Sometimes a flavour takes you by surprise

It might be because you have never encountered it before or perhaps it is made with familiar ingredients, but you hadn’t thought of putting them together in just that way.

Zucchini sauce for tacos. Who knew?

I’m picking maybe 119, 713, 203 Mexicans. Maybe not all of them.

I had tasted the aforementioned zucchini sauce over a year ago when I tagged along to a bbq made up of Mexican and Irish people. The crowd composition was intriguing for a start. I was one of two New Zealanders, there was an Australian, and then everyone else was either from Mexico or Ireland. I have thought a lot since then about what the attracting force might be between these two cultures. I still have not come up with an answer.

Anyway. The food was fantastic. Beautifully grilled meat, salads, tacos. But the star was the zucchini sauce. With the slight earthiness of the zucchini tempered by a little garlic and a little chilli. Smooth, a little spicy, good.

I tried to recreate it at home. It was a dismal failure. Perhaps one of my worst dismal failures. And then I forgot about it.

Until now. Now I have seen how it’s made. And I have had another attempt. I don’t quite have the deft confidence of my instructor or the seemingly innate knowledge of the amount of oil required, the exact size of stock cube to include and the extent to which the zucchini must be cooked; not too much, not too little, but just right. But I did it. And it’s good.

And I appreciate the discovery.