Rosie Makes Fish Tacos, Asian-Style Slaw, Jalapeno Tartar Sauce, and Mango Pineapple Habanero Salsa.

In case you're wondering, yes, Rosie is still cooking. Mr. Hawthorne came home with mahi mahi filets and I'm making fish tacos for lunch. First a slaw. I didn't want regular cole slaw. I wanted something different so I'm going with an Asian-inspired slaw.

Rosie's Asian Slaw:
 2 cups shredded green cabbage
 1 cup shredded red cabbage
 1/4 pepper, minced (I had yellow, so I used that.)
1 scallion, chopped
1 carrot, julienned
1 radish, julienned

Rosie's Dressing:
juice of 2 small limes
juice of 1/2 large lemon
juice of 1 inch cube of ginger and minced pulp (You need to nuke a frozen cube of ginger to produce the juice.)
zest one lime
And reserve:
2 TB Tamari
 1 TB Mirin
2 TB rice vinegar
 1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 TB sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
 salt and pepper
1/2 tsp lime zest
1 TB cilantro, minced
 6 mint leaves, minced
2 pineapple slices, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
 And my secret ingredient - fresh cilantro seeds They're not coriander yet. They're still green and growing on my plants. Mix all ingredients and pour over slaw.

Mix veggies all together.

Isn't this pretty?

Mix well.

Sorry. I'm unorganized on this post.
 Other ingredients:
toasted black sesame seeds
 toasted white sesame seeds

And 1/2 bag Ramen noodles.

These are the fresh seeds on my cilantro. They're cilantro-ey and very citrusy. I likey.

Pretty little cilantro flowers.

Pour dressing over slaw mixture and toss to coat.

I melted some butter in my skillet, added in some Extra Light Olive Oil, and added in the Ramen noodles.

Cook until lightly browned.

Add Ramen noodles to slaw.

At the very end, I decided on the pineapple slices. Good call. Next, Mr. Hawthorne started on the batter for the mahi mahi.

McCormick's Beer Batter.

Here's the mahi mahi fillet.

Mr. Hawthorne is removing the dark bloodline, which tends to be fishy.

More bloodline sliced out, then Mr. Hawthorne cut the fillets into about 1 inch pieces. While Mr. Hawthorne was preparing and frying the mahi mahi, I'm making sauces. First up, is a jalapeno tartar sauce.

Rosie's Jalapeno Tartar Sauce
 1/2 cup mayo
 1 TB sweet relish
1 TB dill pickles, minced
1 scallion, thinly sliced
 pinch of lime zest
1/2 jalapeno
I would've preferred fresh jalapeno, but mine in the garden haven't come in yet. I used this shriveled up red one. Still good.

I'm liking the colors here.

Mix all together, then I decided to hit it with a bit of the reserved lime zest. And the tartar sauce is done. And I must say it has a nice zing to it.

Now, what is this you ask. A few days ago, I made some creme fraiche. Very simple. And if you've never made creme fraiche, you need to do so. It's glorified sour cream and so much better. Take a cup of heavy cream, add in 1 TB buttermilk, and I like to add in 1 TB lime or lemon juice for a little extra punch. Mix, cover, and leave at room temperature over night. Refrigerate in the morning and use as you would sour cream.

This is my doctored creme fraiche for my fish tacos. I sprinkled a little cumin over top, some minced cilantro (You can always use parsley if you're a cilantro-hater.), and some raw cilantro seeds. Next, I'm making a mango/pineapple/habanero salsa.

1 mango crushed pineapple 1 TB cider vinegar 1 TB sugar 1 habanero 1 garlic clove

I sliced my habanero, seeded it, and toasted both sides. Decided on the garlic clove and also decided I needed more pineapple. I used 1/2 of a 20 ounce can of the crushed.

Everything went into my Blue Ninja processor.

And I processed away. Next time, I might add in another habanero for me. I'm feeding wusses here, so I had to go easy on them.

Here's my spread: At the very top on the green plate are the tortillas. Next row is my Mango Salsa, my Asian Slaw, and Jasmine rice. Then my doctored creme fraiche, jalapeno tartar sauce, black beans, and the fried mahi mahi. Bottom three little containers are lime zest, toasted black sesame seeds, and toasted white sesame seeds.

I filled my tortilla with rice, black beans, and fried mahi mahi. Added the tartar sauce on one piece of fish and the mango salsa on the other fish. Asian slaw and creme fraiche went on the plate. Sprinkled lime zest and sesame seeds over top.

Imonna tell ya. I have to say, this was pretty freakin' good.

The kids loved it. They had it for lunch, then came back with friends and had the rest at dinner. Funny. Half the time their friends have no idea what they're eating when they're here. They just know they like it.

Rosie's Creme Fraiche.

I decided to make some creme fraiche yesterday in addition
to my various infused oils.
I combined 1 cup heavy cream with 2 tablespoons of buttermilk, covered with a paper towel, and let set on the counter overnight.

Add some lemon juice.

Aaaaaand some more
lemon juice.

Now, I know you're thinking, "How many pictures do I need to see of Rosie squeezing a damn lemon?" Well, the answer is just three because I was getting INto photographing the
llllllittle lllllllemon globules.











Next, stir all that lemony goodness INto your
creme fraiche.














Here's my final product. A nice, thickened, gloppy, lemony cup of creme fraiche.

Cover and refrigerate.

And, yes.
I have plans for this also.

Amy From New Jersey - These Corn Fritters Are For You.

A few days ago, I received an email from Amy of New Jersey, requesting a recipe from Just Ask Rosie for corn fritters. Amy, this is my first attempt at corn fritters, but it won't be my last. I have a few more recipes rattling around in my brain that I want to try out, but I did want to get something out in a timely fashion for you. Now, I'm a fan of Southwestern flavors which I guess refers to corn and black beans and chilies and cilantro. And those are the flavors I incorporated into my first foray into fritters. I have other ideas too. I'd like to do something with a sweet fritter. And I also want to try some creamed corn fritters. I assure you, more fritter recipes will be forthcoming.

Here's the money shot, corn fritters with my salsa and seasoned creme fraiche.

Now click on this to enlarge it and you have a glimpse into Rosie's brain as she whups up a corn fritter recipe. Scary place, ain't it. First, Rosie is going to make a sauce for her fritters, which are still up in her scrambled brain.

My ingredients: creme fraiche lime chives scallion cilantro

I grated lime zest into my creme fraiche.

Then I snipped the chives into the creme.

Added the sliced scallions.

And dropped the cilantro in. My dipping sauce is done and it's quite good. You could use this for chips or tacos or burritos.

Now, on to the fritters:

First, I cooked some black beans. You could use canned, but I prefer real cooked beans. They taste better to me. Also, if you use canned, be sure you rinse them thoroughly.

My mise en place for my corn fritters: 1 1/2 cups fresh corn (5 ears) 1/2 cup black beans 1 cup flour 1 tsp salt 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp cumin 1 jalapeno 2 scallions 1/2 cup buttermilk 2 eggs my leftover roasted red pepper and next to the red pepper at bottom right - fresh green coriander seeds

First, I mixed the dry ingredients together - the flour, baking powder, salt, and cumin.

In another bowl, I added the black beans and fresh corn ...

... along with the minced jalapeno, the sliced scallions, the chopped roasted red pepper, and the green coriander seeds. Now, as to the availability of some of these ingredients, notably the green coriander seeds: I've never seen these in any market anywhere. But I live on the Outer Limits. Perhaps at ethnic markets in very large cities, you might find them. But then I've never seen a recipe calling for fresh, green coriander seeds. You can always find coriander seeds in the spice section of your market. But if you tried to bite one of them, you might chip a tooth. They have kind of the same flavor as the raw seed, but when you bite into a raw coriander seed, there's just an exciting burst of fresh citrusy and green flavor. Bottom line: if you don't have your own cilantro plants blooming and setting seeds, then just add in some fresh cilantro. You can always find that. But then, if you're one of those Cilantro Haters, just use fresh Italian flat leaf parsley. By the way, if you don't know what coriander is, it's the seed of the cilantro plant. I grow cilantro year round and it's just now blooming and forming seeds. One day, I just popped one of the green seeds into my mouth and loved it and started incorporating them into my cooking. The green seeds eventually turn brown and hard and then are ready for planting. I planted a handful of cilantro seeds today among the cucumber, squash, and zucchini I planted the other day.

In a third bowl, I mixed the buttermilk and eggs.

At top left, the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, cumin); in the middle, the good stuff; at top right, the wet ingredients (buttermilk and eggs).

Mix together the eggs and buttermilk and the bean/corn/roasted pepper/scallion/jalapeno/coriander.

I added the wet ingredients to the dry.

And got a nice, thick, clingy batter ...

... to which I folded in the veggies.

Isn't this pretty?

Incorporate well.

I dropped the fritters by tablespoons into my hot oil. (375 degrees, but I never check it with a thermometer. I can look at it and tell it's ready. The top of the oil swirls around.)

Do not crowd the pan. Cook for maybe 2 minutes, until a nice crispy brown.

Drain on paper towels.

I served the corn fritters with slices of avocado with lime juice drizzled over top.

Ooh, Oooh, OOoooh! Dip it in the creme fraiche.

What can I say? I could taste the corn. I could taste the black beans. The jalapenos. The smoked red pepper. The fresh coriander. So many flavors. Mr. Hawthorne said this: "I wouldn't order this again. Had you done it more like a hush puppy with all the goodies inside, and crunchy outside, it would be great." What a curmudgeon. He's so damn critical of everything I cook. I liked it and so did my children.

Amy, this was my first stab at this. I will tweak it and hope it meets Mr. Hawthorne's lofty standards. I thought it was very good.

I didn't use up all the batter last night. This morning I made more corn fritters for breakfast. I dropped the tablespoons of batter into corn meal. Then fried them. Mr. Hawthorne like these much better. If I would change anything about the original recipe, I would change the 1 cup of flour to 3/4 cup cornmeal and 1/4 cup flour. I think. I'll have to try it and see.

As it was, it was damn good. And there are none left. That's my test for goodness. No leftovers.