Hola amigos!!!! It’s done!!! It’s taken me SIX years but have finally finished cooking my way through Cantina by Paul Wilson. Not every recipe mind you, just the ones I wanted to cook. Sixty-one recipes. Which is more than enough I feel to pass judgement on this as a book. But first, let’s celebrate with some cake!
This was my birthday cake this year, a cake spent in the middle of lockdown when we were allowed no visitors. So a very solitary birthday. But we’re not here to talk about that. We’re here to talk about Cantina as exemplified by this recipe. Because everything that is wrong with this book is in this recipe. As is everything that is right. So let’s get to it.
A Rose is A Rose is A Rose
A rose may be a rose. And a rose by any other name may smell as sweet. (Ooh la la – look at me, with the Gertrude Stein and the Shakespeare refs in the one post!!!) But, apart from me showing off my fancy book learning, seriously, Cantina bandies about terms that have one meaning to mean something different.
(I have already waxed lyrical about how annoying this book on this point ere. So if you want to see my earlier rant click here.)
But everybody’s like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece…
You may have noticed my slice..erm cake is missing the Mescal Roasted Pineapple. The cheapest mezcal I could find was $55 a bottle. Most were in the range of $90-100. Of which I would use 80ml of a 750 ml bottle. I’m sure that over time I would be able to find other uses for the remaining 89% of that bottle.
This seems likely given the general state of the world
Seriously dropping that much money to use less than a tenth of the bottle for is frivolous at the best of times. Let alone during a global pandemic / economic crisis etc. Fair enough the book was published in 2014 so way before covid but the cost equation still stands. It’s a lot of money to drop on one recipe. And you know it’s not like you can use the remainder on the recipe for Chorizo with Apricot and Mezcal Aioli (again, not an aioli). Because when you read that recipe it contains no goddamn mezcal at all. None. Nyet. Cero.
I was so incensed at this the first time round I tweeted the publisher.
They responded that it was a typo.
Eerrrrrrmmmmmm … no.
Speaking from embarrassing experience, a typo is when you work for an accounting firm and you hand your boss a report that leaves the o out of the word accounting.
Twice.
Why’d you have to make things so complicated?
This slice is made up of a lemon cake, a lemon syrup, a mousse, a lime curd glaze and the mezcal roasted pineapple. Five components. Thirty-two ingredients if you make your own lime curd (I did not) and the pineapple (which as per above, I also did not make).
Included in these thirty two ingredients is 100g of lemon aspen. Do you know what lemon aspen is? Nope, me either. According to Cantina’s glossary, it is
“A small, pale yellow fruit, with a lemon flavour and aroma and spongy flesh…it is available from bush food specialists and gourmet greengrocers”.
Let’s just put aside the fact that it was neither available from gourmet greengrocers or bush food specialists when I was looking for it.
Because you know what else is a small pale yellow fruit with a lemon flavour and aroma?
A lemon.
Readily available all over the damn place.
I also made the soft shell crab tacos with guacamole, shaved fennel and sweetcorn salad for my birthday dinner. Softshell crabs weren’t available for love or money so I made these with lobster tails. Because you know, it was my birthday and dammit if I wasn’t going to get fancy!!!
It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s de-lovely
You know the absolute worst thing about Cantina? It’s cheffy, it’s pretentious, it’s fiddly, pretty much everything was a pain in the arse to cook. But when they worked, which was most of the time? They were so damn tasty that they almost made all the effort worthwhile. So, whilst I part of me really wants to consign this book to the second-hand shop pronto, I am going to hang onto it for a little while longer!
Both the cake/slice and the tacos were mouthwateringly delicious, even if they were also a lot of work to prepare!
The standout recipe for me from Cantina was the Heirloom tomato escabeche. It was so good!!!!!
I have a challenge with myself that I will reduce either through binning or donating 1000 things in the next 12 months. Twenty days in I am up to 190 so it is going well. But there’s a long way to go I may need to put Cantina on the donation pile later in the year!
Next up on my Tasty Reads book cook though Silvia Colloca’s Made in Italy. I only have about ten recipes left to cook from it so I should easily be done by the end of the year. And based on everything I have already cooked it is pretty down to earth which is exactly what I needed after the high-end madness that was Cantina!
So tell me, do you have a cookbook you find infuriating? What was frustrating about it? Did you keep it or give it away?
Ola people of the internet! Today we are celebrating all things Mexican with a couple of cocktails, the Tijuana Sunset and the Buenos Noches both from Cantina. Regular readers would know what I have set myself a task to cook through this book by the end of the year. Readers from the way back would know that this book and I have a troubled past. Too cheffy, too complicated, too many hard to find ingredients have been my complaints of this book in the past.
Let’s kick things off early in the evening with..wait for it…we need some sort of fanfare…ah…here he is…
Da da dadada…TEQUILA!
The Tijuana Sunset
This is billed as “A sophisticated take on the tequila sunrise”.
Okay fine. But IMHO, the only thing that makes a tequila sunrise any good is that gorgeous ombre effect of the grenadine and the orange juice. And if you are going to call that drink a sunset then that ombre effect needs to run the opposite way to the sunrise right?
Well, it is totally missing from the Tijuana Sunset so I guess the way the gradient goes is immaterial right?
Now, bear in mind I made both of these drinks in iso at a time when even generally easy to come by ingredients were scarce on the ground. Blood orange juice was an impossibility. I decided to sub in Blood Orange Soda instead of Blood Orange Juice and Soda. Did this affect the colouring? Possibly. However, as there is no picture in the book I suspect that they also did not get that beautiful colour array.
Looks may be one thing but taste is another. And when it came to taste the Tijuana Sunset was OMG….100% delicious!!! 😍😍😍. Tangy from the lime, a little sweet from the soda, a nice kick from the tequila and the touch of salt was GENIUS. I loved this so much I immediately made another which I garnished with a little slice of jalapeno. This made it even better!
I loved the Tijuana Sunset. I just wish it had a different name so there weren’t those expectations of what it was going to look like!
Wait up. Hold on. Do you think that by making the claim that it is a “sophisticated” take on the Tequila Sunrise that the authors are trying to say that the beautiful orange to deep red shading is somehow unsophisticated? Are they making fun of my love for a drink that looks pretty as well as tasting delish?
OMG…see what this book does? It makes me crazy! Or maybe that’s life after what now…seven weeks in iso?
Buenos Noches
Now this one looked the biz! It is a Mexican take on an Irish Coffee which is a drink I hold dear. And on paper it sounds delicious. Chilli infused tequila, cinnamon infused coffee…sign me up!
Okay, so truth be told. This was one of the worst things I have ever put in my mouth. Particularly because I had to wait 3 days for the tequila to infuse with the chipotle.
I actually cried after tasting this. Which I admit is an extreme reaction. But, at the moment, when our lives are so restricted, something that I was looking forward to for THREE days and which turned out to be a bitter disappointment might actually be worth a tear or two.
I felt this was bitter and flat. It lacked any sweetness to counteract the bitterness of the coffee and the heat of the chilli and had no zestiness to bring the bitter and hot flavours together.
I’m calling Goodnight Irene on the Buenos Noches.
But here’s that recipe. Just in case you have really repressed emotions and need to cry over something dumb instead of the horror that is the world as we know it.
In the past, I have not been entirely complimentary about Cantina, by Paul Wilson. This cocktail may change all that because it is DE-LIC-OUS!!! The Mexican Manhattan may just be my new favourite cocktail! I’m not sure if I am sad or glad that I am currently in the middle of Feb Fast. If I wasn’t off the booze, I imagine I would by now have had many more than the one I have had. My tastebuds are weeping, my liver is cheering. I think it’s probably a draw!
The Mexican Manhattan cocktail combines the vanilla and spice flavours of anejo tequila with the sweet / tartness of Cherry Heering and the bittersweet of Sweet Vermouth to produce a cocktail that is complex and delicious. I think this is a cocktail to savour over an hour or so in order to really enjoy the flavour and aroma!
The traditional garnish for a Manhattan and this Mexican Manhattan is a maraschino cherry. I thought I had a jar of these in the fridge however when I checked? Nada. Luckily, I had some candied kumquats in the fridge so I subbed these in. I really enjoyed the citrussy element this brought to the cocktail. If you are making it, however, feel free to use the more traditional cherry.
Cantina Update
My aim this year is to cook through the recipes I have left in Cantina, which at last count was 30.
I have made this cocktail and a slightly dumbed-down version of the Street Style Tostadas with Seared Tuna and Wood -Grilled Vegetables with a Finger lime crema. ( My veggies were grilled on the grill and my limes were of the non-finger variety.) This was however totally delicious!
I have the following left to cook:
Eggs and Breakfast
Pistachio and Spiked Chocolate Hotcakes with Raspberry Crema. I will probably make this as a dessert as I am not a huge fan of a sweet breakfast.
Masa Delicacies and Street Food
Street Corn with Goat’s Crema and Black Olives
Street Corn with Truffled Crema and Truffle Cheese
Mr Wilson’s Fish Tacos with Slaw and Two Sauces
Soft-Shell Crab Tacos with Guacamole, Shaved Fennel and Sweetcorn Salad
Soups
Ranchero Style Beef Broth. This one has been on and off the list at least a dozen times. I have decided not to make the accompanying Bone Marrow and Chimichurri Toast because whilst it sounds delicious, I feel it would make the dish too complicated.
Fish and Seafood
Dory Pescado Asado. This is probably next on my list to cook.
Prawn Cazuela Veracruz
Soft-Shell Crabs al Pastor
Meat, Moles and Barbecue
Blood Orange and Avocado Salsa – you might be wondering why this is in the meat section. It was meant to accompany a chicken dish which I did not like the sound of. The salsa? Sounds awesome!
Lamb Belly Ribs with Pomegranate and Flor De Jamaica
Low and Slow Beef Short Ribs with Cerveza Caramelised Onions
Glazed Mexican Spiced Lamb Chops with Ancient Grains and Pickles
Goat Barbecoa with Green Mole and Green Rice
Ancient Grains and Vegetables
Kale Caesar
Charred Broccoli with Salsa Mexicana
Desserts
Coconut Panna Cotta with Napa Style Strawberry and Mango Salad – I was going to make it this weekend but I realised that Napa Style means it has wine in it. It would be a bit too tempting to have to open a bottle of Pinot Noir, which is my favourite red when I am trying to not drink!
Coffee and Tequila Creme Caramel. This may come off the list. It requires a spendy coffee flavoured tequila which I can’t justify buying in this, my year of frugality!
Pistachio Chocolate Souffle with Dulce De Leche Ice Cream
Salted Caramel Ice Cream Churros Tacos
Drinks
Rosella Royale. This contains something called Pulque. I have no idea what it is or if I can find it. It may come off the list.
Tijuana Sunset
Frozen Lychee Margarita
So that means I only have 23 recipes left to cook! Which seems do-able in 10 and a half months but I know how complicated some of these recipes are…I’ll check back in again next month.
If you would like to join me in cooking any of these, the book is Cantina by Paul Wilson.
Mexican was a recent selection at the Tasty Reads Book Club. I chose Cantina by Paul Wilson for my book because it is food porny to rival Sabrina Ghayour’s Persiana!
Cantina
Take a look at these pictures from Cantina.
Pacific Oyster Cebiche with Melon Salsa.
Dani made this as her bring along to the discussion and they are even more delicious in real life than the picture.
Cantina Cebiche
Ranchero Style Beef Broth With Bone Marrow Toasts
Personally, I’m not sure about eating the Bone Marrow Toasts but they LOOK amazing!
Cantina Ranchero Style Beef Broth
Street Style Tostadas With Seared Tuna and Wood Grilled Vegetables.
Would it be wrong to say this just made me want to lick the page?
Cantina Street Style Tostadas
Gorgeous right? However, as you may have spotted, this is not your typical bean and burrito Mexican. There is not a yellow box in sight. As a Mexican Dorothy might say, “We’re not in Chipotle anymore Toto”. Cantina delivers high end, highly complex Mexican food. For instance, those “Street Style” Tostadas?
22 ingredients – minimum. But you also need a base. So depending on which of the bases you choose you can add another
7 ingredients if you use the Jalopeno and Finger Lime Crema
13 ingredients if you use the Veracruz Sauce
8 ingredients if you make the Sesame Pipian. But hold up. One of the “ingredients” of the Sesame Pipian is a Tomatillo Verde which in turn contains another 8 ingredients…so that would be another 15 ingredients.
Thirty. Seven. Possible. Ingredients. And up to three separate recipes. For “street style” tostadas. And ok, I get it, sometimes you need a lot of ingredients to get a depth of flavour and that alone would not necessarily be enough to put me off a recipe.
However, these recipes were further complicated by a lot of the ingredients not being readily available in Australian supermarkets meaning a lot of ingredients having to be bought on the internet or having to drive across town to pick them up. And then some could only be bought in bulk – hence the almost kilo of padron peppers sitting in my freezer!
Not to mention that cooking from Cantina was like going down the rabbit hole – one recipe lead to another which required another…it seemed never ending! Here is a prime example.
Heirloom Tomato Escabeche
I made this – it was one of the things I took to the Book Club Night. It’s a salad. It’s a fancy salad. It’s maybe the BEST salad I have ever eaten. But it’s a salad.
However to make this salad, as per the recipe, you need to first have made the Mexican pickles. And you also have to have made the Pasilla Chilli relish.
Then you make a lime crema base…
THEN you make the salad.
Then you collapse in a corner quietly sobbing…or….erm…you know….
I did LOVE this, it was so pretty and also incredibly tasty. But so much work for a salad. Bear in mind this would usually be an accompaniment to something else – which probably also had multiple elements. It was hard enough cooking one thing. An entire meal would have sent me loopy!
Cantina Heirloom Salad Escabeche
But to really demonstrate how this book just about sent my sanity to the edge and had a damn good crack at ruining my relationship you can go no further than….
Hanger Steak with Huitlacoche Mustard and Salsa Negra.
Cantina Hangar Steak
That pictures looks pretty damn simple right? It’s steak, salad and a condiment. How hard could it be?
Let me step you through the timeline of this one meal shall I?
Week -1:
Order Huitlacoche off internet.
Day of the Hangar Steak
6:30pm – Get home from work
6:45pm: Make my Latin Spice Rub. This stuff is awesome. Because you make much more of this than required, I have sprinkled this over everything since I made it and it makes everything – steak, chicken, fish, eggs, calamari – taste better. Just beware it is hot, Hot, HOT so if you don’t like it spicy, go very easy!
Cantina Latin Spice Rub
6:55pm – Soak the dried porcinis
6:58pm – Chop onions and garlic.
7:03pm. Open can of huitlacoche. What is in the tin looks like corn covered in snot. Wonder if you have got a dodgy tin.
7:05pm. Google huitlacoche. Realise it’s supposed to look like that. Wish you hadn’t bought it.
7:15pm. Heat oil and cook onions garlic and both types of mushrooms
7:20pm. Add huitlacoche and porcini liquid.
The recipe them says to cook for 10 minutes until the liquid has reduced to a glossy sauce. This never happened. For a start it was way too chunky – bear in mind the recipe does not even tell you to chop your mushrooms (which I did) but what I had in my saucepan after ten minutes looked like chopped mushrooms and corn covered in snot.
7:40pm. “When are we eating? I’m hungr….what on God’s green earth is THAT?
“It’s mustard”
“It looks like mushrooms and corn covered in snot. Why are you making mustard? Can’t we just have Colman’s?”
“You can’t have Colman’s, we’re having Mexican. It’s special Mexican mustard.”
“It looks revolting”.
It didn’t look great. And I don’t want to be pedantic (I so totally do) but surely…a major component of anything called mustard should actually be mustard?
And don’t even get me started on the Apricot and Mescal Aioli that contained no mescal and was not any sort of aioli I ever had.
7:45. I’m staring at a hot mess in a pan, thinking maybe if I blended it it would look a little bit more like the mixture in the picture.
7:55. After some blending with the hand mixer, we now have something that looks pretty much like the picture in the book. Which is to say, like baby poo.
I’ve now been cooking for an hour and have….a spice rub and some sort of condiment which probably should not be called mustard. Which he is refusing to eat and I’m losing interest in by the second..
Never mind. The rest is steak and salad. Easy Peasy.
8:00pm. Rub the steaks with the spice rub. That can sit for a while because now, we need to turn to page 36 to make the Latin Vinaigrette for the garnish. Yes. Even the garnish requires you to move to a different page.
Latin Vinaigrette contains 10 ingredients. Roll eyes, sigh. Make Latin Vinaigrette.
8:10. Latin Vinaigrette Made.
8:15pm. Start on the Salsa Negra.
8:16pm Turn back to page 36 to make Salsa Mexicana for the Salsa Negra
8:17pm Salsa Mexicana requires a Zesty Lime Dressing found on page 37. Sigh, roll eyes start muttering swear words underbreath.
8:20pm. : “When are we eating? ”
“Soon. I just need to make the steak. And the salad”
“I thought that’s what we were having”
“It is” This through gritted teeth.
“But…you’ve been cooking for hours…why is there no steak? Or salad?”
“Because it’s Mexican and it’s driving me insane. I just need to make this dressing first. And I really need you to be quiet.”
“I thought you just made dressing”
“I did. That was a different dressing”
“Right. So you’ve been cooking for ages. And you’ve made a mustard that isn’t even a mustard and two salad dressings? When will you cook the steak? I’m starving!!!!”
“Just. Don’t. Speak. This Mexican is doing my head in and the more I have to chitter chatter with you, the longer this is going to take.”
8:30pm Zesty Lime Dressing Made.
8:40pm Salsa Mexicana made.
8:45pm “Where’s the can of black beans that we absolutely definitely had in the cupboard?”
“I ate them for lunch…”
“But….the salad is back bean salad. How are are supposed to have black bean salad with no black beans?”
“We have white beans”
“You can’t make black bean salad with white beans”
“Don’t be a bean racist”.
“Shut up”
We didn’t have white beans. By now I was slightly hysterical. Two hours and no beans to make the bean salad.
8:55pm “I’m hungry….when are we eating?”
“Shut up, I need to think”
“I’m going to have some cereal”
“Don’t eat cereal, we’re just about to have dinner”
“A likely story…”
9:05pm. We had couscous in the fridge. I ended up making the black bean salad with couscous.
9:15pm. The steak finally hits the grill.
9:30pm. Nearly three hours later, we sit down to eat. It was good. It was really good. The couscous was fine – maybe even better than black beans. But it was steak and salad. And it had taken nearly three hours to make. And i was in such a bad mood by the time it was ready I didn’t really enjoy it on the night. Next day for lunch though? Super!
And here in lies the what I feel is the dilemma of Cantina. Two and a half hours of cooking is WAY to long for a weekday meal. Ok, you could make the rub and the dressings and the mustard before hand but that it still time spent somewhere. And for me this is not a dinner party dish either. It’s something…I’m just not sure what – it’s too complex for a casual meal but not fancy enough for a dinner party meal.
Oh, and that so called mustard? I wouldn’t even bother with that. I didn’t like the taste of it and there was enough flavour in the rub and the dressings and the other bits and bobs so that you would not miss it.
And finally…here it is:
Don’t get me wrong. It was DELICIOUS. Nothing I made from Cantina was bad. Except for maybe that mustard. But you had to work hard for that goodness.
Will I cook from Cantina again? Hmmm….Possibly. There are still a few recipes I really want to try. But I would do it on a weekend. Ideally a long weekend.
Here is some of the other stuff I made:
Jalapeno and Finger Lime Crema
Mexican Style Pickles
Loved them!
Baked Devilled Eggs with Sobrasado
I did a cheaty version of this in that I swapped in similar stuff I had for the listed ingredients such as barley wraps for the corn tortillas, pancetta and salami for the serrano ham and sobrasado, cheddar cheese for the Mahon…It was still awesome if not exactly remotely authentic.
Chorizo with Apricot and (no) Mescal Aioli
Pumpkin Soup with Chorizo Migas
I had to buy achiote paste for this and didn’t like the flavour of it at all.
I do enjoy saying Chorizo Migas in a very bad (a la Speedy Gonzales) Mexcan accent though.
Your’re meant to drink this alternating with sips of a shot of tequila. I just put my tequila in the drink along with all the rest of the stuff. Loved this!
Here is the recipe for the Spice Rub, direct from Cantina. And also serves as my Spice Blend for a Daring Kitchen Challenge MONTHS ago. And hey, I guess the Hangar Steaks cover off on their Grilling challenge!
[yumprint-recipe id=’33’] I honestly feel like cooking from Cantina once a week which is what I try to do with the Tasty Read selections almost broke me. And, if the end result hadn’t almost invariably been delicious I would have gladly tossed the book in the trash multiple times. Instead, it’s filed away in the bookshelf just waiting for the right occasion. So, just know this. If you ever come to my house and I make you Mexican food that looks lovely and casual, know that I must REALLY like you! Because that stuff is hard!
It’s been a while since we dipped into the pages of The A-Z of Cooking…and yep, we’re still only up to C. This time though we head away from the fun, fun, fun of Children’s Favourites and into the darker world of cost savers. Retro Frugality can a very scary place!
Chili Con Carne4jpg
Surprisingly, all three recipes featured in this section were things I would have been happy to make. There was the Chili Con Carne, a Tagliatelle with Bacon and Tomato Sauce and an Oxtail Casserole. I REALLY wanted to make the Oxtail Casserole just because the others are things we probably eat fairly regularly and I have never cooked with o before. But, someone had a hissy fit in the butcher when I asked for oxtails. Sometimes it’s difficult trying to be a retro food blogger when you live with the fussiest eater on the planet!!! It will be made though. I have enough meals alone to warrant making some, even if just for myself.
A-Z of Cooking – Chili Con Carne Ingredients
But for now, we needed a meal to be eaten together and, turned out, we had everything to make this chilli already in the freezer, fridge and store cupboard. This is really important as you will soon find out that not all my ventures into Mexican cooking have been so expeditious. You will also notice that there are no green peppers, as specified by the recipe ingredients, and there are mushrooms which are not mentioned. I am not fond of bell peppers of any sort as they tend to repeat on me for HOURS after I have eaten them. Plus, I had mushrooms and, in the cost cutting vibe of this post, waste not, want not right?
Chili Con Carne Recipe
I had one problem with this recipe. And that was the lack of cumin. Funnily enough, as I was writing this post, I was watching a Heston Blumenthal show where he made chili con carne and he too mentioned how important it was to have cumin in your chili recipe.
Then again, Heston’s’ chili contains 27 ingredients and at least 3 processes….I love Heston, I really do. But 27 ingredients for chilli? And that doesn’t even include the muffins?
I’m sure Heston’s recipe is the best chili you’ve ever eaten. I’m equally sure that the A-Z of Cooking’s Cost Saving Recipe won’t be.
BUT. And it’s a big but. (Sir Mixalot would be proud).
Chili Con Carne 5
Is this a tasty dish? This recipe lacked some flavour, most notably cumin. And personally, I would have increased the chilli content too. However, I think the mushrooms added some umami that would not have been present had the green peppers been used instead. And it was tasty even without the cumin. So yes, big tick on tasty.
Does it fill the brief of being a cost saver? Absolutely. The basic chili cost around $7.00. And that made 4 large or 5 medium sized serves.
Should this become something that is in your repertoire of basic dishes that you can then flavour and snazz up whatever way you want? Totally!
Is it something you will make over and over? You bet!
It’s a good, solid, basic chili recipe. Sure it’s not Heston. But it not everything needs to be. In fact, nothing except food at The Fat Duck should be.
And if you want to jazz it up, any, or all, of the following would make good additions:
Avocado Salsa
Corn Chips as dippers
Warm tortillas
Pico Di Gallo
Guacamole
Grated Cheese
Sour Cream
Pickled Jalapenos
Cojita or crumbled feta cheese
Tabasco or other hot sauce
This is great, quick easy weeknight cooking, it is also great, maybe even better the next day for lunch or dinner.
Chili Con Carne4jpg
Eat, enjoy! With the money you save on this why not treat yourself to a margarita or two.
