Friday 1 May 2015

Individual nacho cups


I'm obsessed with making Mexican food. I hadn't realised just how much we ate it until the other week, when we were planning to make a Mexican feast for Matt's parents on the Saturday night... having eaten quesadillas for dinner the previous two nights. We were entertaining again on the following Wednesday, and were debating doing burrito bowls. "But we can't do Mexican for the third time in a week, can we?" I asked Matt. "To be honest, I would happily eat Mexican food every single day," he replied. And I agreed. Mexican food for all!

I'm sure the kind of Mexican inspired dishes I make would not pass much muster for anyone from Mexico - I'm far too cautious with the chilli, for one - but I can't say I care too much when it tastes this good. It makes me feel so joyful about our connected, multi-cultural society, because it's so possible to sample different food and to find unusual recipes at the click of a button - unheard of for my mum's generation, for instance. We live in a pretty amazing age.



So back to that Mexican feast. This was the first time I'd cooked for Matt's parents, and as his mum is an amazing cook, there was a little bit of pressure to create something awesome. We ended up doing posh fajitas, which felt a little safe, but we slow-cooked the chicken in the same way we did our burrito bowls and made fresh guacamole, fancy corn salad, homemade salsa and spicy rice. My brain was basically saying 'If Wahaca did fajitas...' which meant adding oodles of coriander and feta, too. And it all went down super well - clear plates all round, and high praise from Matt's mum. It actually went a little too well - the standard has been set now, and I'm sure we'll be expected to host again! I didn't think this through...

Anyway. I also wanted to do on-theme starters, so I made three types of Mexican-style canapes. Firstly, these puff pastry parcels stuffed with cream cheese, avocado and salsa. They worked fine, but were a little bland - I have yet to be impressed by cooked avocado, I think it just loses all flavour. Then, stuffed mushrooms, which weren't all that Mexicany - just portobellos, filled with cream cheese which I'd mixed coriander and sweet chilli sauce into, and then topped with Jarlsberg and cooked for 20 mins. Very good, though. And finally, these nacho cups!

Which brings us to the point of this post, the easiest little Mexican canapes you ever could make. I got the idea from these taco cups - but I didn't want to make up a batch of mince just for these tiny little things, and even though nachos was a nice idea for a starter, they're kind of messy. And the internet didn't help much with inspiration for individual nacho portions. So I invented these, which fit the bill perfectly. They're veggie friendly, easy to make, don't require any ingredients you won't already have if you're making fajitas, are just as easy to make 10 as to make 50 and they're yummy. They went down so well that I made them again for our guests on Wednesday (which was handy, as I was so busy on Saturday that I totally gave up taking photos of what we were making).


Individual nacho cups
Makes 12 cups

2 x Tortilla wraps
12 tsp Salsa
12 tsp Sour cream
12 tsp Guacamole (storebought or homemade)
12 tsp Cheese (I recommend Mexicana)
Frylight

1. Preheat your oven to gas mark 6 / 200c.


2. Spritz a mini muffin tray (or however many you're using) with FryLight to ensure these won't stick.


3. Cut out circles in a tortilla wrap - ours were made using a cheapo cutter from Wilkos. Ideally you want them to be a bit larger than the holes in your muffin tin.


4. Press each tortilla circle down into the muffin holes and then pop in the oven for about 10 minutes. They should be browned and crispy when they come out (if they're still a bit soft, pop them back in for a bit). You can actually do this bit the day before you're serving to save time.


5. I recommend transferring the tortilla cups to a flat baking tray at this point, as once filled they're a bit harder to get out of the muffin tray. You can see that I didn't do that this time, and I regretted it.


6. Carefully fill each mini tortilla with the ingredients of your choice - I went for salsa, sour cream and guacamole then topped with Mexicana cheese.



7. Pop back in the oven for 5-10 minutes, until the cheese is melty.
8. Serve immediately.

If your guests like things a bit spicy, you could also top them with a jalapeno pepper each - I didn't, but my homemade salsa has a bit of heat to it, so you got a kick anyway.

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4 comments

  1. Your food posts always make me drool Sarah!
    Sophie
    x

    Story Of A Girl

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh my god, these look amazing!

    Maria xxx

    ReplyDelete
  3. These look seriously amazing. I am the same and could eat mexican food several times a week without getting fed up - but you are on another level with the mexican joy :)

    Martha x
    tulipsandtales.blogspot.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh gawd. These look amazing - so cute too!!

    ReplyDelete

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