Fish Tacos

Ladies and Gentleman, today I invite you to eat (and by eat I mean look at) my new cooking section: Valerie's Vittles.

This new section will feature the things I cook or bake.

I hope you enjoy!

Today I decided to Donna Reed it up and cook some lunch/dinner for John and myself.

We went against our better judgement and went to HEB today even though everyone and their mother were there. I HATE shopping on Sundays. Every time we need groceries I say we have to go for day and days before knowing that I despise going on Sunday. But I put it off so long that I end up going on Sundays with everyone else anyway.

Whatever.

So they had some weird fish on sale for super cheap! It was only 2.50$ a pound! And I figured all fish taste like fish, unless it's tuna or salmon, so we bought some and I decided to make some fish tacos.

My fish tacos didn't come from a recipe. I kind of just looked up some recipes and decided that I'd make my own with what I had on hand/the few things I bought on sale.

I forgot to take pictures of the fish-making process but if you would like to make the fish you will need:

Ingredients:
Fish (I used Pangasius but most recipes called for tilapia.)
Cumin
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
Onion
Garlic
(I'm not a very big cook so basically...just add whatever you want. I didn't measure. I didn't count. I just shook and drizzled and added stuff until it smelled good.)

Directions:
In a pan I added the olive oil, onion, and garlic. I sauteed it for about 3 minutes. While that was going I shook some cumin, salt, and pepper onto the fish fillets (both sides). Then I added the fish into the pan, covered, flipping once until it was opaque through. I had some big fillets so the whole process took about 7 minutes. I didn't serve the onions and the garlic on the tacos though (1. because I burned them and 2. because it didn't seem to go so I just threw them out afterward.)

To add some flavor to the tacos I made two different sauces to put on the tacos. The first one was:

Chiptole Sour Cream 

This was super simple and added a very ole!, smokey flavor to the tacos.
Here are the very detailed directions.

Ingredients: 

• Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce
• Sour Cream (I used full fat because I bought it for another recipe but you can use whatever you like.) 

Directions:

1. Take the peppers out of the can and cut them. 
2. Put some sour cream into a bowl.
3. Put the cut peppers and some of the sauce into the sour cream.
4. Stir. 
5. Enjoy!

I'm serious about not measuring things. I only measure things with baking. But I trust you; you should trust you. You're probably not as dumb as you think. Something I never figured out until I watched all those cooking shows at work is to just go in there and try it. Smell it, taste it a bit and if it doesn't taste right find some way to make it better, if you can't...well then try again next time.

I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. So I only put two dollops or so of sour cream. Then I added the peppers and the sauce to taste. As you can see from the picture my sauce came out to a orange-y hue. Obviously the more chipotle you add the darker (and smokier)  the sauce becomes. It adds a good creamy, cool, smooth flavor to the tacos and then towards the end you get a little kick of the chipotle.


The second sauce was a more Asian flavor and was my personal favorite. This one was also super simple.

Ingredients: 

• Sriracha Chili Sauce
• Mayo  

Directions:

1. Put some mayo into a bowl.
2. Add Sriracha to taste.
3. Stir. 
4. Enjoy!

Seriously. That's it and it's very, very tasty. The Sriracha really complements the fish and the mayo adds a really good creaminess to the entire taco.

The Finished Product. 

I was very proud of myself. John loved them too so I was doubly proud. Before him I was never much of a cooker but damn if all those Martha Stewart, Rick Bayless, Patti's Mexican Table shows didn't make a good housewife of me yet.

Anyway, to the tacos I added red cabbage, some cilantro, lime, and some homemade guacamole.

I could totally lie and say I slaved away for hours cooking those beans and rice but the rice came from a box and the beans from a can.

After I finished Reeding it up I sat down, opened up a can of Dr. B, put my feet up and watched Gilmore Girls Season 2 (for approximately the 60th time).