Make-Fast Mondays: Grilled Fish Tacos

The only thing better than welcoming out-of-town visitors is welcoming out-of-town visitors who show up with a cooler full of fish! Our friends Bill and Jamie recently went to Alaska for a fishing trip and came back with a ton of salmon and rockfish, some of which they generously shared with us. The rockfish worked great for these fast, fresh fish tacos.

Grilled Fish Tacos 
1 pound rockfish (or other white fish such as cod or halibut)
1 ½ teaspoons ancho chili powder
1 ½ teaspoons cumin
1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
Juice of one lime
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 corn tortillas, warmed*

Suggested garnishes: lime wedges, shredded cabbage, thinly sliced red onion, thinly sliced green onion, avocado, hot sauce, cilantro

Preheat your grill to medium-high heat. Place fish in baking dish. Whisk together ancho chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, lime juice and olive oil and pour over fish. Refrigerate and let marinade for at least 15 minutes. Remove the fish from the marinade and place on the grill. Grill the fish for 4 minutes and flip it, cooking for another 3-4 minutes. Remove fish from the grill and flake it with a fork. Distribute the fish between the tortillas and top with all your favorite garnishes.

*A note on the tortillas: I’ve warmed my tortillas a couple different ways and have been happy with the results. Depending on your preference, you could try warm them in a frying pan over medium high heat for a couple minutes, or toss them on the grill for a moment once you're done cooking the fish.

Baked fish with plenty of fresh flavors

I need to cook fish on a more regular basis. Boneless chicken breasts, jumbo prawns and ground turkey are my constants when it comes to cooking animal proteins. However, there are plenty of other fish in the sea (ha) when it comes to menu planning, which is I created a recipe around cod, quite a mellow fellow as far as fishy flavor is concerned. I think the acidity of the tomatoes and the salt of the olives really complement the fish in this dish, which also gets some wonderful fresh flavors thanks to parsley and a little fresh lemon juice squeezed over the plate at the last second. This recipe yields four main-course servings.

Baked Cod with Tomatoes and Olives 
2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon minced garlic
28-ounce can plum tomatoes in liquid, coarsely chopped or crushed by hand
¾ cup Spanish manzanilla olives
¼ cup dry white wine
1 pound cod fillets, rinsed and patted dry
½ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
8 ounces pasta, cooked al dente (I used Trader Joe’s Lemon Pepper Pappardelle)

One lemon, cut into wedges Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Coat bottom of 9-inch-by-13-inch glass dish with one teaspoon of olive oil and set aside. Heat remaining teaspoon olive oil in large frying pan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for just a minute or two, until aromatic, before adding tomatoes, wine and green olives. Let simmer over medium heat until sauce thickens a bit, stirring occasionally, about 5-7 minutes. Stir in parsley and remove from heat. Place cod fillets in glass baking dish and pour tomato sauce over fillets. Cover dish with foil and bake for 20-30 minutes, until fish registers 140 degrees with a meat thermometer and flakes easily with a fork. Divide pasta among plates, topping each plate with cod fillet and a spoonful or two of sauce. Garnish each plate with a lemon wedge and serve.

Dinner snapshots: Akebono

Chris and I grabbed a little sushi snack for dinner at Akebono Japanese Cuisine & Sushi Bar in Granite Bay the other night. A coworker of Chris’ gives this place a double thumbs up, and it didn’t hurt that we had a LivingSocial coupon too.

Their menu is packed with rolls. Here’s Nancy’s Roll — shrimp tempura, spicy tuna roll, unagi, green onion, masago and two sauces on top ($11.95).

We also had Hamachi Kama ($7.95), a broiled yellow tail collar that was super delicious but didn’t necessarily photograph well — sorry.

We told our server we wanted to spend $30 on Omakase Sashimi (chef’s choice) and this is what she brought to our table a few minutes later. Wow!

More photos than I know what to do with

I like to think of these orphaned photos as my blog b-sides. I don’t write about everything I eat/cook/discover, whether it’s because I’m taking a recipe straight out of a cookbook or because there’s not enough motivation/time/reason to generate a post.

Here are some random photos I thought should see the light of day one way or another.

Potato dumplings mushroom sauce and goat cheese. It's a recipe from the Italian Academy of Cuisine’s “La Cucina: The Regional Cooking of Italy” that I found thanks to the Associated Press)

Delicious fishy dishy at The Press in Midtown Sacramento

Some of the snack options at our Christmas cocktail party

Cute wrapping paper I found in San Francisco

These little guys are jujubes, a small stone fruit my co-worker wrote about a while back.

Pan-roasted salmon atop lentil salad (recipe from California Country)

Friend Colleen and I wanted to try our hands at lumpia. We ended up crafting an Asian-inspired feast for our friends!