Sweet and Tangy Chilled Bean Salad

For the past couple of weeks my apartment has been the welcome venue for pleasant gatherings. Every Sunday we seem to have friends passing through town, or coming for a visit. So, every Sunday we've felt the need to entertain. I think with a few more this weekly get together will become a tradition.

With that in mind, I will start the new Sunday posts on Good Lookin' Cookin' specializing in something brought/made from our Sunday dinners.

This week I'm going to focus on something I contributed to a potluck dinner a few weeks ago that seemed to get tastier all through the evening.

Sweet and Tangy Chilled Bean Salad.

Ingredients:

1 16-ounce can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 8-ounce can of pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 8-ounce can of garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
4 seeded and chopped large tomatoes
1 cup finely chopped red onion
1 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
4 tbs fresh lime juice
1 tbs olive oil
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp ground cumin

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients into a bowl as you prepare them. Mix, cover and set in the frig for up to an hour. Keeps for 1 day (and it gets better and better as it marinates in the frig. I recommend making this a few hours before your guests arrive.)

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!