Fabulous Fish Tacos

These make a great alternative for Taco Tuesday. Even if  you have it.... on a Friday!! Seriously, they are simple and tasty with minimal cleanup.

Music
Chantal Chamberland La Mer

Fish Tacos 
Yields four tacos which can serve two people with a side

• 4 pieces from a box of Trident Beer Batter Cod (try to use longish pieces)
  I used to use the Trident Panko Breaded Cod, but it is no longer available. 
• Kraft Chipotle mayo
• Sriracha  sauce (optional)
• Red cabbage, thinly sliced
• 4 flour tortillas (or corn for variety)
• Cilantro, roughly chopped
• Lime wedges and maybe some radish slices for garnish

1. Prepare cod pieces according to box directions flipping at the midway point. 
2. While fish is cooking, slice the cabbage and mix with enough chipotle mayo to thoroughly coat and enough Sriracha sauce to spice it up as you like.
3. During last one minute or so of baking time place tortillas on second rack in the oven. Remove when you remove the fish or leave in if not thoroughly heated. If you have a gas grill, you can carefully heat them over the flame one at a time.
4. Assemble tacos: Place one piece of fish on each tortilla. Spoon some dressed cabbage on top of the fish. Sprinkle on on some cilantro and a squeeze of lime. Add a bit more of the mayo if you like.
   Be careful, the fish will be very hot. 
5. You can dress up with some mango salsa in place of the slaw for variety.
6. Bon Appétit!

Fish Taco Confidential

My mother, about whom I cannot say enough wonderful things, taught me how to make these. For this and so much more I have a cargo ship loaded with gratitude requiring a deep-water port. 

Black Negroni

Being playful with cocktail recipes yields sometimes fabulous and sometimes disastrous results. Fortunately, Kevin Liu's slight variation on the Negroni falls into the former category. Substituting an amaro for sweet vermouth makes sense if you like your drinks intensely flavorful and complex Add a few dashes of bitters and you've got yourself something special.  I happened to have a bottle of Averna and a bottle of Ramazotti amaros on hand so I made one with each. Both excellent in their own way. The Ramazotti had something like a hint of peppermint.

Recipe is easy.
1 oz gin
1 oz Campari
1 oz Averna amaro (or amaro of your choice).
1 dashes Angustora bitters
2 dashes orange bitters (Kevin used Regan's; I liked Angustora's orange bitters a titch more)

Stir on ice and strain into cocktail glass.
Garnish with orange peel after expressing the oil from the peel into the drink.

That is a horrible example of cutting out a letter in the orange peel for garnish. I've done much better, but wanted to share my failure. There's a business idea... Small cookie cutters to punch out a letter from citrus peel for cocktail. In the world of bespoke-ness you can't get much more bespoken. Sell each for a small fortune on Cocktail Kingdom. 

Migas

Possibly the best breakfast dish ever. Spend some time in Austin, TX and you will  have these for breakfast. Go to Trudy's. You will like them. Migas was my usual weekend dish with breakfast tacos filling in the weekdays if I was lucky. I've got several recipes for Migas. This one is quick and easy.
Music for preparing Migas? Hmmm, I'd have to go with Buena Vista Social Club's Chan Chan.

Perry's Migas for Two

• 4 eggs
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1 tbsp margarine, or butter, or bacon grease, or combination
• 1/2 med to smallish onion, diced
• 2-3 tablespoons drained Rotel tomatoes with green chiles
• 2-3 handfulls of bagged tortilla chips, crushed in your hand when adding to skillet
• Some cheese: velveeta, mexican blend grated, or leftover chile con queso
• Serranos or Jalapeños finely diced
• Flour tortillas

Directions

1. Wrap 4 tortillas flat in foil and put into a oven set at about 250 degrees. 
2. Put two plates into the microwave so you can heat them later. If melting Velveeta, put the cheese and a little milk into a small bowl and put that on the plates. 
3. Sautè the onions in the margarine. While onions cook, beat eggs with milk. 
4. Once onions soften, add the drained Rotel tomatoes. Heat until most of the liquid has evaporated and tomatoes are heated through. 
5. Add the beaten eggs and crumble the tortilla chips onto the eggs. 
6. Cook as you would scrambled eggs. Lowered heat and moving eggs spatula to get the curd size you like. Turn on the microwave for about a minute watching cheese doesn't overflow if melting cheese. 
7. Plate the eggs, drizzle with the melted cheese or sprinkle with grated cheese. 
8. Sprinkle some diced serranos or jalapeños. Don't forget the tortillas in the oven. 

Freshly brewed coffee is a great beverage choice. 

Egg Confidential
I hated eggs my whole life growing up. Would not eat them no matter how they were prepared. When I got to University of Texas, a roommate suggested we go out for migas. I protested. He said there was hardly any egg in them and I should try them. I complied and am forever grateful to Jim Speedy for getting me to try these. I've since expanded my eggy horizons and like them scrambled with a few additions.

Clover Club Cocktail (with DIY Grenadine)

I found the original recipe a bit of  pain after making it in a blender as called for.You can try doing a "dry" shake by adding all the liquids with no ice and shaking (then adding ice and shaking again). The absence of ice in the first shake fails to create a vacuum seal causing some liquid to leak from the shaker.  I prefer using a hand (or immersion) blender for emulsifying egg whites in cocktails. Easy use and the quick clean-up are enough to recommend this method. Here's the recipe. For music I've got a two recommendations for making this drink.

Glenn Miller's In the Mood
Bennie Goodman's Sing, Sing, Sing

Recipe for Clover Club Cocktail (makes 2)

• 3 oz gin
• 1 oz fresh lemon juice
• 1 oz simple syrup
• 1/2 oz pomegranate syrup (add 2 cups Pom Wonderful to pyrex measuring glass and microwave at low or medium until the volume is reduced to 1 cup; let cool before use)
• 1 egg white

Add everything to the bottom half of a Boston or Parisian shaker.
Use an immersion blender to emulsify the ingredients. I start off at slower speed and work my way up. A minute or so is usually enough.
Add ice to the shaker, cover and shake to chill thoroughly.
Strain into chilled cocktail glasses.

Notes
This drink is truly wonderful. Light on the tongue but bursting with the citrus and continues with a lingering finish of pomegranate. The astringency of the gin and pomegranate with the soft touch from emulsified egg white produce a blissful mouthfeel.

If you are nervous about using raw egg white, use pasteurized egg white from egg beaters. I may just be lucky, but I have made a fair number of drinks with raw egg white and never suffered for it. Up to you, of course.

Barrel Aged Beefeater (aka BABs)

Continuing with barrel-aging sans barrels, I thought I'd try it with a little Beefeater gin. I added about 2 cups of Beefeater and 20g Jack Daniels Barrel Chips to a mason jar and sealed it. I let it rest for about 6 days shaking it every couple of days. I'm going to leave it in there a bit longer and see if it improves.

Today I made a simple martini using this "barrel-aged" gin. The result was interesting and worth pursuing I think. The chips impart a bit of oak and maybe a hint of bourbon-like something (which I don't particularly like). The latter may be just my imagination. It also gives the gin a pale straw color that is not too disagreeable. Overall it was a nice change of pace from my regular martini. I garnished with a fat caperberry because I had some in the fridge.

BAB Martini
2 oz barrel-aged Beefeater
1/4 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry Vermouth
Stir over ice until chilled and diluted.
Strain and garnish (maybe with a lemon peel next time

Cheers,

P

Next up, Black Negroni