DELICIOUS GRUB FOR GRINGOS; Susan's Mexican Dinner (serves four).

Byline: bryan webb

MY birthday falls in the middle of next week when the hotel is fully booked, thanks to the National Eisteddfod being held at Bala, so there will be no time off to celebrate.

However when this happens the wife does strange things like wearing an apron and announcing that she is going to cook supper after work.

Strange though it might seem this does happen from time to time and Susan's speciality is a Mexican dinner with trays of cheesy topped nachos, crispy baked potatoes stuffed with chilli, guacamole and crme fraiche, tortillas filled to the brim with spicy beef, salad and cheese, stuffed tacos and all washed down with a few Mexican beers.

Susan was the one to introduce me to the flavours of Tex Mex years ago when we first got together, then there was a great local restaurant in South Kensington, London serving such food to a packed dining room full of atmosphere.

I suppose that restaurant is where we actually had one of our first dates, which is why when Susan takes the time to produce such a supper it's all the more special.

A few years ago while celebrating my 40th birthday in California, Mexican food went a stage further when we were both blown away with what was a truly memorable dinner at a restaurant on 3rd Street, Santa Monica in Los Angeles.

The Border Grill was amazing that night, the atmosphere, music and food was something we had not come across before, the food was bold and colourful with tastes that excited our palates with earthy and rustic flavours and that kick of chilli that let's you know it's there but leaves you just wanting more and more.

To cook that standard and style of Mexican food you would need a completely new store cupboard filled with all different chillies, pastes, beans and flours to enable you to tackle the recipes from the books.

I have the Border Grill cook book it's called Mesa Mexicana and if this style of cooking is for you I would highly recommend getting a copy and starting off with their recipe for sweetcorn tamales.

But for now let's stick to the basic Tex Mex and enjoy the simple flavours that Susan's recipe gives us.

You can buy most of the ingredients from the local supermarket and Susan has been known to cheat this way, but it's best to make your own guacamole and chilli and if you want that extra little kick try a spoonful of Reggae Reggae or Pain sauce on top of the chilli I really hope everyone has a successful Eisteddfod with lots of sunshine.

. Bryan Webb is owner/chef of Tyddyn Llan, Llandrillo, near Corwen ingredients 4 small baking potatoes, cooked Crme Fraiche Chilli con Carne Tomato Salsa Chopped tomatoes Shredded Iceberg lettuce Grated tasty Cheddar cheese Nachos Tacos Chilli con carne serves 4 500g minced Welsh beef ' onion ' carrot 3 clove of garlic ' stick of celery 150g passata teaspoon dried chilli 50ml white wine 1 tin of red kidney beans, drained method 1.Heat a large pan and fry off the mince until golden brown, season with salt and pepper and remove to a plate.

2.Chop the vegetables finely; you can cheat by using a food processor. 3.Fry the chopped vegetables, add the meat back to the pan 4.Add a small glass of white wine and the passata, bring to a boil for a few minutes, cover with water and simmer for 1 hour, add the beans and cook for 10 minutes.

Guacamole 2 ripe avocados ' small red pepper in very small dice ' finely chopped onion, small dice 1 red chilli finely chopped 6 tablespoons of roughly chopped coriander Juice of 1limes Salt and pepper 2 fl oz olive oil method 1.Peel the avocados and remove the stones but keep them to one side. 2.Mash the avocado with a potato masher.

3.Add the pepper, onion, chilli, coriander, lime juice mix all together. 4.Season with salt and pepper and stir in the olive oil. Put the stones back into the mixture, this stops it decolouring, cover with cling film Tomato salsa 500g of plum or cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped ' red onion, finely chopped Salt and pepper Juice of 1 lime 1 tablespoon of a good chilli sauce like Pain or Reggae Reggae method Mix ingredients together

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Picture: STACEY ROBERTS