Final Meal-Mexican Fiesta

For our final meal we decided to go with a Mexican style. We had a lot of different colors in our food making it appealing to the eye. We also had an assortment of different flavors. There was a perfect blend of spicy, sweet, and citrus.

Let’s start by talking about our main course. We went with a citrus shrimp taco. We infused the shrimp by marinating it in a lemon, lime, and southwest seasoning blend with minced garlic inside of it. We cooked this in a saucepan under a low heat so we didn’t overcook the shrimp. We cut up a head of radicchio, and a head of iceberg lettuce to bring more color to the taco. We made a homemade corn and black bean salsa. Along with that we made a creamy southwest sauce to sub as a sour cream. When we put the taco together we did a strip of the southwest sauce then topped it with the salsa. After we had the proper amount we placed 12 pieces of shrimp onto each and topped it with the different lettuces. We then folded the taco in half and placed it to the side of the plate.

For our starch we made a mexican rice. We took a long grain white rice and cooked it in chicken broth. We then added an assortment of vegetables like onion, jalapenos, and tomatoes. We used a lot of fresh seasoning like fresh garlic minced, freshly chopped cilantro, and some mint. We cooked this all on a low heat and served it alongside the taco.

For our side we did a stuffed jalapeno wrapped in bacon. We blended some cream cheese until it came out completely smooth then we added some cheddar cheese and fresh minced garlic. We cut a jalapeno in half and took out the core and the seeds making it not so spicy. After the cheese mix was finished we took the halved jalapenos and stuffed them with the cream cheese until they had just a little bit of a dome to them. We then cut a strip of bacon in half so that it fit around the jalapeno just right. We wrapped the bacon around the center of the stuffed jalapeno and stuck a toothpick into the bacon so it would stay in place. We then wrapped a cookie sheet with foil and placed the finished jalapenos onto the pan and cooked them for 45 minutes at 400 degrees, or until the bacon looked crispy enough. We then placed two of these next to the taco and the rice bring some more color variety to our plate.

To finish off our meal we made sopapillas. This was really cool to make. We took some flour sugar, baking powder, salt, and a little bit of water to make a dough. We rolled it out to a thin layer and cut them into square slices. We then took the sliced pieces and placed them in some preheated grease set at 375 degrees. We then placed them into the grease and it made them puff up to form a bubble. We cooked them on one side until a crispy golden brown and then flipped them over and did the same to the other side. We then placed 4 onto a small dish and drizzled honey on top of them to add some sweetness and then sprinkled some powdered sugar to add sweetness and for decoration.

For our drink we made a virgin mango lime margarita. This was a blend of frozen mango, orange juice, some lime juice, and some simple sugar. Once this was all blended we took our glasses and dipped them into a bowl or water then took the dipped glass and stuck it in a bowl of salt and turned making the rims of it have a decorative ring of salt. We decided to go with salt instead of sugar because our drink was sweet and the opposite flavor made the drink seem more appealing. We placed the drink inside of the salted glass and served it along with our food. The yellow in the drink tied it all together by bringing a new color to the table.

Overall I was very proud of our meal. I loved how well me and my partner worked together. My favorite thing that we made was the stuffed jalapenos wrapped with bacon. I liked this because I enjoy all things spicy, and the cream cheese blend toned down the spice making it perfect and appealing to the tongue palate. The one thing about our dish that I didn’t like was the corn and black bean salsa, this was only because I dislike the texture to the beans. Other than that everything on our plate was perfectly seasoned and I wouldn’t have changed a thing about our final meal.