Miguelito and I kicked off summer with a Mexican fiesta. We had many reasons to celebrate. My sister who lives in San Francisco was visiting the City of Angels, as was also a friend who resides in Shanghai. Miguelito also discovered a perfectly functioning gas grill abandoned in his apartment complex's courtyard. Our Sunday supper included borscht that a Beijing-raised friend made, carne asada and pollo marinated courtesy of Trader Joe's, skewered shrimp dusted with ground New Mexican chili, Erin's refreshing grapefruit and jicama salad, Maximus' super-famous, extra-yummy guacamole and -- for the table's piece de resistance -- Miguelito's taco salad.
Even Erin acknowledged that she entered the salad war with a bad hand. What can compete with a dish that calls for Doritos as a key ingredient? In addition to the crunchy component, Miguelito's white trash salad also had iceberg lettuce, cheese, tomatoes and taco-seasoned ground beef. No wonder this version of meat with greens is a favorite in the Midwest.
I marinated the shrimp overnight in the New Mexican chili. Too bad I didn't taste the chili powder before I added the sea salt and pepper. I'm convinced that the chili powder, which I bought at a restaurant that sells everything Mexican from Jesus-branded votives to tamales, was salted. Despite assurances from Maximus that the shrimp was perfect, I thought it was a little too salty. The carne asada was the poster child of an ideal BBQ, however. Maximus did a great job grilling the beef to a medium rare.
To cool off people's tongues from the jalapeno peppers and spicy salsa verde, I made a key lime pie. Having forgotten my juicer at home, I spent about 20 minutes squeezing the little limes by hand while watching trashy reality TV shows on the E! Network. The effort was worth it. The fresh-squeezed juice gave the custard-like pie a tart freshness that was mellowed by the just-whipped cream. Somehow I remembered to bring my microplane to use to grate the key lime rind for the pie's garnish. It's all in the details! Here is Miguelito doing his best impersonation of Vanna White.
Mmmmmmm.
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