Buttery Red Snapper with Smashed Potatoes

We spent this past weekend at the beach in Galveston, Texas hanging out with my family. It was a great weekend and perfect weather. Our beach house neighbors asked us if any of us would like to take their freshly caught Gulf Red Snapper filets because they wouldn’t be able to take it on the plane home with them. Alex and I jumped on that right away! Free fresh fish…fine by me!!

I had dog eared this recipe from Everyday with Rachael Ray May 2008 magazine a while back and thought our new fresh red snapper would be the perfect way to make it. Last night I was feeling a little under the weather though so Alex took over the reins on this one and it turned out wonderfully! We both loved this preparation of the fish and the potatoes. The tomato-scallion butter is delicious too and would be great on chicken.

Buttery Halibut with Smashed Potatoes

Source: Everyday with Rachael Ray May 2008

Serves: 4  Prep: 15 min  Cook 20 min.

• 6 Tbsp butter, 3 Tbsp softened
• 1 sun-dried tomato packed in olive oil, finely chopped
• 1 Tbsp finely chopped scallion
• 1 tsp finely chopped garlic
• Salt and pepper
• 1 lb small new potatoes
• 1 Tbsp whole milk
• Four 6- to 8-ounce halibut (or Red Snapper) fillets
• 2 Tbsp flour

1. In a small bowl, combine the softened butter, sun-dried tomato, scallion and garlic; season with salt and pepper.

2. In a large saucepan, add the potatoes and enough salted water to cover. Cover and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, then smash the potatoes with 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon whole milk; season with salt pepper.

3. Season the fish with salt and pepper, then coat lightly with the flour. In a large nonstick skillet, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add the fish and cook, turning once, until golden and firm to the touch, 7 to 8 minutes total.

4. Transfer the fish to 4 serving plates and top with the tomato-scallion butter. Serve with the smashed potatoes.

Here it is! Smoked Salmon Spread

Well, my day trip got pushed back to tomorrow so I was able to make it to the grocery store after all! Yay!

I picked the Smoked Salmon Spread for the Barefoot Bloggers for a specific reason. You see, I used to think smoked salmon was the most disgusting thing in the world even though I had never tried it. I just assumed since in general I don’t like fish, I wouldn’t like smoked salmon. Well, one day someone ordered a Bagel and Lox and forced me to try a bite. I couldn’t believe what I had been missing out on all these years! I loved it and ever since then I always order Bagels and Lox whenever possible.

So, my goal in choosing this recipe was to get somebody out there who thinks they don’t like smoked salmon to give it a shot and maybe discover that they actually like it…like I did! I knew that this recipe wouldn’t please everyone but I was ok with that. Being a part of a blogging group like this is partially about being coerced into trying things that you would maybe never try otherwise. I hope that this recipe provided that push for someone out there, whether they ended up liking it or not!

And ok, ok….I guess I should admit that choosing this recipe was also partially out of pure selfishness because I just looooovvveeee smoked salmon (as mentioned above) but I had never used it in my home. Normally I just order it at restaurants and cafes so I wanted to try using it in a recipe.

I must say, this spread was soooooooooo good! I am definitely going to have to make this many times in the future. This was my favorite way to eat it:

See that? It’s like a mini bagels and lox! A couple of capers and a tiny piece of onion. Yum! Wouldn’t that be so cute to serve at a brunch too??

To learn more about the Barefoot Bloggers go here.

For the recipe go here.

Tilapia Piccata with Orzo

Edit: For some reason, Snapfish (the website I use to host my pictures for my blog) has decided to replace my picture of Tilapia Piccata with a picture of my Fajita Enchiladas. I apologize for the confusion this may cause. Keep scrolling down to see another Tilapia picture.

We are not fish people. I will just start out with saying that. It’s not our thing. However, fish has definite health benefits and it’s light and relatively cheap. That being said, I resolved to try and incorporate one fish dish per week and I thought a safe way to start would be with a very mild fish like Tilapia in a no-fail preparation like Piccata. This recipe is from a March 2007 Cooking Light magazine and is quite good. I still couldn’t help but think it would have been better with chicken or veal but that’s just the fish-hater inside of me. So I guess what I’m trying to say is for fish, this was very good.

Tilapia Piccata

Source: Cooking Light magazine March 2008

Ingredients

8 ounces uncooked orzo (about 1 1/2 cups)
3/4 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, divided
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 (6-ounce) tilapia fillets
3 tablespoons butter, divided
1/4 cup white wine
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon drained capers
Preparation
Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain; stir in tomatoes, 1/4 teaspoon salt, parsley, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Set aside and keep warm.

Combine remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, remaining 1/8 teaspoon pepper, and flour in a large shallow dish. Dredge fish in flour mixture. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add fish to pan; cook 1 1/2 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness. Remove fish from pan; keep warm.

Add wine, juice, and capers to pan; cook 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Add remaining 2 tablespoons butter to pan; stir until butter melts. Serve fish with sauce and pasta.

Yields 4 servings (serving size: 1 fillet, 3/4 cup pasta mixture, and about 1 tablespoon sauce)

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 461(24% from fat); FAT 12.5g (sat 6.4g,mono 3.1g,poly 1.1g); PROTEIN 41.7g; CHOLESTEROL 108mg; CALCIUM 30mg; SODIUM 512mg; FIBER 2.6g; IRON 1.6mg; CARBOHYDRATE 45.3g

Shrimp and Chorizo Quesadillas with Smoky Guacamole

As I was planning this week’s menu, I just happened to stumble across this recipe of Rachael Ray’s on the Food Network’s website. I decided it sounded delicious so I put it on this week’s menu. Turned out I couldn’t wait to make them so I made them the very first night of the week. Alex RAVED about these. He insisted that these be made over and over again in the future.  I thought they were very very tasty but unfortunately there was one thing holding back my enjoyment of them. I made the very stupid mistake of actually reading what all goes into Chorizo. Don’t ever make this mistake if you think you like Chorizo like I did. The ingredients were disgusting and I just couldn’t seem to get over it. It even went so far as to make me almost gag when I was eating the delicious quesadillas, not because they didn’t taste great but because I kept thinking about what all was in the chorizo. Yuck! I really don’t know if I’ll ever to be able to eat the delicious mexican sausage again. Boooo! I will definitely make these again in the future but I will make mine with just the shrimp and the cheese. I think they would still be delicious this way but Alex refuses to let me leave the chorizo out of his quesadillas in the future (apparently the ingredient list didn’t affect him the way it did me). I also really like the Guacamole but Alex says he likes his version of Guacamole better…go figure.

Shrimp and Chorizo Quesadillas with Smoky Guacamole

Source: Rachael Ray’s 30 Minute Meals

2 ripe Haas avocados
1 lime, juiced
A couple pinches salt
1/4 cup sour cream, 3 rounded tablespoonfuls
2 chipotle peppers in adobo, available in cans on specialty food aisle in Mexican section
1/2 pound chorizo sausage, sliced thin on an angle
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, plus some for drizzling
1 clove garlic, cracked away from skin and crushed
12 large shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails removed, ask for easy-peels at fish counter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 (12- inch) flour tortillas
1/2 pound, 2 cups, shredded pepper Jack cheese

Cut avocados all the way around with a sharp knife. Scoop out the pit, then spoon avocado flesh away from skin into a food processor. Add the juice of 1 lime, a couple of pinches salt, sour cream and chipotles in adobo. Pulse guacamole until smooth. Transfer to a serving bowl.Heat a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Brown chorizo 2 to 3 minutes, then remove from pan. Add oil, garlic, then shrimp. Season shrimp with salt and pepper and cook shrimp until pink, 2 or 3 minutes. Transfer shrimp to a cutting board and coarsely chop.

Add a drizzle of oil to the pan and a large tortilla. Cook tortilla 30 seconds, then turn. Cover 1/2 of the tortilla with a couple of handfuls of cheese. Arrange a layer of chorizo and shrimp over the cheese and fold tortilla over. Press down gently with a spatula and cook tortilla a minute or so on each side to melt cheese and crisp. Remove quesadilla to large cutting board and repeat with remaining ingredients. Cut each quesadilla into 5 wedges and transfer to plates with your spatula. Top wedges of quesadillas with liberal amounts of smoky guacamole.

Shrimp Lo Mein

I was searching for shrimp recipes on Cooking Light’s website to use for our Lenten Friday meal of the week and this is what I came across. It was quite yummy despite one major issue. The recipe calls for “Fresh Lo Mein Noodles” from a Chinese grocery store. Well, I just so happen to have a Chinese grocery store down the road from our hotel so I stopped in to make a purchase. Unfortunately for me, the gentleman who worked in the store did not speak a lick of English and I’m pretty sure was somewhat dubious of the red-headed, freckled, white girl walking through his store. He didn’t seem to eager to help me when I asked him “Where are the fresh Lo Mein noodes, please?” He pointed at something in the freezer that looked like it could pass for Lo Mein noodles but it was all in another language on the package so I couldn’t be sure. Well, they weren’t. I’m pretty sure they were the type of noodles that you would use in a soup because they were VERY slimy after I cooked them. Somewhat disappointing, but luckily the dish was still tasty!

This is what the packaging looked like so you don’t make the same mistake as me:

Shrimp Lo Mein (source: Cooking Light)

Fresh lo mein noodles are available in Asian markets – often in the freezer case. If you can’t find them there, substitute fresh fettuccine.

2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce (I used more than this)

8 ounces large shrimp, peeled, deveined, and coarsely chopped (I didn’t chop my shrimp)
8 ounces fresh lo mein noodles
1 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil, divided (I used plain ‘ole veggie oil)
3 cups thinly vertically sliced onion
5 cups broccoli florets (about 1 pound)
2 cups red bell pepper strips
1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger (I used TJ’s bottled crushed ginger)
3/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted cashews, coarsely chopped (I used salted)

Combine the soy sauce and shrimp; cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. Drain through a sieve over a bowl, reserving soy sauce.

Prepare noodles according to package directions, omitting the salt and fat. Drain and rinse; drain well. Toss noodles with 1 teaspoon oil. Set aside.

Heat 2 teaspoons peanut oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion; stir-fry 3 minutes. Add broccoli and bell pepper; stir-fry 3 minutes. Add garlic and ginger; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove vegetable mixture from pan.

Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons peanut oil in pan. Add shrimp, and stir-fry 1 minute. Add the reserved soy sauce, broth, and salt, and bring to a boil. Add noodles, vegetable mixture, and nuts, and toss well to combine.
Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 2 1/4 cups)

CALORIES 408 (26% from fat); FAT 12g (sat 2.1g,mono 5g,poly 3.5g); PROTEIN 26g; CHOLESTEROL 128mg; CALCIUM 122mg; SODIUM 941mg; FIBER 8.3g; IRON 5.2mg; CARBOHYDRATE 51.8g