A Bicentennial Celebration Through Food

Its was indeed a very special dinner for many reasons. Yes, Mexico was celebrating its 200 year independence anniversary (which coincidentally landed exactly on a Thursday and no, Mexico's independence is not 5 de Mayo, its the 16th of September) but along with this we had a very special guest. My cousin from Houston had reserved his spot for this Thursday about a month ago. Also, we invited a very close friend and he brought along two additional friends, one by the name of Don Julio (reposado of course) and another Peruvian friend, which you could learn more about in Tamy's previous post. It was as she said it, a guys night in and a very fun one at that.

Even though the group was smaller, the whole night was fantastic and ended at about 1:30 AM, which is always a good sign. The food was all Mexican or Mexican influenced. There was a mix of spicy and non-spicy to give the real spectrum of food. Not all Mexican food has to be spicy, but definitely could be!
The menu was the following:
Appetizer: Foie Gras, porcini mushrooms and white truffle flautas with a plum balsamic sauce and scallions
Main Dish: Braised shoulder with two sauces and fideos secos
Dessert: Tunas (cactus fruit) sprinkled with chili with raspberry sorbet

Flowers are a huge part of Mexico, and even though we could not find the most authentic ones, multiple colors are a must.

The first take on traditional Mexican food are the "flautas" or as they are more commonly known here "taquitos". This case the flautas were rolled with a foie gras mousse and porcini/white truffle mix. The tortillas were hand made and fresh from that night. Once the tortillas are rolled, they are fried for about 2-3 minutes. The balsamic plum sauce added to the flavor of the flautas.

The main dish was a braised shoulder slow-cooked with two different sauces. One chipotle with a wine reduction and the other a very classic green tomato sauce. To accompany the meat and differentiate the tastes, we served fideos secos which is basically noodles cooked in a tomato/chicken broth sauce. The meats were spicy, so the pasta helped cut down the heat.

Here are the tunas (pictured in the back) red and green. They are very tast and highly recommended if you ever get a chance to eat them. They are the fruit of the cactus sprinkled with some spicy chile de arbol powder.

My cousin visiting from Houston, enjoying the night and the post dinner drinks and conversation.

Bringing in Don Julio to the dinner was a necessity for any Mexican celebration. For any of you that might not know, Don Julio is one of the best tequilas from Mexico.