A Mexican Fiesta: Food and Recipes Galore

Black chickpea, crab and fennel verrine recipe with apple and avocado

Check out this recipe via La Tartine Gourmande that combines chickpeas, crab and fennel in a ceviche-like mixture that is perfect for lunch outdoors. 

You need:

• 200 g (1 heaped cup) cooked black chickpeas
• 200 g fresh crab meat, diced
• 1 large avocado, pitted and finely diced
• 1 medium fennel bulb, finely sliced
• 1 medium red apple, cored and finely diced
• Black sesame seeds, to taste
• 6 pink radishes, finely sliced

Dressing:

• Sea salt
• 2 limes
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (or fresh)
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
• 1 tablespoon chopped coriander
• 2 tablespoons hazelnut oil
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• Red peppercorn, ground, to taste

Steps:

• In a small bowl, combine the lime juice with the sea salt, garlic, and ginger.
• Add the oils and whisk to emulsify.
• Season with ground red peppercorn to taste, and stir in the coriander. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, combine the chickpeas, crab meat, avocado and apple. Toss gently with the fennel and radishes.
• Add the dressing and toss gently. Sprinkle with black sesame seeds, and serve.

Almond Torte with Sugared Apricots

Via If You Give a Girl a Cookie.com:

1/3 cup finely ground almonds
2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
Pinch of salt
8 Tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs

For topping:
6 ripe apricots, halved and pitted
1-2 Tbsp. granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the almonds until they are finely ground. Don’t worry about overdoing it, I let mine whirl for a good while with no sign of almond butter in sight.

In a small bowl, whisk together the ground almonds, flour, baking powder and salt.

In the food processor, pulse together the butter, sugar and eggs until just combined. Add in the dry ingredients and mix in short bursts until the flour just barely disappears. Scoop the batter into a 9-inch spring-form pan and spread it evenly with an offset spatula.

Arrange the apricot halves evenly across the top of the batter and sprinkle with sugar (1 tablespoon if they are plenty sweet, or 2 tablespoons if they need a little boost. I find most apricots are fairly sour, so I used two).

Bake for 40-50 minutes or until the top is a bit crackly and golden brown. Cool for about 15 minutes before serving.

Adapted from Orangette & Marion Burros

Mexican Pancakes from Strawberries in Paris

This Mexican pancake recipe is perfect for adding strawberries, rasberries, or blueberries for a delicious touch. 

Ingredients:

 6 eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
a couple tbsp of butter, room temp
more sugar for dusting

Directions:

Heat up nonstick pan to medium. Spray with a bit of vegetable oil. Pour enough batter to coat the pan and cook for about 1 minute. When almost done cooking, spread 1/2 tbsp of butter and 1/2 tbsp of sugar along the length of the pancake! Roll up and serve!

(Source: strawberriesinparis.com)