Not far from where I live is the Mercado Hacienda (Spanish for Ranch or Plantation Store). If you live in the Phoenix area, mark your maps–it’s at the Southeast corner of the intersection of University and Country Club in Mesa. It’s a small store, but the ingredient list is perfect for a great little dinner.
Next month, when Kent comes to visit, I want to do the cooking. He’s a personal chef, so I want to make sure he gets a vacation. Here’s the menu:
Drinks: Rum and fruit juice. The mercado carries guayaba (guava), tamarind, guanabana (soursop), mango, pear and pineapple. I prefer the fruit juice, but there is also a powder mix that would work well. It comes in pineapple, mango, guava, and my favorite, jamaica. I didn’t know that ‘jamaica’ is Spanish for ‘hibiscus.’ You can learn a lot in a grocery store.
Appetizers: The mercado has the best guacamole I’ve ever eaten. My husband’s was my favorite until I tasted this. Even he will agree that the rough-chop mix of perfectly-ripe, pale-green avocado studded with lime, jalapenos, red pepper flakes and onion is a perfect mix of spicy, but not fiery, ingredients. You can taste the fire and the sour tang of the lime, but the bland, creamy avocado soothes your tongue. I’ll cut up fresh corn tortillas and fry them to make nachos, hot and salty, for the guacamole.
Main course: Grilled shrimp tacos. The mercado has mouth watering meats, shrimp and fish. I’m going to get some of the larger shrimp, grill them under the broiler, and wrap them in hot flour tortillas filled with field greens, slivers of jicama and red pepper and moistened with green salsa, also from the mercado.
Dessert: I’ve got some choices here and haven’t made up my mind. I can certainly make Meyer Lemon posset and serve it over berries. Or the incredibly smooth coconut sorbet topped with dark chocolate shavings. Or keep it simple. Just a few grinds of pink, black, and green peppercorns over premium French vanilla ice cream.
Think I can get him to stay for a few days?
—Images: Soursop, on left, http://www.css.cornell.edu Guava, on right, http://www.tropicalfruitnursery.com –Quinn McDonald learned cooking basics from her mother, who was French. She practiced on various dates, unsuspecting visitors, and her son, until she became quite good at putting together a decent meal from a few, well chosen ingredients. You can see more, but different work of Quinn’s at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008 All rights reserved.
Sending an update on the peppered ice cream. I did the peppers up proper and served them over ice cream to my pepper-loving husband. And he went so ga-ga, I tried it myself. Now mind you, I eat no pepper, not on anything, and I found myself enjoying the peppery flavor. Thanks for showing my taste buds a new treat.
—I’m SO glad you liked them! And good on you for trying something new! You can also try Grains of Paradise, a milder pepper, and soak them in vodka first. I also like green peppercorns (not the kind you slice up for salad, but peppercorns) soaked in triple sec, although I’ve had some complaints that the mixed flavors compete and don’t complement each other.
Having just put the finishing touches on my Chicken Enchiladas Suizas, I was delighted to find more southwestern style foods to try on your site. The Suizas are like nothing you get in a Mexican restaurant around DC — in fact I’ve not found one who serves them! It’s a simple dish –poached, shredded chicken melded with red and green peppers, onion, garlic, and cheese, stuffed into tortilla wraps then bathed with a sauce of sour cream and ground chipotle peppers and tomatillos (you can buy the green sauce in a jar). Then you put shredded swiss cheese over the top and bake. And then you eat. Always the best part of a recipe. Kent is a lucky man!
—-This sounds wonderful! Think I’ll try that one, too. Much of the food I’m eating here is not Tex-Mex, but Southern Mexico, very different from Tex-Mex. The shrimp tacos turned out to be wonderfully light and delicious. -Q
Pepper on ice cream reminds me of this little Japanese restaurant which made tiny little beef burgers to serve on rice and they had cinnamon and nutmeg in with all the rest of the ingredients (I think included onion and garlic and some of the rice-stuff they use for dipping sukiyaki in before frying it). I can still taste it in my mind–yum!
I’ll definitely give pepper a try the next time I have vanilla ice cream.
I can’t believe how much I miss all those fab flavors!
—When Kent comes, we’ll be going to the store to pick up dried chilis. Wish I could sent you some, but I think agricultural cultural exchanges don’t make it through the immigration office! -Q
While I realize that putting pepper in ice cream might sound rather strange, I have to agree with Quinn that it adds a special “something” that can be a true taste treat. It’s sort of that sweet and savory combination that can truly tantalize those taste buds.
A friend of mine made a Peppered Pineapple Ice Cream that was truly divine…
Quinn,
Your descriptions make my mouth water.
Everything sounds wonderful.
As for the pepper on the ice cream, I would try it if you served it to me! I knew a chef whose secret ingredient in his sugar cookies was white pepper. People just begged for the recipe and never would have guessed pepper as an ingredient.
—-ohhh, that sounds yummy. I have a recipe for black pepper and dark chocolate biscotti. No one ever complained about it, either, and when people asked for the recipe and i gave it to them, they would ask me why I had included pepper in the ingredients. No one believed it was in the original till they left it out! -Q
So when can you come to my house and cook? Hard to believe you’re not the professional chef of the couple, with menus like that one. MMMMMMMM.
–I can’t follow a recipe that’s more than three steps. I just hate long ingredient lists. Kent can follow a recipe that stretches out the door. And it will look just like the cover on the magazine, too. My expertise is digging through the fridge and putting together a dinner with what we already have. -Q
Ohhh… some of my favorites on this menu. Shrimp, guacamole, rum fruit drinks.
To hell with Kent… I’m coming down!
–Oh, goody! ROAD TRIP! It’s a small apartment, but I have plenty of borrowed folding chairs. Let’s feast! -Q
Delicious, but do you have to put pepper on my ice cream?
—No, you don’t HAVE to have pepper on your ice cream; I’ll let you try mine. It is a spicy, flowery taste that goes perfectly with vanilla. And the cool of the ice cream really makes it a perfect mix. The first time I tried it, it was pink peppercorns soaked in vodka and then put over the ice cream. Also yummy!
-Q