French Fridays with Dorie – Salmon and Potatoes in a Jar | Great Food 360°

French Fridays with Dorie – Salmon and Potatoes in a Jar | Great Food 360°

So, our good friend Adriana at Great Food 360° is a member of French Fridays with Dorrie - a group of intrepid food bloggers cooking their way through Dorrie Greenspan's Around My French Table. Each Friday, they post their interpretation of that week's recipe. As it happens, this week's recipe was Salmon and Potatoes in a jar - fitting in nicely with the B&P Meat Hiatus. Adriana asked if I'd like to fill in, and I happily obliged. How did I do?

Well, go take a look!

Cajun Mahi Mahi Sandwich

The last month or two of entries have been a little complicated - not too challenging, but requiring a good bit of prep work in spots. We'll shift gears today, and go with something quick and easy that you can put together in 10 - 15 minutes. Purists beware, the only thing actually remotely cajun about this is the guy on the seasoning container. Everybody else: It tastes good.

Smoked Steelhead with Roasted Garlic Sriracha Schmear

I really miss my grill. It was nothing special - a decent Char-Broil propane grill -  but it was mine. It was also apparently a fire hazard on my 8th floor balcony. So, it got replaced by an electric unit that tries hard, but isn't quite the same. No fire, no char, and the grill marks kind of just taste burnt. As you might imagine, I was excited to recently discover some indoor options for smoking food. The good people at Nordic Ware have developed the lovely stovetop smoker to your right, and the better people at Amazon sold it to me at 40% off with free shipping. Imagine a sort of Aluminum dutch oven with a high domed lid, smoking rack, and built in thermometer. Visions of brisket and pork butt have been dancing through my head since I purchased it. And of course, it arrived right in the middle of our Meat Hiatus.

Bollinos (Fish Balls)!

So, it's been all together too long since we've had any balls here at Balls and Pie (Don't worry, we've had plenty of pie). If you've been keeping up, and read about our delicious curried tilapia tacos, then you know we're on a meat hiatus. I'm going to repeat that, just because I enjoy the term: Meat Hiatus. Well, except for fish, and according to Ron Swanson, (the official fictional libertarian of Balls & Pie) it's pretty much a vegetable anyway. So, in search of something appropriate to share with you, my internet overlords, I discovered Bollinos - Codfish Balls! They were a pleasantly tasty surprise.

Curried Tilapia Fish Tacos

In which our fearless heroes make delicious fish tacos, nearly from scratch. Also, some guacamole. Sometimes, things just come together. Hannibal would have loved it. So, a month and change of traveling, road food, barbecue and other excess has caught up to us here at B&P HQ, and we're going pescatarian for awhile. To celebrate the first opportunity to prepare something more exciting than Costco's Ultimate Fish Sticks, I decided to try something pretty different, and go for a latin/carribean/subcontinental sort of meal. So, with a refrigerator full of fish, and armed with a couple pounds of masa, I got to work.

Pan Roasted Tilapia with Rosemary and Lemon

After fighting off a nasty cold for the better part of the week, I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate my newly returned senses of smell and taste with some nice, lighter aromatic fare. I'd intended to try Michael Symon's Fennel, Garlic and Rosemary poached halibut, but couldn't find any fennel. It also turned out that I'd apparently opted for the bag full of frozen tilapia, rather than the more expensive halibut at my last trip to Costco.

(Sidenote: Costco carries a varying selection of flash frozen, individual vacuum sealed frozen fish that retain fairly high quality for an extended period of time - can't recommend it enough if you're like me and don't always get around to preparing that fresh cut of meat or fish in a timely manner. The tuna's hit and miss, but I've gotten great results from mahi mahi, halibut, tilapia, grouper, sea bass, steelhead, and salmon).

Heating up the pan

So, I pulled out the fish to thaw, and lo and behold, I'd purchased Tilapia loins, rather than fillets. I kind of know my way around a cow or pig, but I'd never heard of fish loin before. Long story short, it was pretty long, not wide at all, and rather thick. Loin shaped, indeed. While I'd generally sauté tilapia fillet (a few minutes each side over medium in olive oil works pretty good for most preparations), I was concerned about cooking the loin all the through. This seemed like a good opportunity to test out some pan roasting techniques I'd been reading about of late.

Almost Fish Tacos

So, while I feel like my first non-intro post should be about something either ball or pie related, the things that finally got me off my ass to get something on the web were the fish tacos I attempted to make yesterday. As it turned out, my surprisingly tasty whole wheat flax seed tortillas were moldy, but I was very pleased with the fish.

I used (and generally, unless I've really got myself together, I use whatever I've got around the house):

Mahi Mahi

Flour

Corn Meal

Black Pepper

Cajun Seasoning (Joe's stuff)

Cayenne Pepper

Olive Oil

Lemon Juice

Garlic Powder

Onion Powder

Kosher salt

Salt

Hot Sauce (Cholula Chili garlic, in this case)

Paprika

Chipotle Chili Powder

Also, I made tomato/onion based salsa, and some brown rice, which were fine, but nothing special, and probably easily replaced with your favorite fish taco toppings.

I cut the mahi into 7 strips - about 1/2" - 3/4" thick, and 3" long or so. 

For a fast marinade, I mixed about 1/3 of a cup of olive oil, with a couple tbsp lemon juice, and a tsp of hot sauce, then spiced with some liberally with chipotle chili powder, black pepper, pinch of kosher salt and just a bit of cajun seasoning. 

You may have figured out by now that I'm not real big on precise measurements.

After blending thoroughly with a fork, I tossed the mahi strips in the marinade (just enough to cover the mahi strips with a nice layer), and let sit at room temperature for about 25 min.

Then, I made a  light dusting for the fish - 2 parts flour to 1 part cornmeal (just under a cup, total), with a couple tsps each cayenne, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, paprika and a pinch of salt. Each fish strip was taken from the marinade and rolled them through once to coat lightly. 

Lastly, I sauteed on both sides for about 3 minutes total (golden brown all around).

The results were surprisingly tasty - nice textured crust which complemented the spicy, slightly tart flavors underneath, and the firm, mild mahi that held up nicely. I got just a little hint of a saucy layer between the fish and crust, which was a nice surprise. Next time I try this, I might think about using a  little lighter fish like cod, and probably smaller pieces - to be a little more taco friendly.