Kitchen Attempts

I took a two day break from running and used my down time wisely. I spent it cooking with friends.

Since I got back from the States, I’ve been craving for good Mexican food. There are hardly any Mexican restaurants in Manila soI called on someone who I knew would have the same enthusiasm for this partricular cuisine- JessMo. In less than a week, an invitation was sent out for a homemade Mexican fiesta.

On the menu were tamales, enchiladas, pupusas, pulled pork and beef, salsa, guacamole, re-fried beans, pineapple tequila and beer. I couldn’t wait.

we used JessMo's instant masa harina

JessMo working on the tamales and Sandy busy with the dishes

filling the corn husks was my favorite part

fresh out of the steamer

These tamales were perfectly seasoned and had a light, creamy texture. PatMo and JessMo, who are experts at Mexican food, thought that it needed more time in the steamer. I thought they were perfect.

devoured instantly

I volunteered to make pupusas and was quite confident since I knew I’d have JessMo to help me out. I brought my own masa harina which I bought from Healthy Options. JessMo told me that the one I brought would be different from her maseca but I insisted that we tried what was available here in Manila.

I used this recipe to make the pupusas.

Pupusas dough

The pupusas I tried before were fluffy and tasty. These were flat and bland. We even tried to remedy it by putting baking soda and seasoning on the mixture but it didn’t work. Needless to say, these did not make it to the buffet. At least we had fun trying. 🙂

my first attempt at making pupusas

Everybody had a hand at preparing the food. PatMo was in charge of making the guacamole.

mo Mexican fiesta is complete without guac

the boy can cook

delicious guac!

I totally forgot to document my first attempt at making pulled pork, but I guess all you need to know is that it was delicious!  Thanks to my sister, G for the pulled pork recipe. My version was very saucy because I used 1 can of diced tomatoes instead of salsa. I also added 2 tablespoons of La Chinita smoked paprika powder which gave the dish a fiery kick!

my first attempt at making pulled pork : SUCCESS!

killer pineapple tequila

Mexican fiesta

It was the perfect way to spend a Saturday. Big hugs to Jess and PatMo for orchestrating a fun and relaxing day. I wish I could raid your ref for leftovers.