ADRIEN'S GUAC + FOUR TOSTADAS + MARGS & MORE! 🥑🍋🟩
Happy Cinco de Mayo 🫶🏻 🇲🇽
HOLY GUACAMOLE
Everything that our mom’s friend Adrien makes is 💯 🙌🏻 🔥. Even his sliced cucumbers seasoned with salt and pepper are incredible (his skills at picking the best produce are unmatched). So, in honor of Adrien and his Mexican heritage, we are featuring two of his most crowd-pleasing and authentically Mexican recipes for our Cinco de Mayo Digest. Plus tostadas and margaritas to celebrate! 💃🏻🇲🇽🍹
Starting off strong with Adrien’s famous guacamole. We beggggg for this stuff. It’s fresher and more delicious than any guacamole we’ve ever tasted. It’s also, surprisingly, not mashed. Adrien uses a spoon to scoop out thin slices of avocado, he also marinates the onions in the lime juice for a few minutes before he adds the rest of the ingredients to soften the flavor of the raw onion. He then adds tomato, cilantro, and a generous amount of sliced serrano peppers and gently mixes it all together to create the perfect guacamole.
Obviously, you can adjust the amount of Serrano to impact the level of spiciness. Adrien’s has a good kick but isn’t too spicy for the average person. Check out the video below of Adrien showing us how he makes his guac!
TOSTADA TIME!
Our second Adrien feature is a tostada, bringing us to Pt. 2 of our Cinco de Mayo Digest theme. A tostada is a crispy, flat corn tortilla topped with a variety of tasty ingredients like refried beans, shredded chicken, cheese, avocado, you name it! Think of it kinda like a hard shell open-faced taco. For centuries, tostadas have been a staple of Mexican cuisine and originated as a way to use up stale or day-old corn tortillas. Instead of letting them go to waste, the tortillas are fried until golden and crisp, and loaded with all sorts of toppings. Different regions throughout Mexico have their own take on tostadas, ranging from topping them with shredded meat stew to ceviche.
Adrien’s tostada is similar to the ceviche style but uses canned tuna instead of raw fish or seafood. He marinates red onion in lime juice to reduce its pungency, then adds tomatoes, Serrano peppers, cucumber, avocado, cilantro, canned tuna, and salt and pepper. When ready to serve, he spreads mayo on the tostada, then tops it with the tuna salad and hot sauce.
He often eats it on Fridays during Lent, but this meal hits the spot all year round and is one of our all-time favorites for lunch. Everything tastes so fresh, and the crunch of the tostada is perfection.
Another ceviche-style tostada (and quite different from Adrien’s tuna salad) is this smoked trout version shared by our friend Monica, whom we met on our hiking trip in Portugal last fall. As a fellow food lover, we often talked about some of our favorite recipes while we trekked along the Portuguese coast. She told us about her smoked trout tostadas and kindly sent us the recipe when we got home. We have made them many times since, and they are just as delicious as she described!
Our next tostada is what we (Americans) often think of when referring to a tostada. It’s easy, cheesy, and it has shredded chicken and avocado. Instead of buying pre-made tostadas, you use an air fryer to crisp the tortillas yourself. Rotisserie chicken is a quick hack for shredded chicken (we use this a lot!). You can also swap the chicken for a fried egg if you want a breakfast or a vegetarian option.
IMO, Mexican food is one of the best cuisines for vegetarian eating. It is so easy to make meatless meals taste delicious with Mexican spices and sauces. This black bean and mushroom tostada is surprisingly filling, plus quick and easy to make. Each tostada is layered with crispy cheese, smashed black beans, shiitake mushrooms, avocado, and pickled red onions.
TWO MARGARITAS & A PALOMA PLEASE
What’s a Cinco de Mayo celebration without a tequila-based cocktail? Margaritas may be our favorite, but Palomas are a very close second. This week, our featured festive drinks include twists on the traditional marg plus our classic Pantry Paloma from the vault.
Our spicy cilantro “Farm Margarita” is inspired by the one at Coriander Kitchen & Farm in Detroit. It is a deliciously spicy marg with a fresh herby cilantro flavor and a Tajin rim.
We love the fun, bright green color of this cocktail! It is an excellent recipe if you love a spicy margarita and want to try something a little different this Cinco de Mayo.
Frozen blended drinks always have a very nostalgic, topical holiday vibe. This blended coconut pineapple margarita is the perfect mix of a frozen margarita and a piña colada…aka vacation in a glass!
We prefer to use CocoWhip instead of coconut milk for a lighter cocktail (don’t knock it ‘til you try it!). It’s also SO EASY. So get that blender out, put on some Mexican guitara music, and take a load off!
One of our first entries into the Pantry recipe library was our Paloma. It is fresh, delicious, and has zero added sweeteners. Just combine tequila, fresh lime juice, fresh grapefruit juice, and Fresca for an easy cocktail. We recommend using 21 Seed Grapefruit Hibiscus Tequila (a women-owned Tequila brand) for extra flavor!
Check out more of our Cinco de Mayo recipes in the recipe library!
THANKS FOR READING!
Cheers 🥂
Hil & Nat
And don’t forget you can access my entire recipe library with all your favs.
I now what I'm making for Cinco de Mayo! I've had Adrien's guacamole and it is simply the best. Thanks for showing us how to make it!
Can you come over and make all of these dishes for me and Mitch?
Tomorrow is his birthday!! Carol Klein