Wahaca is one of my favourite restaurants in London - my flatmates and I were going roughly once a week when Westfield first opened, however since moving to Richmond I don't tend to go as much since it's not as easy to get to. For my birthday my flatmates and friends bought me the Wahaca cookbook along with a load of other lovely things, including my favourite bubble bar from Lush, The Comforter
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wahaca-Mexican-Food-at-Home/dp/1444722395/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
It's worth saying from the outset that this book is not for the faint hearted - the recipes are all very hardcore and require a lot of work as well as a fair amount of technical knowledge as well as some special ingredients!
So far I've tried the following recipes:
Corn Tortillas - X
Guacamole - /
Spinach and feta taco - /
Hibiscus Water - /
Refried Beans - X
You will notice there are a couple of Xs after some of the recipes - that's because those recipes were not easy to make, nor were they tasty.
I'll go into more details later, but let's start with the positives:
I left him in charge of the guacamole, as it was a recipe he'd made before and he'd brought some chilli's he'd grown at home to be added and, as usual, it was the perfect compliment to the main meal of spinach and feta tacos.
The spinach and feta recipe was relatively easy to make, however i ignored the instruction to squeeze out the water from the cooked spinach and this was a bit of an error as it was hugely watery. Overall it was delightful, however since it was accompanied by the corn tortillas, it wasn't as good as it could have been!
Speaking of the tortillas, I will mention them here - I decided to give these a go after seeing the flour i needed in Sainsburys - it was pretty pricey, but I thought I'd give it a go. The recipe suggests you'd be better buying a tortilla press, but as most people don't have one, I thought I'd give it a go. DON'T....just don't...it was a disaster from start to finish - the tortillas were edible, but for the amount of effort it took, they were not particularly amazing. I might consider buying a press and seeing if it's easier, but I'm just not sure it's worth the hassle. We also used some of the tortilla's to make tortilla chips as the book suggests you use the old ones and deep fry them - again a bit of hassle when they can be bought so cheaply and easily in the shop.
One of my favourite things to have in Wahaca is the hibiscus water agua fresca so I thought I'd give this recipe a go - after hours of hunting, i noticed that the flour I'd bought in sainsbury's had a webpage and so I had a sneaky peak where I discovered that most of the special ingredients required by the book can be bought, including hibiscus flowers - strangely the book does mention this site in the list of suppliers in the back, but doesn't really mention that you can get everything there from epazote to a tortilla press. I also discovered that the Masa Harina flour I'd bought in Sainsburys could be bought significantly cheaper direct from the source!
http://www.coolchile.co.uk/products/view/hibiscus-flowers-100g
The recipe calls for 50g of flowers and this makes about 2 litres of cordial which can be drunk neat or, as I prefer, with a dash of sparkling water on top. It's very simple and tastes exactly like what you would buy in store so I was thoroughly impressed with the recipe and will make it again.
Finally I tried to make refried beans because the ones you can buy in Wahaca are truly delicious. After several hours of simmering (and several pounds on His gas bill), I made a disgusting, lumpy, oniony mess that ended up straight in the bin. Maybe I'm just not cut out for making refried beans, but this wasn't a recipe that I enjoyed making, and, even if it had tasted as good as the refried beans at Wahaca, I wouldn't make it again, but since it didn't taste at all pleasant, I will definitely be filling this in the 'do not repeat' pile.
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