Saturday, June 28, 2014

Fish Tacos with Lime and Cilantro Aioli #RedGold


Just in time for spring and summer, my friends at Red Gold Tomatoes have come up with some tasty sauces....Aioli for everyone! Seriously, they've revved up this garlicky mayonnaise with their awesome Petite Diced Tomatoes. Tomato Aioli. I like the ring of that. 

The recipes are ridiculously easy---there are only two ingredients: Red Gold Petite Diced Tomatoes and Light Mayonnaise. No kidding. Did I mention this was an easy recipe? Think about it for a minute. Red Gold Tomatoes has quite the assortment flavored diced tomatoes...you could create an aioli from any one of them. Making a flatbread? Mix together the plain diced tomatoes, the mayo, and add a little pesto. Spread this on the flatbread with some grilled veggies, pop it in the oven, and voila! Dinner! Thinking of making something Mexican? Why, yes I am...I will share with you Red Gold's fabulous Fish Taco recipe.


Let's start with the aioli. Here it is: Drain a can of Red Gold Petite Diced with Lime Juice and Cilantro. Now mix it with 1/2 cup light mayonnaise. If you are feeling outrageous, add a few drops of Sriracha. Now put it in the fridge until you need it.

Next, mix up a simple marinade of 4 tablespoons orange juice, 2 finely chopped garlic cloves, 1/4 cup olive oil, a teaspoon oregano, 1/2 cup chopped cilantro, and 1/2 cup chopped onion. 


Easy, right? Now just saute the fish over medium heat, basting along the way, for about 3 minutes per side. Then coarsely chop it, and place it on a warm tortilla. Top it with some shredded cabbage (the red cabbage is a nice colorful touch), and top it with the aioli! Boom! Tacos! 

Here's a link to the full recipe: Fish Tacos with Lime and Cilantro Aioli 

While you are at the Red Gold site, check out the rest of the aioli recipes by searching for keyword aioli!


Enjoy!



Sunday, June 22, 2014

Rhubarb Pudding


Before the Internet, the best place to score a great recipe was from a friend or a co-worker. They (the recipes) would be scribbled down on a piece of notebook paper, photocopied from a frayed recipe card, or neatly typed on the company letterhead. You'd see a pinch of this, a can of that, and a handful of those with notes in the margins as to the best changes to make. Nowadays, a quick search on Pinterest will yield a plethora of great looking recipes....but which ones can you trust? Luckily, friends and co-workers still come through with some mighty good finds. Now they may come by way of email instead of notebook paper, and they may have originated on Pinterest, but you know they've been tested and approved...not a bad way to find a fun new recipe. Such was the case for this awesome Rhubarb Pudding.....



I am so lucky to have a co-worker who brings me bags of produce....

This recipe came to me via email. The subject line was: Awesome Recipe. Guess what? It is an awesome recipe! I did a quick Google search and found that it originally came from Allrecipes.com. I didn't change much, but here it is:

Rhubarb Pudding

adapted from allrecipes.com

Rhubarb Pudding

Tart, sweet, and tasty...this pudding is an easy way to use up all of your rhubarb.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 cup plus 2 T. butter, divided
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 3 cups chopped rhubarb
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 cup boiling water

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.; spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.
  2. Combine the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. With two knives or a fork, cut in 1/4 cup butter. Stir in the buttermilk. Spread the batter in the prepared pan.
  3. Top the batter with the chopped rhubarb. Stir the nutmeg into the remaining sugar and sprinkle evenly over the rhubarb. Dot with remaining butter. Pour the boiling water over the top.
  4. Bake for 45 minutes or until the batter is cooked through and the rhubarb is tender. Serve warm or cold.
Yield: 8 servings
Prep Time: 00 hrs. 10 mins.
Cook time: 00 hrs. 45 mins.
Total time: 55 mins.
Tags: rhubarb, pudding, dessert, spring, comfort food



I confess to making this twice. As you can see, the rhubarb was a little more red the first time.




How do you do rhubarb?


Monday, June 9, 2014

Café Latte’s Turtle Cake


Who doesn't love a great piece of chocolate cake? Now, add some fudgy frosting, some buttery caramel sauce, and some crunchy toasted pecans and what do you have? Heaven on a plate Café Latte's Turtle Cake! 

Café Latte is a St. Paul restaurant known for its desserts. Wonderful, wonderful desserts. Luckily for me they shared a couple of their recipes with the public, so I didn't have to attempt a copycat recipe. This, my friends, is the real deal.

Several years ago, I found the recipe in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. That version was made in a 9x13-inch cake pan.... it was super easy to make and very tasty. I never in a million years thought that I would attempt the layered version, since it looked complicated. Layers? Yikes! I'm so glad it's really not all that hard. You should try it.

Café Latte's Turtle Cake (from Café Latte)

Cake Ingredients:
• 1 Egg.
• 2/3 cup Vegetable oil.
• 1 cup Buttermilk.
• 2 cups Flour.
• 1 3/4 cups Sugar.
• 1/2 cup Good quality cocoa.
• 1 tsp. Salt.
• 1 tbsp. Baking soda.
• 1 cup Hot coffee
Frosting:
• 1/2 cup Milk.
• 1 cup Sugar.
• 6 tbsp. Butter
• 2 cups Good-quality semisweet chocolate chips.
• 3/4 cup Caramel.
• 1 1/2 cups Toasted pecans.

Prepare oven and pans: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 3 (9-inch) cake pans.
Cover each bottom with disk of parchment paper.

To make cake: In bowl, combine egg, oil and buttermilk. In large separate bowl, mix
together flour, sugar, cocoa, salt and baking soda. Gradually add wet ingredients to dry
until well mixed. Gradually add hot coffee. Scrape batter into prepared pans.

To bake cake: Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes
out clean. Let cake rest in pans for 10 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks to cool.

To make frosting: Mix sugar and milk in saucepan. Add butter. Bring to a boil.
Remove from heat. Add chocolate chips to pan. Using wire whisk, mix until smooth. If
frosting is too thick or grainy, add 1 or 2 teaspoons hot coffee.

To assemble cake: Place one cooled cake layer, top-side down, on cake plate. Spread
with one-third of frosting, pushing it out gently from edges to make a petal effect.
Sprinkle with 1/2 cup pecans, Drizzle with 1/4 cup caramel. Add next layer, again
top-side down. Repeat frosting and sprinkle with 1/2 cup pecans and drizzle with 1/4 cup
caramel. And final layer top-side up, frost with petal effect and finish with remaining
pecans and caramel.


I actually used 8-inch cake pans and they worked well.


I also used dark cocoa for the cake...it was like a midnight chocolate cake.

My layer cake fear is real...I've had far too many lopsided catastrophes for it not to be. For years, I chickened out and made this cake in the 9x13 pan. I won't lie--it's good that way, too. Plus, it's much easier to bring to a picnic. The last time I tried to make the layer version, it cracked right down the middle. So ugly, but so tasty. This time it was to be for a birthday, so it had to work.


The beauty of this recipe is how the frosting drips over the sides of the cake. This hides many flaws, trust me. The only issue came when I transferred the cake to the cake stand...oops....a chunk came out of the side. I ended up cutting the parchment paper off around the cake and leaving a bit of it underneath. Then, I took pictures strategically....




The kid's helped with the candles and the cake was a success!


A little ice cream and we're good to go. Happy Birthday, Josh!