OLD EL PASO STAND n STUFF

There's not much we like more for a slap up dinner than a fajita or taco night, especially when we've got friends coming round. It's such a fun way to eat, with everyone grabbing their own ingredients and creating a unique plate made up of their favourite components from everything on the table - it allows the boy to steer clear of spice, but me to load up my plate with jalapenos and hot salsa, so everyone gets what they want. So when I was invited up to the Old El Paso HQ in West London to try their new range I was intrigued to find out more.

Old El Paso have launched their newest product (after 8 years in the making) - the Stand N Stuff soft taco. Think soft flour tortilla made into a flat-bottomed boat shape that you can fill with whatever you fancy without having to worry about it all spilling out. My bug bear with normal tortillas is that lump of folded flour wrap you get at the bottom that's stodgy and excessive, and the messy leakage of delicious juices that normally spill out of the tortilla when you eat it. There's none of this with the Stand n Stuff - just an open sided pouch that I find much easier to fill and eat that the standard tortilla.

We were given a little talk about Old El Paso, who've been trading for nearly 80 years and started life as a tinned tomato distributor before becoming the Old El Paso we all know today. After tasting the new range and then cooking up our own versions in their test kitchens we were sent on our way with goody bags stuffed full of the new products - we got one of each of their Stand n Stuff kits, in each of the 3 flavours - Smokey BBQ, chipotle and honey, and extra mild, which come with the tortilla boats, a spice mix and a salsa pack, as well as some of the tortillas on their own, and a nice big jar of jalapenos.

I was super keen to get in the kitchen at home and rustle up my own version of the tortilla, and so made these really delicious spicy tuna tortilla boats - which you can easily make too.

Serves 2

4 Stand n Stuff tortilla boats
1 large tuna steak
1 avocado, sliced
Squeeze of lemon juice
1 tsp chilli flakes
Coriander
1 small tub sour cream
1 tsp wasabi paste
Handful spinach
Radishes, sliced thinly
Jalapenos
Cucumber, sliced thinly

Preheat the oven to 150C.

Start with your tuna. Rub the fillet of tuna with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and a few chilli flakes. Put a frying pan on to heat up and once hot, cook the tuna steak over a medium-high heat for one and a half minutes on each side. Remove from the pan and put to one side to rest.

In a bowl, mix the sliced avocado, add a squeeze of lemon, salt and pepper, chilli flakes, chopped coriander and a dash of olive oil. Mix together.

In another bowl mix the sour cream and wasabi paste, tasting until you have a good balance of sharp and heat.

Put the spinach leaves, radish slices, jalapenos and cucumber slices into individual bowls and put these on the table with the avocado and wasabi sour cream that you've made.

Separate the tortilla boats and put them in the oven to warm through. While they are warming up slice the tuna steak into 1cm thick slices and put in a bowl on the table.

Get the tortillas out of the oven, add them to the spread, and start filling your boats with a mixture of all the above, or whichever combination takes your fancy. I went for everything and it was delicious!

It's Mexican Independence Day on Tuesday 16th September so why not grab yourself some Old El Paso kits and get cooking!