Tacos Forever - Grilled Tilapia Tacos with Lemony Cabbage and Cilantro Pesto

Some days Van crawls into my spot in our bed and says, "Hi I'm Mama. I like The Band. I eat tacos and drink iced tea." He's pretty spot on. That's me in a nutshell. Classic rock + tacos.

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To make 8 of these delicious fish tacos, you'll need:

tacos:
3 tilapia filets
salt/pepper
smoked paprika
garlic powder
purple cabbage
lemon
8 corn tortillas
veg oil

cilantro pesto:
one bunch cilantro (about one cup packed real good)
3/4 cup sliced almonds
5+ garlic cloves
1 cup hard, peppery cheese (I use a dry, aged peppercorn jack but have used other cheeses in the past - I think many will work here, as long as they are hard)
olive oil
salt

Directions:
Heat your grill.

Finely, finely chop your cabbage. Add a good sprinkling of salt and a hearty squeeze of lemon. Let it hang out until it's time to assemble your tacos. The cabbage will get a bit softer and juicier and all around better.

For the pesto, throw everything except for the oil into your food processer. Make sure you help your processer out by grating or slicing your cheese before putting it in to blend. Pulse your ingredients while adding olive oil until you've reached a good pesto-y consistency. When your done, you should have about 10 ounces of pesto. Woop!

Sprinkle your tilapia with salt/pepper, garlic powder and smoked paprika on both sides. Cook on greased grill for a few minutes per side until done. You can also do this in a pan. Basically...you know...just cook your fish.

Brush your corn tortillas with oil and heat them on your grill for a couple minutes.

Fill warm tortillas with cabbage and tilapia, top with pesto. Go to town.

Sorry about these iPhone photos. I wish I had busted out my good camera. They're probably way better tasting than these pictures would lead you to believe.

Oh! And that pesto is literally good on anything. You'll have hella leftover. Freeze it in ice cube trays for later. Spread it on bread for sandwiches, top your tri tip with it, make little shrimp crostini with it, spoon it into your mouth from the jar....it's quite versatile.

Get With the Program - Make Your Own Flour Tortillas!

Growing up, we NEVER had store bought flour tortillas. Ever. I called them "fake tortillas" for years and years. The ones you buy pre-made from the store don't come close to the homemade version. Not even the good ones they have at Trader Joe's can hold a candle to fresh, handmade ones. They come about as close as a Chips Ahoy does to a homemade chocolate chip cookie. Good(ish) in their own weird way, but nowhere near as good as the real deal.

People gasp in shock when they find out that I make my own flour tortillas for burrito and fajita nights. I'm telling you - take the extra 20 minutes or so to make a fresh batch before your next Mexican night. It's well worth the return.

FLOUR TORTILLAS
(makes 10-12)

You'll Need:

4 cups of  Flour
2 tsp of baking powder
2 tsp teaspoons of salt
3 tbsp  of oil
1.5 cups of warm water

(also: a big bowl, rolling pin, hard surface, hot skillet, a plate, a cloth towel)

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.

Mix up and knead with your hands until you have a soft doughy ball. You might need to add a bit more water here if you feel like it's too dry, or a bit more flour if you feel like it's too wet. The pic below shows kinda dry-ish dough. I added a bit more water after I took this shitty picture.

Grab a little bit off and make a little ball with your hands.

Mush it onto a lightly floured surface.

Go at it with a rolling pin. You want it thin, thin, thin. This takes practice. Mine are still thicker than I'd ideally like them to be and definitely not as round as they could be but that's how it goes. My Mom's and Gramma's before her are like, perfectly freaking round. The ratio of the tortilla's circumference to the diameter is 3.14. You (and I) will get better at them as we make them more. Some web sites say it's okay that they aren't round - it's more rustic that way. Bullshit. Make them as round as you possibly can.

Carefully flop your thin, somewhat circular tortilla onto a hot skillet. Once some nice bubbles form, flip it over and let the other side cook through. This happens pretty quick. My tortilla will cook completely in the time it takes me to roll out another dough ball.

Once done, place on a plate and cover with a towel. Repeat until all your dough graduates into tortillas.

Ta-da! They may be oblong or a little too thick they will still undoubtedly be SO MUCH BETTER THAN STORE BOUGHT TORTILLAS. I promise.

After you have your little fajita night or whatever, save one for breakfast the following morning. Heat it up and spread some butter on it. HEAVEN, I swear to you. There are very few things more divine than a warm, buttered tortilla in the morning.

Dinner Dinner, Baby Dinner: Zucchini Pancakes

my van is a little grubber. as a wee thing, he was sucking down 4 ounces of formula in the time it takes most babies to finish an ounce in a half. he eats and sleeps like a frat boy; always has. lately, however,  he has been a bit more challenging at mealtimes because he wants to feed himself.

i consulted a couple different veggie pancake/fritter type recipes and came up with these zucchini pancakes. "came up with" is kinda silly. i'm not the first person in the word to think of this or anything. it's quite easy, really. nonetheless, it's one of van's favorites and i make a variation of it about once a week. it's quick, dirties few dishes (my favorite), always gets eaten and allows the little punk to feed himself. winner winner, vanny dinner.

Zucchini Pancakes:

2 zucchini, grated
1 shallot, grated (about a tablespoon or so)
2 eggs (i get big, cage free brown eggs. if you don't, you might need 3)
6 tablespoons of flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
a few dashes of salt and pepper

grate zucchini and shallot over a mixing bowl. add eggs, flour, baking powder, s/p and mix. don't expect batter - it's more like a bunch of goopy grated zucchini. if you end up with a big runny mess, try adding another tablespoon or two of flour. 

heat a pat of butter and a little, tiny bit of of oil in a skillet. once your butter is melted, reduce your heat a couple notches. drop a heaping tablespoon of the "batter" into the skillet. flip with a spatula after 2 minutes or so and cook the other side through.the measurements above should get you 8 - 10 little palm sized pancakes.

variations: i've made zucchini carrot pancakes and zucchini corn - both turned out great. i've also used onion when i didn't have any shallots. you could probably sub leeks too, if that's what you have on hand. adding herbs might be fun too. i bet zucchini cilantro would be good. or chives! yum.

Loaded Minestrone

i love minestrone soup. growing up my family would go to the same italian restaurant, owned by an old friend of the family, almost every friday for pizza and pitchers of budweiser. well, the kids drank coke. sometimes we got to use the bartender gun thing to squirt our own coke into our own glasses. yeah, be jealous. 

anyways, every so often i'd stray from the pizza tradition and get a lasagna. the lasagna would come in it's own personal little dish that it was baked in. the sauce had a really great slow cooked beefy texture, and i especially liked this particular lasagna because it came without ricotta. i've never been a fan of ricotta.

while the lasagna was always delicious, the best part about ordering it was that before it came to your table you'd get a warm, garlicy, buttery roll, the best green salad with the most perfectly tart italian dressing you've ever tasted and some bomb minestrone soup.

i don't quite know what kind of rolls our friend served. i can't figure out how to make a dressing so delicious and sour and peppery, but i make a goddamn excellent knock off of that ridiculously good minestrone.

i'll go ahead and call it "loaded minestrone" to denote that there's a little more going on in there than in the minestrone you might be used to. but it's super good, super easy and super quick to make. i can't stress the ease and tastiness of this enough. the only dishes you dirty are your knife, your cutting board and a pot, for crying out loud.i serve it at our christmas parties and people flip their freaking lids over it. i can't wait for it to cool down so i can start making this again. i think van will love it too.

wish i had a more delicious looking photo...

loaded minestrone soup

serves many. probably 8 big servings.

2 containers of chicken stock (or veggie. whatever)

1 large can of diced tomatoes with juice

1 can of kidney or lima beans ( i like lima)

1 zucchini diced

1-2 carrots diced

1 potato diced

handful of small pasta (little shells or little elbows)

1 small onion, diced up small

several cloves of garlic

olive oil

s/p

3 heaping tablespoons of dried oregano/italian herbs

heat some olive oil in your nice big soup pot. add your onions. after a couple minutes when onions are looking a little soft, add your garlic, carrots, potato and zucchini. sprinkle all contents of your pot with salt, pepper and italian seasoning. stir this mixture all up for a few minutes.

add your cans of stuff. don't throw out the juice. dump it all in there!

bring to a boil. when your carrots and potatoes seem almost soft enough to eat, toss in a handful of your small pasta.

once pasta is cooked and veggies are soft it's dinnertime. i like to serve mine with some good quality oven toasted bread and grated parm.