Fish and clips
Thomasina Miers Oct 09

New this month is a smoked herring tostada that we are all delighted to have on the menu. After working with fish suppliers for the last nine months, we've finally managed to source MSC herring caught off the Hastings coast and smoked especially for us. It is a delicate smoke that best brings out the flavour of this very British fish; we then gently steam the herring and mix it into a lightly spiced tomato and olive sauce and spoon it on a tostada to recreate a dish I had on one of my trips to Veracruz.

Other fishy additions come in the guise of our Baja California giant fish tacos - crispy battered sustainable plaice goujons, drizzled with chipotle mayonnaise on shredded lettuce with fresh tomato salsa, served in extra large corn tortillas. We have also changed the way we cook our fish on the comal, our flat-top grill. Instead of grilling it, we now steam it in a parcel with white wine. This season it is accompanied with salsa a la Veracruzana, a rich tomato sauce seasoned with cinnamon, allspice, capers and jalapeno chillies.

Other new additions to the menu include the huitlacoche quesadilla which is back on the menu by popular demand. This Mexican delicacy is a fungus-like mushroom, that grows on corn in Mexico. It has a subtle lightly truffled flavour and is delicious tossed with sauteed British field mushrooms and sandwiched together in toasted tortillas with hot, melted cheese. In fact huitlacoche was so popular last winter that this year we have also sauteed it and mixed it with diced feta and steamed potatoes as a filling for our taquitos.

We are also putting another mole on the menu. Pipian is a green mole made with tomatillos, green chillies, fresh coriander and thickened with toasted, ground pumpkin seeds. It is one of the seven moles for which Oaxaca is famous. Try it on our chicken enchilada or our vegetarian roast squash, black bean and mushroom enchilada. More exciting still is the wonderful organic spelt from Sharpham Park that we are now putting in our salads. Roger Saul is a real food enthusiast and having stood at the helm of the British fashion house Mulberry for so many years he has now turned his attentions to this wonderful ancient British grain. It is gluten free and in the spirit of our local sourcing has replaced the quinoa that we were previously using. I hope you love its nutty, flavour. Let us know what you think of this and any of the other new menu changes at blog.wahaca.co.uk.

Tommi xxx

New summer menu
Thomasina Miers June 09

From cool experiments with hibiscus flowers to the Devon crab and seafood taquito that's got everyone fired up, this summer is about adventurous flavours...

Check out our new summer menu, now being served in all our restaurants.

Hands-on producer
Thomasina Miers May 09

We are immensely proud to announce our relationship with a new producer. Dodie has been cooking Mexican food for over 15 years and we think she is a corn expert. Last year she bought an amazing machine (right) and is now making the best corn tortillas in the country. Forget about those plastic ones in the supermarket! These are the real McCoy, made of white corn and very little else. They are soft and supple and make the perfect tacos. You could almost imagine you were in Mexico. We just hope that more people start making good ones like these so that everyone can have the pleasure of tasting real corn tortillas like they eat in the market stalls of Mexico.

New Producer!
Thomasina Miers August 08

We are immensely proud to announce the advent of a new producer. We found Edible Ornamentals not at a food market in Mexico, but right here in Britain and it wasn't long before we were concocting plans of mass chilli and herb growing. It is the first time our salsa verde will be blessed with Serrano chillies and, what's more, they will be grown less than an hour away from us.

Can you help?
Thomasina Miers August 08

For the first time at Wahaca we are putting nopalitos on our menu. A cactus from the same plant as the prickly pear, the paddles are picked when young, shaved of sharp spines and put straight onto the comal (the flat griddle everybody cooks on in Mexico). Not only are they rich in protein, a perfect vegetarian option, but also full of fibre.

Unfortunately we can currently only buy nopales in tins from Mexico. We know the prickly pear trees are grown as close by as Greece, Turkey and Spain though. I met some foragers in Andalucia who ate the pears and threw the paddles away. Apparently no-one knew this super food was edible. If you know anyone growing prickly pears on the Continent please let us know… we want fresh ones!!!

Holy Mole
Thomasina Miers July 08

With the summer coming we decided we needed a lighter mole on the menu. The coloradito is one of Oaxaca’s seven famous moles. Made with ancho and guajillo chillies it is less complex than the poblano we had on last season but with all the richness of nuts, chillies, spices and not forgetting, of course, the chocolate. This mole contains no sugar whatsoever…its natural sweetness is from the dried fruit and chocolate only.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? From the perfect cocktail recipe, to comments on the menu, please tell us what you think.