I'm becoming British. Would you like some fish?

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

I'm becoming British. Would you like some fish?

This morning I woke up and straight away realized I had completely forgotten to post anything for Yummy Monday last night.
I then realized I was thinking things like "straight away" and next thing you know I'd be panicking about Mrs. Patmore "skinning me alive" for some other food faux paux. Which led to the realization that it's probably good mr is back from his work trip since I've begun talking to myself with a British accent.
So. Sorry about my lapse last night. Whoops. No excuse, I'm just loosing my mind.
Tonight I thought I'd share something a little different for Yummy, er, Tuesday. Instead of sharing a meal, entree or dessert with a tried and true (or completely failure) recipe, I'm sharing with you an idea I recently had for our "super quick, we've got meetings tonight and I'm way too tired to put any effort into dinner" dinners.

Our children love fish. LOOOOVE fish. It's kind of weird, but I'm not going to question because maybe that means they're going to be brilliant. Brain food, and all...
So when we're making a quick dinner, almost as often as we make grilled cheese (or maybe more-so, now that I think about it) we toss those frozen breaded fish fillets in the oven. I know, it's a travesty. You thought I always made wonderful dinners with four courses all garnished to perfection, didn't you? Well, now you know the truth. My family eats like kings one night of the week and that's IT.

Back to the fish. I realized it was boring. And maybe the kids were ok with that, but I was getting tired of it. And then I realized, there was really no reason I couldn't fix that fish up in super easy ways that would not only make it a lot LESS boring, but also use mainly ingredients we almost always have on hand AND only take the amount of time that the fish are actually in the oven. Perfection.

First up, Dill Tartar Sauce. If you like your tartar sauce sweet, you will hate this. Just putting that out there. I like tartar sauce both ways, but went with dill since that's what looked good the other night.

The recipe for "on hand" Dill Tartar Sauce follows:

Dill Tartar Sauce
1/4 C mayo
1/4 C sour cream
3 dill pickle midgets plus 1 tsp dill pickle juice
1 green onion
3 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp dill
1 tsp garlic salt

Now, you can make this two ways, and I prefer the first way, though the second way is faster.
1. Chop the pickles and the green onion very fine. Put everything in a bowl and mix it up really well.
or
2. Put everything in the food processor and us your chop button on a pulse.
(This makes it a little runnier, so you might want to make adjustments.)

Now, if dill tartar sauce isn't your thing, I've got another idea for you. Perhaps you like avocados and pomegranates? I threw some fresh items we had in the fridge all together into a kind of fruit salsa that I decided I really love. We are less likely to have all of these items on hand, but still usually have most of them.

Pineapple Pomegranate Salsa
1 ring of pineapple (from the can)
1/3 C pomegranate arils
1 avocado
2 small tomatoes
1 T fresh cilantro
2 tsp lime juice
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
pinch of cumin

Chop the pineapple, avocado, tomatoes, and cilantro. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

And just so you know, this is really good on chips too.

Now, if pineapple pomegranate salsa isn't your thing, then you can just use what my kids use:

And if buttermilk ranch isn't your thing... well, I guess you're just beyond hope.

I hope I've helped you solve your boring fish woes. By the way, you don't have to use these ideas on frozen breaded fish fillets. Nope. You can use actual real fish. Just bake your fish up really super simply - in a little butter or oil with a sprinkle of Foxpoint from Penzey's Spices - or something. Then add the above.