Last night, we had a hankering for fish tacos.  I remembered seeing an incredible looking fish taco recipe on BrokeAss Gourmet and decided to give it a go!

Gabi’s creation called for the following ingredients:

• 1/2 lb red snapper fillets (2-3 small fillets)
• 1/2 cup i.p.a. beer (I like Big Daddy or Lagunitas)
• 2/3 cup flour plus more for dusting fish
• salt
• vegetable oil for frying
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 mango, diced
• 2 Roma tomatoes, diced
• 1 small bunch cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 jalapeño, seeded and diced finely
• 6 corn tortillas
• 2 tbsp crumbled cotija cheese

Unfortunately I didn’t have some of the key ingredients, so I decided to use her original recipe as inspiration and create a fish taco recipe of my own.

I substituted the red snapper in this case with a 1-1/2lb slab of fresh Atlantic Salmon (price: $11.10).  I also couldn’t find cotija cheese, so I substituted with crumbled Greek feta cheese (price: $2.49/ 4-oz container) and crumbled Gorgonzola cheese (price: $2.49/ 4-oz container).

Next, rather than battering the fish and frying it up as Gabi’s recipe called for, I instead opted for a different method of cooking the salmon.  I first heated up about 2 TBS. of olive oil in a large pan.  I then placed the slab of salmon into the pan and seasoned it with Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Magic Salmon Seasoning, which I already had in my spice cabinet.  You can use a simple combination of salt and pepper and fresh lemon as an alternative to the seasoning mix.  I seared the seasoned portion of salmon (skin side down) for about 3-4 minutes on the stove top.  I then moved the pan into a pre-heated oven and cooked it for about 10-11 minutes at 380°F.

The result is a perfectly moist salmon fillet ready for a taco party!

While the salmon is cooking in the oven, cut up your avocado, mango, onion, lime, jalapeño, cilantro, tomato and a pinch of salt ( *I added a hefty squeeze of fresh lemon and lime juice to mine).  Combine in a large bowl and toss together.

Time to EAT

To assemble the tacos:  top each softshell tortilla with a few pieces of seared salmon, a couple of large spoonfuls of the homemade salsa, and a sprinkle of either of the crumbled cheeses over top.

Perfect Wine Pairing 

Oregon Pinot Gris.  They’re usually very clean, crisp, and possess racy citrus qualities that pair perfectly with these (salmon) fish tacos – and Oregon definitely knows a thing or two about Salmon.  Consider trying King Estate Pinot Gris or Willamette Valley Vineyards Pinot Gris.

If you’re looking for a terrific and easy summer meal to feed 4 hungry adults, this one is sure to be a big hit with everyone!

Bon Appétit!

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The criteria for this particular evening:

1. Bring a bottle of Pinot Noir from anywhere on the planet priced less than $30.
2. After getting “bagged”, our judges were to utilize two scoring methods to give each Pinot Noir a fair shot at finding love in the dark:  The WL365 method and a 25 Point Wine Scorecard to evaluate each wine based on appearance, aroma, body, taste, and finish.
3. We combined the scores of each one to find out who got some love and who got the cold shoulder from the panel.

 Our panel sure looks raring to go!

Our lovely hostess Candice showed off her dazzling cooking skills with several scrumptious Pinot Noir friendly recipes.  A few were from the book titled, “Oregon Bounty Recipes”, and one was an old family recipe of lollipop lamb chops with fresh rosemary, parsley and garlic  that was simply out of this world GOOD!

Lamb Chops:

Oregon Dungeness Crab Cakes:

Baked Foreleg Pears with Proscuitto and Blue Cheese:

And no wine tasting party would complete without a little cheese – we had several fancy–shmancy selections to choose from:  Tomme Aydius (France), Kunik (Nettle Meadow) (US), Fontina Val d’Aosta D.O.C, and Pleasant Ridge Reserve from Dodgeville, Wisconsin.

And to top things off, we had a magnificent mascarpone cheesecake to ensure that our daily dairy requirements would be fully met by the end of the night.  Unfortunately my photographer called it quits by this point in the evening, so I don’t have a picture of the cheesecake.

Now back to the wine!  It’s just you, an empty glass, and 9 brown-bagged Pinot Noirs!  Here were some of the comments:

Brown Bag #1 – Our tasters said: “I liked it. One of my favorites!” “Low.” “Peppery, tannic.” “It’s ok…kind of tarry and smoky tasting.”

Brown Bag #2 – Our tasters said: “More balance of fruit and pepper than Brown Bag #1.” “Stinky Feet.” “Smoky, a bit veg. Crazy stuff, interesting.”

Brown Bag #3 – Our tasters said: “Fresh berry nose. Tart berry taste.  Absolutely no finish.  It’s like drinking stale Kool-Aid.” “Licorice, sweet aroma.” “Did not like at all.  Weak.  No flavors to mention.” “Everyday drinking type of Pinot Noir.”

Brown Bag #4 – Our tasters said: “Black pepper, spices and berries. It’s ok in every way.” “Sugary, sweet aroma.” “Almost watery appearance. No real legs running down the glass.” “Peppery on the finish.  Great wine!”

Brown Bag #5 – Our tasters said: “Burnt tar, very tannic, nice berry flavors, a bit hot on the alcohol.” “Dry.” “Pinkish color, upfront strawberry flavors, low pepper and spice.”

Brown Bag #6 – Our tasters said: “Slight tannin, no fruit flavors”. “Light from start to finish. Flowery strawberry and licorice notes”. “Bright aroma, medium length, dry”.

Brown Bag #7 – Our tasters said: “Good everyday Pinot Noir.  Good Thanksgiving wine.” “My favorite.” “Pretty, nice balance of fruit and spices.” “My 2nd favorite of the bunch.” “I like this wine a lot, good combo of fruit and oak, super long finish.”

Brown Bag #8 – Our tasters said: “Very enjoyable Pinot Noir.”  “Big on the nose, I like it.” “Peppery notes on the nose.” “Peppery, smooth, great with food.” 

Brown Bag #9 – Our tasters said: “Astringent, leggy, brown, tannic, pepper, little fruit.” “Long finish.” “Peppery notes on the nose.” “A bit veg on the nose, brownish tint, very disappointing, bad.” 

Let’s reveal their identities and find out who found love in the dark and who didn’t:

9th Place – Brown Bag #9 – 2005 Cambria Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir Julia’s Vineyard ($25)

8th Place – Brown Bag #6 – 2008 Willamette Valley Vineyards “Whole Cluster Fermented” Pinot Noir (Received as a sample. $19 SRP)

7th Place – Brown Bag #3 – 2008 Domaine Cornu-Camus Pernand-Vergelesses ($25)  

6th Place – Brown Bag #4 – 2008 Wild Rock Pinot Noir ($17)

5th Place – Brown Bag #2 – 2007 Valdivieso Reserva Pinot Noir ($15.50)

4th Place – Brown Bag #5 – 2007 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir (Received as a sample. $25 SRP)   

3rd Place – Brown Bag #1 – 2007 Orogeny Pinot Noir Green Valley ($25)

2nd Place – Brown Bag #8 – 2008 Fess Parker “Santa Barbara County” Pinot Noir ($23)    

1st Place and the Winner of this tasting was Brown Bag #7 – 2007 Acacia “Carneros” Pinot Noir ($20)

A very special thanks to Candice and Rob Holden for hosting and to all that participated in this blind tasting.  Looking forward to the next one…Cheers!

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Luckily, I did not give up on this tasty dish even after having less than stellar results using their instructions.  I think that I may have struck gold, though, by using a combination of both suggested methods with my own little spin on them!

First, poke a few holes in the plastic and cook it in the microwave for about six minutes.  This will thaw it out a bit and get it ready for oven cooking.

I have 2 different recommendations for completion:

1.  Pan sear it a bit on the stovetop and then finish it off by placing it in a 385 degree oven for about 12 minutes.

 -OR-

2.  After taking it out of the microwave, cook it up on a medium/high heat stovetop for about 2 minutes on each side.

Either way works perfectly and yields the warm, white, flaky decadence that’s pictured on the packaging label.  Just remember, with either option, to coat your pan with plenty of olive oil to keep the fish from becoming permanently affixed to it forever!

Finally, to give this dish the Love TKO, serve this up on a dinner plate over an arugula salad.  While you’re at Trader Joe’s pick up a bag of baby arugula.  In a mixing bowl – Add olive oil, lemon juice, salt –n- pepper, and the arugula.  Mix together.

On a dinner plate, place a portion of the “arugula salad” down first.  Then top it with the Tilapia Citronette.  Pair it with an Argentinean Torrontes like the 2009 Alamos Torrontes and you’ve got a party!  If you want a little something extra, you can also add your choice of steamed vegetables.

Salud!

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Here’s a hot and spicy, low-fat, late-night snack idea to cozy up with that will have your taste buds bustin’ loose.

Step 1: The Ingredients:

• Wheat pita bread
• Fat Free Desert Pepper Trading Company Spicy Black Bean Dip
• Altovinum Evodia Old Vines Garnacha from Spain

Step 2: Eat, Drink and be Merry

• First, dip pita bread into dip, then place in mouth; take a sip of this wine then holla YOWZAH!!

This little nocturnal treat is way better for you and your sanity!  Just ask Melodi Dushane.  She is a much healthier and happier person who no longer frequents the McDonald’s on 90 Main Street.  I’m just hoping that she doesn’t go apeshit on one of those nice Trader Joe’s employees when she can’t get this Bean Dip there!

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By: P. Collins

If you’ve ever uttered anything like - “I can’t cook”, “Cooking takes so long”, “Cooking is so hard”, then I’ve got an easy recipe for you to try at home.  This meal idea takes less than 15 minutes to prepare – tastes GREAT and is healthy too!  That’s right – Less than 15 minutes from start to your plate… tastes great …and…and…and – it’s good for you! 

Yep, this “you can have it all meal” from Health.com is called Garlic Ginger Shrimp, and it left everyone begging for more.

Here are the ingredients that you’ll need:

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (use olive oil, bit better for you)
• 2 tablespoons grated or minced peeled fresh ginger  (the dry stuff is fine, find it in the spice aisle)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced (buy the already chopped stuff in the produce area)
• 1 pound medium shrimp, thawed, peeled, and deveined (buy a bag of frozen, COOKED shrimp) 
• 1/4 cup rice wine or dry white wine
• 1/2 cup chopped scallions
• 2 cups hot cooked brown rice (use Success boil in bag brown rice – throw in the microwave, takes 10 minutes)

Okay, pay close attention now, this is where it gets really tricky… – first, throw the first 6 ingredients listed above into a warm/heated pan and cook them up.  Next, cook rice in microwave.  Third, put a cup of cooked rice onto a plate.  Lastly, spoon shrimp mixture over top of cooked rice and Eat.

“Teachable moments”

1) Start the cooking when you are ready to eat – if having salad or something, eat that first then do the cooking – this meal is best served up as soon as its done, reheating or keeping it warm isn’t so great. 

2) Notice that ingredient #5 is rice wine…not rice wine vinegar which I somehow got in my head.  My version turned out great, but I lost sleep imagining just how AWESOME it could have been had I read that ingredient right.

3) Recipe calls for medium shrimp (might be labeled as 41/50 in your store), but my shrimps were scrimps (i.e. – tiny runt shrimps) – so you might want to go for medium large (labeled as 36/40) or maybe even large (labeled as 31/35).

In summary, if you try to cook this recipe and can’t: A). you fall into the category “moronic human”; B). all eating privileges should be taken from you.

What’s a good wine pairing to go with this dish?   I paired it with a white blend from California’s Clayhouse Wines, called “Adobe White”.  This 2008 Central Coast White wine packs an interesting blend of 22% Viognier, 18% Sauvignon Blanc, 17% Grenache Blanc, 16% Roussanne, 6% Chardonnay and 5% Chenin Blanc – Shew, what a mouthful!  But, trust me – this perfectly allocated white wine will do right by this tasty shrimp dish.  For another take on this very different California white wine, here’s what the folks at Clayhouse have to say:

“The Adobe White is a blend created for that passionate, adventurous white wine lover inside you, elemental like the adobe but elegant with exotic floral and fruit aroma and flavors”.

There you have it, an easy, affordable and healthy supper with a rather usual California white wine to boot. 

Bon Appetite!

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