ode to the fish taco

It's cold here in the midwest.  And unless you've lived under a rock for the past couple months, you know that the east coast's (read: Boston's) snow totals this year are positively biblical.  So on a freezing February evening, one can dream about summer and make oneself a fish taco and some spicy cole slaw.  One almost always feels better doing so.  





Make the cole slaw first.  If you have time to make it in the morning, better yet, because the longer it sits the more pickled and spicier it gets.  I've blogged this cole slaw recipe before:  it bears repeating because it it really stinking good. Recipe below.




For the tacos, take a few fillets of tilapia. Cut  in half along the midline and then once across, so you have four pieces per fillet.  Dry them with some paper towel, salt them and let them sit for a few minutes.  Mix up a magic potion of cumin, corriander and paprika (for four fillets use 1/2 tsp paprika and 2tsp each the other) and coat each piece generously in this yumminess.  Put some flour on a plate and press each side of the fish into the flour and set aside.   Heat up some vegetable oil in a large fry pan on medium high.  When it's hot, add the fish and cook about 3 minutes per side, until it's cooked through and golden brown.  Take out of the oil and set aside. 

 Heat up a couple tortillas, cook up some brown rice or quinoa,  assemble the whole yummy mess on your tortilla, take a bite, and think about summer. 

I swear, it's coming.  Right?

Fish Tacos and Spicy Cole Slaw -  from Ten Dollar Dinners  by Melissa d’Arabian.
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients
for the slaw
½    small red cabbage, halved and sliced crosswise into thin strips (about 3 cups sliced cabbage)
¼    red onion, thinly sliced lengthwise
1    small jalapeño pepper, thinly sliced crosswise
2    tablespoons roughly chopped fresh cilantro
1    lime
½    cup white vinegar
1    teaspoon sugar
1½    teaspoons kosher salt

for the tacos
2    6-ounce tilapia fillets
1    teaspoon kosher salt
1    teaspoon ground coriander
1    teaspoon ground cumin
¼    teaspoon sweet paprika
2    tablespoons all-purpose flour
2    tablespoons vegetable oil
8    6-inch fresh corn tortillas

To make the slaw: Place the cabbage, onion, jalapeño, and cilantro in a medium bowl. Slice the lime in half lengthwise and then cut one half into 4 wedges; set aside for serving. Juice the remaining lime half into a small bowl. Add the vinegar, sugar, and salt and whisk to dissolve, then pour the vinegar mixture over the cabbage mixture. Toss and squeeze with your hand to combine and set aside. Stir and squeeze the slaw every 5 to 10 minutes while you prepare the fish.

To make the tacos: Divide each tilapia fillet in half along its center seam (so you have 4 long pieces) and then halve crosswise so you have 8 pieces. Set the tilapia on a plate and blot dry with paper towels. Sprinkle both sides of the 8 pieces with the salt. Mix the coriander, cumin, and paprika together in a small bowl and sprinkle the spices over both sides of the fish, patting them on gently. Place the flour on a plate and lightly coat both sides of the fish in flour.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the fish and cook until golden and crisp on both sides, 4 to 6 minutes total. Use a spatula to transfer the fish to a plate and set aside.
Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat and place a tortilla in the pan. Cook the tortilla until it’s warmed through and pliable, 30 seconds to 1 minute, turning it over midway through. Place the tortilla on a kitchen towel–lined plate and wrap loosely, folding the edges of the towel over the tortilla to keep it warm. Repeat with the remaining tortillas, stacking and covering them as you go. Place 1 piece of fish inside each tortilla, top with cabbage slaw, and serve with a lime wedge. 

To India, with Love

I am obsessed with Indian food lately. What's not to love?  Fragrant, exotic, spicy foods prepared with long marinades and slow cooking.  It's all so flavorful and gorgeous and delicious, I can't get enough.  We're lucky  to live close to Devon Ave., Chicago's amazing ten block stretch of mostly Indian restaurants and shops.  We took our kids there for the first time years ago and they were all positively wide eyed. It was like stepping into another world. And they loved the food. So when we go out as a family, Devon is a regular stop.

Recently, Doug and I saw the movie The Lunchbox.  Have you seen it?  Lovely, lovely little  film that takes place in Mumbai, in which the food plays a central role.  (And Tasneem, this season's gorgeous villain in Homeland, is the star!)  Then, the next night, we watched The One Hundred Foot Journey, another fantastic film, and another in which Indian food plays a central role.  Perhaps that's what started this kick, trying to make yummy Indian food that doesn't require too much time or expertise.

Last week I made a crock pot version of chicken tikka masala.  It might horrify a legit Indian food connoisseur, but my people and me? We loved it.  Garam masala is the key to it all and it can be found at any decent grocery store (and definitely at Village Market.) It smells like heaven.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala

15-ounce can crushed tomatoes

1 medium onion, chopped

2cloves garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 teaspoons garam masala (Indian spice blend)

kosher salt and black pepper

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 8) (I used chicken breasts)

1/2 English cucumber, halved and thinly sliced

1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 cup basmati or some other long-grain white rice

1/2 cup heavy cream 

In a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker, combine the tomatoes, onion, garlic, tomato paste, garam masala, ¾ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Place the chicken on top of the vegetables, cover, and cook until the chicken is tender, on low for 7 to 8 hours or on high for 3 to 4 hours (this will shorten total recipe time).

In a small bowl, toss the cucumber and cilantro with the lemon juice and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate for up to 8 hours.

Twenty minutes before serving, cook the rice according to the package directions.Just before serving, stir the cream into the chicken tikka masala. Serve over the rice with the cucumber relish.

THEN, as luck would have it, we had dinner at our friends George and Sarah's house Saturday night.  George and Sarah were both born in India. Theirs was an arranged marriage!  Seriously!  And they love eachother!  And both have PhDs!  And three lovely and brilliant daughters!   We have had many dinners at George and Sarah's over the years, and every so often they serve full on Indian, and this weekend was one of those lucky nights.  It was SPECTACULAR.

they served:

Butter Chicken Masala
Saag Aloo
Ghee Rice
Papads ( wafers made from Chick pea flour)

Pickle (insanely flavorful and spicy topping) 

(per Sarah:  the one thing found in common across all of the subcontinent, though the taste and materials can vary wildly)

To wrap up the Indian food experiment, I made Mark Bittman's "Chicken Curry in a hurry". 

It was very easy and quick and tasty.  I'll definitely make it again, but next time I'll pound out the chicken or cut it into cutlets to infuse it with more flavor and cook it faster.

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder, or to taste
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (1 to 1 1/2 pounds)
• 1 cup sour cream
• Minced fresh cilantro or parsley for garnish

• Put the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add the onion, sprinkle with some salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium, sprinkle with about half the curry powder and continue to cook for a minute or two.
  
  
  
  2. Meanwhile, season the chicken with salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle it with the remaining curry powder. Move the onion to one side of the skillet and add the chicken in one layer. Cook for about 2 minutes per side; transfer to a plate.
  
  
  
  
  3. Add the sour cream and stir constantly over mdeium-low heat until the mixture is nice and thick. Beturn the chicken to the skillet and cook for 2 more minutes, turning once.
  
  
  
  
  Garnish and serve with plenty of white rice.
  
  
  
  To India, with love.  
  

dad, ellie's kidney and rachael ray

I've been trying for months to blog about my dad.  I haven't managed it to date.  It's just been too hard.  When will it ever be less hard? 

But today I vowed to try again, because I dreamed about Dad the other night.  I woke up with his voice in my head, and it was just so nice to hear him again.  It's been almost five years since I've  called and heard that warm, smiling voice exclaim, "Janie girl!"

As those of you who knew my dad know, my sisters and I won the dad lottery.  My dad was an insanely capable guy.  He was a surgeon, an old school doc who loved what he did with a passion.  He was an amazing dad and husband.  And a kick ass handyman and woodworker.  And warm, and funny, and smart, and respected, and silly and he loved life.  He was the bomb diggity and I miss him. every. single. day.  But I digress.

Seven years before his unexpected and untimely death, my dad underwent a kidney transplant.  My sister Ellie was his donor.  Dad had been in kidney failure for a couple years and had gotten so, well, old in those years.  He slept a lot. He was spacey.  His energy level, which had always been reliable (albeit with an enviable power nap habit), was flagging.  We all sort of thought that's what Dad was going to be like from there on out and, after a couple serious health scares in that period, we were just glad to still have him.  Then he got Ellie's 39 year old kidney transplanted into him and what transpired thereafter was miraculous.  We got him back.  (Here:  you can read about it in Ellie's blog.  It's an amazing story.)   The recovery was slow and frustrating, but little by little, day by day he recovered to not only his pre-transplant level but he recovered to his regular Dad level.  He was BACK, baby!

For that first month of recovery, dad watched a lot of tv.  And he got hooked on cooking shows.  And he fell a little bit in love.  With Rachael Ray.  My dad had never really cooked.  He was a great grill man. Briefly, in the 70's, when woks became a thing, he decided he would be a wok man, too.  Once a month or so he would make the infamous "east west stir fry", taking over the entire kitchen and chopping and measuring every item with a surgeon's precision.  But that was short lived, and the cooking fell almost entirely to mom.  Until that post-transplant summer of 2003 when dad, laid up on his easy chair day after day,  discovered Rachael Ray and decided to give cooking a try.
I think the precision and the science and the immediate gratification of cooking really appealed to him.  So when he got back on his feet they took him right to the kitchen, and to the market, and for those next 7 years, while he was retired and my mom was still working as a nurse at Bedford Middle School, their roles were reversed and it was she who would come home to the world's most adorable cook, waiting with a drink and a hug and a meal at the end of her work day. 

For Christmas that year, Dad gave us all a cookbook written by his muse:  

 I don't consult Rachael nearly as often as I do Ina, but there are a few recipes from the above in solid rotation.  Like this one; you can tell from all the debris on the page.

Supreme Pizza Pasta Salad.  It's a winner.

  Cook up a box of wagon wheels pasta.

Chop up 2 tomatoes, 1/2 red onion, 1 bell peper (recipe calls for green but I only had red and it's fine) and some mushrooms if you have them.

 Chop up a pound of fresh mozzarella and a stick of pepperoni.

 Tear or chop about 20 large basil leaves

 Mix it all together. 

 Make a dressing of 1 tsp garlic salt & dried oregano

1 tablespoon tomato paste (I usually use 2)

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

about 1/3 cup olive oil

lots of pepper

 Add it in, stir it up.  If you can, let it sit a bit to absorb the flavors. 

 and voila!  Thank you Rachael for the inspiration.  Thank you Ellie for 7 extra wonderful years.

 And thank you Dad. For everything.

Trio

It's been nuts around here lately.  We got Corey back to school (sob), Noah had midterms, Dylan's had constant basketball and all three of them were sick this week.  Work is busy and it's January.  In other words, my blog has been back burnered for a couple weeks.  Btu as we close the week I leave you with three culinary tidbits. 

The first, our dinner last night.  It was good, friends, very good.  And easy.   

Pork tenderloin, sauteed zucchini and brown rice  

Pork is yummy, don't you think?  I prefer it, infinitely, to chicken.  Chicken kind of grosses me out unless it's pounded super thin or cooked all day in the crock pot.  I like the steakiness of pork. And my people like it, too.  I remember when Dylan was four his pediatrician was 'interviewing' him for his physical and asked him his favorite food.  Fully expecting to hear hot dogs, or pizza, he cracked up when dylan busted out with "pork!" 

Here goes:

A very simple and delicious pork marinade:  use equal parts soy sauce, fresh lemon juice and vegetable oil.  I use about 1/2 cup of each for two pork tenderloins, put them in a ziploc and leave them all day. Overnight even better.  I throw the pork and its marinade in a shallow baking dish (9x13 ok if tenderloins are larger) and cook them up in a 350 oven for about 45 minutes.  Start checking meat temp after 30 minutes - you don't want to overcook it.  Take the pork out when it reaches 155 in the middle and cover it with foil to rest - the temp will continue to rise.  Then slice it thin and pour some of the cooked up marinade over.
 

Sauteed Zucchini and Onions- c/o Melissa D'Arabian

The herbes de Provence and slow cooking make this both sweet and savory.  It's awesome. 

 

 

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, sliced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 large zucchini, sliced in half lengthwise, then thinly sliced into half circles
1 teaspoon herbes de Provence (or just basil, oregano, and marjoram)

In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions, season with salt and cook 2 to 3 minutes, stirring to avoid any burning. Add the zucchini, herbes de Provence, and salt, and pepper, to taste and cook an additional 5 minutes, using a wooden spoon or spatula to keep the vegetables from overbrowning. Reduce the heat to low, add a little more oil if needed and let cook for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.



Number two:   I resurrected something I made all the tine when the kids were little, with inspiration from my big sister, Julie Corey.   It's one of those killer one-dish meals that you make when you have NO plan and ten minutes and you thought to pick up a rotisserie chicken when you were at the store the other day.

Julie's Tortellini and Broccoli

 

 Buy some good frozen cheese tortellini.  (Spring for the good stuff that's lower in sodium and looks like it was made by someone's grandma vs mass produced, if your store has that sort of thing.  Do you know what I mean?  Village Market near us has good stuff in the freezer.  I bet pierogis would work, too.)  Anyway, boil them up according to directions, adding a few crowns' worth of broccoli florets with five minutes to go.  Drain well and run under some cool water.  Meanwhile, if you've been wise enough to pick up a roast chicken before hand, chop it up. ( Or you can broil a few breasts of chicken under the broiler with salt & pepper and olive oil but then you're really blowing the ten minute limit here.)  The chicken is also optional with this recipe.    Mix the tortellini and broccoli and chicken, add some salt & pepper and a good bunch of grated parmesan cheese and a little balsamic vinegar & olive oil you've whisked together just for the occasion.  Add a ton of crushed red pepper flakes and voila - you're good to go.


Lastly, look at what my friend and colleague Heather brought to work every day this week!!

Isn't that the most gorgeous lunch you've ever seen in your life?  I had to march over to her and demand an explanation!  Yes, her husband is a chef, but this was entirely Heather's doing.  Do you know about these?  Apparently these mason jar salads are a thing and I want one. Right now.

And, according to Heather, you can make a whole weeks' worth in one fell swoop.

Here's how it's done.  
layer 1 - dressing
layer 2 - crunchy vegetables that would do well in a marinade or pickled, like tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, celery, carrots, and peppers.
layer 3 - beans and other 'softer' vegetables, like green beans, sprouts, etc
layer 4 - pasta or grain layer, if you choose:  rice, pasta, quinoa
layer 5 - protein and cheese
layer 6 - lettuce, nuts and seeds

Put the top on, pop in the fridge and you are done for the week. You can shake and eat from there or, from what I've heard, it's easiest to shake and then serve in a bowl or plate.  Here are some links with other ideas and step-by-step pictures:  pictures, other mason jar salad ideas.

I cannot wait to try it.


Have a great weekend, everyone.

Mexico

Doug and I got married in April of 1992.  Here we are - babies!   We were living in San Antonio, Texas back then.  Doug was working as a newspaper reporter at the San Antonio Light and I was a producer at KTSA, a talk-radio station.  We'd been in San Antonio for about two years and loved it- great part of the country to explore together and we had a wonderful community of friends, mostly transplants like us who worked at the paper with Doug.  It all changed that October when Hearst, the owner of the Light, announced that it was closing its own paper  and buying the competition, the San Antonio Express News.  It was a bizarre and disorienting time.  Because they were creating a monopoly, the justice department had to approve the sale, and this took FOUR MONTHS.  Four months in which 600 people knew they were going to lose their jobs, but they didn't know when.  For us, and our cadre of young and singles, it was disruptive but not nearly as difficult as it was for those who had built their career and were raising their families there.  It was rough.  The only upside is that we took full advantage of that time, visiting every nook and cranny of south Texas, not knowing which weekend would be our last.  Finally, in February, the sale was approved and it was over.  Our friends and colleagues took jobs all over the country.

Doug and I took a different path.  We pointed that 1985 Bonneville south, and we went to Mexico.  For six months. 

Mexico in 1993 was a very different place.  This was shortly after NAFTA had been signed (in San Antonio!) and Carlos Salinas, a Harvard educated economist, was president.  His tenure wasn't perfect, but he succeeded in drastically reducing unemployment and opening Mexican's economy to investment and competition.  It was a hopeful time. So Doug and I decided to travel south of the border and spend six months learning Spanish and freelancing.  Doug had lined up a couple gigs to ensure we would have a little guaranteed income, and we took our meager severance package and hit the road.  Best decision of our married life, hands down.  Well, besides having our children.

We crossed the border with very little Spanish and a pretty vague plan and left six months later with lasting friendships, solid Spanish and a HUGE appreciation for all things Mexican.


 
We started in Cuernavaca, at one of Mexico's oldest language schools.  Very old school style of teaching (we literally had to memorize air force training dialogues) but we lived with a lovely family who tolerated our terrible Spanish and treated us like family.  After that, we spent a month in Guadalajara, home of both tequila and mariachis,  reporting on the aftermath of an oil pipeline explosion that decimated an entire neighborhood.


On our way we stopped in Michoacan, which houses the sanctuary to which all of north america's monarch butterflies migrate each year.  Well, before their population began its tragic and steep decline.    It was stunning.

After that, we decided to hit another language school, and had heard great things about Oaxaca.


Thus began the heart of our time there.  We spent a wonderful month in the amazing town of Oaxaca. Oaxaca is a gorgeous, colonial-looking city in the mountains of southern Mexico that has held on firmly to its indigenous traditions.  The city itself is stunning, but each village around the city has its own artistic niche:  Monte Alban and Mitla for their Zapotec ruins, San Bartolo Coyotepec for the black pottery, Arrazola for the painted wooden animals, Teotitlán Del Valle for the weaving.  Tule has the biggest ass tree you've ever seen.   It's just phenomenal.

We lived with the Jose Luis Zamudio and Rosa Maria Topete family in Oaxaca, and we still keep in touch with them today.  They had four kids and a small room off the house they rented to us.  Without knowing us, they took us in and made us part of their family, and we loved every minute of it.

For that month, we studied at the Instituto Cultural de Oaxaca.  We spent the mornings studying Spanish, and in the afternoons we had the choice of studying weaving or Oaxacan cooking.   Duh.  We took cooking.  

Carmen was our teacher, and Doug and I still have vivid memories of Carmen making tortillas, slapping the masa back and forth from hand to hand, telling stories about her childhood and how she learned to cook.  We learned how to make tortillas, tamales, chicken amarillo, salsa roja, sopa de ajo and, of course, mole negro. 

I had never heard of mole (pronounced mo-lay, emphasis on the mo) before living in Mexico but all these years later, if it's on the menu I simply cannot order anything else.  It's an epic sauce made from dozens of ingredients ranging from chili peppers to bananas to pumpkin seeds to chocolate, and, at least with Carmen, it took two days to prepare.   It.  Was.  Incredible.   If you find a good Mexican restaurant that serves real Mexican food, try the pollo con mole negro.  If not, give it a shot yourself when you have plenty of time and access to a good ethnic market. 

Chicken with Mole Negro

another version - with more authentic but probably harder to find ingredients.



Finally, for our last month, we lived in Mexico City, with Rosa Maria's mother, surrounded by her siblings and their children.  It was an amazing adventure.  We had a few bumps:  I got hospitalized with food poisoning, our car got broken into and ALL of doug's clothes, plus his guitar, were stolen.  I had to pay a bribe to avoid the car getting impounded once.  Oh, and we lost reverse gear in our car about halfway through.  But man, what a great experience.  Mexico is a country rich in history and culture.  It is stunningly beautiful,  has the warmest people in the world and some kick ass food. 

Viva Mexico!

In the meanwhile, on a busy Tuesday night, when you need to throw a meal together for your family, give this one a shot.

Throw three or four chicken breasts in the crock pot.  I like bone-in because they don't dry out so much.  Top them with some taco seasoning and throw in about a cup of chicken broth.

Cook them on low all day, about 8 hours?

 Shred the chicken.

 

 Sautee on high heat some onions and bell peppers with salt & pepper & oil

Cook up some brown rice and when it's almost done add some salsa, salt & pepper and some taco seasoning or just chili powder to it.

Heat up some tortillas and put out some shredded cheddar, salsa and beans if you so desireand you've got yourself a hearty, healthy meal.  

Buen provecho!