Menu to serve 6
LAMB BARBACOA
SALSA TAQUERA
SALSA VERDE
SALSA DE CACAHUATE
CURTIDO DE CEBOLLA Y JALAPEÑO
TOPPINGS
MANGO TAJÍN MESS
Today’s menu is about two things - highlighting one of my absolute favourite cuisines and also highlighting one of my favourite ways to dine. As you know I love a family style meal - lots of sharing and passing and diving in. DIY dining takes family style a step further. It is a dish that is finished by the guest themselves so you have less work to do and the guest is eating something they have had a part in creating. It is a great ice breaker if you’ve got people who don’t know each other and a great way to make a meal that might be intimidating, more informal and easy.
I had a think about all the different foods and cultures out there that utilise DIY dining and the ones I eat frequently. Turkish or Kurdish food is a great place to start - look at the spread you get when eating mixed grills or adana - you get bread, pickles, sauces, yoghurt and rice and you essentially make your own kebabs as you eat. Vada Pav (fried potato patties in rolls with delicious chutneys, Keema Pav (rolls with curried mince lamb) or Pav bhaji (rolls with curried vegetables) from India are all insanely good and great DIY meals. Ssam from Korea is another gorgeous way to dine - soft leaves (lettuce or perilla for example) are served with ssamjang, banchan, rice and grilled meat for the diners to make stunning little parcels of deliciousness - check out Su Scott’s recipe for her Pork Belly Ssam which she shared on MORE PLEASE. These are just a few examples of the MANY clever cuisines that employ this method. Other ideas I had for DIY dinners were Po’boys (New Orleans sandwiches filled with fried seafood), Gyros or Banh Mi. And then I finally saw the theme. All of these DIY meals involve the filling of something with something else.
Which made me think of for me the ultimate in DIY dining. The best sharing food out there. It’s only bloody TACOS.
These days in the UK it is still pretty hard to eat good Mexican food, mostly what you find is Tex Mex incorrectly described as Mexican. I am lucky to have travelled to Mexico recently and more than once, and trust me when I say I ate a shitload of tacos (the proof is in my instagram highlights) But I am not Mexican, nor am I trained in the cuisine and my recipes below, while being diligently researched and tested and very tasty, are not the same as the real thing. If you get an opportunity to go to Mexico then don’t walk, run. It is one of my favourite places in the world and I would move there in a heartbeat. If that’s not on the horizon, in London you can eat excellent Mexican food and tacos in particular at La Chingada in Surrey Quays, from September 11th at Mexa in Arcade Foodhall (formerly Sonora on Broadway Market - their last weekend is this weekend!) and Bake Street in Stoke Newington. For cooking at home look no further than the AMAZING Karla Zazueta who not only shares her divine recipes on her blog and her instagram but also teaches private Mexican cooking classes and hosts supper clubs from her home in West London, including the mystical art of masa and making fresh tortillas. I am so happy to have been able to ask her a few questions for MORE PLEASE this week, plus she's shared her gorgeous recipe for Chicken and Bean Tostadas. For absorbing taco info I also love the series Taco Chronicles on Netflix - it is absolutely fascinating.
There are so many different fillings for tacos and it was really hard to decide on what to feature, and I encourage you to play around as much as possible. On my most recent trip to Mexico the taco we ate the most of was Barbacoa. Barbacoa is a Mexican preparation for meat that is not actually cooked on a barbecue. Historically, ancient Aztecs used deep pits heated by fires to cook meat that was wrapped in toasted agave leaves, creating an amazing indirect heat and delicious smoky flavour. These days, lamb or goat meat is wrapped in agave leaves and then, after a night underground slowly cooking and steaming in the hot pit, it is unwrapped and served on Sunday mornings to crowds of people with delicious salsas and fresh tortillas and the “consome” - the stock created from the juices of the meat and spices. Mexican home cooks making barbacoa will often use large stock pots with a steamer inside and wrap the meat in toasted banana leaves instead. Obviously for the sake of a Dinner Party we aren’t going to dig a massive pit, but there is a way to get incredible, showstoppingly succulent, smoky lamb in your oven for your tacos. It can be made ahead too and is very foolproof. I’ve paired it with three salsas that I absolutely love and some delicious topping ideas too. For pudding we are fusing Mexican flavours with the classic British pudding Eton Mess and it’s a killer dessert I will be making again and again.
¡OK MUY BIÉN ESTAMOS LISTOS PARA COMER LOS TACOS! ¡BUEN PROVECHO!
LAMB BARBACOA
A slow cooked hunk of meat is a dependable and useful dish for the Dinner Party host. This method with lamb results in a super tender piece of meat and a delicious, fragrant consomé to serve alongside it. Normally, the pit style barbacoa is not necessarily marinated like we are doing here as the flavour that comes from the pit cooking does the work. This method is more similar to Mexican home cooks who would attempt this would make an “adobo” or marinade to enhance the flavour of their meat, which is what we have here. This marinade would work beautifully on chicken, pork or beef too.
Serves 6
1 shoulder of lamb, around 2.2 kg
4 dried ancho chillies
5 cloves
10 peppercorns
1 tbsp cumin seeds
4 bay leaves
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tbsp distilled vinegar
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp dried oregano
1.5 tbsps fine salt
Baking paper + foil
The night before, pop a small frying pan on a medium heat and leave to get nice and hot. First, toast your ancho chillies for about 1 minute a side until they are shiny, slightly puffed and a richer red. Remove from the heat and leave to cool before removing the stems and seeds. Then transfer to your blender and cover with 400ml hot water and leave to soak for 20 minutes until soft. Meanwhile toast the cloves, peppercorns and cumin in the same pan, just for around a minute until fragrant, then set aside. When the chillies are soft and soaked, pop all the rest of the ingredients into the blender and blitz until smooth.
Pierce the lamb shoulder in various places with a sharp knife and then smear the marinade all over it, forcing it into the holes and massaging it in really well. You can leave it in a bag or covered in a dish in the fridge overnight.
The next day, let your lamb come to temperature out of the fridge for around 1 hour while you preheat your oven to 130 fan.
Wrap the lamb well in two large pieces of baking paper. It doesn't need to be super securely sealed, just well enough to create plenty of steam. Then pop the lamb in an oven tray and pour in about 2 inches worth of water. Cover the tray of wrapped lamb and water tightly with foil and pop into the oven. It will need about 6 - 6.5 hours to become fork tender and melting. Leave to rest for 10 -15 minutes before serving, with little cups of the broth the roasting meat has created in the tray seasoned with salt on the side. You can shred this at the table, or pre-shred post cooking if you don’t want to risk the mess.
MAKE AHEAD -
You can marinade the lamb up to 3 days ahead of cooking
If you need to cook the lamb ahead you absolutely can but you will find it infinitely easier to shred when it is still warm from the oven. So my advice is to cook it ahead, shred the meat and keep it in its juices, then reheat it covered in the oven when needed.
SUBSTITUTIONS / VEGAN IDEAS
A goat shoulder or pork shoulder would be divine here too.
If you want to do a vegan taco spread, use the marinade on cauliflower, pieces of sweet potato or pumpkin, portobello mushrooms or halved aubergines and slow roast at 160 (uncovered) until tender.
SALSA TAQUERA
A delicious red salsa that is spicy and divine - salsa taquera is a great one to have in your repertoire for tacos or even simply grilled meat (fab with sausages) or tortilla chips. It uses arbol chillies which are spicy little numbers, so depending on how hot you like this I would start slowly and add more if you need. This is a salsa that can be found made from completely raw ingredients, or sometimes boiled ingredients, or sometimes toasted. I love the toasted flavour so I’ve opted for that but it’s up to you.
4 medium sized vine tomatoes
½ white onion, peeled and quartered
1 clove of garlic, peeled
4-6 dried Arbol chillies - 4 for medium, 6 for hot
Handful of fresh coriander
Juice of 1 lime
Salt to taste
Heat a medium non-stick frying pan on a high heat. Start by toasting your chillies - my advice here is to toast more than you think you will need so you have extras if you think the salsa needs more of a kick. You can save any extras for the peanut salsa. Toast the chillies for around 40 seconds a side until shiny and deep red - don’t burn them! Set them aside, then add your garlic, onion and whole tomatoes to the pan. You don’t need any oil here - the point is to dry toast the ingredients for extra smokiness. Char the onions and tomatoes until all sides are getting black and blistered, around 10 minutes, but remove the garlic after about 5 - it doesn't need that long. Pop all your ingredients into a blender including the coriander, lime juice and a generous pinch of salt to start with. Pulse until you get a chunky liquid - it shouldn’t be completely smooth. Check the heat and add another arbol if you need to. Decant into a bowl and set aside until needed.
MAKE AHEAD -
Salsa is at it’s best on the day it is made, but at a push you can make this the day before.
SUBSTITUTIONS -
If you don’t like too much heat, use a fresh red chilli, toasted like the tomatoes.
If you hate coriander, leave it out!
SALSA VERDE
The definition of zingy is a perfect salsa verde. This is not the salsa verde of Italy, rich with capers and anchovies. This is piquant, fresh ingredients and nothing more. I heartily recommend trying to find fresh jalapenos for this - their flavour is unparalleled. If you can’t find them though go for fresh green chillies instead. Test the strength of your chillies by cutting the top off and touching the white membrane and then touching your tongue - if it’s immediately very spicy then you know what you are in for and can deseed if necessary. I would also say this salsa makes an excellent base for a Green Bloody Mary, just add a celery stick, some vodka, a few ice cubes and a rim of tajín and you’re good to go.
4 fresh, firm green tomatoes
2 to 3 fresh jalapeños, topped
20g fresh coriander
Juice of 2 limes
1 clove of garlic, peeled
½ a white onion, peeled
Generous pinch of salt to taste
Place all the ingredients into a blender and pulse until you get a thick green liquid, still a bit chunky with bits and flecks of coriander. Check the seasoning and spice and blend again if necessary. Set aside until needed.
MAKE AHEAD -
As with the salsa taquera - this salsa is best on the day it is made, and is the work of mere minutes. Anything that has raw onion in it is best as fresh as possible. You might have noticed that raw cut onions taste bitter and smell different after a while; this is because one of the sulphur compounds in onions is triggered when the onion is cut.
SUBSTITUTIONS -
If you simply can’t get hold of green tomatoes, then you can make this a red salsa with normal tomatoes or you can use half a peeled and deseeded cucumber. It will taste a little sweeter so will need more salt to counteract that, plus might be a little more watery.
Green chillies are fine instead of jalapenos
Use parsley and mint if you don’t like coriander.
SALSA DE CACAHUATE
This salsa is not typically served with barbacoa tacos, or even tacos in general but I love it so much and it does go SO well with the lamb. It is SPICY but honestly just as good when it is less spicy - that part is definitely up to you. I saw one recipe that had 20 arbol chiles in it and let me tell you, I gasped. Again this is a great salsa for your back pocket - it would be so lovely on roast chicken or juicy fried prawns too.
8 dried Arbol chillies for a very hot salsa, 6 for hot, 4 for medium
100g untoasted peanuts
1 medium vine tomato, charred or fried whole
100ml water
1 clove of garlic
50ml vegetable oil
2 tsps sherry vinegar
Salt to taste
Start by heating the oil in a frying pan on a medium heat. Fry the chillies in the oil for about a minute and then use tongs to transfer them to your blender. Add the peanuts and the whole tomato to the pan and fry, turning both the nuts and the tomato frequently. After about 3 minutes the nuts should be golden brown and the tomato blistered. Take the peanut pan off the heat and leave to cool for a few minutes before transferring the peanuts and their oil into the blender along with the garlic, vinegar and plenty of salt. Add in the water and blitz for a few minutes until completely smooth. Check the seasoning and the spice and then serve.
MAKE AHEAD -
You can make this up to 2 days ahead - there is no onion in it and there is oil which is a great preservative.
SUBSTITUTIONS -
If you can’t eat peanuts then use cashews.
CURTIDO DE CEBOLLA Y JALAPEÑO
Many taquerias will do a little pickle along with their tacos and even though the salsas are always pleasingly refreshing with lime juice, a pickle is a super addition to stand up to the fatty cuts of meat. You don’t have to add jalapeno to this and just stick with onion but I love an extra kick CAN YOU TELL. This is the easiest quick pickle out there and I find lime juice to be the best for getting a gorgeous pink from your onion.
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 or 2 fresh green jalapenos, sliced
Juice of 4-5 limes
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
Boil the kettle and pop the onions in a bowl. Pour over the boiling water and leave to sit for about 30 seconds, before draining the onions well in a sieve. This will take the heat off them without completely cooking them. Then mix everything else in, there should be enough lime juice in the bowl for it to soak the onions, if not add a bit more. Leave for 30 minutes before serving.
MAKE AHEAD -
This can be made up to 2 days ahead, it shouldn’t be treated like a normal pickle as the lime juice isn’t as strong as vinegar so it won’t stay fresh as long.
SUBSTITUTIONS -
You can use red chilli if you prefer or none! Or white onion instead of red.
TOPPINGS AND ASSEMBLY
Picture the scene - you’ve sat down at a taqueria on the side of the road. Bowls of salsas and toppings are scattered across the table, everyone shares with everyone. Your tacos arrive and you start to assemble them, starting with your preferred salsa and perhaps a bit of avocado or a couple of radishes and ALWAYS onion and coriander. Each taco can be different and each one just as delicious. This is why dining like this is so fun, with so many different combinations to try you can leave your guests to show themselves a good time almost! All you do is a bit of chopping and you’re there.
These are a good little selection of toppings to use for your lamb and I’ve suggested some specific pairings below too which are worth trying, but really the possibilities are endless.
1 white onion, finely chopped
Large handful of coriander, finely chopped
½ small white cabbage, finely shredded
8 radishes, thinly sliced
2 avocados, thinly sliced
4 limes, wedged
24-30 small corn tortillas
Take each tortilla and sear in a hot pan for around 20/30 seconds a side - they should start to puff. Then keep them wrapped in a clean tea towel - they need to stay warm or they won’t be soft enough to fold. I recommend doing this in batches so your tortillas don’t get cold.
Shred some meat and pop it on the base of a tortilla, adding plenty of juice too, then top with your preferred salsa and topping combination. I love the salsa taquera with a slice of creamy avocado, the salsa verde with crunchy radishes and the spicy-creamy salsa de cacahuate with the sour pickles and a crunch of cabbage. But that’s just me. Just keep making and eating those tacos until your heart's content and the bones are clean.
MAKE AHEAD -
You can slice the cabbage and radishes a few hours ahead, just keep in cold water in the fridge and then drain when needed.
SUBSTITUTIONS -
Other great additions for tacos are;
pico de gallo - a chopped salsa of fresh tomato, onion, coriander, lime juice and jalapeno
Frijoles - black beans or pinto beans that can just be simply boiled in stock or boiled, mashed and refried - not always traditional but a great way to make a meal go further.
MANGO AND TAJÍN ETON MESS
An Eton Mess is a great blueprint for an easy, DIY dessert. You provide everything your guests need for a glorious bowl of pud and all they have to do is compile it. All over Mexico, exceptional fruit is sold on the street covered in lime juice and Tajín - a Mexican lime and chilli salt. It is so delicious and my absolute favourite fruit to have this way is mango. My mum actually used to do a dinner party dish when she was really pushed for time which was simply mango in lime zest served with cream, so this is not that far from this too. Also in Mexico you will find a thick iced beverage called a Mangonada - blitzed up mango puree and sorbet layered with Chamoy (a sweet and spicy sauce made from dried fruit and chillies, salt and vinegar) and tajin. So I suppose this pudding is inspired by all of these things and I can only say MAKE IT - it is SO good. I will be grating frozen jalapenos on all my puddings for the foreseeable.
4 very ripe mangoes*
1 tbsp honey
900ml double cream
397ml condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
4 - 6 meringue nests, broken up slightly
70g toasted coconut flakes
100g caramel sesame peanuts (optional), crushed
1 tbsp tajin seasoning plus extra for serving
Zest of 2 limes, juice of 1
3 jalapeno peppers
*When I made this I bought 2 Kent Mangoes (most often sold in supermarkets) for the diced element and 2 Alphonso mangoes for the puree hence the difference in colour. Kent mangoes have less fibre and are a bit firmer for a dice, but have a slightly duller flavour compared to the Alphonso mangoes. If you can’t get hold of excellent mangoes like Alphonso or Kesar then just use Kent or alternatively used tinned mango puree instead.
The night before, pop your jalapenos in a sandwich bag and freeze whole in the freezer and keep them there until you serve.
The next day, dice your softest mangos and blitz them in a food processor to make a smooth puree with the honey. Set aside in the fridge until needed. Dice the remaining two mangos and marinade in the lime zest and juice in the fridge until needed. A WORD OF WARNING - mango is a fruit that will soak up literally any residual flavour from the board you cut it on or your blender. I strongly recommend keeping a cutting board just for fruit prep to avoid any garlicky flavoured puddings. Make sure to keep your blender super clean too.
Whip together the cream, condensed milk and vanilla until you reach soft peaks - the cream should just hold thick ribbons on its surface. Chill in the fridge until needed.
To serve put everything into bowls ; I like to break up the meringues a bit but leave big bits for people to crush themselves. Dust the diced mango with the tajin and mix well.
For an optimal serving dollop cream into a bowl, top with a large spoon of puree, a spoonful of diced mango, a handful of meringue, a spoonful of coconut flakes and sesame peanuts and then grate a little shower of frozen jalapeno on top plus an extra dusting of tajin. Repeat with another layer of everything and then serve. This is like crack I won’t lie - I can only apologise.
MAKE AHEAD -
You can make the puree 2 days ahead.
The cream and mango dice can be done a few hours ahead.
You can certainly make your own meringues but my feeling is why go to all the trouble just to smash them up? Save it for a pavlova.
SUBSTITUTIONS -
Pineapple would be DELICIOUS here, as would the addition of passion fruit or kiwi.
If you can’t find caramel sesame peanuts or are allergic, use any caramel nut or even crushed ginger biscuits instead.
TIMEPLAN
This first plan should help you see what you can get done in advance, so that for each course on the day you have at least 1, maybe 2 major parts of it taken care of. I appreciate that not everyone’s weeks are easily peppered with dinner party prep, but if you’re hosting after work or on a day where you can’t be in the kitchen, getting ahead is going to save your arse.
MISE-EN-PLACE
This is the fancy name we give to the food prep each section in the restaurant needs to do for their dishes. Hopefully breaking down each dish like this will help you feel organised.
Use the hour before your guests arrive to organise your space too- I find it helpful to group ingredients by dish so it is all in the same place. Little ramekins are really useful for this.
STYLING
TACOS -
This is the fun bit and so easy to style. The whole point is communal dining including the garnish so all you need to do is present that which is easy! I like to do the lamb whole on a big plate but if you are keen to avoid meat shredding at the table then I would shred ahead and pile into a large bowl. Salsas can go into one or two bowls and get dotted about the table; I like to plate in opposing colour palettes so red on green, or green on red and then a nice glass bowl moment is always good too. If you’re short on space your garnishes can be paired up - radishes and cabbage together, avocado and limes together and then ALWAYS the coriander and onion together. In taquerias this is essential - you either keep them separate on the same plate and then have this magic central grab spot where you take equal parts of coriander and onion to dress with or you can just mix from the start. I like to mix up shapes and sizes of bowls and plates here to keep a warm, informal feel. Your tortillas need to be kept warm in a clean tea towel and this is a lovely opportunity to add more vibrancy and texture to your table. I used a vintage table cloth in all honesty in these pictures, just because I loved the clean whites and blues but all sorts of colours would look great - I love the look of these too.
MANGO TAJÍN ETON MESS -
In a similar vein this is a piece of cake to plate for DIY consumption. I love to use blues and greens to offset the orange and yellows and creams. Using a few prettier pieces with florals or patterns helps to smarten up a very low key set up. If you decide to do a pre-plated version of this then I suggest assembling onto a wide plate or bowl with a rim but not too deep - a heap of cream and meringue looks better than something hidden.
It would be great if you could make an entire book of all these recipes please. I'll buy many copies. Thanks in advance 😊
Ooh this DIY dinner party theme is such a fun one! the dessert is giving me so many ideas