Fish Tacos

I've always been a little wary of trying fish tacos; just afraid they might be too fishy or the texture of the fish weird in a taco, but after this meal I am completely sold.  Sheri and I found the sauce recipe online and just seasoned the tilapia with what sounded good and it was good;  so, so good.  I've been craving these just about every week since.

Fish Tacos


For the Fish:

I really love Tilapia.  It is a white fish that doesn't come across "fishy" at all and the texture has a perfect dense/ light, flakiness when cooked.  We bought prepackaged frozen filets, thawed them in water, pat to dry and season with: Lime Pepper, sprinkle of Chipotle, light sprinkle of Salt = perfect.  You could use Lemon Pepper too if you don't have the lime variation.  We used the George Foreman grill, easy peasy, and just checked on them a few times until they were golden and flaked.  You could also bake them in a dish in the oven with a little olive oil. butter, or maragrine on the bottom at 450 degrees 6min, turn over and bake 4 min, then turn over again and bake for another 4 minutes until flaky.

For the Sauce:

sauce by Recipezaar (now Food.com)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 package taco seasoning mix
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions

1. Combine sour cream, mayonnaise, cilantro, lemon juice and 2 tablespoons seasoning mix in small bowl (when we made this I think we ended up using the whole package of taco mix so, just go according to taste for yourself.)

Toppings

corn tortillas, softened and warmed in the microwave (no need to fry)

shredded cabbage or iceberg lettuce

chopped tomatoes

lime wedges for squeezing onto tacos * an absolute must in my opinion

shredded cheese, optional

Creamy Green Chili Chicken Enchiladas

We love enchiladas, red or green, in our house and even though we have a great go to recipe that never fails to please I am weakly attracted to any recipe that has the words "cream cheese" in the ingredient list.  I was intrigued by the idea of using it in an enchilada recipe and was excited to try these.  They were really good and different and this was a recipe with ingredients I would never have thought to use for such a classic, like the beans, but it totally worked.  As always, if I post it on here (and there are plenty of recipes I try that don't end up on the blog) then it is definitely something we enjoyed and will be making again.

Creamy Green Chili Chicken Enchiladas
My Kitchen Cafe

Filling:
3 cups cooked, chopped chicken
2 (4 oz.) cans of green chiles, lightly drained
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, cubed
1 can white or black beans, rinsed and drained * I used Great Northern Beans because I really like them and I had them on hand

Sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped onion (about 1/2 medium onion)
2 tablespoons flour
1/3 cup chicken broth
¼ cup milk
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 can (7 ounce) green chile enchilada sauce
½ cup sour cream

8 ounces (about 2 cups) Monterey jack cheese, shredded
8 medium (soft taco size) flour tortillas 

 * I made these using flour tortillas as given in the recipe because I always try to follow a recipe as is the first time I try it, even though we really prefer corn tortillas in our enchiladas.  It was still quite yummy and for those of you who like to use flour, you will love it, but in the end we still prefer corn and I will use those instead next time, which for us will make them perfect!

Handful of chopped fresh cilantro

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

In a medium bowl, combine the softened cream cheese and green chiles. Mix well. Add the chicken and black beans. Mix to combine. Set aside. 

In a large nonstick skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens and starts to turn translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir well. Cook for 1 minute, stirring. Slowly whisk in the chicken broth and milk. As you whisk and the mixture cooks, the flour will get less lumpy around the onions and the mixture will become smooth. Cook over medium heat until the mixture is bubbling and has thickened, about 4-5 minutes. Add salt and pepper. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the enchilada sauce and sour cream. 

Lightly grease a 9X13-inch baking dish. Spread about 1/4 cup of the sauce on the bottom of the dish. Fill each tortilla with about ½ cup of the chicken/cream cheese filling. Top with a small handful of shredded cheese, a couple tablespoonfuls for each enchilada. Save at least 1/2 cup cheese for the top of the enchiladas. Roll the tortillas up and place seam side down in the prepared baking dish. Continue filling enchiladas until the dish is full (I can easily fit 8 enchiladas in one pan). 

Pour the white sauce over the top of the enchiladas. Top with remaining cheese. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the enchiladas are bubbling, hot and lightly browned. Sprinkle fresh cilantro over the top and serve.  

Olive Garden Chicken and Gnocchi Soup

My mom and I enjoyed the soup and salad lunch at Olive Garden a few months ago and fell in love with their Chicken and Gnocchi soup.  Mmmm, so good. As soon as I got home I searched for a highly rated copycat recipe for it and found this.  Yummy.

Olive Garden Chicken and Gnocchi Soup
Recipezaar (now Food.com)

• 3-4 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups half-and-half
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 1 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 carrots, shredded
• 1/2 onions, diced
• 1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 to taste salt and pepper
• 1 (16 ounce) potato gnocchi
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Saute the onion, celery, garlic, carrot in oil over medium heat until onion is translucent.

Add chicken, chicken stock, half and half, salt and pepper, thyme. Heat to boiling, then add gnocchi. Gently boil for 4 minutes, then turn down to a simmer for 10 minutes.

Add spinach and cook for another 1-2 minutes until spinach is wilted.

(Heat to boiling and add cornstarch dissolved in 1-2 Tbsp water at this point if you want a thicker soup.).

Ladle into bowls and serve!

Southwest Flank Steak Salad

More of a concept than a recipe, this salad was grreat! ;o)

romaine lettuce
black beans
corn kernals
sauted peppers and onions
avocado
flank steak
creamy cilantro-lime dressing

Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing

I'm sure everyone has already tried some form of copycat Cafe Rio Dressing, I had actually tried one version before, but with fresh tomatillos, and thought it was blah.  I think the tomatillos gave it a murky, dirty kind of taste and texture, and maybe I just did something wrong, but when I came across this version, from a site who had similar experiences as mine, I was excited to give it a try again.  Our Best Bites uses green salsa rather than fresh tomatillos, and this version of the dressing was perfect.  



Creamy Lime-Cilantro Dressing
Recipe by Ourbestbites.com

1 pack (1oz) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix (regular or buttermilk, and ignore directions on the packet)
1C mayo
1/2 C milk (or buttermilk depending on which packet you buy)
1 lime
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 C roughly chopped cilantro
1/4 C green salsa*
hot sauce

 Place milk, mayo, and ranch mix in a blender.   Juice the lime in there too, you should get about 2T juice.  Toss in the garlic, cilantro and green salsa.  Blend 'er up.  Sample it and add hot sauce to taste.  Make it several hours ahead of time to allow it to thicken.

*A note about green salsa:
There are several brands of green salsa available in most supermarkets and they have various degrees of heat.  One of the most commonly seen brands is Hernandez.  Hernandez brand is a lot spicier than any of the others I've tried.  Even their medium green salsa is way too spicy for my liking.  I like to buy La Costena because their  medium is actually really mild.  That way I get all of the flavor of the tomatillos but I control the level of heat with the hot sauce.  If you're not used to buying green salsa, make sure to sample it first before you put it in the dressing so you know what you're getting into!

Flank Steak Marinade

I'd never made a flank steak before, but have always wanted to because, done right, they are such a tasty cut of beef.  This marinade was outstanding.  We used this for for fajitas and also a fabulous southwest salad with cliantro-lime dressing- oh, it was so good.

Marinade for Flank Steak 

Recipezaar Recipe #42316

5 min | 5 min prep

• 3/4 cup oil
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon parsley

1. Mix oil, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, mustard,lemon juice and parsley together in a large zip lock bag.
2. Marinade beef over night.

How to Make Flank Steak

I followed Pioneer Woman's tutorial on how to properly cook a flank steak.  Here are her directions and here are her photo by photo instructions.

* I found that cooking it for 5-7 minutes on each side left mine a little to red in the center for our tastes, so I just sliced the steak accordingly anyway and then put the slices back on the pan for a few seconds.  Worked like a charm and didn't dry out the meat.  Just don't leave them on for very long at all, if you do it that way.

Remove flank steak from package and give it a quick rinse. Coat both sides of the meat with marinade. Refrigerate for at least 3 to 6 hours.

Remove the steak from the marinade and place on a plate while you heat up the grill pan. Make sure to turn on your overhead exhaust fan as the cooking process can be quite smoky.

When the pan is extremely hot, place the steak on a slight angle as this makes for more appealing grill marks. Cook without touching for about 1 ½ to 2 minutes. Rotate the meat about 45 degrees, keeping it on the same side, and cook for another 1 ½ minutes.

Now flip it to the other side. Cook using the same method on the other side, cooking for 1 1/2 minutes, then rotating it and finishing the cooking process. I cook the flank streak to medium rare, which usually takes about 5 to 7 minutes total cooking time. Remove the meat to a cutting board and let it rest for a few minutes before slicing.

When you’re ready, thinly slice the meat against the grain. That means find the directional striations/lines in the meat grain and slice perpendicular to it.

Controversial Optional Sauce: Before grilling the flank steak, strain the marinade into a small saucepan. Discard what stays in the sieve. Add ½ cup of water to the marinade. Boil the marinade while heating the grill for the meat AND add an additional 10 minutes. The point of boiling, obviously, is to take away any risk of bacteria from the marinade. Also, by boiling for ten to fifteen minutes, the sauce will reduce and slightly thicken. Then just spoon a little into a dish and use it as a dipping sauce for the meat.