Fruity Vinaigrettes

I am on a mission to eat more greens! There is a book called Eat to Live by Joel Furhman (no relation to Mark Furhman of OJ fame, but there is OJ in one of these recipes :)) and Joel talks about how we as humans really need to eat more greens. That we were intended to eat much, much more than we now eat, even having greens for breakfast. He suggests Bibb or Boston lettuce, that softer, sweet lettuce, with vinaigrette and some light cheese to start your morning. I've tried it actually, and its not bad. Refreshing. He also claims that if you will increase your greens, you will lose weight. So this week, I am all about salads.

To get us started, we need to make some dressings. You can use any type of fruity sauce, jam, or even juice concentrate. I made a Jalapeno-Razz, Apricot Pomegranite, Pine-Orange-Strawberry, and Limeaid vinaigrettes this weekend.

Basic Recipe:

-2 Tblsp of your favorite fruit jam, concentrate or syrup (slightly warmed in microwave if its thick)

-1/4 Cup vinegar (I used Pomegranite for red fruits and white wine vinegar for orange, peach, lime)

-1/3 to 1/2 Cup Oil (I used Canola oil as Olive oil has too green of a taste for me)

Start with 1/3 cp oil and taste. If its a little too vinegary, add a bit more.

That's it! I'll share some salads with you tomorrow.

Raz-pepper jelly, slightly warmed in microwave and I used pomegranite vinegar.

A variety of jams, syrups, homemade jellys or frozen concentrates will work.

 

Lone Star FISH Tacos

I can just bet that most of my Midwestern friends are covering their eyes and sticking their fingers in their ears screaming, CRIPES SAKE, why would you put fish in a taco?! EH DERE, what's wrong with hamburger and Lawry's taco seasoning?

When I first moved to Utah, someone mentioned that the best fish tacos were served at a crazy looking joint on Fort Union, called Lone Star. I gasped. Why would anyone think it was a good idea to put fish in a taco. It was the most foreign concept I'd heard. Well Frog Eye Salad probably tops fish tacos but I'll leave that recipe for another day. A very distant day. Shudder. Sorry Utah.

But I continued to hear about fish tacos everywhere they served Mexican food, so I asked around. How did Utahns come to put fish in their tacos? The answer is simple really. Being on the left coast of the country, the Mexicans who migrated up North were mostly from the coastline of Mexico, not from the central area that fed immigrants into the Midwest. And being on the coast, naturally they used a lot of fish in their dishes.

So I made my first trip to Lone Star and fell in love with the limey, smokey tacos covered with coleslaw and a touch of lime dressing, served in a white corn tortilla. Light and refreshing. And their 'taco stand' is very cool including a broken down station wagon and old cowboy boots nailed to the fence posts.

The fish tacos were not difficult to recreate. I came up with a very simple version of their dressing, added a bit of jalapeno jack cheese, some tomatoes from my garden and hey, muy bueno, mi amigos. I think I could even talk some Wisconsites into trying one.

Chipotle Lime Dressing

• 1/4 cup Green Goddess Dressing
• 1 Tbsp fresh Lime Juice
• A couple dashes of Spice House Chipotle Pepper (or ground red pepper
• 1/8 Tsp Spice House Sweet Ancho Chile (your store brand of chile powder
  

Taco Ingredients

• Salmon (or other grilled fish) -marinated for 15 min in 2 Tbs veg oil and 2 Tbs lime juice and rubbed with Spice House Sweet Ancho Chile powder
• White Corn Tortillas
• Diced Tomatoes
• Jack or Jalepeno cheese, shredded
• Shredded cabbage (I bought a bag of cole slaw cabbage, already shredded)

To put together the tacos, you can brush a small about of oil on the tortillas and quickly heat them in a hot skillet, or microwave them for 15 seconds which will warm them nicely without the oil.

Load them with just a small handful of cabbage, then add a few small pieces of fish, tomatoes, cheese and drizzle with the Chipotle Lime Dressing. When it comes to tacos its always better to load less ingredients than to have everything fall out on the first bite.