Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa

This is a slightly modified version of the one in Cooking Light. Although the batter did not really stick to my fish (which meant it wasn't very crunchy) these were still really good. The salsa was super delicious, and would be great on it's own.

Ingredients
-1 or 2 ripe mangoes, diced
-2 T (or more if you like) fresh, chopped cilantro-1.5 T lime juice
-1 T (or more if you want it spicier) diced jalepeno
-1/4 C finely diced red onion
-1 lb fresh white fish (recipe called for halibut, but I used tilapia...recipe also called for 1.5 lbs, but that was way too much for 8 small tacos)
-1 cup beer (PBR for the win)
-3/4 C flour
-1.5 tsp pepper
-1 tsp salt
-1 tsp garlic powder (or use garlic salt and use less regular salt)
~1/3 C canola oil (the recipe called for 5 C, but that seemed crazy to me)

Steps
1. Dice mango. I have always had a hard time doing this correctly, but I found a nice Youtube video that walks you through it. Basically, the seed is long, flat, and hard, and runs through the center of the fruit. To get the most mango for your buck, you want to cut off the sides (or "cheeks"), and then score them (sort of like the avocado technique). Then you just chop off the scored pieces into a bowl. You can then try to cut off any remaining fruit flesh from around the seed.

2. Add onion, cilantro, jalapeno, and lime juice to bowl, and mix mango salsa. Set aside.

3. Mix up your batter (beer, flour, salt, pepper, garlic) with a whisk.
4. Dunk fish into batter and transfer to frying pan (make sure your oil is nice and hot).
5. Cook fish 4-5 minutes, turning once. (You may need to do this in two batches.)

6. Drain fish on paper towls.
7. Add some fish and salsa to warm tortilla and enjoy.

This month's Cooking Light

has a ton of awesome recipes that I'm excited to try. This week we'll be making fish tacos with mango salsa and a sausage, egg, and cheese bread pastry...

Black Bean Corn Salsa

My friend Lauren gave me this recipe, and I think it's pretty much the best dip ever. It's so addictive I sometimes just call it the Crack Dip.

Ingredients
-2 can black beans
-2 can shoepeg corn
~10 green onions, chopped
~1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, chopped
~6 oz feta cheese
-1/2 C apple cider vinegar
-1/4 C EVOO (or even a bit less)
-1/4 C brown sugar

Note: These measurements are all approximate, feel free to add more or less of anything according to your tastes.

Steps
1. Chop up cilantro, green onion, and feta, and mix with beans and corn in a large bowl.

2. Make dressing by combining the vinegar, oil, and sugar with a whisk. (I'm putting pictures below so you can roughly see the amounts of oil, vinegar, and sugar. The first picture is just the vinegar and oil, and the second picture has had the sugar added.)

3. Pour dressing over bean mixture and toss well.

Vegan Spinach Kugel

This is another tasty recipe, which my friend Kelly recommended, from the Veganomicon. The dill and lemon give this dish a really fresh taste.

Ingredients
-30 oz of frozen spinach (I probably only used about 20 or so)
-10 or 11 broken up lasagna noodles (recipe calls for 3 cups)
-1 C bread crumbs
-1 small onion, diced
-12 oz extra firm silken tofu (I couldn't find extra firm silken, so I just used silken)
-1 C vegetable broth
-2 T EVOO
-2.5 T lemon juice
-1/4 C chopped fresh dill
-3/4 t salt
-1/2 t pepper

Steps
1. Thaw your spinach and get as much water out as you can.
2. Boil your noodles as directed on package.

3. While noodles are cooking, combine tofu, vegetable broth, and oil in food processor and blend till smooth.

4. Mix tofu mixture with bread crumbs in a large bowl.
5. Add spinach, dill, onion, salt, pepper, and lemon and mix well.

6. Once noodles are done, add them in with spinach mixture and mix well. I used my hands.

7. Press mixture into a 13X9 dish coated with cooking spray.

8. Cook at 350 for 30 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Strawberry Snack

Although strawberries are delicious on their own, they're even better with this sauce, methinks. Although the sauce sounds really weird (sour cream + brown sugar), it's yummy. My mom used to make this for dessert when I was a kid, and so it really reminds me of her.

Ingredients (for 1-2 servings)
-Strawberries, how ever many you want
-1.5 TB sour cream
-1.5 TB brown sugar
-toasted almond slivers or walnuts (optional)

Steps
1. Stir sour cream and sugar together until blended; pour over strawberries.
2. Top with walnuts or almonds slivers for some crunch.

Dill Beans

After lots of traveling and wedding planning, I am back and ready to get cooking.
I'm going to start of the new year with a recipe I actually made last year, Dill Beans. This was my first time making them, and as such involved some trial and error, but I think I got it down enough to give directions, should you be interested in making them. If you're into pickles then I think you will really like these. Also, I think they make for nice gifts (these were some of my Christmas presents to friends and family).

The recipe below is for making enough pickling juice to fill approximately 3 1000 mL Ball mason jars (these are the taller ones). I ended up making 2 batches, to fill 6 jars.

Ingredients (for 1 batch):
-4 cups water (double if making 2 batches)
-4 cups white vinegar (double if making 2 batches)
-6  tablespoons  kosher salt (double if making 2 batches)
-3  tablespoons  sugar (double if making 2 batches)
~7 or 8  tablespoons  thinly sliced garlic (about 18 cloves or 1.5 heads of garlic; DON'T NEED TO DOUBLE if making 2 batches)
~20  fresh dill sprigs, divided (double if making 2 batches)
-6  small dried hot red chiles (optional; double if making 2 batches))
~1.5  lbs green beans, trimmed (double if making 2 batches)

Note: I recommend buying the dill at a co-op or farmers' market because you will be able to get more of it for a lot cheaper than buying those little packets at the store.

Steps:
1. Trim beans and stuff beans into jars. Add several sprigs of dill to jars.

 
2. Cut up all your garlic into thins slices (this is the most time intensive part).

3. Combine first 4 ingredients in a large saucepan; bring to a boil.
4. Remove from heat; add garlic, remaining dill, and peppers to pan. Let stand 1 minute.
5. Strain out dill and garlic. You can toss the dill, but keep the garlic and chiles.

6. Spoon vinegar mixture over beans into jars until jars are full.  Evenly distribute garlic and chiles into jars.
7. Refrigerate 4 days-1 week, agitating jars occasionally.

Steps for making  2 batches (recommended).
1. Boil first 4 ingredients anew again.
2. Add the garlic from the last batch, but you'll need new dill and chiles.
3. Let sit for a minute.
4. Strain out dill and toss. This time, divide the garlic and chiles up into 6 jars, rather than 3.
5. Remaining steps are same as above.

Note: After Jonathan and I ate a whole jar in one setting, I was sad to see the dill beans go. So I decided to try reusing the pickling liquid by just stuffing some more raw beans into the jar. I let the jar sit a week and the beans tasted almost just the same (perhaps a touch less potent). I imagine you should only try reusing the liquid once, but something to keep in mind.

Snobby Joes and Roasted Carrots

I got the Snobby Joe recipe from the Veganomicon cookbook. They're tasty and really easy to make, but note that the recipe makes a lot, so you'll definitely have leftovers for lunch.
The roasted carrot recipe I got from Cooking Light. These were surprisingly good. The carrots get a nice, sweet flavor after being cooked, and that paired with the cilantro make for a really interesting taste combo.

Roasted Carrots Ingredients
-6-10 carrots, sliced vertically
~2 T olive oil
-1/2 tsp pepper and salt to taste
-1/2 tsp cumin and cayenne pepper
~3 T chopped cilantro

Steps
1. Slice carrots vertically.
2. Toss with other ingredients.

 
3. Cook at 450 for 25 minutes, stirring once after 12 minutes.
4. Top with cilantro.

Snobby Joe ingredients
-1 package buns
-2 tsp oregano
-1 C lentils
-3 T chili powder
-8 oz tomato sauce
-4 oz tomato paste
-1 onion diced
-1 green pepper diced (optional-I forgot this and don't think it's necessary)
-3 cloves garlic, chopped
-3 T maple syrup
-1 T mustard
-1/2 tsp salt

Snobby Joe Steps:
1. Add 1 C lentils and 4 C water to a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil and then let simmer for 20 minutes, or until lentils are soft.









2. After lentils have been cooking for 10 minutes, saute onion (and green pepper) for about 7 minutes. Add garlic and saute another minute.
3. Add in cooked lentils, tomato sauce and paste, maple syrup, mustard, salt, oregano, and chili powder.

4. Stir well and let cook for about another 5-10 minutes or until heated through.
5. Let sit another 5 minutes to let flavors mingle.
6. Serve on top of toasted buns (I prefer open face).

Philly Cheese "Steak" Sandwiches

The "steak" is in quotes because this recipe calls for seitan rather than beef. I got this recipe and the introduction to seitan from my friend, Melissa. Seitan is pretty much awesome. It's made from the gluten of wheat. According to Wikipedia, "It is made by washing wheat flour dough with water until all the starch dissolves, leaving insoluble gluten as an elastic mass which is then cooked before being eaten." It has a ton of protein (close to 40% of your recommended intake per serving) and is very low in fat and calories. The texture is definitely different from tofu; it's chewier and firmer. By itself it's not very tasty, but it seems to absorb flavors pretty well so I think it would be good in recipes with flavorful sauces.

Ingredients:
-1 package seitan (for Tally folks, you'll have to get this at New Leaf)

-1 green pepper, sliced into thin strips
-1 red onion, sliced into thin strips
-1 package hoggie rolls
-1 C shredded mozzarella
Sauce:
(I don't have exact measurements for any of the ingredients because I was kind of making it up as I went along. I'll list what I used and approximate amounts. You will likely need to taste some pieces of the seitan as you go along and see if you think you should add more of something.)
-1/4-1/3C barbecue sauce
-several shakes Worcestershire sauce
-several shakes of liquid smoke (you can get this at Publix near the BBQ sauce)
-1.5 T brown sugar
-several shakes of soy sauce

Steps:
1. Slice your onion and green pepper.









2. Slice your seitan into strips (I patted with a paper towel after to absorb excess water.)

 
3. Saute onion and pepper with a little EVOO for a couple minutes.
4. Add seitan and sauce ingredients.
5. Cook over medium heat until onions and peppers are cooked down (~ about 10 minutes) stirring regularly.

 
6. Add 1/4 of seitan mixture onto a hoggie roll, top with shredded mozzarella.
7. Bake in oven at 350 until cheese melts (~5 minutes).

Note: This makes about 4 large sandwiches. If you don't use it all in one night it was good on a sandwich the next day.

Baked Ziti

This is probably Joanthan's favorite thing that we make. Although I generally make this vegetarian, Jonathan really likes it with sausage, so this time I added chicken sausage. However, it's still really good without any meat. Also, I call this "baked ziti" but use penne...go figure.

Ingredients
-1 jar tomato sauce
-2 zucchinis, sliced and chopped into bite size pieces
-2 yellow squash, sliced and chopped into bite size pieces
-1/2-2/3 red onion, diced
-2 tsp minced garlic
-2 T baslamic vinegar
-1 package penne
-3-4 C shredded mozarella
-pepper and red pepper flakes to taste
-3 links chicken sausage (optional)

Steps
1. Boil penne to be al dente.
2. While pasta is cooking, brown sausage. (You'll need to remove the casings so you can crumble them up while cooking.)
3. In another pan, saute onion for 3-4 minutes with EVOO. Add zucchini, squash, garlic, balsamic vinegar, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Stir and cook for about 10 minutes. (I like the veggies to still be a little crunchy).

 4. Combine noodles, sauce, 2 C cheese, vegetable mixture, and sausage  in a greased 13X9 pan. To do this, I usually kind of layer 1/2 of each of the ingredients, then repeat the layer and then stir everything up with a wooden spoon. (I've even used my hands to mix everything up before.)

5. Cover with foil and cook at 350 for 30 minutes.
6. Top with 1-2 C shredded mozarella and cook until cheese is melted. I turn the broiler on for about 2 minutes at the end to brown the cheese.
7. Let sit up for about 5 minutes before serving.

Homeade Guacamole

This is a fairly standard version of guacamole, plus the addition of salsa, which gives it a nice kick.
Note: I reserve the avocado seeds and put them in the guac because they help keep it from browning.

Ingredients
-3 avocados
-2 T lime juice
-1/3 jar hot salsa (such as Pace picante)
-2 T finely diced red onion
-pepper and garlic salt to taste

Steps
1. Cut avocados in half and score like in picture with a knife. Then, using a spoon, scoop out avocado section into a bowl. (My friend Jon taught me this neat trick.)

 

2. Mash avocados with potato masher or back of fork. Stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Spinach and Black Bean Enchiladas

The hardest thing about this recipe is thawing and straining the frozen spinach, so really it's quite easy. Does anyone know if someone's invented a spinach presser to get all the water out of thawed spinach? If not, someone should get on that because I hate doing it.

Ingredients
-8 tortillas
-1 10oz package frozen spinach (I've used a bag of fresh spinach before too)
-1 can black beans
-1 can enchilada sauce
-3/4 C water
-1 C sour cream
-1 packet taco seasoning
-1/2 onion, diced
-2 tsp minced garlic
-1 1/2 C shredded cheese
-bunch of green onions, chopped

Steps
1. Saute onion for 5 minutes. Add garlic, beans, drained spinach, taco seasoning, and water. Cook for about 5-8 more minutes, or until the mixture is thickened.

2. Remove from heat and stir in 3/4 C sour cream.
3. Put about a teaspoon or two of enchilada sauce down the center of a tortilla. Add 2-3 spoonfuls of bean mixture and top with shredded cheese.

4. Roll enchilada up and place seam side down in a greased dish. Repeat until you make the rest.

 
5. Cover enchilada with remaining sauce.
6. Cover pan with foil and cook at 350 for 15 minutes.
7. Top with remaining cheese and cook until cheese is melted.
8. Top with green onions and sour cream (if you want).

Veggie "Quiche"

The quiche is in quotes because this is really only an approximation of a quiche, but I really like using stuffing for the crust instead of pie crust, and I think this uses fewer eggs than a normal quiche.

Ingredients
-5 eggs, divided
-1 package Stove Top Stuffing mix
-2 cups shredded cheese
-1 red pepper, sliced
-10 oz frozen spinach thawed and drained (I hate doing this, btw)
-1 onion, diced
-salt, pepper, red pepper flakes to taste

Steps
1. Make stuffing as directed on package.
2.After it's done, mix in 1 egg.
3. Press stuffing into bottom of a greased 9-inch casserole dish.

4. Saute onion for about 5 minutes.
5. Turn off heat and stir in spinach.

6. Sprinkle 1 C of cheese over stuffing.
7. Spoon half of spinach-onion mixture over cheese.
8. Layer with red pepper slices.

9. Repeat layers (cheese, spinach, peppers), and add spices.
10. Pour the 4 beaten eggs evenly over top.
11. Bake at 400 for 35-40 minutes.

Sweet Potato Casserole

This is my favorite Thanksgiving dish, and my mom and I have been making it for as long as I can remember. It's definitely sweet, but I don't think overly so. The cereal-pecan-brown sugar-butter crust is the best part. (Also, I accidentally deleted several pics, so I don't have one of the finished product. Bummer.)

Ingredients (makes enough to fill a 13X9 casserole dish)
-8 sweet potatoes
-1 ¼ C white sugar
-2 eggs beaten
-¼ C melted butter
-½ C milk
-½ teaspoon nutmeg
-½ teaspoon cinnamon
TOPPING

1 C crushed corn flakes
½ C brown sugar packed
3/4 C chopped pecans
¼ C melted butter

Steps
1. Bake or boil sweet potatoes until tender. (If you bake, 1 hour at 350 is usually enough time.0
2. Remove skins from sweet potatoes.

3. Cut up into smallish pieces in a large bowl.

4. Add egg, sugar, milk, and spices.
5. Mash/mix well.
6. Pour into greased casserole dish.
7. Cook at 400 for 25 minutes.
8. Make topping by mixing all of topping ingredients together.
9. Spoon on top of casserole. Bake an additional 10-15 minutes at 400.

Note: You can definitely make this a day ahead and reheat.

Posting tomorrow, promise!