A few years ago, Mr NQN said goodbye to our former abode in Sydney’s Mosman. It was the place of many a party and commanded prime views of Sydney Harbour. Every New Year’s Eve we would throw a party and we could see all four sets of fireworks from our balcony. We liked living there, the view could not have been beat and the neighbours were quiet and friendly-most of the time, except for one night…
Sarsparilla pulled chicken & coleslaw soft tacos with firecracker aioli
One day, in the early hours of the morning, there was an almighty thud and screaming so loud that you could hear it through the thick concrete floors. “I know you’ve stolen it!!!” a man’s angry voice screamed at the top of his lungs. We could hear closet doors being slammed shut and his screaming voice being carried from room to room as he searched for this camera that apparently his friend, our neighbour, had taken. This carried on for about fifteen minutes, the screaming getting louder and the man angrier until there was one enormous thud and then silence.
Tuna tostadas
Mr NQN and I, both jarred awake by this time, looked at each other. What happened? Was the other man dead or injured? We didn’t hear the door close or the elevator called and it was unlikely that the man would have walked down fourteen flights of stairs if an elevator were available. So thinking that something ghastly had happened, we called the police.
Corn with lime mayonnaise and cheese
Things in Mosman are pretty quiet at the best of times and four officers came to our floor, guns drawn. We tiptoed to our front door, opened it gently and pointed directly below us. The police nodded comprehension and went downstairs. We heard them pound on the apartment door downstairs and after a while, the door opened and conversation was exchanged.
Chorizo con Papas
There was a lot of talking and we looked at each other wondering if an ambulance would arrive. We were relieved to see that it didn’t and about an hour later, a paddy wagon arrived to take a sedated small man into custody. We breathed a sigh of relief and the next day, a note was pinned to the elevator apologising for the interruption and the impromptu fireworks display that may have kept anyone up.
Pico de Gallo
Apartment living sometimes has its advantages though. Like in November, when Ute and I were talking about New Year’s Eve and what to do. She mentioned that she has a spectacular view from her apartment and that her apartment has a gazebo that sits on the waterfront of Potts Point that she could book.
Plans were made to spend NYE at her place and I offered to make some food. Melbourne is in the throes of Mexican food love and Sydney is certainly getting there with so many fantastic places opening up. I actually wanted to make a Mexican inspired feast for Christmas Day lunch with the relatives but thought that the whole fireworks and spicy theme suited NYE better. And I wanted to share this on the almost eve of Australia Day this Saturday in case you are wanting to serve up something crowd friendly.
I assembled a list of recipes, and whilst I can’t vouch for their authenticity, I can vouch that guests seemed to really enjoy them. Most of it just needed to be assembled prior to serving with most of the cooking done ahead of time. The end part can all be done on a barbecue which means that anyone that loves twirling the tongs at the barbecue station won’t feel left out and there’s a mix of textures and tastes in the following selection that will hopefully sate most appetites. We also served this with a ceviche that Ute made which we didn’t photograph so I’ll give that a go at another time using her recipe.
So tell me Dear Reader, would you have called the police, gone downstairs to check or gone back to bed? And what are your neighbours like? Are you friends with them or are you more ships that pass in the night?
Tuna Tostadas or Tostadas de Atún
I first got the idea from a preview of ChowTown for Big Day Out. At the preview, Mexican chef Alejandro Urbina from Rojo Rocket made these incredible tuna tostadas that I immediately loved. It seemed simple enough, top a corn chip with a piece of seasoned tuna sashimi. And I’m proud to say that even though this isn’t his recipe and his tuna tostada was just a very fond memory, these are pretty good. When I served them, all of the guests were kind enough to come up to me to tell me how good they were. It’s important to make these “a la minute” or just before you are about to serve these because you don’t want the chip to get soggy. But once you have everything chopped an assembly line of these is easy. And these are such a crowd pleaser, it’s hard to say no to making these.
Makes 26 tostadas (approximately)
- 300g sashimi grade tuna (or fish of your choice)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon mirin
- 3-4 drops sesame oil
- 1 cucumber, thinly sliced
- 1 avocado, diced or thinly sliced
- 26 corn chips (not the flavoured kind like Doritos as they will be too salty, look for the round ones without flavouring)
- 1/4 cup fresh coriander/cilantro to decorate
- 1/4 cup sliced green onions to decorate
- 3 tablespoons white sesame seeds to decorate
1. Slice the sashimi into about 26-30 pieces, a slice about the size of a slice of sashimi will do (please note you usually slice against the grain for sashimi so that it doesn’t fall apart when picking it up but since you’re picking this up on a corn chip, falling apart isn’t an issue). In a bowl, mix the soy sauce, mirin and sesame oil.
2. Take a serving platter and spread out the corn chips (use whole ones). Top each corn chip with a slice of cucumber, then the tuna dipped in the soy mix (do not marinate as that will cause the tuna to firm up too much and cook) and then the avocado. Top with a scattering of coriander leaves, green onions and sesame seeds and serve.
Pico de Gallo or Fresh Tomato Salsa
Again, this is scarcely a recipe, I’m sure you’ve made things quite similar and it just involves chopping everything up and serving it in a bowl for people to scoop up in corn chips! You can make this ahead of time earlier on in the day.
- 3-4 tomatoes (depending on size)
- 1 white or red onion
- 1 avocado
- 2-3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 1-2 jalapeno chillies
- Fresh coriander/cilantro to serve
- salt and pepper to taste
- Corn chips to serve
Sarsparilla Pulled Chicken & Coleslaw Soft Tacos With Firecracker Aioli
I’m often inspired by reader’s suggestions and one lovely gal @Sapphira Toh tweeted that she was making a meal including my cauliflower slaw. She was serving it with sarsaparilla pulled pork and those three words stuck in my mind. I’m a sarsaparilla freak and whenever I see it, I must buy a bottle. It turns out that you can make a freakishly easy pulled pork in the pressure or slow cooker using just four ingredients: meat, sarsaparilla, bbq sauce and onion.
I wasn’t sure if all guests ate pork so I decided to experiment and try making pulled chicken. Pulled pork is quite a fatty dish so I wanted to see how lean chicken breast would do. And do you know what? Pulled chicken breast tastes just like pulled pork because of the sauce! When Mr NQN came home and sniffed the air he asked me why I had decided to make the pork instead of the chicken and I had to tell him that what he was smelling was pulled chicken. So for a lower fat alternative, pulled chicken is now on our rotation. These soft tacos along with the tostadas were the favourite items of the night.
Makes 25 soft tacos
- 500g/2 pounds/2 skinless chicken breasts
- 1 teaspoon oil
- 3/4 cup bbq sauce (best quality you can find)
- 3/4 cup sarsaparilla
- 1 onion, peeled and halved
- 1 clove garlic, peeled and halved
- 2 teaspoons sugar (optional, if needed)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 cups cabbage, thinly sliced
- 1 large or 2 small carrots (I used a purple carrot)
- 1/2 cup corn kernals, drained well
- 3/4 cup sliced green onions
- 6 tablespoons good quality mayonnaise
- salt and pepper to taste
For the soft tacos and firecracker aioli
- 25 small flour tortillas
- 4 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 1/2 garlic clove, finely grated
- Tabasco sauce or jalapeno chilli sauce, to taste
1. Wash and dry the chicken breasts with paper towels and brown them on the outside on both sides. Heat a pressure cooker or slow cooker and add them in with the bbq sauce, sarsaparilla, onion and garlic. For a pressure cooker, cook for 55 minutes on the medium setting. For a slow cooker, cook for 8 hours. When finished cooking, take two forks and pull the chicken apart into shreds. It will look like there is too much sauce but one you shred the chicken and mix it around, it should be just right with a little sauce left over. Taste the sauce-because some bbq sauces are sweeter or tangier than other, you may need to add a couple of teaspoons of sugar to it to balance the sauce. Allow to cool while you get on with the coleslaw.
2. In a bowl, add the cabbage, corn and grate the carrot into this. Add the green onions and mayonnaise and toss. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Make the firecracker aioli by mixing the mayonnaise, garlic and Tabasco or jalapeno sauce together. Assemble the tortillas by heating them (steaming, microwaving, or grilling) to soften them. Add coleslaw and then some pulled chicken. Then add the pulled chicken with a bit of sauce and then the fireworks aioli on top (I put it in a squeezy tube bottle or you can put it in a zip lock bag and cut off a little bit at the end). Serve while warm.
Chorizo con Papas
This almost seemed too absurd to write out as a recipe as it is so simple but a good dish to feed a whole lot of people and fill tummies in case people didn’t have enough food. It was one of the last dishes to go out after the tostadas and soft tacos and if anyone felt peckish they just went to a big serve of this.
- 1 kilo/2 pounds of potatoes
- 500g/1 pound chorizo
- 3 shallots, peeled
- 3-4 tablespoons oil (I used a chilli and lime infused oil)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Fresh coriander/cilantro to serve
1. Preheat oven to 200C/400F and line a deep sided tray with baking parchment. Slice up the potatoes into small cubes and the shallots into quarters and toss in the oil and bake for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, slice up the chorizo or remove the meat from the casing (I found it hard to remove it from the casing as a lot of it stuck to the casing so I just chopped it up into small pieces. Add these after the potatoes have been cooking for 30 minutes, turn and add the chorizo and cook for about twenty minutes until the chorizo is cooked through and the potatoes are golden and crispy. Season with salt and pepper.
Sweetcorn on the cob with lime mayo & cheese
To be honest, I love corn by itself and when we were serving it, the wind was whipping around so furiously that I knew that any feather light pieces of cheese would simply fly away so you can simply just roast the corn and dip it in butter and salt and be done with it. I roasted this corn in its husk and silk and the trade off is that roasting brings out the sweetness but it makes the corn less juicy than if you boiled it. This was inspired by chef Jamie Thomas’s corn at Queenies (even the serving tray!).
Makes 9-12 cobettes
- 3-4 corn cobs
- 4 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
- 100g/3.5 ozs freshly grated cheese (I used queso cheese but your favourite cheese will work)
Wooden plate by Dandi
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46 Comments | Add your own
Your soft tacos and potatoes look soooo yummy! What an incredible fireworks display too!
I think I would have called the police also.
I know some of our neighbors and consider them friends, but others are strangers:(
Ohhh Mexican food
Gosh I miss a good taco! There simply isn’t that kind of food here in HK ~ I agree with you that Melbourne has really taken the Mexican wave hehe and I don’t think it’s dying down anytime soon!
What a great way to celebrate NYE and I love the views and the photos of the fireworks! I love living in an apartment, Mr Bao and I moved in together last year and we LOVE our apartment, everything about it
I think I would have called the police too because I would never be able to live with the fact that if something happened and I knew about it but didn’t do anything.
What beautiful food! A feast indeed.
I am very close to my neighbors and would definitely have checked on them.
One night when I first moved up here to the wilderness, there was a single gun shot about four in the morning and then nothing else. I stayed awake the rest of the night worrying, but couldn’t tell where it came from….
I’d love to join you for a Mexican feast! Everything looks mouthwatering
.
Andale andale, dear Lorraine, looks yummy. I lived in Mosman some years ago, but on the Balmoral side and it was in Military Rd down from Spit Junction that one of Sydney’s first mexican restaurants openend in the late 70is.
While the food looked very tasty, I just couldn’t stop looking at the photos of the fireworks. They just looked amazing!! Fantastic photos Lorraine. New Years Eve in Sydney is on my bucket list. I just need to find a friend with an amazing view and another who can cook like NQN!!!
Gorgeous photos Lorraine – bright, festive and beautiful! I love Mexican food and did a little last year, but can’t wait to do more. My girls have decided they will only eat fish – no chicken, beef, pork, lamb…… And I think Mexican just might be my go-to for a good balanced meal. Thanks for the ideas – always wonderful xox
What a spectacular view indeed, totally first class seats!
What an awesome idea too use chicken breasts instead of pork, I usually use pork neck but you are a genius Lorraine
Our neighbors are usually pretty quiet although the people behind us left their teenagers alone after Christmas and they had a noisy pool party that went on till 2am. Hubby is fairly big and intimidating so he ‘suggested’ it was time too wrap I things up and they complied immediately. He would have gone earlier but didn’t want too spoil all their fun
When I got married we lived in an apartment on a second floor. One day, in the middle of the night we heard a discussion in the department on the first floor, right below us. She begged her husband not to leave, she started crying and crying, then she shouted that he was a bad guy and then she phoned her mother. Never heard his voice, just the doors and drawers opened and closed and then the noise of the car leaving away. we did not call the police, but I could not sleep thinking on that woman. We now live in a house far away from the city, full of peace and the only cries are those of my children.
Yum!! I love the sound of the corn. Your neighbour story often mirrors ours – they fight now and again and the police have often turned up. Did you find out what happened to the other guy?
I love your menu. It’s so colourful and no doubt tasty. I think that I could possibly eat that whole tray of potatoes and chorizo, could there be anything better in this world?
We have some great neighbours on one side who we always stop and chat to, but we have some real strange ones on the other. Once their daughter threw a glass bottle at our gardener because he was making too much noise at 4 in the afternoon.
Lorraine, you are one EXCELLENT friend to invite to celebrations.
I am thrilled Sydney has finally cottoned onto Mexican cuisine. I can’t believe it’s taken so long.
YUUMMO!! I want to make all of those things. For sure going to give that pulled chicky a try, that looks amazing!
Wow! What a delicious feast Lorraine, you had some lucky friends at your NYE party!! Love your styling in these photographs too – gorgeous, bright happy colors!!
Hi NQN!
I absolutely adore Mexican/ Central American food. I just came back from Central America where i had some of the best Burritos and Quesidillas of my life and i’m still obsessed. An awesome new place that opened up at the end of last year is the Mexico Food and Liqour. 17 Randle St Surry Hills. I’ve been there twice so far and have loved it!!
What a fantastic way to ring in the new year. Fortunately, I live in a very quiet neighborhood and really like my neighbors. xoxo Mum
It’s strange now that you say it. Most of my neighborhood people are friends, and we often ask after each other. But when we lived in Appt, we didn’t know anyone and never got to know anyone. And I would have called the police too.
You cook most delicious things Lorriane! And what a beautiful display of fireworks…reminds me of Niagra Falls fireworks.
My goodness what a feast! I love the tablecloth/napkins, so very fiesta-like.
I really want to be friends with the couple next door. They’re about our age but they just don’t want to be my friend
. Could be because I complain about their smoking all the time but I do it in the nicest possibly way!
Thanks for the recipe for the pulled chicken,I have always wanted to make it but didnt know where to start,all the recipes I had read seemed all too hard.I just have to find some sarsaparilla,I think Bundaberg make an authentic one.
A number of fun and easy ‘recipes’ here when one does not have much time but wants something a little different! Have to try that pulled chicken
! Call the police: one would have had to be on the scene to judge – as someone was taken away you obviously had the degree of seriousness right! I live in an attached cottage with just one immediate neighbour. You would not believe she was my class teacher for three years back in camp school in Germany!! Oh we get along fine, as long as I keep on remembering who has the ‘bossing rights’ 
!
Welcome to my world, Lorraine!:) Yes, apartment living is challenging, and sometimes to be on a safe side you do need to call the police, for your own and their’s safety.
Good food you have there, can’t go wrong with Mexican food!
WOW! Talk about a balcony with a view!
Adding the background to your bit of OLE party too!
Is always fun when friends get together,
Sarsparilla Pulled Chicken & Coleslaw Soft Tacos With Firecracker Aioli caught my eye…and the recipe could not get any better!
Thankfully we are ‘crazy neighbour’ free at the moment … those that we did have having moved on. Generally speaking the neighbours in the units closer copped more of the issues than we did and so the police were normally called in before we even knew there was something going on!
I’ve been craving Mexican all week. This isn’t helping.
Oh, a splendid post. A SPLENDID post. What a great job you did with the Mexican food. And the fireworks are just heavenly. We have so many fireworks here in Mexico, but rarely gala displays, more like gunshots intended to wake the saints
What an amazing feast!! I don’t actually like Sarsparilla (at all) but I love the idea of Sarsparilla pulled chicken and bet it tastes very good… Now I really want some Mexican food.
Hehe! I’m nosey so I would have immediately scoped out what was happening haha!
Great looking Mexican dishes! Gosh I’m glad nobody was hurt in your building – but good idea to call the police I think.
Yum! I wonder if the sarsparilla pulled chicken is a bit like coca cola baked ham … which is yummy too. Happy Australia Day
lovely mexican feast! woohoo!
You know how much I love Mexican flavours, authentic or not! There are definitely more than a few recipes to try here. Your party sounds amazing!
I would have called the police too!
I love sarsparilla too! What an amazing party menu.
Mexican really does lend itself to lots of dishes to make a feast. I am in love with corn done that way at the moment.
Great Mexican food recipes, I liked a lot, especially Sweetcorn on the cob with lime mayo & cheese and tacos, looks delicious! Congratulations also for the photos.
Regards,
@photorecipe
Having grown up in Texas where you can get good Mexican food around every corner it seems, I love Mexican food. Your meal sounds absolutely wonderful and I’m sure everyone really enjoyed it.
All the recipes sound so mouthwatering.
Yes i would definitely have called the police, as how would your consciousness be if something tragic happened to your neighbour, if you did nothing
Your apartment story was so suspenseful I had to go back and look at the food and second time. Every things looks so great.
The new year’s eve fireworks in Sydney are truly spectacular! Thankfully we have great neighbour’s even if the one is nosy
What a fab fiesta, Lorraine! Happy Australia Day. Urgh, bad neighbours…been there. I’ve called the cops before. Nasty business. Oh well, back to this deliciousness, thanks for the recipes!
Heidi xo
Called the police, like when there was a horrible domestic going on on the floor below me in Canberra between two teen parents, when we knew there was a baby there too. When it gets to the point of thuds and crashes, you know you can’t just sit there anymore. Good for you for calling, definitely. xo
great feast – we had a great view of fireworks from our flat in Edinburgh but I don’t miss the damp – here it just seems like we hear them but rarely see them – but I do love a mexican fiesta – it is a great way to cater for the dietary preferences in my family so I love it
i’m fond of many ethnic cuisines, but mexican is #1. your feast looks FANTASTIC!
Lorraine. I was excited to see your title for this post. Have a long love affair with Mexican food & so glad to see it becoming popular with foodies as it has so much more to offer than just tacos.
I was also hoping you might have give a nod to Fireworks Foods. A great online source of Mexican ingredients for those not in the city.
Pulled chicken is on the menu plan for next week now.. Thanks
Where can I buy the queso cheese pretty please?
Hi Catrina! I bought mine from Norton Street Grocer in Bondi Junction but there is also Fireworks Foods that sells it along with lots of other Mexican ingredients.
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