Do THESE Creatures Make YOU Smile ?

Oh to be a kid again ! 

I have to say that every single time I see one of these colourful loads of blow-up toys coming towards me on the beach, I have to smile.

Can you just imagine what would happen if a bunch of vendors arrived on our beaches back home loaded down with hundreds and hundreds of these beach toys and started parading back and forth? 

Would someone call the newspaper or the police or the town bylaw officer or maybe even the mayor?  

They would surely feel that something had to be done about all these scary looking creatures cluttering their beaches.

And heaven forbid that someone would even consider selling barbequed fish on a stick or pineapples bursting with all sorts of juicy fruits or pure natural coconut milk direct from a coco or any of the other multitudes of goodies that are sold everyday on the beaches down here.

There are no stainless steel kitchens and no food police, but I can’t remember the last time I heard of anyone getting sick from the food on the beach in Guayabitos.

The Ultimate in Decadence

Three of the many good things about staying at Riu Resorts are:

First, you get to try as many drinks as you want.

Secondly, you don't have to pay for any of the drinks, no matter how many you want to try. 

And thirdly, their drinks contain very few calories.

If you fall in love with a drink, you can order more, and if you don't like a drink, you can send it back or pass it along to someone else.

These are chocolate martinis that are made with milk, chocolate syrup, Vodka and sugar to taste. They are finished off with a light dusting of cocoa powder.

And this is a Bailey's Mint Chocolate Martini which is made with Bailey's Mint Irish Cream, Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur, Vodka and milk.

And this is my favourite !  It is called a Dirty Monkey and it is made with a combination of milk, Kahlua, Brandy, a two inch piece of banana and a touch of sugar (as if it is not sweet enough already).



These are just a sample of the fancy drinks they are waiting to serve us at the Riu.

Only four more sleeps 'til we'll be checking into the Riu Pacific Palace in Nuevo Vallarta.  We will pick up our amigos, Dan and Heather, at the airport and then spend a couple of days just relaxing and taking in the sights before bringing them back to Guayabitos.

I'm really looking forward to a few days without any classes and no homework and maybe just a couple of drinks!

Tunas

Last year I did a blog about a salsa that I’d made using the pads of the nopal or edible cactus plant.

These large cactus plants grow all over the countryside down here. 

Today’s blog will be about the fruit of the nopal.

The fruits that grow at the ends of the cactus pads are sometimes called prickly pears, cactus fruits or tunas.

I had never tasted a tuna until this year.  On one of our walks down the beach, we saw a vendor selling tunas from his cart.  We asked him about them and he told us they were delicious so I had to try a piece and I loved the taste.  I couldn’t believe that I’d been missing out on this treat all these years.   I see tunas in all the markets down here, but never gave them much thought.

Tunas have very sharp spines that get removed before being offered for sale in our local stores and markets.

The tunas are usually about 4 inches long and 3 inches wide and are either pink/red or green/yellow in colour.

 

To get at the fruit, in the centre of the tuna, you slice it in half lengthwise and gently pull the thick skin away.

 

This is what the edible part of the fruit looks like.  A tuna contains tons of little edible seeds and its pulp is extremely juicy.

 

Tunas can be eaten like you would an orange or banana as a snack, or they can be diced and added to fruit salads or  smoothies.  The juice also makes a delicious drink called agua de tuna (tuna water).


The juice of a tuna has a slightly sweet taste that reminds me of a cross between a watered down watermelon or green grapes.  The green variety of tuna produces yummy juice that is similar in colour to that of lemonade.



I’m definitely hooked on the succulent juicy fruit of this edible cactus plant.

 

The red variety makes a very colourful, inviting and really delicious Agua de Tuna drink.

 

Tunas are just one more of the many wonderful foods that I’ve discovered in this fascinating country.

Mexican Snow Cones

We have a new place for treats in La Penita that sells all different kinds of Raspados.

The shop is called El Manantial which means a spring of water bubbling out of the ground.   

Raspados are like snow cones.  They are glasses full of frozen ice chips that are topped with every fruit and sauce imaginable.

Jesus, Luis and Socoro (Coco), the owners of the company, just moved here from Las Varas.   Their family also owns three shops in Tepic, one in Las Varas and one in Compostela.

 

It’s really hard to choose which toppings to have.

 

The choices are endless.

 

You can have a combination of chopped tropical fruits.

 

Or coconut, nuts and chocolate.

 

Or strawberries, pineapple, melon and nanchi fruit. 

 

The strawberry ones looked really good.

 

But then so did the combination of pineapple & coconut.

 

The strawberry and pecan also looked very yummy.

 

When I stopped to have a look at the shop the other day, I wasn’t very hungry so they gave me a tiny raspado to try, and it was SO delicious.  I had a combination of freshly chopped fruits plus a drizzle of caramel & tamarind sauces plus some chopped pecans.

 

Before I left, I asked Coco if she would sell me a container of tamarind sauce which she was happy to do.  She gave me a whole litre of totally natural tamarind sauce which I immediately took home and removed the pits.  Then I heated the tamarind sauce and added garlic, ginger, chili flakes and a squirt of lemon.   It was so much easier to just buy the sauce from Coco than to have to deal with pods or little packages of paste.

 

Like I keep saying, there's always something new around every corner down here. 

We also have a huge new Farmacia Guadalarja, an Oxxo and a new little Bakery in La Penita.  The new bakery makes the same luscious pastries that used to be available on the main street in Penita.  My kids would hike over to Penita just about every day to buy some hot apple or pineapple turnovers, chocolate covered croissants, vanilla cream or caramel filled donuts or whatever else looked good on any given day.

And another Mexican entrepreneur has also just broken ground for a new Pemex gas station at the entrance to Guayabitos, just before you reach the square. 

Coconut Prawns with Tamarind Sauce

The other night we had coconut prawns for dinner which I served with the tamarind sauce that I'd made.

Prawns are so inexpensive here that we could have them anytime we wanted, but we still tend to only have them occasionally so that they remain a treat.  I pay $4.00 for a whole pound of prawns that are fresh off the boats that fish our local waters.

When I made the coconut prawns, I started by gathering together a bowl of flour, a couple of beaten eggs, some hot sauce and some chopped coconut.

Then I inserted a toothpick lengthwise through the bodies of the prawns so they wouldn’t curl too much when being fried.

Then I dusted the prawns with flour, dipped them in an egg & hot sauce mixture and coated them with coconut.   I did this first thing in the morning and then covered them and put them in the fridge ‘til dinner time.

Just before it was time to eat, I heated some oil in a pan and quick fried them on both sides.

I served my coconut prawns with some Mexican rice, a medley of cauliflower and broccoli and my homemade tamarind sauce.

The only problem with this meal was that the prawns and tamarind sauce were so good, we could have eaten more.

Tamarind Sauce

The picture in the header above is what the sky looked like over Casa Que Sera early this morning.

The pods in the next photo are from a Tamarind tree. Pods like these are sold in bulk in most Mexican supermarkets.

 
Inside the pods is a paste that is used to make sauces, beverages, desserts and candies.

The fruit and candy stalls that appear every few miles, along Mexican highways, also sell little packages of tamarind paste. Most people eat the paste like they would a piece of dried fruit, but I thought I would like to try making some tamarind sauce using the paste from some pods and paste from some of the little packages.

All tamarind paste has seeds in it that are about the size of a plum pit.

The other night we were out for dinner and Bruce ordered coconut prawns with tamarind sauce on the side. I hadn’t ever thought to serve tamarind sauce with coconut prawns, but they went really well together. Our waiter told me that the lady who made the sauce was off for the evening, but would be back in the morning if I wanted to stop and talk to her about her sauce.

When I went back to see her, I found that she couldn’t speak a word of English, but she took me into the pantry and pointed out everything she'd put in her sauce.

It was interesting to learn that her list of ingredients was basically the same as my list of ingredients that I use when making tamarind sauce back home. The only difference is that in Canada, I purchase my tamarind paste in square blocks.

This is what the little packages of tamarind paste look like. You have to be careful when buying them because some of the packets of paste they sell contain pure tamarind paste and others contain paste with added chili powder and/or salt

 
A few days ago I was craving a feed of homemade coconut prawns so I decided to make some tamarind sauce to go with them.
I gathered my ingredients together and then sautéed some garlic and ginger for a few seconds. Then I added some water and a few more of the ingredients and let the mixture simmer away for about 25 minutes.

 
You have to let the mixture simmer long enough to let the paste begin to release from the pits.

After this happens, you push the mixture through a course sieve and press out all the good stuff.

 
What is left is a very flavourful sauce that is both sweet and sour. At this point I tasted my sauce and added a squirt of lemon juice and a pinch of sugar.

This is my recipe for Tamarind Sauce if you would like to try it.

Tamarind Sauce

olive oil

minced garlic

minced ginger

tamarind paste

sugar

lemon juice

water

chili flakes

Sauté the garlic for a minute and then add the ginger and sauté a bit longer. Break up the tamarind paste. Put the tamarind paste, water and chili flakes into the pot and bring to a boil. Simmer ‘til the tamarind is soft and has begun to release from the pits, and the flavours have melded. Add a squirt of lemon juice and some sugar (if needed). Press this mixture through a sieve and discard the pulp.

Tamarind sauce is also really good with curry dishes such as the butter chicken.