Cinco de Mayo and Kentucky Derby Day Today - So Much to Celebrate

Cinco de Mayo and Kentucky Derby Day together in one day is an occasion to celebrate! The employment news may be discouraging (again) and the economy might be showing signs of sagging, but it's the weekend at last! Whether you're making a batch of Pico de Gallo, some peel and eat shrimp, a masterful margarita, cilantro salsa or a mint julep for the occasion, do something special.

I have some recipes below that will add fresh zest to your weekend:

Mint Julep Recipe
Making Peel and Eat Shrimp
Pico De Gallo
Killer Margarita Recipe
Magnificent Mint Mojito
Cilantro Salsa

If you love the idea of making fresh salsa but think it's too tough getting the peels off all those tomatoes, think again. Peeling a tomato is super easy. This quick tutorial will show you how: How to Peel a Tomato

Get back in the kitchen and have some fun! There's nothing like chopping a bunch or cilantro or smashing a clove of garlic to show the world you're in charge -- of dinner, anyway.

Oh, the Paul Simon song "One Trick Pony" has some of the best horse related lyrics I've ever heard.  They're poetry. Take a look at them in honor of Derby Day:  One Trick Pony lyrics

Comments

  1. Hi Sara,
    Thanks for you great blog pages! With today’s, ‘Cinco de Mayo and Kentucky Derby Day Today - So Much to Celebrate,’ all the links to the other pages except the Killer Margarita Recipe were not available, saying “Sorry, the page you were looking for in this blog does not exist.”
    I use mint a lot & look forward to seeing your recipes. In your part of the world, mint will be racing away, here in South East Australia, with winter rapidly approaching, the mint is heading into dormancy.
    You give us so much, so here's my chance to give some back
    Here are some great recipes that I know of...

    Recipes Some from an Herb Cookbook by Gilian Painter
    Add freshly chopped mint to yoghurt, butter, mayonnaise, vinegar or oil as a dressing for vegetables, meat, pasta or rice.

    Beetroot & Mint Salad
    4 cooked, peeled and sliced beetroot
    2 Tbsp finely chopped mint
    3-4 Tbsp French dressing
    Combine and toss well to blend, serve on a bed of greens

    Mint & Honey Syrup
    6 Tbsp chopped mint
    1 cup honey
    1 cup water
    ½ cup lemon juice
    Simmer mint gently. Strain over honey and lemon juice and stir till dissolved. Bottle and keep in the fridge. Use as a cordial, diluting with water, soda, or lemonade to taste.


    Apple Mint (from my lovely Auntie Audrie)
    1.3 kgs Granny Smith apples
    1 cup water
    450 grams sugar
    230 mls vinegar
    5 cloves
    1 cup chopped mint (tightly packed)
    Peel and core apples, cut up and simmer in water for 45 to 60 minutes. Rib through a sieve and return to pot. Add vinegar, sugar and cloves, then bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir in mint and put in hot sterilised jar and seal.
    This is an excellent condiment for fish or hot or cold meats.

    Mint and Tomato Salad
    6 ripe tomatoes
    ½ cup chopped mint leaves
    4 spring onions
    1-3 fresh chillies, deseeded and finely chopped (use more than one if you ‘like it hot’)
    3 Tbsp lemon juice
    2 tsp sugar
    ½ tsp salt
    Place tomatoes in a bowl and pour over boiling water, prick skin and peel off. Into a bowl, cut tomatoes into chunks and add chopped mint, finely sliced spring onion and chilli. In another bowl add the lemon juice, sugar and salt and stir well until sugar is dissolved. Pour over the tomato mix and carefully fold in, chill then serve.

    Mint & Yogurt Dressing (Greek tzatziki style)
    ½ cup Yogurt
    ¼ cup mint leaves
    Cucumber, 5 cm length (approximately) cucumber, peeled & diced. More or less to suit taste)
    2 tsp lemon juice
    ¼ tsp salt
    Black pepper to taste
    Place all ingredients in a processor & blend until pureed smooth
    Pour into bowl if serving immediately or a closed jar and refrigerate. Use within 2 days.

    Minted Chickpea Salad (from the Canterbury Herb Society)
    2 ½ cups cooked chickpeas Put into a bowl.
    Chop
    1 cup walnuts or almonds (or other preferred nuts)
    1 small onion or 2 shallots or 1 spring onion
    1 clove of garlic
    1 capsicum (choose the colour you prefer, though red does add a visual zing to the salad)
    ½ cup mint
    2 Tbsp chives
    1 orange (the flesh)
    Place in the bowl with the chickpeas.
    Then blend together:
    1 orange, grated rind and juice
    ½ cup oil
    2 Tbsp wine/cider/white vinegar
    3 Tbsp honey
    Salt and pepper to taste
    Pour over the salad ingredients and fold through to coat them all well.
    Optional: Sprinkle with sesame seeds or chopped nuts.


    Mint Sauce (Preserved) (From Aunt Daisy) An ideal accompaniment for roast lamb.
    1 cup finely chopped mint
    225 grams sugar
    ½ cup vinegar
    ½ cup water
    Salt and pepper to taste
    Place sugar, vinegar and water into a pot, boil for 5 minutes, cool and add the mint and seasonings. Pour into sterilised bottles or jars and use as required. It may require a little diluting to serve, use water or vinegar to suit your individual taste.

    Best wishes for Cinco de Mayo and Kentucky Derby Day!
    Karina

    ReplyDelete
  2. Karina

    Your recipes sound amazing. Thanks so much for sharing.

    Sara

    Oh, and all my original links have been updated and work. I'm not sure what I did wrong. Sorry everybody.

    ReplyDelete

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