Fish Tacos!

So we got all these tomatillos this week. And it turns out when you try to google "tomatillo recipes" all you get is... salsa. (Though to be fair, last week we made a rockin' tomatillo Indian chutney.) But in any event, we were psyched about the chance to try it out on fish tacos.

Yes, that's right, what you are about to see is 'just a Thursday night dinner.' *brag*

(1) Grill fish: Buy cheap white fish. (Not too cheap... food poisoning = waste of tomatillos.) Coat in olive oil, salt and pepper. Ideally grill on outdoor BBQ, but if you have any sort of grill pan for indoor cooking Small-NYC-Apartment style, that's delicious, too.

(2) Make salsa: Hoorah, Mark Bittman! I was initially thrown off that this recipe didn't involve blending, but it was totally right to keep things chunky. Gave the final product much more oomph. In summary: chop of tomatillos, garlic, onion, some sort of spicy pepper, cilantro; add cayenne, salt, lime.

(3) Make corn: Corn is good. Corn with spicy mayo and salt is better. (And healthier!) Combo'ed a few tbsp mayo with lime juice, cayenne and grated cheese. (Didn't have the fancy crumbly mexican cheese.)

(4) Make lettuce: Ummm... wash it. This will be the 'taco' (WARNING: actually healthy). Suggestion courtesy of Young Rhee.

(5) Eat fish in lettuce with sour cream and salsa. Side of corn. Bring many napkins. Reward self for healthy dinner with ice cream.

I'M BACK!

Yes, I know, you've all been checking the blog daily wondering, where did Annie go? Has she stopped eating? Is she on a hunger strike? No, nothing that exciting. Have been studying for the internal medicine board exams (blech), but kept taking pics of the foods we were making over the last two weeks. Here's a quick sample (and more to come now that I don't have to take another standardized test for ten years):

(1) Pizza with baby tomatoes, fresh basil, asparagus-tomato sauce, mozzarella and garlic. Not much of a recipe to write for that one.

(2) Santosh's Tomato Peach Salad. Bring water to a boil, and drop tomatoes and peaches in for a few seconds until skin splits. Take them out of hot water, put into ice bath, peel, chop up. Combo with feta, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper.

(3) Indian cabbage and potatoes.

Heat veggie oil with various Indian spices (mustard seeds, cumin, urad daal = a type of lentil) until the spices start to pop, then turn down heat. Add chopped onions and cubed potatoes (peeled, but not yet cooked) and cook on low heat, turning frequently. Sprinkle with salt, turmeric and chili powder (sparingly). When potatoes are starting to brown, add cabbage. Adjust spices as needed. (These reheated the next day really well).

(4) Cleaning out the Fridge Plus Pesto. This was me panicking because of all the stuff that hadto be eaten before we went out of town for the weekend. Made some pesto with basil and walnuts (see Emily's awesome prior post) andput on toast with melted mozzarella. Cut up fancy cucumbers, fancy carrots, fancy pale green peppers. (Omg we had purple peppers last week. They tasted like... green peppers.) Dip veggies in yogurt / garlic / dill sauce (not pictured because wasn't pretty).

(5) Mac and Cheese with Swiss Chard. YUM. (As evidenced by picture, which I didn't remember to take until we had inhaled the entire dish.) From Bon Appetit, of course.

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, divided

1 cup chopped onion

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour

3 cups reduced-fat (2%) milk

2 cups (packed) coarsely grated aged Gouda cheese plus 1/2 cup finely grated

2 cups (packed) coarsely grated Edam cheese, divided

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 1/2 pounds Swiss chard, stems and center ribs removed

12 ounces elbow macaroni

1 teaspoon cumin seeds (optional)

Preparation:

(1) Melt butter, saute onions, add garlic, then flour, whisk in milk, cook until boil about 5 minutes, add cheese, then add cayenne and nutmeg, season with salt and pepper.

(2) Boil macaroni until al dente while preheating oven to 350. Mix cheese into macaroni.

(3) Blanch chard, chop finely.

(4) Butter 13x9x2 cooking pan; blanch chard, chop finely. Put half of macaroni into dish, then cover in chard, then top with the other half of macaroni. Sprinkle top with cumin seeds. Bake x 40 min until bubbling, let stand x 10 min.

Possbily Pesto

I *might* have geeked out on the CSA this week.

I *might* have actually become a single lady crazy person and bought a mini food processor and made 3 (yes 3) batches of basil pesto. For my lonesome.

I *might* have done that. Who's to say? Its possible.

I *might* have eaten one entire batch straight from the mini prep bowl. Also possible.

I *might* have then frozen the pesto in ice cube trays so as to make lots of little individual servings.

And I *might* have then dropped said frozen individual pesto poops (they look just like little green turds) over couscous with grape tomatoes, over fresh pasta, over roasted tomatoes, over sauteed zucchini/squash/peppers and over a bunch of other warm dishes that instantly melt the frozen pesto in a luscious yummy sauce.

I *might* be convinced that this is the single most brilliant idea I've ever had. And I *might* have bought more basil to make into pesto tomorrow.

I *might* have done all these things.

Only my freezer knows the truth. And thats the way it should stay.

Mom's Basil Pesto

2 cups tightly packed basil leaves
2 TBS finely chopped pinenuts
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 TSP salt
1/2 c. olive oil
1/2 c. freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 TBS freshly grated romano cheese
4 TBS butter, softened

In mixing bowl of food processor put the garlic, salt, basil, pinenuts and olive oil and process until smooth, scraping down sides once or twice.
Add the cheeses and butter and process briefly, just to incorporate the cheeses and butter.
Add 2 TBS of boiling water in which pasta cooked. If still too thick, add additional boiling water. Process 1-2 secs.

Personally I forgot to add the butter. Still tastes damn good.