Grilled Fish Tacos

Fish tacos have recently gained popularity all over the US, including all the way up here in the northeast. While they aren't found incredibly frequently on restaurant menus, they are beginning to enter the culinary consciousness of a wide audience, so to speak. This being the case, I decided to try my hand at homemade fish tacos. Classically, fish tacos are made with battered and fried white fish or grilled fish. I decided that grilled fish sounded like a great plan for a recent cookout that I hosted, and so the idea was born. In addition to the fish, these tacos usually come with lettuce or cabbage, pico de gallo, and sour cream. I tweaked these a little bit to make my own unique creation:

Swirled Goat Cheese and Caramel and Walnut Brownies - the gooey kind

Listen up, bakers! This recipe is to die for, the brownies are dense but gooey, not cakey like Duncan Hines (sorry!). This recipe was completely thought out by Siddharth and it's great. The brownies are gooey and the caramel gives the extra zing to the chocolate, although I must warn you, it will require some work and a lot of patience! The goat cheese and the caramel really compliment each other, with the goat cheese and the walnuts cutting the sweetness. I'm not a huge brownie fan to begin with, but the texture of these brownies was enough to convert me. Adding walnuts gives the extra crunch as well!

Here is the recipe:

Red Hot Jambalaya

Jambalaya is a classic Creole dish of New Orleans. As most people know, it is rice-based, and it incorporates lots of ingredients. It is related to paella, but it lacks the saffron that defines its Spanish cousin. The recipe that I'm going to share with you is known as a "red" jambalaya, so-called because of the extensive use of tomatoes. While I'm going to put some twists on it (including using inspiration from Bobby Flay's Fra Diavolo Jambalaya  and my own use of Indian spices), my recipe here incorporates many classic aspects of jambalaya, including the use of both meat (andouille sausage and chicken) and seafood (mussels and shrimp), the inclusion of the "trinity" base (peppers, onions, and celery), and the cooking of rice in the same pot as the meat. It takes time to prepare, but it's hearty and leaves plenty of leftovers!

Got berries? Make a crumble!

It's still summer and you've probably been buying pints and pints of berries because they are still in season. But what happens if you can't eat them all in time and the berries get all wrinkle-y and not bright in color anymore? Well here is a simple recipe that you can try. It's probably the easiest summer dessert you can remember, just remember the number 4 because every measured quantity is a multiple of 4.

Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins

Who doesn't love cornbread? And who would have thought to make corn muffins with cornmeal? These muffins have the same texture as corn bread but it has a coffeecake crumble crust that is absolutely delicious, especially from the sweetness of the berries and the extra honey. This recipe calls for cornmeal which is readily available in your cereal/baking goods aisle.

This recipe is easy as pie and with summer season coming along, we all have access to the best berries of the season. I chose blueberries because they are everywhere and Siddharth loves blueberries. I adapted this recipe from Martha Stewart, and you must check it out. Here is the recipe. 

Sichuan-style Cashew Chicken

I love spicy Chinese food. Chilies and typical Asian flavors mingle so well, and this dish really exemplifies that. Plus it involves cashews as an added bonus! It kind of resembles what is often called "Kung Pao Chicken" in American Chinese places, but I've tried to use ingredients more representative of authentic Sichuan cuisine. Of course, I am missing the famous Sichuan peppercorns (which are not readily available in the US), but I did my best!

In this recipe, peanuts can easily be interchanged with cashews. In either case, the best results will be found by starting with fresh, raw nuts (not pre-roasted). Of all the ingredients that I employ, the two that are most important in generating the distinctive flavors of Kung Pao are the black vinegar and the Shaoxing wine. Black vinegar is a rice vinegar that is popular in many parts of China - it is made from fermented black glutinous rice. It has a sweet and smoky flavor, but if you can't find it, balsamic vinegar is a reasonable approximation (in my estimation). Shaoxing wine is a rice wine that is used widely in Chinese cooking, especially in many of the famous dishes termed "drunken."

The recipe follows:

Praline Pound Cake

Greetings fellow bakers! I apologize for the lack of communication for the past months, but no worries, I am posting some recipes that you will love. 

First off, for the Heat vs. Mavericks game, I wanted to do a southern dessert for the party, to go along with our "Go Mavs, boo Heat" theme. After browsing through Paula Deen's repertoire of southern baking, I was inspired to make a praline pound cake. Pralines are a big thing in Texas, so I thought this dessert will suit our Texas-themed party quite well. This dessert ended up being the biggest hit of the night, bigger than the Mavs beating the Heat.

For the recipe, I used a bundt pan but I'm sure you can substitute with a regular cake pan, just adjust the baking times. Make the cake first, then the praline sauce. Read on for the recipe!

Schmap London Restaurant Guide

Tricia and I are happy to announce that one of our many food pictures has been included in the newest Schmap London Restaurant Guide. Schmap is an online map and guide for eating in London, and is a very cool site for anyone who may be taking a trip there. We posted our trip to London a while back, and one of our favorite restaurants was Dehesa, a Spanish Tapas restaurant in the Carnaby area. We took pictures of their beautiful charcuterie selection (delicious!), and one of our photos has been selected to highlight the restaurant's latest entry in Schmap (check it out).

Thanks to Schmap for our inclusion!

Crispy Fried Pork Bites

This is a very simple dish that serves as great party food. It also has the ability to satisfy many of those cravings (for something crispy, for something salty, for something a little spicy, and of course for meat)! I used pork tenderloin here because of its great flavor and texture - it's a very lean cut of meat, but it is not tough at all (if cooked properly). The special touch that I added was a marination step. The result was a super crispy and flavorful bite-sized creation that quickly disappeared from the serving platters!

Sorry for our absence!

The past month has been a little chaotic for Tricia and I, so we have not posted any updates to our blog. The main thing that took up our time involved Tricia getting a new job just in Radnor, Pennsylvania (a little bit outside of Philadelphia). So, we were busy moving her out of Ithaca and into her new place. And of course, she has been taking a good amount of time to get acclimated to her new settings and job. Unfortunately, this left us a bit too distracted to post recipes!

However, we are eager to share new food experiences with everyone, and we plan on putting some stuff up very soon (today or tomorrow)! Tricia has a beautiful kitchen in her new apartment in Pennsylvania, and a wonderfully new oven that she has already started baking up some delicious eats in. Meanwhile, I have continued to put together some great dinner items that I'd like to share. Sadly, because of Tricia's move, we will no longer be able to frequent the Ithaca dining seen on a regular basis, so the restaurant reviews may not be as consistent (though we do promise to share details from when she visits me). On the flipside though, when I go to visit her, we'll be sharing many of the great foods that we are now able to try in the Philadelphia area.

Thanks to those who continue to check out our site! Look for updates soon!