Tex Mex Feast

No recipes, just some piccies...

I had a couple of friends over recently for a Tex Mex Feast, and many good food noms were had.

We started off with a Five Layer Dip:



From the bottom:
Smoky Tex Mex Beans (I used chipotles for this one)
Cheezy Beany Sour Creme - inspired by Joanna Stepaniak's Gee Whiz Spread, but using Tofutti Sour Creme instead of tahini, and no pimentos.
Guacamole - mashed avocado and lemon, nummy...
Salsa Verde - using the recipe from theppk, with canned tomatillos from Fireworks Foods
Finally, just some chopped tomatoes and stuffed green olives.

Soup Course (yes, I had a soup course. I am a food geek of monumental proportions...)

Chilled Tomatillo, Avocado and Cucumber Soup, based upon this recipe (without the saffron ice - I just dumped a plain ice cube in the bottom of the bowl). Lovely, rich, creamy and filling, this tasted like a mix between guacamole and gazpacho. Highly recommended.

Main Course

I had made a vegan version of Puerco Pibil, using annatto paste and jackfruit, but found that I was allergic to something in the mix, and couldn't face cooking it or eating it, let alone taking a picture of it. I'm hoping that I'll be able to make it again some day and not feel so icky whilst doing it. My guests really enjoyed it, so that's good! I based my recipe upon this one, which is from Robert Rodriguez, which is the only reason I wanted to make this, because I loved how Johnny Depp's character in Once Upon a Time in Mexico had a Puerco Pibil fixation.

Yes, I am that easily influenced by mass media and popular culture (and pretty boys). It's a thing.

Anyhoo, the other part of the main course was Everyday Chipotle Tamales from Veganomicon. Awesomely good, though finding dried corn husks was not possible - I just used fresh ones and got one of my guests, who is very good with origami and such, to do the folding of the tamales! The photo is not of the best quality, but I was well chuffed with how they turned out, so I had to take a photo anyway!

Enchilada Casserole

Iterations of this lovely concoction abound in many blogs around the interwebs. Here’s my interpretation, using a cheezy spicy corn sauce inspired by Veganomicon’s Jalapeno Corn Gravy…

Enchilada Casserole

Ingredients

Cheezy Spicy Corn Sauce

1 cob corn, kernels sliced off
1 onion, finely chopped
2 pickled chillies, finely chopped
1 tablespoon Nuttelex
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
½ cup lemon juice
1 to 2 cups water
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
½ teaspoon dried sage

Other

½ batch Tex Mex Beans
6 to 8 tortillas
½ cup + ¼ cup olives, chopped finely

Method

Cheezy Spicy Corn Sauce

Over a medium heat, melt the Nuttelex in a frying pan. Add the onion and chillies and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are softened and translucent.

Sprinkle in the plain flour and nutritional yeast, and stir until the onion and chillies are all sticky. Pour in the water a ¼ cup at a time, mixing at first to form a paste, and then as more water is added, stirring to make sure there are no lumps.

Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently, and then add the lemon juice, mustard and sage, and combine thoroughly. Bring back to a simmer, and stir through the corn kernels.

Once the mixture is bubbling and thickened, take off the heat.

Putting it all together

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

Place tortillas to cover the bottom of a deep casserole dish – usually one and a half to form a layer.

Spread with some of the Tex Mex Beans mixture, sprinkle with some of the ½ cup olives, and spoon and spread some of the corn sauce over the top. Repeat until you run out of beans or tortillas, finishing the layer with corn sauce.
Sprinkle the top with the ¼ cup olives, and bake until bubbly and browned, about 20 to 30 minutes.

Sit for 5 to 10 minutes after removing from the oven, slice and serve with salad.

Snags, Mash and Gravy with Salad

So, that was the mystery object….lovely vegan snags over sweet potato mash, with an onion and mushroom gravy, and a big ole salad.

Making the mash and cooking the snags are fairly self explanatory, but here’s my favourite gravy base, that can be fiddled about with to create infinite variations…

Onion and Mushroom Gravy

Ingredients

2 medium onions
1 cup button mushrooms
1 tablespoon Nuttelex
1 ½ tablespoons flour (plain, wholemeal, corn, potato)
1 to 2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons vegan Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon barley miso
1 teaspoon mustard
½ teaspoon dried sage
¼ cup lemon juice

Method

Slice the onions into thin half moons. Slice the mushrooms into even pieces.

Over a medium heat, melt the Nuttelex in a frying pan. Add the onions and mushrooms and fry, stirring constantly, until the onion is softened and translucent. Sprinkle in the flour, and stir to coat the onions and mushrooms – it will become very sticky. Slowly add the water, ¼ cup at a time, and stir to initially form a paste. Then as you add more water, stir to get rid of any lumps.

Bring to a simmer, stir, and pour in the vegan Worcestershire sauce, miso and mustard, and combine thoroughly. Bring back to a simmer, and add the sage and lemon juice, and combine thoroughly.

When the gravy is bubbling and thickened, stir one final time and take off the heat.

Stir sliced cooked vegan sausages through the gravy, and serve over mashed sweet potato.