Hobo Suppers II

I had a pretty full on week last week. The stress of moving, sofa surfing around the leafy streets of Hackney and of the day job, had pretty much left me an emotional wreck by the time 6pm came round on Friday afternoon. Normally I'm bouncing out of the door, eager for the weekend to properly start. This week was a different story, I just wanted a quiet night in watching a movie and eating good home cooked food. Thankfully a quick phone call to the Brummie, whose house I have been staying at recently, I discovered he was feeling pretty much the same about spending the evening eating, drinking beer and watching a rubbish film to forget the arduous week. I must admit that I had been itching to get back into a kitchen and actually cook a full meal from scratch. Its all well and good eating out or having dinner at friends houses, but I do miss the cathartic and soothing process of the preparation of ingredients and cooking the dishes.

On the train back to  the leafy salubrious surroundings of Cannonbury (far grander than the dizzy heights of Upper Clapton, that's for sure, no burnt out cars for a start !), in a bid to cheer both me and Brummie up I decided that Mexican food and beer would be the only thing that would save the last remnants of what had been somewhat of a 'carcrash' week for both of us.

Most Mexican food I find when you go out to eat are full of melted cheese and covered in tomato salsa and sour cream. I have found that the only place that serves good fresh flavoured food is Thomasina Miers's Wahaca

it serves the best quesadilla's filled with Broad Beans and Feta. I was desperate to try and recreate these, but my copy of Miers book Mexican Food Made Simple is packed away in a box which is stored some where in Hackney. So I free styled the evening, but I have a nagging feeling that I may have spied this on someone else's blog and can't really remember where.

Cucumber, Mango and Mint Salsa 

Serves 2 - 3 

Ingredients

1 x Cucumber. seeded and finely diced

1 x Mango, finely diced

1/2 x Red Onion, finely diced

8 x Mint Leaves, chopped

Freshly ground black pepper

Olive Oil

 

1. Mix cucumber, mango and red onion in a dish 

2, Mix well and season with mint, black pepper and olive oil

3. Leave for around 15 minutes at room temperature and then serve

I found it best to leave the salsa to sit for a few minutes so that the flavours started to combine, but could be served straight away. I also felt that using salt wouldn't really benefit the dish as it would draw water out of the cucumber and not compliment the mango, where as the pepper did.
This salsa was a refreshing alternative to the normal tomato variety. With the abundance of cucumbers and mint at the moment, it was great to combine them to make this side accompaniment which cooled the heat of the fresh chillis in the quesadilla's.