Week 14-Results

This week I thought I would honor Cinco de Mayo by making 3 delicious Mexican dishes. Some like Cinco de Mayo to honor the Hispanic Culture, some use it as an excuse to drink, but I love it because it was always something we celebrated (I grew up in the Southwest.) I love it because I LOVE MEXICAN FOOD!!!!!!!! I must say I was a little scared to make these recipes. I am a perfectionist & trying 3 new recipes for a holiday feast was a lot to take on. But I can honestly say, IT TURNED OUT AWESOME! Here is a break down of the recipes.

Mango Pork & Pineapple Tacos with Avocado Cream was not hard to make. You did need special ingredients for this recipe. This recipe is from the Fresh Market's magazine & it called for 2 ingredients that you buy there. Now, you can try to go to their website, http://www.thefreshmarket.com/, and purchase the ingredients or you can try to substitute. If you look at the recipe & get the brand names of the ingredients, you could even try to google them & see if they are sold in your area. The ingredients were a marinade & a Southwest seasoning. Anyways, the I marinated the pork for about 1 1/2 hours (I was busy with the other stuff while it marinated so you don't have to let it marinate that long.) Then I simply seared them in a saute pan followed by the pineapples. I did go the canned pineapple route because I was not about to slice it myself. The Avocado Cream was easy to make & was even good by itself! The finished results was very flavorful & savory. My husband gave it a 10 & said this was one of his favorites! You really should try this recipe!

The Guacamole Salad was easy to make. Just cut up all the veggies & make a quick sauce to pour on top. One precaution....wear gloves when mincing the jalapeno peppers. It wasn't noted to wear them on the recipe, but my fingers started to burn a few hours later. This salad was a little spicy for even me, but I love spice so it made it all the better. If you are not a spice fan, you might want to omit the jalapenos. This was a great spin on plain guacamole like I usually make each week.

The Mexican Flan was the recipe I was most nervous about. I always seem to mess up custards. I didn't have a metal pan, so I used glass ramekins instead. Now this may have contributed to my problem with the melted sugar (you are to melt sugar to make a caramelized topping, but you are to pour it into the mold first to let it cool.) Well, my sugar got hard REALLY fast & almost instantly hardened on the bottom of the ramekins. If I had done it in a metal mold, it may have been different especially when you flip it over to let the caramel supposedly drip from the top while putting it on a serving tray. Anyways, the rest was easy to make & there weren't any ingredients that were hard to find. It was actually pretty easy to make. It also tasted pretty good, but would have been better with the caramelized sugar dripping over the top. Next time, I might melt the sugar right before I serve it & pour it over the top. I will let you know how that turns out the next time. If any of you try this recipe, please comment if you had success or failure with it. I would like to know how it went for you. Try these recipes the next time you have a craving for Mexican food. You won't be sorry! Bon Appetit!