Fish Tacos

***This post is ten days overdue and out of order. 

Tonight, I made fish tacos. I wanted them to be awesome. Tim thought they were, but I was left wanting more (literally- I have eaten like ten things since).

I seasoned the tilapia and shrimp  with one of my favorite Penzey's Spice (a little plug for Penzey's-- they have the best herbs and spices) blends called Arizona Dreaming (a little cayenne, a little chipotle-- you get the idea) and grilled it up really quickly, and then chopped up all the meat and piled it on corn tortillas. The toppings were: chipotle crema (1 canned chipotle in adobo blended up with a cup of sour cream), cilantro, salsa fresca, white onion, and red cabbage.

It just fell flat for me. It didn't taste great (though this version of the chipotle crema was much better), and I am still so hungry. Ugh. And I have 3/4 of a head of red cabbage in my fridge that I have no idea what to do with. Neat.

Tilapia with Pesto and Cacio e Pepe

 

Hello. My name is Katy, and I am a month behind in blogging. I thought I could get away with this, since zero people read my blog... but alas, I have been found out. 

Anyway, sometime back in April I made tilapia with pesto. The pesto was super yummy and flavorful which was a good thing because the tilapia was BLAND without it. I usually love tilapia, but I just haven't had much luck lately. 

With the fish, I served one of my stand-by dishes-- cacio e pepe. In other words, noodles+cheese+black pepper= delicious. You can google this and find a thousand ways to make it, but my standard method is boil noodles in salty water to just a minute or so shy of my desired tenderness. Then, save a cup of the pasta water and drain the pasta. Meanwhile, heat 2 or so TBSP of olive oil in the pasta pan til it's realllllly hot. You can also throw some buttah in here (which I do when I have some). The, put the pasta back in and stir it around, and then pour the pasta water over it as needed. Throw in whatever kind of cheese you want (plain old parm is my favorite, but romano is decent too) crack a ton of black pepper over the top (and when you think you are done, just give it like two more shakes) and then lightly toss everything together. In theory, the cheese should stick to all of the noodles and make every bite taste salty and gooey, but sometimes you will end up with a giant ball of goopy cheese that is somehow not stuck to any pasta. It still tastes good if that happens, fyi.

"it's a good one to remember"

Today was a gorgeous spring day. I spent much of it outside walking or gardening, and the beautiful freshness of spring just made me crave a healthy meal.

So, I checked the content of my fridge and was inspired. I served pan seared tilapia with a roasted red pepper sauce, roasted curried cauliflower, and a fennel orange and mint salad.



Tilapia
- four small tilapia fillets
- salt, pepper
- 2 tsp lemon oil
Pat the fillets dry and salt and pepper both sides. Heat oil in fry pan on Med-High heat making sure entire surface is coated. Add fish and cook for 8-10 minutes, turning once.
Tilapia could not be easier to prepare; however, it is very bland and requires either a very flavorful sauce or some intense seasoning to be good. Tonight, I opted for the former.


Roasted Red Pepper sauce
- 2 red bell peppers
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 TBSP olive oil
- salt/pepper
- 1 TBSP butter
- 1 cup fat free Greek yogurt
- rough chopped basil (in sauce and for garnish, to taste)

First, roast the red peppers: Put them under the broiler or over  a burner (turning when necessary) until skin is charred and blistered. Put in a plastic bag and allow to cool for 45 minutes. The skin will separate from the flesh very easily at this point. Discard seeds and blackened skin and put the softened flesh into a food processor or blender.
Next, roast the garlic (these two steps actually overlapped for me). Cut the roots off of a garlic head, and put the head on a piece of aluminum foil. Drizzle with olive oil and then wrap it up and roast it for around 30 minutes. Cutting the roots off instead of cutting the top off allows for very easy removal of the garlic cloves once they are roasted-- you can literally just squeeze them out! Once pieces are roasted, squeeze them into the food processor with the red pepper.
Add the olive oil and pulse til smooth. Optional-- you can add basil at this point and puree. I rough chopped and saved it til later.
In a small sauce pan, melt the butter, and then add the puree to the pan. Add yogurt (milk would also work) and basil if you have not yet. Salt and pepper to taste.
This sauce was AMAZING. It is sweet and flavorful, and Tim has already come up with many more uses for it (veggie dip, on crackers, etc). I will DEFINITELY be making this again. I think I would like to try other bell peppers too 

Roasted Curried Cauliflower
- 1 head cauliflower
- 2 TBSP olive oil
- curry powder, salt, and pepper to taste

Chop up cauliflower to even sized florets. Put in a 9 x 13 pan. Drizzle with alive oil, and sprinkle with desired seasonings (I think I used about a TBSP of curry and a 5 "twists" each of cracked pepper and sea salt). Toss til all pieces are evenly coated. Put in a 425 oven for 40 minutes. Take out and re-toss half way. I always forget about cauliflower, but I saw a recipe similar to this last week and thought it sounded good. The curry gave it some good flavor without being over powering, and roasting it allowed some of the florets to caramelize and brown on top which was pretty fantastic. Tim liked it too, especially doused in the red pepper sauce.


Fennel, Orange, and Mint Salad
I was inspired by this recipe. I followed the recipe in terms of ingredients (fennel, orange, almond, and mint; EVOO, OJ, and mustard for the dressing) but not at all for the proportions. I don't really know how much of each ingredient I used other than oranges (1.5) and fennel (1 bulb). Anyway, it was a DELISH. Tim was less excited about this than the rest of the meal, though he did say he liked the fennel. It tasted springy and fresh to me, and I hope to have it again soon. I might try keeping the fennel raw for some variety.

Monday night fail

Tonight I made Cajun tilapia with a side of lemon scented orzo and broccoli. I still think it sounds like it should taste good, but it just... didn't. The pasta was okay, but could have used even more lemon... or lime actually. The garnishes were nice (cilantro and red onion), but they needed more of that fresh citrus burst. Granted, I am only a few steps away from my kitchen and could easily fix this, but I'm too lazy (fail again!)

For the fish, I just used a mix of Cajun seasoning, dried parsley, black pepper and -- here is the bad part-- salt. I forgot that Cajun seasoning is already salted. I cooked the fish in 1 TBSP of vegetable oil over medium heat. The texture is really nice, but it's just too darn salty. It makes it taste so gross. Next time I will just make my own seasons with cayenne and paprika and control the amount of salt.