kickin’ spice

Last night’s dinner was oh-so-fiery and oh-so-pretty. Just LOOK at that beautiful, colorful, crunchy plate of tacos. Restaurant caliber, IMO.

We made a luscious, gorgeous fish taco dinner. Had I mentioned how much I loved fish tacos? HAD I? (Yes.)

Behold the tomatillo:

So there were farmer’s market tomatillos. Awesome! The presence of tomatillos in ones house= tomatillo salsa being made ASAP, obviously.

Following (ish) a Cooking Light methodology, we broiled the tomatillos with some red onion chunks until charred, then blended them with garlic, lime juice, parsley (we didn’t have cilantro) and, lacking any fresh chiles, a single (but oh-so-potent) jarred habanero.

WHOO THIS HAD KICK. Habanero is not messing around.

I do love tomatillos, though. Have other people cooked with them? They kind of have the texture of tomato but the sweetness of a roasted red pepper? Ish? I’ve made tomatillo and mango salsa before, and not only was it delicious, the color combo with the green and orange was BEAUTEOUS. I may have to do that again…

Anyway, as for the protein component (I’ve felt a little over-carb’d lately, not eating proper meat at the moment, and I wanted a solid slab of protein).

I love grilled fish tacos sometimes, but sometimes only crispy will do. I did it the healthy way by dredging my fish (flounder), which I cut into one inch strips, in a mixture of cornmeal, chili powder (keepin’ it kickin’), and salt.

Then I baked them at 400 degrees for ten minutes until crisp and awesome. Just lookit that gorgeous texture!

All plated up with cabbage and that beautiful tomatillo salsa. If I do say so myself, that was one good lookin’ plate.    

Earlier in the day I had a nice, easy lunch.

What as a child I used to call “girl cheese” (grilled cheese- did I think boys were not allowed to eat it?) sandwich on an English muffin.

Along with my vegetable of the moment, summer squash lightly sauteed in olive oil with salt, pepper, and fresh oregano. Bliss.

  

Rounding out the plate, continuing the summery, southern feel I was going for, baked beans. Yes, from a can. Sometimes I get lazy. Bush’s brand. Of the vegetarian persuasion. Drained a bit and doused in Texas Pete (the unnatural red tinge on parts of it) to try and cut through the cloying sweetness.

Plus iced tea. If I were really going south, I’d have sweet tea but yeurgh I just cannot.