Fish Tacos and Tomato Spinach Pasta stuff

So this post is going to be about 2 different nights of cooking.

The first was a night filled with catfish, soft taco shells, mango avacoda salsa, and stuff.

The second was a night filled with spinach, pasta, pasta sauce, and whatever else.



First of all, we have the catfish tacos with mango-avocado salsa.

Here is the general recipe:

Ingredients:

For the mango-avocado salsa:
1 ripe avocado
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 cup diced mango
1/4 cup diced red pepper
1/4 cup chopped scallions

For the fish:
2 teaspoons canola oil
2 catfish fillets, 8 ounces each (we used Cajun-seasoned)

For the tacos:
8 soft tortillas
1 cup spinach
Handful of cherry tomatoes, diced

Cooking Instructions

For the mango-avocado salsa:



1. Remove and discard the pit and skin from the avocado and rub the flesh of the avocado with some of the lime juice to prevent it from discoloring.

2. Chop the avocado and toss it with the remaining lime juice, mango, red pepper and scallions. (This can be made in advance and stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 day.)

For the fish:



3. Preheat the grill.

4. Grill the fillets on both sides until just cooked through, about 5 minutes per side. (Thin fillets take less time, thicker fillets take more.) Cool slightly and cut into 1-inch pieces.

5. Meanwhile, separate the tortillas into 2 stacks, wrap them in foil and warm them on the grill while the fish is cooking.

This recipe was based on this one with just a few modifications.

One problem we ran into was that our mango was not ripe. We at least partially solved this by chopping it up and soaking it in sugar water to soften and sweeten it. Someone else might know of a better way to do that, but it was the first way we thought of and worked at least decently well.

And in the end, it was tasty.

Ta-da.



and THEN we have some tomato spinach pasta stuff.


Here's a kinda recipe for it:
Ingredients List:
8 oz Pasta (we used Penne)
(14.5 oz) Pasta sauce (we used Francesco Rinaldi)
some Chili Garlic Sauce
4 oz (washed and chopped) Spinach
2 oz Cream Cheese
1/4 Teaspoon Seasoning – Nutmeg
1/3 of an Onion (carmelized)
some Feta Cheese
Mushrooms (for next time... we did not use any this time)
Handful of chopped scallions
1/2 Red Pepper

Cooking Directions:

Bring a large pot filled with salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until tender but still firm, about 12 minutes.

In a seperate bowl, mix pasta sauce with chili garlic sauce to taste.

Meanwhile, in a medium sized non-reactive pan, caramelize onions and cook with scallions, red peppers, and mushrooms. Add in pasta sauce and warm over medium-low heat.

Drain pasta and return to hot pan. Add spinach, cream cheese and nutmeg. Cook, stirring, over low heat until spinach wilts, 1-2 minutes. Pour sauce mix over spinach pasta. Stir and toss gently to mix.

Once served in bowls, sprinkle feta cheese on top.

Here is the recipe we based this on.

This was a great pasta with a kick thanks to the chili garlic awesome sauce.


Oh and the end.