Lighter Mexican Party food...Cinco de Mayo?

Question

I'm having a large Kentucky Derby party (about 65 people) on May 5th which happens to be Cinco De Mayo, so I figured I'd do a Mexican theme. I'm really considering having a pig roasted and also setting up a taco station where everyone can make their own. Maybe a nice light Gazpacho soup served in shot glasses and a spicy dish of Mexican cocktail shrimp.

I'm looking for lighter/elegant recipes that would go along with the heavier food. Any ideas or suggestions?

Please don't suggest I "google" as I'd like recipes that people have actually tried and liked. Thanks

Answer 1

Tortilla Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

1 medium onion chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. Oil
2 pounds stew meat, optional
1 14oz. can tomatoes
1/2 jar Tejano salsa
1 10 1/2 oz. can beef broth
1 10 1/2 oz. cans water
1 10 3/4 oz. can chicken broth
1 10 3/4 oz. can tomato soup
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. lemon-pepper seasoning
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. Tabasco sauce
4 tortillas, cut in 1" squares
1/4 cup grated Cheddar cheese


Directions:

Saute the first 5 ingredients in a large skillet.
Add remaining ingredients, except tortillas and cheese, and simmer for 50 minutes.
Add tortillas and cook 10 minutes.
Pour into mugs and sprinkle with cheese.
With your first sip you will leave your chair, but quickly sit down and continue to sip. HOT but so good!
Serves 6-8.



Roasted Red Bell Pepper Dip Back to the top

Ingredients:

1tsp extra-virgin olive oil
5 cloves garlic, peels intact
3 red bell peppers, roasted, peeled and seeded
½ tsp ground cumin
4oz cream cheese, room temperature
2 tbsp sour cream or crème fraiche
Salt & freshly ground pepper


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Sprinkle the olive oil over the garlic cloves and wrap tightly in aluminum foil. Place in the oven until the cloves are soft (40-60 minutes), let cool.

Squeeze the soft garlic cloves from their peels into a blender or food processor fitted with the metal blade. Add the red peppers and cumin and purée. Add the cream cheese and blend until smooth. Transfer into a small bowl and fold in the sour cream or crème fraiche. Salt and pepper to taste. This dip will keep in an air tight container, refrigerated for 2 to 3 days.
Best make a double batch!!



Chocolate Banana Burrito

A banana bread batter is spread over flour tortillas, sprinkled with chocolate chips, rolled up and drizzled with a chocolate glaze before baking.


I N G R E D I E N T S

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 to 1 cup mashed bananas
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 TBS canola oil
6 (8-inch) flour tortillas
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips


Glaze

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 TBS butter
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
Powdered sugar, if desired



I N S T R U C T I O N S

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine sugar and butter in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed until creamy. Add bananas, egg and vanilla. Continue to beat and scrape bowl often until well mixed. Reduce the speed to low and add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and oil. Beat until well mixed. Place one tortilla on a large surface or plate. Spread 1/6 of the batter onto the tortilla and top with chocolate chips. Roll burrito and place in a greased 2-quart baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas. For the glaze, melt the chocolate chips and butter with the cocoa in a 1-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally, until melted (4 to 6 minutes). Drizzle glaze over the burritos. Bake in the oven 20-25 minutes until golden. You may sprinkle powdered sugar on top, if desired.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Make a seven layer dip and serve it with totilla chips.

You can arrange these in any pattern that you want.

Refried beans
Cheese
Salsa
Guacamole
Tomatoes
Sour Cream
Ground Beef

Just arange these in a caserole dish in layers and serve it with torilla chips and its a great side.

Of course you could do the traditional dishes such as chips and salsa, refried beans and spanish rice. A bean dip may add a nice touch too.

Bean dip:
Heat a can of Refried beans mix in shredded cheese and heat until melted, add a touch of salsa to taste.

Spanish rice:
Take white rice and fry it in a pot untill it is golden brown.
Pour in one small can of tomato sauce per 2 cups of rice and add water keeping in mind the 2 cups of water per one cup of rice. Add some seasoned salt and reduce the heat to a simmer untill complete.

Queso Dip/sauce:
Take a whole block of velveeta cheese and cube it. In a medium sized pot add 2 cans of any variety of rotel tomatoes. cook over medium heat untill all of the cheese is melted and the rotel is blended. This is a dish that needs to be served warm if it cools too much it will get a 'film' or 'skin' on the top. Some people like to put this over the top of their main courses.

You could try maybe some enchaladas or chimichangas as a main course, If you are going to be having that many people it may be wise to have more than one main course to provide variety. I hope you have plenty of help with all this cooking and serving.... Good luck on your party.

Answer 4

Don't forget the chips and salsa and spanish rice. Guacamole or corn and black bean salsa. Mix canned corn and black beans.Add cumin, salt, pepper,red onion,lime juice,jalapeno,and hot sauce. You could add fresh or canned diced tomatoes.

Answer 5

taco bean buq guamole chips hot tamle hot sauce

Answer 6

Cinco de Mayo is probably a big occasion in the USA, but in Mexico it just means we kicked out the French for good. It is not the most important date in our calendar but doing a Mexican theme sounds just great. Just remember not to mix Spanish with Mexican, although our cooking has been influenced by other cultures, Spanish and French mainly, please keep us separate. Gazpacho is purely Spanish, not Mexican at all. The taco station is what we call a Taquiza, meaning everyone selects the filling for their taco from a variety of dishes. If you really want Mexican food, forgo all the Southwestern quasi Mexican stuff and stick to the basics.

A taquiza will normally use like three different fillings you could opt for more but it depends on who is doing the cooking.

Tinga Poblana is a good choice, shredded beef with onions, chipotle and tomato.

Chicharron en Salsa Verde - Pork rinds in green sauce. Yummy

Discada - Strips of lean beef or chicken fajitas cooked with onion, bell pepper strips, mushrooms and bacon.

White or red rice, refried beans, at least two different salsas and plenty of corn and flour tortillas will complete a taquiza.

You might also try tostadas, almost the same as a taquiza but using a flat hardbaked or fried tortilla as the base, spread with refried beans, a filling, slices of tomato, shredded lettuce, slices of avocado cream, salsa, grated cheese and salt. It just cant get better that that . Its like the equivalent of a Carls Jr. it spills all over, but heavenly.

Beverages, in addition to the usual soft drinks and ubiquitous margaritas, try hibiscus flower tea, or tamarind, both are bona fide Mexican suggestions, both are taken ice cold.

The roasted pig sounds fine, we dont usually do it but go ahead.

The Mexican cocktail shrimp might sound anticlimatic but all there is to it is shrimp, chopped onion, chopped parsley and cilantro, ketchup, tabasco and plenty of lemon.

Here in Northeast Mexico sometimes we like to have a small cup of shrimp broth prior to the meal, in Monterrey you can buy the granulated kind and just spice it up a little.

We also like slices of jicama, a sort of tuber that has plenty of fiber, with lemon and powdered chile and salt, instead of potato chips. Jicama is used instead of water chestnuts in Asian stir fry dishes

People do not realize the vast wealth of dishes in Mexican cuisine, depends on how fancy you want to get, but I am pretty sure some of the things I have mentioned are not very well known.

Dont overcomplicate your life, keep it simple, as a suggestion, taste some of the recipes on yourself and your family and close friends first before you decide to go all the way.

Ingredients and amounts provided are for six portions,

For the Tortilla soup you will need
8 cups of beef broth or stock
1 diced garlic clove
salt and pepper
5 roasted tomatoes
1 small can of chipotle peppers
24 tortillas cut into strips and fried
avocado slices
cream
pork rinds
grated cheese

Roast the tomatoes, I do it by sticking them on a fork and burning off the skin on an open burner flame, when skin turns blackish remove it, then set aside tometoes and let them cool. Slice them and get all the seeds out, then put them in the blender with the garlic, the salt and the chipotle peppers. As a suggestion I would first use the liquid because chipotle peppers are sneaky and it is best to add little by little and taste the soup before adding more because the soup is supposed to taste hot but not too much, especially if your guests are not used to it. In a separate saucepan add a little oil and the tomato mix, cook until it turns a dark red, then incorporate this into the beef stock and bring to a boil. Check for salt again and add more if needed. Your tortilla soup base is ready, to serve pour it in a bowl, add the tortilla strips, the avocado slices, the pork rinds and grated cheese, preferably try to find Mexican cheeses instead of mozarella or Monterrey Jack, because they do not taste the same. Try using fresh cheese like panela or stronger flavored ones like manchego or chihuahua.

Another good choice is cold avocado soup with tomato and cilantro, more akin to your idea of gazpacho
For 8 portions you need
2 large avocadoes peeled
2 cups of chicken broth
2 cups of cream, not the sour kind
2 serrano peppers
salt and pepper
2 cups of crushed ice
1 cup of diced peeled tomato
half a cup of chopped cilantro
4 large corn tortillas cut into small squares and fried

Fry the tortilla squares in a little oil and drain on paper towels.

In a blender, blend the avocado, broth, cream, serrano peppers and ice Check for salt. Incorporate the cilantro and serve in consomme dishes with the diced tomato and tortilla strips. Quite refreshing on a hot day.

Tinga Poblana

Roast and deseed five tomatoes, put them in the blender with some chipotle and garlic. Blend.
In a skillet cook one entire onion cut into moon shaped slices in oil until they are semi transparent, add the shredded beef, about one pound, and then add the tomato, chipotle mixture, cook until well blended and check for salt.

Pork Rinds in Green Sauce

Find pork rinds, the real kind, not the flour ones, and break into small pieces. You can either use bottled green salsa or make your own, provided you can find the small green tomatoes called tomatillos, which you just boil, like some twenty until they go bright green. Put them in the blender with onion and garlic, and some serrano peppers and salt, Blend on high for a couple of minutes and pour into a skillet, add some of the water you used to boil the tomatoes in, the mixture should be semi liquid, once it starts boiling add the pork rinds and yes, they will grow soft as they rehydrate, that is why it needs to be semi liquid because the pork rinds will absorb most of it, but they taste pretty good, check seasoning and add some chopped cilantro and parsley. This is used as a tortilla filling or for tostadas.

Discada -
Use lean beef or chicken fajitas for this. First in a skillet fry bacon chopped into small pieces, add onion and let it cook until semi transparent, add sliced mushrooms and bell pepper strips, add some chicken broth if it seems too dry, finally add meat, stir constantly until well done, this can be used for a taco filling, a tostada filling, a burrito filling with cheese in a flour tortilla. Not all Mexican food is supposed to be hot, you can make your salsas hot and spoon some over the filling before rolling up the tortilla and sinking your teeth into them.

Salsas, well you can use the bottled kind or make your own. You might also try pico de gallo, or roosters beak, think of it as a dry salsa, just equal amounts of chopped tomato, onion and serrano peppers, either mixed all together or in attractively laid out by color, green, white and red are the colors of the Mexican flag, you can also add chopped cilantro and parsley to the serrano peppers. Fresh serrano peppers are not irritating to the stomach like canned ones.

Rice is just normal rice but we wash and rise it first, then fry it in a little oil and then when it does not stick to sides of pan pour chicken broth and seasonings and cover it to let it cook but lowering the flame when it starts to boil. I like to stir tomato puree in first followed immediately by the broth, that way you get red rice. and when the water has evaporated some I add frozen or fresh vegetables, carrots, broccoli, pumpkin, cauliflower, peas, and that makes a colorful addition to your meal, and then let it finish cooking. Dont forget the salt and if you want to be a little adventurous use some chipotle, sparingly, enough to give it a little kick.

Desserts are not common, everyone is so stuffed we hardly ever think about one, but you might try goat milk caramel candy, called cajeta, either by the spoonful, between two marie biscuits or as a topping for vanilla ice cream. Fresh strawberries and cream also make a great addition or just cold fresh fruit will do.
Your coffee will taste wonderful if you use a vanilla roast and add a cinammon stick while it perks and use brown sugar to sweeten it.

Hope this helps. Good Luck