Fish Tacos

First off.... I would like to acknowledge the best mom in the world today by saying:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!


Now back to your regularly scheduled blog-


The first time I had ever heard of a fish taco, I was in a restaurant in San Diego

I saw a sign that said "Home of the Fish Tacos"  I seriously thought it was a joke

I mean, who would eat fish in a taco?  Really!

When I found out it was real, I was not about to try it.

I was sure it was nasty. 

I already wasn't in love with fish... so that sealed the deal.

No fish tacos for this girl.

Well, a few years went by and I started seeing them around.

Not in a crazy sort of dilusional way! :)  But you know... on menu's and stuff.

I think they're becoming more popular in the midwest.

I got curious and though I still haven't tried one in a restaurant, I wanted to try them

What better way to do that then to make them myself and blog about it?

So... here is my made up recipe for fish tacos. 

I hope you will be brave enough to try them!


Ingredients:        
2 lbs Tilapia
1/2 Tbs coarse sea salt
4 Tbs Olive oil
1 lime
10-15 6" flour tortillas
1/2 C Tartar sauce (see below for recipe)
(* = optional)
*Shredded lettuce
*Shredded Cheese
*Cilantro, chopped
* Taco sauce or hot sauce
*Tomatoes, diced

Ingredients for Tartar sauce:
1/2 C Mayo
2 1/2 Tbs relish
1/8 tsp lemon juice
Mix together and serve

Directions:
Pre heat grill  (if you want to bake them see this recipe for cooking directions)
Place thawed fish fillets on a foil lined cookie sheet and brush them on both sides with olive oil
Sprinkle with Sea salt on both sides

Squeeze juice from a lime wedge over fillets
Place fish on grill  for about 5 to 7 minutes per side (when the bottom turns white you can flip it)

Fish will turn white and flake easily when done

While fish is cooking shred cheese & lettuce

To Serve:
Heat tortillas slightly in oven or microwave
Add tartar sauce to tortilla then add fish and toppings

squeeze a little more lime over it

(You can serve the fish in chunks, strips or shredded if you like. We liked big strips)
Fold up and enjoy!

***Review:
These were awesome!  I am so excited!  Not only did I love them... but the kids ALL loved them.  Hubs had to add hot sauce to his (he adds it to everything) and loved his as well.  There was very little leftover. These are going on the favorite list in this house!  Why did I wait so long to try these? 

**Tips:
Fish is tricky to grill.  I had never done it before yesterday.  The olive oil helped it to not stick, but I would recommend spraying your grill before you start cooking. (please do not spray it while the grill is lit... or you will lose your eyebrows.... or worse)  Definitely use a large metal spatula.  I tried tongs, but the fish is just too delicate and breaks.  Just and FYI, my grill was at about 350 degrees while I was cooking.  But if you don't have a temp guage, I would recommend watching it closely.  It doesn't take that long too cook.  Because my grill is old and cooks unevenly, I had to move the fish around a bit.  So your grill may cook quicker.
As for seasoning, I would definitely add the cliantro next time... I didn't think of it until I was home and was not about to take all the kids to the store for one thing.
And yes... you can use other kinds of fish... I just happen to like tilapia because it's not "fishy" tasting.

Printable recipe:

Ingredients:        
2 lbs Tilapia
1/2 Tbs coarse sea salt
4 Tbs Olive oil
1 lime
10-15 6" flour tortillas
1/2 C Tartar sauce (see below for recipe)
(* = optional)
*Shredded lettuce
*Shredded Cheese
*Cilantro, chopped
* Taco sauce or hot sauce

Ingredients for Tartar sauce:
1/2 C Mayo
2 1/2 Tbs relish
1/8 tsp lemon juice
Mix together and serve

Directions:
Pre heat grill  (if you want to bake them see this recipe for cooking directions)
Place thawed fish fillets on a foil lined cookie sheet and brush them on both sides with olive oil
Sprinkle with Sea salt on both sides
Squeeze juice from a lime wedge over fillets
Place fish on grill  for about 5 to 7 minutes per side (when the bottom turns white you can flip it)
Fish will turn white and flake easily when done
While fish is cooking shred cheese & lettuce

To Serve:
Heat tortillas slightly in oven or microwave
Add tartar sauce to tortilla then add fish and toppings
squeeze a little more lime over it
(You can serve the fish in chunks, strips or shredded if you like. We liked big strips)
Fold up and enjoy!

Garlic Shrimp Pasta

This is a recipe I modified from one my Aunt makes.

She was born and raised on an island in Italy and is a wonderful cook.

I grew up watching her cook and bake .... and I loved it!

One day she came to my dad's house with some linguini.... went to his garden and cut up some fresh tomatoes... added some diced garlic, fresh basil leaves, olive oil and a little salt... and there was her dish to pass.

It was awesome!! 

It was room temperature and a quick easy pasta "salad" and sooo fresh tasting.

I was thinking while I was eating it that some shrimp scampi would be great over top of this... then I thought maybe some spinach... and boom... a new recipe was born.

She laughs when I tell her I came up with this from her simple pasta salad.

Anyway, I love this dish. 

I don't make it very often because shrimp can be expensive and also, it's a little time consuming to make.

But I knew it was definitely a recipe I had to share on my blog

So when shrimp went on sale... I was all over it.

I hope you enjoy it as much as the rest of us!

Ingredients:
6 C Fresh spinach, cut up
1 Bag shrimp, raw
10+ Cloves of garlic, diced
8 Roma tomatoes, diced (= to about 4 cups diced)  *Or you can use petite diced tomatoes  maybe 2-3 cans
1/2 C Olive oil
1 Tbs butter
1 tsp garlic salt... or more to taste
1 Box linguini
*1/4 C Fresh Parmesan cheese (optional topping)

Directions:
Cut up spinach, tomatoes and garlic first (set aside)

Shell and de-vein shrimp (set aside)
In large pot, bring water to boil for Linguini
Boil noodles until done (aprox 8-10 minutes)
While noodles are boiling:
Add about 2 Tbs olive oil to a large fry pan
Add about half the garlic and sautee lightly

Add the spinach until it gets soft and wilty

Add the diced tomatoes and cook until warm

Set the cooked veggies aside
In another fry pan, (on Med/high heat) add 2 more Tbs of olive oil and  1/4 of the garlic you have left
Add 1 Tbs butter and shrimp

cook just until pink

Sprinkle with garlic salt to taste
As soon as shrimp is done, add in veggie mix and cook about 2 minutes until heated through

When pasta is done, drain & rinse
Place pasta back in pan and add remaining olive oil and garlic to it (you can salt it also)
Serve by adding pasta to individual bowls and topping with shrimp mixture.

***Review:
We all love this dish. Because of a shellfish allergy, we don't allow the little kids to eat shrimp yet, but the two older ones loooooove this dish!  Of course the 8 yr old picks out the spinach & tomato, but that's to be expected.  This is a family favorite for sure.  The little kids are happy to eat garlic noodles with parmesan on top! 


**Tips:
Definitely make sure you have your shrimp,veggies, and pasta water prepped before you start.  It makes it a lot easier.  I didn't boil the pasta 1st this time and I was all off.  The shrimp was done way before the pasta...


lots of multitasking going on here

 and FYI... if you let shrimp keep cooking after they're done, they will get dry and rubbery.  So you want to stop cooking them right after they turn pink. I just took them off the heat until the pasta was done and re heated them quickly right before we ate.  It was a pain though.
Seeding roma tomatoes is ideal. It makes them less watery... which is what you want.  Here is a photo of how it looks.  Just slice in half from the top down and scoop out the seeds.  It's pretty easy.

Tomato on the left is seeded, tomato on the right is not

Also, I hope the recipe makes sense.  I've never written it down before now, so I kind of wrote it as I went.  Please feel free to ask if you have any questions or if I wasn't clear on something!
I hope you love it just as much as we do!



For printable directions see below:

Ingredients:
6 C Fresh spinach, cut up
1 Bag shrimp, raw
10+ Cloves of garlic, diced
8 Roma tomatoes, diced (= to about 4 cups diced)  *Or you can use petite diced tomatoes  maybe 2-3 cans
1/2 C Olive oil
1 Tbs butter
1 tsp garlic salt... or more to taste
1 Box linguini
*1/4 C Fresh Parmesan cheese (optional topping)

Directions:
Cut up spinach, tomatoes and garlic first (set aside)
Shell and de-vein shrimp (set aside)
In large pot, bring water to boil for Linguini
Boil noodles until done (aprox 8-10 minutes)
While noodles are boiling:
Add about 2 Tbs olive oil to a large fry pan
Add about half the garlic and sautee lightly
Add the spinach until it gets soft and wilty
Add the diced tomatoes and cook until warm
Set the cooked veggies aside
In another fry pan, (on Med/high heat) add 2 more Tbs of olive oil and  1/4 of the garlic you have left
Add 1 Tbs butter and shrimp and cook until pink
Sprinkle with garlic salt to taste
As soon as shrimp is done, add in veggie mix and cook about 2 minutes until heated through
When pasta is done, drain & rinse
Place pasta back in pan and add remaining olive oil and garlic to it (you can salt it also)
Serve by adding pasta to individual bowls and topping with shrimp mixture.

Baked Tilapia

Ingredients:
- 4 (4 ounce) fillets tilapia
- 2 teaspoons butter
- 1/4 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning (or to taste)
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt (or to taste)
- 2 Tbs lemon juice
- Fresh or frozen broccoli or Cauliflower

 

Directions:

 

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
• Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
• Place the tilapia fillets in the bottom of the baking dish and dot with butter.
• Season with Old Bay seasoning, lemon juice and garlic salt.
• Arrange the vegetables around the fish
• Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender and fish flakes easily with a fork.

 

 

***Review:YUMMY! I know not everyone likes fish or even knows how to cook it. But it's easy! I think you'd be surprised! And it only takes a few minutes to put it all together! As for the taste...This fish was great! Tilapia is a very mild tasting fish.
I have never added the fresh broccoli to the baking pan before but it was an awesome addition... it tasted great too... and it was one less thing for me to cook. The kids loved it (minus 1) and the hubs and I loved it too!
**Tips:
A couple pointers on this one- You can add as little or as much seasoning as you'd like. It's all about your taste preferences really... but this recipe is a base to start with. I used frozen Tilapia from a bag. It goes on sale often and I just buy a few bags and use them when I need them. You could thaw them and cook them that way too, it really doesn't matter. If they are fresh or thawed, you may have a shorter cooking time. I just love it when I don't have to thaw meat out before I cook it... call me lazy. I like to call it busy...lol
I also added fresh broccoli to the pan, but you could use frozen too and it doesn't have to be broccoli.. you could add other veggies too. (Fresh carrots would not work well though because they take forever to cook).
I served this with instant mashed potatoes and pickled beats because I was busy, got distracted and forgot to make the flavored rice that I originally planned to serve with this. :) Lucky for me no one noticed!
Any questions?