Fish Tacos

When coop order has both Tilapia and cabbage, there's just one thing to do - fish tacos! I had never made them before but they turn out to be quite easy. After chopping prep there's only a few minutes cook time and they are just as good as Lone Star's (the SLC Taco place on Ft. Union, not the state of Texas). The amount of fish determines how many people you can feed. Rob and I ate 6 tacos (3 Tilapia fillets) and there was enough sauce leftover for at least that amount 2 more times.

Fish Tacos
Prep: 30 min Cook: 5 min Difficulty: Easy
1 pkg corn tortillas

for the fish:
1-2 6oz Tilapia fillet per person, thawed
1 lime
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
cayenne pepper to taste

for the sauce:
1 6oz container greek style yogurt (sour cream would work as well!)
3 Tbs mayo
1/4 cup fresh cilantro (1 handful)
1 lime
salt
1-2 Tbs red onion

Toppings:
1 cup green cabbage, sliced thin
red onion
salsa (whip up a quick batch of my current favorite recipe)
more fresh cilantro

1. Marinate the fish by combining all ingredients in a bowl and stir to coat well. Cumin or corriander or hot curry spice are other good additions depending on your spice tolerance
2. Put all sauce ingredients in a food processor or blender and mix for 1-2 minutes until the sauce turns green-ish. (I'm sure you could just mix with a spoon but you get that great Lone Star sauce color when you blend - besides, you had the food processor out for the salsa anyways, right?)
3. Chop up toppings. Cabbage is a must along with either salsa or plain old tomato.
4. Preheat a frying pan over high heat. Add 1 Tbs butter and coat the pan and return to a sizzling level of heat. Cook the tilapia for 3 min on the first side, then flip and 2 min on the other side. (Depending on thickness of the fish - when done it should flake easily, fell free to rip it open in the pan to double check)
5. Assemble the tacos! Start with 1 or 2 corn tortillas (double thickness for re-enforced strength), add 1/2 of a tilapia fillet broken into peices, then salsa, onion, a bunch of cabbage. Top with that magic green fish sauce and serve to smiling people.

Carrot Slaw

What to do if the only vegetable in the house is carrot - Carrot slaw of course! This is adapted from an Alton Brown recipe. I'm not one for mayo in general but this is just enough to bind the carrots without any sort of white residue.

Carrot Slaw
1 lb grated carrots
1/4 cup mayo
3 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tsp Curry powder
1/2 cup crushed canned pineapple, drained
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1.Combine the mayo, sugar, salt, curry powder and pineapple and mix well.
2. Toss with carrots - mixing well to ensure even coating
3. top with chopped walnuts and serve.

adapted from
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/carrot-slaw-recipe/index.html

Cheesemaking

I have been waiting for my Cheesemaking kit to arrive ever since I read that chapter in 'Animal,Vegtable, Miracle' by Barbra Kingsolver. It arrived and was as easy as advertised!

First get the ingredients together: bowl, 1 gallon of milk*, cheesemaking kit**, big pot, spoon.


Mix the citric acid with water and add it to the milk in the big pot - stir.


heat it until 90F. Check the temperature with the thermometer from your cheesemaking kit.


next add the rennant and let it sit covered for 5 min (according to the directions, but I waited about 10 to get a good whey separation). Then when it's hardened, you cut the cheese (literally!) and stir up the resulting curds


Then heat it up to 105F and ladle the curds out into a bowl and then drain off as much whey as possible.

Microwave on high for 1 min, drain whey. Microwave again, drain again, repeat until cheese it 135F and there is no more whey to drain.

Then, stretch the cheese- it is soooo cool! it stretches really really far!


Lastly enjoy. It was supposed to take 30min, I think I took closer to 45min, but still, easy! I've left out a few details, simply because you really need rennant to make cheese and it is darn near impossible to find. There's more how to on the website below if you want it.


* I used Winder Milk
** I ordered mine online from www.cheesemaking.com

New England Scalloped Blue Potatoes

I considered calling this 'home-style' blue scalloped potatoes, but really they're just MY HOME style, i.e. the way my mom makes 'em. Possibly New England is too broad perhaps "East Sandwich style Blue Scalloped potatoes" Regardless of the name, I love 'em.

4-5 medium potatoes - get the BLUE ones (N.B. Blue ones are usually a bit smaller so more like 6)
1 yellow onion
2 tbs butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheese

1. preheat oven to 350
2. wash the potatoes well (I leave skins on) and slice them into 1/3in slices.
3. cut the onion up into rings
4. butter a 9x9 pan
5. layer potatoes, onion, potatoes, cheese until the pan is full or ingrediants are used up. I split the onion up into individual rings.
6. top with a little extra cheese and pour the milk over the top
7. bake at 350 until the potatoes are cooked and top is cheesy. (you can cover with tin foil to keep it from getting too brown.

P.S. the potatoes get less purple as you bake them, and they taste just like the white ones, but they look cool!

Irish soda bread

Happy St. Patty's day! whip up a quick batch of this:

IRISH SODA BREAD

4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 Tbs sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup currants or raisins
4 Tbs butter
1 egg
1 3/4 cup buttermilk

0. preheat oven to 400
1. combine dry ingredients
2. cut in the butter with a knife or fingers as for pies. Mix in raisins or currants if desired
3. blend egg and buttermilk and add to the dry ingredients.
4. mix well and knead about 10 times to form a ball.
5. place in a greased cast iron pot and bake 35 min.

serve with an Irish coffee or Guinness.

quick and easy Salsa

I've fallen in love with this salsa recipie. It was on the library's DVD of the America's Test Kitchen season 3. What I find so impressive is it a fresh-tasting salsa yet comes from a can.

1 15oz can diced tomatoes
1 lime
handful cilantro
1 tsp salt
1/2 red onion
1 clove garlic
1 jalepano - or to taste

0. Strain the tomatoes - wait as long as possible to get all the juice out by pressing them into a strainer and leting them sit a few minutes.
1. put the onion, cilantro, salt, chopped garlic and chopped jalepano and juice of a line in the food processor and pulse into small peices
2. add the tomatoes and pulse into bits.
3. if you have time you can drain the salsa again to get more water out.

Mocha filling

This is mocha filling for cake. Another version. I haven't actually tasted cake filled with it yet, but I need to write it down before I forget. Initially based on http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Chocolate-Filling-1

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 tsp instant coffee powder
1 cup half & half
5 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Makes: About 1 1/2 cups of filling.


instructions
Mix the flour, salt, instant coffee and sugar in a saucepan and blend in a little of the cream. Place on medium heat and stir constantly. Add the rest of the cream and and continue stirring until the mixture reaches the consistency of medium cream sauce. Stir a little of the sauce into the egg yolks, then pour egg yolks into the sauce in pan. Cook for a few minutes on low heat until thickened. Remove from heat, add unsweetened chocolate to the mixture along with the vanilla and cool quickly. To prevent a skin from forming, brush with melted butter. Stir a little before using