A Mexican Feast with Veetee rice

I love food and I love a challenge so when I was given the chance to create my very own dish using one of the veetee flavoured rice trays I jumped at the chance. I got the opportunity to choose from four of their flavours and decided to use the Mexican Spicy Rice.

Veetee sent me a small hamper of ingredients that are reminisce of Mexican food and I was allowed to add any other ingredients that I wanted to use.

Trying to decide what to make was a real challenge as I didn’t want to go down the obvious route of fajitas, burritos, enchiladas, chilli or Quesadillas. I did a bit of research into traditional Mexican food and found some really interesting ideas.
I really wanted to make Tamales which are a steamed bun filled with meat. Unfortunately I couldn’t get hold of the correct flour so to make it easier and a recipe that is able to be created in the UK without any special ingredients I decided to use shortcrust pastry and bake them instead.

The first thing I needed to do was to create my filling. I decided to use a Mexican flavoured pulled pork mixed with refried beans and Veetee spicy rice. Slow Cooked meat looked to be very popular in Mexican cooking and the ability to throw it into the slow cooker and leave it over night was perfect. I usually cook BBQ Pulled pork so I had to adapt my recipe to give it a Mexican flavour. I don’t use measurements but my Mexican Pulled pork ingredient list is below

MEXICAN PULLED PORK

Small pork joint with fat removed
Small carton of passata
Two fresh chillis chopped
Handful of fresh cilantro (Coriander) chopped
Juice of one lime
Teaspoon of smoked Paprika
A few slugs of balsamic vinegar
4 cloves garlic crushed
Brown the meat on the outside then place in the slow cooker with the other ingredients and cook until it falls apart when prodded.

TIRED MUMMY OF TWO FAKE TAMALES

To create our own version of Tamales I used the precooked Mexican flavoured pulled pork and added in the cooked Veetee Spicy Rice and one sachet of refried beans. Once mixed all together it looked and tasted amazing so I knew I was on to a winner!

I used a pre-rolled sheet of shortcrust pastry to save time, effort and mess. I wasn’t sure on the best shape to do as this was a complete experiment so I did a few varieties which meant there were leftovers and enabled hubby to take one to work for his lunch the next day.

The long strudel type was the one that I think worked best due to the pastry to filling ratio. I like pastry but like there to be a lot of filling too. To make my fake tamales I cut the pastry and added the filling, I then wrapped the pastry over the top and used milk to stick it down. To brown the pastry I glazed it with milk and then baked in the oven at 200 degrees. I did check after 15 minutes and every 10 minutes until it was cooked, this took 35 minutes. Depending on how thick you make your tamale will depend how long it will take to cook.

As I was given some avocados I decided to do the obvious and make my own guacamole for the first time ever.

HOMEMADE GUACAMOLE

Two ripe avocados
Half a small onion
Juice of half a lime
One chilli
Fresh Cilantro (coriander)
One medium sized tomato
I blitzed it all in my hand blender to make it smooth but you can hand chop it all if you want chunky guacamole.

Whilst researching Mexican street food I came across Elotes. Elotes is Corn on the cob covered in butter and topped with a Mexican cheese and lime juice. Now I couldn’t get hold of the cheese mentioned but it suggested that Greek feta was the closest I could get. These were really nice and a great way of having corn on the cob. I left some plain as the kids love Corn on the Cob exactly the way it is.

The other street food I came across was Tostadas. Now Tostadas are made from slightly stale tortillas that are then baked or fried and covered in a cheese and meat topping. I decided to oven bake some of the tortillas I was sent but to make them easier to eat I cut them up first. I then covered them in lightly fried Mexican chorizo and more of the feta cheese as well as jalapenos. These were reminiscent to how we eat nachos in the UK however from research Nachos are only used for dipping in Mexico.

As I had some spare tortillas I decided to bake my own nachos too. I used scissors to cut up the remaining tortillas and laid them flat on a baking sheet. I then sprayed with frylight and used my salt and pepper mill to add some seasoning. I baked them in the oven on 200 degrees for about 8 minutes until golden brown. These were delicious and great for dipping in the rest of the refried beans, the salsa I was sent and my homemade guacamole.

This was a meal that the whole family enjoyed and the leftover pulled pork rice mixture was used on my jacket potatoes for lunch the next day!

This is my entry in the Veetee bloggers dream destination competition to win £1000 worth of vouchers for a travel company of my choice.

Why not submit your own recipe for your chance to win vouchers for your dream holiday? Competition details are available on the Veetee website and is open to everyone.