Happy Cinco de Mayo everybody!  As you know, today is a day to celebrate Mexican heritage.  Since I love Mexican food, I always like to celebrate the fifth of May every year by making a Mexican feast.  Sometimes it is a simple plate of tacos and tortilla chips with salsa and other times it is a more complicated feast.  I went for something a little more complicated this year and it was delicious.  Ok kids, brace yourselves.  This is going to be a long one……

I wanted to make fajitas with a marinated skirt or flank steak.  Alas, my grocer was not carrying those cuts of meat (weird…) so I ended up buying a brisket.  I made a marinade for the brisket and let it marinate overnight.  I then slow roasted the brisket in a 250 degree F oven for 5 hours to ensure tenderness.  Here’s how to do it:

Marinade:

zest and juice of 1 lime

1 Tblsp. garlic powder

1 Tblsp. onion powder

2 tsp. dried oregano

1 tsp. dried chili powder

1/2 Tblsp. salt

1/4 Tblsp. black pepper

4 chipotle peppers, finely chopped (I use the canned ones in adobo sauce)

1 Tblsp. adobo sauce (from the can)

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Just mix it all together (it will be a thick paste) and cover both sides of the meat and store in an airtight container overnight.  Cook the meat on a sheet pan and when it has finished cooking, cover it in aluminum foil for 45 minutes before cutting.  After you cut the meat, saute lightly in a skillet with sliced onions and then serve with tortillas.

I also decided to make guacamole and pico de gallo as condiments for the fajitas.  These are super easy dishes and are very fresh tasting in contrast with the savory meat.

I prefer a creamy guacamole over a coarse one.  Simply throw 1 avacado (peeled, and roughly chopped), 3 cloves of garlic (also peeled and roughly chopped), and the zest and juice of 1 lime into a food processor and process until smooth.  Easy easy.

For the Pico de Gallo, dice and deseed one large tomato, place it in a bowl.  Finely chop one jalapeno pepper, 1/3 cup of onion (minced) and 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro.  Zest and juice 1 lime and toss with the tomato mixture.  Bam,  Pico de Gallo.  Easy easy.

Simply spread the guacamole on your tortilla, add your meat and onions, then top with the Pico de Gallo and roll.  It’s very delicious and fresh tasting.  The perfect way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.

I would be remiss if I neglected a wonderful drink to go with this festive meal.  I’m not much of a beer drinker, so my next option was a Lime Margarita.  I love a fresh margarita, i.e. it doesn’t come in a pre-mixed form.  I saw Ina Garten (Food Network Barefoot Contessa….my favorite FN cook!) make a fresh margarita once and wrote down the recipe.  I’ve been dying to make this drink and was happy that I finally had an excuse.  Here’s the recipe:

Margarita

Ina Garten

1 lime, halved

kosher salt

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

the juice of 1 lemon

1 cup Triple Sec

1 cup White Tequila

3 cups ice

I made my mix ahead of time in a cocktail pitcher and put it in the refrigerator to chill before blending with ice.

Simply mix the lime juice, lemon juice, Triple Sec and Tequila together.  When ready to blend, put the 3 cups of ice in your blender and blend with the mix until frothy.  Use the halved lime to rum along the rims of your cocktail glasses and dip into a shallow dish containing the kosher salt.  This is a fresh tasting and delicious margarita.  I’ll be making this for my mom this summer and we’ll drink it pool-side.

Oh yeah, I promised a finished picture of my Key Lime Pie:

I let my whipped cream sit out a little too long so it was deflated when I piped it onto my pie.  It still looks nice.  It was a very good Key Lime Pie, especially with that pretzel crust.  Please try that recipe.  It doesn’t get any easier and it is very good.

Happy Cinco de Mayo everybody!  I hope you enjoyed it as much as my family and I did!  Enjoy!