Nice Cookies

I honestly have no idea what my style is. I call it Surf Food because most of my influences come from the various places I have visited on surf trips. Lots of Central American and Caribbean flavors. I try to make dishes with a lot of flavor but still good for you. Heart Healthy, Stoner Approved. So if you made a New Years resolution to eat healthier, I have a ton of recipes like this.

My signature dishes are usually fish with some sort of homemade salsa. Last night I made a variation that ended up being really good so here goes.

*Apologies for the picture quality, my camera broke recently so I am forced to use my phone. But you will get the idea.

Fish Tacos with Mango Avocado Salsa.

To start off, we have to make the salsa. This is kind of a bitch due to all of the chopping. But if you are quick with a knife or have a helper, its a breeze. Crank the stereo and get started.

First off peel and get the meat of the mangos off. I am still figuring out the best way to do this. Any advice? Dice them up into small pieces. Toss them into a large bowl.

Do the same with the avocados. If you don’t know how to properly work an avacado, give it a quick google search.

Somethings not right….a yes…a little RGB will help with all of this chopping. Make it nice and milky now

Now that you are nice and focused…back to the chopping.

Dice up half of a large red onion. Mix it in with the avocado and mango in the bowl. Save the other half. Should look sorta like this by now…

Depending on how much heat you want, finely dice up a Jalape?o like so and toss it into the bowl.

Zest your two limes into the bowl

Add the juice of one of the limes but save the other one. Add in one good sized clove of garlic chopped finely, a big pinch of kosher salt, some ground black pepper, a couple of shakes of olive oil, and a handful of chopped cilantro.

Mix it all together and it should look pretty damn good. This salsa is great for anything. Have some black bean chips handy to dip while you cook the rest of the meal.

You can also use tomatoes instead of avocado, or both for all I care. Ive used the tomatoes before and it came out great as well.

Set the salsa aside and let whoever is with you feast on it while you start the rest of the meal.

Lets prepare the fish. You can cook the fish a number of different ways. I find some sort of spicy seasoning is great with the cool salsa. For this one, I just laid out the fish in a baking pan (foil for easy cleanup, olive oil coated on the foil). Season BOTH sides of the fish with a lot of kosher salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and squeeze that left over lime on them.

Another variation is to blacken the fish. Try that next time.
Let those chill while you cook some other shit…

Take the other half of that red onion and chop it into strips like so..

Do the same with the yellow and orange peppers. Why yellow and orange? Because fuck green and red thats why. I think the yellows and in particular orange taste way better and the others are over done because they are cheap. Sure they have their place, especially fire roasted reds, but pay the extra buck for these and you will be pleased.

Now is when you have to start organizing the timing of everything. I find most people struggle with this, just give it all some thought and things will get done in order.

I started making my black beans here. Use good dried black beans and follow the directions to soak and whatnot. When cooking them, I thrown in a bunch of cilantro and Cavenders seasoning.

here is what Cavenders looks like. Pick some up, it goes well on anything.

Have your beans simmering and start your rice. I like brown rice. It has more fiber and other crap they say is good for you, so why argue. I use the quick kind in the bag…because it pretty much tastes the same and its friggin rice so who cares. Once the rice gets to boiling, you have 10 minutes to finish everything. No sweat.

Throw your fish into the middle rack of the oven and put it on high broil.

Have a large pan heated up to medium-high and shake in some olive oil. Start to saut?e up your onion/pepper strips. Make sure to add plenty of salt and pepper.

Heat another pan up to high and start toasting your tortillas. Should only take about a minute per side to get a nice crusty texture.

Here we have the stove top. From top right going clockwise we have the rice, tortillas cooking, the onion/peppers grilling up, and the beans simmering.

While all of that is working, chop up a bit of cabbage to top your tacos. Cabbage works well with all of these ingredients and its different from your standard lettuce. As you can see, I saved a bit of the cilantro to top off the tacos as well. Ive been finding a lot of cilantro haters lately, but fuck’em because I love it.

(I am kind of messy, but who cares)

After about 8 minutes your fish should be nice and golden on top and should flake easily with a fork. Pull’em out.

Drain your rice and turn the heat down on all of the burners. The onion/peppers should be nice and grilled up to your taste, I like a bit of caramelization on them and a semi-soft texture.
Lets prepare the tacos!

Chop up some of the fish with a spatula and layer it on the bottom of two of the toated tortillas.

Toss on some of the grilled onion/pepper mix.

Get a good few spoons of the salsa on there

Add some of the cabbage and cilantro. Good to go!

Eat with a bowl of the rice and beans on the side. I like to pour a bunch of Lizano sauce on the beans and rice. Lizano is like ketchup in Costa Rica, you put it on everything and it is delish. Its a mild chipotle sauce that you can find in most specialty salsa places.

Here is the spread. Starting from top left going clockwise is the salsa, the Lizano sauce bottle for your reference, the tacos, and the beans/rice.

Eat up and enjoy! Christmas time Florida style.

For desert, I fried up some plantains. Goes great with it all.

It looks like a big pain, and you need a bit of skill to get it done, but its nothing you cant figure out. Shit is delicious I wouldnt lie to you.

Shopping List:
-1.5 pounds firm white fish (I used Tilapia)
-1 bunch of Cilantro
-1 Jalapeno
-2 ripe Mangos
-2 Avocados
-1 large red onion
-1 orange pepper
-1 yellow pepper
-1 clove garlic
-2 limes
-1 head cabbage
-Whole Wheat Tortillas
-some instant brown rice
-black beans
-kosher salt, pepper, Cavender’s seasoning
My signature dish is Thai curry. I have a habit of tasting amazing ethnic dishes at restaurants and such and wanting to replicate the same flavors. So I go out and get all the authentic ingredients-fortunately I live in LA so finding Thai and Asian markets is rather easy. I’ve refined my curry over the years and I’ve gotten really great reviews on it from some of our Asian friends who grew up on these dishes.

Another dish I love to prepare is Korean short ribs or Bulkogi/kalbi/galbi depending on who you ask. Hawaiian fastfood joints sell a signature beef shortrib that is almost identical in taste. The secret is in the sauce and the cut of meat. Once you get the sauce right, this dish is an easy favorite. I always keep a vat of the sauce ready in my fridge because it keeps really well and its always on hand when I need it.

Korean short ribs or Bulkogi/kalbi/galbi
1 cup soy-I use reduced sodium soy sauce
1 cup sugar-Its a lot but it really does make the sauce
1-2Tbsp seseme oil
1-2Tbsp honey
1-2Tbsp rice vinegar (or whatever vinegar you have on hand)
1tsp red pepper flakes (if you have those little fiery Thai red peppers fresh, mince those instead)
equal parts minced fresh garlic and fresh ginger to make about 1 rounded tsp of each

Mix it all together and make sure the sugars are desolved. You can nuke it in the microwave for about a minute to make sure the sugar is desolved and the peppers sweat into the sauce a bit.

I put all the ribs in a ziploc and pour enough sauce for everything to be nicely coated and then I let them marinate in the fridge for about 2 days. The vinegar, helps tenderize the meat so the longer you allow it to be in the juices the better. You can either grill or broil the ribs and serve with a side of the sauce for dipping.

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