My Favorite Florence - Wednesday

It's day three of our contest and continuing with our theme for the week I have yet again, another favorite recipe from Tyler Florence. Have I told you yet how my hubby loves to fish? Oh yes lets get this straight my hubby isn't an average joe, "hey lets go fishing" kind of guy, oh no he's very serious about the sport. Yes that's right I said sport, or at least he thinks its a sport. I can't tell you how many rods/reels the man owns. Just know that its more than enough to make our garage (mind you he has a friggin boat storage for this crap, that's overflowing, thus its made its way to the house garage) an obstacle course to maneuver through. And don't even ask about the bags of frozen fish bait in my freezer! His GPS is of lakes and fishing spots. Anyways one of the few good things about his addiction is we always have tons of fish to eat, so appropriately I'm always looking for a good fish recipe. Something besides the old greasy spoon fried catfish. So when I found Tyler's Ultimate Fish Tacos I was in heaven. Could it be true a blend of our love of TexMex and fish?! Oh how my mouth began salivating at the very thought. And oh how my mind couldn't even do the taste in real life justice.

Tyler's Ultimate Fish Tacos

Now I know the recipe calls for Mahi Mahi, which I imagine is great, but we can't really catch that in the lakes around here so we use crappie (pronounced "croppy" is a very light and mild flavored fish) I imagine any mild fish you can get your hands on will work just fine, or if you can find some mahi mahi at the store grab it. Though I'd strongly suggest you STAY AWAY from using catfish in this recipe. Trust me!

Pan-Seared Salmon with Pineapple-Jalapeno Relish

I like to keep from getting bogged down in the chicken rut by making sure that we do a fish at least one night every week, sometimes it goes every two weeks. But it still helps to keep our menu fresh and fun. I really like this recipe because its sweet yet spicy and when paired with coconut rice your taste buds don't believe that you're eating healthy!

Menu: Pan-Seared Salmon with Pineapple-Jalapeno Relish and coconut rice

Pan-Seared Salmon with Pineapple-Jalapeno Relish

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped pineapple
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons sugar
1 finely chopped seeded jalapeño pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
Cooking spray
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets

1. Combine first 6 ingredients in a medium bowl; stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt.

2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Combine remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, chili powder, and black pepper, stirring well; sprinkle evenly over fish. Add fish to pan, skin side up; cook 4 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness. Serve with pineapple mixture.

Quick Coconut Rice

Ingredients:

• 2 cups uncooked basmati rice
• 1 1/2 cups light coconut milk
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chopped green onions

To prepare rice, rinse with cold water; drain. Combine rice, coconut milk, 1 1/2 cups water, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat; stir once. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes until liquid is absorbed. Let stand 10 minutes; stir in onions.

Super yummy and super simple salmon dinner. Now eat up!

Recipe and photo courtesy of CookingLight

Maple Glazed Salmon

I'm feeling fishy! Let me preface this with the fact that I have only recently became a fish eater. Oh I'd gladly eat tuna fish out of the can, yes its very yummy and a great way to lose weight. Oh and I'd eat swordfish because lets be honest, it tastes like steak when grilled. And call me strange but I could eat my weight in sushi. I think it had to do with the fact that raw fish just doesn't taste fishy. But no not until the last year have I became a fan of fish. Now I can't eat a large variety of fish but I'm loving salmon and so I've started fixing more salmon dishes lately. And one of my favorite is this quick fix meal. I can't wait for dinner tonight!

Menu: Maple Glazed Salmon, Scrumptious Sweet Potatoes and Orange Zest Broccoli

Maple Glazed Salmon

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground ancho chile powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon sea or kosher salt
4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets
Cooking spray
1 teaspoon maple syrup

1. Prepare grill, heating to medium.

2. Combine first 5 ingredients. Sprinkle fish with salt; rub with paprika mixture.

3. Place fish on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 7 minutes. Drizzle fish with syrup; grill 1 minute or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.

Scrumptious Sweet Potatoes
I usually like to buy the prepackage sweet potatoes, you know the kind that are wrapped up in plastic. They have the microwave directions on the side and only take 5 minutes to cook. So I suggest looking for these at your grocery store, otherwise bake your sweet potatoes in the oven.

While the potatoes are baking combine a few tbsps of butter with brown sugar and chopped pecans, you could even throw in a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg and chili powder. After the potatoes are done, split them open and drop a tbsp of your butter mixture in and let the ooey gooey goodness melt all over them.

Broccoli
Another quick fix convenience, I buy the steam-fresh packages of frozen broccoli. Pop it in the microwave and out comes perfectly steamed broccoli. But to dress it up, while its steaming, I take an orange and get some yummy zest. Put the zest aside and then cut the orange in half. After the broccoli has steamed put it in a big bowl, add the juice of 1 half orange and the zest. Mix it up and you're ready to go.

Now everything is ready to go so plate and serve!

Recipe and picture courtesy of my favorite website CookingLight.com