Tacos de Pescado

Fish tacos, a Baja-area Mexicali favorite, are an awesome (and healthy) alternative to the standard beef or chicken variety that we Arkansans are used to eating. Since the fish taco originated  in the Baja area, it doesn't adhere to the standard "tex-mex" flavor profile.  Instead, it contains a combination of  the fresh coastal flavors of the west coast. For some reason, however, the mere notion of substituting grilled fish for the usual taco meats causes some folks to draw back in horror.  I have trouble getting many of my friends to even try one.  I'm not sure why this is, but I think it's because people figure the fish is swapped in for the traditional meat and everything else is left as is. This is not so. Fish tacos have a flavor profile all their own due to multiple ingredients you just won't find on traditional tacos.

Good fish tacos always start with quality fish. I used cod, but mahi-mahi, tilapia, or even catfish work as well. The fish can be grilled or battered and fried based on your preference. I prefer fried, but grilled is still delicious and much healthier. Don't treat the fish like regular taco meat - overseasoning is not a good idea here. All one needs is salt, pepper, and some oil. After 3-4 minutes over med-high heat, your fish should have a crisp exterior and be flaky and tender on the inside.  The fish will provide a fresh "coastal" taste when combined with fresh pico de gallo, cabbage, and important fish taco ingredient #2 - the sauce. The baja sauce is crucial - good fish tacos become great when the sauce works in harmony with everything else on the taco. It should be tangy and light with a little bit of heat and typically starts with a mayo-yogurt and citrus juice base. I've included one recipe here, but try out other ingredients to make it your own. Adding chipotle would be a great start. 

I hope that this post will open up the minds and stomachs of those of you who currently shun the notion of a fish-filled tortilla. Give it a try. You'll be hooked (pun intended) after the first bite.

Baja Fish Tacos

Ingredients:

• 2lbs light, flaky fish fillets (mahi-mahi, cod, tilapia, etc.)
• salt, pepper, canola oil
• For pico de gallo: 
• 4 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 2 tbsp chopped jalapeno peppers
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, lightly chopped
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• for baja sauce:
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 jalapeno pepper, minced
• 1 teaspoon minced capers
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
• 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 10-12 tortillas (flour or corn)
• 3 cups shredded cabbage or coleslaw mix

In a large bowl, mix all pico ingredients together. Cover and set aside for one hour to let flavors combine. Mix ingredients for baja sauce together, cover and set aside for one hour to let flavors combine.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wrap tortillas in aluminum foil and place on middle rack. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until tortillas are soft.

Season fish fillets with salt and pepper and coat lightly with canola oil. Cook on the grill or a grill pan over medium high heat until fish is flaky and tender, 2-3 minutes per side. Cover fish and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Serve tacos family-style. Assemble starting with fish on the bottom, then pico de gallo, then cabbage, and top with baja sauce.

Easy Pot Roast

I'm back, and with me I bring another delicious dish from the slow cooker. During my weekly grocery run I found Boston butt (pork shoulder) at a deep discount at Kroger. I've used this cut before, but I've always prepared it BBQ-style. I wanted go with a more southern, "roast-style" flavor this time around, so I seasoned the shoulder with salt, pepper, and some McCormick's Montreal Steak seasoning and placed it in the fridge overnight. The next morning I put the shoulder into the slow cooker along with a couple of cups of beef broth, a little Worcestershire sauce, and some chopped veggies, set the heat to low, and let 'er cook all day while I was at work. When I got home I skimmed the fat out, threw the shoulder bone to the dog, pulled the meat out of the slow cooker and put it in a pan in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes to tighten the meat up a bit. While the meat was cooking I took some of the broth mixture from the cooker and made an au jous by boiling over high heat with some white wine, salt, and pepper until it had reduced by 3/4ths. Side note - if you have an immersion blender, you can add some of the fat and vegetables in with the broth and puree it smooth. It makes the au jous quite a bit tastier. I served the meat topped with the au jous and alongside mashed sweet potatoes. This was good stuff - real comfort food that was even better after a long day at work.

Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 8lb Pork shoulder
• 2 cups beef broth
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Onion, sliced into quarters and separated
  
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 5 fingerling potatoes, halved
• salt & pepper
• McCormick's Montreal steak seasoning
• For mashed sweet potatoes:
• 3 sweet potatoes
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup milk 
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp nutmeg

Season exterior of pork shoulder with salt, pepper, and McCormick's seasoning, wrap with plastic and place in refrigerator overnight. The next day, place shoulder into slow cooker along with beef broth, Worcestershire, carrots, onions, and potatoes. Set cooker to low and allow to cook for 6-8 hours. Turn off and remove meat. Pull away loose fat and place in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. While meat is cooking, take 2 cups of leftover broth and bring to a boil along with 1/4 cup white wine, 1 tsp salt, and 2 tsp pepper. Allow to simmer until mixture has reduced by 3/4ths. Remove meat and serve topped with au jous.

Perfect Mashed Sweet Potatoes:  Preheat oven to 400 degrees Clean sweet potatoes, pierce with a fork all over, and cook for an hour or until insides of potatoes are soft. Remove potatoes from oven, peel off skin, and puree along with butter, milk, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Serve topped with butter and a dash of cinnamon.

Cajun Cuisine

As I mentioned awhile back, I resolved myself to bring a different dish to Bill and Sandra's Wednesday night small group each week for the duration of this semester. I wanted to try to make something different but delicious each week, forcing me to venture outside my culinary comfort zone a bit.  Some weeks were easier than others, but I have enjoyed the challenge and have gained a new love of preparing food for large groups of people. I was under the impression (incorrectly) this week that we were in our last session for the semester, so I figured that I'd swing for the fences and go to a place I had never been before. This week's dish was a true Cajun classic straight from the bowels of Louisiana: gumbo, served on white rice with a side of Cajun butter and cornbread.

Since I knew nothing about Cajun cooking, I decided to do some research before I tried making a pot of gumbo. The last thing that I wanted was to spend a lot of time and money putting the dish together only to end up with some subpar slop. I went to YouTube and watched a classic episode of Good Eats entitled "Bowl o' Bayou."  I love Good Eats, because the host, Alton Brown, goes above and beyond simply reciting recipes and preparing food. Alton explains the science behind the meal. I really like this because knowing why things do what they do in the bowl or oven helps me understand how to take my food to the next level - I come away knowing what to add and/or take away to make the dish my own. After my research was completed I went to the store for supplies.

Gumbo is traditionally a one-pot soup, but not just any pot will fit the bill. A cast iron dutch oven is basically mandatory because lighter aluminum or metal pans will not provide the even heat needed to make the roux come together and cook the soup evenly. I'd been looking for an excuse to go buy a good dutch oven anyways, so I went to TJ Maxx and found a nice Cuisinart model for 60 bucks. Armed with my new cast iron pot, I returned home to get started.

There are several important elements to a delicious, rich gumbo, but two stand out as crucial. Crucial element A is the roux.  A roux is a traditional French thickener made from flour and fat. A roux will vary in flavor and thickening capability based on how long it is cooked and isnamed based on its color. For this application I needed a brick, or dark brown roux.  I could have cooked the roux on the stovetop, but that ran the risk of overcooking and burning. Instead, I followed the aforementioned Alton Brown's advice and cooked it in the oven at 350 degrees. Using the indirect heat of the oven takes longer, but it provides even heat throughout which prevents burning. Once my roux was nice and brown, I transferred the pot to medium heat and started adding ingredients. In went the onions, celery, bell pepper (the "holy trinity"), garlic, and corn. After a few minutes, I added andouille sausage and my spices. A few minutes later the chicken broth was added.  I brought everything to a boil and then backed the heat off to a simmer and left the gumbo alone for an hour, stopping in a few times to stir. Next came the chicken. I cubed up a pound of chicken breast, seasoned them with Tony Chachere's, and added them to the gumbo. The heat from the soup cooks the chicken with no problem. After the chicken was added, I let the gumbo simmer for another 2 hours, returning every 15-20 minutes to skim fat off the top and give it a quick stir. After 2 hours, I dropped in the shrimp, stirred in the file(don't skip it!), and killed the heat. The residual heat easily cooked the shrimp within a couple of minutes. Crucial element B, as you probably guessed, is time. The gumbo took me about 4 hours to make, but all that cooking time is necessary to produce the rich, flavorful taste of the broth. As a side I made a batch of cornbread and whipped some butter with honey, cayenne pepper, and Tony Sachere's to spread on top.

The gumbo was served over a bed of white rice. I was really happy with how it came out. The flavors were rich and full, spicy but not overwhelming. The Cajun butter tasted great on top of the cornbread as well. It was a full-on Louisiana dining experience well worth the time it took to create. 

Chicken, Shrimp, and Sausage Gumbo

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Andouille sausage, cut crosswise into 1/2 in slices
• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1 in. cubes
• 1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 7 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup okra, preboiled for 5 min
• 1 cup onion, diced
• 1 cup celery, diced
• 1/2 cup corn
  
• 1 cup bell pepper, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 bay leaves
• 6 oz vegetable oil
• 6 oz AP flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp cayenne 
• 1 1/2 tbsp file powder
• Tony Chachere's or other cajun seasoning
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place flour and vegetable oil into 5 qt dutch oven and whisk to combine. Cook mixture for 1 1/2 hours, whisking every 30 minutes, until roux is the color of chocolate. Remove pot from oven and place over medium heat. Add in onions, garlic, celery, and bell pepper and cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add sausage, bay leaves, spices, salt, and chicken stock, stir to combine, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Coat chicken with Cajun seasoning and add to pot. Add okra and cook for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Skim any fat off the top of the gumbo with a spoon and discard.

After 2 hours, add shrimp and turn off heat. Allow shrimp to poach for 2-3 minutes, then add file and stir to combine. Allow gumbo to sit for at least 10 minutes. Serve over white rice with bread on the side.

Upcoming posts

My sincerest apologies to the thousands of people who read this blog (HA), but I've been a little behind on the updates lately.  I have several things to post, including a gut-busting but delicious gameday sandwich and the forthcoming final Wednesday night small group dish. This one marks the end of my dish-a-week challenge, so I am considering it my opus magnum, if you will. No further hints, but it's gonna be DEEEEE-lightful, I do declare! Stay tuned!