Pecan Crusted Tilapia and Spicy Tomato Basil Quinoa (I'm back!)

Omigoodness. I am so sorry. I have neglected you for an ENTIRE MONTH. I'm a horrible blogger, but I had some good excuses! I moved! (Did you noticed the header?) The Monkey Scientist persuaded me to move to his hometown of Chicago and so far I am loving every minute of it. However, the move also consisted of 3 weeks without internet, which seriously hindered my ability to blog.  Not to mention the 2 weeks living with the Monkey Scientist's parents, during which I was completely spoiled and only had to cook once or twice. But I'm back now. I'm really going to work on getting back to thrice-a-week blogging, but please bear with me while I get back into the swing of things.



One of my favorite things about moving to Chicago is that I'm close to my baby brother, who is in school at Northwestern.  We haven't lived in the same city for more than a couple of weeks since the summer after my Freshman year of college, and despite our sibling bickering, I love having him around.  And I'm pretty sure he loves having me here - if only because I am willing cook for him.  I gave him a few options to pick from for dinner this week and he chose this pecan-crusted tilapia (the original recipe was catfish but we New Englanders do not eat catfish) and tomato basil quinoa.  A mighty fine choice if I say so myself.

I wanted to spice up the quinoa but accidentally removed the cap from my spice jar instead of opening the shaker and didn't notice before I literally dumped a handful of red pepper flakes into the rice cooker. Oops. I was able to remove a few of them, but we definitely ate spicy quinoa.  The Monkey Scientist would have loved it, but he was out with his own brother at the Bears game.



This dinner was so good, it gave me the kick I needed to get back into blogging. It was super healthy (barely any oil or butter in the whole dish and just a little fat from the nuts) and loaded with flavor.  The quinoa is spicy, nutty, and filled with summery tomato-basil flavor.  I'd love to chop some little balls of mozzarella and spread them throughout next time. The fish was perfectly flaky, nutty, and a little lemon juice complemented it well. I think this meal was a major step up from the frozen pizza baby bro was going to make otherwise.  Plus, it was pretty easy to make. I think baby bro will be coming by more often after this meal!



Pecan-Crusted Tilapia
adapted from Eat, Live, Run

Ingredients
6 fillets tilapia (or any flaky, white fish)
1 cup finely ground pecans (I bought them pre-crushed but you could crush them yourself or put them in the food processor)
3/4 cup Panko breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt
1/2-1 cup buttermilk
Lemon wedges, for serving

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a shallow dish or pie plate, mix together the finely ground pecans, breadcrumbs, garlic powder, dry mustard, pepper, cayenne and salt.
3. Place the tilapia fillets in another shallow dish. Pour buttermilk over the fish fillets. Dip each buttermilk-soaked piece of fish into the nut mixture, dredging completely. Place crusted fish on a parchment paper or silpat-lined sheet tray.
4. Bake fish for 20 minutes. When done, fish should be white and flake easily. Crust should be golden. Serve immediately with lemon wedges.


Spicy Tomato Basil Quinoa
adapted from Pink Parsley

Ingredients
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground sea salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained (I used white)
2/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1-2 tomatoes, cored, seeded, and diced
2 Tbs chopped fresh basil

Instructions
1. Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until softened, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about one minute. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Add the onion/garlic mixture, tomato sauce, water, quinoa, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and cayenne to a rice cooker and cook completely. The quinoa will be tender, chewy, and there will be white, spiral-like threads around each grain. (If you don't have a rice cooker, head back to Pink Parsley for instructions on how to do this on the stove or follow your package instructions.)
3. Move from the rice cooker to a serving bowl and stir in the Parmesan cheese, tomatoes, and basil, and season with additional salt and pepper if necessary.

Seafood Paella

This weekend, my friend and I were supposed to go apple picking, but the weather simply did not cooperate!  It was cold (in the 40s!) and rainy, just awful.  Apple season is early and short down in DC which means we might never get to go now, big bummer.



Instead of letting the weather get us down, we decided to get the best ingredients we could find and make paella.  Her mom gave her a nice big paella pan - although after it was all made it ended up being smaller than we expected - and she had a cookbook and a recipe in mind.  We set to work scoping out the best place for all of our ingredients.



For the vegetables (onions, bell peppers) we went to the Mount Pleasant farmer's market.  For the seafood, we drove all the way down to Southeast DC to visit our favorite place, the Maine Avenue Fish Market.  Now I can't say for sure that the quality there is better than the supermarket (it's not like they're pulling fish out of the Potomac, or at least I hope not, but the selection is the best in the District and the fish never smells like it isn't fresh.

The prices are reasonable as well for most things, although shrimp were fairly expensive (even though they had endless varieties!).  I was able to get my fish carcass there for $1 - a nice salmon head, fins, tail and bones.  My friend thought I was kidding when I suggested we get it, but I most certainly was not!  Making the homemade fish stock was the most exciting part of the day (for better or for worse)!



Sorry, I had to re-post that one.  I'm sticking by my Halloween excuse.  I love it.

After the fish market, we hiked back up to Giant to get the rest of the groceries, and ended up stopping at World Market as well for saffron ($4.99 vs $19.99 at Giant - probably because it was from India not Spain).  I have to admit the question I've gotten most when I tell people I made paella is "where'd you get the saffron?"  I know it's always expensive, but are there quality differences as well? I thought the less expensive World Market saffron worked just fine!



When assembling I realized there was no way I was going to fit the rice and stock in the paella dish without major overflow.  I halved the rice (and the stock, of course) and made these changes in the recipe below.  I like my paella with lots of seafood and a little rice, so feel free to double it again if your pan is big enough.  Just make sure you double both the stock AND the rice (should be a 2:1 ratio).



Overall, an awesome recipe and a very fun day.  My friend and I are New England girls, so of course we love almost any seafood dish, but the Monkey Scientist loved it as well.  It's loaded with filling seafood and the rice soaks up the flavor of everything. It was definitely missing a flavor element though, so next time I'd probably add a hot pepper or two (anything from jalapeno to habanero, depending on your tolerance for heat) when I add the onions.  Maybe even some Old Bay, this is DC after all!



Seafood Paella
adapted slightly from Paella Paella

Ingredients
8 oz mussels
8 oz clams
5 tbsp olive oil
8 oz fish (use any white fish that is sturdy)
8 oz squid, sliced into rounds
2 small (or one large) onions, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 small red bell peppers, diced
1 28oz can whole peeled tomatoes, drained then chopped
1 cup rice (any short grain)
2 cups fish stock
1/2 tsp saffron
salt and pepper, to taste
8 oz uncooked large shrimp, peeled and deveined (save the shells!)

Instructions
1. Scrub the mussels and clams thoroughly, removing all beards and barnacles.  Soak in water to let any sand fall to the bottom of the bowl.  Discard any that fail to close when tapped sharply.  Set aside.
2. Heat 4 tablespoons olive oil in a paella pan over medium heat.  Add the fish and squid and cook for 7 to 8 minutes, until they start to brown.  Transfer to a plate.
3. Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil to the paella pan and cook the onions, garlic, and peppers until tender and starting to brown.  Mix in the tomatoes and continue to cook for another 8 to 10 minutes.
4. Add the fish, squid, and rice to the paella pan.  Cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes.  Stir in the fish stock, saffron, salt, and pepper, and allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
5.  Add the shrimp, mussels, and clams and continue to cook over low heat until all the liquid has been absorbed, 20 to 30 minutes depending on the type of rice.  Discard any mussels or clams that have failed to open.  Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings.

Fish Stock

In high school, I spent a lot of time over at my best friend's house, where her mom was always cooking up some sort of stock.  Usually it was a leftover chicken carcass boiling away on the stove with carrots, onion, and celery. The freezer was full of the stuff, and any time they wanted to make soup (or her mom's gravy) they'd pull out a tupperware, defrost on the stove, and it'd be ready in no time.

I loved this idea!  I am always spending way too much money on stock full of totally unknown ingredients.  I had only every tried making shrimp stock before, but it was so easy that I wanted to try again.  I stayed in my seafood comfort zone, but I will definitely be venturing out to chicken or beef stock next time!



Now I admit, making stock is scary. Mostly because of that scary word I used a minute ago.  You know, carcass.  But think of it as being resourceful.  Using the whole animal, not just the parts you eat directly.  And better yet, think of it as the easiest step you can take for better food at a lower cost.

There's much more to tell about how I ended up with this giant fish carcass (the story is coming, I promise) but let's just say I only paid $1 for it and it made enough fish stock for cioppino, shrimp risotto, and much more - including the recipe that's coming up later this week.  It's chocked full of flavor - definitely try it out.  And don't be scared of the picture with the fish head floating up - I just did that for effect... it is almost Halloween after all!



Fish Stock


Ingredients
20 cups water
1/4 c white wine
1 fish carcass (everything but the filets - head, bones, fins etc)
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp dried thyme
1 tbsp herbes de provence
3 small carrots, cut in thirds
1 large onion, quartered
shells from 1/2 lb shrimp
2 lemons, quartered (skin on)

Instructions
1. Bring all the ingredients to a boil in a large stock pot.
2. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, 30 minutes.
3. Remove fish head, veggies, and lemons using tongs or a slotted spoon (it's nice if you use a pot with a strainer insert and then you can pull that out and dump it).  Run through a mesh strainer to remove any remaining solids.  Use within 3 days or freeze.

Salmon and Veggies in a Parchment Packet

This recipe is something you can find all over the web.  It's an easy dinner to throw together any night of the week very quickly! And it has loads of nutrients while staying low fat and low carb.

I love the heart shaped packet. I think it's just adorable!

After using Cavender's Greek Seasoning for my chicken souvlaki, I couldn't wait to use it again! It was fantastic and easy in this recipe - I didn't even need any other seasoning!

I really should have sprung for the wild caught salmon, but it was a little more expensive and it really didn't look very good at my market.  Still, if you care about sustainability, I recommend going that route.

Overall, we loved this meal. It was so simple and absolutely delicious! I meant to serve it with Israeli Cous Cous, but I forgot to make it.  Still, this was plenty for us when we just wanted a simple dinner.  Feel free to mix up the type of fish or veggies - it would work with anything! Next time I might try a spicy version with cayenne!

Salmon and Veggies in a Parchment Packet

serves 2

Ingredients:

1 zucchini, sliced

1 summer squash, sliced

1 small Japanese eggplant, sliced

1/4 Vidalia onion, sliced

1 bell pepper (I used orange), sliced

2 pieces of salmon

parchment paper

fresh squeezed lemon juice

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut parchment paper in 2 large hearts (big enough to hold half the veggies and a pieces of salmon), then fold in half. 

Place half of the veggies on each piece of parchment. Sprinkle with greek seasoning.

Place the piece of salmon on top and season with greek seasoning.  Drizzle everything with olive oil. 

Close the parchment packet and seal the edges. Bake 20 minutes or until fish is fully cooked and flakes with a fork.

Open packets and squeeze lemon juice over the top of each piece of salmon/veggies.  

Serve immediately.

Mango Habanero Glazed Salmon

I'm back!  I'm sorry, I know it's been a while.  I've missed you!  I was traveling quite a bit last week and just wasn't able to find the time to cook or blog.  However one of my stops on my trip up the east coast was at home in NH - so I did get the chance to make a meal in Mom's amazing kitchen.

When I got home to the Lake, Dad was out fishing on the dock.  Although we threw back his catches, he inspired me to make fish for dinner.

A couple weeks ago, I came downstairs to see the Monkey Scientist about to cut his hand in half trying to open a mango.  I taught him how I do it - do you want to know too?  This is my trick - I cut the cheeks off of the mango (avoiding the oblong pit in the middle).  Then I use my knife to draw lines horizontally and vertically through each cheek, being careful not to pierce the skin.  Then I invert the cheek and carefully cut off each little cube.  It's super easy!

Shortly after our mango lesson, I found this recipe on one of our favorite blogs.  Remember when I made those awesome Stuffed Peppers? Those were adapted from Cara's recipe - so I knew I could trust her.

 

Now, I love some heat.  I decided to double the habaneros in this recipe.  I should warn you - this salsa/glaze was HOT!  Mom and Dad found it a little too hot, although I enjoyed the kick.

I had never roasted mango before.  It was a nice and different way to enjoy mango.  I really enjoyed it!

At the Lake, grilling is our number one way of cooking.  It allows Dad to help and also we can be outside and enjoy the lovely weather.  So instead of baking the salmon, we threw it on the grill.  It added a little smoky flavor, which was perfect with the roasted mango.

Overall, I loved this recipe.  Unless you really love a kick, I'd keep it at only one habanero pepper.  The sweet and spicy glaze went wonderfully with the salty, well seasoned salmon.  We served it up with roasted asparagus and cauliflower for an easy and delicious dinner.

Mango-Habanero Glazed Roasted Salmon
from Cara's Cravings

Ingredients
2 wild Alaskan salmon filets, 6-7 ounces each
1/4 cup roasted mango and habanero salsa (see below)
1 tablespoon Trader Joe's Orange Muscat Vinegar, or champagne vinegar
pinch of salt

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375ºF or heat the grill. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray. Place the salmon filets on the sheet, skin side down. Season with salt and pepper.

Puree the mango salsa and vinegar until almost smooth; season to taste with salt.

Spread the puree evenly over the fish. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or grill until desired doneness is reached

Roasted Mango and Habanero Salsa
from Cara's Cravings

Ingredients
2 mangoes, peeled and diced
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cloves of garlic, minced
big pinch of salt
1 small habanero pepper
juice from 1/2 of a lime

Instructions
Preheat oven to 425ºF. Arrange the mangoes, onions, and garlic on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt, spray with cooking spray, and toss to combine. Roast for 25 minutes, turning once or twice, until the onions are tender.

Meanwhile, roast the pepper over a gas flame or under the broiler until charred on all sides. Allow to cool, then peel, seed, and mince the pepper.

Place the roasted mango mixture in a food processor (I used Mom's Vitamix) with the habanero pepper (start with half of the pepper and add to taste, if desired.) Squeeze the lime juice in and add another big pinch of salt. Pulse to desired consistency.

Fish Tacos with Latin Slaw for two

Tonight I needed a nice simple dinner, just for me.  I still have lots of cabbage left from before the farmer's market closed for its spring hiatus, so I decided this would be a good week to continue to try new types of slaw.

This recipe looked super simple, and the ingredients were pretty minimal. Fish tacos are my mom's absolute favorite at the Cheesecake Factory, but this is definitely a trimmed down and healthier version!

By way, because I know a lot of friends have asked me before, this is a tomatillo.  It's like the green apple of tomatoes - it's more tart than a big red tomato and it's itty bitty. It comes with a skin on it that you have to peel off.  I love to use tomatillos in guacamole instead of tomato.

Although the original recipe called for a lot of patient, 3-hour marinating, I decided to cut all that out.  The only "marinating time" I allowed for was the time while I ran on the treadmill - and I am definitely not running 3 hours at a time.

I also tried to kick up the spice because...well because I always kick up the spice.  I definitely still could have used some Chulula on my taco.

Also, I got some great grocery deals!  Tilapia was only ~$2 for a filet, and I got the greek yogurt (I used Yoplait) for free by combining a store sale with a coupon!  I also got $15 worth of matzoh for free by spending $25 at the grocery store - all ready for my Passover seder (and some matzoh brie)!!

These tacos were really good.  I loved the slaw and the chipotle-greek yogurt sauce had a great flavor while keeping the tacos light and healthy.  I didn't even miss the rice in the Cheesecake Factory version!

And what did I do with the extra 1/2 avocado?  Ate it with a spoon, of course :)  Man, I love avocado!  It was a great "appetizer" for these tasty tacos.

Fish Tacos with Latin Slaw

Adapted from Eighty Twenty

Serves 2 (4 tacos)

2 tilapia (or other white fish) filet

1/4 cup white wine

1-2 tbsp lime juice (~1 limes)

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp crushed red chili flakes

1 tsp chili powder

4 -8" whole wheat tortillas

Latin Slaw

1 cup shredded purple and green cabbage

1/4 cup onion, sliced
1/2 avocado, sliced
1 tomatillo, peeled and diced

1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced

1 tbsp low fat mayonnaise

3 tbsp lime juice (~1 1/2 limes)

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp cumin

Sauce

6 oz fat free Greek yogurt

1 tbsp chipotle seasoning

Instructions:

Marinate fish filets in white wine, lime juice, and cumin in the refrigerator, at least 2 hours or overnight.

For slaw: Mix together cabbage, onion, avocado, tomatillo and jalapeño in a large bowl. In a small bowl whisk together lime juice, mayonnaise, oil, vinegar, cumin, salt, and pepper. Add to dry ingredients and refrigerate until ready to use.

For sauce: mix chipotle seasoning into yogurt and refrigerate until ready to use.

Grill fish filets until done (~2 1/2 min on the Foreman), then cut into 2" thick strips. Microwave flour tortillas covered by a damp paper towel for ~30 seconds, or until soft.

Add 2 tbsp sauce to tortilla, then add fish. On top add 1/4 cup Latin Slaw.  Enjoy!