Grilled Pineapple Avocado Salsa and Fish Tacos

I have a friend who, whenever I say I love/want/desire/am eating fish tacos, gets this confused, grossed out expression on her face and goes 'of all the food combinations in the world that one makes the least amount of sense'. She's adorable in her lack of understanding about just how AWESOME fish is in taco form!

Take my pineapple juice marinated grilled Marlin tacos with my pineapple avocado salsa and lime crema. YUMMMM!!

Now to be truly evil I'm just doing one part of the recipe today. My salsa.  The reasons why I'm doing this way are:

A) because I'm evil;
B) it gives me recipes to post later on;
C) because this salsa is amazing on it's own without any fish to go over; and
D) did I mention I was evil?

Anyhow, without further ado - my salsa.



Grilled Pineapple and Avocado Salsa

Ingredients

• 1 fresh pineapple,
• 2 medium ripe avocados, peeled and diced
• 1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
• Small handful of cilantro leaves, chopped
• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and cut in half
• Juice of 1 lime
• Zest of 1 lime
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked salt

Directions

1. Peel and slice ½ a pineapple; grill on barbecue until lightly charred, warm and juicy; remove from grill and dice;
2. Cut jalapeño in half, de-seed it and lightly coat with a neutral oil (like grape seed). Grill at the same time as pineapple. Remove and finely dice;
3. dice remaining of pineapple;
4. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Cover and let stand in a cool room or refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving in order to marry flavours.

Eat!

Enjoy!

(FYI - it's great with multigrain Tostitos and a splash or two of hotsauce!)

1. Enjoy!! 

Trick or treat at the office! (And beef koftas too!)

Well I'm feeling particularly pleased with myself today. It's our summer student's second last day and we held a surprise 'thank you/good luck/see you soon' gathering for her. I made my super special never to be disclosed AWESOME brownies (as Guy Fieri likes to say - these things are MONEY) and then I got to be the one to get her to the party.

So what did I do? I terrorized her. hehehehe. told her that our lawyers were on the phone with our boss in a conference call because of a project she helped me do. I learned to be evil from the master - my friend Rina, the Sith Mommy extrodinaire. It was brilliant. The look on her face. I figured I could get away with it because I did make the brownies and bring them in - those things will help me be forgiven almost anything.

And since I'm feeling incredibly chuffed with myself I decided to reward everyone with an extra recipe this week - my beef koftas! yummy summer treat for the bbq.

Kofta kebabs

Ingredients

2 tsp minced garlic (or garlic jalapeño)

1 teaspoon smoked salt

1 pound ground beef (can also use chicken, turkey, or lamb)

1 egg

½ cup panko

2 spring onions - chopped

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon grated ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

28 bamboo skewers, soaked in water for 30 minutes

Directions

1.                  Mix the garlic into the beef along with the egg, panko, parsley, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, allspice, cayenne pepper, ginger, and pepper in a mixing bowl until well blended.

2.                  Form the mixture into 28 balls. Form each ball around the tip of a skewer, flattening into a 2 inch oval; repeat with the remaining skewers.

3.                  Place the kebabs onto a baking sheet, cover, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes, or up to 12 hours.

4.                  Preheat grill for medium heat, and lightly oil grate.

5.                  Cook the skewers on the preheated grill, turning occasionally, until the beef (meat) is cooked to your preferred doneness – approx. 5 minutes to medium

Serve with hummus, tzatziki and pita bread and a side of tabbouleh quinoa or couscous salad.  Yumm!

Eat!

Enjoy!!

Simply Scrumptious Steak and Mushroom Pie

With my mum down in Oz visiting her sisters my dad is doing the bachelor thing. That means the house was 'man clean' and he was eating sausage on a bun, store bought meat pies and potatoes. I had to stage an intervention this weekend. I went home and 'mom cleaned', did laundry, bought groceries, made him eat broccoli and made a bunch of stuff for him to eat that was healthy as well as good.

Here's one of the things I made:

Simply Scrumptious Steak and Mushroom Pie

Ingredients

2lb stewing beef or chopped steak, cut into cubes
plain flour, seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper, for dusting
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, sliced
1 tbsp parsley (fresh if you can get it but dry works in a pinch)

1tbsp fresh chopped rosemary
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
salt and freshly ground black pepper
 2 cups (1 tetra box) of low sodium beef broth

1 pkg sliced mushrooms of choice (I tend to use cremini or a mixed specialty pack – white buttons will work but lack flavor)
1 sheet of puff pastry (defrosted)
1 egg, beaten

1 cup chopped roasted chestnuts (optional and seasonal)

(have some Veloutine, Bistor or sauce thickener on hand just in case)

Directions

1.      Dust the cubed beef with the seasoned flour;

2.      Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan and brown the meat on all sides, stirring frequently to prevent burning;

3.      Add the sliced onions, mushrooms, herbs, salt and freshly ground black pepper, chestnuts(if adding them) and the stock and bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer gently for an hour and a half (if the gravy isn’t thick enough add some gravy thickener to help – I use Veloutine or Bisto);

4.      Preheat the oven to 375F;  and transfer the filling mixture to an ovenproof dish.

5.      Line the rim of the dish with a thin strip of puff pastry. Dampen the pastry rim by brushing with beaten egg. Cut a piece of pastry to fit across the top of the dish and place on top of the dish, pressing the edges together to seal. Decorate with pastry trimmings, make a steam hole in the centre of the pie by slashing with a sharp knife, then brush with more beaten egg.

6.      Transfer to the oven and cook for 1-1½ hours. If the pastry gets too brown, cover it with foil.

Serve hot.

Eat.

Enjoy!

Portents, Panic, and Pasta Puttanesca

So the last few weeks have been insane to say the least. Had to get my mum on a plan to Oz, had a trip down to the US to visit my bff and had massive amounts of personal and work stress to deal with. I've been coming home exhausted and collapsing. This does not make for a good blog!

I've successfully given myself the talk and have once more hopped on the recipe blogging bandwagon (having mum asking for easy and inexpensive recipes to make while abroad helps to motivate too!)

All this in mind, here is my newest recipe which is nothing more than a variation on an old recipe named for the world's oldest profession (if the stories surrounding the dish are true).

This is my take on:

Pasta Puttanesca

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small cooking onion
• 4-6 cloves garlic minced or 2-3 tsp already minced garlic from a jar
• 2-4 anchovy fillets or approx 1 tsp of paste
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 small can diced tomatoes and 1 box cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
• OR 2 boxes of cherry tomatoes cut in halves/quarters
• 10-20 kalamata olives – rough chopped (from an olive bar or the best brine packed you can afford
• 5-10 leaves of fresh basil - rough chopped (or 1 tsp of dry) - I love fresh basil so I tend to go 'big'
• 2 tbsp capers - rough chopped if you like or left whole
• 1 lb of your favourite pasta (I'm old school - I use Spaghetti or even linguini)

 Directions

1. In a sauté pan combine oil, garlic, onion, anchovies and red pepper flakes. Sweat over medium until garlic and onions are translucent and the anchovies have ‘melted’ into the rest of the ingredients (approx 5 minutes);
2. Add the chopped and canned tomatoes, olives, capers and dry basil if you’re using dry. Reduce heat to low and simmer while you prepare the pasta according to the instructions on the package;
3. Keep an eye on the sauce and if it starts looking too thick add a bit of the pasta water to loosen it up. About a minute before serving rough chop the fresh basil if you’re using fresh and add to the sauce to infuse;
4. Cook pasta to al dente and then drain. Whatever you do, DON’T rinse because you’ll need the starch from the pasta to help make the sauce ‘stick’;
5. Add pasta to sauce, toss lightly, and serve. Sprinkle with a little shaved parmesan or pecorino cheese and a fresh basil leaf for decoration.

FYI: Putannesca is always good with garlic bread on the side ;-) If you’re going garlic you might as well go GARLIC!

Eat!

Enjoy!!