Tortilla Soup

To make a delicious tortilla soup you will need the following ingredients:

– 10 truss tomatoes

– one clove garlic

– half a white onion

– carton of chicken or vegetable broth

– cilantro (and epazote if you can find it)

– dried spices or chiles if you can find them: pasilla and ancho

– salt and pepper

– oregano

-olive oil

– avocado

– corn tortillas

– cheese (manchego or your preference)

-sour cream

In a pan blacken the tomatoes, garlic and onion on all sides and cook through without burning.

Place in food processor with a little chicken broth, cilantro, spices and blend.

Heat a large pot with olive oil then place the mixture from the food processor in. Put the rest of the carton of broth in and cook for about 20 minutes.

Rip or slice up some pieces of corn tortilla and fry in olive oil.

Put the following items in a soup bowl: tortilla chips, avocado slices, sour cream and cheese. Pour soup on top and enjoy!

Tortilla Soup ingredients

Tacos al Pastor

 

Marinade:

• Achiote paste or marinade 3 ounces
• 1/3 of a pineapple
• 2 garlic cloves
• Half a purple onion
• Cilantro
• Juice of one lime
• Juice of one lemon
• 1 ounce apple cider vinegar
• 1 ounce white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon pasilla chile powder
• 1 tablespoon ancho chile powder

Blend all together in the blender into a liquid.

Pork:

Buy pork shoulder or pork neck from the butcher and slice into into 1 – 2 centimetres thick  pieces. In a large bowl layer pieces of pork and marinade on top. You can put in some pieces of bacon to add extra taste (optional). Marinate overnight.

Experimenting with Tacos al Pastor I have done it in two methods:

1st Method stack marinated slices of pork on top of a pineapple into a tower and cover with another piece of pineapple and roast in the oven for a couple of hours. Slice pork and chop up.

 

2nd Method lay pineapple slices on a baking tray with marinated slices of pork on top and pineapple slices on top, cover with aluminium foil and bake for 4 hours. Remove pineapple and then shred into pulled pork.

Condiments:

Pickled onion:

Combine the following ingredients in a jar and leave to prepare for a few hours or overnight. When it turns bright pink it will be ready to eat.

• Red onion slices
• Warm water
• Sugar
• Apple cider vinegar
• oregano
• salt

Chop:

• Fresh pineapple slices or if you prefer use the pineapple that cooked with the pork.
• Fresh purple onion and cilantro
• Fresh limes

Salsa:

In a pan without oil cook:

• Tomatoes (roma, truss, vine, etc whatever your preference)
• 1 or 2 cloves garlic
• chilies (jalapeno, habanero, hot bullet, cerrano etc)

Once everything has been blackened put the ingredients into a blender or food processor along with half a red onion, cilantro, sea salt, juice of one lime and blend until you have reached the desired consistency.

Avocado habanero cream:

Blend in a food processor:

• Container of sour cream
• Avocado
• Sea salt
• Juice of one lime
• Ounce of white vinegar
• Cilantro
• Half a purple onion
• Serrano, jalapeno or habanero chile
• Habanero hot sauce

 

 

Salsa Roja

To prepare this salsa you will need  tomatoes, garlic, serrano (habañero or jalapeño or a mix if you are feeling adventurous), red onion and cilantro.

For a bowl of salsa the size of the photo I used: 4 vine tomatoes, 4 cloves garlic, 1.5 large serrano peppers fried in a pan little or no oil.

Put the tomatoes, garlic and chiles in the pan and let them gently burn on all sides. Once blackened put in food processor or blender along with 1/4 red onion and a bunch of cilantro, blend, add salt and you can also add a squeeze of lemon or lime.

You can substitute the vine tomatoes with roma or even green tomatillos. If you make green salsa be sure to add some cumin spice.

Enjoy with tacos, burritos, quesadillas or chips.

Salsa Roja

salsa picante habañera

Home-made Ginger Beer

I found a post on Pinterest for making your own Alcoholic Ginger Beer

and I have decided to give it a try. The process should take 3 weeks starting from today so I will be updating on the progress.

Here is the first phase:

• Added in ingredients: 1 tbsp grated ginger, chopped jalapeño, 1 tbsp granulated sugar, hand squeezed juice from 1 lemon and 2 limes (this is what I had at the time), 1 packet of champagne yeast and a cup and a half of warm filtered water. (See the instructions in the link above).
• This will be stored at room temperature and each day for a week I will mix in more sugar and more ginger.

Home-made Ginger Beer

As this is the first time I am attempting this I wanted to try out a couple of methods to see what works better and also to make sure that at least one batch works out. So I made a second one using my juicer to extract juice from 3 limes and some ginger. I put this juice into the water, yeast, sugar and also added a bit of the lime (zest) and ginger fibres to ensure flavour. This one also does not contain jalapeño.

Home-made Ginger Beer

One week in and I have four bottles of this:

home made ginger beer brew

Two weeks to go to ferment…

Ginger beer turned out stronger than I thought it would be. It is dry and is nicely carbonated, sparkling and very gingery tasting. I will try to measure the alcohol content on the next batch but my guess is that this is between 6 to 8%.

Homebrewed Alcoholic Ginger Beer

As this first batch was successful and our friends started asking for more so I decided to make a new batch. I made 4 plants this time so I should get about 8 x 2 litre bottles worth of ginger beer. This time I juiced a large piece of ginger and 6 lemons. I mixed the ginger and lemon juice into the warm water/champagne yeast then stirred in 2 x tablespoons of sugar for each plant and the fibrous leftovers of ginger and lemon from the juicing process. I will be feeding my plants for a week then proceed with the process.

Ginger Plant

Camping beer can eggs

While camping beer in cans is the way to go as they are light weight and easy to collect to recycle/ dispose of afterwards. They are easy to stack in the eski and there is no risk of breakage.

In addition you can use them for other purposes… If you do not have pots or pans you can cook eggs in beer cans. Just cut an opening in the can and coat the inside with some cooking spray, crack the eggs inside and put on the barbeque or near the campfire. You can scramble the eggs in the can or leave whole.  Sprinkle some spices on top and eat for breakfast.

Beer can eggs on the barbeque

Beer can eggs

Beer can eggs

Ceviche

Here is my favourite recipe for Ceviche:

Fish preparation:

• Squeeze lime or lemon juice or a combination of both into a container.
• Cut fish into small pieces and put in container, juice should cover the fish.
• Leave in fridge for about two hours for the juice acid to cook the fish.

Salsa preparation:

• Chop the following items into small cubes: tomato (or use cherry tomatoes), red onion, pineapple, papaya or mango.
• Mince finely garlic, jalapeño and cilantro.
• Add salt to taste.
• You can vary the items in the salsa but these are my preference, you don’t need to add fruit but it adds a refreshing sweet taste.

Once fish is cooked through in the lime/lemon juice mixture drain juice and add the fish to the salsa. You may add some more newly squeeze lime juice to the mix.

Final product should look something like this:

Ceviche

Enjoy with tortilla chips, tostadas or crackers and your favourite hot sauce 🙂

Ginger beer mmm!

Ginger beer is delicious and there are lots of good ways to enjoy it! The alcoholic version is my preferred kind. My favourites are below:

Crabbies – alcoholic ginger beer is so refreshingly tasty. It almost tastes like ginger ale but with a kick but not too strong at 4% alc./vol. It comes in different flavours and is sweet.

Crabbies Ginger beer

Stones Ginger Wine – mix this into a glass of nice light easy drinking beer for a refreshing ginger beer cocktail. It is about 13.5% alc./vol. and I would recommend about an ounce per pint of beer.

Stone’s

Phillips Ginger Beer – a nice light beer at 5% alc./vol. with a spicy ginger taste. Very gingery and very refreshing!

My discovery of the Growler

I first discovered Growlers at Green Leaf Brewery in North Vancouver early 2014. It was the first time I saw something so cool for beer. Immediately I needed to buy one and fill it up with the delicious Bitter Leaf IPA.

Green Leaf Brewery Growler

Since then I have been on a mission to explore different local breweries and add to my growler collection.

The great thing about them is that they cost around $5 to purchase and you can bring them to any brewery to refill with what they have on tap. You just need to wash them out before.

Growler and flight at Green Leaf Brewery

It might cost between $8 to $15 per refill for 64 fluid ounces or 1.89 litres of beer. While at the breweries you can get a flight to taste the beers that are available and choose the right one to take home. Plenty of craft beer deliciousness.

Strange Fellows Brewing Company Growler Collection

Postmark and Strangefellows Growlers

Hello Beermaid followers!

Hello everyone my name is Catherine, I am Canadian and live in Sydney Australia with my Fiance and our son Seth. When I first started this blog we were living in Vancouver Canada where we were exploring many different breweries and to try new local beer and beer cocktails.

I enjoy a variety of beers from lagers, beer cocktails to more hoppier IPAs and flavoured beers such as Ginger Beer, Ales and whatever is in the taster flight!

I also enjoy cooking delicious Mexican food as I lived in Mexico for 7 years.

I work in the Catering Industry organizing Events, Conferences and Weddings. Soon I will be planning our own wedding.

Catherine Smalley Linked in Profile

 

Hopefully you will enjoy my blog about Beer, Mexican Food, Cooking and and maybe some other fun topics 🙂