Wahaca takes Mexican-inspired dishes and sources them as ethically and as locally as possible. We’ll upload some of our recipes from time to time, and if you want to recommend some of your own, we might even cook them for you.
Tell us about your favourite recipes via the comments section of this post.
From Monday 11th March, we’re launching a new experimental dish at our Southbank restaurant. Chapulines fundido is made with one of Mexico’s most sustainably farmed, yet unusual ingredients, grasshoppers.
We take fried chapulines and cook them with softened shallots, garlic and smoky chipotle chillies to create a delicious salsa, which is served with queso fundido, a mixture of gratinated mozzarella and cheddar cheese, perfect for scooping up with corn tortillas.
The Wahaca Southbank Experiment has always been a testing ground for new and interesting dishes for you to try before we decide whether to put them on the menu in our other restaurants, so we want to hear what you think of them. This time we’re asking you to cast your vote on twitter by using our cunningly devised hashtags, #ChapulinYES or #ChapuliNO to let us know what you think.
Chapulines are considered a much sought after delicacy in Mexico and are a real favourite of Tommi’s who always hunts them out on the menu when we’re over there. But as well as being a very tasty source of protein, from an environmental point of view, entomophagy (insect eating) is seen by many leading experts as the only logical answer to the critical pressure our growing population is putting on food supplies.
Insects are already eaten regularly by 80% of the world, but at the moment they’re seen as a novely food in the UK. Tommi gave us her take on her new dish, saying “It’s just not in our psyche at the moment, but we don’t have any issues eating shrimps or prawns so I think it’s just a question of creating a dish that will appeal over here. The chapulines fundido is a great introduction to the beautiful earthy flavour of these insects as it tastes amazing and a salsa is much more palatable for the more squeamish diners out there.”
Waiter, there's a grasshopper in my fundido!
As grasshoppers aren’t currently farmed in the UK, for our first month long trial the only practical way to put them on the menu was to buy them from an accredited cooperative of farmers in Oaxaca, but our hope is that in the future if the dish proves popular we’ll be able to work to set up a supplier closer to home, making them even more sustainable.
We hope that getting people thinking about insects in another light is a great step in the right direction of sustainable food production and hopefully one that will change our food map forever.
So get yourself down to The Wahaca Southbank Experiment this month and try them for yourself and don’t forget to tell us what you think by leaving a comment below, or get voting on twitter.
Pork scratchings with guacamole are probably the most popular snack in Mexico, especially when accompanied with an ice-cold beer and they’ve been a feature of our menu ever since we opened. Tommi’s a massive fan, as you might have noticed…
Tommi tucking into a Meixcan Scratching
In the last few months we decided our recipe was up for a refresh. We use specially selected cuts of back rind from outdoor reared British pigs which are slow cooked for four hours, then cooked twice more for that soft, but lighter crunch. Our new scratchings are finished off with a fennel seed dusting which we LOVE! It gives a subtle and earthy anise flavour. The saltiness of the pork is a wonderful foil for the creamy avocado, whilst the vibrant flavours of guacamole (fresh lime, chilli, fresh coriander) adds a delicious seasoning to the pork. All in all, it’s winning flavour combo.
Fennel dusted scratchings with guacamole
Mexican style pork scratchings are on the up these days. So good are they that Rene Redzepi of Noma fame put a rendition of the pork scratching on his world beating tasting menu after he’d done a month cooking in Mexico. He’s clearly onto something that guy.
So, next time you’re in and thinking of starting things off with your regular guac and chips, ring the changes and give our new fennel dusted pork scratchings a try. You may never look back.
If you’ve given them a try, we’d love to know what you think – you can let us know by leaving a comment below.
Check out this great video of our bloggers cook-along event that we held in Wahaca Stratford last week. Tommi cooked up 3 dishes from the new Wahaca book (Did we mention that we had a new book?) and then 9 willing blogger volunteers valiantly had a go themselves. All in less than 30 minutes to add a little bit of extra fun to the proceedings.
We were all very impressed with the bloggers who pretty much took the whole thing in their stride and created some beautiful looking recreations, so Tommi had better watch out!
If you like the look of these dishes, then you can get your hands on a copy of our book, Wahaca, Mexican food at home in any of our restaurants or they’re just a click away. You might also see the Beetroot salad cropping up on the new specials menu at The Wahaca Southbank Experiment from July 4th.
Thank you so much to all of the lovely guys from HJonesyFeeds, Cherrapeno, Mintcustard, Crumpeats, Humbugs & Handbags, Hot & Chilli, Robert Giorgione, Roswensian, and Pukkapaki for making it such a great event.
Over the past 5 years we’ve had countless queries and requests from people wanting to recreate our magical Mexican street food in their own kitchen. We like their style. So with these hungry people in mind, Tommi has been compiling a book of her favourite recipes since we opened up our doors on Chandos Place and it hits the shelves on 21st June.
Just like the restaurants, the book is inspired by Mexico’s markets, cantinas and a love of parties, and it’s stocked full of recipes made using ingredients easily found in Britain so you can create authentic Mexican food without having to schlep across the Atlantic.
It has everything from breakfasts bursting with energy, hearty and healthy dinners, sensational puddings and zingy cocktails. There are little plates for sharing and larger dishes that are perfect for scooping up with a warm corn tortilla and a splash of your favourite salsa. And yes, it does have the much sought after secrets of our juicy Pork Pibil.
Having given away over 4.5 million packs of chilli seeds since we opened, there’s also a page dedicated to chilli growing with photos provided by the green-fingered readers of this very blog. A special thanks to everyone who entered our competition and sent in a photo (you’re on page 223!).
The book will be for sale in all of our our restaurants as well as in any bookshop worth its salt, but if you just can’t wait, you can order your copy online now.
Wahaca, Mexican food at home is our way of encouraging you to spread the word of Mexican food far and wide. We hope you’ll join in the fun.
*This competition is now closed*
Together with our friends at Lonely Planet and to celebrate the launch of their new book The World’s Best Street Food, we’re offering 2 of our customers the chance to fly to Mexico City to discover where our love of street food first began.
Wahaca and Lonely Planet, making streetfood dreams come true.
The winners will be guided on a street food tour of the city and have the chance to experience the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of the neighbourhoods that are home to some of Mexico’s best street food. There are also 10 runners up prizes of copies of Lonely Planet’s new book. To enter all you have to do is fill in your email address below.
If you’re not one of the lucky winners, fear not, friends of Wahaca can buy The World’s Best Street Food at a special rate of just £10 (incl. P&P) by visiting shop.lonelyplanet.com and entering the code STREET10 at the online checkout. The book explores 100 must-eat dishes from across the globe, where to find them and how to recreate them at home. We’re pretty confident that you won’t need to look much further than the Mexico section to find the most delicious recipes though!
Terms and Conditions
The competition commences at 12am BST on 26 March 2012 and closes at 11.59pm on 25 April 2012. To enter, simply provide your name and contact email address in the competition entry section above. Entry is free, and you can only enter once. One winner will be selected randomly from all eligible entries on 30 April 2012. The winner plus one guest will receive a 7 day/6 night stay in Mexico City (including return flights and accommodation based on twinshare) and two places on Eat Mexico’s Street Food tour (approximate retail value GBP2500). Flights must be booked no later than 30 July 2012 and the date of departure must be no later than 31 December 2012. Prize winner(s) will be notified by email. By submitting your entry, you agree that these conditions of entry apply to your entry. Full terms and conditions are available here. Lonely Planet respects the privacy of others, and your personal information will only be used to tell you if you’ve won unless you have opted to hear more information above. See Lonely Planet’s privacy policy at www.lonelyplanet.com/privacy/. Wahaca may also email entrants once in a while with newsy updates from the world of Mexican Market Eating.
If you’ve been into Wahaca recently, you might have spotted the first of our new Dash of Wahaca salsas which have landed on the tables in the last few weeks.
Designed to be splashed on liberally
It’s been a labour of love but for the last year Tommi has been working tirelessly on the recipes with a specialist company who has created the great looking bottles for us. To give you an idea of the amount of effort that has gone into each one, just check out the list of ingredients – All of which are totally natural with no nasty preservatives anywhere in sight. In fact, if you have a look, you can see all of the little bits of chopped up herbs and spices swimming around inside the bottle.
Tommi has made 3 salsas for us to start off with. A brand new searingly hot chile de arbol sauce and new (and even tastier) versions of our yellow habanero and our smoky chipotle chile salsas that have been used on the tables in the last few years. So now there are 3 very different flavoured salsas each with a different level of spicines for you to choose from.
The brilliant news is, if you want to take some with you to give your home cooking a dash of Wahaca (see what we’ve done there?), you can buy them in our restaurants for £2.50 a bottle, just ask one of the waiters. Over the next few weeks, we’ll post a couple of recipes on the website so that you can discover some new ways of spicing things up in your own kitchen.
As always, we’d love to hear from anyone who’s tried them out already. What do you think of the new bottles? Do you have a favourite? Would they make the perfect Christmas present? (Yes they would).
Do you think you could whip up a torta as good as Tommi's
This week Tommi’s TV show Mexican Food Made Simple is taking a break, stepping aside for some cricket match or other. Not wanting you to miss out on your weekly hit of Mexican cookery, we’re giving 2 of you the chance to win all of the ingredients you’ll need to cook your own version of Tommi’s delicious chorizo torta – just one of the delicious recipes she’s been cooking up on her culinary tour, airing on Channel 5 each Tuesday evening at 7.30. And if that’s not enough, we’re also throwing in a meal for 2 in Wahaca, so you can see how your torta measures up against ours.
To win a delivery of all of the fresh ingredients you’ll need to make your own Chorizo Torta, just answer this simple question: Which Mexican sporting spectacle did Tommi go and visit in her show last week?
If you didn’t see the show, you can still catch it on Demand 5, which may give you some subtle hints to the answer.
The 2 winners will be selected at random on Monday 8th August so you’d better get a wriggle on. If you are lucky enough to win, you’ll have to send us your postal address within 3 days. Alas, the competition is only open to those living in the UK.
Don’t forget to tune in to the show which will be starting up again on Tuesday 9th August at 7.30pm when Tommi will be hunting down a distant cousin of the Cornish Pasty! You can tweet along live with Tommi on twitter and put questions to her during the show, just use hashtag #mexmadesimple.
We’re always looking for new ways to come up with recipes and to use different cuts of meat at Wahaca, so a couple of days ago Tommi invited all of our chefs over to her house for a day of butchery and recipe development.
Our lovely butcher brought along half a pig, along with a couple of more random cuts to see what we could come up with. It was brilliant to see all of the chefs’ minds whirring at the same time and the results were as tasty as you might imagine.
Dishes included Elki’s rather scary sounding pig head tortas, drowned in chipotle salsa (‘tortas ahogadas’ to you and me) and Leo’s slightly less Mexican, but no less delicious pork and herb sausages! There was also Mexican Pozole, chicken liver tacos and beef cheeks cooked in a red mole.
Are there any Mexican inspired dishes that you would love to see us try out for the Wahaca Menu? Or indeed that you’ve tried out yourselves and would like to share with the team? Don’t be shy.
Last night saw Tommi hosting our first ‘in-house’ cooking demo in our brand spanking new Soho bar, to celebrate the launch of The Observer Food Monthly’s brand new book “Cook: A Year in the Kitchen with Britain’s Favourite Chefs”.
We were delighted to welcome the editor, Rebecca Seal to introduce the book. She gave an eye-opening peek behind the scenes of what it’s like to put together a cookbook with contributions from over 80 of Britain’s best loved chefs. No easy task by the sound of it!
Tommi made child’s play of our brand new demo equipment, elegantly splicing together an amazing range of salsas – Chipotles in Adobo, Roast Chipotle Salsa and Chipotle Mayonaise – Who knew Chiptole could create such amazing flavour?! They were all delicious and can be found throughout our menu if you look closely.
But we’re not just telling you this to make you jealous, you can join in the fun too. The Observer & Guardian Book Store have very kindly offered you, the good readers of our blog, a chance to buy the book for half the normal price. All you have to do is visit their website and pop the code “Wahaca” into the field marked ‘promotional code’, then start impressing your pals with a whole range of seasonal treats throughout the year.
Whilst we’re on the subject of books, if you did fancy cooking up your own version of Tommi’s salsas, then you can learn all about them in her book, Mexican Food Made Simple, which you can find nestled nicely here. It’s really rather good.
So that’s this year’s Christmas shopping sorted then. Inspired by the markets of Mexico you could say.
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