Who doesn't love Mexican food?
It's a Friday night or any other day of the week. You're with your favorite person or a big group of friends. In front of is a big bowl of chips and salsa.
You slowly sip on an ice-cold margarita followed by a big plate of whatever your favorite Mexican dish may be.
What else could be better??
I spent a lovely and a very stormy Wednesday in late March with my incredible food stylist Muriel working on a Mexican-themed photo shoot. The room smelled of sweet onions, peppers and roasting corn. To kick things off, we started with a simple yet delicious roasted corn. This is so simple to do at home.
We precooked the corn just enough so when we added them the grill, all we needed was to add a nice little char to the surface. We soaked the husks in water for a while so they would not burn up. For the corn we used a Weber Smokey Joe. I'm snob when it comes to grilling. I'm no expert in all things grill, but you cannot beat the taste when something is cooked on charcoal. I can hear the gas grill lovers scoffing!
Roasted corn with red pepper and herb butter.
Steak fajitas were next up. As the flank steak was cooking away on the Weber, I got the set ready for the fajitas. Muriel painstakingly sliced the onions and peppers into perfectly thin and uniform slices. Those, along with the jalapenos and the lime half, were charred indoors on my cast-iron grill pan.
I invited my good friend Stacey to join us because she is a Mexican food junkie. I'm mean she needs to be in rehab. I knew she'd want to be the office taste-tester. I did put her to work holding a white fill card. Afterwards, we savored every bite of the photo below.
Flank steak fajitas with charred onions, peppers, pico de gallo.
Guacamole.
I can eat bowls of this stuff.
Guacamole with white and blue corn tortilla chips.
No Mexican meal or party is complete without a margarita. For this I wanted to keep things simple: A basic black background, coarse sea salt, a traditional margarita glass and a lime wedge. I personally don't like my 'Ritas with salt, but the jagged edges of the salt makes for nice texture.
Margarita with salt
We wrapped the photo shoot with savory slow cooker, pulled pork carnitas with pickled red onions, diced pineapple and cilantro. This one is a favorite at my house on a Sunday. The leftovers will last you a week.
Slow cooker pulled pork carnitas.