Simple Surf&Turf Tacos

I love that people are voting on what I should make for dinner next! I went to Vons tonight with the intention of cooking a delicious dinner utilizing fish as my protein. However, the pickings were slim (why did I expect this to be any different). So, I decided to best utilize my resources by makings simple tacos. I bought some Dover Sole (mahi-mahi would have been a better bet, but the sole was the least offensive in the case... note to self, don't go to Vons looking for fresh fish again) and then bought a top round piece of beef for just over $4. Sweet.

The rest of the ingredients were as follows:

• Guacamole (consisting of the following: 1 clove of minced garlic, 1 mashed avocado, s&p, juice of 1/2 lime, 1 diced tomato)
• Four-cheese mexican blend (I noticed that the block cheese was the same exact price as the shredded ($2.50/8oz)... the decision was easy and could be summed up with "DUH."
• thinly sliced red onion
• Shredded iceburg lettuce
• cilantro (you can leave this out, Jess), which I chopped and mixed with the lettuce and onion blend
• spicy sour cream (which consists of pureed roasted red peppers, siracha (an amazing thai-style hot sauce), sour cream and salt)
• Tortillas: I bought a new brand tonight (the packaging was mostly in Spanish, which was a good sign) that was a million times better than the one we used to buy. You finish the tortilla yourself by quickly cooking it in a hot pan, so it tastes much fresher.
• Dinosaur BBQ Cajun Foreplay Spice Rub (If you've never been to Dinosaur BBQ, add it to your "Top 10 Things to do Before I Die" list. You can thank me after your pulled pork dinner.

I started by making the guacamole. To do that, I combined the minced garlic, mashed avocado, chopped tomato, lime juice and s&p. Guac can brown quickly as it's oxidized by being exposed to air. To prevent this, I squeezed some extra lime juice on top and then placed plastic wrap on top so that it was directly touching the green deliciousness.


Next, I heated a grill pan (we use a Calphalon One pan that works great and is easy to clean) on medium-high. I rubbed the steak with the Dinosaur Cajun rub and threw it on the grill pan when it was fully heated. I cooked the steak for 5 minutes/side and then set it aside to rest.

While the steak was cooking, I combined the ingredients for the spicy sour cream (1/2 cup sour cream, 4 roasted red pepper slices, 1 teaspoon Siracha) in my Mini Prep Plus (it's a baby Cuisinart- a great solution if you want a food processer but don't have $200 to throw down).

Once the steak was done, I set it aside to rest and sprinkled the rub on the fish. I took a clean skillet, heated it and then drizzeled olive oil into the pan. The fish only took about 3 minutes to cook.

This dinner was quick, easy, inexpensive (you're looking at about $20 all told) and soooo satisfying. I'm particularly impressed with the new tortillas I picked up. If you live in LA, you must go out and buy them immediately. They best part about them was that you could roll up your taco/burrito and it would actually hold all the stuff inside, no small feat! I set out the various components and my babe and I each pulled together our ideal tacos =)

Bon Appetit!

PS- there will be another dish that features fish as the main protein. I just worked with what I could find at the market tonight.