Mexican Fiesta

The blog has been a little sparse lately- mainly because I've been a bit lazy and going back to the old favs, and also because there's been a baking fail or two which I won't go into. But this will make up for it-trust me.

I've only been over to the states twice, but if somebody could bring Taco Bell here it would be much appreciated, especially at 5 in the morning on the way home from Hitch. A Taco Bell 'chulupa' is a taco where the shell/tortilla is substituted for fried bread. As in roll up your sleeves, kitchen covered in flour, homemade bread. I've struggled with bread making as I've previously mentioned-but these always turn out great so I can't stress enough how much you need to try this. It's a lot of work- and there's a lot of little things going on. If you attempt it for 1 or 2 people, you are probably out of your mind. But it's the kind of recipe that you could get lots of people round, get everyone doing bits and pieces and make a night of it.







So the chulupa consists of:
Deep fried bread (recipe below)
Refried beans
Rice
Meat of your choice (recipe below)
Chilli corn mix (recipe below)
Salad (lettuce, tomatoes, red onions)
Guacamole (recipe below)
Sour cream
Cheese

Four recipes today!!!

The best damn aioli you ever had bitches

I love garlic. I put garlic in fricking everything. I am also one of those annoying "everything with mayo" people. So when I set out to make the best garlic mayo in the world one day, it was a big deal. I must admit there was a huge disaster when I tried to make the mayo myself...by hand...with the bf tipping in the oil and me getting one huge bicep trying to whisk the damn thing in. But of course it ended up in one big "There's something about Mary" type mess. Not pleasant.
I have however in my food quest come up with one of my greatest inventions- the best damn aioli you ever had. So get your pen and paper out and write this shit down. I swear this is amazing and super easy and goes on anything.

The best ever Garlic Mayo recipe
Ingredients
1/2 cup Best Foods Mayo
3 large garlic cloves (can add more or less to taste)
Small handful of italian parsley, coarsely chopped
1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp english mustard
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Your cooked garlic should look something like this

Heat a frypan with a splash of olive oil on low-medium heat. Peel the garlic cloves and place in the frypan off to the side not in the centre. The goal is to cook the garlic all the way through while trying not to get it too brown. This should take around 5 minutes. When the garlic is soft remove from the heat. Finely chop the softened garlic and then squash it with your knife against the chopping board until it makes almost a paste. Put the mayo into a small bowl with the garlic paste, the mustard, 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice and the parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix till combined. Place in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

Garlic paste

I have no idea how this stuff would keep in the fridge because it's always all gone by the end of dinner.

My favourite dish to use this mayo on is beautiful eye fillet sandwiches. I'll do another post on how I cook steak but for now here's how you chuck this all together. For this you will need:

Garlic Mayo a la Operation Yum
Ciabatta rolls
Pieces of good quality eye fillet steak
Parmesean cheese
Rocket lettuce
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Heat up a frypan with a touch of olive oil on medium high heat. Cut the ciabatta in half and toast lightly under the grill. Season your steak with salt and pepper and olive oil. Sear off in your frypan to your liking (has to be medium rare in my opinion). Allow to rest for at least 5 minutes. Slice thinly (makes it much easier to eat). Fill your ciabatta with the steak, thin slices of parmesean, a handful of rocket and lashings of garlic mayo. YUM!!

Eye fillet sandwich with potato wedges and aioli

TIP: you could totally roast the whole garlic bulb in the oven and then squeeze the cooked garlic in instead but who has time to do that
TIP #2: another definite favourite is to add the garlic to softened butter with parsley. This garlic butter is awesome on steak, or smeared on your favourite loaf of bread (like lonestar only better).