Name: Fish & Chips Tacos
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min
Yield: 8 tacos
Ingredients: ¾ cup mayonnaise; 2 tablespoons capers, drained & chopped; 2 tablespoons pickle relish (they recommend sweet, but I used dill); 1 tablespoon minced shallots; 1 ½ teaspoons white vinegar; ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce; ½ teaspoon ground black pepper; 2 cups finely shredded cabbage (I use Fresh Express Angel Hair slaw); 1/4 cup malt vinegar; 1 tablespoon sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 Medium Russet potatoes; 3 quarts water; 1 teaspoon kosher salt (plus more for sprinkling); 1 teaspoon olive oil (or olive oil spread); 1 1?2 pounds firm-fleshed white fish (I used cod); 1 cup all-purpose flour; 1 1?2 teaspoons baking powder; 1 teaspoon kosher salt; dash Old Bay seasoning; 1 cup beer (I like brown ale or pale ale...for this I used Founder's Dry Hopped Pale Ale); 3?4 cup cornstarch for dredging (you may not need all of it-start with 1?2 cup); 24 ounces safflower, peanut, or canola oil; 16 corn tortillas

Fish and Chips Tacos with Tartar Sauce

May 26, 2015

Fish and chips tacos blend two of my favorites – fish & chips and fish tacos – into one delicious handheld meal, complete with tartar sauce!

You guys know I love some fish tacos…they were one of the first recipes that I ever posted here and I recently rephotographed that post (because I sucked at photography and was using a not-so-hot camera back in 2011). But when Philip recently suggested fish & chips tacos I was looked at him in a whole new light. Why didn’t I think of that?

Because fish and chips are one of my very favorite things to eat…but I can’t think of too many things that can’t be made even better by putting them on a tortilla. Now, I’m not going to lie…just a few weeks before Philip suggested this, I had seen a fish & chips taco on Cooking and Beer, one of my favorite blogs….but Justine didn’t go completely tradish with her tacos, using sweet potato “chips”, spicy tartar sauce, and no malt vinegar…so we’ll say I’m paying her an homage and not copying.

As I’ve mentioned before, in my house, you canNOT have fish and chips without some good old stinky malt vinegar. My BFF used to make fun of me when we had fish & chips dates (we did that a lot) and I doused my fish with it, but I’ve brought her over to the dark side now (really I guess it’s just that her tastebuds have changed). Malt vinegar slaw seemed like the perfect way to include stinky feet vinegar on my tacos…and yes, yes it was.

With the malt vinegar slaw, a classic tartar sauce and perfectly crispy fish, these fish and chips tacos blend two of my favorites…tacos and fish & chips…seamlessly.

Yield: 8 tacos

Fish & Chips Tacos

20 minPrep Time:

30 minCook Time:

Save Recipe

Print Recipe

My Recipes My Lists My Calendar

Ingredients

For the tartar sauce (recipe from America's Test Kitchen)

¾ cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons capers, drained & chopped
2 tablespoons pickle relish (they recommend sweet, but I used dill)
1 tablespoon minced shallots
1 ½ teaspoons white vinegar
½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon ground black pepper

For the malt vinegar slaw

2 cups finely shredded cabbage (I use Fresh Express Angel Hair slaw)
1/4 cup malt vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

For the fish & chips (fish recipe from Alton Brown's Good Eats Volume 1 , fries from Devin Alexander's Fast Food Fix

2 Medium Russet potatoes
3 quarts water
1 teaspoon kosher salt (plus more for sprinkling)
1 teaspoon olive oil (or olive oil spread)
1 1?2 pounds firm-fleshed white fish (I used cod)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1?2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
dash Old Bay seasoning
1 cup beer (I like brown ale or pale ale...for this I used Founder's Dry Hopped Pale Ale)
3?4 cup cornstarch for dredging (you may not need all of it-start with 1?2 cup)
24 ounces safflower, peanut, or canola oil

For tacos

16 corn tortillas

Instructions

Stir together all tartar sauce ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Place the cabbage in a medium bowl. Stir in the vinegar, sugar, and salt. Set aside until ready to assemble the tacos.
Make the fries: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place stoneware bar pan or large baking sheet in oven to preheat.
Place the 3 quarts of water in a medium pot and place on stove over medium-high to high heat. Scrub potatoes. Cut into fries. I cut my potatoes into 5 or 6 slices then stack the slices and cut each slice into 5 or 6 planks; you can adjust the size of your cuts to fit your desired fry shapes. Place the potatoes in a bowl of cold water until the water has come to a boil. Put the salt in the water and place the potatoes in the boiling water with a slotted spoon and discard the starchy water. Boil the fries for three minutes then drain, shaking in the colander to remove excess water. Allow to sit for five minutes in the colander, giving an occasional shake.
After the fries have “rested” and the oven has preheated, you can either place the fries in a dry bowl and toss with the teaspoon of olive oil or place them on the baking sheet/bar pan and spray with olive oil spray. Sprinkle with salt. Spread out on the pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, stirring every five minutes. When the fries have reached desired brownness, remove from oven and serve immediately.
While the fries are cooking, prepare the fish: Pour the oil into a ten-inch cast iron pan. Preheat over medium heat.
Cut the fish into “planks” and dry with paper towels. Dredge the fish in cornstarch then, using tongs, dip into the batter until completely coated. When a drop of batter dropped into the oil sizzles, place the battered fish into the oil (you will need to do this in two to three batches). Cook for about three minutes then carefully turn and cook for another three minutes, until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and serve while hot with the chips, malt vinegar, and tartar sauce.
To make the tacos, warm the tortillas. I do this on the open flame of my gas stove, but you could also do this in the microwave wrapped in damp paper towels or in a low oven wrapped in foil. Use two tortillas per taco. Divide the fish and cabbage among the tortillas. Top with tartar sauce. Serve immediately.

Notes

This recipe can be made corn free by substituting all-purpose flour for the cornstarch. It will affect the "cling" of the coating slightly but will not affect the flavor at all!

https://chattavore.com/fish-and-chips-tacos/

Click here to print the recipe for fish & chips tacos!

Fish and chips tacos blend two of my favorites - fish & chips and fish tacos - into one delicious handheld meal, complete with tartar sauce! | recipe from Chattavore.com

Italian Summer Grilling with Colavita

May 20, 2015

This is a sponsored post about Italian summer grilling with Colavita. As always, all opinions are my own.

It won’t be summer for another month now, but here in Tennessee it’s been feeling like summer for a couple of weeks. The temperature has been above 80 degrees several days, reaching 90 on some. And I am completely okay with that. See, I love to complain about the cold. I despise cold weather. Because I complain about the cold, I never, ever complain about the heat, even on the days when my AC doesn’t stop running and all I want to do is lie on the couch with a cold wet towel on my head. It’s still better than cold.

Because it’s so hot around here and we like to keep our electric bill within a reasonable amount, we like to avoid heating up our house by turning on the oven. Once the mercury goes above 80 degrees, I only turn my oven on if I have to bake something that I can’t fit in my countertop oven. Therefore, I avoid baking anything I can’t fit in my countertop oven. Birthday cakes are an exception. My summer cooking is done in the countertop oven, the slow cooker, the smoker, and on the stove top. Oh yeah…and on the grill….especially when it involves Italian summer grilling with Colavita.

There’s just something about the flavor of food off the grill that makes me crave summer. You can eat the same old food week after week and never get excited about it…then put it on the grill and see it in a whole new light. When Colavita sent me a giant box of their amazing products to use to develop some Italian summer grilling recipes, I practically turned cartwheels!

Looking at bottle after bottle of high quality olive oil, vinegar, and vinegar glacé (reduction) plus pesto, sundried tomatoes, capers, black rice, pasta, salt and pepper, and 00 flour (superfine flour that I have never seen here in the U.S.), I decided that those ingredients to me said vegetarian grilling. Eggplant and sourdough bread seemed like perfect candidates to go on the grill, and nothing sounded better to me than a rice salad coupled with a beautiful tomato and basil stack on that grilled sourdough. I could have eaten that grilled sourdough all on its own, and the rice salad-full of eggplant, artichoke heart, and sundried tomatoes-was even better after a day or two reheated and topped with a fried egg. And I’m so excited to find even more uses for all of my Colavita products!

Colavita products are perfect for your Italian summer grilling projects!

Yield: 4 servings

Grilled Eggplant Rice Salad and Grilled Sourdough Caprese Stacks

20 minPrep Time:

10 minCook Time:

Save Recipe

Print Recipe

My Recipes My Lists My Calendar

Ingredients

For the salad

1 large eggplant
2 teaspoons salt , plus more to taste
1/4 cup Colavita extra virgin olive oil , divided
black pepper
1 14.5 ounce can artichoke hearts, well-drained and coarsely chopped
1 pouch Scotti 5-Minute Black Rice , cooked according to package directions
1/4 cup [Colavita sundried tomatoes packed in olive oilhttp://store.colavita.com/specialty-items/vegetabes/sundried-tomatoes-9-8-oz.html], coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons Colavita white balsamic vinegar

For the sourdough Caprese stacks

4 large slices sourdough bread
2 tablespoons Colavita garlic olive oil or unflavored extra virgin olive oil
1 large tomato, thinly sliced
4 ounces fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons Colavita extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons Colavita pesto sauce
2 teaspoons Colavita balsamic glacé

Instructions

Slice the eggplant into 1/4 inch thick slices. Sprinkle both sides of the eggplant with salt and place on a cooling rack over a sink. Allow to sit for 30 minutes. Rinse the salt off and pat the eggplant slices dry with paper towels.
Preheat the center burners of a grill over medium-high. Brush the eggplant slices with two tablespoons of the olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Place on the grill over direct until tender, about five minutes on each side. While the eggplant is cooking on the first side, brush the sourdough slices with the garlic olive oil. When you turn the eggplant, place the sourdough over indirect heat and grill, turning once, until lightly browned on both sides.
Cut the eggplant into 1-inch cubes and toss with the black rice, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, white balsamic vinegar, and remaining olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Combine the 2 tablespoons of pesto with the remaining olive oil in a small bowl. Divide the tomatoes and mozzarella among the slices of grilled bread, staggering slightly. Lightly salt and pepper then drizzle with the olive oil/pesto mixture and the balsamic glacé. Serve immediately.

https://chattavore.com/italian-summer-grilling/

Click here to print the recipe for grilled eggplant rice salad and grilled sourdough caprese stacks!

Grilled eggplant rice salad and grilled sourdough caprese salad with Colavita products are a great vegetarian grilling option! | Chattavore.com

Maple Street Biscuit Company

May 18, 2015

Maple Street Biscuit Company is a popular Downtown Chattanooga breakfast and lunch spot that serves biscuits with a variety of interesting topping options.
Maple Street Biscuit Company has been around for several months (since last summer, maybe?) and several people have mentioned that we needed to go there. I love a good biscuit, so I was definitely game. The problem is that the place closes at 2 on weekdays and is closed on Sundays, and since I almost always make biscuits for breakfast on Saturday we usually aren’t in the mood for biscuits on Saturday afternoon. We decided to have pancakes this weekend instead so that we would be in a biscuit state of mind for our late lunch.

We headed to Maple Street Biscuit Company around 12:30 or 1:00. It’s located on Broad Street near Five Guys and Top It Off, so parking is limited. We parked in a Unum lot and walked down. It was still pretty busy, with the patio still full, lots of tables occupied, and a fairly long line. The first thing that we noticed was that the place was loud.

You stand in the line and give your order to the cashier, who asks you a question and your answer is what they call out to indicate that your order is ready (today it was “If you could take a road trip anywhere, where would you go?”). You get your own silverware, drinks at the fountain, etc., then find a table. When your food is up, someone stands at the counter and essentially screams your answer then you go to retrieve it. When the place is really busy (like it was while we were there) they are screaming out constantly and it is a little unnerving. One guy’s voice actually made me jump. I was not wild about this process.

The menu at Maple Street Biscuit Company includes, naturally, a wide variety of biscuit sandwiches-most, but not all, including fried chicken breast. There are biscuits with sausage gravy and also a few vegetarian options. Sides include fried green tomatoes, collard greens, five-cheese macaroni and cheese, and sweet potato fries.

As for how we liked the food…well, I made the statement that since biscuits are my specialty I was a little concerned about how this was going to go. I decided to order the Reinhold ($6), with fried chicken breast, honey mustard, and crunchy dill pickles. The honey mustard was not the creamy kind, just the honey + mustard kind (most of the sauces are made in-house), and the pickles were thickly sliced. I decided to take the top off of my biscuit and eat it on its own while eating the bottom half with a knife and fork. I thought that the bottom part, with the chicken, honey mustard, and pickles on the biscuit, was pretty tasty; the chicken was crispy and well-cooked. The biscuit had a good texture, too. However…I thought it had a bit of a doughy flavor. I think it was maybe made with shortening and I am used to an all-butter biscuit, so that may have been the flavor that I was picking up. Philip got the Sticky Maple ($7) with fried chicken, pecan wood smoked bacon, and maple syrup (real maple syrup, not maple-flavored pancake syrup) and liked it pretty well also.

As a side, we shared an order of fried green tomatoes with ranch dressing (blue cheese dressing is available as well) for $4. The basket was 4 fried green tomato slices with a cup of dressing for dipping. The tomatoes were battered in a heavily peppered batter and fried till crisp and golden brown. They were pretty tasty with a heavy spice from the pepper. The ranch dressing was just average ranch dressing but pretty good with the tomatoes.

So…did I love the place? Nah. I didn’t hate it, either, but I’m going to be honest, the screaming killed it for me; I guess we should have sat outside, but the patio was packed out when we got there. At $18.57, it was not an expensive lunch but I did think about how much less it would cost for me to make it at home (but let’s be honest, that’s the case with just about everything). The food was pretty good, so if you don’t mind a loud atmosphere, then give it a try. If loud is not your style, go when there’s open seating on the patio (a Facebook follower also said that if you sit in the back you don’t hear the loudness. It was very crowded when we were in so this was not an option for us. Others said that when you go at less busy times-such as Friday or Saturday evenings-it is not as loud.). I will say that the staff seemed very helpful and I saw one cashier leave her station to help a couple with visual impairments get their drinks and find a table.

Maple Street Biscuit Company is located at 407 Broad Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402. You can call them at (423) 362-5380. They are open Monday-Thursday, 7-2, and Friday-Saturday 7-2 and 5-9. You can check out their website: Maple Street Biscuit Company and like Maple Street Biscuit Company on Facebook.

Strawberry Cream Pie with Pretzel Crust

May 16, 2015

This strawberry cream pie has a delicious pretzel crust and a sweet cream cheese layer under the pretty pink strawberry layer!

Strawberry cream pie is the kind of thing that I daydream about. I think I might have mentioned here a time or two that I love strawberries when they’re in season. My goodness…in my opinion there really is no flavor-at least not on the sweet side of things-better than that of a perfectly ripe strawberry on the verge of going south. They’re good in any application…pies, cakes, sauces, drinks, popsicles, sweet rolls, etc., etc., ETC.

Of all the strawberry desserts I love, my grandmother’s strawberry pie is the one that makes me swoon the most. Partly nostalgia, partly because it’s just that darn good, I could eat that strawberry pie till my waistband was bursting at the seams and probably wish that I had more. It just makes me smile, especially when I think about my grandmother serving it to me when I was a child.

Recently I had a super-exciting moment when I used my Amazon app to scan a book in Books-a-Million. My heart leapt into my chest when I saw that the Kindle edition of Me, Myself, and Pie by Sherry Gore was on sale for $1.99 (regular price $9.99). I promptly bought it when I got home and read the whole book that day. It got me thinking about things that I could do to make pies that were even better than the already pretty darn good pies I’ve been making.

And then…then I happened upon a recipe for pretzel crust. That made me think of a Jell-O salad that I have eaten a few times, with a pretzel base, a cream cheese and Cool Whip layer, and a layer of strawberry Jell-O and fresh strawberries. I remember loving it. I’ve thought about it a few times lately, thought about how I could make it my own. So what did I do? I turned it into strawberry cream pie.

This pretzel crust recipe is actually one that I found on my friend Jessie Weaver’s blog. It’s pretty much perfect. I attempted a cream cheese layer with sweetened condensed milk and decided that, while it was delicious, it was just too weepy and runny, so I changed it up. My grandmother’s strawberry filling recipe was still perfect, though.

This pie…this is the strawberry cream pie of my dreams-and not just my daydreams!

Yield: 8-12 servings

Strawberry Cream Pie with Pretzel Crust

3 hrPrep Time:

15 minCook Time:

Save Recipe

Print Recipe

My Recipes My Lists My Calendar

Ingredients

For the crust

1 cup plus 2 T. fine pretzel crumbs (about 3 1/2-4 cups of pretzels)
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 tablespoons sugar

For the cream cheese layer

4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

For the strawberry layer

1 quart strawberries, hulled and sliced in half
1 cup powdered sugar
1 packet unflavored gelatin
1 1/4 cup water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

Instructions

To make the crust: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the pretzel crumbs, sugar, and melted butter until completely moistened. Press the crumbs into a 9-inch pie pan, pressing evenly into the bottom and up the sides. I like to use the flat bottom of a measuring spoon to smooth the crust. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool completely.
When the crust has cooled, use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Spread into the cooled pretzel crust, taking care to not peel up any of the pretzel crumbs.
Place 3 cups of the strawberries into a bowl and toss with the remaining powdered sugar. Macerate for an hour.
Dissolve the gelatin into 1/4 cup old water. Crush up the remaining cup of strawberries using a potato masher or a fork. Place the crushed strawberries in a small saucepan and bring to a boil with the remaining cup of water. Boil for two minutes.
Stir the granulated sugar and the cornstarch together. Add to the strawberry mixture and cook briefly, until dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in the gelatin until completely combined.
Arrange the macerated strawberries on top of the cream cheese layer. Pour the strawberry/gelatin mixture over the top of the strawberries. Chill for at least 12 hours before serving.

https://chattavore.com/strawberry-cream-pie-with-pretzel-crust/

Click here to print the recipe for strawberry cream pie with pretzel crust!

Strawberry cream pie with pretzel crust is the pie of my dreams! | chattavore.com

Easy Strawberry Lemonade for One

May 14, 2015

This easy strawberry lemonade is too simple NOT to make it – just smash your strawberries and stir up all your ingredients in the glass!

Okay, so the name of this post is easy strawberry lemonade for one, but there are two glasses in this picture. The point is…you can make this a glass at a time, no need for a pitcher. I rarely make lemonade because, well, all the lemons. Making lemonade takes a lot of lemons, plus those pitchers take up a lot of space in the refrigerator and my refrigerator is kind of small.

My lack of lemonade makes me sad, because I über-love lemonade. I mean, I love sweet tea, but lemonade is my favorite summer drink. It makes me so happy. I know that sounds like a bit of an exaggeration, but there are few summertime traditions that are quite as exciting as cold, icy lemonade. Water is usually our drink of choice around here, but when there is lemonade I just. can’t. stop.

Especially when strawberries are involved. I’ve been yapping on and on about how much I love strawberries since they are in season now and this year I decided that I was going to give you guys as many strawberry recipes as I possibly could. Enter strawberry fluff and the most amazing strawberry pie that I’m going to bring you guys on Saturday (I know you guys will forgive me for two strawberry recipes in one week, right?) and now this strawberry lemonade.

So, obviously strawberry lemonade for one is a single-serving recipe. The best way to make it! I’ll warn you…it’s heavy on the lemon (because I love it tart!) but also heavy on the simple syrup (because I love it sweet!) and heavy on the beautiful pink deliciousness most of all. So now you can have lemonade-strawberry lemonade at that-whenever you want. And you don’t even need a pitcher!

So I give you…easy strawberry lemonade for one.

Yield: 1 serving

Strawberry Lemonade for One

5 minPrep Time:

5 minCook Time:

Save Recipe

Print Recipe

My Recipes My Lists My Calendar

Ingredients

For the simple syrup

1 cup sugar
1 cup water

For the lemonade

3 medium strawberries, washed and hulled
2-3 tablespoons simple syrup
juice of one lemon
ice cubes
water

Instructions

Make the simple syrup: Stir the water and the sugar together in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook until the sugar completely dissolves. Pour into a jar and refrigerate until ready to use.
Place the strawberries and the 2 tablespoons of the simple syrup in a 12-ounce glass. Crush the strawberries with a muddler or the handle of a wooden spoon. Add the lemon juice and stir to combine.
Fill the glass with ice cubes. Fill to the top with ice. Stir until well combined. Taste and add more simple syrup if more sweetness is desired.

Notes

The cook time is for the simple syrup. You can also use storebought simple syrup.

https://chattavore.com/easy-strawberry-lemonade-for-one/

Click here to print the recipe for strawberry lemonade for one!

This easy strawberry lemonade is too simple NOT to make it - just smash your strawberries and stir up all your ingredients in the glass! | chattavore.com

« Previous Page