Fish Tacos with Kaffir Lime Aioli

The other day I saw one of my friend's post on Facebook that his wife made him fish tacos. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't invited but that just made me crave it even more. This dish is pretty simple but has a lot of components. I'll try to break it down as easy as possible.

Fish preparations:

2 pounds tilapia filets
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 tablespoon cayenne peppery
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder

Directions:

Combine all ingredients and mix well, let it marinate for at least 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350°. Place parchment paper on a baking sheet and bake the fish for approximately for 15 minutes (be careful to not overcook, you want the fish to still look and taste moist).

Korean/Spanish rice:

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 shallot thinly sliced
1 cup brown Korean rice
32 ounces chicken stock
2 Roma tomatoes (roughly chopped)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder

Directions:

In a deep sauce pan, sauté the shallots in butter and add rice once all the butter melts. Add tomatoes and all the dry ingredients. Then add 1/3 of the stock and cook rice in medium high heat and keep it covered. Once most of the liquid has reduce add another 1/3 of the stock. Repeat this again until all the stock is gone and the rice is cooked.

Cabbage aioli slaw:

1/2 head of red/purple cabbage (thinly sliced)
1 cup kaffir lime aioli

Directions:

Blanch the cabbage in a pot of boiling hot water for about 3 minutes. Strain and let cool. Add kaffir lime aioli (see previous post for this recipe) and toss.

Pico de gallo:

1/2 large onion (diced)
2 jalapenos (diced)
1/2 cup cilantro (roughly chopped)
1 medium tomato (diced)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Juice of 1 lime

Directions:

Mix all ingredients well and adjust salt and sour preference by adding salt or lime juice.

Assembling tacos:

You're going to need tortillas (I used flour) and lettuce. Simply layer the lettuce on top of the tortilla, and then just add the rice, slaw, and pico de gallo. Drizzle with extra ailoi and enjoy.

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Cilantro Garlic Aioli Dip/Spread

This was my 1st attempt in trying to recreate the aioli from my Miami trip. I've been too lazy to try to find some cassava (yucca) root to fry so I decided to make a flaky pastry bowl instead. To those of you who went on the trip with me, I know...it's a lot greener than it was at the restaurant. I might have been a little heavy handed on the cilantro. I should also tell you that the flaky pastry attempt wasn't so successful either, well, halfway successful at least. It was definitely flaky but it was also very dense. Just goes to show on test kitchen days at Bistro 331 not all goes well all the time. I'll spare you the details on making the pastry and concentrate on the aioli instead.

Ingredients:

3 egg whites
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon crushed mustard seeds
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup loosely packed cilantro
1 teaspoon sugar

Directions:

Combine all ingredients except oil into food processor. Process all of the ingredients for about 1 to 2 minutes. Slowly drizzle oil with processor on slow speed. Continue until all of the oil has been added to the mixture. Continue processing for another 15 seconds after. You can serve this right away with some flat bread, chips, fried yucca or even french fries. If you want it to thicken a little bit, let mixture chill in the refrigerator for about an hour or so.

I'll try to recreate this again one day and maybe i'll get the color, texture, and flavor on point.

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Chicken Quesadillas with Fire Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

I'll be going out of town this weekend so no cooking for me. But I wanted to post a little something you can do with leftover tortillas. You might have to actually go but the tomatillos though, I'll be surprised if you had leftovers of that. Everyone enjoy your weekend and if you have questions, comments or request feel free to post a comment.

Chicken quesadilla with fire roasted tomatillo salsa

Salsa:

5 tomatillos
3 garlic cloves
1 large jalapeno
14 grape tomatoes
Several sprigs cilantro
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:

Place 1st 3 items on foil and underneath the broiler until charred. Flip until other side is charred as well. I even used a torch afterwards to ensure charredness (if that's a word). Add ingredients to food processor and blend until all items are thoroughly mixed. Add salt to desired taste. Add roughly chopped cilantro and thinly sliced tomatoes and mix well.

Chicken quesadilla:

3 chicken breast
1/2 tablespoon paprika
1/2 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil

Tortillas
Cheddar cheese
Monterrey jack cheese

Directions:

Mix 1st 8 ingredients well and cook in oven at 375° for about 10 minutes or until chicken is done.

Place 1st type of cheese on tortilla, then add chicken (cut in strips), then add other cheese and place another tortilla on top and cook for 5-7 minutes at 375°. Cut into quarters or eighths and serve.

I also like to add sour cream on top as well, this will help to tone down the heat from the salsa. If you don't have any sour cream, you can do like me and make something similar it really is a "sour" cream.

1/2 lemon juice and zest
1/4 heavy cream
Pinch of salt

Mix well until it starts to thicken and then serve on top of quesadilla.

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Braised Short Rib Taco with Avocado Salsa

At first I was just going to eat leftovers and just call it a night. But I figured since I had to peel and prep some papaya salad for tomorrow's party I had some time on my hands to whip something up. Looked in the freezer and I found 3 boneless short ribs. Then I looked in the refrigerator and saw some avocados that I didn't want to go bad since I'm leaving town for the weekend. So this is what I came up with.


Short rib ingredients:

3 boneless short ribs (1 1/2 lbs)
3 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly cracked black pepper
2 cups chicken stock
4 Roma tomatoes (double quartered)
2 sprigs basil (chopped)
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 medium shallot (diced)
2 garlic cloves (diced)
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
Several tortillas

Directions:

Evenly coat short ribs with salt and pepper. In a hot pan add oil and ribs until all sides are dark brown. add shallots and garlic. Immediately add chicken stock after shallots are transparent. Then add all other ingredients. I cheated and used a pressure cooker and cooked for 35 minutes. If you don't have a pressure cooker you can cooked in a regular stock pot with the lid covered until meat is fork tender. After meat is tender, continue to reduce liquid in pot until reduced half way. Stain liquid into separate bowl and mix in with short ribs. This will keep it moist and tender.

Avocado salsa ingredients:

3 medium avocados (diced)
5 cherry tomatoes (quartered)
1/4 white onion (diced)
Pinch of kosher salt
1/4 juice of lime
Several sprigs of cilantro (roughly chopped)
1 jalapeno (diced)

Directions:

Mix all ingredients well but be careful and do not work it to hard. You want a salsa and not mushy guacamole.

Finally, combine meat and salsa on top of tortilla and enjoy!

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