Recipe 23: Fish Tacos with Mango-Pineapple Slaw

 Sometime over the summer I was buying some meat from the meat section of the grocery store and looking at the fish.  I have never really been that impressed by the fish selection, probably because I am used to having a really good selection of fish in Oregon.  As the meat guy was wrapping up my purchase he started talking about how he loved making fish tacos with the cod there.

So I went back and looked up some recipes.  There are a ton of fish taco recipes out there, but I decided to choose one that looked really simple, but also seemed like it would be tasty.

 Here is a picture of the final result:

And here is the recipe that I ended up using: (link)

Ingredients

• 1 pound cod fillets
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 3 cups shredded cabbage
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mango
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh pineapple
• 1/2 cup chopped red onion
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 fresh jalapeno pepper, chopped
• 8 (8 inch) flour tortillas

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Place cod fillets on a large sheet of aluminum foil; pour lemon juice over fish and season with salt and black pepper to taste. Fold the foil around the fish and seal to create a pouch; place pouch in a baking dish.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until the fish flakes easily with a fork, about 20 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, whisk vinegar, mayonnaise, sugar, 1 tablespoon salt, 1 tablespoon black pepper, and garlic powder in a bowl until smooth. Combine cabbage, mango, pineapple, red onion, cilantro, and jalapeno in large bowl. Pour dressing over vegetables and fruit; toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate slaw until ready to serve.
5. Divide fish evenly among flour tortillas. Spoon slaw over fish to serve. 

The Process

The first step was to cook the fish.  I seasoned it a bit with salt and pepper and lemon juice.  However, I definitely think that I didn't season it enough.  I think that the fish ended up fine, but it was a little bland.  There might be other things that would be good to season it with, but I don't have that expertise.

 While the fish was cooking I chopped up the mangoes, which was something that I had never done before.  The middle of the mango is this huge put that takes up nearly half of the fruit, so it was interesting working around that. 

Here is the base of the coleslaw, the cabbage with some cilantro and the jalapeno.

 Soon the fish was done.  I have to say that pictures of cooked cod don't look much different than pictures of uncooked cod.  I also cooked this for a little longer.  It wasn't quite flaky enough after 20 minutes.

 I was in Texas while I made this recipe, but somehow Sprinkles managed to get tangled up in my laundry!

After the slaw was done I constructed the tacos.  Here is the tortilla with the fish.

And here is the final result again, now with the slaw added.

I thought that the slaw of this recipe was really good.  The fish was pretty simple and a little bland, but the slaw carried the tacos and made them good.  I think a little more seasoning of the fish would certainly help, but overall this was a simple recipe that was very easy to make and tasted good.

Recipe 22: Zucchini Herb Casserole

I don't make many vegetarian dishes, but at some point during the summer I found a couple of zucchini recipes that sounded really good to me.  This particular one was a casserole that included a bunch of veggies and rice and then the whole thing is covered in cheese.

Here is a picture of the final result.

 Here is the recipe that I used(Link):

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup uncooked long grain white rice
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 pounds zucchini, cubed
• 1 cup sliced green onions
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 1/4 teaspoons garlic salt
• 1/2 teaspoon basil
• 1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 1/2 cups seeded, chopped tomatoes
• 2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese, divided

Directions

1. Combine the rice and water in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes, until rice is tender.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a shallow 1 1/2 quart casserole dish.
3. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat, and cook the zucchini, green onions, and garlic 5 minutes, or until tender. Season with garlic salt, basil, paprika, and oregano. Mix in the cooked rice, tomatoes, and 1 cup cheese. Continue to cook and stir until heated through. Transfer to the prepared casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.
4. Bake uncovered 20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

The Process

This was actually a really simple recipe to make, I started the rice and then  mixed all of the zucchini together with the green onions and garlic.

Then I put it in the only skillet that I had over the summer, it was slightly small, but still worked pretty well.

Since the rice wasn't ready yet I decided just to mix everything together and cook it a little until the rice was done.

So I added the remaining veggies, spices and cheese and then heated it for a little bit.

Since I didn't think the rice would fit in the skillet I decided to mix everything together in the pan.

I then added the cheese and put it in the oven.  All in all a very simple dish to make.

I was surprised, but I really liked this.  I think that the herbs made this very flavorful and kind of salty, which usually makes everything a little better.

I do think that this might be best as a side dish or not a stand alone main dish anyway.  I had a salad with it, but it definitely seemed more like a side to me.  However, it was very good.