A Mexican feast

The busy round of Christmas entertaining continued on Saturday when we had Paul's pal Elise over for dinner. When we were trying to figure out what to thrown on the table we somehow settled on Mexican  . . . I don't know if it was the huge tamale making spread in the December edition of Fine Cooking . . . somehow Mexican had entered our consciousness and we were off.

I once again faced the challenges of trying to find authentic ingredients here in the Toronto area - I persevered (when don't I when food is involved?) and we were able to make everything on our list.

We should have started out with Margaritas but Paul has ever recovered from an unfortunate tequila incident many years ago. Instead we had an Ice wine Cosmo.

I had found a recipe for chipotle shrimp tostadas over at the Food and Wine site. I decided that if I served them on round corn tortilla chips they would make a great appetizer.

They did!

The leftovers also made amazing shrimp tacos the next day. MMMMM

We made four dishes for the main course. Paul pulled together a wonderful salad of jicama, avocado, pomegranate seeds, and oranges. This proved wonderful for cutting some of the heat from the remaining dishes.

I whipped together a chile relleno casserole - a first for me. I don't think I've ever eaten this before but Elise from Simply Recipes said it was amazing and she has never lead me astray before so I had to give it a go! It was even better because I was able to provide a supplier for fresh Mexican chorizo sausage - score!

We also made the tamales from the December Fine Cooking magazine. I know that we wrapped them incorrectly but they just seemed more festive this way! This was a great recipe but I know why people say 'it is better to make tamales with a crowd'.  

We decided to serve a rice pilaf on the side to help soak up all of the amazing sauces. This one was made with strips of roasted poblano peppers, corn, some cilantro, and queso fresco (which I was also able to find a supplier for - score!)

Dessert was a flourless chocolate cake with chile powder and cinnamon. It tasted just like the amazing Mexican hot chocolate that I have ordered at Toronto's greatest chocolatier SOMA. It was served with some cayenne spiked whipped cream. MMMMM

Of course, we also had a huge platter of our holiday baking in case any one was still hungry.Ahhh . . . Christmas, the season of overeating! 

Comments

[barb Cabot]

Wow you are so amazing. All of it sounds so good but I can't believe you made tamales too! What a meal.

[Eden]

Awesome! I am with Barb, You are amazing. I have only been to one tamale making party. It was a lot of work, so I am truly impressed. You and Paul are the best hosts...(outside of Palm Desert, that is... :))

[Annie]

What an amazing spread. That salad is so beautiful!

Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season!

[Robert]

Any chance I can wangle some recipes out of you? We now have a Mexican stand at Borough Market so can get the ingredients, I just don't know what to do with them and your whole spread looks and sounds divine.

[JDeQ]

Clearly we are overachievers when it comes to food Barb! LOL

Shh Eden!

Thanks Annie - I hope thta you have a wonderful holiday!

Any in particular you'd like first Robert?