Kevin's Watch

Cinco de Mayo...up here on the border with Canada it's a great excuse for eating Mexican food and listening to mariachi music.

This year if the weather is good we plan on grilling fajita fixings out on our deck and enjoying a lovely spring evening outside. If the weather is bad, we'll have a burrito bar and cheese quesadillas inside.

What is everyone's favorite Mexican foods? Any good recipes out there?

I'll be working that day and we will have a special menu. Probably some pork loaf???

I did Cinco de Mayo as a village event two years ago, and the Mexican residents got offended. They claim it's only a holiday for one region of Mexico, and should not be treated as an overall Mexican celebration in the states.

I haven't done one since.

CALABACITAS (I have no idea where I got that name from, it may be proper name or it may be something someone told me for a laugh, I really don't know!)

Anyway, a lovely Mexican courgette and tomato stew-thing which is lovely with rice or/and flat garlic bread stuff.....(do you americans have a different word for courgettes?)

corn oil
lots of courgettes, thinly sliced and preferably young
finely chopped onion
two or three garlic cloves chopped
about the same amount of tomatoes as courgettes - tinned is fine
lots of jalepenos
lots of coriander

Chuck it all in a pot heat it up and simmer for 30-40 minutes - but don't let it dry out should be juicy.

If you make too much - great, it's one of those dishes like some curries that seem to get nicer the more you reheat it.

Hm I've just decided what's for dinner tomorrow!

that's FRESH coriander bytheway

Stonemaybe wrote:(do you americans have a different word for courgettes?)

Maybe. I don't recognize the word offhand.

:::off to check the Cook's Thesaurus Esmer posted:::

Hmm...it says courgettes is another word for what Americans know as zucchini. Is that what you're referring to?

Stonemaybe wrote:that's FRESH coriander bytheway

Ah...many Americans differentiate between the fresh herb and the dried seeds.

The herb is called cilantro, whereas the seed is known as coriander.

thank you menolly. it is cool that the same herb has two different tiltes. does this happen with other herbs?

Menolly wrote:I did Cinco de Mayo as a village event two years ago, and the Mexican residents got offended. They claim it's only a holiday for one region of Mexico, and should not be treated as an overall Mexican celebration in the states.

I haven't done one since.

Those people would seriously freak out if they were to ever come up to this area of the country then.

Tell 'em to bite you. If you want to eat ethnic food, why not?

sgtnull wrote:thank you menolly. it is cool that the same herb has two different tiltes. does this happen with other herbs?

Probably, Sarge, but I can't think of any offhand.

Do we use caraway leaves or basil seeds, only they're known by other names? Or perhaps cilantro/coriander is a rare plant in that we use both leaves and seeds?

duchess of malfi wrote:Tell 'em to bite you. If you want to eat ethnic food, why not?

Ah...I wish! But we have to attempt to make all of our residents 'happy.' If someone complains about a program, particularly if an ethnic group complains, the program is shelved and rarely attempted again.

God help you if you ever try anything Irish then!

Oh, and I think courgette IS zuchini - long green things that look like cucmbers(same word please?!) but are veggielovely?

Zucchini is Italian and Courgette is French. Same vegetable.

Goes by the name of Squash in Denmark, which is really another vegetable all together

Oh, and Cilantro is the Spanish common name for the plant Coriandrum sativum.

Funny little piece of trivia here:

The name coriander derives from Latin coriandrum, which was first noted by Pliny. The Latin word derives in turn from Greek corys, a bedbug, plus -ander, "resembling", and refers to the supposed similarity of the scent of the crushed leaves to the distinctive odour of bedbugs (largely forgotten in this age of insecticides).

Bedbugs.

That reminds me of one of my favourite bits of a book.

Anyone know the bedbug bit of 'Half Asleep in Frog Pyjamas'?

Menolly wrote:...perhaps cilantro/coriander is a rare plant in that we use both leaves and seeds?

What about celery, just to cite one example?

Menolly wrote:I did Cinco de Mayo as a village event two years ago, and the Mexican residents got offended. They claim it's only a holiday for one region of Mexico, and should not be treated as an overall Mexican celebration in the states.

I haven't done one since.

duchess of malfi wrote:Tell 'em to bite you. If you want to eat ethnic food, why not?

Ah...I wish! But we have to attempt to make all of our residents 'happy.' If someone complains about a program, particularly if an ethnic group complains, the program is shelved and rarely attempted again.

If you are wishing to make/eat Mexican food, the village you now are in will welcome it. Knock yourself out this weekend. I'll help with menus, cooking and margarita production/consumption. I know exactly how much tequila is too much to give you...and Dam-sel is not known in some quarters as "Blender" for no reason.

OTOH, if your wish is to be bitten...again, I am entirely willing to help.

Even so, since we'll be attending a Cinco de Mayo themed gathering on May 11th (yeah, sounds bizarre to me too), I think I'll make a flan caramel for it. Since I've never made one before, I may just make one for this Sunday, if only to get some practice in...

what? there couldn't possibly be another reason why I would want to make it twice...
well yeah. it is one of my all time favorite desserts.

Hashi Lebwohl wrote:Cinco de Mayo is a manufactured holiday invented by the beer industry as a way to boost sales. It is a minor holiday in Mexico and is not widely celebrated, except in Puebla. No, their main holiday is 16 September and celebrates independence from Spain.

I live in Texas. Here, Mexican food is not "ethnic" but rather a staple--most everyone eats some Mexican dish once or twice a week.

Hell's bells, if countries celebrated victories in battle over France, every freaking day would be a holiday somewhere in the world. -_-

Tonight was the monthly game night potluck, with the theme of "Cinco de Mayo," even though it is once de mayo. So, I made a Piñata Cake for dessert.

I started by making a chocolate cake and a red velvet cake in a 1.5 quart oven safe bowl. Trimmed off the domed tops, then hollowed out the middle of both bowls, filling the bottom bowl, in this case the chocolate, with various candies.


I made a seven minute frosting and used a layer of frosting spread on the circumference of cut edges of the two cakes as the medium to hold the two half spheres of cake together. Then I spread a layer of frosting over the resultant sphere.


Using fruit rolls, I fringed the edges and then applied them to look like the crepe paper used to decorate many piñatas.


A topping of a sample of the candy inside the cake to decorate the cake, and it is done.


The first slice of cake removed. You can see the candy starting to spill out.


About a third of the cake and most of the candy gone in this shot. It was received very well.

I'm pleased.