I was hoping for another glorious weekend, but after sitting inside all week at work looking longingly out the window and tiring of hearing endless news stories about the 'heatwave' whilst viewing it secondhand, it appears to have ended. At least here anyway, and while no means cold, the sun is cosseted in a thick blanket of clouds save for the occasional few seconds peek at what could be... Ho-hum.
So for that reason my mind started wandering on to means of escape and (almost) guaranteed decent weather. Ah... yes. Mexico and my I-hope-it-happens winter break! I'd bought a watermelon on Friday anticipating a weekend of beautiful weather and balmy days sitting under a tree reading and sipping cool drinks. The Mexican aguas frescas are just made for such a day. I'd mentioned them in a previous post, the most popular flavours being agua de horchata (rice milk and cinnamon), agua de jamaica (hibiscus flower) and agua de tamarindo (tamarind). They can, however be made out of just about any fruit, and agua de sandia, made out of juicy watermelons is, as you can imagine a thirst quenching delight that takes almost seconds to make (plus chilling time). Who care's if there's no sun? The colour of the finished drink will brighten up your day.
Ingredients
1 watermelon
2 limes
Agave syrup (or sugar)
Water
1. Peel the watermelon, cut it into chunks and place in a blender. Some recipes say to deseed it first, but really, do you have time to sit and pick out the seeds?
2. Blend until smooth
3. Squeeze in the lime juice
4. At this point have a taste, some recipes call for a sugar syrup to be added, but I prefer the natural sweetness of the watermelons. I added a little agave syrup as the watermelon wasn't particularly sweet.
5. Strain into a large jug, and taste again. Dilute with water to your own preference and chill for 30 minutes.
6. Serve over plenty of ice, sit back and drink! Incidentally, I used an ice cube tray I'd previously used to freeze batches of green chilli relish and it gave quite a nice tang. For that reason I think serving the agua de sandia with a sprinkling of dried red chilli flakes would work nicely.
I was looking for something a bit different to make today, and something relatively easy as I'd left it rather late in the evening to think about food.
I'm planning on heading to Mexico later on in the year, last year's experience has whetted my appetite for more, so for that reason I've been pouring over guide books and mentally planning routes. This time I'd like to start in the south of the country, Maya territory. While I love Mexican food (no really? You'd have never guessed huh?) I'm not that familiar with traditional dishes of the south, and whilst perusing books the name of a dish caught my eye - sikil pak (or x'ikil pak / sikli paak) a Yucatecan dip of Mayan origin. Based mainly on pumpkin seeds (pepitas) with the addition of tomatoes or tomatillos depending on the recipe, it sounded intriguing and delicious. I love sauces made from nuts or seeds, so a dip made from them seemed like a natural progression. Try it, it could end up a regular on the menu!
Ingredients
200g hulled pumpkin seeds
2 large tomatoes
1/2 red onion
1 garlic clove (unpeeled)
Fresh coriander
Water
Salt
1. Toast the pumpkin seeds, the traditional way is in a comal (a smooth flat cast iron pan) or you could use a dry frying pan. I spread them on a baking tray and put them in a hot oven (I was roasting an aubergine at the time and it seemed a good use of the heat) and that worked fine. The seeds start off flat, but puff up when heated. Keep a close eye on them so they don't burn. Once toasted leave to one side to cool.
2. Put the tomatoes, garlic and half an onion in a dry frying pan and toast. Don't worry about the black patches that appear, that is pure flavour! You may want to keep an eye on the garlic though as it can turn bitter quite quickly.
3. Place the toasted pumpkin seeds in a blender and puree until you get a fine sand-like consistency.
4. To this add the tomatoes, onion and garlic and blend.
5. The mixture should have the consistency of hummous, so add a little water if it's too thick (I don't give measurements, it depends on how juicy your tomatoes are)
6. Taste and add salt as desired.
7. Eat! Muy delicioso with tortilla chips (I had some fresh (but rapidly becoming less fresh as the week goes on...) blue corn tortillas in the cupboard so made some chips out of them
It's been a gloriously sunny weekend and yesterday I visited a chilli festival. Amongst the numerous (and delicious) food stalls there was a couple selling aguas frescas (literally fresh waters), those beautifully refreshing drinks found throughout Mexico, Central America and parts of the Carribean. Whilst aguas frescas can be made of just about anything, the three most popular flavours in Mexico are probably tamarindo (made from tamarind juice), agua de Jamaica (made from hibiscus flowers) and agua de horchata which is made from rice milk spiced with cinnamon. Perfect for a hot day.
The agua frescas remind me a lot of the Middle Eastern sherbets (or sharbats), similarly refreshing drinks, made of fruits, flowers and spices, and in particular the agua de tamarindo brought to mind a similar drink I've had at Lebanese restaurants, where the sour sweet tamarind is combined with dates and rose water.
And that got me thinking... horchata is typically Mexican, but what if it was given an Eastern twist? Or perhaps conversely, what if a Middle Eastern sherbet was given a Mexican accent? Hmm... The end result was a food marriage made in heaven. Simple to make and delightfully refreshing to drink!
Ingredients
1 litre rice milk
2-3 tablespoons rose water
1 cardamom pod
2 tsp pomegranate syrup (optional but tasty)
2 tablespoons pistachios
1. Pour the rice milk into a large jug. Traditionally for horchata the rice milk is made by grinding rice in a blender with the spices, adding water and leaving to soak before straining. Shop bought rice milk seemed like a much easier option to me!
2. Take the seeds from the cardomom pod and finely crush. Add them to the milk and stir in.
3. Add the rose water - as an aside for this recipe you need proper rose water, not rose essence that is commonly found in the baking aisle of supermarkets and contains propylene glycol and alcohol as additional ingredients. It may be okay for cakes (personally it sounds totally vile to me...), but not for anything that requires rose water (i.e. Turkish delight). I say 2-3 tablespoons, you can add more or less depending on your personal taste. Rose is one of those flavours that can rapidly go from "Yum... this is gorgeous" to "Yech... it tastes like I'm eating perfume!" in a few drops.
4. Now add the pomegranate syrup, this is optional. I had some in the house and thought it would be a nice addition.
5. Chill in the fridge for an hour or so.
6. Serve over lots of ice with chopped pistachios sprinkled on top.
