Grilled Fish Tacos

So Eric spent the better part of last week in Columbus Ohio at a show and Charisse insisted that he bring her home some sort of present. After tooling around Columbus on his way back to the hotel, Eric ran into North Market, an indoor farmers market type place chock full of good food and wonderful surprises, namely North Market Spices, a small spice shop that somehow cost us 150 bucks in “presents”. We think you’ll agree that the price was worth the spices we ended up with. Powdered Wasabi, Mace Blades and Powdered Hibiscus just to point out a few. Eric even brought home a book “Herbs & Spices” which is all about… you guessed it, herbs and spices. Reading it on the plane, the smell of all those spices emanated from the pages and pushed Eric to will the plane to go faster so we could hit the kitchen and start coming up with yummy foods and awesomely full stomachs to go with the wonderful smells emanating from the book’s pages. Charisse was home, completely unaware of the culinary storm that was fast approaching, instead enjoying watching her dad Pat play the drums with his blues band. Getting home was almost like Christmas morning, spices flying out of their wrappers and lots of "oooh! ahh!" sounds. Now that the storm has passed here, we’re going to make you wait a little longer to see what we conjure up with all this loot, instead we still need to show you last Tuesday’s recipe: Grilled Fish Tacos. Booyah. Fish tacos are one of those uniquely South American dishes that always seems refreshing, especially at the end of a long, tiring day. We spent most of last weekend getting the yard cleaned up and getting benches put in around the edge of our patio, so we were pretty beat. We decided to fire up the grill, invite Charisse's parents over (actually Pat called and asked "what's for dinner?", so we made extra) and threw some wood in our outside fireplace. The tacos hit the spot and were generously helped down by an outstanding martini. Okay, maybe more than one. Hit the jump though for the Grilled Fish Taco recipe and Eric’s personal view on what makes the perfect Martini. We think James Bond would agree.

Printable Recipe

Sole Meuniere

They took everything, including the kitchen sink. What a fun metaphor the whole "kitchen sink" thing is, and for the second time this year, us foodies are without a kitchen. Or at least without a kitchen sink, because we're getting new counter tops! This has been something we've been looking forward to for a while, dating all the way back to... oh say the day we moved in. Up till last Tuesday we've had the original, pale yellow with pale rustic orange vintage 1950 tile and grout counters. These counters had a great 62 year run, but lets face it, times have changed and those tiles have been here long past their expiration date. Charisse and her mom (the decorating queens of the family) have been out scouring supply stores for months, trying to find the right tiles, the best granite and the perfect design. They figured it all out last weekend and just like that we had some guys in the house, ripping the tile backsplash from the walls, prying up the tile counters and hauling away you guessed it, the kitchen sink. In its place we've been left with plywood, and a half disassembled faucet. What parts are disassembled? Who knows, but when Eric went to fill up a glass of water, the water hit the ceiling. Somethings missing. Through all of this, we of course have been stretching the few dishes we haven't posted yet as far as possible while surviving on take-out and pizza. Go us. On the other hand, theres always the Sole. Sole Meuniere that is!

Sole Meuniere is a special dish for us for two reasons, 1. It was Julia Child's first dish in Paris, something that she's described as her first culinary revelation. Obviously it was the first of many, but to all the other foodies out there, America's graduation from "Standard" cooking and all the culinary delights and innovations that have sprung up since the 50's started right there with that plate. 2. It was also the first dish Charisse had when we went to Paris on our honeymoon (which two years ago was wrapping up right about .... now). So when we decided to make this as the main course of our anniversary meal it carried a lot of weight, no bones about it. Get it? No bones? Its a fillet. Now we all know why Eric isn't allowed to do the humor portion of this blog. In all seriousness, this is such a simple, easy dish, fish coated in flower and pan fried in butter, but the depth of flavor brought out from the fish is amazing. Try it out and let the Sole melt in your mouth.

Plank Grilled Salmon with Avocado Citrus Salsa

After months of weird, cold, rainy weather, summertime is finally here in the Bay Area, its time to light the grills and break out a few cold ones because BBQ season is here! We're on the grill a lot in the summer, mostly because Eric loves to grill, but its doesn't hurt that our little old house heats up like Hades when its hot out. The place just doesn't give up its heat, so we find ourselves outside every chance we get. Especially when it comes to cooking, this weekend has been no different. We have a great patio where a summer house used to be. We had the house knocked down when we moved in and the cement floor and curtain foundation makes a perfect outdoor patio, complete with built in brick fireplace and BBQ. We also have an additional pair of Webber grills, a standard round 22" and a old gas Webber. Eric actually converted the gas grill to an offset charcoal grill for slow cooking and indirect heat. He also claims to not be a collector of things, but Charisse disagrees. For this dish, it was the blue 22" that was fired up with almost twice the normal number of coals. Usually a count between 22 and 28 coals will give you a perfect heat level on a Weber, but for plank grilling, you need a much higher than normal heat, so we stacked the chimney with 50. A charcoal chimney is one of the best inventions since George Stephen, Sr. cut a buoy in half and lit a fire in it. A simple cylinder with a grate 1/4 of the way up from the bottom, and strategically placed air holes you can have pile of ready to use coals in about 10 minutes with no lighter fluid to spoil the flavor. A must have for every summer. Since this was Eric's dad Pat's 56th birthday, we invited the fam and our close family friends the Woodworths over for a Friday night cookout. The Plank Grilled Salmon and Avocado Citrus Salsa was light and refreshing, a perfect contrast to the lingering summer heat and complimented with a chilled Pinot Grigio.

Pictures and cake after the break...