Great Mexican Recipes

You will need a good quality tequila such as Agave tequila, an orange liqueur like Cointreau, Grand Marnier, or Triple Sec, freshly squeezed lime juice, ice, and coarse salt. Moisten the rim of your glass with the lime juice and dip it in the salt.

Fill the glass with ice cubes. Add 3 parts of tequila, 2 parts of orange liqueur and 1 part of fresh lime juice to an ice-filled cocktail shaker and shake until the shaker is coated with condensation. Alternatively, you can put the ingredients into a blender for 30 seconds. Pour the contents into your salt-rimmed glass. Garnish with a slice of lime and chill out with this aperitif before you enjoy your Mexican food recipes. Or even while you make them if you happen to be the chef!

This flavorful stuffed chile peppers recipe is a typical Mexican dish. It is always made with poblano chilies and the meat and fruit filling is really good. The creamy walnut sauce is poured over the top of the stuffed chile peppers, and then the pomegranate seeds are sprinkled over. You need to use poblano chilies for this dish because they are traditional. If poblano chilies are too fiery for you, soak them in a mild vinegar and water mixture for half an hour, after you have peeled them. This will reduce their piquancy.

The main reason why this stuffed chile peppers recipe is so traditional is that it is made with the Mexican flag colors - red, green and white - and also because pomegranates are only available in August and September, around the time of Mexican Independence Day.

You can serve chile en nogada at room temperature or you can warm the stuffed chilies in the oven in a baking dish, then pour over the cream and sprinkle the pomegranate seeds on top.

How to Make Authentic Chile en Nogada
Ingredients -

12 poblano chilies
2 cups water
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 thinly sliced white onion
1 finely chopped clove garlic
1 red pomegranate
½ cup cider vinegar
2 cups water
1 teaspoons dried mixed herb (maybe thyme, oregano, and marjoram)
Salt and black pepper, to taste

For the Stuffing:

1 lb ground pork
1 lb ground beef
2 tablespoons chopped, blanched almonds
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
¼ cup raisins
½ cup mixed dried fruit
2 tablespoons pimento-stuffed green olives
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 ½ oz walnuts
1 crushed clove garlic
3 peeled, chopped tomatoes
1 chopped onion

For the Sauce:

2 tablespoons sweet sherry
3 ½ oz walnuts
2 pints heavy cream
3 ½ oz cream cheese

Preparation:

Blister the poblano chilies under the broiler or directly over a high flame, turning them occasionally.

Put the blistered, burnt chilies in a plastic bag and leave them for 20 minutes.

Flake off the burnt skin. Cut down the side of each poblano chili and take out the veins and seeds.

Leave the top intact because you are going to be stuffing them.

Rinse and dry them.

Fry the onions in the oil in a pan until tender, and then stir in the herbs and garlic.

Mix well and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the chilies and simmer the mixture for 1 minute more.

Add the vinegar and water and simmer for another 2 minutes.

Set the mixture aside so the chilies can marinate in it for 2 hours.

Mix the garlic and tomatoes in a blender to make the filling, and then set it aside.

Sauté the pork and beef in the oil until brown, then stir in the onions and cook for a couple more minutes.

Add the olives, nuts and fruit, then season to taste.

Stir in the garlic mixture and tomato and simmer for 10 minutes over a low heat or until the stuffing is quite dry.

Add all the walnut cream ingredients to a food processor and blend.

Stuff the chilies with the filling, and then pour the nut cream over the top.

Sprinkle the pomegranate seeds over and serve.

(Serves10)

Cinco de Mayo games are part of many celebrations held to commemorate this holiday. Even though the holiday is Mexican in origin, it is celebrated more widely and arguably with more enthusiasm in the United States than it is anywhere else in the world, even Mexico!

Mexican food, drinks and music are of course all part of the fun at any Cinco de Mayo festivities, but games make a wonderful addition to the day, especially if there will be children present at your party this year. Even though there aren't any games which are exactly specific to the holiday, there are a wide variety of Mexican games to choose from which will keep children (and adults) entertained and make your Cinco de Mayo party an event which people will look back on fondly - and look forward to attending next year.

The most familiar of all Cinco de Mayo games is of course Break the Piñata. Piñatas are already incredibly popular at children's birthday parties on both sides of the border, but this Mexican children's game is a lot of fun for kids of all ages and certainly an appropriate activity for a Cinco de Mayo party.

Making your own piñata is simpler than you may think; and it is something, which you and your children can have a lot of fun doing together as a pre-Cinco activity. If you do not have the free time necessary to make a piñata yourself, you can find pre-made piñatas at many party supply shops and some larger Mexican groceries if you happen to have one in your area.

Other Cinco de Mayo games involve essentially dressing up familiar games in a Mexican theme. For instance, you could create a Bingo game where rather than calling out numbers in English, the numbers could be called out in Spanish, making this a fun way to teach children (and adults too) Spanish numbers. You could do something similar with the names of colors, animals and so on - anything, which fits the theme of Cinco de Mayo, will do nicely here.

You can also turn musical chairs into a Cinco de Mayo game by blending it with the Mexican hat dance; set up chairs in a circle around a sombrero and play musical chairs as normal, with the difference being in the music and of course the dance. This is a game which adults as well as children will enjoy playing and is well worth considering as an addition to any Cinco de Mayo party.

The variety of Cinco de Mayo games available to you is really limited only by your imagination; with some planning and creativity, you can come up with plenty of different games and activities to keep everyone happy this 5th of May.

The Best Taco Pie Recipe

If you like your food to look as good as it tastes, you will love easy taco pie recipes, especially the following one. This taco pie is healthy as well as delicious and it is the kind of easy Mexican food that the kids can help to create with you. You might want to leave out the chili powder if you are making this for kids though.

You can make this taco pie recipe for dinner or supper, or anytime you fancy something a bit different from what you usually make. This Mexican pie recipe would also make a great centerpiece at a buffet or party. Not only is this a very impressive looking recipe but it tastes incredible too so nobody is going to be anything less than delighted with their slice.

This taco pie recipe is colorful and flavorful and the combination of the warm beef with the cold salad ingredients is a wonderful one. Actually, this taco pie contains lots of typical Mexican ingredients including cheese, salsa, beef, tortilla chips, and sour cream. The cheese starts to melt slightly when you arrange it on the beef too but only a little bit. For a novel appetizer or a healthy lunch, this taco pie recipe really fits the bill.

Tasty Taco Pie
Ingredients -

4 cups tortilla chips
1 beaten egg white
3 tomatoes, diced
4 cups shredded iceberg lettuce
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 clove garlic, minced
¾ cup chopped onion
1 lb ground beef
¾ teaspoon salt
½ cup tomato salsa
Dollop sour cream to serve

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Coat a 10-inch pie dish with cooking spray. Break the tortilla chips into smaller pieces and mix them with the egg white. Press this mixture evenly on to the base and sides of the pie dish to make a crust.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Brown the beef with the garlic and onion in a skillet over a medium high heat. Add the salsa, salt, and chili powder. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Pour the mixture into the crust and arrange the lettuce in a ring, right around the pie.

Follow it with a smaller ring of tomato, then a ring of cheese, so you can still see some of the meat mixture.

Top with a dollop of sour cream.

(Serves 8)