This is delicious, light and refreshing. I encourage you to try it before the summer is over. I absolutely adore it when I go into the kitchen, no recipe in hand, and whip something together that's just so co-hesive and delectible. This Fish Taco Salad is just that.
I haven't had too many fish tacos in my day either, so whipping up the dressing was a bit foreign to me, but I was happy and surprised that I had so many appropriate ingredients on hand, ie, lime, clinatro and green onion. I was also happy to see a spicy taco seasoning packet in our cupboard (not ours though, our roommates, handy nonetheless). You don't need the shell when you've got cool red and green cabbage mixed with filling black beans and topped with a crusty fillet of cod that's been baked in a little flax oil. Yum, yum.
I'm going to miss summer, almost soley for the fact that our little outdoor fresh produce grocer closes in october after they sell their last batches of fruit and veggies, along with a large quantity of jack o' lantern pumpkins. Quality, inexpensive produce is nearly impossible to come by in the fall and winter months. I've still got a little while to enjoy the fruits of summers labor. . .
Recipe: Fish Taco Salad.
Indgredients:
1 lb cod
1/2 cup italian bread seasoning
1/4 cup panko breading
few TBL. spicy taco seasoning
1 egg
1/2 green cabbage, shredded
1/2 red cabbage, shredded
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 TBL. flax oil (coldpressed) drizzled into your baking dish
Lime Cilantro Dressing (recipe to follow)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. Place your egg into a shallow bowl and lightly break up with a fork or whisk.
2. Lightly season your fish with salt and pepper.
3. Place you bread crumbs, taco seasoning and panko onto a plate and mix lightly.
4. Dip your fish in egg wash, then roll in crumbs.
5. Prepare your shallow baking dish with flax oil.
6. Place fish into baking dish and bake in oven for 15 minutes or until fish is flaky and cooked through.
7. Place cabbage and beans into a large bowl.
8. Mix Lime Cilantro dressing into cabbage and bean bowl.
9. Top with a chunk fish and enjoy!
Lime Cilantro Dressing:
Ingredients:
1/4 cup light mayo
1/4 cup light sour cream
(you may want to use a little less of each depending on the size of your cabbages)
zest and juice of 1 lime
3 TBL. chopped cilantro
2 small cloves of garlic
3 green onions, chopped
Directions:
1. Mix all ingredients into a bowl. Enjoy on whatever you like.
(it's reallly delicious)
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Without the Taco.
Pièce de résistance.
Alright, well, after much speculation and discussion with close friends and family (most of which who were lucky enough to try this cake) I've decided not to post the recipe. However, if you would like to email me I would probably be happy to share. You see, this cake is so good it just feels like it's one of those recipes I need to keep to myself, in case, someday I do open a little cakery or something like that. I wouldn't want my most prized cake out there for anyone to make for themselves, this said, I don't mind sharing with the few of you that might want to take the time to email me first.
To be honest with you, I'd give this cake a go on your own, with your very own favorite cake and cheesecake recipe. As you can visually see it's pretty darn straight forward. I encourage you to give it a try. All I did was use my favorite chocolate cake recipe (which makes two nine inch rounds) and my favorite cheesecake recipe without the crust (obviously). Then I layered them, chocolate, then cheesecake in the middle, then chocolate again. I smeared a bit of raspberry reduction between the top chocolate cake and cheesecake layer covered the entire thing in a gooey cream cheese frosting and topped all of it with a swirl of reduction which I ran a toothpick through to make a spider web design. The reduction ran down the sides of the extremely enormous cake.
It was such a hit. It fed about 20 people. The chocolate cake is moist, sweet, dark and delicious. The cheesecake smooth, and soft, and the raspberry reduction adds a little kick and gives the cake some extra definition. The flavors and textures in this cake really work well together. It's also a reallly impressive piece. People couldn't stop raving about how beautiful it was, or how delicious it was. I'm oh-so proud of myself. This truly was my pièce de résistance so far.
My grandmother would be proud.
missmallory at gmail dot com.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Pink Frosting & Sprinkles.
I know I haven't been around much since my birthday, lifes just been kind of busy lately. And although I've been cooking up a storm still I just haven't found as much time to blog about it. Today is Kevin's birthday party and I've decided to make the most intenese cake I could think of, a devils food AND cheesecake cake, covered with cream cheese frosting and drizzled with a raspberry reduction sauce. I will take pictures and post the recipe I promise. I'm hoping it will be a hit! I'm trying to make a Juniors-esque cheesecake/cake combo. Flickr Juniors Devils Food if you don't know what I'm talking about. . .
In the meantime, enjoy the pink frosting and all those colorful little sprinkles.
xoxo
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Dee-lish.
I'm going to be frank. It's been about a month since I made these. I used a recipe I found on the food network site. The recipe was for Rock Shrimp Burgers with Wasabi Mayo. Sounds great right? Not so much. I hated them. The roomie and Lauren seemed to like my version and the Wasabi version. I hated the Wasabi burger. I really thought it was disgusting. This coming from a girl who LOVES wasabi, and fish. Maybe it's because the burger itself was missing any kind of asian flare. It was just literally egg, rockshrimp, salt and parsley. Fine, but not when your pairing it with wasabi. The flavor of the burger was more reminiscent of the Northwest (where I preside) and therefore in my opinion, should be paired with something that drew from the same flavor arena.
My solultion? Garlic, lemon mayo. Tomato. And slowly caramelized onion (if you know me, you know caramelized onions and I have a deep rooted love affair). I was very satisfied with my take on these burgers. I could've eaten a million. They're reach, and tasty and such wonderful little delights.
I will post the recipe for the burgers, and the garlic mayo. If you want to try your hand at the wasabi mayo I'll let you seek that out on your own. Just go to www.foodnetwork.com and recipe search Wasabi Rock Shrimp Burgers.
Happy flavor hunting!
Recipe: Garlic Mayo
Ingredients:
1/4 cup mayo
4 garlic cloves (we like it really spicy here, less if you don't)
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
sprinkle of lemon zest
Directions:
1. Mix all 4 ingredients in a little dish. Spread on all sorts of burgers, sandwiches, panninis (you get my drift).
Recipe: Rock Shrimp Burgers
1 pound rock shrimp
1 egg
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley leaves
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Hamburger buns, for serving
Tomato slices, or cherry tomato slices, for mini-burgers, for serving
Directions:
1. Heat your grill.
2. Process half the shrimp with the egg.
3. Coarsely chop the remaining shrimp and put it into a bowl.
4. Add the processed shrimp and the parsley, bread crumbs, and salt and pepper to taste.
5. Divide the mixture into 4 portions and form them into patties.
6. Grill them on medium heat until cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. (You can also fry them in a skillet with a little oil.)
Place on buns with your own fixins, and enjoy!
Another Salad.
So I've obviously been on a real salad kick lately. There are a few simple reasons for this.
1. It's summer, it's hot, and salads are quick, refreshing and filling.
2. I've been exercising a lot and salads are healthy, and generally contain a lot variety.
Okay so, that's only two reasons. I could come up with more, but I frankly don't want to.
I'm going to make this post short and sweet. I have a lot of other posts to catch up on and since this is a dish I pulled out of thin air (ie what I was craving on the specific night) the recipe will probably be fairly choppy but simple.
Recipe: Southwestern Salad
Serving: 2 to 4.
Ingredients:
1 can black beans drained and rinsed
1 ripe avocado chopped into one inch peices
1 cup sweet cherry tomatoes cut in half
1/2 rotisserie chicken shredded
2 fresh white corns slathered in cilantro butter (recipe to follow) and barbequed
2 TBL cilantro
Sharp cheddar cut into little inch peices (use your own cheese discretion here)
A few TBL Jalepeno Gouda (not required, we had it on hand)
Recipe: Cilantro Butter
1. Put 2 TBL cilantro and 4 TBL butter with 1/2 tsp. cumin in a small dish and mix until well combined.
2. Rub all over your two corn on the cobs. Season with salt.
3. Barbeque on high heat for 2-3 minutes per side, until well charred and flavorful.
4. Cut all corn kernels off the cob.
Directions:
1. Put all of your ingredients into a bowl. Stir. Season with salt, pepper, even hot sauce. And enjoy!
(Sorry, I know the directions are kind of lame, it's easy though, promise).
Easy peasy.
Dee-lish.
Monday, August 06, 2007
Creamy Goodness.
I cannot describe my love for really good creme brulee. And luckily, it's really, really simple to make. Anyone can do it, if you can boil water, you can make creme brulee. I'm a true believer of this. Maybe I'm wrong, some may disagree with me. I know we covered a day of custards, including creme brulee, in culinary school. So maybe it's not as easy as boiling water, but close. The ingredient list is short, the steps, are also short. So what's not easy about it? And you'll have enough egg whites left over to whip up a few days worth of egg white omeletes for an easy, healthy morning breakfast (to make up for your very unhealthy indulgence of a dessert).
My suggestion; buy a bottle of champagne, make yourself some creme brulee, pop Amelie into the DVD player and cozy up on the sofa. This, my friends, is my idea of a perfect evening.
This is the perfect creme brulee recipe, it's creamy, smooth, sweet, has the perfect consistency and has the most intense (in a good way) vanilla flavor. You can never go wrong with an Alton Brown recipe.
Recipe: Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee (Courtesy Alton Brown)
Ingredients:
1 quart heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
1 cup vanilla sugar, divided
6 large egg yolks
2 quarts hot water
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Place the cream, vanilla bean and its pulp into a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat and bring to a boil.
3. Remove from the heat, cover and allow to sit for 15 minutes.
4. Remove the vanilla bean and reserve for another use.
5. In a medium bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup sugar and the egg yolks until well blended and it just starts to lighten in color. Add the cream a little at a time, stirring continually.
6. Pour the liquid into 6 (7 to 8-ounce) ramekins.
7. Place the ramekins into a large cake pan or roasting pan. Pour enough hot water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
8. Bake just until the creme brulee is set, but still trembling in the center, approximately 40 to 45 minutes.
9. Remove the ramekins from the roasting pan and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.
10. Remove the creme brulee from the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes prior to browning the sugar on top.
11. Divide the remaining 1/2 cup vanilla sugar equally among the 6 dishes and spread evenly on top.
12. Using a torch, melt the sugar and form a crispy top. Allow the creme brulee to sit for at least 5 minutes before serving.
Most of the vanilla bean will sink to the bottom, so you may end up licking the ramekins clean. I know I do!
Thursday, August 02, 2007
An Autumn Salad. In the Heart of Summer.
I'm going to make this post quick and simple seeing as I already posted a recipe, and hope to post yet another this evening.
I made this salad mid-week after a long day, and a hard workout at the gym. It always lifts my spirits to work out really hard, and end the day by eating something amazingly delicious & healthy. This salad was perfect in achieving that feeling. Not only does it have protein (sharp cheddar, walnuts, and roast chicken) but it's got a huge serving of fruits (pear and apple) and veggies ( mixed wild greens and spinach) all topped with a sweet and tangy reduced apple cider vinagrette. All this, and it was fairly simple to throw together (picking up a roast chicken at the grocery store helped). It's also involved enough (picking the chicken off the bone, slicing the veggies, making the dressing) that I feel like I spent good quality time with the ingredients (cooking really relaxes my spirit). Plus, the cleanup was super easy, making my (finally) clean kitchen stay just that, clean.
Recipe: Autumn Salad
Ingredients:
Salad:
1/4 cup grated SHARP cheddar
1 apple sliced thinly (I used an organic Fuji, because they're generally really crisp)
1 pear sliced thinly
2 cups mixed greens (including spinach)
1/2 roasted chicken, plucked from the bones
4 TBLS roasted walnuts, chopped
Vinagrette:
1 cup apple cider/juice (use the good stuff people)
4 TBLS cider vinegar
2 tsp.
pepper to season
Directions:
Vinagrette:
1. Pour apple cider/juice into pan and reduce down on medium heat whisking occasionally until it's about 1/4 cup of liquid.
2. Remove from heat and add olive oil and cider vinegar.
3. Season with pepper and whisk vigorously.
Assemble:
1. Throw all salad ingredients into a nice bowl.
2. Drizzle with your delicious vinagrette.
And viola. A healthy dinner for two.
As Seen on Tv.
So, a few weeks ago I was having dinner out at my mothers house, we were curled up in her bed eating nachos and watching the Food Network (what else?). Giada was on one of her tasty travels to New York. She sampled these delicate brightly colored watermelon and grape (or cherry, I'm not sure) tomatoes lightly seasoned with olive oil, balsamic, and a touch of s&p skewered. I'd never seen anything quite like it. Considering I've just began to warm up to watermelon, I was on the fence about what I was seeing on tv. My mother on the other hand seemed intrigued, seeing as she likes both ingredients I thought this recipe might really appeal to most people. As Giada put it "they're light and simple". They're also really bright, colorful, beautiful, and impressive looking.
Oddly enough, when Laurens birthday rolled around I had half a HUGE watermelon sitting in the fridge, and nothing to do with it. Seeing as really good organic sweet tomatoes are cheap this time of year, I figured I would go for it and try my hand at recreating what I'd seen on tv.
It was a success. They are light, refreshing, colorful, and simple with a nice flavor complexity. Sweet, savory, tangy, and even a bit bitter. Really good. Even for a girl on the fence about watermelon. An added bonus, they looked really stunning. All lined up like little soldiers on a rectangular white plate, they can't be missed, it looks like something right out of a fancy gourmet magazine. But it's so easy to pull together, and the perfect summer appie. OH, and did I mention, they're really REALLY healthy?! Score. For me this means what I don't eat in appetizer calories, I can make up for by drinking an extra glass (or two) of french wine.
Recipe: Tamelon Skewers (Tomato Melon Skewers)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup cubed watermelon (about one inch cubes)
1/2 cup halved little sweet tomatoes
1 TBLS reduced balsamic
1 TBLS good olive oil
dash of sea salt
dash of pepper
Directions:
1. Place a cube on watermelon on a toothpick.
2. Place a halved tomato (cut side up) on top of your cube of watermelon.
3. Repeat steps 1-2 until all watermelon and tomato are gone.
4. Assemble on a crisp white (or other cool) plate.
5. Drizzle evenly with olive oil and balsamic.
6. Season with s&p.
7. Eat.
I can't go on about these enough. I just loved how cool they looked, and cool they tasted. Ah.May.Zing. Yay for summer, and birthdays!
