthusiasm when it comes to shop-bought hamburger buns spurred me on. I followed this recipe and it worked really well. Not only did the buns taste good (yeasty with a slight sweetness) but they also looked like proper hamburger buns. Almost. I admit I have some work to do on my shaping and my sesame seed sprinkling could do with a little attention too but, overall I was happy with the result. OK, I admit, I was overjoyed and may have danced around the kitchen a bit.

So, to go with the tortillas we made earlier, we decided on a soup to start and something to fill them later. We had originally considered three courses all using tortillas but that seemed a little much when it actually came down to it.

We actually started with some pork scratchings and guacamole, inspired by Stephen’s recent visit to Wahaca. These were brilliant, both dishes are brilliant in their own right but together they become even better. Can you see how Stephen is trying to outdo my Valentine’s pie effort with his pink Champagne and roses? At least I was subtle.

Next was the soup which used some of the tortillas but required them to be fried before adding to the final dish. This was very light in texture, more of a broth really, but had a deep, chilli flavour to it. The fried tortillas worked like croutons and were great in both their crunchy state and later on when they had softened and soaked up some of the soup’s flavour.

And then the main course. We considered various options before settling on the pot roasted pork that we’ve actually cooked before. This was as good as last time but we were both very full by the time we got to this course. There’s lots leftover which we’ve frozen for now but will be great when we need something quick from the freezer. There are some pickled red onions here too which added a really good contrast to the deep and earthy pork and would work well with lots of Mexican dishes.

Chillied Tortilla Soup
Serves Two

2 to 3 corn tortillas, preferably stale
1/6 cup plus 1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
2-4 dried pasilla chillies, stemmed and seeded
1 garlic clove, unpeeled
1 medium ripe tomato
1 small white onion, sliced
3 cups chicken stock
Salt
1 cup cheese
1/2 lime (we forgot this)
2 cups chard (we used spring greens)

Slice the tortillas into strips and deep fry them until crispy.

Cut chillies into 1 inch squares and fry briefly for 3-4 seconds. Place half the chillies in a bowl and cover with hot water, leave for 30 minutes. Drain and discard the water. Set aside the remaining fried chillies.

Roast the garlic in a frying pan for about 15 minutes, or until blackened in places.

Roast the tomato under a hot grill until baleckened, turn over and roast the other side. About 10 minutes total.

Heat the remaining oil and fry onion until brown.

Place the rehydrated chillies, the tomato, the garlic and a third of the stock into a blender and blitz to a paste.

Raise the temperature of the onions, add the paste and fry until the paste darkens. Add the remaining stock, simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt if necessary.

Add the greens and cook through. Assemble and serve.

Pickled Red Onions
1 cup

1 small red onion, peeled and sliced
1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup cider vinegar

Blanch the onion slices in boiling salted water for 45 seconds, drain and place in a bowl.

Gring the peppercorns and cumin and add to the onions. Add the remaining ingredients and enough water to just cover. Stir and leave for several hours until the water turns bright pink.

Since we had plenty of time today, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to christen our new tortilla press, bought for us by Stephen’s mum at Borough Market last weekend. This has been on our wishlist since we started experimenting with Mexican food last year and it’s very easy to use: simply mix together 250g of the tortilla flour (also bought at Borough Market, via coolchile) with 330ml of warm water and leave for 15 minutes before forming into small balls – we got 13 from that amount.

Cover both sides of the press in cling-film, place the dough ball in the middle and apply some pressure until a tortilla-shaped circle is formed.

Fry in a hot, dry frying pan for 15 seconds, turn over and fry for 30 seconds, turn again and heat until the tortilla puffs. Repeat 13 times. Then put the battery back into your smoke alarm.

These turned out really well, slightly too thick perhaps but with a good, corny flavour. I’m sure you could make perfectly adequate tortillas without a press but this way is much more fun. And just look at the pretty colour.

We cooked a batch of these today to use for tonight’s dinner. We might actually need to make some more since completing an exhaustive taste test this afternoon.

Another dinner cooked by Stephen. I’m not sure exactly what he did but we cooked the beans last night and then today he added them to some onion, chilli and garlic and re-fried them. Served with guacamole and some smoked cheese inside corn tortillas.

For a while now we have been cooking Mexican food on and off. We started with the usual fajitas, tacos, chill con carne, guacamole, etc, using recipes that friends had recommended or that we had found somewhere on the world wide internets. While some of these turned out really well, we eventually felt that we should explore more real Mexican cooking rather than sticking with these few “stereotypes” of Mexican food.

So we bought Rick Bayless’s “Mexican Kitchen” (which I am sure we have mentioned before) and cooked a number of dishes out of it. One of the biggest discoveries has been dried chillis of various varieties, particularly guajillo, pasilla and ancho. These need to be soaked before using (sometimes toasted before being soaked too) and when they are soaking give off a lovely fruity, tangy, sometimes smoky aroma that makes its way into the finished dish too.

We haven’t had steak for ages, and really fancied the idea of it this Friday. We thought we would check quicky to see if by some chance there was a Mexican steak recipe in the Mexican Kitchen and lo and behold there was. It had to be done. This required a bit of advance preparation – there was sauce to be made ahead of time so that some of it could be used as a marinade. We did this on Thursday night in order to have it ready for Friday. We managed to cook the steaks just right and the marinade and sauce were brilliant, really worth the effort. The recipe is really for barbecued steaks so we definitely need to remember this recipe for when summer comes around.

We served it with “green rice” which again turned out really well – a nuttiness from frying the rice, a bit of depth from onion and chilli and a lot of herby flavour from coriander.

Grilled Steak with Spicy Guajillo Sauce (the original recipe was for 6, have tried to take it down to 2 portions here):

2 garlic cloves, unpeeled
5 dried guajillo chillies, stemmed and seeded
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, preferable Mexican (we didn’t have either, so used Marjoram)
pinch freshly ground black pepper
pinch ground cumin
1 1/2 cups beef stock
1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 tablespoon cider vinegar
2 steaks (we had sirloin, which the recipe suggested)
few sprigs coriander for garnish

Roast the unpeeled garlic on a skillet over medium heat, turning occasionally, until it is soft and blacked in bits (about 15 minutes). Let them cool and peel them. While this is happening, open up the chillis and toast them in the same (or another) skillet, pressing them down firmly with a spatula until they crackle, even send up a wisp of smoke, then flip them over and do the same on the other side. When done, put the chillis into a bowl and cover them with hot water, letting them soak for 30 minutes, stirring now and then to ensure even soaking. Drain them and discard the water.

Put the oregano, pepper, cumin, garlic and chillies into a food processor or blender with about 1/4 cup of the stock. Blend to a puree, adding a little more stock if needed. Press through a medium-mesh strainer into a bowl (we didn’t do that bit actually, missed it). Heat 1/2 tablespoon oil in a heavy saucepan over medium high. When the oil is hot enough to make a drop of the puree sizzle sharply, add the puree and stir constantly until it reduces to a thick paste, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the rest of the stock, partially cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 45 minutes. If necessary, stir in a little more stock to bring the sauce to a medium, saucy consistency. Tate and season with salt if needed (probably not needed due to the stock) and sugar.

Mix 1/8 cup of the sauce with the cider vinegar and pour into a dish large enough to accomodate both steaks. Coat the steaks well in the marinade and leave in the fridge for up to 4 hours. At this point the recipe tells you to get your fire going to barbecue the steaks, which we didn’t do because we were just griddling them. We did make our green rice though. Then barbecue / griddle your steaks and serve with heated sauce poured over them. The recipe also says to barbecue some red onion slices and serve them with the steaks, but we didn’t do that. Garnish with coriander (didn’t do that either…)

Green Poblano Rice (original recipe serves 4, we halved it here)

1 cup chicken stock
1 fresh poblano chilli, stemmed and seeded and roughly chopped (we just used a generic supermarket chilli here actually)
12 sprigs coriander (this is the whole amount of coriander rather than half, felt like it needed a lot)
1/4 teaspoon salt if using salted stock, or 1/2 teaspoon if unsalted stock
1/2 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil
1/2 cup rice preferably medium grain (we actually used basmati here)
1/2 small white onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

Bring the stock to the boil in a saucepan, then add the chopped chilli and let it simmer gently for about 10 minutes until the chilli is very soft. Pour this into a food processor, add the coriander (stems and all) and process to a smooth puree. Press through a medium-mesh strainer into a bowl and add the salt (we didn’t do this strainer-pressing again…)

Clean the saucepan, add the oil and heat over medium heat. Add the rice and onion and cook, stirring regularly, until the rice is chalky looking and the onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook a minute longer. Stir in the warm chilli liquid, cover, and cook over medium-low heat for 15 minutes until the rice is done. If the rice is almost done, leave the cover on the saucepan and turn off the heat and leave for 5 to 10 minutes longer to complete the cooking.

We bought a larger joint of pork than we needed yesterday so that we would have leftovers for this evening. Stephen suggested we turn them into something vaguely Mexican so, when I got home from work, I started on some guacamole.

We had some leftover gravy too which Stephen used as the starting point for the sauce. Into the Magimix went a rehydrated ancho chilli, some garlic, cumin seed, coriander leaf and a little tomato puree. This was added to a saucepan with the leftover gravy and brought up to simmering point. Next we added the leftover shredded pork which was heated through until hot.

We served the pork with yet more leftovers: the garlic Spring greens from yesterday’s lunch. All wrapped up in corn tortillas with the guacamole and some grated cheese.

This turned what could have been some rather dull, dry leftover pork into a really interesting and tasty dinner. The ancho chilli adds a warm, deep flavour which is reminiscent of long, slow-cooked meat and works really well with the bright and zingy guacamole.