Fish Tacos Anyone?

It's cooling down in here in Northern California, so tonight I've decided to spice things up a bit. One of my favorite dinner staples is fresh halibut tacos. Luckily, I live next to Whole Foods Market and Alaskan halibut seems to be their specialty 24/7. But that still doesn't beat the first time I had these wonderful tacos. One summer in Haines, Alaska I discovered the most delicious, freshest halibut tacos I've ever tasted. In this recipe, I'm not going to even attempt to duplicate these magnificent fish tacos - if you'd like to indulge in them, well... you're going to have to travel to Haines yourself and visit The Local Catch just up the street from the Ferry doc.

Ingredients:

1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 c. mayonnaise
1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 pounds of fresh Alaskan halibut (frozen is alright if you can't find fresh, but don't get canned), cut into 5x1/2-inch slices
1 tsp olive oil
1 lime, sliced
black pepper
12 white corn tortillas
1 1/2 c. shredded red cabbage
1 1/2 large tomatoes, chopped
Lime wedges
Chilula hot sauce (This is my favorite... feel free to grab your own personal bottle)

Directions:

1. You want the halibut to be flavorful and flaky, I find it's easier to do this by broiling it not grilling it. Put your halibut slices into a Pyrex baking dish lined with the olive oil. Place the lime slices over the halibut so they are fully covering all of the fish. Crack some fresh black pepper over the fish and put into a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 12-15 minutes. Keep a close eye on the halibut to make sure that it doesn't overcook, it's done when it turns from a translucent creamy color to a very opaque white and it is flaky but not sticky.

2. Toss the shredded red cabbage, the tomatoes, and juice from the limes in a large bowl. Add as much hot sauce as you'd like - error on too much... you can always subdue it with sour cream.

3. For the sauce, combine the mayonnaise, sour cream, cilantro and cayenne pepper.

I'm going to assume you know what to do from here... wrap it up and enjoy!

Too Hot for Gazpacho?

I know that I just commented on the air being way too thick for me, but I found this recipe and thought it was essential to summertime survival.

There's no better comfort food than soup. We eat it when we're sick, when we're sad, when we get together with our difficult families for holiday dinners... So why can't we enjoy a little soup when we're feeling bothered by the temp outside? Well, no longer do you need to be macho about the weather, just have a nice refreshing bowl of Gazpacho. (Ok, I apologize for that last little bit, but the heat is seriously getting to me.)

Ingredients

5 pounds medium tomatoes, make a shallow cut in the skin of each tomato.

3 cups low-salt chicken broth
3/4 c. finely chopped red onion
2/3 c. fresh lime juice
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tbs chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 tbs chopped fresh chives
2 tbs chopped fresh cilantro

2 medium avocados (about 1 pound), peeled, seeded, diced
2 serrano chiles, stemmed, seeded, and minced. Make sure to wash your hands, the knife and the cutting board thoroughly after doing this.
2 tbs (about) cold water

4 tbs extra-virgin olive oil


Directions

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to boil. Drop in 3 tomatoes and cook them for about 30 seconds. Using slotted spoon, transfer tomatoes to a plate. Repeat with the rest of your tomatoes. When they're all cool, peel the tomatoes starting at the slit you made in the skin. Cut tomatoes in half horizontally and carefully squeeze out the seeds and the juice. Place tomatoes in processor. Pulse the processor until you get a coarse puree. Transfer it to a strainer and let it drain for 30 minutes. Come back and stir the puree often to get all the juice out.

2. Combine your tomato puree, the chicken broth, the onion, 1/3 cup lime juice, the garlic, parsley, chives, and cilantro in large bowl. Mix gently and season your wonderful gazpacho with salt and pepper. Chill it for about 2 hours or up to 1 day.

3. Blend avocados, chiles, 2 tablespoons water, and 1/3 cup lime juice in a blender until it's smooth. Add salt to your taste and more water if you'd like it to be a little thinner.

Ladle gazpacho into bowls and top with the avocado puree, then a light drizzle of oil.

You can also serve this soup with some tortilla chips around the bottom of the bowl to make a nice star. Put one tortilla chip in the soup just above the avocado puree. If you put the avo puree into a squeeze bottle, you can make a nice design in the top of the soup... start off with a snake or a simple flour.

This recipe makes about six servings. There are a lot of colors going on in gazpacho, so it's nice to serve it in a white bowl.

Enjoy and drink some chilled Chardonnay... or try a Mighty Rita.

The Mighty Rita

To bring the first day of summer to its knees this year and wrestle with the incredible heat that is currently breathing down our necks, stopping us in our tracks and wrapping us in its intensity here in California, I have a solution: The Mighty Rita. (That's a classic margarita for the lay person.)

This afternoon I decided that I couldn't sit in my car and idle the air conditioning to get out of this incredible heat... it's just too expensive. So I decided to move onto step number two and pull the Cuervo out of the freezer, pick a couple of limes and empty the ice bucket.

This rita is so simple that you'll never go back to packaged mixers.

1-2 shots of premium tequila (I have been told that Jose Cuervo is the best for making margaritas - but it's really up to you. There are a couple of different grades you can get, and I'll be honest, the more money you spend here the better your margarita will taste and the cooler your day will become.)

A splash or six of Grand Marnier orange liquor.

Juice from about 3 limes.

Pour everything over a bucket glass of ice, stir with a cocktail straw and enjoy under a sun hat on the hammock in the back yard. Be careful though and drink a glass of water after each rita you have... otherwise your day tomorrow may be a bit hotter than everyone around you.

Share your Recipes!

So, as I was looking over the blog today I realized there isn't a place for people to share their recipes. And that is something that I strongly encourage in the cooking world. If we keep our recipes secret then there's no sense of community around the food we eat.

There is one guideline for posting, however. I'd like to keep the food on the blog centered around stories. There are so many stories that come with creating what we eat, and part of my love for food is to experience everyone's different stories. So, email me your recipes along with a short blurb about why it's special to you/a story about cooking it for your friends and family/interesting antidotes about where you found the recipe.... basically, anything you want. And then I'll put it up on the blog. Be sure to include all the information about you that you'd like me to post with your recipe.

In the meantime, enjoy life, food, and the blog!

On a mission for Holy Guac

The other day I was down at our local organic foods grocery store. I was on a mission to purchase some avocados to transform into guacamole on a hot California day. Well, I have to admit, I was swayed by the impressive marketing of this attractive organic mecca... and I purchased their brand pre-made guacamole. I'm not going to lie - I was hopeful. Unfortunately, I was sadly disappointed by the poor quality of this fancy package of guacamole. It just was too much of this and not enough of that. For the next week I was forced to stare at the guac in my fridge - where it sits today, brown and forgotten.

In an effort to make up for this tragedy - I have vowed never to buy the packaged organic brand guac even if it is made in front of me.

With summer coming, for some of us it's already here, I am going to call out for all your best guac recipes. Here's what I have come up with:

Ingredients

3 large ripe avocado, peeled, pitted
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 large Serrano chilies seeded and chopped (leave the seeds in if you're feeling daring - or you're from Texas.)
4 large jalapeno chilies seeded and chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Ok - we all know how to make guacamole. Mash the avos to a desired consistency... and pile in all the other stuff. It's not too technical - have fun with this recipe and add larger/lesser amounts of your favorite/not so favorite ingredients.

Eat this with organic corn chips - if you're interested in the reasons behind this recommendation visit the Organic Consumers Association (OCA).