Like K said before, we had an IM convo about fish tacos. While giving her my white-fish recipe, I started to crave fish tacos as well so I decided that I would go home and make some. The Boyfriend, having being raised in the Bay Area, was very pleased when I told him we’d be having fish tacos for dinner. You can take the boy out Cali… In addition to the tacos, we had Mexican rice. Yes you can easily buy a box in Mexican Rice flavoring but why would you do that? Don’t you want to spend a half hour prepping and then another thirty minutes making it? Of course you do and now you can!
You will need: cumin, garlic salt, half a can of tomato sauce, olive oil, a cup of white rice, salt, pepper, one garlic clove, half an onion (yellow or white but no purple), and a tomato. Quick note: if you just want enough to feed two people, use a half cup of white rice. A full cup will probably feed four people, with seconds!
While you heat up your pot/pan/anything you can cover with a lid, dice up your veggies.
Add what I would guess to be about three tablespoons of olive oil. Sorry, I no longer measure anything with this recipe. Anyway, here is the key to making Mexican rice: frying the rice. There are two reasons why you want to do this: 1. the color. Mexican rice is typically light to deep orange in color and this is primarily achieved by frying the rice beforehand. 2. the taste. I believe that the heat sort of opens up the flavoring, giving it a nutty taste. So fry, fry, fry! Okay, not really. I did time it and for a cup of rice, you want to fry for at least ten minutes. If a few grains turn black, eh, say you’re Cajun.
After you have sufficiently fried your rice, chunk in your onions and cook until translucent.
This is what it should look like after frying the rice and onions.
So here’s my problem with this next step (and where I will once again use colons): I’ve been making this stuff for so long that I no longer use measuring spoons. I just know! Even if I had tried to use measuring spoons, I don’t think I would have gotten it right because I measure by look with this recipe. Lucky you, I counted how many times I shook the bottles of spices. Yay for me! Okay, so you want about four shakes of pepper, and at least ten of cumin. I know, I know, but trust me, it makes it.
Then you chunk in your tomatoes with two shakes of salt and garlic salt each.
Then pour in your half can of tomato sauce. This I measured and it came out to a half cup. Why didn’t I just say half cup of tomato sauce? Cause I just remembered I measured it. So I’m sure that by now you know that for every cup of rice grains, you use double the water to boil it, right? So with that, add two cups of water. Cover with a lid, lower your burner, and simmer until done. I didn’t time it but I kept checking it and it was done, eventually.
Now for the fish tacos. I decided to bread my tilapia and for the breading I used: salt, garlic salt, plain breadcrumbs, chilli powder, cumin, and pepper.
This breading really depends on your own taste. Like spicy? Add a lot of chilli pepper. Earthy taste? Cumin. I say I used about two shakes of salt and garlic salt with an entire lid of the chilli pepper, and three shakes of cumin and pepper.
I cut my tilapia into sushi size pieces.
Dipped in eggs.
Dipped in the batter.
And fried it! Okay, so this isn’t the healthiest meal ever but hey, it’s good and yeah, that’s about it.
With prep time and actual cooking, this took me an hour. An hour of slaving in the kitchen and The Boyfriend devoured it in fifteen minutes. I’d say it was a success.
