Beer Battered Salmon Tacos with Zesty White Sauce

I had a salmon fillet at home with no plans on what to make with it. I came across Oishii's recipe  for beer battered salmon tacos with zesty white sauce. This sounds delicious, so I decided to give it a try.

It’s very easy and relatively fast (about 25 minutes) to make. It was pretty good, it would have been better if I liked Salmon. I’ve come to the conclusion I only liked smoked salmon, not salmon fillets. The sauce yielded quite a bit and not knowing what I could do with the leftovers, I just threw it out (something I hate to do.) So if you are interested in the sauce, I recommend cutting the recipe in half.

Here is my version of the recipe…

Beer Battered Salmon Tacos with Zesty White Sauce

For the White Sauce:

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup mayo
• Handful of chopped cilantro
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano*
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin*
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder*
• freshly ground black pepper
* I did not measure

For the Beer-Batter:

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup beer ( I used Coors Light)

Making the Tacos:

About 6 oz of salmon fillets, skinned and cut into your desired size pieces
6 whole wheat flour tortillas
Vegetable oil and/or olive oil for frying (I use olive oil to fry tortillas)

**Optional toppings: sour cream, guacamole, lime, Mexican shredded cheese blend**

Directions: 

• In a medium bowl, mix together yogurt and mayonnaise. Gradually stir in fresh lime juice until consistency thins. Season with oregano, cumin, chili powder, and black pepper. Add chopped cilantro, mix, set aside.
• In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. In another small bowl blend egg and then blend in beer. Quickly stir into the flour mixture (it’s okay if it’s a little lumpy).
• Heat oil in deep frying pan until hot.
• Dust salmon pieces lightly with flour. Dip into beer batter, and fry until crisp and golden brown. Drain on paper towels.
• Heat tortillas in a hot oiled pan, until slightly crispy on each side. Drain on paper towels.
• To serve, add salmon fillets, whatever toppings you please and drizzle with white sauce. Enjoy!

This made 6 servings. Another Weight Watchers Indulgence: 1 taco = 7 points

Fish Tacos

I like fish. A lot.  Though I have never in my life had a fish taco!  I guess I never really knew what they were exactly.  Maybe I thought it was some weird fish I wouldn’t like or… something.  Either way, I’ve never tried them.  So I decided to see what all of these were about and started looking at recipes to make some myself.  Tilapia is our fish of choice so I went from them and just kind of improvised a recipe. They were awesome!  Even the hubster said he was impressed (he’s never had them either.)  I think we have a winner.

Fish Tacos

4 tilapia fish filets

1 whole lemon

1 whole lime

Lemon Pepper Seasoning Salt

½ cup cilantro

Toppings:

Cheese

Sour cream

Salsa

1. Season fish with lemon pepper seasoning on both sides.  Place fish on a foil lined baking sheets.  Squeeze 1/3 the juice from lemon and ½ the juice from the lime onto filets. Bake thawed at 425 for 15 minutes.  Flip filets midway through baking, squeezing 1/3 of the lemon & lime juices on top of the filets.
2. In a bowl, tear apart cilantro and squeeze remaining 1/3 of the lime and lemon juices onto cilantro.
3. Meanwhile, heat oil in a skillet and heat corn and/or flour tortillas.
4. Remove fish from oven and place in bowl with cilantro mix.  Mix together, breaking apart the fish into pieces (it should pretty much fall apart).
5. Create tacos topping with cheese, sour cream, salsa and/or anything else your heart desires 

You know I have to assign this Weight Watchers points.  So 3 corn tortillas with 4 oz of fish mix topped with a total of 1/8 cup of Mexican shredded cheese, 1 tbsp of sour cream and 3 tbsp of salsa = 6.5 points

I take for granted how nice it is to cook for 2

My cousin's husband has basically been living with us Monday-Friday for the last 3 weeks while he works on our patio.  Having perfected cooking for just us two, it threw a wrench in my operation to now cook for 3 every night. Well, he went home this weekend so it was just us for dinner last night.  I'm doing Weight Watchers and Frank is just on a quest to eat healthy, so I have been cooking as healthy as I can.  I made this recipe up last night:

Shrimp Kabobs

• 1 bag of medium sized shrimp (approx. 28 shrimp)
• 1 large red bell pepper, cut into quarters 
• 1 large green bell pepper, cut into quarters 
• 1 whole lemon
• 1 whole lime
• 1 packet of sazon

1.  Soak your skewers, for a few hours prior to cooking, in a bowl full of water
2.  Assemble skewers.  Alternate green pepper, shrimp, red pepper, shrimp, green pepper, etc.  You should have 4 shrimp and 5 peppers.
3. Squeeze lemon and lime over skewers.  Sprinkle with sazon.
4.  Grill for approx 4 minutes on each side.

Disassemble skewers, remove tails and serve over a bed of brown rice.

3 skewers over 2/3 cup of brown rice = 5.5 points

Broccoli & Shrimp Scampi Pasta

• 8 oz spaghetti
• ¼ cup butter
• 2-3 tsp minced garlic
• (approx) ½ cup Italian bread crumbs 
• (approx) ¾ cup dry white wine
• 10 oz small shrimp
• ½ pounds of broccoli chopped into florets
• ¼ tsp of each of the following seasonings: cumin, red pepper flakes, basil & onion salt

1. Cook pasta al dente
2. Boil broccoli
3. In a skillet, melt butter and sauté minced garlic. Add in all seasoning & wine, simmer for a moment. Add in shrimp and cook, tossing frequently, until pink. Slowly (a tsp at a time) mix in breadcrumbs. You may or may not use all the bread crumbs, just continue adding until your mixture has thickened up a bit.
4. Drain pasta, do not rinse. Put back in hot pot with drained hot broccoli and mix in shrimp scampi.
5. Serve garnished with freshly grated Romano cheese

Parmesan/Romano Crusted Tilapia

- 3-4 Tilapia fillets
- 2 large lemons
- 1/2 cup of Romano or Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup olive oil
-  lemon pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425.

On a cookie sheet, put the fillets in center, squeeze 1 lemon over fillets  and season to flavor.  Bake for 10 minutes, turning over midway through baking.

Mix olive oil & lemon juice from remaining lemon.

Take out of oven and turn on broiler.  Pour above mixture over fish and then sprinkle with Romano (or Parmesan) cheese.  Set under broiler for 5-7 minutes.  (cheese will form a crust)

Sushi

I had the pleasure of learning how to make sushi myself so we can eat it more often without breaking the bank.

Makes 5 rolls:

- 2 1/2 cups calrose rice
- 1 package of roasted seaweed sheets
- 4 oz of sushi grade (every important or you will get sick) fish of choice... smoked salmon and precooked crab is always safe
- veggies & other mix-ins of choice, sliced into long strips
- 3 1/3 cups of water
- 1/2 cup rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup sugar

1. Rinse rice out 3-4 times, the water should go from cloudy to almost clear.

2. Boil rinsed rice with water, once boiled - lower heat and simmer (covered) for 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat, let sit (covered) additional 10 minutes (I fluffed the rice before letting it sit another 10 minutes). Place in *PLASTIC* bowl (it is important once rice leaves pot it does not come into contact with anymore metal) cover with damp paper towel and let cool in fridge for 10-15 minutes.

3. In a cup mix vinegar & sugar - microwave for 30 seconds (you can also boil this if desired).

3. CUT in (do not mix, stir or fold) vinegar/sugar mix to bowl of rice. (it's gonna smell... aka kind of reek, lol).

4. On a sushi rolling mat - place seaweed shiny side down and flatten rice over it, leaving a 1/2 inch space on the bottom. It is easier to flatten it with a wet spatula and then manipulate it with your fingers (you will wash your hands a lot). Make sure the rice is not too high as you dont want a monstrous roll, but just about 1/8 of an inch high off the seaweed.

5. Place fish, veggies, etc in the center and roll towards you creating a lip on the roll and then work with it to flatten it out and roll it closed.

6. SLICE with a *WET* knife in half, placing the 2 halves next to each other (its just easier to cut) and then slice into 6-8 pieces total (off one roll).

You can enjoy it right away or cover with syran wrap for later use. I didnt have syran wrap and used foil and it was ok, but the next day you could tell it was not as fresh.

I made 10 rolls total since we were having company. Here were my combos:
- salmon & cream cheese (Philadelphia roll)
- salmon, cream cheese & cucumber
- crab & cream cheese
- crab, cream cheese & cucumber

I played it on the safe side since it was my first time. We tore it up! Our non-sushi loving friends are now hooked! And we had plenty left that we had a little sushi picnic in the basement the next day.