Start With A Bag Of Limes . . . .

Remaining limes . . .

And what did we get? We created a fiesta of margaritas, fish tacos, jicama salad and coconut lime squares. You notice we started with margaritas, really our favorite margaritas. We featured them last year for our Cinco de Mayo celebration and   we still love them. Faithful readers will know that we plan menus around these margaritas.

Infamous margaritas

Margarita

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2009
Prep Time:  5 min
Inactive Prep Time:  --
Cook Time:  --
Level:  Easy
Serves:  1 cocktail

Ingredients
2 ounces 100 percent agave silver/blanco tequila, divided
1 tablespoon kosher salt
4 limes, divided
1/2 small Hamlin or Valencia orange
2 tablespoons light agave nectar
3/4 cup ice cubes, about 3 to 4

Directions
Pour 1/2-ounce of the tequila into a small saucer. Spread the kosher salt in a separate small saucer. Dip the rim of a martini or other wide rimmed glass into the tequila. Lift out of the tequila and hold upside down for 10 seconds to allow for slight evaporation. Next, dip the glass into the salt to coat the rim. Set aside.

Halve 2 of the limes, cut a thin slice for garnish from 1, and set aside. Juice the halved limes into the bottom of a Boston-style cocktail shaker. Cut the remaining 2 limes and the orange into quarters and add them to the juice in the shaker. Add the agave nectar to and muddle for 2 minutes until the juices are release. Strain the juice mixture through a cocktail strainer into the top of the shaker and discard the solids.

Return the juice to the bottom of the shaker, add the remaining 1 1/2 ounces of tequila and any remaining on the saucer. Add the ice to the shaker, cover and shake for 30 seconds. Strain the mixture through a cocktail strainer into the prepared glass, garnish with reserved lime slice, and serve immediately.

Our changes:
We did not use the salt and we made a pitcher of margaritas by using the amounts below. We juiced all the fruit and stirred the juice with all remaining ingredients together in a medium pitcher. Chill until ready to serve. Serve over ice.
 3 large navel oranges
 3 limes
 3 Tbsp.   agave nectar
18 ounces silver 100 % agave tequila

Our changes this time:
½ cup lime juice, fresh squeezed
2 ½ cups orange juice, fresh squeezed
3 Tbsp. Agave nectar
16 oz. silver 100% agave tequila

A year ago Sue saw a program that featured dried chiles, (and no, she doesn’t remember which program), but Meg ran out and bought the 4 varieties we used in our sauce. We are trying it for the first time on these fish tacos. This was totally a “taste as you go” sauce, and we’re very pleased with the results.

Left front: Chiles de Arbol. Left rear: Guajillo. Top right: California Chiles. Right front: Ancho or Pasillo chiles

Meg and Sue’s Chile Sauce Especial
Recipe developed by Sue & Meg For Saturday Night Specials 5/4/2013
2 dried Guajillo chiles
2 dried Chiles de Arbol
2 dried California chiles
2 dried Pasilla (Ancho) chiles
Water to cover
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. dried oregano
1tsp Agave syrup
2 tsp. white vinegar

Instructions
Remove seeds and stems from dried chiles. Put the cleaned chiles into a medium saucepan and cover with water. Simmer, covered,  on lowest heat, for 2 hours or until tender.  (After they were cooked, Meg left them to cool overnight on the counter top.)

Using a slotted spoon, remove the chiles from the water and put into a blender. Add enough of the cooking water to cover and blend to a loose paste consistency. 

Heat the olive oil in a small sauce pan. Saute the garlic over low heat. Add the chile paste and remaining ingredients. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Meg and Sue’s Jicama Salad
Recipe developed by Sue & Meg For Saturday Night Specials 5/4/2013
 
1 small red pepper, seeded and julienned
2 cups jicama, julienned
¼ cup cilantro leaves
1 lime, juiced
1 Tbsp. canola oil
½ tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. chili powder
Salt to taste

Place red pepper, jicama and cilantro into a serving bowl. Whisk remaining ingredients together and pour over vegetables.

No, this isn't a potato with gout. It is a jicama! Not cute, but good to eat!

 


Fish tacos are very popular here and are prepared many different ways.  We chose to use lightly grilled red snapper and an assortment of raw vegetables along with our special sauce.  Everything was super fresh. One of the best things about tacos is that you get to make each one the way you want it, which we did.

the makings for fish tacos.

Coconut Key Lime Squares
Makes: 64 bars
Active time: 20 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Source:  marthastewart.com, “Food and Entertaining”, Greg Lofts

Crust
8 T cold un-salted butter, cut into ½ inch pieces, plus more, softened, for pan
¾ c all-purpose flour
3 T light brown sugar
rounded ¼ t coarse salt
½ c finely shredded desiccated unsweetened coconut
3 oz white chocolate, coarsely chopped (about ½ c)

Filling
3 large eggs, room temperature
2/3 c granulated sugar
3 T all-purpose flour
2/3 c fresh Key lime juice or regular lime juice
1 T confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

To make crust
Preheat oven to 400’F.  Lightly butter an 8-inch square baking pan.  Line bottom and 2 sides of pan with parchment, leaving a 1 inch overhang, lightly butter the parchment.

Combine flour, brown sugar, and salt in a food processor, and pulse a few times to combine.  Add butter, and pulse until largest pieces are the size of peas.  Add coconut and white chocolate, and pulse a few more times, just until mixture holds together.  Transfer mixture to pan, and pack down firmly with the bottom of a measuring cup.  Bake until crust is deep golden brown, 18 – 20 minutes. 

Remove from oven, and reduce heat to 300’F.

To make filling
Whisk together eggs and granulated sugar in a bowl, then whisk in flour.  Gently stir in lime juice (do not whisk or stir vigorously or batter will become foamy).

Pour filling over hot crust, and bake until filling is set, about 15 minutes.  Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Run the tip of a knife along the 2 sides of the pan not lined with parchment, then remove from pan by lifting with parchment overhang.  Transfer to a cutting board, dust with confectioners’ sugar, and cut into 1 inch squares.  Bars can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature 2 days.

Coconut Lime Squares

Our unsolicited and biased opinions:

The type of oranges you use will affect the flavor of your margaritas. The last time around we could only find navel oranges and the flavor was slightly different than this time with Valencias. Adjust the balance of lime to orange juice to your taste. By the time we decided that we wanted more lime juice the pitcher was gone. Note to self – be preemptive next time.

This sauce is not very spicy and has a wonderful depth of flavor that includes a great smokiness. If you want a spicier sauce,  add more Chiles de Arbol to your taste. You can totally make this chile sauce ahead. Once again we advocate freezing left over sauce in ice cube trays to use with abandon at a later date. Meg thinks buying additional ice cube trays just to freeze sauces is a good idea. Who wants chile flavored ice cubes in drinks . . . . but now that we think about it, there is the Bloody Mary opportunity.

If you have never tried jicama, it is crunchy, a little starchy and sweet. It is available in all of our local markets, in a variety of sizes. It can also be used on a platter of fresh vegetables and dip. We intended to include a Fresno chile in our salad, but we couldn’t find one locally! Meg bought a jalapeno, but left it at home. We both think some additional heat would have enhanced the flavor of the salad. 

Now seriously, who would cut these coconut lime bars into one inch squares? We are divided in our opinion on the white chocolate in the crust, (Sue, yay; Meg, nay), but agree on the coconut. We also think that the addition of some lime zest would truly make the flavor sing lime rather than citrus.

Salud! Enjoy life and drink a little tequila.