Tilapia Veracruz Recipe

Baked Tilapia Veracruz Recipe
3-4 fillets of Tilapia about 3/4" thick
16 medium Shrimp, shelled and deveined

1/2 Onion, diced
1/4 large Green Pepper, finely diced
2 cloves of Garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon Tomato Paste
2 cups Chicken Stock
1/2 cup Tomato Sauce
Black Pepper & Salt, to taste
2 Tablespoons Capers, drained and rinsed
2 Tablespoons of Italian Parsley
Juice from 1/2 a Lemon

In skillet over medium heat, saute onion for a couple minutes. Add green pepper and cook until onion starts to become clear. Add garlic. When you can smell the garlic, before it browns, add the tomato paste and cook a minute or so, stirring constantly, then add chicken stock, tomato sauce, capers, black pepper and salt to taste. Simmer and reduce a bit until flavors meld, about 5 minutes. Turn off heat. Add parsley and lemon juice. Stir to combine.

Pour a bit of the sauce into a  8"x11.5"x2" baking dish, just enough to cover the bottom, saving the rest.  Place tilapia in a single layer, side by side into the dish. Add raw shrimp to the remaining sauce and pour over the tilapia. (The shrimp will cook along with the tilapia.)  Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees until done (if fresh tilapia, approx 15 minutes, if frozen about 30 minutes).

Serve with steamed white rice. Salad and yuca toasted garlic and lime to round out the meal. Enjoy!

Sweet Cornbread Recipe

Last night I was in the mood for a sweet moist cornbread. My usual cornbread is the rather dry and not too sweet version on the back of the Quaker Yellow Cornmeal box. That version works well for breakfast with syrup, but isn't great for a side of chili. I threw a pot of chicken chili on the stove to simmer and started searching the internet for a recipe. The recipe I found on Allrecipes.com Grandmothers Buttermilk Cornbread Recipe  was perfect. It has a sweet corn flavor and is very moist.  It's almost like a cake and certainly would be too sweet with syrup.

Grandmother's Buttermilk Cornbread Recipe
1/2 cup Butter (2 sticks, unsalted)
2/3 cup Sugar (granulated, white)
2 Large Eggs
1 cup Buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 cup Cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt (I used Sea Salt, which is a bit less intense than regular salt)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Grease an 8 x 11.5 pan (original recipe calls for an 8x8).

Melt butter. Whisk together butter, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, and baking soda.
Sift together cornmeal, flour, and salt.  Add dry and wet ingredients and mix well. The batter will be pretty runny. Pour it into the prepared pan.

Bake 25-30 minutes (30-40 min if 8x8 pan used) until slightly browned on top and toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm or cooled.

Veggie Wrap Recipe

Who doesn't hate dieting? I find it impossible. And I greatly regret having to talk about it on a food blog! So, let's focus on the positive, I do love veggies.  Let's hope today's veggie wrap gets the numbers on the scale going in the right direction!!!

FriendlyFork Veggie Wrap Recipe
1 large Tortilla (I use spinach tortillas)
1 Tablespoon Hummus
2 slices Tomato, sliced and halved
3 Mushrooms, sliced
1 sliver of Sweet Onion
5 Greek Olives, pitted and chopped coarsely
2-3 fresh Basil leaves
2 sprigs Cilantro
1 Roasted Red Pepper, sliced
1 large handful of fresh Spinach, Arugula, or Lettuce
drizzle of your favorite Vinagrette dressing
a few drops of Siracha or Tabasco (optional)
Black Pepper

Spread hummus down the center of the tortilla leaving about 2 inches free on one end to fold up later.  layer the ingredients in the order listed making sure to leave 2 inches on the end free and one side of the tortilla clean as well. Start wrapping by turning of the 2inches at the end, then grip the full side of the tortilla and roll it toward the clean side of the tortilla. Place seem side down until ready to eat.

Enjoy!

Picadillo Recipe

Last night's picadillo got rave reviews from the family.  Here's the recipe:

FriendlyFork Cuban Picadillo Recipe
1 1/2 lb. Ground Round Beef
1/4 medium Sweet Onion, diced
1/4 Green Bell Pepper, diced
2 cloves Garlic, minced
2 teaspoons Ground Cumin
1/2 teaspoon Oregano
1 Bay Leaf
1/2 cup Tomato Sauce
1 Tablespoon Cider Vinegar
1 pinch Sugar
Water, beer, or beef stock

1-2 Tablespoons Capers
1/4 cup Raisins
1/4 cup Green Olives, sliced in rings, or chopped (optional)
1 extra large Beef Bouillon cube (or replace water with 1 cup of beef broth)
Salt
Pepper
2 Tablespoons Cilantro, minced

Brown ground beef in dry skillet over medium high heat. Do not drain. Push meat to the side, turn heat to medium, and add the onions to the empty side of the pan. After about 1 minute, add diced pepper. Cook until pepper is soft and onions are translucent. Add minced garlic and cook for a minute. Then mix the meat and veggies together in the pan.

Add cumin, oregano, bay leaf, tomato sauce, vinegar, and sugar. Add water, beer, or beef stock to the level of the beef (so everything is moist, in the liquid, but it is not soupy). It should be about a cup, but will depend on your pan. Add capers, raisins, olives, and bouillon. Cover and simmer on medium for 10-15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in cilantro.

Serve over white rice with a side of sweet plantains and a salad.
Enjoy!

Urbanspoon rocks!

Look for my restaurant ratings and wishlist on http://www.urbanspoon.com/u/profile/692298/ppalm.html.

I will put more detailed reviews on this blog.
Thanks for reading!

Lemongrass Asian Bistro (2 1/2 Forks, $10-20)

Lemongrass is a favorite among many people I know, which explains why they now have four locations from Fort Lauderdale to Boynton Beach. Lemongrass's real appeal is not the food nor the setting, it is the menu. The lunch menu is diverse and well priced. Their dinner menu is inspired, innovative, and exciting. Where else can you get the Lobster Monster sushi roll, topped with double lobster tails, or the Extremely Rainbow roll made with Alaskan King Crab and topped with a variety of fish?

The lunch menu ranges from $6.95 to $11.95 and has the perfect amount of variety and different price points to appeal to any customer. The servings are generous and I appreciate the little extras, like the choice of appetizer that comes with most meals. I highly recommend the Bento boxes, which offer a sampling of both Sushi and Thai. The Pad Thai Bento nestles cold sesame noodles, salad with ginger dressing, a generous portion of Chicken Pad Thai, half of an Inside Out (IO) California Roll with sesame seed, along with your choice of mixed Sushi (sliced raw fish atop mounds of sticky rice) or Sashimi (sliced raw fish). I have never been able to finish it entirely, so it would be appropriate for a very hearty eater.

Another favorite lunch offering is the Double Sushi Rolls, which gives you your choice of two basic rolls, including my favorite Spicy Tuna. They have Sushi meals and Sashimi meals as well. I have enjoyed but not been wow-ed by the Sushi I have tasted at Lemongrass. I would like it to be fresher and bolder. The rolls are looser than they should be.

If you are just in the mood for Thai, Lemongrass offers several Thai entrees, including Red Curry, Panang Curry, Volcano Chicken, Basil Chicken, and Shrimp with Peanut Sauce, among others. They usually have a special of the day which has been fish every time I have visited. The Thai dishes I have eaten were tasty but not authentic. They seem heavier and less subtley flavored than I would like. The Pad Thai is saucy, with a reddish tint that is unusual to me. Although certainly edible, I will not order the Panang Curry here. This is a dish I truly love and it does not meet my expectations at Lemongrass. Here the peanuts overwhelm. The dish is missing the flavorful blend of peanut, curry, coconut milk, basil, and lime leaves that I look for.

Lemongrass is a growing restaurant chain, which started in a tiny corner of a plaza in Boca as Sushi Thai Cafe. From its humble charming roots emerged the hip cool Lemongrass appropriate for its new setting in Boca's upscale Royal Palm Plaza. But hip and cool is not so appealing to me. Immediately turned off by the cold pristine interior, I prefer the outside tables in Boca. The new Boynton Beach location is dark and sleek and equally cold. I find the setting dismal and depressing but perhaps a younger hipper crowd would approve. I also despise the music selection, which sounds like a creepy nightclub. Who wants that thump thump thump when they are trying to enjoy a meal?

I have had several meals at Lemongrass and I will go back. But they need to work on the setting and flavor before I can thoroughly recommend it.

Here is the website with complete menu. http://www.lemongrassasianbistro.com/boca/about.html

Houstons (3 forks/$23pp)

Houston's food never disappoints. After close to a hundred meals there, I can attest that Houston's serves consistently good food. And, their service is remarkable. It is the standard by which I measure other restaurants. Consistently good food. Consistently good service. Consistently comfortable atmosphere. And today's lunch was no exception.

My grilled mahi-mahi sandwich was well-seasoned and moist. As I bit in, with the juices running down my hands, I noted to myself that this was a perfectly cooked fish. The chef's special sauce on the sesamed bun is a pumped-up tartar sauce, with dill. Two large perfect and tasty tomato slices made an already messy sandwich even messier, but even more delicous as well. The accompanying french fries are worth a trip in themselves. Why are they so good? I can't tell. The oil, the potato, what, what?!?!? All I know is that they define what I want in a french fry, thin, crispy but not too crispy, and salted just right. They are irresistable. Needless to say, I polished off my entire meal (and practically licked the plate). Pity, because Houston has a killer chocolate brownie topped with nuts.

If you are not a fish person, no problem. The best Houston's sandwich, and sadly most calorie-laden, is a cheeseburger. The best cheeseburger! I am not a burger person, but when I want a burger, these are the burgers I want. They are thick, moist, tasty, and most importantly, not disgusting, like so many other burgers are. The Thai Steak and Noodle Salad, one of several salads on the menu, has the most addictive dressing I have ever tasted. It is spicy and loaded with basil and cilantro, two of my favorite herbs. The chunks of mango in the salad are hidden jewels that you don't want to share with your lunch date. I also frequently order the Veggie Plate, which has 2 vegetables of the day and your favorite starch. I always opt for the spicy flavorful black beans with brown rice, rather than the standard couscous.

Houstons is probably most famous for its unbeatable Spinach Artichoke Dip. I have been known to order this just for myself, it is so good. The Chilled Shrimp starter offers a dozen or so large shrimp boiled and chilled and served with the Chef's tasty tartar sauce and a cocktail sauce.

If Houston's has any problem, it is in the pricing. I understand Houston's is good, but do I really have to pay $20 for a grilled fish sandwich with fries and an ice tea? This is no gourmet restaurant and I don't want to pay gourmet prices! For that reason alone, Houstons is a once-in-a-while place instead of a regular.

Check out the menu here http://www.hillstone.com/pdf_menus/houstons/Houstons_Boca_Raton.pdf.