A few years ago, a group of friends and I went on vacation to Honduras. We were lucky enough to find an inexpensive house rental (I say house, but it was really more of an estate). While the house itself was a bit shabby and the horses were down right mean (I don’t particularly like horses), it did have two amazing things going for it: a lovely pool, and a… *drum roll*…personal chef! His name was Mario and he was basically the coolest Honduran I’ve ever met. His food was to die for and through my broken Spanish I was able to weasel out of him some of his recipes.
This one in particular, made with a white fish similar to a grouper that I can’t remember the name of, was super tasty. Honduran food ended up surprising me a little bit in that it was decidedly different than the Mexican cuisine I was used to, and seemed to have little hints of European flair. Mario hand wrote this recipe down, and I translated it using Google Translate, which isn’t very effective if the words are misspelled in the first place. Here is the straight translation, how he wrote it with my interpretation following it.
Recipe from Chef Mario with love in Honduras
Fish and Lime Sauce
Ingredients:
Fish, Grouper or Tilapia or Salmon
Tomato chopped.
Chopped onion.
Sweet Chile chopped (bell pepper?).
Garlic, minced
Butter cream (heavy cream?).
Limon
Flour
Salt and Pepper
Mustard
Preparation:
Fish and passed by seasoned flour. Then put the pan or the fridera (frying pan?). After that, let it brown. Remove from the pan, and placed in the dish.
In another pan is to be lemon sauce as first fry the tomato, onion, sweet chili and cream the butter is incorporated. And the lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste until you taste the sauce of lemon and add the (cooked fish).
Bon Appetite – Chef Mario of Masca
Like I said this is a straight translation and is therefore a little confusing. Mario’s instructions were pretty brief. I’m pretty sure that if you use a little extrapolation, common sense, and any combination of these ingredients, your end product will be delicious. I would rub the fish (I used thinly cut halibut, but I think rockfish would be fantastic) with a little whole grain honey mustard and coated it with the flour that has salt and pepper mixed in. Then I browned it in a frying pan. Then in another pan saute all of the veggies, which were chopped super fine. Deglaze the pan with the lime juice, about the juice of 2 limes, and then finally add the butter to thicken it up and the cream. It was pretty creamy so “butter cream” might mean heavy cream. Put the fish on your plate and pour your sauce over it. Yummy!
The year before last my brother and his wife decided that they wanted to start raising chickens. My brother is especially enamored with the idea of being self sufficient, he’s been telling me how much he wants a goat for years now. They built a cute little chicken coop next to their homey cabin on Douglas Island, Alaska and somehow managed to acquire a handful of Transylvanian Naked Neck chickens.
They were fairly good egg producers, and from what I was told they provided hours of entertainment to their keepers. One day in spring though, they were sitting in their cabin when all of a sudden they heard a ruckus outside. My brother ran out there and immediately saw their coop was under assault by a wily black bear. Now SE Alaska black bears aren’t necessarily anything to be worried about. Of course they can be aggressive and should be given a wide berth, but for the most part they are about the size of a large Newfie and fairly timid.
In this particular case my brother only had to pick up an old snow shovel and shake it a bit and the bear in question took off for the hills. There was however one casualty. The noble chicken Blackavar (Yes named from Watership Down). Somehow the bear had been able to get a hold of him and I don’t know whether the chicken died from a broken neck or maybe just from the sheer terror of getting caught by a large land predator, but Blackavar’s body was undamaged by the bear’s teeth or claws so he seemed in perfect condition to still be eaten.
In the end, when it came time to move out of that quaint little cabin I think they ended up giving away a couple of their chickens and eating the rest. Well, except for another one that also got caught by a black bear, but lets just say that one was not salvageable.
They moved out of their cabin, put almost all of their stuff into storage and set off on an amazing month long adventure to Hungary and Croatia. From which they brought my back a TON of different Hungarian paprikas. This plethora of paprika played heavily into my creation of this Chicken Paprikash recipe. My SIL just told me yesterday that they also had catfish paprikash while they were there which is definitely something I’ll have to try with some halibut or rockfish.
After my brother and SIL brought me back a TON of paprika from Hungary I was at a loss with what to do with it for quite a while. I had used it sparingly as a garnish for deviled eggs and such, but I couldn’t think how to use a whole bunch all at once. Then I stumbled upon a question someone had asked online, “What was my grandma making with slow-cooked chicken in a paprika gravy?” The answer: Some bizarre Midwest adaptation of Chicken Paprikash but still the same general idea. “Oh right, that’s a thing!” I thought. Sure enough my SIL informed me that they did indeed eat a lot of paprikash in Hungary and Croatia. So this is my adaptation since I didn’t have a cookbook on Hungarian classics laying around.
First take desired quantity of meat and brown it in a heavy bottomed dish (this is ceramic coated cast iron).
Dice your veg. This is half of one large sweet onion (yellow onion is fine too) and one medium sized red bell pepper.
Remove your chicken from the pan and saute your veg on low for quite a while in the rendered chicken fat. About 15-20 minutes until the onion is golden brown. Make sure you add a pinch of salt to draw out the moisture and I added a teaspoon of honey too.
Add 2 tablespoons of of sweet paprika and stir into the veg, letting it cook for about a minute, releasing it’s flavores into the oil. Keep stirring so it doesn’t burn.
Deglaze the pan with a cup of medium dry-sweet white wine (Hungarian wine tends to be sweet. I think I used a chardonnay here). Add two cups of chicken broth and replace the chicken back into the pan. The skin can be removed at this point because it gets soggy as it simmers. Cover with a lid and cook for about 30 minutes and then remove the lid and cook for an additional 15 minutes, until the thighs are fully cooked and the liquid has reduced by half. Make sure to give it a little stir every now and then so the peppers don’t stick to the bottom. Even though the liquid has reduced, I still wanted my sauce to be thicker so I added about a 1/2 tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with cold water to the sauce and let that thicken it up.
When the sauce is reduced turn off the burner and let the dish cool slightly. Next you will be adding the sour cream and you don’t want it to be too hot of the sour cream will break. When the mixture is cooler, you can remove the chicken into your serving dish and then start adding the sour cream a dollop at a time. The sauce will become light pink and even thicker.
Serve with spaetzle, egg noodles or rice. garnish with some sliced scallions.
Ingredients:
4-6 chicken thighs (or chicken breasts or drumsticks if so desired)
These shrimp tacos are perfect for any summer get-together!
Whether you are trawling them fresh right out of Alaska’s icy waters or buying them in bag from the grocery freezer section, shrimp can be prepared in about a million different ways. One of my favorites is of course in taco form. Because we are using large burrito shells I guess you could call these shrimp “burritos” but I like to keep them open on top and eat them sideways, messily trying to keep all of the slaw from falling all over my lap. Tacos should be nothing, if not messy!
For 2 persons
For the Shrimp:
1/2 lb. of medium-sized, de-veined white or tiger shrimp
1 cup All-Purpose flour
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. salt
2 Eggs
1 cup white cornmeal
Canola or Vegetable oil
For the Slaw:
1/2 a head of Savoy or Napa cabbage
1 large carrot
1/2 Tbsp. of sugar
1 tsp. sesame oil
2 Tbsp. seasoned rice vinegar
pinch of salt and pepper
For the Sauce:
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp. of lime juice
A small squirt of Sriracha to taste
…and for a side condiment one can of Herdez® Taquera canned salsa emptied into a bowl and mixed with about 1/2 a tablespoon of agave nectar mixed in to make it a tad sweeter.
In a medium-sized saucepan heat about an inch and a half of oil over medium heat. Shell your shrimp, rinse them off and then dry them with a paper towel. Set up three bowls, one with the flour (with the cumin and salt mixed in), the middle with the eggs beaten, and the last one with the cornmeal. In small batches of 5 or 6 shrimp dust them with the flour, then coat them with the beaten egg, and finally cover them with the corn meal. Carefully fry them until they just start to turn golden – about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove them from the oil and place them on a cooling rack.
Take your cabbage and cut it in such a way that you get a fine shred. Think long, very thin strips. Shred the carrot with a grater. Toss the veggies with that vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar and sesame oil. Set aside to let the cabbage absorb the flavors.
In a small bowl mix the mayo, sour cream, Sriracha and lime juice. The mixture should be a little thin (more lime juice can be added to taste), finely chop the cilantro and mix it into the sauce.
Have the salsa ready in another small bowl.
I prefer to use TortillaLand® fresh tortillas because they have such a nice chewy texture and don’t tear like other tortillas, plus you cook them yourself so you can get those nice charred bubbles on the outside. They sell them in in the cheese and cold cuts aisle at Fred Meyers. Black beans and/or Spanish rice go very nicely with this meal!
A surprising quiche that is great for brunch on the weekends.
Quiche filling:
1/2 an onion, chopped
1/2 a colorful bell pepper, diced
1/2 half a jalapeno, minced
1 cup mushrooms sliced thin
2 cups (1 lb.) cooked octopus*, ground or minced fine
1 a cup of pepper jack cheese
4 eggs
1 can of evaporated milk (12 oz.)
1/4 cup 2% milk
Ground black pepper and salt to taste
Dough for crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup shortening
Generous pinch of salt
1/4 cup ice cold milk
First prepare the dough for crust at least an hour ahead of time. Cut the shortening into the flour and salt using a pastry blender, fork, or a potato masher until the pieces are roughly pea-sized. Begin adding the milk a little bit at a time and mix until all of the milk is incorporated into the dough. Using your clean hands, form the dough into a compact ball and wrap with some cling wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least 30-45 minutes. After the dough is done chilling, roll the dough out on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin until it is about a 1/4″ thick and about 1.5 inches larger than the pie plate you are using. Gently place the rolled out dough in your pie plate and crimp the edges.
Next saute the chopped onion, peppers, jalapeno and mushrooms with about a tablespoon of butter or olive oil. Sprinkle the veggies with a little kosher salt to help draw out the moisture, and continue to cook on low heat until the onions are translucent and turning golden brown, about 10 minutes. In a large bowl mix the eggs with one 12 oz. can of evaporated milk, plus 1/4 cup of 2% milk and a 1/2 a generous pinch of kosher salt. In the crust begin to layer your quiche starting with half the vegetables, then half of your chopped or ground octopus, half a cup of grated pepper jack cheese. Repeat the vegetable and octopus layers ending with the other half cup cheese. Pour the egg and milk mixture over the filling. Shake a few shakes of paprika or cayenne on top depending on your taste. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes turn down to 300 for 30 minutes or until knife comes out clean. Remove from oven and let rest 10 minutes.
*First boil the octopus legs whole in salted water for 30 minutes. Once it has been cooked, drain out the water and let the legs cool slightly until you can handle them. When they are cooler but still warm you can remove both the skin and the suckers by just using your hands to peel it off.
**My mom prefers her quiche with the texture of ground octopus. If you own a meat grinder, running the cooked legs through one can be both quick and easy. I however do not own a meat grinder (yet), and so I would settle for using a sharp butcher’s knife and dicing the octopus as fine as I could get it.
We are both born and raised in Alaska, land of the midnight sun and fishing at 2am. We love to find new ways to use fresh ingredients or put a modern spin on an old Alaskan classic. We hope you will enjoy tasting Alaska.
We are both born and raised in Alaska, land of the midnight sun and fishing at 2am. We love to find new ways to use fresh ingredients or put a modern spin on an old Alaskan classic. We hope you will enjoy tasting Alaska.