This is a good dry rub for fish. I use this on Tilapia for fish tacos.
1 1/2 t paprika
1 1/2 t sugar
1 t oregano
3/4 t garlic powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cumin
1/4-1/2 t red pepper
Rub mixture on both sides of fish. Grill or fry hot.
Author: Andrew
Flour Tortillas
4 Cups Flour (a mixture of wheat and white works out well)
1/2 Cup (~110g) Lard (butter is yummy, but doesn’t turn out as well)
1 Tsp Salt
2 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Cup Warm Milk or Water
Mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Blend in lard until flaky like pastry dough. Add all the water and work dough until it holds together in a nice moist ball and is not dry or sticky. Let stand covered 10-15 minutes.
Break dough into balls, and place on a clean surface so they do not touch. Cover with a warm damp cloth and let stand for 20-30 minutes.
Press balls into circles on a floured surface, then roll into tortilla. Cook tortillas on a hot skillet until bubbles form on top and golden brown spots appear on the bottom.
Let tortillas cool wrapped in a cloth to keep them moist when cooling.
Cheese Quesadillas made from these Flour Tortillas
West Lake Style Fish Soup
9 Cups Chicken Stock
1 Lb White Fish
Ginger
3 TBsp Soy Sauce
1/2 Cup Peas
1/2 Cup Corn
2 Eggs
1 TBsp White Pepper
2 TBsp Cornstarch
1 Cup Cilantro
1 TBsp Cooking Sherry or Wine (optional)
Glass noodles or thin rice noodles
Combine and heat chicken stock, soy sauce, and pepper. Add fish and cook until fish is crumbly. Mix cornstarch with a small amount of COLD water to dissolve, then mix into soup to thicken. Scramble eggs then stir into hot soup. If peas and corn are frozen, defrost then add to soup. Remove from heat, stir in cilantro, and serve immediately. Optionally add some thin rice noodles (a must for my wife).
Refried Beans
Homemade Refried Beans
To make refried beans that are a bit easier on the intestinal tract (less gassy), soak beans in baking soda water overnight. The baking soda gleans out the raffinose sugars that tend to make you a bit gassy after eating ;)
3 Cups Pinto Beans – Presoaked
9 Cups of water
1-3 Chopped Peppers
3 Onions – Chopped
3-6 Cloves Garlic – Chopped
1 TBs Cumin
1-2 TBs Salt
Combine beans and other ingredients into slow cooker. Cook on high for 8 hours. Drain but save water. Mash beans adding saved water to desired consistency. Contrary to the name, they don’t need to be fried. Serve as is or fry as follows..
Heat 2 tablespoons oil with some freshly chopped chilis. The idea here is to get the flavor of the chilis into the oil, then fry the beans in the flavored oil.
Spicy Refried Beans
Oven Apple Pancakes
3 Apples – Thinly Sliced
4 Eggs
3/4 Cup Flour
3/4 Cup Milk
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Vanilla
1 Tsp Cinnamon
2 TBsp Butter
Saute apples, sugar, and cinnamon in a sauce pan with butter until slightly soft. Combine eggs, milk, vanilla, and flour until smooth. Add apple mixture to baking pan, then pour in batter mixture to cover. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until its risen and golden brown.
Sautéed White Bush Lebanese Squash
4 Squash
1 Onion
Handful of Mushrooms
1 Clove Garlic
Chop onions, mushrooms, and garlic. Sauté in olive oil until slightly caramelized. Chop squash and sauté in olive oil until slightly softened. Add onions, mushroom, and garlic mix. Sprinkle a touch of salt and finish sauté until squash is tender.
Pizza
4 cups flour
3 teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 cup warm water
2 tablespoon olive oil
Mix together flour, yeast, salt, and sugar. Fully mix in warm water and olive oil. Let stand to rise at room temperature for about 2 hours.
Roll out on floured surface, top with all sorts of good things, transfer to heated baking stone*, and bake hot until golden (400 F ~ 210 C).
*The stone should already be hot in the oven, so I use a well floured pizza peel so it slides off onto the stone.
Personal pizza with tomato based sauce, emek cheese, onion, bell pepper, potato, sausage, and peppered salami
Dough spread out to be a large thin crust for the Harvey’s dinner
with sauce…
finished combination ready for baking
cheese stuffed crust (top left) and some personal pizzas before baking
Matt’s stuffed crust turned out amazing
Potato Pancakes
2 Large Grated Potatoes
1 Chopped Onion
2-3 Cloves of Minced Garlic
Few Sprigs of Fresh Finely Chopped Rosemary
Few Sprigs of Fresh Finely Chopped Thyme
2 Eggs
1/2 – 1 Cup Flour
Salt (to taste)
Combine potatoes, onion, garlic, rosemary, thyme and eggs. Mix in flour until mixture is thickened. Heat a frying pan with hot oil. Spoon in mixture, flip when golden brown.
Buttermilk Pancakes
3 Cups Flour
3 Cups Buttermilk*
3 Eggs
2 Teaspoons baking powder
2 Teaspoons baking soda
1/3 Cup Melted Butter
Combine flour, baking powder & soda, then mix in buttermilk, eggs, and butter. Mix until smooth.
* Although I’ve not tried it (yet), I’ve heard good things about curdling milk to make your own buttermilk! Mix 1 cup of milk with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and let stand. I’m going to try this soon because for all the dairy that’s available here in Israel, I’ve not found buttermilk anywhere. Update: I tried this today and it works great! The lemon curdles and thickens the milk very nicely. The end result is slightly sour with a hint of lemon to the pancakes… !נפלא (wonderful)
Banana Pancakes
3 Mashed Bananas
3 Measures Flour
2-3 Measures Milk (going for a pourable consistency; which changes based on banana and egg size)
1/3 Measure Melted Butter
3 Eggs
3 Small Measures Baking Powder
1 1/2 Small Measures Baking Soda
2 Small Measures Vanilla
Mash the bananas, then add eggs, vanilla, melted butter. Mix well. Add flour, baking powder & soda, stir. Add milk to desired consistency. You want it to pour and spread in the pan, but still be thick enough to rise.
* This one is all about proportions to get the right consistency. Assume “Measure” is a Cup, and “Small Measure” is a Teaspoon. Course we’re in Israel so we don’t have those and I don’t really know the conversions. Honestly I don’t measure for this one anyway.