Cooking in KC: First Fridays, Fish Tacos, & Key Lime Pie

Lately I’ve been asking myself, “What do I need to go see/do to be a true KC food blogger?”

Answer: it’s a long list. But it so happened as I was making this list that, that the date was Wednesday, July 1^st, and we suddenly had no big weekend plans for the 4^th of July.

You know what this means right? Right?

First off the list: First Fridays.

And now, I feel like I need to tell you this, though I’d like to just skip over it and have you go on believing that I’m some fount of local culinary wisdom; in fact, maybe I’ll shrink the font here . . . but, for reasons mostly relating to forgetfulness and busyness, I had never been to a First Fridays.

People, I have found my Mecca.

All the food. All the drinks. All the trendy tees and accessories.

And all the people! Good friends Joy and Robert went along with us, and we serendipitously met up with even more. It was wonderful to reconnect with Jack, Kara, and Alyssa (and let’s be honest, Kara and Alyssa knew the way to Christopher Elbow, so they were invaluable).

I fell asleep at the wheel and only got a picture of Joy and me, but it's a good one!

Getting down to brass tacks: the food.

Standing in the arena of food trucks, I was drawn to Taco Republic. When I think street food, I think tacos, and they did not disappoint. I had the Tecate barbacoa taco (beer and chili braised beef brisket). Dane had a taco as well, and then went back to the Jerusalem Café truck for this giant gyro.

And we successfully made it into Christopher Elbow for dollar chocolates before they ran out. My picks were maple whiskey (for Dane), lime cardamom (surprising & delicious), coconut almond (can’t go wrong), and rosemary caramel (my favorite).

This is heaven.

Clearly after all of that, I’ve got to learn how to make some killer tacos. Fish tacos. Fish means these tacos are decently healthy and quick to cook—there’s no babysitting, say a big brisket, all day long.

Here is the recipe I used: blackened fish tacos with avocado cilantro sauce. I’ve posted it here as it originally appears on Host the Toast and added my notes in italics.

Here we go!

Blackened Fish Tacos with Avocado Cilantro Sauce

(from Host the Toast)

Serves 6

For the Blackened Fish:

1.5 lbs tilapia fillets (about 5 fillets)

1 ½ teaspoons smoked paprika

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon brown sugar

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons canola oil

12 corn tortillas

For the Slaw:

½ red cabbage, sliced thin

¼ green cabbage, sliced thin

½ medium-sized onion, diced

½ cup cilantro

Juice of 1 lime

For the Avocado-Cilantro Sauce:

½ cup sour cream (or plain Greek yogurt!)

1 ripe avocado, pitted and skinned

¼ cup cilantro, chopped

Juice of 1 lime

1 jalapeno, chopped and seeded (I used a ½ a jalapeno for a milder sauce)

Salt, to taste

1. In a small bowl, combine the smoked paprika, garlic powder, dried oregano, onion powder, cumin, salt, brown sugar, and cayenne pepper. Sprinkle the mixture over both sides of your tilapia fillets, and then rub the seasonings in.

I really love the blackening seasoning and will probably start keeping a jar of it around.

These little jars are everywhere in my kitchen.

2. Combine all of the Avocado-Cilantro Sauce ingredients in a food processor or blender. Pulse until well-combined.

The big hit was the avocado cilantro sauce—it is a must for these tacos.

3. Combine all of the Slaw ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

When I make these again, I will only use a ½ a head of red cabbage (the recipe makes a ton of slaw) and will turn it into a pico de gallo/slaw love child. The tacos need the crunch of the cabbage, but the lime and cilantro flavors are redundant because they’re already the stars in the avocado cilantro sauce. They just need a little help in turning things up. Instead I’d keep the onion and red cabbage, add diced Roma tomatoes and add the other half of that jalapeno from the avocado cilantro sauce. And okay, fine, add a little lime juice and cilantro to bring it together, but now they’re have some other flavor friends to play with besides cabbage.

4. Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium-high heat. Once heated, add in the tilapia (a few at a time if you can't fit them all at once). Cook for 4-5 minutes on each side, or until the outside is blackened and the fish flakes apart easily.

Host the Toast also suggests turning on your fan at this point--do this.

5. Remove the fish from the heat, and if desired, warm the corn tortillas in the same skillet over medium heat, cooking for about 30 seconds on each side.

I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with a clever way to warm the tortillas and keep the fish warm while my taste testers arrived. Place a cooling rack on a cookie sheet and set your oven to about 180 degrees (or whatever its lowest temperature is). Place your cooked fish and/or tortillas on the cooling rack and pop them in the oven. I kind of wish I would have warmed the tortillas in the pan I cooked the fish in, just so they’d pick up some of that flavor. Also, if you don’t like corn tortillas, use flour.

Ta-da!

6. Break up the tilapia into 2-3" pieces. Stack the tortillas in twos. Distribute the fish evenly between the 6 sets of tortillas, and top with Slaw and Avocado-Cilantro Sauce. Serve.

Time to feast! Complete with strawberry margaritas.

Bonus recipe: Chipotle's cilantro lime rice.

Key Lime Pie

On to dessert! If you haven’t figured out already, I am a die-hard Pioneer Woman follower. I’ve never found a bad recipe of hers. So of course her key lime pie is perfect. I’ve no notes for this recipe besides 1) I used about 3-4 limes and 2) eat as much of this pie as you can. So I’ll just leave these here . . .