Balsamic-tossed cucumbers with mint and olives

A light and refreshing spring/summer salad. Would pair great with ham and cheese sandwiches or burgers or fried chicken. 

I used dried mint instead of fresh (never as fragrant, but certainly will do). I especially appreciate Jamie Oliver's tip to smash pit-in kalamata olives with the palm of your hand to remove the seeds.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/balsamic-dressed-cucumber-with-olives

Ceviche Tostadas

There's basically one thing to say about these little treats. And that's Oh. My. Gosh. This dish makes a great appetizer, main course, party food, or mid-day snack for anyone who loves a little kick of lime, spice and fresh seafood.

Here's how Pedro's maternal grandfather (Jose Ricardo Berain) from Muzquiz, Coahuila, taught Pedro to make this very delicious meal.

Start with fresh (or thawed frozen) seafood, preferably a simple Tilapia-type fish that will absorb lime juice and other flavors quickly and easily (you can mix in uncooked shrimp chunks, small bay-style scallops or other types of fish if you like). We made this ceviche with 2 lbs of Tilapia.

• Start by chopping partially frozen fish into small cubes. 
• Once chopped, cover with lime juice and cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to sit in the refrigerator for 4 hours (Pedro prefers to move the lime covered fish to a large ziploc bag).
• While the seafood "cooks" in the lime, go ahead and start preparing a pico de gallo to mix with the seafood once it's ready.
• Chop equal parts white onion, cilantro, tomato and add one or two chopped serrano chile peppers (Pedro also likes to crush one clove of garlic into this mixture).
• Drizzle a little olive oil on top of the pico de gallo and add salt to taste.

Back to the fish - once the lime has cooked the fish through, drain the lime juice from the bag or bowl as it can become bitter after sitting with the fish for some period of time. Add new lime juice to nearly cover the fish, mixing in the desired amount of pico de gallo.

To serve, spread a thin layer of mayonaise on a sturdy tostada. Then top with ceviche mixture and finally drizzle with a few drops of tapatio hot sauce. A couple thin slices of avocado on top also taste great.

ENJOY!

Delicious ceviche tostada

You'll need lots of limes for this recipe. Start with large persian limes to cook the fish and then switch to smaller key limes for an extra special, more authentic flavor with the actual ceviche mixture.

Use a citrus press to cut down on the labor of squeezing fresh lime juice over the fish.

Fresh cilantro (if you don't like cilantro you can substitute parsley, but it's definitely NOT the same :-)

The Tiger (a take on the Pegu Club's "Old Cuban" in Manhattan)

We were introduced to this drink by a friend of ours, Tiger Batlas. Tiger has a bubbly and refreshing personality (not unlike this drink!) and so we decided to rename the delicious cocktail in honor or Tiger's lovely personality and presence.

Tiger discovered this drink during a girls trip with friends to Manhattan at a bar called Bemelmans inside The Carlyle Hotel. Most internet cocktail recipes cite the Pegu Club as home for this drink. Wherever the origin, here are a few shots of our version below.

Note that we followed the recipe almost exactly, however included slightly less simple syrup (I don't like sweet drinks, but half an ounce of simple syrup is the perfect amount to soften the pucker from the lime just a bit and it helps to meld the flavors). Also - feel free to top this one off with prosecco vs. champagne. Pedro just happens to keep a keg of homemade champagne on hand, so it helps to minimize the expense of champagne cocktails like the Tiger.

Also, Pedro and I made a fun trip to a nearby thrift store, just before making these drinks, to pick up some old style coupe cocktail glasses for $.49 each. This drink doesn't taste the same without the right glass! (as recommended by the NYT :-) 

Tiger cocktail served in a chilled coupe glass

A few of the ingredients we used in our Tiger cocktail

Seared Scallops and Creamy Mash ::: Crispy Bacon and Sage

We've been on a Jamie Oliver kick lately, and this recipe is yet another success story from Jamie's repertoire. As with all of the photos on this blog, the picture represents our own rendition of this delicious dish. Click here for a link to Jamie's blog for the full recipe (which we followed exactly, plus an additional spritz of lemon one everything was plated). Also copying screen shots of his recipe below. In particular, we found that the scoring of the scallops really helped for sauce absorption. Highly recommend this little trick for scallop cooking.

I'm classifying this dish under "easy entertaining," because it truly is very easy to prepare, but hosts should note number of guests to determine if cost of the scallops is feasible (we bought at Costco for approx $16 per lb).

Sunshine Champagne

It's as simple as this. Sunshine. Fresh fruit. Champagne. Enjoy!

Fruit and Blue Cheese Bites

A super simple appetizer that begins with quality, seasonal fruit pieces and delicious chunks of blue cheese. This appetizer is as simple and scalable as it looks. Begin with a basic cocktail cracker (the ones pictured below come from Costco and are a simple white cracker with sea salt), and add a small bit of fresh, seasonal fruit to the cracker. I recommend something like pear or strawberry (pictured below) as they pair well with blue cheese, but could be anything from apples, to grapes, to honeydew. 

On top of the fruit, place a small chunk of blue cheese. Then for the finishing touch, drizzle balsamic reduction over the plate, making sure to touch each fruit and blue cheese bite with the final sauce. A fantastic, easy discovery I made to have a readily available balsamic reduction (vs. heating and reducing balsamic vinegar every time) is to buy Blaze balsamic reduction from Costco (a simple, squeeze bottle of reduced vinegar).

Huevo Con Chorizo ::: Egg and Chorizo Breakfast Tacos

The breakfast taco -- a staple in the Maiz-Waller kitchen. While there are many varieties, this one is a favorite. Start by chopping half of a small white onion and cooking in a bit of olive or vegetable oil until translucent (we typically prepare in a cast iron skillet, but any nonstick pan will do). Then add one or two links of uncooked chorizo sausage. 

On the side, whisk 4 eggs (2 per person) with a bit of montreal steak seasoning and a dash of siracha sauce. One the chorizo is cooked through, add beaten egg mixture and keep over heat until cooked through.

While eggs are cooking, heat tortillas (corn tortilla pictured below, however my personal favorite is to make this particular breakfast taco using flour tortilla since the grease soaks into the flour tortilla really nicely). You may also want to heat your salsa of choice to pour warm salsa over your taco filling. Pictured below is a Herdez Salsa Verde (green salsa). Importantly, don't use a Pace Picante salsa substitute for this dish. Buy either Herdez or La Costena (in a jar or can), or make your own salsa (recipe for another day).

Evenly distribute the egg-chorizo mixture over warmed tortillas. Top with salsa and chopped white onion, cilantro and avocado (all optional, and not pictured below, but delicious if ingredients readily available). Also optional to serve with limes, which I feel is a Xtine adaptation... most Mexicans do not opt for this combination, but I love it.