Three Chile Seared Chicken Tacos with Jicama Slaw

I just wanted to post the recipe for this delicious, clean, and easy to execute dish.  Serve with some queso fresco and hot tortillas.

The Protein:

1 lb medium sized chicken breast, or butterflied if bigger. 
1 lb Tile Fish or Grouper
2 tsp ancho chile powder
2 tsp arbol chile powder
2 tsp new mexico chile powder
1 tsp roasted ground coriander
1 tsp black pepper
3 tsp kosher salt
 2 tsp olive oil

Season both the chicken and fish well.  These are rough estimates on measurements so adjust as you see fit.   Sear the chicken on medium high heat for 3 minutes each side, reduce heat to medium, cover and continue to cook until internal temperature reaches 165F, about 8-10 minutes depending on the size of the breast.  Seperately, sear the fish on medium high heat for 2-3 minutes per side depending on the thickness of the fillet.  Cover and cook until an internal temp of 135 is reached.  Remove and let cool slightly, slice up and place on a hot plate for serving.

The Slaw: Double the recipe for a group of 8

3 tablespoons lime juice
1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
6 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups peeled, julienned jicama
1 cup, peeled, julienned carrots
1 cup shredded napa cabbage
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
1 cup julienned English cucumber
1/2 cup julienned red bell pepper
1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped

In a small mixing bowl add lime juice, chili flakes, rice wine vinegar, sugar, and extra-virgin olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and whisk to combine. Combine the jicama, carrots, cabbage and onion, cucumber, red pepper and cilantro in large bowl and toss. Add dressing to vegetables and let sit for 15 minutes, stirring 2 or 3 times. Serve.

The Fish House That Tried

Being a kitchen mongrel, I know how hard it can be to prepare, execute, and time every dish coming from the kitchen perfectly.  What is equally difficult is conceiving and designing a menu that will delight the taste buds.  You must start off with high quality, flavorful ingredients.  After procurement, the kitchen then needs to have the ability to transform the delectable ingredients into something spectacular;  An experience that every customer who spends their hard earned dollars at your concept will be fired up to share with others.  Unfortunately, Mitchell's Fish House at WestShore Plaza falls short of these tasks.  While the atmosphere and decor are inviting, the concept has some growing up to do before it will be able to wow the taste buds of foodies in the area.   Guests can look into the area where they prepare the fish and store them daily, an open fresh oyster bar for those who want to slide down some hand shucked oysters, and an open kitchen that also poses as a very small seafood market.  The fresh seafood display case is only adorned with selective fillets of very few fish.  I would recommend going to Cox's Seafood off the corner of Dale Mabry and Sligh if you want fresh, seasonal, varied selections of raw seafood.  I also strive to give a place the chance to show me their chops, however, there were some very major issues with the food we received.  The roasted oysters, while decently tasty, were swimming in butter and grease.  The lobster tail and beef tips combo was plated haphazardly with both items being overcooked and somewhat chewy.  The other dishes were on par with this observation, except for the calamari.  The lightly breaded and fried squid was the most tender I have had in a long time.  The presentation was decent, with a light, accommodating sauce, lemon slices, and asparagus that was a little overcooked.  Overall, the experience was what you would expect from a casual, corporate, seafood restaurant.  The only other drawback was the price points for each dish.  While not expensive for a fish house,  I expect some more sophistication from the kitchen, and the concept as a whole.

Do You Smoke? Unfortunately, we do not!

We love BBQ, yet we do not have an awesome smoker to make the magic happen.  There is a way that an equally delicious BBQ dish can be made.  Put your favorite dry rub on your favorite low and slow slab of protein;  we chose to use good quality pork back ribs.  We made our own dry rub with a large proportion of high quality smoked paprika to help us get some smokey aroma into the ribs.  From there, the ribs sat for 12 hours, wrapped in foil, and cooked on 300 for roughly 3 hours.  Once the ribs were fall of the bone tender, we put a layer of BBQ sauce on top, placed the rack under the broiler, caramelized the sauce, and repeated this for a couple of times to get a nice layer of flavor.  The taste of the pork was still intact all the while a delicious BBQ meal with corn on the cob was scarfed down. 

From the scrap pile to the skillet!

In the professional kitchen, food scraps that can be used for another purpose are rarely thrown out.  Bits and pieces of carrots, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, chiles, and so on can be used to make stocks and soups.  We take this simple philosophy to heart at home as well.  Throughout the week we save our bits of vegetable and fruit pieces and turn then into delicious meals.  This time around we have parts of jalapenos, tomatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and red bell peppers.  We took all the left over scraps, tossed them in olive oil, added some garlic and herbs, and roasted then on 425F until tender.  We then took the roasted pieces and pureed them up with chicken broth, finished it off with some salt and pepper, and ate a hearty, tasty meal.  Try using your scraps for dinner!

The Taste Bud Foreplay

What is the best foreplay to arouse the taste buds?  Simple, flavorful, souvlaki is your answer.  This greek inspired street food item is versatile, easy to make, healthy, hearty, and definitely arousing to the senses.  Here is an easy recipe to follow:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/cat-cora/souvlaki-small-skewers-of-pork-recipe.html.  We looked at it to get an idea of what ingredients we needed and then winged it.  I used red wine and apple cider vinegar instead of red wine vinegar, lemon juice freshly squeezed in the juicer, fennel, and smoked paprika, red bell pepper, and onion.  We used chicken instead of pork and added twice as much garlic to the marinade.  If you do not have a grill, you can use a cast iron grill pan as we did.  Here is what we came up with.

Kung Fu Tea Time...

Mandi and I were introduced to a new concept in Tampa called Kung Fu Tea.  They serve many different yummy tea drinks including taro milk tea with red bean and passion fruit slushy with boba.  The quality of the teas and other ingredients they use are top notch.  We look forward to seeing this concept build itself here.  Unfortunately, there is only one location on Fowler Ave right now, however, with how busy they get we hope to see them give Star Bucks and the like a run for their money.

The Box Dunder

There are few places that can truly profess their love for beer.  Mr. Dunderbak's in New Tampa is a tucked away biergarten that is must to experience.  The food is decent, but I do not go to have a knock your socks off meal, I go for the hundreds of beers to choose from.  While I go not drink like fish, I do enjoy trying out new brews.  It is important for me to know what is floating around out there in case I need to pair or use a beer with some of my cooking.  The beer that I had the server pick for me was on the darker, slightly sweet, and on the bitter side.  The flavor notes melted seamlessly with my roast beef and turkey on pumpernickel sammy.  For the beer geeks out there, you can order huge, tall, glasses of beer and go to town.  The cuisine is a step up from most bar food, however do not expect any Michelin quality fare.  The food goes well with the concept and of course the main attraction, the brews.  You can also pick up some good sausages and cold cuts at the deli counter or pick up some German and European snacks, treats, candies, beer mugs, condiments, and many other items. 

The Jambon-Beurre on Steroids

So what is Jambon-Beurre you ask?  In Paris, it is a sandwich of bread, ham, and butter.  Now take that simple yet astonishingly pleasing idea and add brie, green apples, and cracked black pepper.  You get a simple flavor combination explosion in your mouth.

The Recipe:
French Baguette
Boars Head Tavern Ham or similar, salty, slightly sweet, quality sliced ham.
Prosciutto De Parma 
Double cream brie
Thinly sliced sour green apples
Unsalted butter
Cracked black pepper

1.  Throw it all on the bread.  Press it hot and crisp.  Be prepared for a food coma.

It is that easy!

Is there such a thing as healthier fast food?

There is such a thing as healthier quick service restaurants and EVOS in Carrollwood is a great example.  They serve many different menu items that will satisfy your appetite, remain easy on the wallet, and friendly to your heart.  Unlike large chains like McDonald's and the like, EVOS does a great job at bringing you fare that is decently tasty and made with better quality ingredients.  Instead of emulsified chicken battered, flashed fried, flash frozen, and then fried again, EVOS makes it a habit of throwing things in the oven to crisp them up.  Their air fries are baked, light, and crisp.  I am a spud lover and EVOS fries are not laden with grease that detracts from the potato's starchy goodness.  I met with the store manager and she delightfully offered me a sample of their strawberry, banana smoothie.  It was cold, smooth, and fresh tasting.  You could tell fresh fruit was used, not flavored powders or artificial sweeteners.  The sample was refreshing on a sweltering summer day.  The main piece to me meal was the thai peanut chicken wrap.  The very first thing I noticed was that the tortilla was not soggy, which in my world is always a good thing.  The rice inside was cooked well and not mushy and broken like most places like to make it.  The chicken, was, well, real!  No formed, emulsified crap you find even at places like Chick Fil A.  Yes the last time I ordered at Chick Fil A the grilled chicken sandwich was made with such a mutant.  The rest of the wrap was delightfully light.  Most attempts to make Asian inspired dishes end up too salty and lack depth.  This wrap did not try to go into realms unknown.  The sauce was refreshing and seasoned properly.  To my surprise, the mixed greens used were crisp and fresh.  In all, I am putting my food snob stamp of approval on this one.