Enlightening rainbow tacos for a birthday

Event: Neil's 39th birthday

Date: 4th August 2013

Location: Our roof deck

Guests: Juenessa, Karl, Frank, Shelley, Marcus, Deena, Roshni

Menu: Mexican tacos

Yucatecan pork 

Prawns in adobo sauce

Swiss chard and potatoes

Chipotle - tomatillo salsa

Mango - habanero salsa

Pickled red onions

Smoky back bacon and zingy tomatillo sauce

This is a variation on a theme. A sauce, absolutely bursting with flavour was the inspiration. To be precise, this one, created previously as a way to use up some tomatillos and provide a dinner that could be left alone for hours while road trip preparations were made. This time, the sauce was not created through mere necessity, but elevated to sheer reverence. The basic sauce preparation was the same, but the choice of meat for it to envelop while baking was different. A large piece of back bacon may seem an unlikely choice for Mexican inspired food but I'll admit it was through laziness that it came about. It was all I had in the fridge and seemed like a new idea.

Mexican tomatillo and tomato sauce bursting with flavour and two recipes

A Mexican stew or casserole is a complex, deeply mysterious thing. Full of the flavours of chili, tomatoes and spices, they are not easy weeknight things to throw together. The famous mole sauces are quite complicated to make from scratch and I'm guessing only dedicated  home cooks or chefs afford the time required to cook them on a regular basis. (Then again, in Mexico, I believe people spend more time on cooking, so perhaps they are not so uncommon to prepare after all).