Orange-Ginger Tilapia with Mango-Coconut Rice and Asparagus

Happy Friday! Since I'm occupied tomorrow morning, I thought I would send my message to the blogisphere tonight instead. You can already tell that John and I lead an exciting life. Our friday nights are usually spent making dinner and then watching a week's worth of TV in one sitting.

Side note - we got Canadian Netflix! It's like TV, but so much better, even though they only have the streaming aspect of Netflix so far.

Fun Fact: this week was sort of a historic one, in the grand historical narratives of both our educations. John and I are finishing our coursework this semester, and this week involved the final meeting for both our classes. No, that doesn't mean that we're at all close to graduating, but it's nice to have one more thing out of the way.
As I've said here before, the Canadian Mother Nature doesn't know that it's the end of the semester, and so it still snowed a few inches early in the week. That weather was perfect for the first thing we cooked:

Chipotle-Spiced Sweet Potato Chili
from the Tasty Kitchen, aka, Pioneer Woman's blog's blog.















This chili recipe brings in a lot of flavors John and I really like, some of which I wouldn't think to put in chili - namely, bar-be-que sauce. A cup of it. We also added chilis in adobo sauce, and hot sauce (per the instructions). The result was such a spicy chili I could barely eat it, except that I did eat it, because it's amazing chili. My only comments would be to eliminate the hot sauce and double the sweet potatoes.







Check out that vegan corn bread biscuit. It's a happy marriage between corn bread and a biscuit.









This recipe is vegan, too (if you use the right kind of Worcestershire sauce), hence the vegan/vegetarian tag on this post. It was clearly screaming out for some corn bread, so I made the corn-bread-biscuit recipe from Vegan Brunch.
It went perfectly!

Moving on...





















Here's a random shot of some citrus that I consumed this week. Long story short, I have trouble with motion sickness, and - you have to believe me when I say this - the thing that seems to aggravate it most right now is grading my students' papers. I have no reason to lie about that, since it's not as if I'm exempt from grading them. Drinking tons of lemon-lime water seems to help.


The citrus theme continued with our citrus-themed fish dinner tonight. All the flavors in this recipe are perfect for the warmer weather that arrived later in the week.

Orange-Ginger Tilapia with Mango Coconut Rice and Asparagus,
from Paula Dean of all people.

















Let me say first, I love Paula. There were times when I felt homesick after we first moved to Canada, and I would watch the DVD collection of her shows that Sargibso bought me at T. J. Maxx, just to listen to her accent. I've made several of her recipes and I own a couple of her cook books. But since John and I decided to change our diets last year, I've more or less stayed away from her recipes (hello, butter!). But this recipe is relatively healthy! Each of those tilapia filets is only 110 calories (they're from a jumbo pack of frozen fillets from Costco). Grilled fish with orange juice and zest, ginger, and a little hot sauce.




















The mango-coconut rice is the worst of it for you, but we at least used brown rice and omitted the oil involved. The mango cooked in the rice melts like butter but adds so much flavor. And the asparagus, also grilled, adds a little green to the plate with a very complimentary flavor. We saved some of the marinade and raw asparagus to make this again tomorrow night! It's a wonderful meal.

Fish Tacos with Chipotle Tartar Sauce

One of my family's favorite restaurants in Fort Wayne is Cebolla's. They have all the Mexican standards, and I've never really had something there that was bad. Recently I became a pescatarian, and decided to try their tilapia tacos. They are THE BOMB!

















Naturally, John and I wanted to try making these ourselves. A couple weeks ago tilapia was on sale, and the rest of the meal was fairly easy to put together.





















Just like at Cebolla's, we served ours with slaw mix (just the veggies, no mayo) on the side (I squeezed some lime juice over it before we ate), and we added a big pile of cilantro. We also have some really fantastic (Loblaw's brand!) chipotle salsa, and it went perfectly with everything.












The fish is hiding beneath that blanket of slaw, cilantro, and salsa.












We used a couple of recipes for guidance, but this was a little bit shot from the hip. For the fish prep, we sort of took this recipe as a jumping off point: click here! The only things from that recipe we really did were to cut the fish into 2" or so pieces, marinate it in lime juice (just while we prepped everything else), and then pan fry it. This method was fast and perfect for what we were doing.

The thing we were most concerned with adapting was the chipotle tartar sauce at Cebolla's, and I think we did a decent job. In this case, we followed Martha Stewart's recipe entirely, and the flavors were perfect. Click here!

In order to have this meal two nights in a row, we bought 1 lb of fish (two 1/2 lb fillets) and had them wrapped separately. We made one the night we bought them and kept the other in the coldest corner of our fridge until we made it the next night.

These were so flavorful and easy, but they felt like kind of a fancy dinner for us. We'll most definitely make them again!

Salmon Cakes

Last week's dinner line-up was a round of really great recipes: two repeats (Thai style "chicken" soup, along with this Indian food), plus salmon cakes.

John and I both love crab cakes, and after an article in Runner's World about all the things you can do with a can of salmon, we were inspired to try making cakes.
We didn't use their recipe, but I do want to try some of their other suggestions, such as making a salmon-version of tuna salad for lunch sandwiches.




















Also, bonus, you can get three big cans of salmon at Costco for a lot less than the grocery store. Another benefit to the canned variety is that you can get Pacific, wild caught salmon* at a more reasonable price than if you bought it in fillets. Obviously, the ends require different means, but it's a good way to get some fish in our diets without breaking the bank.























This meal was fairly caloric, but it also had some good nutritional benefits (hello, omegas 3 and 6). I'd say we wouldn't make it as often as once a month, but it came together easily and tasted delicious. You can see that we just had the cakes, the sauce, and some sauteed zucchini with mushrooms on the side. The cakes are really filling. Our only negative comment is that they didn't reheat all that well, so making them for company (or halving the recipe) would be ideal. Still, anything with that much mayonnaise can't taste bad, am I right?



















Salmon Cakes
from Martha Stewart (who else?)

For the salmon cakes:

• 2 pounds skinless salmon fillet (we used three cans of salmon, equaling a little more than 2 lbs)
  
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions
• 1/2 cup plain dried breadcrumbs
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup light mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Additional flavorings (choose one):

• 3 tablespoons prepared horseradish**
• 2 tablespoons minced capers
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce, such as Tabasco
• 2 tablespoons minced pickled jalapeno chile

For the lemon herb sauce:

• 1/4 cup light mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley, dill, or cilantro
• Coarse salt and ground pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place fish on a rimmed baking sheet; season with salt and pepper. Roast until cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool completely; pat dry with paper towels. Break salmon into smaller pieces; flake with a fork (we skipped this part, of course).

In a large bowl, combine scallions, breadcrumbs, and parsley. Add mayonnaise, mustard, eggs, lemon juice, and salmon. Season again with salt and pepper, plus an additional flavoring if desired. Mix gently until ingredients just hold together.

Form mixture into 8 patties (each about 3 inches wide). Place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate until cold and firm, 20 to 30 minutes.

Make Lemon-Herb Sauce: Whisk together mayonnaise, sour cream, fresh lemon juice, and chopped herbs. Season with coarse salt and ground pepper.

Heat broiler. Broil patties until lightly golden on top (without turning), 6 to 8 minutes. Serve with Lemon-Herb Sauce.

*A.k.a., the good kind. There's no such thing as wild caught Atlantic salmon, at least as far as I've heard. "Atlantic" is like a euphemism for "farmed."

**We chose mustard that had horseradish in it, so we didn't add anything else. I'm told rosemary would make a good addition.

Brisling

John is going through a phase right now where he watches a lot of episodes of Good Eats. An episode about nutrition prompted him to try eating a can of brisling, which are basically like high-end sardines. They're mostly very good for you, and their bones are so small and soft that you can eat the whole fish (minus the head).

While they're not really my taste, brisling are definitely not as gross as they sound. John took Alton Brown's suggestion and ate them on toasted bread, spread with avocado. The flavor is similar to canned tuna, and it made for a delightful lunch for John.


Then, this weekend we went to the Pinery, a provincial park on Lake Huron. We hiked and then had a picnic on the beach (more on that later). John brought along a can of actual sardines (which are cheaper than brisling) and decided to give them a try during our picnic. He can testify that brisling are different and, in fact, much better than sardines. The sardines were bigger and kind of falling apart. Their size led us to wonder what other types of sea critters they might have eaten during their lifetime. John quickly became disenchanted and decided to bury the contents of the can in the sand.











Here he is, dumping the fish into a sandy grave.
















There wasn't really anybody around to witness it, and you wouldn't even know they were there if I hadn't taken so many pictures to document it.



























Meanwhile, I was trying to tell this seagull, who kept a close eye on us the whole time we were eating, that there were fish just waiting to be eaten, a mere ten feet from where he was hanging out.

Favorite Recipes, August 09-August Oh Ten

Now on to the list of favorite foods. This is going to be a challenge, since I love so many of the things we make. All of the things on this list are recipes we've made more than once - which says a lot for us, since we try at least 1-2 new recipes every week. I've whittled them down to my absolute favorites and grouped them by categories, for your convenience.

The desserts are my exception to the "I've made this twice" rule, since I only repeated a couple of those recipes. But they're all delicious recipes, a couple of which I've made for various groups at school, and things like the red velvet whoopie pies that are valentine-specific.

...Other
Goat Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms
Skillet Cornbread
Mrs. Chilla's Breakfast Casserole
The first two are my go-to recipes for food to take to parties. The second is by the mother of a friend of mine, and my family ate it on Christmas morning.

Seafood
Creole Shrimp and Sausage Stew
Bacon-Wrapped Scallops
Seafood is pricey, so we mostly make this when visiting my parents, who generously supplied us with the ingredients. I also haven't made the scallops more than once, but the recipe is too good and simple to leave out.

Non-vegan Soups and Stews
Zuppa Toscana
Thai Style Chicken Soup
These are the recipes that make me want to keep eating meat.


Dessert
Double Chocolate Cookies
Interlochen Chocolate No-bakes
Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
"Life by Chocolate" Cakes
My classmates love the double chocolate cakes, and the no-bakes take me back to a simpler, more pine-filled time. The whoopie pies taste better than hostess cakes, and the last recipe is only for those who can handle truly rich, chocolatey food.


Vegetarian and Vegan
Thai Curry Soup with Tofu
Sesame Maple Ginger Tofu
Pasta with Cashew Cream Sauce
Roasted Vegetables on Creamy Polenta (simple! vegan! Amazing!!)
Chana Masala and Indian Style Cabbage


A few more words about those vegan/vegetarian recipes:
John and I changed our eating habits in a big way over the previous eight months or so. We did this because we both wanted to lose weight and develop healthy ways of eating when we're young, so that we still have them when we're old. For us, this meant cooking with recipes that seemed foreign to us at first (and many of them literally are, since Thai and other Asian food can often be made healthily with a lot of flavor). We're trying to find more and more recipes that include fresh vegetables and whole grains, since meat and dairy are fairly expensive in Canada.

There are a lot of other vegan/vegetarian recipes on the blog besides just these, but these are our very favorites. They are some of the best recipes of any kind that we've made in the past 12 months.

In terms of losing weight, it's helped us both, though food is only part of the process. We believe in finding food that works for you and tastes good, and we don't mean to promote a vegan-only way of eating. Both of us still consume dairy and eggs and we don't label ourselves as vegetarian or vegan, we just lean that way. We both believe that no one diet works for all people, for all time. If you're considering an attempt at some vegan cooking, take a look at those recipes, all of which are beginner-friendly.

So that's our list of the best recipes of our first year of blogging. Thanks for reading all of our food related posts and for never saying, "Hey, why is your Canada blog all about food?"

Honey-Tahini Tilapia

I think tahini might be one of my new favorite things. There is one significant reason for this:




















it turns into cream sauce, but without all the butter and cheese (not that I don't love that kind, but there's only so much I can eat before I go up a pants size).

This dinner took us about 12 minutes to make, including the time it took for the fish to cook. The only thing I don't like about it is how much fish costs. I'm kind of on a hunt for frozen fish that isn't from China or Vietnam, but it looks like we'll still only have fish occasionally.

Still, I feel like this sauce would go great with anything, including tofu (my other new staple). Two thumbs way up.


Honey-Tahini Tilapia
from Cara's Cravings.

Honey-Tahini Tilapia

3 tablespoons tahini with honey
1 1/2 teaspoons champagne vinegar
splash of lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely minced fresh basil or mint
water, to thin as necessary
salt, to taste

2 tilapia filets, about 4 1/2 ounces each (or other mild white fish, or salmom)
salt, pepper, and lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Combine tahini, champagne vinegar, lemon juice and basil. Whisk together, adding water as necessary to thin it out a bit. The sauce should be pourable, but not runny.

Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Place the fish on the foil and season with salt, pepper, and a splash of lemon juice.

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until almost cooked through. Remove from oven, spread a little of the sauce on each piece of fish, and return to oven for 2-3 minutes. Before serving, drizzle the remaining sauce over the fish.