A Weak Attempt To Make Mexican Food In Crimea

I'd like to start off with saying that Mexican food pretty much doesn't exist in this part of the world.

With that in mind, I didn't expect to find a lot of ingredients needed to make something simple, I did want to introduce my friends to a different type of cuisine anyway.

I decided to make Spanish rice, salsa, mango salad, chicken seasoned with chipotle powder and corn chips. You would laugh, but you just CANNOT buy corn chips here, tortillas or any corn products other than sweet corn puffs here.

Jalapenos are probably my favorite peppers to add to any dish, I was surprised to see some canned ones at a store in Kerch last week, since Sevastopol is a bigger city, I thought finding them here would not be a problem, I was wrong (I've never seen fresh ones in Crimea either). Well, I had to buy some other type of hot peppers, I don't even know the name haha, I guess people call them hot peppers, they were not even that hot to be honest.
Talking about that with my husband @matt-a he was wondering why people won't grow jalapenos here, seriously, why won't they, come on people, bring some mild spice into your life!

Alright, the next thing I couldn't find is black beans, let alone pintos, those are probably rare, so I had to go with kidney beans. Finding a ripe avocado was another challenge I didn't make. Oh well.

Regardless, if you ever find yourself in Crimea, and you crave some food that is a little Mexican, keep reading!

I got some corn flour (masa doesn't exist here, duhh) and decided to try to make tortillas according to this recipe on Cookpad.

I ended up creating unknown patties that sort of resemble tostadas, they were too thick to be called chips, yet I still baked them some in the oven, here is what I got:

To be honest with you, they hardly tasted like tortillas, they became hard to chew, all in all I do not recommend making chips using the recipe from Cookpad, perhaps the tortillas would be enjoyable, but I didn't try them before I baked them.

Luckily, making the chipotle chicken was pretty easy, I cheated on that one because I brought the powder from the USA with me, you can't get it here. I would suggest using your favorite spice for that if you ever decide to cook it. Sprinkle it over the chicken breast, add some salt, black pepper perhaps and let it sit for about 20 minutes. Fry over medium heat until it's cooked.

It is possible you may get distracted by a cat :)

Since I have never made Spanish rice before, I decided to go with a simple and easy recipe. Thanks to Betty Crocker's generic recipe. Although I did do a little modification:

• skipped chili powder;
• substitute green pepper for red bell;
• veggie oil for olive oil;
• substitute garlic powder for actual garlic;
• add a quarter of yellow tomato.

It turned out decent, not sure it was Spanish in a way they would serve it at a restaurant, but it was good.

I should have probably chopped the bell pepper more finely, I didn't though. I am probably not going to make it again. Usually when I cook rice I make it more Asian than Mexican, to be honest I like it better that way too.

Salsa + Mango Salad

Those too are pretty staple and easy. I learned that actually some people bake the vegetables in the oven before making their salsa, I didn't do it though, but I will try to prepare it from cooked vegetables one day.

To make a regular salsa in Crimea, you're going to need to get:

• a couple tomatoes;
• a hot pepper;
• fresh cilantro;
• a couple clothes of garlic;
• a handful of chopped red onion;
• salt and lime juice to taste.

In a blender, combine all of the ingredients, but cilantro and onions, for some reason I prefer adding those two in the end. Process, add in the rest of the ingredients and it ready to serve.

Another cute distraction :)

As to the Mango salad, it pretty straight forward, you're going to need:

• a ripe mango (couldn't find a ripe one);
• fresh cilantro;
• salt and lime juice to taste;
• a half of red bell pepper;
• a cucumber;
• red onion.

Oh yeah, now looking at the pictures I see I also chopped some green onion for garnish, you can skip that.

Hope you enjoy these simple creations, I tried my very best to get the ingredients as close to Mexican cuisine as possible, it was hard! Nonetheless, the food turned out good!

I will see you again, meow!