guest post! angharad g.

Hello Meals and Moves readers! My name is Angharad (pronounced Ang-hair-id: yep Janetha and I share unpronounceable names in common as well as food blogs) and I write the blog Eating for England. I was so excited when the lovely Janetha asked me to write a guest post while she is rocking out in Seattle, and I thought it only appropriate to uphold tradition and post my very own Flashback Friday in her absence!

Buckle your seat belts for today’s flashback…we’re going to Mexico! A little history in the life of me to get you up to speed quick-snappy: I am a Brit, married to a Minneapolitan and live in the city of lakes with my fella but we met whilst both studying at the University of Texas at Austin. Hook ’em horns!

Summer 2006 was the first time I had been back to visit the great city of Austin in over a year since studying there and understandably I was in a pro-America mood:

I spent a glorious three months post-graduation with no job to attend to and nothing to do except hang out with my gentleman friend, swim and eat Tex-Mex. What’s not to love?!

We spent one glorious and debauched weekend in Acuña, a border town in Mexico which neighbors Del Rio, TX. Perhaps not your most traditional Mexican experience but fun and margarita-filled all the same…

I had the best summer of my life that year and have loved Mexican food and its hybrid friend Tex-Mex ever since I set foot in that part of the world.
In celebration of Flashback Friday I decided to cook up a Tex-Mex storm for all of y’all to enjoy!

Carne Asada, Garlic Tortilla Chips and Guacamole

a

vocados, cilantro and limes…essential ingredients for any Mexican feast!

another essential…

Carne Asada
I based what I made loosely on this recipe from Simply Recipes, which I would highly recommend since it rocked my socks!
Ingredients

1 pound flank or skirt steak
Olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Marinade:
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 jalapeño chile pepper, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon freshly ground cumin seed (best to lightly toast the seeds first, then grind them)
1/2 handful fresh cilantro, leaves and stems, finely chopped (great flavor in the stems)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 limes, juiced
1 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup olive oil

Directions

1 Lay the flank steak in a large baking dish. Combine marinade ingredients and pour the marinade over the steak. Make sure each piece is well coated. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-4 hours.

2 Preheat your grill over medium-high flame. Brush the grates with a little oil to prevent the meat from sticking. Remove the steak from the marinade. Season both sides of the steak pieces with salt and pepper. Grill the pieces for a few minutes only, on each side, depending on how thin they are, until medium rare to well done, to your preference. Remove the steak pieces to a cutting board and let rest for 5 minutes. Thinly slice the steak across the grain on a diagonal.

3 Serve with warm tortillas (flour or corn). Warm the tortillas for 30 seconds on each side in a dry skillet or on the grill, until toasty and pliable. Alternatively, you can warm tortillas in a microwave.

Serves 2-4 hungry Brits.

Garlic Tortilla Chips
I though it would be really fun to make homemade chips to go with this feast and guess what? It’s so easy! I got the inspiration for these beauties from the blog eatmakeread. You will love these!

I was happy to find locally-made tortillas. Yay!

Ingredients

• 15 small corn tortillas, cut into quarters
• 1/3 cup oil
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed

Directions
1. Heat the garlic and oil in a small pan.
2. Pour a little of the oil (but no garlic, since it will burn) onto a cookie sheet
3. Layer your quartered tortillas onto the sheet, drizzling some more oil as you go and adding layers of tortillas until you’re out, like so:

4. Bake in the oven for 8 minutes on one side. Flip as many as you can and bake for another 8 minutes. If they still aren’t done then continue flipping and baking in 4 minute increments.
5. Remove from the oven when golden brown and place on a kitchen towel.
6. Add salt and serve immediately.

I can’t emphasize enough how deeeelicious these were! The crunchy parts tasted like restaurant chips and I loved getting bites of still-soft chip for a really corny flavor. Brilliant.

I served the chips with some guacamole, the recipe for which I found in one of my favorite cook books, Viva la Vida: Festive Recipes for Entertaining Latin-Style by Rafael Palomino.
Palomino’s Guacamole

Ingredients

• 2 ripe Hass avocados, peeled, pitted, and coarsely chopped
• 1 small red onion, diced
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce/Tabasco sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 red beefsteak tomatoes, finely diced
• juice of 1/2 lemon

Directions
1. In a large glass or ceramic bowl, combine the avocados, onion, and cilantro. Toss well; the avocado will get mushy.
2. Add all the remaining ingredients and stir until well blended. Serve straight away with those dang good chips!!

All in all, this was a feast to behold…it definitely should have been shared between more than two greedy folk! All three of those recipes are really simple (I don’t do complicated – not interested!) and easy to make and turn out looking beeyootiful so give them a go next time you have friends over!
Well, thanks to Janetha for letting me hang out for a while – it’s been fun! I hope you guys enjoyed our little trip south. Come and see me over on Eating for England sometime!

Cheers!