tequila

Spiced Pear Margaritas

2 · Feb 20, 2014 · 3 Comments

This spiced pear margarita recipe has a cinnamon-infused kick and gets a sweet, molasses-like depth from piloncillo.

There are two great things about this recipe: First, it can be served cold or hot, depending what kind of climate you live in and whether you’re suffering through a brutal winter or not. Serving it hot is just like having a fruit-infused tequila hot toddy! And second, the spiced pear puree will keep in an airtight container (I recommend a glass jar) in the refrigerator for up to a week, and the recipe can be easily doubled if you want to make it in advance for a party or just enjoy a few cocktails during the week.

This margarita recipe calls for Bosc pears, which have brown skin and sweet flesh. They’re in season from September through April. If you can’t find Bosc pears, you can substitute Bartlett pears, which also are sweet and juicy, and in season from August through February.

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Frozen prickly pear margarita

16 · Sep 16, 2013 · 2 Comments

A prickly pear margarita is just the drink you need to punch up your cocktail hour!

Red prickly pear margarita in a glass rimmed with Tajin, sitting on a napkin on a green drink tray

Grocery stores are typically overflowing with prickly pears—known as tunas rojas in Spanish—in July, August and September. You can eat them plain, use them to make agua fresca de tuna roja, watermelon and prickly pear paletas, prickly pear sorbet or even margaritas! There are so many possibilities.

Read my helpful guide on how to peel and eat cactus fruit before you begin this recipe!

Prickly pears are full of pectin, which means they’re ideal for making jelly and jam! The pectin produces a syrupy consistency that’s also perfect for blending with ice to make a frozen margarita.

Frozen prickly pear margarita

Author: Maura Wall Hernandez
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 2 minutes
Yield: 3 cups 1x
Category: Cocktails
Cuisine: Mexican

Print Recipe

Description

Red prickly pears are the star of this spin on a classic frozen margarita.

Ingredients

Scale

4 ounces (1/2 cup) tequila blanco

1 ounce Cointreau

3 large red prickly pears (tunas rojas)

Juice of 1/2 of a large lime

1/2 cup natural cane sugar, such as Zulka azúcar morena

3 cups ice

1 tablespoon of Tajín (to rim the glasses; optional)

Instructions

Remove the skin from the prickly pears and chop roughly.

Add chopped prickly pears to a food processor or blender with tequila blanco, Cointreau, lime juice and sugar. Puree until smooth, then strain the puree to remove the prickly pear seeds.

In a clean blender or food processor cup, add the strained puree and 3 cups of ice and blend until the mixture becomes slushy.

Wet the rims of the glasses by rubbing with a lime wedge. Put the Tajín in a flat dish and dip the glass rims in it until they’re coated all the way around.

Pour the margarita into the glasses and serve immediately.

Keywords: red prickly pear, red cactus pear, cactus fruit, margarita

For more on different varieties of prickly pears and how they’re used in Mexico, Saveur has an excellent little guide you should check out.

Jarritos fruity tequila cocktails

292 · Aug 19, 2013 · 3 Comments

If you love to entertain and want to whip up some fun, fruity cocktails that are so easy to make, you’ll have plenty of time to spend with your guests, this is your cocktail! This is what I’ll be serving up to visitors during the Labor Day weekend while we hang by the pool and soak up the last of the summer sun.

I typically stock the following flavors at home to make this easy cocktail: Fresa (strawberry), tamarindo (tamarind), mandarina (mandarin orange), piña (pineapple), guayaba (guava), limón (lime) and mango. For those who like to play bartender, you can try mixing some of the soda flavors to make more unique cocktails, such as pineapple-guava or strawberry-mango. If you like, you can also substitute rum for the tequila. Even when we’re not entertaining friends, I like to hang out on the balcony or by the pool sipping these fruity cocktails.

Note: If you use the toronja (grapefruit) flavor + tequila, you can make a version of my paloma recipe!…

Happy National Tequila Day!

0 · Jul 24, 2013 · 2 Comments

July 24 is National Tequila Day and we’re ready to celebrate with our favorite tequila cocktail: The paloma! We served this drink at a party this past weekend and many of the guests were having it for the first time. It was a hit!

And although it’s the middle of the summer now, I suggest you bookmark my two favorite recipes for hot drinks using tequila that will warm you up in the winter.

WARM WINTER MARGARITA RECIPE | PONCHE DE TAMARINDO RECIPE

Now it’s your turn! Do you have a favorite tequila recipe to share? Food or drink, add a link to your own recipe or your favorite recipe that uses tequila as an ingredient. ¡Salud!

How to make a Paloma Margarita

51 · Jul 29, 2012 · 10 Comments

A paloma is a refreshing, classic Mexican cocktail. Some people call it a margarita, some don’t; it depends where you’re from. Some people also call this drink a “paloma tequila.”

Traditionally, it has tequila in it, and is part of the margarita family, but if you’re not a drinker you can leave the tequila out for a homemade grapefruit soda—technically a“toronjada.”

The drink is often made with grapefruit-flavored soda such as Jarritos de toronja or Peñafiel toronja or even Squirt or Fresca, but I also like to make the classic recipe with freshly squeezed grapefruit juice and agua mineral (sparkling water) for a little fizz.

How to make a paloma cocktail, a classy Mexican grapefrult margarita. Recipe via theothersideofthetortilla.com

If you love margaritas, you should also try these recipes:

Paloma Margarita

Author: Maura Wall Hernandez
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Yield: 4 cups 1x
Category: Beverages
Cuisine: Mexican

Print Recipe

Description

A paloma is a classic and original Mexican tequila cocktail made with grapefruit juice, mineral water, tequila and sugar.

Ingredients

Scale

2 tablespoons pure cane sugar (not refined white sugar; I use Zulka Azúcar Morena Pure Cane Sugar)
1/4 cup of water
One 12.5-ounce bottle of agua mineral (sparkling water), chilled
3 grapefruits, juiced (should yield about 1.5 cups of juice) and one slice for garnishing
1/4 cup tequila blanco
Optional: A small pinch of kosher salt in each glass

Instructions

Dissolve 2 tablespoons of pure cane sugar in 1/4 cup of water to make a simple syrup. Set aside.
Juice the grapefruit into a large measuring cup. If you’d like to garnish the glasses or float a small wedge, be sure to cut one quarter-inch thick slice from one grapefruit before you do all the juicing.
Over a pitcher, strain the grapefruit juice to remove any pulp or seeds. Add the simple syrup mixture, 1/4 cup tequila blanco and the chilled agua mineral to the pitcher. Stir well.
Garnish with grapefruit wedges or twists and serve over ice.

Notes

Zulka Azúcar Morena Pure Cane Sugar is a Mexican brand of granulated cane sugar sold at many Latin grocers and can also be purchased online.

Keywords: margarita, paloma, cocktail

Mexique: Celebrating Mexican Cuisine with a French Twist

2 · Dec 20, 2010 · Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago I attended a dinner given by the Mexico Tourism Board and Chef Carlos Gaytan at his restaurant, Mexique, in honor of the recent UNESCO designation of Mexican cuisine as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Tourism Board over the last several weeks has hosted authentic Mexican dinners in a number of major North American cities to celebrate, including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Miami, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver, so I was thrilled to receive the invitation.

Did you know that French recipes and cooking techniques during the French occupation of Mexico in the 1860s became an important element in the evolution of modern Mexican gastronomy?

Gaytan’s concept behind Mexique is modern Mexican food with French influence. Hailing from Huitzuco, Guerrero, Gaytan’s love of food helped him rise from pantry cook to executive chef. He trained with French chef Dominique Tougne of Bistro 110 (Gold Coast) and has also spent time in the kitchens at Bistrot Margo (Old Town) and the Union League Club (Loop), all in Chicago. If you live in Chicago or are visiting, I highly recommend you visit Mexique for a meal.

One thing that left an impression on me at the dinner was when Carlos explained why he doesn’t serve mixed drinks in his restaurant: they take away from the palate and so instead, he serves wine and tequila. And God bless him for telling everyone in the dining room that tequila should be sipped. Someone at a table near me chimed in that “only heathens drink tequila shooters,” which caused an eruption of laughter at my table.

And I can’t end without showing you what we ate. It was a lovely four-course tasting meal with excellent wines and ended with tequila. I can’t wait to return to Mexique for another meal!

PRIMERO: Ceviche

Ahi tuna, avocado mousse, chipotle aioli, mango habanero galette…

Warm Winter Margaritas

101 · Nov 24, 2010 · 6 Comments

If you’ve never had a warm winter margarita, you’ve been missing out. It’s basically a tequila hot toddy!

Warm margaritas are boozy and comforting, and an easy-to-make drink that’ll be sure to please your guests all winter long.

RELATED RECIPE: Ponche de tamarindo

I attended a Ladies’ Night In party in Chicago with Chef Marcela Valladolid, cookbook author and host of the Food Network’s “Mexican Made Easy.” We sipped and sampled numerous Sauza Tequila drinks and had a fantastic time tasting dishes from Marcela’s cookbook, Fresh Mexico.

One of the drinks Marcela showed us how to make was this warm winter margarita. It was an instant hit with the crowd and the perfect way to end the evening.

It was so much fun to hang out with her for an intimate evening of cooking tips and getting to taste some of her recipes!

RELATED RECIPE: Grapefruit margaritas

Here’s my photo album from the party:

Thanks so much to Sauza and Chef Marcela for a fabulous Ladies’ Night In. And thank you to the hostesses, Stacey Roney and Beth Rosen for inviting me! I had a great time. Each party attendee received a little tequila to practice making their own drinks as well as a copy of Chef Marcela’s book, which I really like and would recommend as a gift for yourself or the Mexican foodie in your life. I’ve already made this recipe a few times and several other recipes from her book and I’m definitely impressed. They taste very similar to the Mexican food I make in my own kitchen.

Click on the English or Spanish-language image of the book below to purchase that version.

Warm Winter Margarita

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients

3 ½ cups (28 ounces) apple juice or cider
1-2 sticks of Mexican cinnamon
2 tablespoons granulated cane sugar (optional)
1 cup dried fruit of your choice (I like apricots, apples, cranberries, tart cherries, and golden raisins)
¾ of a cup (6 ounces) tequila blanco or reposado (whichever you prefer)

Instructions

Combine apple juice or cider and cinnamon sticks in a deep pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Remove cinnamon sticks.
Add sugar and tequila and stir to incorporate.
Pour into cups and add dried fruit to each cup just before serving so they don’t rehydrate too quickly.

Notes

For added fun, you can sugar the rim of the glass if you like. Just gently wet the rim of the glass and dip it in a small dish of fine granulated cane sugar before pouring the margarita into the glass.

https://theothersideofthetortilla.com/2010/11/warm-winter-margarita/

If you’re looking for other hot drink recipes to make your holidays a little more Mexican, check out Abuelita Elda’s ponche Navideño, a staple during our family’s holiday celebrations.